Atlantic Ocean

More than any state in the nation, New Jersey has taken a stand against the invading tides. It has the most engineered beach in the country, its coastline bearing more scar tissue than any other shoreline. It has one of the nation's highest annual shore-protection budgets, $25 million, administered by the state's land-use agency, the Department of Environmental Protection. The state is so committed to shoring up its beaches that the department's commissioner, Robert Shinn -- who normally deals with preserving the environment, not shoring up expensive beachfront property -- has lobbied in Trenton and Washington for beachfill money.

When you know the answers to these questions, go to http://www.4Kids.org/detectives/In 1903, what's the farthest any plane had flown?Which type of ball is used in Street Ball?Can you remember what two things make a droodle? (Go to http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory to find out.)SPIRIT OF ST. LOUISAt the young age of 25, Charles Lindbergh was the toast of the world after becoming the first person to fly across the Atlantic. At PBS' American Experience Web site dedicated to Lindbergh, you'll discover a fascinating world of aviation and adventure.

GENEVA -- They have cleared the Alps, crossed Africa and Asia and the great Pacific. They have skirted war zones and bumped through storms. They've been practically becalmed, traveling as slow as 20 mph, using up precious fuel at 8,000 feet. And they have hurtled at speeds up to 115 mph in the jet streams at more than 35,000 feet.They have been chilled and frightened, mesmerized and challenged on an aerial journey for the ages -- the quest to become the first human beings to circumnavigate the globe nonstop in a balloon.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- On the night that Anne Marie Fahey died, Thomas Capano finally testified yesterday, the couple had kicked off their shoes and stretched out in front of the television to watch "ER," two lovers-turned-friends relaxing after a rough week and looking forward to a long weekend.But what happened next, Capano said, was like something out of a bad TV show: Another lover, Deborah MacIntyre, appeared out of nowhere. And she had a gun."Debby," Capano said, "shot Anne Marie."And so Capano, a prominent, politically connected lawyer, broke 2 1/2 years of silence about June 27, 1996, the night that Fahey, the governor's scheduling secretary and his on-again, off-again lover, was killed.

ABOARD THE S.S. JOHN W. BROWN -- The old English seaman had planned to honor his dead World War II shipmates by tossing a wreath into "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" -- the vast East Coast area where a German U-boat had sunk their ship 56 years ago.Instead, Thomas William Tickner joined his old friends in the depths.Tickner, 75, a volunteer crewman from Kent, Surrey, suffered heart attack and died during this restored, Baltimore-built Liberty ship's visit to Charleston, S.C. He was buried at sea Tuesday off Cape Hatteras, N.C., entering the water along with the wreath he had bought.

I glance out the back window of the cab crossing the threshold of the St. James's Club in Antigua and watch as the gates come down behind us. We are locked in for five days, trapped in paradise, trying not to feel too smug.With four teen-agers giving us a run for our money this year, we have taken what little money is left and run for the Caribbean.Our goal, by the way, is to do nothing, something we have never done before.That's why we've gone "all-inclusive," the new wave in Caribbean vacationing that leaves stressed-out vacationers free to contemplate their tans rather than their plans.

In the black depths of the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of feet down, lives a hideous, predatory fish whose 40-inch bulk dwarfs her tiny, 4-inch male partner.The immature male swims freely for a time. But when he finds a female, he sinks his teeth into her. His circulatory system soon merges with hers and he becomes a parasite, unable to move or eat on his own. He is a blind sexual appendage, whose sole function is to fertilize her eggs.These are fish. Any resemblance to humans is purely coincidental.

NEW YORK -- After picking apart some of the wadded remains of the cockpit of Trans World Airlines Flight 800, investigators concluded yesterday that the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 most likely did not originate inside the cockpit or in the electronics bay beneath it.They were partly persuaded by a surprising discovery found in the ton of wreckage that had been the jet's cockpit: The circles of glass that cover many of the cockpit dials,...

The front end of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 broke away, plunging toward the Atlantic Ocean, while the rest of the plane continued to hurtle through the air, engines still running, before bursting into an enormous fireball seconds later, law enforcement officials said yesterday.Several federal law enforcement officials said the new finding strengthened their belief that a bomb, possibly stored in the front cargo hold, blew off part of the forward portion of the plane.Although there are no forensic tests that have definitively shown that an explosive device caused the crash, officials said yesterday that a bomb was the most likely reason for the Boeing 747 to break apart, yet manage to stay aloft until the rest exploded on July 17, nine miles off East Moriches, N.Y. All 230 people aboard were killed.