Waves

1974: Ali tops Foreman in 'Rumble in Jungle'1975: Fisk waves homer fair1977: Guthrie first woman to qualify at Indy 500

Only a horror writer like Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King could describe the anguish of a person suffering total paralysis -- aware, thinking, feeling, but unable to speak, move a muscle or even blink an eye.Now, however, researchers are developing systems that let helpless victims of accident or disease break out of their isolation and communicate by thought alone.They are harnessing the brain's faint electrical signals to move a cursor -- a bright spot or an arrow -- on a computer screen.

Be a 4Kids DetectiveWhen you know the answers to these questions, go to http://www.4Kids.org/detectives/In the eGov lab what does SAM stand for?How long are the the Deep Sea's giant squid?How many pairs of shoes did an average 1940s woman own? (Go to http://www.centuryinshoes.com to find out.)ACCESS AMERICAWhen most kids hear the word government, they think of politics, taxes or laws of the land. But at Access America, you'll find out what the government's really about: helping people like you!

MY BEST SHOTRed RockBy Deborah DiMarco, BaltimoreA friend and I vacationed in Phoenix, Ariz., and decided to drive to Sedona to meet another friend. About an hour into the drive, there was nothing but cactus as far as I could see. Then finally we made a turn, and there's no more cactus. Now there's nothing but Red Rock!"MY FAVORITE PLACETime for the beachBy Jill LeukhardtSPECIAL TO THE SUNThe beach we love isn't exotic. It isn't trendy. It isn't crowded or loud with amusements.It extends from north Bethany in Delaware to Indian Harbor.

Editor's note: A young girl from Brooklyn, N.Y., enjoys her summer at the beach, where she can paint and listen to the wild waves.When the summer clothes were ready, the eyelet trim on the petticoats and nightgowns all threaded with pink and blue ribbons, Mama packed the trunks and the whole family moved out to Far Rockaway to the summer house beside the ocean. This was Hattie's favorite place.The city of New York was growing. People were crossing the East River and moving to the suburb of Brooklyn, to Flatbush and Greenpoint and Bushwick.

REHOBOTH -- After a chill, rainy morning the sun bursts through the clouds and the beach suddenly brims with bathers. At last, in late afternoon, there are lives to guard. The Rehoboth beach patrol squad that has spent the day bundled in sweats and guarding nothing but the wide Atlantic is on alert.The waves are huge, intimidating. There go the body surfers, the boogie boarders, the couples who link hands and hope for the best. There go the little ones flirting with the sea foam.But this sea frolic is brief.

When Colonial Downs, the first pari-mutuel thoroughbred track in Virginia, opened last fall, it used the slogan, "Making Virginia Racing History." Four months after its inaugural meet, the track is making waves -- and not the kind that enhance its image.Colonial Downs is awash in problems: Its stock has fallen dramatically, three off-track betting facilities were voted down in referendums, major debts are surrounded by controversy and its first president, O. James Peterson, has resigned."To me, they have used up all the goodwill left over from the live meet," said Peterson, a native Virginian.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A tactical gamble by navigator Mark Rudiger brought the Swedish yacht EF Language across the line here at the head of the fleet yesterday in the first leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race.The 12-member international crew, led by American skipper Paul Cayard, sailed their 64-foot-long boat, designed by Bruce Farr & Associates of Annapolis, to victory 30 days, 16 hours, 54 minutes and 26 seconds after leaving Southampton, England, on Sept. 21.They finished more than 100 nautical miles ahead of the second boat Merit Cup, from Monaco, which arrived late last night.

Early last week, members of the 12-man crew aboard Chessie reported they had been wearing shorts and sunglasses as the Maryland entry in the Whitbread Round the World Race headed south into that area of the world sailors call the Southern Ocean.The Southern Ocean is the band of open sea that girdles the globe between the southern hemisphere continents and Antarctica. It is, for the most part, cold, windswept and removed from the sea lanes traveled by commercial ships able to speed from Cape Town, South Africa, to ports in Australia, New Zealand and the Far East regardless of wind strengths and weather conditions.

Armed with a trombone and an oscilloscope, Crystal Halcomb and Jessica Sims came prepared for their first science fair.The 14-year-old ninth-graders from Oakland Mills High School were among about 80 Howard County high school students participating in the county's eighth annual Mathematics, Science and Technology Fair held at River Hill High School on Thursday and Friday.Crystal and Jessica were eager to talk about their project -- "Analyzing Trombone Soundwaves" -- if not actually play the trombone.

The Ocean City Beach Patrol is warning beach-goers to beware of high tides and rip currents this weekend as Hurricane Bill churns in the Atlantic Ocean. "If you're not a good swimmer, don't even think about going into the water," said Lt. Ward Kovacs. Kovacs said all 92 lifeguard chairs will be filled this weekend in Ocean City in anticipation of a large crowd looking to take advantage of the waves created by the hurricane as summer winds down. Bill is not expected to make landfall, but instead languish in the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles away and head north up the Eastern Seaboard.

Even in the daily bedlam of Iraq, life for Jason Ehrhart and Larry Perry had a measure of clarity. But that was before roadside bombs blew them out of their Humvees and into a fog that has yet to lift. It's not clear whether either suffered a direct blow to the head, but like many brain-injured comrades, they have lingering memory problems. What is clear is that invisible blast waves slammed into their skulls and shook their brains like gelatin. As many as one in five combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered traumatic brain injuries, and military medical experts believe the concussive force of blast waves has contributed to more than half of those.

Joe Bollinger in Glen Burnie listens to his NOAA Weather Radio. He keeps hearing the term "dominant period" and wonders what it means. "What factors cause the time to vary, and why report it at all?" he asks. Sailors and boaters need to know. The term refers to the time, in seconds, between peaks of the highest energy waves on a body of water. Higher waves and shorter dominant periods can mean rougher waters. Longer periods provide smoother sailing, and lower demand for Dramamine.

Fishing Creek-- --Peel off U.S. 50 south of Easton, follow the signs into Cambridge and leave the motels, gas stations and seafood shops along Route 16 in your rearview mirror. Marsh grass as high as a heron's wings hugs a smooth, shoulderless road. The Chesapeake Bay, its surface feathery in the light of a late-spring morning, breaks into view on your right. A two-lane bridge sweeps traffic onto a small peninsula, where, along the main street, a woman in a sun hat waves. On TV Pirate Master airs at 8 tomorrow on WJZ (Channel 13)

SYDNEY, Australia -- As he crossed the Pacific Ocean last week courting crucial American friendships and military alliances in Japan and Australia, Vice President Dick Cheney also confronted pointed criticism of the U.S. mission in Iraq. And near the end of his journey, in Sydney, the vice president was asked by an Australian reporter whether he is concerned about "the growth of anti-Americanism around the world." "Well, there's a certain amount of that," Cheney allowed. "I think it probably waxes and wanes.

For $10,000 a day, you can have the ultimate surfing sojourn in Indonesia aboard the 110-foot Indies Trader IV, a sort of floating hotel with 15 cabins, a helipad and three-course meals with wine. A motorized tender takes you to the waves. Or for a daily rate, in addition to the cost of his airfare, Brad Gerlach can be your private instructor anywhere in the world. Gerlach, who was ranked No. 1 on the surfing's world professional tour during the 1986 and 1991 seasons, termed the cost "not cheap at all."

OCEAN CITY -- Water, gray like a shark's belly, softly fades into a low, pillowy sky. The air is wind-scrubbed, cold and sweet. The waves are high and frothy. Miles of empty beach beckon. "You hear it?" said Joey Kroart, who runs Ocean Gallery on the boardwalk year-round. "Hear that?" He cupped a hand to his ear, and the ocean obliged, rumbling softly. "You can't hear that in the summertime. You can't see the beauty; the seagulls all standing on the beach asleep," he said. "This time of year, you can really feel the soul of the ocean."

Remember where you were Dec. 10-12, 1992? Maryland was in the middle of a three-day nor'easter, one of the worst ever to strike the region. Wind and 10-foot waves caused flooding in Ocean City. BWI clocked 3.3 inches of rain and 120,000 people in the region lost power. Two feet of snow landed on Allegany County, 3 feet in Garrett, stranding drivers, knocking down trees and utility lines. Hurricane-force winds and waves smacked the coast from here to New England. This week looks way better.

CLEVELAND -- They surf in Cleveland because they must. They surf with 2-inch icicles clinging to their wet suits, through stinging hail and overpowering wind and waves brown with human waste. They work nights to spend their winter days scouting surf. They are watermen on an inland sea. Given its industrial past, Cleveland largely turns its back to Lake Erie, lining the coast with power plants, a freeway and mounds of iron ore to feed its steel factories. The shore is especially deserted in winter, when strong winds and waves pummel the land.

Hard to believe, under sunny skies and 70-degree weather, but this is a time Great Lakes sailors dread, "when the skies of November turn gloomy," as songwriter Gordon Lightfoot put it. It was 31 years ago tonight that the 729-foot ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a Lake Superior gale with all 29 hands. A recent re-analysis of the disaster calculated that shifting weather caught the heavily loaded ship in 69 mph crosswinds and 25-foot waves. Battered, leaking and listing, the ship likely capsized and plunged to the bottom.