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Space officials cannot tell precisely when the "random reentry" (as NASA jargon has it) will occur. Best estimate: some time between mid-1979 and mid-1980. They do know that most of the space station will burn up in the atmosphere. But about one-third of the station will rain down in a shower of some 500 fragments along a track up to 6,440 km (4,000 miles) long and 160 km (100 miles) wide. Its location: somewhere in a broad, globe-girdling belt as far north as Newfoundland and as far south as the tip of South America...
...Elie Wiesel Random House; 208 pages...
...cremation. Yet the condition of the remains and the lack of fingerprint records for many victims meant the process was slow-and in many cases would prove futile. Autopsies were to be conducted on seven bodies: Cult Leader Jim Jones, Cult Physician Larry Schacht and five others selected at random. Officials decided that trying to pin down the precise cause of death for all victims would be impractical and pointless...
...discipline; not all indulge in coercion or violence. Still, many conform to a standard pattern of behavior. Once a recruit is drawn into a cult-adherents prefer to call it a sect or denomination-its message is incessantly drummed in. The novice is seldom left alone, a prey to random thoughts. Ties are severed with his past life; communications with family and friends may be eliminated altogether, a process that critics regard as "programming" or "brainwashing." Says Kelley: "These movements divide families, split communities, create tension and friction and turmoil. They are aggressive, abrasive, unheeding of any consideration...
...center of the universe," said Morrison "We are a mediocre lot drawn from a random sample, and we should look for our counterparts among the 200 million stars...