Jockstrip: The world as we know it

THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

Despite well known dangers about swimming in quarries and gravel pits, the United States this summer has seen nine people drown -- in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont.

The deaths have prompted the Mine Safety and Health Administration to reissue warnings about the dangers of swimming in active and abandoned quarries and gravel pits. "Each one of these deaths is tragic, yet totally preventable," Dave D. Lauriski, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said in a statement.

Water-filled quarries and pits may conceal rock ledges and old mining machinery beneath the surface. The water can be deceptively deep and dangerously cold, which often leads to cramping among even experienced swimmers. Steep, slippery walls make getting out of these swimming holes extremely difficult.

Since 1999, more than 100 people have died in such accidents at active and abandoned mine sites.

NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS

The Humane Society of the United States says one of the world's favorite whales, Keiko, continues to make progress toward a reintroduction to the wild.

Outfitted with a transmitter that tracks his progress, Keiko has spent 41 days and has covered hundreds of miles swimming in the open ocean.

"We are astonished by Keiko's progress," said Naomi Rose, a society marine mammal scientist. "He is making quantum leaps forward in the long effort to set him free. We have good reason to hope that he is on the verge of true independence."

Keiko gained millions of fans around the world after several movies were made that portrayed the whale's friendship with a young boy and the boy's quest to free the whale, which was -- in the movie and in real life -- kept at an aquatic theme park.

TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING

Almost every radio news reporter has suffered this calamity -- but this time it happened to the cops.

A taped confession made by an accused rapist turned out to be 90 minutes of blank tape.

The Miami Herald reports the Marantz cassette recorder can tape phone calls or it can record statements from suspects talking into the recorder.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents and a Miami Beach homicide detective used the recorder to record Joel Lebron allegedly describing how he raped a high school student and then shot her in the head.

The newspaper reports the officers left the machine on TEL -- used to record phone calls -- instead of switching it to MIC/TEL for recording statements in person.

AND FINALLY, TODAY'S UPLIFTING STORY

Homework help may be just a mouse click away. Middle school, high school and college students can get math homework help at a free Web site, hotmath.org.

The site helps with algebra, geometry and calculus and Hotmath has been approved by the California Learning Resource Network. It also has received the District Administration Magazine 2002 Web site Award for Mathematics.

Hotmath offers help for the actual problems in textbooks. Students go to the site, select their textbook, page and problem number, and find a self-paced series of hints, explanations and questions that guide them through a step-by-step solution, right up to the final answer.

More than 75 professors and teachers around the country helped create the Hotmath tutorial solutions.