3000 Year

After spending more than $300 million on plans that include a state-of-the-art command center complete with filtered air to thwart chemical and biological attacks, officials here believe New York is fully prepared to face potential problems as the millennium looms.

A tiny Chinese lady, fashioned of terra cotta more than 2,000 years ago, holds a powder puff while looking into a round, hand-held mirror. Two other elegant women, painted on a scroll a few centuries later, also pay close attention to their appearance. One is having her hair done in front of a large mirror on a stand. The other meets the gaze of viewers in a mirrored reflection of her face. The two works of art, displayed on opposite sides of the hallway leading to "Ancient Chinese Bronze Mirrors From the Lloyd Cotsen Collection" — an exhibition at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino — introduce the familiar aspect of the show: mirrors as looking glasses.

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners — those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Obama proposed Wednesday to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. He argued that those homeowners — and the country — couldn't afford to let the housing market bottom out, as many Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have advocated.

The Tibet plateau is a land of yaks and sherpas — and rapid evolution. Over a mere 3,000 years, a blink of an evolutionary eye, Tibetan highlanders have developed a unique version of a gene that apparently helps them cope with life at extremely high altitudes, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science. The research group, led by UC Berkeley biologist Rasmus Nielsen, found the gene by comparing DNA from 50 Tibetans and 40 neighboring Han Chinese. The two ethnic groups are closely related, with one important difference: The Tibetans live at elevations of 14,000 feet and higher, while the Han population generally lives relatively close to sea level.

Ranger Jason Caffey was on routine patrol, miles from anywhere, when he saw it: A rock shelter that archeologists have been excavating for a decade had been looted, scooped out in the middle with thousands of stone artifacts and bone fragments cast aside. But since Caffey's discovery in June in rugged, remote northern Wyoming, no arrests have been made and leads have been sparse.

Human remains found at the Texaco Refinery in Wilmington were identified as those of a small child who belonged to a 3,000-year-old Native American tribe, according to the coroner's office. Construction at the refinery was suspended last week when workers recovered what appeared to be a skull and several long bones while digging a trench. Texaco officials said the area had been paved for several decades.

Lady X, the 3,000-year-old mummy of a commoner, left Sunday for the United States and a six-month round of tests that may help save 27 mummies of ancient Egyptian royalty. Escorted by Kamal Barakat, director general of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization's conservation center, the mummy was flown to Paris en route to Los Angeles aboard a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747.

Archeologists in northwest China have discovered 50 well-preserved corpses believed to be at least 3,000 years old, the official New China News Agency reported Monday. Officials of the Cultural Relics Bureau said the bodies have high noses, low cheekbones and blond or brown hair tied in a bun--different characteristics from the Mongoloid race, to which most Chinese belong. Five corpses are tattooed with geometric patterns.

Sales of electric vehicles won't take off until automakers lower prices and demonstrate the economic benefits to consumers, according to a J.D. Power and Associates study of electric vehicle ownership. Almost two years after automakers started selling battery-powered rechargeable cars in the U.S., the segment is an almost immeasurable portion of auto sales.  Nissan has sold less than 6,800 Leaf electric cars this year through October, and that's down 16% from the same period last year.  Honda has leased just 48 of the electric version of the Fit this year.

A California State University, Fullerton, anthropology professor, after 25 years of research, claims he has proved that California has a 3,000-year-old Russian connection. Otto von Sadovszky says his studies prove that two tribes immigrated from northwestern Siberia about 1000 BC and became the forebears of 19 California tribes of Indians.

Israel is referred to repeatedly in the Bible — 17 times, in fact — as the "land of milk and honey," but until three years ago, archaeologists had discovered little firm evidence that beekeeping was ever practiced there. Many scholars, in fact, assumed "honey" referred to a nectar from dates or other fruits. Then, three years ago, researchers found a 3,000-year-old apiary in the Iron Age city of Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley, the oldest known commercial beekeeping facility in the world, suggesting that the word "honey" likely referred to the real thing.

Newly developed computer models applied for the first time to the Puente Hills fault beneath downtown Los Angeles suggest a 7.5 magnitude quake could cause as much as a quarter of a trillion dollars in damage and kill as many as 18,000 people. Scientists have known for the last two years that the fault is the major quake threat to urban Los Angeles, but the new projections released Wednesday provide the first rough picture of the potential loss of life and property.

Ranger Jason Caffey was on routine patrol, miles from anywhere, when he saw it: A rock shelter that archeologists have been excavating for a decade had been looted, scooped out in the middle with thousands of stone artifacts and bone fragments cast aside. But since Caffey's discovery in June in rugged, remote northern Wyoming, no arrests have been made and leads have been sparse.

Almost 3,000 years ago, Greek King Ifitos of Elis visited the antiquity's leading think tank, the oracle at Delphi, and asked the arts- and music-loving Apollo how to stop the brutal carnage among the city-states of the Greek peninsula. The oracle pointed him toward Olympia and the organization of a quadrennial athletic competition, as it would help break cycles of ignorance and hate. King Ifitos sent messengers wearing crowns of olive branches throughout the region to announce the plan.

After spending more than $300 million on plans that include a state-of-the-art command center complete with filtered air to thwart chemical and biological attacks, officials here believe New York is fully prepared to face potential problems as the millennium looms.

Almost every Friday evening, as the stillness of the Jewish Sabbath settles over this holy city, a white-bearded man wearing a black hat and suit takes up his post at its western entrance. Seated on a folding chair on a small island in the street, he glares and shakes his finger at drivers entering Jerusalem, delivering a stern reminder to the faithless, or forgetful, that religious law prohibits observant Jews from driving on the Sabbath.

A 3,000-year-old colossus of the Pharaoh Ramses II, known as Ramses the Great, is on its way from ancient Memphis to Memphis, Tenn. Antiquities experts in Meet Rahina, south of Cairo, are putting the final touches on restoration of the huge statue, which stands on the site of ancient Memphis, once the capital of Egypt. The 60-ton, 21-foot granite statue was discovered here in 1961, broken into more than 40 pieces. It lay partly submerged in water until last November, when restoration began.

Archeologist Trude Dothan stood at the edge of a pit in the Israeli flatlands and looked past the brim of her straw hat 3,000 years back in time. Below her, dozens of students were slowly uncovering the walls of what may have been a royal palace of the Philistines, the Biblical people who produced the giant Goliath and Samson's seductress Delilah.

When Suzanne Rosen converted to Judaism 20 years ago, the intricate rituals of the Passover Seder were new and exciting. She carefully followed her mother-in-law's directions to prepare her kitchen for the feast commemorating the liberation of Jews from slavery and their exodus from Egypt 3,000 years ago. She emptied her cabinets of all dishes, pots, pans, utensils and food. She scrubbed the refrigerator, cleaned the stove with high heat and relined every shelf.

Al and Janet Shusta are what you call hard-core lottery players. For as long as the game has been around, the retirees have been dropping up to $300 a month on a chance at striking it rich. So you think they would know exactly how they were going to spend their winnings after splitting Saturday's $20-million SuperLotto jackpot with a San Fernando Valley man. Truth is, they haven't a clue. They are thinking of traveling, although they have no firm plans.