The NERC has deliberately set a 9/9/99 test date for its limited network testing - (aside, interesting that using this date lets the NERC utilities avoid the testing the "9/9/99" date itself doesn't it?) - and in their previous releases have recognized that 9/9/99 could cause preoblems itself.

Now, it is being said that 9/9/99 is a major anniversary date for the North Koreans, and thus the Chinese and North Koreans are trying to finish missile readiness work for the latest NK missile test.

But their intent is just to celebrate their anniversary with a "big rocket" right? Nothing to do with threatening Japan and South Korea with a IRBM (or ICBM) right? (Excuse me - "failed-satellite-launch-with-a-multi-stage-missile-that-could-also-carry-a-nuclear-warhead")

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

Also, 9/9/99 is the date for the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards...

Coincidence...I think not!!!!

(I wonder if Scary (Jim) Carrey will make an appearance...)

-- scared sh**less (nottellingyou@now.com), August 09, 1999.

From the Drudge Report: "North Korea's official news agency on Tuesday warned that there is 'no guarantee for the safety of the U.S. mainland when the U.S. ignites a war against the north in the Korean peninsula.' The threat came on the same day North Korea acknowledged for the first time that it is preparing to test a missile. U.S. military officials now believe that North Korea could, within the next few weeks, test a Taepodong 2 missile -- a powerful new rocket with a range of 3,800 to 6,000 miles that would put Alaska or Hawaii within its reach. The United States has threatened to use 'all available means' if North Korea goes ahead with a Taepodong 2 test. Wednesday's NEW YORK TIMES, which leads with a N. Korea story, runs quotes predicting that if a Korean missile should fall in Japanese territory, and particularly cause casualties or some destruction, Japan, with the help of the U.S., could then 'destroy North Korean missile sites.' The Korean Central News Agency warned:, 'A war on the Korean peninsula is neither a war like a military drill of unilateral offensive as in Yugoslavia and Iraq nor a dispute like a simple conflict. A war here is a large thermo-nuclear war in which more than a thousand nuclear bombs with explosive power of 13,000 kilotons deployed in South Korea will go off and a world war which will soon escalate beyond the Korean peninsula.'"

The last sentence says it all

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), August 09, 1999.

And this could put a little spice in the rice!

CHINA RAISES THE PRESSURE ON TAIWAN AND WILL STRIKE FIRST August 9, 1999 Agence France Presse reported: "China's military leaders have ordered the air force to strike first in any confrontation with Taiwanese fighter jets, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Friday. With tension between China and Taiwan showing no sign of abating, another newspaper said the Chinese navy was practicing naval blockades that would prevent any foreign intervention in a conflict..."

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), August 09, 1999.

9-9-99, Release date of Final Fantasy VIII for Sony Playstation:)

9-9-99, release date for Sega Dreamcast.

A couple of good things to look forward to:)

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), August 09, 1999.