August 4, 2003

Scientists in government, industry and academia are reviving late Seymour Cray's elegant approach to building ultra-fast computers; Burton J Smith, founder of Tera, which bought original Cray Research in 2000, has become industry's leading champion of Cray's design philosophy; Cray's custom machines are known as vector supercomputers and have special hardware intended to handle long strings of numbers in complex scientific computing problems; had been largely replaced by massively parallel processors, designs based on linking thousands of inexpensive, mass-produced microprocessors; such MMP machines are now proving to have limits; photo (M)

Religious courts run by upstart young clerics spring up in Najaf and Baghdad following disappearance of Saddam Hussein's government, with dockets covering all types of criminal and civil cases that normal courts would hear if they were functioning; Islamic court's decisions, which include permission to kill, could have dubious legality in regular court system, assuming it is restored; many aggrieved Iraqis, feeling they have no other place they can trust for legal rulings, are flocking to these courts; courts have no enforcement power and are not recognized by either American occupation forces or Iraq's other Muslim religious authorities; grand ayatollahs either deliberately ignore courts or say their decisons lack religious significance because no local senior cleric advises them; officials of regular court system, still trying to recover under American tutelage, expect religious courts inevitably to fade; photos (M)

NBC plans to intersperse short movies, usually one minute long, among commercials accompanying its prime-time shows in bid to induce viewers to watch blocks of commercials and perhaps stay with network entire night to catch conclusion of minimovie; advertising executives welcome bid to tamp down channel-flipping; NBC has so far produced 10 one-minute movies, each broken into two 30-second installments, and one four-minute film; minimovies will not cut into time alloted commercials or network promotions; photo (M)

Group of Episcopal lay and clergy leaders approves selection of Rev Canon V Gene Robinson as denomination's first openly gay bishop; those opposed to choice say it would fracture church and swiftly call on bishops to block approval when they make final decision on Aug 4; Robinson was chosen as bishop for Diocese of New Hampshire by church members there in June; he says he knows his selection would be deeply troubling for many Episcopalians; calls on those who oppose him not to give up on church, but to stay on and try to sort through difficult issues, like sexuality; Bruce E Mason, spokesman for American Anglican Council, group of conservative clegy members that have opposed Robinson's ratification, says unity of Anglican Communion 'hangs in the balance'; photo (M)

Joyce Purnick column asks why so much more attention is being paid by people and news media to Harvey Milk High School for gay students, while they virtually ignore report suggesting that some New York City schools are pushing out underacheiving students to improve test score averages (M)