September 1, 2005

Kelefa Sanneh Critic's Notebook column on love affair between pop and punk as epitomized by Hilary Duff and her boyfriend, Joel Madden; photos (M)

Chimp Genome Decoded And Compared to Man's Scientists have decoded the genome for the chimpanzee and compared it with that of humans, a major step toward defining what makes people human and developing a deep insight into the evolution of human sexual behavior. The comparison pinpoints the genetic differences that have arisen in the two species since they split from a common ancestor about six million years ago. And scientists believe those differences hold the key to what makes people human. PAGE A15 F.D.A. Officer Quits in Protest The director of the Food and Drug Administration's office of women's health resigned to protest the agency's decision to further delay approving over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, calling it the result of ''abortion politics.'' PAGE A12

SITTING safely in Washington, I am watching harrowing footage shot from helicopters above the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, submerged under 14 feet of water when the Mississippi thundered through the breached levee at the Industrial Canal and destroyed everything in its swirling waters. My home is there, a West Indian-style plantation house built in 1826, standing as an ancient relic amid a maze of wooden houses a century younger. Some are classic bungalows, but most are distinctly New Orleans building types, with fanciful names like shotguns and camelbacks. I watch as a neighbor is rescued from his rooftop. Dazed, he has emerged from his attic, wriggling through a hole he hacked in the roof, swooped up by a Guardsman on a swinging rope. He is safe. Scores of others aren't. Bodies float through the streets of the Ninth Ward. Presumably they are from the diverse group that inhabits this deepest-dyed old New Orleans neighborhood: poorer blacks and whites, Creoles of color and a sprinkling of artists.

David Pogue column on Nikon's wireless camera due in store on Sept 15; says it is iPod-size, eight-megapixel camera dressed in brush-metal black, with list price of $550; notes sister model, P2, is silver, 5.1-megapixel version that lists for $400; photos (M)

THREE astronauts were talking baseball. One tennis star was slugging a ground-rule double in batting practice. There were eight drums on the sideline for Taiwanese Night. There have been desultory times in Queens when any of these events would have been the most exciting happening of just another Mets evening.