David H. Holtzman sez:

The Internic is currently experiencing technical difficulties with some of the rs hosts. This problem is expected to be resolved within the next hour. Users may experience temporary problems with whois in the interim. We apologize for the inconvenience.

i.e. -- "It's down.." {per my observation over the last hour+..} -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433