To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - What's New at BPR?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 15:08:37 -0500
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Additions and updates made since Mar 01, 1999
Vol 1, Number 17
Mar 14 1999
------------------------------
Hi everyone....
We made a couple of new additions to our website, as well as
a couple of updates:
> Added: "Israel in Canaan Under Joshua and the Judges"
http://philologos.org/__eb-bhot
This is the third volume of Alfred Edersheim's work "Bible History, Old
Testament."
--------------
> Added: Pluto
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Sky_Signs/ss-009.htm
Although the recent discussion on whether to downgrade Pluto to a minor planet
has resulted in no change to its planetary status, we thought we would take a
very brief look into Pluto's history ourselves.
--------------
> Updated: Anti-Christ
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/a-003-01.htm
> Updated: Two Witnesses
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/w-002-01.htm
Thanks!
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Mar 15, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 20:30:46 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
7:00 PM Eastern
HIST - 20TH CENTURY - The Berlin Wall.
8:00
HIST - THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF STONEHENGE - Anthropologists,
engineers and astronomers assess the stone
circle.(CC)(TVG)
TLC - THE GREATEST ENGINEERING FEAT: THE HOOVER DAM- Men
and women combine dreams with science to tame the Colorado
River.(CC)(TVG)
9:00
DISC - NIAGARA FALLS: RAGING RAPIDS - A glacial surge
creates a window into the Earth.(CC)(TVG)
TLC - THE GREATEST INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: THE CIA - The
highly secretive agency combats international
terrorism.(CC)(TVG)
10:00
HIST - MODERN MARVELS - "Spy Technology" - Espionage
technology of the Cold War.(CC)(TVG)
TLC - THE GREATEST INVENTION: THE MICROCHIP - Scientists
engineer the chip for the 21st century.(CC)(TVG)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Children DNA samples
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 20:38:50 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Mixed reviews on program to give parents children's DNA samples
Copyright c 1999 Nando Media
Copyright c 1999 Associated Press
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (March 14, 1999 9:11 a.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com) - A pin prick, a couple drops of blood -
proof of identity for a lifetime.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement figures it makes too much
sense not to try. After all, DNA can be used to prove guilt or
innocence, identify infants switched at birth and identify bodies when
a loved one is missing.
Yet when the department offered three school districts an opportunity
to give parents a free ID kit with their children's DNA, only one
district agreed. And that district, Leon County schools, used only 300
of the 500 donated kits.
Such reluctance is a mystery to law enforcement officers at all levels
of government.
"It's the whole privacy issue," said John Rabun, vice president of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "Parents are
saying, 'Wait a minute, this is me on that sample, or my child. I
don't want outsiders deciding what to do with that.'"
But under the FDLE's pilot program, an outsider wouldn't.
Children gave blood at three Leon County elementary schools in
February, but only with parental permission, and parents were required
to be present. And once the drop of blood was sealed on a special
chemical paper for long-term storage, it was sent home with the
parents.
Not a drop was kept by the government. But this program has been
adopted in no state, even though the cost is less than $1.50 per
child.
"It's the 'Big Brother is watching' syndrome," said Bill Johnson,
spokesman for the Brevard County School District, which turned down
the program. "Everybody's concerned that we are tracking people and
that kind of thing. The concerns are unjustified in my view. I think
we need to do everything and anything we can to protect our kids."
Miami-Dade County schools also rejected the DNA program.
"It was the testing of students," Deputy Superintendent Henry Fraind
said. "We just don't get involved if we don't have to. We get offered
so many different things with various ID cards or blood tests. For us,
everything seems to be a liability issue."
The FBI has heard all of these concerns before. Bill Hagmaier, chief
of the bureau's violent crime analysis lab in Quantico, Va., said
fingerprinting also once concerned the public, and that people will
learn to like DNA when they better understand it.
Its most valuable asset to law enforcement is its ability to identify
a decomposed or dismembered body. Although such a tragedy is
unimaginable, especially for a parent, Hagmaier said it happens more
often than people think.
"There's not a week that goes by where there aren't remains found
somewhere of some human being," Hagmaier said. "The key is the
investigator finding some way to identify the victim."
When 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce was abducted in Miami in September 1995,
raped and dismembered, authorities had to resort to using DNA from the
boy's parents to get a positive identification of the remains.
"If you'd just had another Jimmy Ryce case, I can guarantee you all
three schools would have done it, and you'd have run out of (DNA)
paper," Johnson said.
The DNA kits were offered by Life Technologies of Rockville, Md.
"We thought it had forensic value," said Markus Hunkeler, the
company's senior business manager for genetic and identity testing
products. "An infant footprint or fingerprint will change over time.
The genetic material of a person at birth will never change."
All members of the military must now give a DNA sample, which means
there is virtually no chance that the United States will ever bury
another unknown soldier.
Despite the general wariness, Leon County Superintendent Bill Montford
called the pilot program a success. Other schools have called wanting
to sample their children, he said.
The reaction was also positive from parents who took their children to
Pineview Elementary one evening for the samples, although children had
mixed feelings.
"What's that? She's gonna stick me," 6-year-old Carl Bryan protested
when a nurse assistant brought out a needle.
He cried, kicked and screamed until his mother agreed to do without
the sample.
Carl couldn't be persuaded by an offer of pizza, a $1 bribe or even
the proud announcement by 8-year-old Eboni Major that "It didn't hurt.
I wasn't scared."
Parents, on the other hand, were grateful.
"I'm keeping this in the envelope with the birth certificates," Sharon
Conyers said of the DNA sample from her 12-year-old son, Cedrick.
"It'll be one of my most important papers."
http://www2.nando.net:80/noframes/story/0,2107,27680-44629-330951-0,00
.html
via: Insane Science Mailing List
isml@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Schindler's List
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 20:44:42 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
" Schindler's List "
'Some impromptu thoughts here...
Tonight (Sunday) on NBC Spielberg's movie "Schindler's List" was
shown. I first saw the movie several years ago, and cried
uncontrollably at the end as the -actual- survivors (and family
members) filed by his grave, placing stones on his monument. Tonight I
was crying in some other places because of some marvelous parallels to
God's grace. While we approach the time of Jewish Pasach when many
documentaries and shows depicting what the descendents of Israel have
suffered are presented, and this was a secular account of actual
events, there are some wonderfully marvelous parallels to what God is
and does as we read in Scripture.
What is "power"? Schindler was arguing this point with a fellow-nazi
who, for sport while he was leisurely lounging around his balcony,
would shoot Jews in the work camp with his scoped rifle. Is power the
ability to kill people and destroy with impunity? Or, as we recently
considered the sinner at the foot of the stairs leading up to God's
throne at the -place- of repentance; the man falls down before the
emperor, knowing he's going to be shot. The emperor pardons him. The
emporer has the authority to have him shot, right on the spot. But
doesn't. -That- is 'power'.
While God proclaims, "the soul that sins shall die" (Ez18:4) God
restrains Himself and says that He "is not willing that any should
perish." (2Pt3:9) And so He sent His Son (Jn3:16) to -be- our Pasach.
[Passover] (1Cor5:7) God's power is proclaimed as "every knee" bows
and "every tongue" confesses that "Jesus Christ is Lord.."
(Phil2:10-11)
This "List" that Schindler had... Oh, what a picture of the Lamb's
"Book of Life" (Rev21:27) Schindler and Itsaak Stern are madly
compiling the list..from -memory-.. God who knows every star by name
(Ps147:4) sees each sparrow that falls (Mt10:29) and has our hairs
numbered (Mt10:30) He KNOWS "those who are His" (2Tm2:19)
As Schindler was rescuing the women and children from Auschwitz, he
shouts, "These are mine!!" They were on the "list". People would try
to offer him other "fresher" -workers- for his factory. But he would
"confess their names" and would refuse to, effectively, "blot their
names" from that list.
With even greater militancy and tenacity Christ promises, "The one who
overcomes...I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but
I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."
(Rev3:5) He will say, in effect, 'They are Mine. I redeemed them with
My blood.' (1Pt1:18-19)
Even the little children. Many people consider children to be of
'less' worth than adults. 'Communicated with a friend recently about
how children were 'used' as 'props' in an ugly situation to garner
sympathy in TV. In America, the unborn are slaughtered at the rate of
over 4000 EVERY DAY!! Oskar Schindler would not leave the children to
the gas chambers. Jesus says, "Allow the little children to come to
Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven."
(Mt19:14)
And for those who are on that "list".. "no summary executions here by
any guards without -MY- authorization" ... "Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ?" (Rom8:35) When Christ is the One Who purchased
our salvation and sealed us with His Holy Spirit (Eph1:13) not one
will be lost. (Jn18:9)
Even though Oskar Schindler had been a Nazi, a Jewish tribunal
declared him "righteous". In a similar fashion, a -sinner- is
"reckoned" to be "righteous" through "faith" (Rom4:9,1Ki8:32)
A tree was planted somewhere in Israel along the "Avenue of
Righteousness" in the name of Schindler and still stands today. The
righteous one is "like a tree planted by the rivers of water that
brings forth its fruit in its seasons" (Ps1:3) Those who "do His
commandments" have right to the "Tree of Life" (Rev22:14)
But when we come to the end and receive our "crown of life" (Rev2:10)
[Schindler received a gold ring] what will be our response? "Oh thank
You so much. Yes, I'm going to enjoy this greatly!" ?? Oh why did I
waste so much money? This car... I could have sold it. It would have
been worth 10 more. This Nazi pin...two more. Why didn't I do more?
Just one more...!!
When we come before our Lord our response will be, "we are
unprofitable servants, for we have done what we ought to do."
(Lk17:10) The 24 elders, possibly representative of Israel and Church
saints, cast their crowns before the throne. (Rev4:10) But if we are
faithful, we can hear, "well done, good and faithful servant...enter
into the joy of your Lord." (Mt25:23) As He wipes away the tears from
our eyes. (Rev7:17,21:4)
Amen!
"A Voice in the Wilderness"
-- E-Mail: voice@cet.com
-- WebSite: http://www.cet.com/~voice
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (3/15/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 20:56:08 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Netanyahu warns Palestinians
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (AP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned
Sunday Israel will respond "very forcefully" if Palestinians declare
statehood in May and claim any part of Jerusalem as the capital. In a
campaign speech before high school students, Netanyahu repeated a
warning he said he already made to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Netanyahu did not elaborate on what steps he would take. But in the
past, he has threatened to annex chunks of the West Bank if Arafat
makes good on a promise to declare independence May 4, the end of the
five-year negotiating period outlined in Israeli-Palestinian peace
accords. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558805200-2fd ***
Also: PLO to debate statehood next month, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558801842-e1f
*** Jesus photos protested in Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A crowd protesting the opening of a photo
exhibition depicting Jesus Christ in the company of homosexuals threw
rocks at the photographer when she stepped outside the museum Sunday.
The exhibition, titled "Ecce Homo," has provoked occasional protests
since first being shown in Stockholm last summer. Since then, it has
been shown around the country, including at the Swedish parliament
building and at Uppsala Cathedral, the seat of the Church of Sweden.
It opened Sunday at the city museum in Norrkoeping. Several hundred
demonstrators gathered outside the museum and some hurled stones at
photographer Elisabeth Ohlson when she stepped outside to photograph
the crowd. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558806308-b47
*** Death sentence challenges Arafat
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Pressure from one powerful family apparently
led Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority to impose a death sentence
last week. Pressure from another led him to reconsider it. Human
rights monitors and political observers said the about-face showed how
justice among the Palestinians has more to do with the street than
with the law. Arafat's latest predicament is over a Palestinian
military court's decision Wednesday ordering the death penalty for
Raed Attar, an agent in a shadowy security arm of the Palestinian
Authority, for his role in the shootout death of Capt. Rifat Joudeh,
an officer in a rival agency. When it was pronounced, Attar's
relatives took to the streets. Palestinian troops attempted to quell
the riots, and two youths were killed in the street fighting. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558803494-451
*** Supermarket defies Israeli government
JERUSALEM (AP) - A Jerusalem supermarket defied a Labor Ministry
threat to shut it down for employing Jews on the Sabbath by staffing
only with Muslims and Christians. Customers formed long lines Saturday
as business went on as usual. Ministry inspectors showed up early in
the day but, finding only Muslim and Christian workers, did not fine
the owners of "Drugstore 2000," the first supermarket to open on the
Sabbath in west Jerusalem. Israeli law bans the employment of Jews on
the Jewish Sabbath, from Friday evening to Saturday sundown. Labor
Minister Eli Ishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party has overlooked
work at restaurants and other places of entertainment. But he said he
is determined to close the store to safeguard the status quo in the
Holy City. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558794692-0b9
*** Neb. faces E. Coli outbreak
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The largest E. coli outbreak in Nebraska history
grew to 49 cases, and state health officials warned there could be
more. "I know there are at least half a dozen potential cases that
we're looking into in addition to the 49 already found," Marla
Augustine, spokeswoman for Nebraska Health and Human Services, said
Friday. The outbreak has been traced to a restaurant in Kearney where
investigators suspect contaminated lettuce may have been the source.
Seven people have been hospitalized for the potentially fatal
bacteria, including an 8-year-old girl in serious condition. The
strain of E. coli in the 49 cases attacks the digestive tract.
Symptoms include fever and bloody diarrhea.### *** Also: E. Coli
detection enhanced, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558791611-79e
*** 4th-grader hires lawyer
ALCOA, Tenn. (AP) - Some fourth-graders just complain about their
lunchroom food. Ryan Rose got a lawyer. Fed up with pinto beans,
cornbread and salad, 10-year-old Ryan hired Monte Walton to fight for
better fare on the Alcoa Elementary School menu. "Me and my friends
got mad because there was not anything to eat," he said. Walton, a
lawyer in Knoxville, employs Ryan's mother as a paralegal. "I told him
for the magnanimous sum of $1, I would represent him," Walton said. He
said Rose is protesting a 50-cent price increase, week-old leftovers,
cold food that should be hot, and a lack of "good stuff." Lester
Brown, director of the Alcoa school system, said he would "wait and
see what their complaint is about." See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558781354-f12
*** Md. town too nice for company
FROSTBURG, Md. (AP) - People in western Maryland seem too nice to be
telemarketers. Unitel Corp., which sells things over the phone, said
Friday. It is moving about 100 jobs from Frostburg to Florida hoping
to find more aggressive salespeople. "The culture and the climate in
western Maryland is one of helping your neighbor and being empathetic
and those sorts of things," Unitel vice president Ken Carmichael said.
But the friendly nature of the townsfolk is getting in the way. "We
would rather be nice than aggressive," said Mayor John Bambacus.
"Frostburg is not the Bronx. We pride ourselves on being a very
neighborly community." See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558782633-33f
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - New Rite of Exorcism
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 16:34:36 -0600
From: "Hoye" <emerald@dwx.com>
A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH
Prefect for Divine Worship on the New Rite of Exorcism
VATICAN CITY, JAN 26, 1999 (ZENIT).- This morning, Cardinal Jorge Medina, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, presented the New Rite for Exorcisms of the Roman Ritual in the Vatican Press Hall. "We know there are Catholics who have not received good formation and doubt the existence of the devil, but this is an article of faith and part of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Whoever says the devil does not exist is no longer a believer." This was the clear and categorical answer of Cardinal Medina, in response to the question of a reporter about the doubts of many Christians on the existence of the devil. "The new text is an outgrowth of the old. There are no substantial changes or break with the previous text. There are changes in language: the new text has more sober language, with less adjectives. Moreover, it gives the priest who practices the rite of exorcism greater liberty -- greater flexibility in the choice of prayers to use. In a word, there is a new style, in a language more adapted to our time, but the content is the same," Cardinal Medina said.
The chapter with instructions and the liturgical text of the exorcisms in the Roman Ritual was written in 1614; it was the last one needing revision after Vatican Council II. "The current text, which has been approved by the Supreme Pontiff, is published today and placed at the disposition of the pastors and faithful of the Church; it is the fruit of ten years of work, and can be used immediately in Latin. Individual Episcopal Conferences will have to translate it into the appropriate national languages. In keeping with Canon Law, however, the translations will have to be submitted for approval by the Congregation for Divine Worship."
Cardinal Medina explained that "exorcism begins with the faith of the Church, according to which Satan and evil spirits exist. Their activity is to lure men away from the path of salvation. Catholic doctrine teaches that demons are fallen angels who sinned; spiritual beings of great intelligence and power. But Satan's power is not infinite; he is only a creature, but powerful because a pure spirit. Nevertheless, he cannot impede the building of the Kingdom of God."
Speaking of Satan, Cardinal Medina emphasized that "the nefarious influence of the devil and his followers is exercised habitually through deceit, lying and confusion. Just as Jesus is the Truth, the devil is the liar par excellence. From the beginning, lying has always been his favorite strategy. He deceives men by making them believe that happiness is to be found in wealth, power, and carnal concupiscence. He deceives men by persuading them they have no need of God and that they are self-sufficient, without the need of grace and of salvation. He also deceives them by minimizing -- worse yet, by making the sense of sin disappear, substituting God's law as the criterion of morality with the customs and conventions of the majority. He persuades children that lying is a good way to solve many problems, and thus, little by little, an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion is created among men. Because of the lies and deceits of the Great Liar, uncertainties and doubts are awakened in a world in which there is no longer any security, or Truth and where, instead, relativism reigns as well as the conviction that liberty consists in doing whatever one wants. There is no understanding that true liberty is found in doing God's Will, the source of good and sole font of happiness."
"For these reasons, the whole of human history is characterized by a tremendous struggle against darkness. Man must struggle without letup to remain united to the good. He cannot achieve interior unity without great effort and the help of God's grace," the Cardinal explained. "The Church is certain of the final victory of Christ and that is why she is not dragged down by fear and pessimism, but at the same time, she is very aware of the evil one who tries to discourage man and who sows confusion. It is within this framework that exorcisms must be understood, a very important chapter, but not the only one, in the struggle against the evil one."
To the question if exorcism has changed because of the advent of psychoanalysis, Cardinal Medina answered: "exorcism is one thing, and psychoanalysis is another. If the exorcist has any doubt about the mental health of the possessed, he should consult an expert. It is not always necessary, but it is prudent to hear what the psychiatrist has to say. It often happens that simple people confuse somatic problems with diabolical influence, but not everything can be attributed to the devil."
In regard to the spread of Satanic sects and occult circles, the Cardinal stated: "Satanism is a very old problem, difficult to uproot, because the people who practice it work under cover. The most tragic thing is that the devil is able to deceive man and make him seek happiness exactly where he will never find it."
ZE99012615
This article has been selected from the ZENIT Daily Dispatch
(c) Innovative Media, Inc.
ZENIT International News Agency
Via della Stazione di Ottavia, 95
00165 Rome, Italy
www.zenit.org
To subscribe http://www.zenit.org/english/subscribe.html
or email: english-request@zenit.org with SUBSCRIBE in the "subject" field
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Egypt-Jordan Power Grid Ignores Israel
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 00:16:39 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Monday, March 15, 1999: The Business Channel
Egypt-Jordan Power Grid Ignores
Israel
CAIRO (AFP) -- The planned inauguration Tuesday of an
electricity grid between Jordan and Egypt but
excluding Israel highlights the dashed hopes of the
Middle East peace process.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King
Abdallah II will meet Tuesday along the Red Sea to
inaugurate the link-up between Jordan's port of Aqaba
and Egypt's resort at Taba, officials in Cairo and
Amman said at the weekend.
Israel was to have joined the grid under regional
economic projects aimed at cementing peace agreements
with the Arabs, but such schemes have withered since
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in
Israel in 1996.
Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries to have
signed peace treaties with Israel.
It is the first meeting between the two leaders since
Mubarak went to Amman on February 8 for the funeral
of King Hussein, Abdallah's father, and it is
Abdallah's first trip abroad since he ascended the
throne on his father's death.
Egypt and Libya joined their grids in May 1998 while
Egypt and Jordan linked their networks in October,
although the connection is officially being
celebrated on Tuesday, officials said.
Egypt is to be the cornerstone of a power grid
linking the Middle East, North Africa and Europe
through Syria, Iraq and Turkey, Libya, Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco, Spain and Italy.
The project is being financed by the Arab Fund for
Economic and Social Development Fund, the Islamic
Development Bank and the European Investment Bank.
An Egyptian government daily, Al Akhbar, on March 1
accused Netanyahu of "blackmailing" King Abdallah to
prevent him from forging closer ties with his Arab
neighbors.
During and after Hussein's funeral, Netanyahu visited
Jordan, which in 1994 became the second Arab country
after Egypt to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
http://www.arabia.com/content/business/3_99/egypt15.shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Palestinians demand western Jerusalem, too
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 04:04:19 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
PALESTINIANS DEMAND WESTERN JERUSALEM, TOO
The Palestinians have demands not only on eastern Jerusalem, but on
the western part as well. Palestinian Authority senior Abu Allah
declared three days ago that the PA will insist on discussing western
Jerusalem in the final-status negotiations. Arutz-7 correspondent
Haggai Huberman reports that Abu Allah, who appeared before a
gathering of the Fatah Youth movement, said he was speaking in the
name of Yasser Arafat. Abu Allah also cited the recent European Union
letter implying that Israel has no sovereignty over any part of
Jerusalem.
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.a7.org>
Monday, March 15, 1999 / Adar 27, 5759
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - First Draft of Human Genome Will Be Ready In 2000
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 04:06:09 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
First Draft Of Human Genome Will Be Ready In 2000
LONDON (Reuters) - The first working draft of the human genome -- all
the genes in the body -- will be completed a year ahead of schedule
next February, scientists said Monday.
``We announced back in September last year that a 'working draft'
would be available in 2001. However, the pooling of expertise and the
increase in resources between British and American genome centers have
proved that a working draft can be available much earlier,'' Dr
Michael Morgan said in a statement.
The chief executive of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus said the draft
will include 90 percent of the three billion human DNA sequences which
should pave the way for the final sequence by 2003 at the latest.
``The scientific community wants this data immediately and we aim to
give it to them as it plays a vital role in understanding the very
basis of life, health and disease,'' said Dr John Sulston, director of
the Sanger Center, which is also in the English university town of
Cambridge.
The center, the world's largest genome sequencing organization, is
part of a global undertaking known as The Human Genome Project.
The 15-year project was set to map and sequence the human genome, all
the DNA in the 23 pairs of human chromosomes contained in each cell in
the human body, by 2003.
The mammoth task has already produced new findings in diseases such as
breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The mapping of the entire
genome promises to revolutionize medicine and provide new treatment
for diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.
The Sanger Center and its U.S. counterpart, the Genome Sequencing
Center in St Louis, Missouri, recently completed the genetic sequence
of the roundworm. With 19,000 genes it is the most complex genome
sequenced so far.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/sc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990315/sc/
genome_1.html
via: Insane Science Mailing List
isml@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Religious rights a factor as year 2000 nears
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 04:18:48 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Religious rights a factor as year 2000 nears
BY JESSICA GUYNN
Contra Costa Times
Technological Armageddon triggered by the millennium computer bug
would be ominous enough for business. But what if one of your
employees or co-workers becomes convinced he's the Messiah?
Not only could it happen, it already has.
``Millennium fever'' has gripped some workers, raising eyebrows and
concern in the workplace.
California is home to practitioners of every mainstream and
alternative religion as well as to people who place their faith in
hundreds of cults, covens and clubs. Quite a few believe in the
Christian millennium prophecy. Some end-timers are fervent in their
apocalyptic beliefs.
Though it's unlikely to become a widespread phenomenon, some
employment lawyers warn that outbreaks of ``millennium fever'' may
become more frequent as the end of the century draws near.
Those outbreaks are sure to raise thorny legal issues. Jeff Tanenbaum,
a San Francisco lawyer, already has received several inquiries from
Bay Area companies. In all, Tanenbaum says he has fielded nearly a
dozen calls from human resources professionals and corporate managers
grappling with the religious beliefs and practices of millenarians in
the workplace.
In one instance, a worker who thought he was the Messiah would lie on
the floor and pretend he was nailed to the cross, frightening
co-workers and customers.
At two other companies, employees talked about the coming apocalypse
in the workplace, the exhortations alarming their co-workers.
Some of the other Y2K scenarios Tanenbaum says employers should be
prepared for:
A group of employees request time off to attend a millennium festival;
A worker's manner of dress or appearance changes dramatically for the
millennium;
An employee requests a leave of absence to travel to the Middle East
for the millennium;
A supervisor, a practicing millenarian, is accused of conducting
employee reviews that include biblical prophecy;
An employee belongs to a millennium group that calls for violence. Are
these workers and their beliefs and practices protected by state and
federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination in the workplace?
In most cases, the answer is yes, Tanenbaum says.
The federal Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission defines
religious practices to include ``moral or ethical beliefs as to what
is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of
traditional religious views.''
Those beliefs do not have to be espoused by a religious group or be
widely held by others to be protected, Tanenbaum said.
Under federal and state law, employers must make reasonable
accommodation for religious practices. Protected practices include
observance of a religious holiday, prayer breaks during work hours,
dietary restrictions and unusual dress or other personal grooming
habits.
``Employers do need to make reasonable accommodations on a
case-by-case basis,'' agreed Tom Makris, a San Francisco employment
lawyer.
But if an employee wants to take time off to attend a millennium
festival or party for personal, not religious reasons, the employer
has no such obligation, Tanenbaum said.
The trick is to determine that the belief is genuinely religious in
nature, said San Francisco employment lawyer Rebecca Eisen. ``If the
employee believes in the millennium as the second coming and holds
that belief the way someone else may believe that Jesus is the son of
God and in the second coming of Christ, then it's a religious belief
under the law,'' Eisen said. ``The safest thing for an employer to do
is to provide accommodation without creating a `me-too' syndrome in
the office.''
If an employer investigates a worker's religious beliefs, Tanenbaum
advises caution.
``Employers must tread carefully in making the determination'' of
whether an employee is requesting time off for religious reasons or
not, Tanenbaum said. ``Close scrutiny of the employee's request may
itself be viewed as discriminatory or harassing conduct and may also
be an invasion of privacy.''
And that leaves employers very little wiggle room, Tanenbaum said.
``If an employee requests a leave of absence to attend `the mother of
all millennium parties,' a prudent employer will want to know whether
the employee means `Mother' with a capital `M,''' Tanenbaum said. ``If
so, (the employer should find out) whether the employee has a
religious belief in `the Mother' as in earth or otherwise, and whether
the employee feels compelled by this belief to attend or simply wishes
to do so out of personal preference.''
Tanenbaum said company managers can refuse a worker's request for time
off from work if it results in ``undue hardship'' such as violating a
collective bargaining agreement, forcing other employees to work
undesirable shifts or coming at a substantial cost to the employer.
In other cases, employers can refuse as a matter of company policy.
One worker complained of religious discrimination when he couldn't
access information about the millennium on the Internet from his work
station, but Tanenbaum advised his client that it had a right to use
blocking software as protection from potentially offensive material.
Still, other pitfalls lurk. Employers need to be careful that
millenarians don't harass other workers by proselytizing about their
religious beliefs in the workplace. Such talk also may foreshadow
violence, something employers must closely monitor.
And if your employee thinks he's the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?
That's a tough call, Tanenbaum says.
The worker may well be protected under the Americans with Disabilities
Act for being emotionally or mentally unbalanced, Tanenbaum said.
``But if you treat him under ADA, he could say he is being
discriminated against because of his religious beliefs,'' Tanenbaum
said. ``It's basically damned if you do and damned if you don't.''
Of course, the employee who claims to be the Messiah may actually be
the Messiah, Tanenbaum said with a straight face. ``In that case you
don't want to be wrong or you may well really be damned.''
http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/business/getahead/docs/millfever
09.htm
via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Aum Cult Reviving in Japan
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 04:22:26 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
End Times Update
Re: False Christs
Scripture: Matthew 24:4
News Source: AP
=================================================
Aum Cult Reviving in Japan
.c The Associated Press
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
KITAMIMAKI, Japan (AP) -- Approaching the fourth anniversary of the
deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, the Aum Shinri Kyo
doomsday cult is coming back to life.
The group has been buying up houses and other real estate across Japan
to set up new offices and meeting centers in what authorities describe
as an ominous effort to re-establish itself.
Police say members are once again preparing for the Armageddon they
have been promised will come this year by their jailed messiah --
Shoko Asahara, who is on trial for murder in the March 21, 1995,
subway gassing and other killings.
Aum's reemergence has unnerved some Japanese, such as those who live
near the group's recently purchased house in Kitamimaki, a village
about 90 miles northwest of Tokyo.
The spacious two-story house with white walls and black roof tiles has
a parking lot for about a dozen cars and is ringed by steel fences
installed by the cult.
It also is surrounded by villagers who have been keeping a 24-hour
vigil for three months to make sure no one from the cult gets in.
``We will not let Aum come into our village,'' said Osamu Koyama, the
town's mayor.
Aum was stripped of its legal status and tax privileges as a religious
organization, but the government concluded it was no longer a threat
and stopped short of using an anti-subversion law to ban it. So
members can still assemble, spread their ideas and raise money.
Using profits from sales of computers and computer parts, for
instance, the cult last year bought at least $1.65 million in real
estate.
Authorities see the real estate deals as just one element in a broader
and more disconcerting effort by Aum to expand in a year that is of
special significance to Asahara's followers.
According to the guru's teachings, Judgment Day will come on either
Sept. 2 or 3 and only cult members will survive.
Possibly in preparation, investigators say, the cult has set up
several offices or meeting places around the Tokyo Detention Center,
where Asahara is being held while on trial.
According to a recent report compiled by the government's Public
Security Investigation Agency, Aum followers have been instructed to
worship the jail as a ``holy place.''
``We must keep a very close watch on the group,'' the report warned.
Aum has significantly increased its fundraising activities.
Last year, its computer sales earned it more than $57.5 million,
nearly double from the year before. And in the final four months of
1998, it earned at least $221,900 from 310 seminars attended by 7,000
people, the report said.
``I'm concerned about the situation,'' said Kenji Kawashima, a cult
specialist who teaches at Tokyo's Keisen University. ``Many young
Japanese can be easily influenced by a cult with teachings that
trigger fears about the turn-of-the- century catastrophe.''
Aum says its recent activities are not a cause for concern.
``We are only looking for a place to live and practice,'' the group
says on its World Wide Web page.
Police cracked down hard on Aum after the subway attack. A total of
428 cultists were arrested and the cult was stripped of its legal
status as a religious group and declared bankrupt.
The cult is still a skeleton of its former self.
At its peak, Aum claimed 10,000 followers in Japan and tens of
thousands more in Russia, Germany, the United States and several other
countries. It now has a core of only about 500 cultists who remain at
its communes, but hundreds more consider themselves members although
they have not taken the final step of giving away all worldly
possessions.
The trial of Asahara is expected to drag on for several more years,
and most of the cult's other leaders are likely to be in prison for
the foreseeable future.
But one of Asahara's closest and most charismatic disciples, Fumihiro
Joyu, is expected to be freed as early as November after serving time
for forgery and other minor charges from a 1990 land deal. His return
could be a big boost to Aum.
While Asahara's teachings still dominate the cult's Web site, Joyu,
who served as the cult's spokesman before his arrest, is also featured
prominently.
AP-NY-03-15-99 1328 EST
via: Portents2@aol.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Aussie TV stations OK euthanasia ad
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 04:34:03 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Aussie TV stations OK euthanasia ad
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - June Burns, after years of pain from bladder
cancer, wants to die. Now she will have the chance to plead her right
to a painless death in an ad on Australian TV. Television stations
Monday approved the broadcast of Burns' commercial, throwing the
debate open once more in the country that saw the world's first law
allowing euthanasia, but then barred it. Burns, 54, a member of the
Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New South Wales since she watched her
father die of bladder cancer, did not read a script for the ad and was
not prompted, said the society's president, Giles Yates. The society
hopes the commercial will prompt state referendum over the issue of
voluntary euthanasia. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558809909-9ba
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Shroud of Turin holds DNA of God?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 08:01:59 -0500
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Sunday 14 March 1999
Shroud 'holds DNA of God'
Scientists errred in Turin relic tests, author says
Bob Harvey
The Ottawa Citizen
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/990314/2371654.html
Excerpts:
"A book to be released in Canada this coming week suggests the
Shroud of Turin contains the DNA of God, as well as microscopic
splinters from the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ."
-------
"Dr. Garza-Valdes says he has put a question mark on the title of
his book -- The DNA of God? -- because there is no way to be
certain the crucified man whose photographic-like image appears
on the shroud is actually Jesus."
-------
"Dr. Garza-Valdes says, however, there is no fear Jesus can be
cloned. The DNA samples he found, taken from the shroud, are
not complete enough to be replicated, he said."
-------
"Dr. Garza-Valdes says his tests show the image is that of a first-
century Jew with type AB blood, a blood type relatively rare in
the general population but common among Jews."
-------
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Mar 16, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 20:46:25 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
8:00 PM Eastern
DISC - SKYWATCH: IS IT SAFE TO FLY? - Improved aviation
technology provides safer air travel.(CC)
HIST - THE SECRET BROTHERHOOD OF FREEMASONS - Initiates
swear on pain of death to uphold secrecy; legend and ritual;
influence on democracy.(CC)(TVG)
9:00
A&E - INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS - "War on the Presidency:
The Road to Impeachment" - President William Jefferson
Clinton is impeached in December 1998.(CC)
CNN - LARRY KING LIVE - Deepak Chopra; Rabbi David
Aaron; Marianne Williamson; Robert Thurman.(CC)
10:00
ABC - STRANGE WORLD - "Azrael's Breed" - Turner
investigates a scientist who develops a way to ``experience''
death without actually dying himself.(CC)(TV14)
TLC - MEDICAL MIRACLES - Advances in technology allow
doctors to perform procedures once thought science
fiction.(CC)
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Drugstore on a dime
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 20:49:09 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
IMAGINE A DRUGSTORE that fits on a dime: That's one
potential application for a controlled-release
microchip invented at MIT.
Made in much the same way as computer chips,the
prototype "pharmacy"contains 34 reservoirs,each the
size of a pinprick and capable of holding about 25
nanoliters of chemical.On the front side of the
dime-size microchip,the reservoirs are covered with
tiny gold caps.ON the reverse side,the reservorirs
have larger openings that are sealed with a
waterproof material after chemicals are added.
The entire chip is bathed in a salt solution.
To release a chemical-such as a prescription
drug-from one of the reservoirs,a small voltage
is applied between the gold cap and one of three
gold bars on the microchip.
The cap dissolves,and the chemical inside is
released.Implanted under the skin,such a chip
could be programmed to release precise amounts
of drugs at prescribed times.-D.S."
Popular Science
April 1999
via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (3/16/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 20:54:40 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Trilateral commission reaches out
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trilateral Commission, long an exclusive club of
influential citizens from the world's most powerful nations, is
reaching out to other countries to help find ways to foster democracy
and economic freedom. While leading figures from nonmember countries
like China, Korea, Russia and Ukraine cannot become members of the
commission, which meets annually to discuss the future of the world,
they sat at the table for this year's meetings in Washington, which
ended Monday. The commission, founded 26 years ago by banker David
Rockefeller, includes more than 300 mostly private citizens from the
U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558818689-477
*** Experts want to keep smallpox stock
WASHINGTON (AP) - Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, but U.S.
experts say laboratory specimens of the virus should be preserved to
make vaccines in case the deadly disease is ever used as a
bioterrorist weapon. Smallpox cursed humanity with disease, death and
disfigurement for more than 1,000 years but was wiped out as a
naturally occurring disease in 1980 after a worldwide inoculation
effort. The World Health Organization has recommended destroying, by
this June, two small caches of specimens that were believed to remain,
one in Russia, the other in the U.S. But bioterrorism experts have
said in recent months they believe the virus has been distributed to
other spots in Russia, perhaps in places with less effective security
controls. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558817937-66f
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Russia Today Daily Brief items (3/16/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 20:56:38 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
PRIMAKOV TO APPEAR ON STATE TV TO SPEAK OF START 2
MOSCOW -- Prime Minster Yevgeny Primakov will participate in a
nationally televised discussion of the START 2 nuclear disarmament
treaty on Tuesday, a government spokeswoman said.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/1999031601.html?text
DUMA TO START YELTSIN IMPEACHMENT DEBATE APRIL 15
MOSCOW -- The Duma will begin impeachment debates against President
Boris Yeltsin on April 15, Duma deputies said after a meeting of the
chamber's managing council on Tuesday.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/1999031602.html?text
MORE JEWS LEAVE RUSSIA AMID CRISIS, ANTI-SEMITISM
MOSCOW -- The number of Jews leaving Russia has risen because of
deepening national economic problems and rising anti-Semitism, a
Jewish official said on Monday.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/1999031604.html?text
RUSSIANS WARN OF LOOMING TOXIC DISASTER IN SCANDINAVIAN STRAITS
MOSCOW -- Toxic chemicals sunk in straits between Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway following World War II could soon provoke a major ecological
disaster, a Russian environmental organization said here Monday.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/1999031609.html?text
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Barcoded Fish
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 20:59:27 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Barcoded Fish
The words "barcoded fish" may sound like the punchline to a surrealist
joke, but fisheries are already producing millions of biologically
engineered scaly critters that one day could be as scannable as a can
of soup, and the tracking technology is rapidly moving up the food
chain.
Scannable fish are the product of teamwork between eager
ichthyologists and Intermec, a manufacturer of automated data
collection systems and supplies that has modified commercial barcode
symbology. The company hasn't stopped at fish, however, and their
living subjects range in size from bees to humans.
By barcoding fish, scientists can trace the hatcheries and sub-units
of hatcheries from which fish originate, using the "space available on
a fish" as a "very efficient way to organize information," says Eric
Volk, a researcher who helped develop the method at the Washington
Depart-ment of Fish and Wildlife.
The technique allows commercial hatcheries to study the effects of
pollution and habitat damage on survival rates in the wild, Volk says.
He estimates that between 25 million and 40 million fish in Washington
State and up to 400 million fish in Prince William Sound, Alaska, plus
others as far away as France and Japan, are marked every year by a
system of bars and spaces encoded in their bodies.
These bar codes, which resemble the rings in a tree trunk, are
calcified elements in the ears of fish, called otoliths. They grow by
the accumulation of daily layers, visible under a microscope as a
series of concentric rings. Because these rings are extremely
sensitive to thermal changes, a sudden drop in water temperature will
cause the layer produced that day to appear much darker than its
neighbors. A series of such events while the fish are in the hatchery
results in a distinct pattern that lasts a fish's entire lifespan.
That lifespan ends when the subjects are killed to extract and read
the coded calcifications. The "million-dollar question," as Volk puts
it, is how to devise a marking system that works without killing the
fish, so that larger samples of any hatchery group can be collected,
thus increasing the statistical significance of the studies.
One marked advantage of the current technique, however, is that it is
relatively inexpensive: all that's needed is a temperature-controlled
pond. Draw-backs include pesky power outages and forgetful scientists
who neglect to change the temperature of the water at the appropriate
time, Volk says.
As part of a study carried out from 1987 to 1993, Volk worked with
Intermec scientist Sprague Ackley to mark an initial batch of
approximately two million salmon at the Cowlitz Hatchery in Washington
State over a period of 14 days. After a month, they snagged a sample
of fish, removed the otoliths and viewed them under high magnification
to reveal the encoded bands. Readings by laser devices are possible
but can be less reliable than the human eye, which has been the
instrument of choice so far.
Eccentric as the concept may seem, this is not Intermec's first foray
into the barcoding of small creatures. In 1989, Intermec also worked
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Carl Hayden Bee Research
Center in Tucson, Arizona to develop a system to track the movements
of honey bees. Stephen Buchmann, the entomologist who carried out the
project, was in line at the supermarket when the idea struck to glue
bar codes to bees' backs. He contacted Intermec and began working with
Ackley to create a barcode label small enough to fit on the thorax, a
space about one-tenth of an inch wide, and light enough not to
interfere with the bee's normal movements.
By using only 9 to 11 stripes, rather than the 55 stripes found on
most commercial products, Intermec came up with perhaps the world's
smallest functioning bar code, no bigger than a newborn baby's
fingernail and weighing less than 20- millionths of an ounce.
Buchmann and his associates subdued the bees with a combination of
refrigeration and carbon dioxide and then dabbed common shellac on
each bee's thorax, where a barcode label was pressed into place. Once
the bar codes were applied, a laser reader at the hive's opening
recorded each bee's entrance and exit.
While barcoding critters makes for an interesting sideline, there is
no reason the same idea cannot be used on humans- and it is. Intermec
has applied barcode technology to track runners at the Boston
Marathon, attendees at the Sundance Film Festival and participants in
the most recent U.S. presidential inauguration. Christine Goetz,
Intermec's public relations manager, says it can also be used in
offices and factories, where barcoded badges are scanned at doorways
to track a worker's arrival and departure times.
For employers looking for more workplace control, is it harder to
track workers than worker bees? According to Goetz, it's "functionally
the same thing."
_Amy Anderson
http://www.informationmag.com/barcodetext.html
via: Insane Science Mailing List
isml@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israeli water problems with Jordan
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 01:30:02 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
WATER PROBLEMS WITH JORDAN
Another developing consequence of the winter drought is a water crisis
between Israel and Jordan. Jordan has rejected an Israeli request to
cut back the amount of water Israel must, according to the peace
treaty between the two, supply Jordan. Itim news service reports that
Israeli Water Commissioner Meir Ben Meir told his Jordanian
counterpart that the peace agreement between the two nations did not
take into consideration an Israeli water crisis on this scale.
In an interview with Arutz-7 today, Ben Meir explained that under the
Israel-Jordan peace agreement, Israel pledged to provide its neighbor
with 10 million cubic meters of fresh water each year. In addition,
the two parties agreed that Israel would draw 20 million cubic meters
of water from the Yarmuk River yearly, store this amount in the Sea of
Galilee during the winter months, and then retrieve it for the benefit
of Jordan each summer. "This part of the deal, too, we simply cannot
fulfill," Ben Meir said. "The Yarmuk now holds only one-third of its
average yearly level. We can't draw any water from the river, and
consequently, we have nothing to 'retrieve' for Jordan in the summer."
Ben Meir noted that in a more recent arrangement with Jordan, "Prime
Minister Netanyahu and Infrastructures Minister Ariel Sharon consented
to 'grant' Jordan 25 million cubic meters of additional water for a
limited period of time - until a major desalination plant is built in
the region. This water would have to come from the Sea of Galilee,
but it can't, since the sea is currently only at 40% of its average
yearly level." The Water Commissioner called upon Israelis to water
their yards sparingly throughout the spring and summer months, and to
conserve water in general.
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.a7.org>
Tuesday, March 16, 1999 / Adar 28, 5759
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel: New month to be announced tomorrow
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 01:31:38 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
NEW MONTH TO BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW
A re-enactment of a Biblical and Talmudic custom will take place
tomorrow afternoon at 4 PM, at the Hulda Gates of the Temple Mount
(near the Western Wall). The "declaration of the new month" of Nisan
will be announced then, shortly before the new moon is scheduled -
according to the Jewish calendar - to be seen on the horizon. The
shofar will be blown, and special prayers will be recited, according
to customs that continued to be practiced for hundreds of years after
the destruction of the Second Temple. Prof. Hillel Weiss, one of the
organizers of the event, said that the new moon will not be sanctified
according to eye-witness testimony, as ideally mandated by the
Biblical commandment, "because we do not have a Sanhedrin [supreme
Jewish tribunal], and also because the calendar itself is not 100%
accurate." He later clarified that this in no way casts any doubt on
the validity of our Biblical-festival schedule, as "it is within the
power of the people of Israel to 'sanctify the times,' which we did in
advance" many hundreds of years ago.
Cantor Hanoch Weiss will sing a newly-composed melody for the words of
Aviv L'Yesha, a liturgical poem written for such occasions several
hundred years ago. Yehuda Etzion, one of the prime initiators of the
idea, explained in an article on the topic, that such occasions are
designed to encourage "the 'renewal of our days as of old' , and we
also arouse our own desire for the renewal of the Sanhedrin... If
this custom was practiced by Jews while in exile, how much more so
should it be preserved when were are marching forwards towards a new
sunshine of redemption?"
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.a7.org>
Tuesday, March 16, 1999 / Adar 28, 5759
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Edupage items (3/16/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 01:35:27 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
NEW VIRUSES TARGET STRONGLY ENCRYPTED FILES
Two cryptographers have published a paper describing a new generation
of computer viruses that seek out the long keys used by "strong"
encryption programs and attach themselves to documents protected by
those keys. The randomness of the bits in encryption keys is what
makes them stand out, as most information on a computer's hard drive
is stored in an orderly fashion. The cryptographers recommend that
network managers store keys on smart cards rather than on a computer's
hard drive, and securely delete them every time they're used. For
added protection, encryption programs could spread a key among
different memory locations, or all the data on a computer's hard drive
could be encrypted, so that the entire contents appear to be random.
(Data Communications 15 Mar 99)
COMING TO TERMS WITH BYTES
Computer terminology is becoming more precise: the International
Electrotechnical Commission, which creates standards for electronic
technologies, is adopting new prefixes to describe data values. The
new term "kibibyte" will more accurately describe the number of bytes
in a kilobyte -- rather than being 1,000, as could be inferred by the
prefix "kilo," a kilobyte actually has 1,024 (2 to the 10th power)
bytes. The metric prefixes currently employed -- kilo, mega, giga,
etc. -- accumulate as a power of 10, rather than the binary system
used in computer code. Thus, the Commission will use kibi, mebi, gibi,
tebi , pebi and exbi to express exponentially increasing binary
multiples (2 to the 10th power, 2 to the 20th power, etc.). "There
was a need to straighten this out," says Barry Taylor of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology. (Science 12 Mar 99)
MOBILE E-MAIL READY FOR TAKEOFF
A new class of devices that combine the features of mobile phones and
laptops is set to launch, enabling users to dial into corporate
networks and the Internet regardless of where they are. "The Internet
is the killer app for wireless data," says a product manager at 3Com's
Palm Computing division. By 2002, nearly 12.6 million U.S. consumers
will be spending more than $5 billion to connect to wireless networks,
according market research firm Telecompetition, a four-fold increase
over the number of wireless data network users last year. Industry
experts predict that combination devices that do everything -- fax,
e-mail, scheduling -- will not fare as well in the market as
lighter-weight application-specific devices. "The only combination
device the American public has bought in great numbers is the
clock-radio," says the chairman of the Portable Computer and
Communications Association. (Los Angeles Times 15 Mar 99)
INTEL PROGRAM TESTS IF CHIPS ARE UP TO SPEED
A new program from Intel Corp. helps consumers determine whether their
chips are performing up to the level they should be. The program,
which is available on Intel's Web site, displays both the processor's
original speed and the speed at which it's currently operating, and
alerts consumers to chips that may have been falsely labeled with a
faster speed or "overclocked" to operate at a faster speed than
Intel's original design. (Wall Street Journal 16 Mar 99)
RENO WANTS KIDS TO LEARN CYBERSPACE ETHICS
Announcing new government and industry initiatives to promote
cyberspace ethics, Attorney General Janet Reno said, "All children
know it's wrong to break into a neighbor's house or read your best
friend's diary. Unfortunately, fewer realize that it's wrong to break
into their neighbor's computers and snoop through their computer
files." (AP 15 Mar 99)
MOST Y2K FIXES WILL ONLY LAST A GENERATION
The fix used to patch 80% of the worlds' computers to avert a Y2K
crisis is actually only a short-term remedy called "windowing."
Rather than using a permanent fix called "expansion," which requires
transforming all two-digit year-dates found in software into
four-digit year-dates, the "windowing" patch is a trick that forces
software to "guess" whether dates fall in the 1900s or the 2000s;
typically, lower numbers (perhaps up to 30) will belong to the new
century, whereas higher numbers (such as 87) will belong to the old
century. Although many experts say this is the only practical way to
solve the problem, others are warning that the "windowing" approach is
just pushing the problem under the rug for awhile. Keith Rhodes of
the General Accounting Office says, "It's like the Fram oil filter
guy: You can pay me now or you can pay me later. It's not solving
your problem. It's delaying the inevitable." (San Jose Mercury News
15 Mar 99)
INFORMATION SUPERDRIVEWAY, MERCEDES-STYLE
The rear of the new Mercedes-Benz V-Class Multipurpose Vehicle will
have a removable desk, IBM notebook computer, printer, phone, fax and
high-speed wireless link to the Internet. (USA Today 15 Mar 99)
http://educause.unc.edu
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Inside China Today items (3/16/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 01:38:19 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
CIA TO ASSESS DAMAGE IN CHINESE NUCLEAR SPYING CASE
WASHINGTON -- The CIA said on Monday an independent panel would assess
damage from Chinese nuclear spying, which has caused a political
firestorm in Washington and strained Sino-U.S. relations.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031603.html?text
U.S. JUDGE THROWS OUT CHINESE HUMAN ORGANS CASE
NEW YORK -- The absence of a key witness caused a U.S. federal judge
on Monday to throw out an indictment of two men accused of trafficking
in human organs taken from executed Chinese prisoners.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031604.html?text
CHINA, EU MEET ON THORNY HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE
BEIJING -- Chinese and European Union officials faced off over the
thorny issue of human rights on Tuesday as Beijing scrambled to avoid
censure at a U.N. Human Rights Commission session beginning next week.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031605.html?text
WHITE HOUSE REJECTS CHINA'S NUCLEAR SPYING DENIALS
WASHINGTON -- The White House on Monday dismissed China's denials that
it had stolen nuclear weapons secrets from the United States and said
the issue was sure to come up when Prime Minister Zhu Rongji visits
Washington in April.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031607.html?text
THREE GORGES DAM PROJECT IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES
BEIJING -- Authorities charged with managing China's mammoth Three
Gorges Dam project are reporting "difficulties in financing" that is
running into the billions of dollars, state media reported Tuesday.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031611.html?text
CHINA-U.S. NUCLEAR POWER COOPERATION SURGES
BEIJING -- Civilian nuclear cooperation between China and the United
States is going ahead despite U.S. accusations of nuclear weapons
espionage, the state media said Tuesday.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/business/news/1999031601.html?text
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arabia News items (3/16/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 01:47:12 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
King Abdallah to Begin His First Arab Tour
Jordan's King Abdallah will visit Syria for the first time since he
ascended the throne as part of an Arab tour.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/abdallah16.shtml
Iraq Breaks UN Embargo
An Iraqi plane carrying 110 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia left Baghdad on
Tuesday for Mekkah.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/iraq_16.shtml
Syrian Drought Deepens, Hits Grain and Livestock
A worsening drought in Syria is severely affecting grain crops and
forcing the sale of livestock at low prices.
http://www.arabia.com/content/business/3_99/Syrian16.shtml
Yousfi: OPEC to Cut Oil Output by 400,000 bpd
Non-OPEC producers will cut oil output by 400,000 barrels per day
(bpd) under last week's pact in The Hague.
http://www.arabia.com/content/business/3_99/Yousfi16.shtml
Iran Braces for Zoroastrian Fire Festival
Iran is preparing for the "festival of fire", an ancient Zoroastrian
feast held on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Iranian year.
http://www.arabia.com/content/culture/3_99/zoroaster16.shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - EU executive commission resigns
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 06:59:58 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Update: EU executive commission resigns
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Stunned by allegations of cronyism and fraud
in their ranks, the European Union's chief executive and 19 other
senior officials resigned early Tuesday, throwing the powerful trading
bloc into turmoil. Jacques Santer, president of the European
Commission, and his fellow commissioners took the unprecedented action
after an investigative panel issued a report accusing some of them of
maintaining lax control over aid programs and putting friends and
relatives on the payroll. The Commission runs the day-to-day affairs
of the 15-nation union, proposes EU law, enforces its implementation
across Europe, represents EU governments in international trade talks
and attends gatherings such as summits of the G-7 group of nations.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558827164-45a
*** List of resigning EU commissioners, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558828668-a20
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - US visitors banned from Old City and Golan Heights
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 07:02:41 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
US Visitors Banned from Old City and
Golan Heights
(IsraelWire-3/16) The United States government
instructed visitors attending an event at the Jaffee
Center for Strategic Studies they may not visit the
"occupied areas" of the Old City of Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights.
According to a report appearing in the daily
Haaretz, the retired American generals and
researchers wished to visit those areas but were
told they were off limits.
According to the Haaretz report, a US Embassy
official acknowledged the ban but quickly added it
did not originate in the embassy. The embassy
added that since 1967, a ban has been in place,
which prohibits US, officials from traveling to
"occupied areas" in the accompaniment of Israeli
officials. Hence, the cancellation of a planned visit to
the Western Wall by President Bill Clinton once Jerusalem
Mayor Ehud Olmert insisted that he accompany Mr. Clinton.
US officials also instructed the participants of the
seminar that they may not grant interviews to the media
during they stay in Israel.
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel declares UN resolution on Jerusalem void
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 07:09:24 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
ISRAEL DECLARES U.N. RESOLUTION ON JERUSALEM VOID
Israel stepped up Tuesday a dispute with the European Union over the
status of Jerusalem while drawing fresh U.S. criticism of its
settlement expansion on occupied territory. Ratcheting up the row over
the EU's view of Jerusalem as a ''separate entity'' from Israel,
Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon appeared before foreign ambassadors to
pronounce dead a 1947 U.N. resolution calling for the city's
internationalization. ``Resolution 181, which speaks about Jerusalem
not being part of Israel, is null and void and...we have a very wide
national consensus about this issue,'' Sharon told the ambassadors.
http://companies.newspage.com/item.cfm/c0316094.005?heads=yes
via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Mar 17, 19999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 20:29:30 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
8:00 PM Eastern
PBS - MICHELANGELO, SELF-PORTRAIT *** (Documentary,
1987) -- Filmmaker Robert Snyder reviews the Italian artist,
his Sistine Chapel frescoes, statues of David and Moses.
(90 minutes) (CC) (TVG)
9:00
DISC - DISCOVER MAGAZINE - "Nature's Hits" - Tsunamis;
earthquakes' volcanic eruptions.(CC)
9:30
PBS - A TASTE OF PASSOVER - Sacred and traditional songs;
cantor David Levine; Yiddishist Harriet Chasia Segal; host
Theodore Bikel.(CC)(TVG)
10:00
HIST - CELEBRATING THE GREEN: THE HISTORY OF ST. PATRICK'S
DAY - In New York 150,000 people march on Fifth Avenue;
Ireland observes a religious feast day; with Andrew Greeley
and Frank McCourt.(CC)(TVG)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Physical passwords
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 20:34:46 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
End Times Update
Re: Mark of the Beast
Scripture: Rev 13:16-18
News Source: New Scientist
New Scientist Archive, Jan 9, 1999
Hello, Dave
by Barry Fox
Those all-too-vulnerable old passwords could be on the way out in 1999
as the computer industry introduces a clutch of cheap technologies
that confirm the identity of a computer user by checking their
fingerprint, iris pattern, voice or facial features.
Behind the new technology is a new industry standard, the Human
Authentication Application Programming Interface, which allows any
"biometric" ID system to be connected to a personal computer.
Compaq is launching a fingerprint reader that costs just under $100.
The device works like a miniature scanner and plugs into the printer
port of a PC. The first batch has just reached Europe. And NEC of
Japan says it is developing intelligent software that distinguishes
between individual fingers, so that the user can open one file by
touching the sensor with one finger and log onto the Internet by
touching with another.
Net Nanny, a Vancouver company, does not rely on a fingerprint reader.
Instead, its software analyses the user's typing rhythm when entering
a password. If the rhythm is not recognised, the user is refused
access despite entering the right password.
Korean consumer electronics company Lucky Goldstar and IriScan of New
Jersey both plan to launch eye-recognition systems soon. The user will
look into a digital camera that captures an image of the iris, the
coloured ring around the pupil. The software records 266 variables
that describe the iris and stores them as a 512-byte file. The PC will
work only after it sees a matching pattern. The companies say the
probability of two different irises kicking the computer into life is
1 in 1078.
Meanwhile, Saflink of Tampa, Florida, has been working with Belgian
company Lernout & Hauspie on a security system which uses the latter's
speech recognition technology to check a voice against a stored
recording. Its Saftylatch software will use an ordinary microphone and
sound card, and will cost under $100. The system can also be used with
a laptop so data are secure if a traveller's PC is stolen.
Visionics of New Jersey and the Polaroid Corporation are claiming
99=B799 per cent accuracy with their jointly developed FaceIt device,
which checks a user's entire face. A digital camera takes a mug shot
and the PC extracts a face print which logs "all facial features". The
PC will work only when the user's face fits.
But even the tightest security device can't protect data if a user
logs on and then leaves a PC unattended. So RF Ideas of Illinois has
developed a user- proximity sensor to solve the problem. A radio
transmitter plugs into the computer and transmits weak query signals
as soon as the keyboard or mouse has been idle for a couple of
minutes. The user wears a pendant with a radio transponder which
answers the query from the PC. If it gets a response, the computer
remains active--but as soon as there is no return code, the PC blocks
access.
via: Portents2@aol.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The UN Plan for Your Mental Health
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 20:42:56 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
The UN Plan for Your Mental Health
by Berit Kjos
(Crossroads 3.16.99)
"We believe that mental health is just as important as physical health
maybe even more so."
Donna Shalala, Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
"Mental health refers to how a person thinks, feels, and acts when
faced with life's situations."
National Mental Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network
"The challenge to humanity is to adopt new ways of thinking, new ways
of acting, new ways of organizing itself in society in short, new ways
of living."
Our Creative Diversity, UNESCO
Don't be deceived by nice sounding labels such as Healthy Start,
Healthy People, Healthy Families, Healthy Communities, and Healthy
Cities. These and other "local" campaigns for public and mental health
follow a global blueprint. They all fit into a worldwide system of
health management and surveillance led by the World Health
Organization, a UN special agency that equates faith with hate and
truth with intolerance. 1 The goal is conditioning the masses to
willingly conform to new "universal" values, environmental guidelines,
and a global management system.
Dr. David Satcher, U.S. Surgeon-General and Assistant Secretary for
Health, gave a progress report at a National Healthy People Consortium
in November 1998 "We have a clear blueprint in place," he announced.
"Currently, 47 states are actively involved in Healthy People 2000 and
'Healthy City and Healthy Community' initiatives are being pursued
throughout the country. Hundreds of national organizations have
reviewed the Year 2000 objectives and have adopted them as their own."
Dr. Satcher then drew the connection between Healthy Start,2 Healthy
People, mental health and the World Health Organization:
"Every child should be given the opportunity for a healthy start... No
priority yet has generated as much interest and enthusiasm as this one
on mental health..." "...our efforts will be focused on maintaining a
system of global health surveillance...
"Healthy People 2010 is the United States' contribution to the World
Health Organization's call to the nations of the world to renew their
commitment to health for all.... 3
A Colorado law gives us a glimpse of what we might expect once this
system is fully in place. It suggests that Christian child-raising
could be considered "emotional abuse ...or a substantial risk..." and
gives the Social Services the authority to prosecute Christian parents
for child abuse. 4 To protect Christian families, conservatives
pressed the legislature to add an exemption to the proposed bill. It
declared that "Emotional abuse shall not be construed to include
religious instruction." But this exemption was deleted before SB
97-218, titled "Children's Services", became effective on July 1,
1997. Now, every Colorado family that trains its children to follow
God risks breaking the law and facing the fury of an anti-Christian
Child Protection Service.
How could this be happening in America?
A NEW WAY OF THINKING.
In a 1996 speech at The National Children's Mental Health Initiative,
Donna Shalala, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS), said,
"From fully immunizing children by age two... to stopping domestic
violence, we're working to improve the lives of young people from the
cradle to young adulthood. And a strong part of our vision is the
mental health of children. We believe that mental health is just as
important as physical health ...maybe even more so..." 5
As head of the DHHS, Shalala helped organize The National Mental
Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN). Ponder its
definition for mental health:
"Mental health refers to how a person thinks, feels, and acts when
faced with life's situations. It is how people look at themselves,
their lives, and the other people in their lives ...and explore
choices." 6
Do you wonder what Dr. Shalala and her network of health planners
would consider good thinking? Or bad thinking? This definition doesn't
tell us. How do they want people "to look at themselves" or "explore
choices"? The answer is clear when you study UNESCO's psycho-social
strategies for conforming the minds of our children to its
anti-Christian world view. But without background information, these
ambiguous, open-ended phrases hide the true intentions.
However, Dr. Shalala and other self-proclaimed "change agents" do tell
us that the old ways "a person thinks, feels, and acts" must change.
They don't fit the new global ideology or the consensus process.
According to Professor Benjamin Bloom, called the Father of OBE, the
new "purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts,
feelings and actions of students."7 So it's not surprising that
UNESCO's Commission on Culture and Development in its report, Our
Creative Diversity, wrote that -
"The challenge to humanity is to adopt new ways of thinking, new ways
of acting, new ways of organizing itself in society, in short, new
ways of living." 8
Referring to the management and monitoring of its education program,
the Kansas State Board of Education made a similar statement, "QPA
[Quality Performance Accreditation] is a process which demands new
thinking, new strategies, new behavior, and new beliefs."
"New beliefs" and "new thinking" are key to the global management
system. Adults as well as children must trade truth, facts, and
logical thinking for myths, UN values, and the consensus process. The
masses must learn to see themselves, not as individuals, but as part
of a greater whole: a group, a community, the planet. Finally, the
United Nations is nearing its goal: to create a unified, socialist
world made up of compliant world citizens ready to adapt to what Al
Gore called "a wrenching transformation of society." 9
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
(WHO). In 1946, the first head of WHO laid the foundation for today's
mental health program. Having implied that Christian parents
indoctrinated "their defenseless children" with "poisonous
certainties" that cause war and conflict, Canadian psychiatrist Brock
Chisholm, added,
"The problem is no longer the germ of diphtheria, but rather the
attitudes of parents who are incapable of accepting and using proven
knowledge...
"Surely the training of children in home and schools should be of at
least as great public concern as their vaccination.... Individuals who
have emotional disabilities of their own--guilts, fears,
inferiorities--are certain to project their hates on to others...
[S]uch reaction now becomes a dangerous threat to the whole world....
"We must be prepared to sacrifice much.... If it cannot be done
gently, it may have to be done roughly or even violently..."
Half a century has passed since Dr. Chisholm called for UN controls
that would abolish divisive Christian "certainties". Today, WHO
commands an international networking agency that helps nations around
the world change and monitor the ways their people think, choose, and
act. Called Nations for Mental Health, it links each member state to
the UN agenda and promises to steer each nation toward the UN goal:
"Governments will be assisted to formulate, implement, monitor and
evaluate mental health policies.
"Mental health policies should enable all individuals whose mental
health is disturbed or whose psychological balance may be compromised
to obtain services adapted to their needs, and to promote the optimal
development of the mental health of the population." 10
To develop "the mental health of the population" and to prevent
dissent and conflict from blocking progress, everyone must participate
in the consensus process. Assessments for all - young and old -- will
show who might be "at risk" of not meeting the new mental standards
for healthy communities.
For a glimpse at the vast network already in place, look at some of
the mental health partners in the WHO agenda:
* World Health Organization (WHO)
* Nations for Mental Health
* Dept. of Health and Human Services
* National Mental Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) *
Healthy Cities * Healthy Communities * Healthy Families * Healthy
People * Healthy Start
Children, in private as well as government schools, practice
compliance by signing the Healthy Practices Pledge. It sounds
innocuous at first - just promise to "brush with a fluoride
toothpaste," choose "snacks such as fruits and vegetables," and "make
our home a smoke-free zone," then sign the pledge. But the contract is
open-ended. It suggests that other "healthy" behaviors will be added
later. 11 What if the next contract adds "cooperation with" and
"tolerance for" something that conflicts with a child's faith? What if
a refusal to sign the contract brings ridicule and persecution? Is
your child ready to follow God, even when pressured to conform?
HEALTHY CITIES AND COMMUNITIES.
The Healthy Cities project was launched by WHO in the early eighties.
Its web site explains its purpose: "The Healthy Cities Project helps
change the ways in which individuals, communities, private and
voluntary organizations and local governments think about, understand
and make decisions about health." 12
Today, its guidelines are followed by leaders across America - whether
they use the label "Healthy City" or not. Remember Dr. Satcher's
report at the 1998 Healthy People Consortium:
"'Healthy City and Healthy Community' initiatives are being pursued
throughout the country. Hundreds of national organizations... have
[adopted] the Year 2000 objectives... Healthy People 2010 is the
United States' contribution to the World Health Organization's call to
the nations of the world to renew their commitment to health for all.
13
It's no accident that the last three words, "health for all," sound
like UNESCO's 1990 World Conference on Education for All (EFA). The
latter introduced the same six education goals President Bush
announced in 1991. EFA's counterpart in the health arena is WHO's
Health for All (HFA). And, like Goals 2000, the US branch of UNESCO's
outcome-based education system, "a Healthy City is defined in terms of
process and outcome."
WHO's Healthy Cities program works with America's Coalition for
Healthier Cities and Communities, whose members may or may not use the
WHO labels. But they must all follow the Total Quality Management
process which calls for continual monitoring of change and progress.
They must also agree to:
* "measure our progress. "
* "address the root causes of problems."
* "promote a broader definition of health that includes physical,
mental, social, and spiritual dimensions." * "focus on prevention,
wellness and change incentives."
PREVENTING CONFLICT AND MENTAL PROBLEMS.
The key to prevention is continual and controlled training,
monitoring, and remediation. 14 As Clinton suggested at the 1997 White
House Conference on Hate Crimes, "
There would almost have to be some sort of club or organization at the
school, because if you think about it, your parents are still pretty
well separated ... We have to find a disciplined, organized way out of
this so that we reach every child in an affirmative way before
something bad happens...
In the UN plan for Healthy Cities, prevention becomes a personal duty.
Since the group counts more than the person, friends and neighbors
would be asked to report on one another - just as in Nazi Germany.
"I challenge our young people to realize their important role in this
seamless system," said Donna Shalala. "Many times, you as friends are
the strongest link in the chain of contact. You know best when your
brother, your sister or your friend is facing problems..."
President Clinton suggested the same tactic during the above
hate-crimes conference: "The Justice Department will make its own hate
crimes training curriculum available. A lot of hate crimes still go
unreported... If a crime is unreported, that gives people an excuse to
ignore it." Then he announced a Justice Department website which
invites children to tell "trusted adults" about "hateful" or exclusive
attitudes they see in their relatives at home or in friends in school.
Hard to believe? It all makes sense when you consider the United
Nations' hostility toward traditional values. Ponder the words of
Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO:
"The mission of UNESCO... is that of advancing... international peace
and the common welfare... We have witnessed... the resurgence of
NATIONALISM, the growth of FUNDAMENTALISM and of RELIGIOUS and ethnic
INTOLERANCE. THE ROOTS OF EXCLUSIONAND HATRED have shown themselves
even deeper and more tenacious than we had feared... Peace...
requires, in the words of the Constitution, 'the intellectual and
moral SOLIDARITY of mankind'." 15
MOLDING THE MINDS OF THE MASSES.
Children who refuse to conform may be considered handicapped.
According to a Teacher Training Manual from the National Training
Institute for Applied Behavioral Science,
"Although they appear to behave appropriately and seem normal by most
cultural standards, they may actually be in need of mental health care
in order to help them change, adapt, and conform to the planned
society in which there will be no conflict of attitudes or beliefs."
16
Conflict must be replaced with solidarity, and - as in the USSR -
everyone must be monitored for compliance with the new global beliefs
and values. Such a surveillance system is at the heart of President
Clinton's Executive Order 13107 (See "The implementation of Human
Rights Treaties" at our website: <http://www.crossroad.to>) It
establishes "an Interagency Working Group on Human Rights Treaties",
and its functions include -
* the monitoring of the actions by the various States for their
conformity with relevant treaties, * the provision of relevant
information for reports and other monitoring purposes, and * the
promotion of effective remedial mechanisms;" 17
Monitoring the progress of mental Health for All (HFA) is essential to
the process of managed change. Non-compliance or dissent must be
spotted, reported, and corrected before it spreads. As you saw in the
Colorado law, even "a substantial risk" of failure to conform could
bring preventative correction. Remediation, conflict resolution, and
other mind changing strategies include these steps:
* challenge traditional values
* evoke strong feelings
* produce cognitive dissonance, a form of mental and moral confusion *
dialogue to consensus * elicit a response that
1. demonstrates a change in attitude
2. can be measured
3. becomes part of a child's individual electronic data file
The goal of brainwashing in the Soviet Union was to create the new
"Soviet Man." 18 The UN goal is to mold global citizens so committed
to the new ideology that they cannot be turned back even by the most
logical arguments. UNESCO's 1995 report, Our Creative Diversity, said
it well:
"Education must inform... but it must also form, it must provide them
with a sense of meaning to guide their actions...
"Education should promote 'rational understanding of conflict,
tensions, and the processes involved, provoke a critical awareness...
and provide a basis for the analysis of concepts that will prevent
...chauvinist and irrational explanations from being accepted.'...
"Its primary task is to provide information, explain and analyze
problems and subject them to criticism... "It should cover adults as
well. The principle of lifelong education should be the aim of all
societies." 19
Edward Hunter wrote the book Brainwashing, an insightful report on the
experience of prisoners who survived Soviet brainwashing strategies in
Communist Countries during the fifties. His warnings should shine a
red light into our foolish presumptions that this process couldn't be
used in our nation. 20 Compare his words with the above UNESCO report
written over four decades later:
"Even when he stands by himself, the truly indoctrinated communist
must be part of the collective. He must be incapable of hearing
opposing ideas and facts, no matter how convincing or how forcibly
they bombard his senses. A trustworthy communist must reach in an
automatic manner without any force being applied." 21
Having learned to process away facts and fear truth, these conditioned
masses would resist logic and hate God's Word. It's natural. After
all, "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." (1 John
5:19) Therefore, Jesus warned His disciples long ago, "If they
persecute me, they will persecute you. for they do not know the One
who sent me." Are you and your children ready to face hostility and
rejection for your faith? If so, you will delight in this promise:
"Blessed are you when men hate you exclude you, and revile you, and
cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that
day and leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven." Luke
6:22-23
via: Prophezine News Bites
March 17, 1999
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Russia Today Daily Brief items (3/17/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 20:48:09 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
RUSSIAN GENERAL SAYS U.S. SHIELD PLAN A PLOY
MOSCOW -- U.S. plans for a Star Wars-style missile defense umbrella
are directed against Russia as much as rogue states and could spark an
arms race, according to the general in charge of Moscow's relations
with the West.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/1999031701.html?text
RUSSIA TO OFFER U.S. DEAL TO END IRAN NUCLEAR AID
NEW YORK -- Russia has offered to cut back its nuclear aid to Iran if
Washington ends its sanctions against two leading Russian nuclear
research centers, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/1999031702.html?text
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Human cloning very close, prof warns
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 22:19:10 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Wednesday, March 17, 1999
Human cloning very close, prof warns
Researcher says crucial barrier beaten, urges prompt ban
By BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA CALGARY -- With the full cloning of human
beings now imminent, world governments must quickly unite in outlawing
the chilling practice, says a University of Calgary professor.
A breakthrough last December by a team of South Korean researchers who
overcame the first crucial hurdles in achieving human cloning opens a
Pandora's box of troubling ethical questions society must face
immediately, says Dr. William Leiss, president-elect of the Royal
Society of Canada, a group that recognizes achievement in arts and
sciences.
"The South Koreans have taken the first steps in cloning a human being
- the hard part is the beginning and they've solved that," said Leiss,
head of the U of C's research chair in risk communication and public
policy.
"(Full cloning) is going to be sooner than a lot of us hope."
The pace of scientific advances has overtaken society's consciousness
of them and outstripped its preparedness to manage them ethically,
said Leiss.
What's needed is international co-operation to nip human cloning in
the bud - a practice that threatens to spread beyond the borders of
nations that ban it, he added.
"We will have to control this and have an international convention,"
said Leiss.
He made the remarks in an interview with The Sun before speaking at
the U of C on the controversial topic last night.
Difficult moral and ethical debates will inevitably erupt over such
issues as parents wanting to clone children who have died, said Leiss.
Genetic manipulation will also allow hybrids between humans and
animals, posing still more thorny moral questions, he said.
"For instance, we could combine a human and a chimpanzee to create a
domestic servant."
Cloning of human bodies, or select parts of them - some from headless
beings - is also inevitable and has been done with animals, he said.
Through cloning, humanity "risks losing the thread that connects us
with the past trajectory of human civilization" and raises profound
questions about the belief in God as supreme creator and of the soul's
presence, said Leiss.
"There's a risk of losing ourselves ... it will mean something for our
original religious beliefs," he said.
A ban on the cloning of human embryos was among the recommendations
contained in a report released in December 1993 by Canada's Royal
Commission on New Reproductive Technologies.
The federal bill which would have outlawed the cloning of humans died
on the order paper.
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-03-17-0006.html
via: Insane Science Mailing List
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Cloning headlines
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 22:24:35 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Australia body part cloning backed
Scientists have given their support to the cloning of human body
parts, but have stopped short of approving the cloning of human
beings.
In a controversial move that is bound to offend religious groups, the
Australian Academy of Science predicted that cloning techniques would
eventually revolutionise medical treatment.
But it agreed that cloning to produce human foetuses was unethical.
Full story:
http://www.scmp.com/news/template/Asia-Template.idc?artid=19990317022
5 56041&top=asia&template=Default.htx &maxfieldsize=897 - Australia
Body-part cloning backed
===================
They may be cloning around again . . . but it could help paraplegics
walk By STEPHEN LUNN and JOHN KERIN
17mar99
NEW human cloning techniques could one day reverse leukaemia, diabetes
and Parkinson's disease, and that day could be sooner rather than
later, scientists claimed yesterday.
Heart attack victims could have their heart muscles strengthened,
livers cleansed of cirrhosis and hepatitis, even paraplegics offered
the hope of walking again.
Notoriously loathe to offer time frames, the scientists admit
privately that the pace of cloning research, hastened by the
Dolly-the-sheep work just over a year ago, puts these results on the
medical radar "within our lifetime".
Full story:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au:80/national/4314819.htm
===================
How 'Dolly' clone caught world unawares
Date: 17/03/99
By DEBORAH SMITH
The birth of Dolly the sheep in 1997 astonished the scientific
community. Few researchers had believed it would be possible to
take a cell from an adult animal and create an identical offspring, a
clone.
The world was not prepared for the ethical issues Dolly's creation
raised. Horror scenarios of maverick scientists making copies of rich
or evil clients prompted many governments to move quickly to ban human
cloning.
Revulsion at cloning the likes of Saddam Hussein, however, tended to
overshadow the reality that some ordinary people might be very keen,
should it prove possible, to use cloning to save their own or their
children's lives.
Full story:
http://www.smh.com.au:80/news/9903/17/text/pageone13.html
via: Insane Science Mailing List
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - House votes against Palestinian state
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 00:21:57 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
HOUSE VOTES AGAINST PALESTINIAN STATE
Prime Minister Netanyahu has welcomed the U.S. House of
Representatives' decision of yesterday to warn Yasser Arafat not to
unilaterally declare a Palestinian state. He called it "a responsible
decision." The resolution, approved by a 385-25 vote, calls for a
halt to American financial support for the Palestinian Authority
should Arafat make the anticipated May 4th declaration. The House
vote was preceded by a similar Senate motion this past Saturday, which
passed 98-1. Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli Embassy liaison to the
Congress, told Arutz-7 today said that the decision and its timing -
on the eve of an official visit to Washington by Arafat - was very
much not in line with the position of the Clinton Administration,
"which is quite pro-PLO." Ettinger added, "Unfortunately, even
Israeli government figures were not in favor of the vote at this
time."
Despite advice from other Arab countries, Arafat continues to imply
that he will declare a Palestinian state on May 4th. Ettinger said
that the present China-related scandal in Washington shows how the
Administration takes a "conciliatory stance in general - towards
China, towards Iraq, and towards the Palestinians. It is all part of
a world-view of the 'flower-children' generation who modify their
national security threat-assessments and lower their demands for
international compliance, all for the sake of 'peace processes' and
dialogue..."
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.a7.org>
Wednesday, March 17, 1999 / Adar 29, 5759
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Speech by Charlton Heston at Harvard
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 19:23:11 -0500
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Speech by Charlton Heston at Harvard
Editor's Note: Charlton Heston addressed the topic 'Winning the
Cultural War' at the Harvard Law School Forum, February 16, 1999.
Here is the text of that speech:
By Charlton Heston
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
I remember my son when he was 5, explaining to his kindergarten class what
his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people."
There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New
Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various
nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American
presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo.
If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best. There always seem to
be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them
gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: if my Creator gave me the
gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I
want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of
liberty ... your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is
right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of
America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether
this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long
endure."
Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great
civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think
and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing
lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise
from wilderness into the miracle that it is. Let me back up. About a year
ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects
the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now
I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me
everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile,
crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old ... but I sure thank the Lord
ain't senile. As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second
Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue.
No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a
cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor,
certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 -- long
before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last
year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or
anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I
told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights
or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a
speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews
and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my
country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural
persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially
saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using
language not authorized for public consumption!"
But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd
still be King George's boys-subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly
irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost
every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new
anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction.
Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something, without a
name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to
separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like
it."
Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men
seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of
the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly
spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who
had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDS --- the
state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-
positive need not. .. need not ... tell their patients that they are
infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team
"The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to
learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the
rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to
have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been
placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely
because their last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at
Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set
up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes."
Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-
no
now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly "Native-
American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a
blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my
grandson is a 13th-generation Native American ... with a capital letter on
"American."
Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C.
Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to
colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, 'niggardly' means stingy or
scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and
resign.
As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because
some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the
meaning of 'niggardly,' (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to
discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for
their ignorance."
What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has
evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far
behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why
did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you
continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas,
surrender to their suppression?
Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they
really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the
superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.
You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of
American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River,
you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the
land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation
since Concord Bridge.
And as long as you validate that ... and abide it ... you are-by your
grandfathers' standards-cowards. Here's another example. Right now at more
than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are
being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs.
Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's
pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from
firearm manufacturers.
I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at
that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered
ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you
supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and
plead, "Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see
distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you
think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-
religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not
make you a homophobe.
Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this
rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism. But what can you do? How can anyone
prevail against such pervasive social subjugation?
The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr.
Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.
You simply ... disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course.
Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say
or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles
and stigmatizes personal freedom.
I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King ... who
learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau and Jesus and every other great
man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that
Disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent
Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that
protested a war in Vietnam.
In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with
massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous law
that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at
risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be
humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at
Montgomery and the water Cannons at Selma. You must be willing to
experience discomfort. I'm not Complaining, but my own decades of social
activism have taken their toll on me. Let me tell you a story.
A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling
a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police
officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the
biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the
country were outraged. Rightfully so-at least one had been murdered. But
Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and
the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard
Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned
some shares at the time, so I decided to attend.
What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I
asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American
stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer" -- every
vicious, vulgar, instructional word.
"I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF
I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF
I'm ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF
I'm ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."
It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust
me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner
executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated
me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with
racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old
nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.
"SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ...."
Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the
room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press
corps, one of them said "We can't print that." "I know," I replied, "but
Time/Warner Ìs selling it."
Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be
offered another film by Warners, or get a good review from Time magazine.
But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.
When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the
switchboard of the district attorney's office. When your university is
pressured to lower standards until 80 percent of the students graduate
with honors ... choke the halls of the board of regents. When an 8-
year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into
court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its
doorways. When someone you elected is seduced by political power and
betrays you ... petition them, oust them, banish them. When Time
magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians
holding a cross as it did last month ... boycott their magazine and the
products it advertises.
So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the
hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed
exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an
aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this
country.
If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree.
Thank you.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Central Europe Daily Brief items (3/17/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 00:25:13 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
BELGRADE PREPARING FOR WAR WITH NATO
WASHINGTON -- Belgrade is bracing for war with NATO, moving armor and
troops to Kosovo's border with Macedonia apparently in response to a
buildup there of British, French and German forces, the Pentagon said
Tuesday. http://www.centraleurope.com/ceo/news/1999031701.html?text
RUSSIA TO PASS ON NATO CELEBRATIONS
MOSCOW -- Russia will not attend a NATO ceremony in Brussels on
Tuesday to welcome Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to the
Western military alliance, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
http://www.centraleurope.com/ceo/news/1999031702.html?text
POPE PARTS RELIGIOUS "IRON CURTAIN" INTO ROMANIA
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican on Tuesday confirmed a visit by Pope John
Paul to Romania in May, his first to a predominantly Orthodox country.
http://www.centraleurope.com/ceo/news/1999031705.html?text
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arafat to Visit Moscow on April 6
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 03:19:17 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Arafat to Visit Moscow on April 6
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is
to visit Moscow on April 6 for talks with Russian
leaders, ITAR-TASS reported Wednesday.
The report quoted Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
number-two, as saying that the talks were part of
Arafat's consultations on whether to proclaim a
Palestinian state when the interim autonomy period
expires.
"We have the right to proclaim the independence of a
Palestinian state," but the decision will be taken
"after consultations... throughout the world," he
said.
A five-year interim autonomy period followed the 1993
Oslo Middle East peace accords. The period expires on
May 4.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/Arafat_17.shtml
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Scientist hails birth of 'rat children'
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 07:11:17 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Wednesday, March 17, 1999 Published at 12:44 GMT
Health
Scientist hails birth of 'rat children'
Dr Severino Antinori defended the technique
By BBC Rome Correspondent David Willey
A controversial new method of in vitro fertilisation involving the use
of tissue from rats' testicles has aroused widespread condemnation.
Dr Severino Antinori announced that he has enabled four previously
infertile men to father healthy babies by maturing their sperm with
material from rats' testicles.
The sperm was later used to bring about pregnancy via in vitro
fertilisation - conception in a test tube.
Three of the babies were born in Italy and one in Japan, he told
doctors attending an international conference on assisted procreation
in Venice.
Controversial doctor
Dr Antinori is a Rome gynaecologist who has been in the headlines
before for helping post-menopausal women to become pregnant.
He has also expressed a desire to create the world's first human
clone.
However, while his new technique may attract condemnation, it does not
fall foul of a new draft Italian law that will limit artificial
procreation to the use of sperm by a husband and no other donor.
A Rome university professor, Aldo Isidori, said the technique involved
maturing cells that do not mature naturally so it could create genetic
abnormalities.
Other doctors also warned there could be unforeseeable consequences.
But Dr Severino defended his technique, saying he had matured the
sperm in a test tube, while a colleague in Japan had used a live rat
for the experiment.
He assured doctors there could be no transfer of disease or genetic
change from rats to man using rat tissue as a culture medium.
Licence hurdles
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said the technology
could not be used in the UK without passing several hurdles.
A spokesman said anyone wanting to use it would have to get:
A licence from the HFEA Permission from the Home Office, as the
procedure involves animals Permission from the Department of Health's
Xenotransplantation Authority as it involves placing animal tissue in
humans.
He said: "Nobody has applied for a licence, but there would clearly be
a range of issues we would have to consider (before granting one).
"These include both the safety and the efficacy and the risk of any
harm to any potential foetus and child - we would have to be satisfied
about all the scientific as well as ethical concerns that may arise."
'Fewer defects in test tube babies'
The Venice conference also heard a report from a Viennese fertility
specialist, Dr Wilfried Fiechtinger, who runs a sterility clinic in
the Austrian capital.
He said the number of malformations in test-tube babies born in
Austria during the past decade is generally one-half of that observed
in normally conceived babies - 1.5% instead of 3%.
The conference was organised by an association bringing together 5,000
fertility clinics operating in more than 100 countries around the
world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/hi/english/health/newsid_298000/298245.stm
via: Insane Science Mailing List
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Mar 18, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 20:40:27 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
9:00 PM Eastern
A&E - INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS - "Inside Scientology" -
Controversy continues over the Church of
Scientology.(CC)
10:00
DISC - INTO THE UNKNOWN - "Mysteries of the Sea" - The
Bermuda Triangle; mermaids.(CC)(TVG)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Status of Jerusalem, March 1999
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 21:26:21 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
[Notice the 7 foreign rulers of Jerusalem.]
The Prime Minister's Report
March 18, 1999
The Status of Jerusalem March 1999
Jerusalem, the heart and soul of the Jewish people, plays a central
role in Jewish culture, history and religion. Since 1004 B.C.E. when
King David established Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish nation,
there has remained a constant and enduring Jewish presence in the
city. Moreover, Jewish liturgy, music, literature and poetry are
replete with references to Jerusalem, or "Zion," the Biblical name of
the city.
Holy city to three major religions, Jerusalem is the home to a unique
concentration of religious sites. Since the city was reunified under
Israeli sovereignty in 1967, the State of Israel has succeeded in
protecting the rights of all religious groups to enjoy freedom of
worship, and has restored and rebuilt Christian, Muslim and Jewish
holy places. In fact, at no other time in history have worshippers of
all faiths enjoyed such a degree of religious freedom.
I. The Jewish claim to Jerusalem is rooted in 3,000 years of history
A. Jerusalem has been at the center of Jewish consciousness for over
three thousand years, even before King David made it the capital of
his kingdom in 1004 B.C.E. Such biblical events as the binding of
Isaac and Jacob's ladder have traditionally been connected to
Jerusalem. No other city has played such a predominant role in the
history, culture, and religion of a people as has Jerusalem for the
Jews. 'Jerusalem', or 'Zion', is mentioned over 800 times in the
Jewish Bible.
B. Throughout the Diaspora, Jerusalem has always remained foremost in
the thoughts of the Jewish people as they turned to Zion three times a
day in prayer. Such everyday rituals as grace after meals or special
ceremonies such as the 'Sheva Brachot' wedding blessings are replete
with references to the Jewish people's yearning for their ancient
capital. On holidays and festivals, Jews the world over bid one
another the traditional farewell "Next year in Jerusalem!".
C. Jewish independence in the land of Israel, which ended in 70 C.E.
and was renewed in 1948, marks the longest period of sovereignty over
Jerusalem by any nation. No other nation can claim such a long
political existence in the recorded history of this unique city.
D. Throughout all the periods of foreign rule over Jerusalem - Roman
(70 C.E. - 324), Byzantine (324 - 614), Persian (614 - 640), Arab (640
- 1099), Crusader (1099 - 1291), Mamluk (1291 - 1516), and Ottoman
Turk (1516 - 1918) - Jews were persecuted, massacred and subject to
exile. In spite of this, the Jewish presence in Jerusalem remained
constant and enduring.
E. Jews have always chosen to settle in Jerusalem. Since 1840, the
Jews have constituted the largest ethnic group in the city, and they
have held an uninterrupted majority in Jerusalem since the 1860's.
II. The Jewish claim to Jerusalem as their capital is unique
A. There has always been a national consensus in Israel on the status
of Jerusalem. Since the reunification of the city in 1967, all Israeli
Governments have declared their policy that united Jerusalem, Israel's
eternal capital is one indivisible city under Israeli sovereignty and
that free access to holy places and freedom of worship will continue
to be guaranteed to members of all faiths.
B. Only twice has Jerusalem served as a national capital -- the
capital of the Biblical Kingdoms of Israel and Judea before the Roman
destruction of 70 C.E., and the capital of the modern State of Israel
since the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948.
C. Beside the Jewish people, no other nation or state which gained
political sovereignty over the area had ever made Jerusalem a capital
city. Both the Arab and Mamluk empires chose to rule from Damascus,
while the Ottoman ruler resided in Constantinople. Furthermore, none
of these empires even granted Jerusalem the status of district
capital.
III. Historically Jerusalem is a United City
A. The nineteen year occupation of eastern Jerusalem -- the only time
that the city was divided -- was the result of unprovoked attack
followed by unrecognized annexation:
- On May 14, 1948 upon termination of the British mandate, Israel
proclaimed its independence. Immediately following Israel's
proclamation, the surrounding Arab countries attacked the fledgling
state. The Arab Legion besieged the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old
City.
- On May 28, 1948 the Arab Legion overran the Jewish Quarter and
eastern Jerusalem, while Israel held on to the Jewish populated
western neighborhoods of the city. Jerusalem was divided for the first
time in its history.
- In 1950, Transjordan annexed the West Bank and Jerusalem, in an act
which was neither recognized by the world community (except for two
countries), nor by the other Arab states.
B. On June 5, 1967 an unprovoked Arab attack was launched on the
Jewish populated western neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Indiscriminate
artillery bombardment damaged religious sites, hospitals, and schools
across the 1949 armistice line; the U.N. headquarters south of
Jerusalem was seized, and enemy troops began to enter nearby Jewish
neighborhoods.
C. Israeli Defense Forces repelled the invasion, and on June 7 they
retook the Old City, reuniting Jerusalem. The barbed wire and concrete
barriers which had divided Jerusalem were finally torn down, and
Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration was extended to the
eastern neighborhoods of the city.
D. Jerusalem is and has always been an undivided city, except for this
19 year period. There is no justification for this short period to be
viewed as a factor in determining the future of the city, and to
negate 3,000 years of unity.
IV. There is no basis for a 'Corpus Separatum' status for Jerusalem
A. There is no basis in international law for the position supporting
a status of 'Corpus Separatum' (separate entity) for the city of
Jerusalem. This concept originated in a proposal contained in the UN
General Assembly Resolution 181 of November 1947, which dealt with the
partition of the British Mandate of Palestine. It should be recalled
that the idea was a non-binding proposal, which never materialized,
having become irrelevant when the Arab states rejected the UN
Resolution, and invaded the fledgling State of Israel.
B. There has never been any agreement, treaty, or international
understanding which applies the 'Corpus Separatum' concept to
Jerusalem.
C. For these reasons, Israel views the 'Corpus Separatum' solution as
nothing more than one of many inappropriate historical attempts made
to examine possible solutions for the status of the city.
V. Jerusalem's Arabs and the Israel-Palestinian Negotiations
A. Immediately following Israel's reunification of Jerusalem in 1967,
Jerusalem's Arab residents were offered full Israeli citizenship,
though most declined to accept it.
B. Nevertheless, those who chose not to accept Israeli citizenship,
retain the right, as residents of the city, to participate in
municipal elections and enjoy all economic, cultural and social
benefits afforded to Israeli citizens such as Israel's health funds,
social security services, and membership in Israel's Labor Federation.
C. The civil right of Palestinian Arabs to maintain their own
non-political humanitarian, educational and social institutions was
reiterated by Israel during the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
D. However, according to the Israel-Palestinian Declaration of
Principles of 1993 - the basis of the present negotiations - political
institutions of the Palestinian self-governing authority are not to
operate in the city.
VI. The Israeli Consensus on Jerusalem - Culturally Diverse --
Politically United
The status of Jerusalem as the permanent capital of the State of
Israel has been reiterated by all Israel governments since the
establishment of the State in 1948:
A. In 1949, Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, acted to
reconstitute the seat of government in Jerusalem, and Israel's
Parliament, the Knesset, was reconvened in the city in December of
that year.
B. Following the reunification of Jerusalem during the course of the
1967 Six Day War, together with the extension of Israeli jurisdiction
and administration over east Jerusalem, the Knesset passed the
Preservation of the Holy Places Law, 1967 which ensured protection and
freedom of access to the holy sites of the city.
C. In 1980, the Knesset legislated the 'Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital
of Israel', which restates the position that "Jerusalem, complete and
united, is the capital of Israel" and the seat of its main governing
bodies. It also reiterates Israel's commitment to protecting the holy
places and to developing the city.
D. On May 28, 1995, then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stated, "In
1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law. All governments of Israel,
including the present government, have been fully confident that what
was determined in 1967, what was legislated in 1980 transforming
Jerusalem into a unified city under Israeli sovereignty, the capital
of Israel, the heart of the Jewish people -- these are facts that will
endure for eternity".
The status of Jerusalem is unique. Politically and spiritually,
Jerusalem was, is and always will be the capital of the Jewish
people. Yet, at the sametime, it plays a significant role in the
religious identity of hundreds of millions of believers in the
monotheistic faiths. The Arab world views Jerusalem as one -- albeit
not the most significant-- of their holy places. Furthermore, while
almost three-quarters of Jerusalem's citizens are Jewish, many
Palestinian Arabs also call the city their home. For these reasons,
Israel has agreed to address Jerusalem-related issues in the
permanent status phase of the current peace negotiations.
In conclusion, in light of the unique significance that the city of
Jerusalem holds for the Jewish people, the Israeli government has
consistently reiterated its position that while religious and cultural
rights of all the city's communities must be guaranteed -- Jerusalem
is and will remain the capital of the State of Israel, undivided,
under exclusive Israeli sovereignty.
Source: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arabia On Line items (3/18/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 11:06:08 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
King Hussein: A Legend Lives on
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/king18.shtml
Libya Violates UN Embargo
A Libyan Airlines plane carrying 125 pilgrims for the hajj to Mekkah
left Tripoli on Thursday for Saudi Arabia.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/libya_18.shtml
Assad Supports Netanyahu
Assad told US Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk that he
supported Netanyahu and was convinced he would win.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/assad_18.shtml
Sacrifice Festival Fixed for March 27
Islam's most important festival, Eid Al-Adha, will begin March 27
according to the lunar calendar.
http://www.arabia.com/content/culture/3_99/sacrifice_18.shtml
Kaaba Stone to Undergo Ritual Washing
Kaaba was founded by Adam, but rebuilt several times since then.
http://www.arabia.com/content/culture/3_99/kaaba_18.shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Inside China Today items (3/18/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 14:17:52 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
CHINA WARNS EU OVER HUMAN RIGHTS VOTE
HELSINKI -- China warned European Union states on Wednesday not to
push for a censure motion against Beijing at next week's U.N. Human
Rights Commission meeting.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031801.html?text
CLINTON TO WORK WITH CHINA DESPITE NUCLEAR FURORE
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration on Wednesday stoutly defended
its engagement with Beijing despite a furore over spying allegations,
saying one aim was to ensure China did not expand its very limited
nuclear arsenal.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031802.html?text
CHINA STOLE NUCLEAR SECRETS SOONER THAN THOUGHT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials believed that China was stealing nuclear
weapons secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory at least a
year earlier than previously acknowledged, the New York Times said
Wednesday. http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031803.html?text
PRESIDENT JIANG PREPARES FOR EURO CHARM OFFENSIVE
BEIJING -- President Jiang Zemin (pictured in archive photo) is
preparing to relaunch a charm offensive against Europe, which began
last year, with visits this month to Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/1999031804.html?text
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Solar Flares May Cause More Havoc Than Y2K
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 15:43:05 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
End Times Update
Re: Signs in the Sun
Scripture: Luke 21:25
News Source: Reuters
================================================
Warning: Solar Flares May Cause More Havoc Than Y2K
2:26 PM ET March 18
LONDON (Reuters) - A burst of solar flare activity around the
millennium could wreak more havoc on satellite systems and power grids
than the Year 2000 computer problem, a senior British Y2K planner said
Thursday.
A surge of solar flares or solar storms that can shut down power grids
and burn out satellites was expected to peak in late 1999 and early
2000, a conference for Y2K planners was told.
"Solar flares could do damage far beyond anything the Year 2000 could
do, and it could hit us on that weekend," said Michael Lewis, the
deputy chief executive of Britain's Association of Payments and
Clearing Systems (APACs).
The last peak in the 11-year cycle of solar flares was in March 1989,
when surge of atmospheric magnetic activity shut down the Hydro-Quebec
power grid in Canada, leaving 6 million people without power for days.
Lewis, who is helping coordinate the British banking system's Y2K
response, said the dangers of solar flare activity happening in tandem
with the Y2K computer problem could not be ignored.
"It's not a 'my wife has been abducted by aliens story.' It's a
serious problem. It comes in cycles and it happens to coincide with
the millennium this time," Lewis later told Reuters.
"It's something that people tend to forget. It can knock out
communications satellites."
A sneak preview of how solar flare activity could paralyze
communications came in May last year when it is believed solar flare
activity knocked out the Galaxy 4 satellite over the United States.
For three days' chaos ensued as 40 million pagers stopped working,
television and data broadcasts were disrupted, and many credit card
transactions were blocked.
The satellite's operator, PanAmSat, had to ask users to redirect their
antennas to other satellites. The outage caused havoc in the U.S.
medical system because many doctors relied on their pagers to be
alerted about patients.
This next solar flare peak is expected to have a much heavier impact
on communications satellites than in 1989.
This is because so many more satellites have been put in place and are
used more widely for mobile phones, the global positioning system
(GPS), and as a route for the Internet.
Lewis said communications and power failures caused by solar flares
could compound a loss of public confidence in communications and
computer systems just when it was most needed -- around the
millennium.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (3/18/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 08:29:00 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Israeli man banned from Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AP) - An Israeli man has been banished from Jerusalem
after police suspected he was planning to blow up the holiest Muslim
shrines in the city. Police told the Jerusalem Magistrates court
Wednesday they had reason to fear that Herzl Mazuz, 44, planned to
blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, police spokesman
Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Thursday. The mosque is the third holiest site in
the Islamic world. Any serious harm to the shrines would inflame the
whole Islamic world, end the Israeli-Arab peace process and probably
lead to war. Mazuz has been living in the Jewish Quarter of
Jerusalem's walled Old City, where he took the biblical Hebrew name of
Yonatan Ben-Ishai. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558854337-637
*** Pope's 1st pop CD, video premier
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Spreading the word worldwide with a world beat,
Vatican Radio and Sony Classical are introducing a first-ever music CD
and video featuring Pope John Paul II, praying to the accompaniment of
Celtic flutes and African drums. The target audience: MTV and the pop
charts, as well as 1 billion faithful around the globe. Producers will
release the first 1 million copies of "Abba Pater" around the world
Tuesday, timing it for the Easter holidays and the upcoming 2,000th
anniversary of Christianity. The pope got his copy, the first one
produced, at his general audience Wednesday in St. Peter's Square. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558852089-67e
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - EU Representatives visit PLO Orient House
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 08:34:58 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
EU REPRESENTATIVES VISIT PLO ORIENT HOUSE
In a move of defiance, delegates of the European Union on
Thursday, March 18th met with the PLO Authority's (PA) Faisal
Husseini, who holds the Jerusalem portfolio. The meeting was
concerning the status of eastern Jerusalem.
The meeting comes in direct defiance of an Israeli request
calling upon the EU to refrain from meetings in the Orient House, the
PA headquarters in Jerusalem. (Israel has maintained the official PA
activities in the Orient House are a direct violation of the Oslo
accords barring PA activity in the Israeli capital.)
Israel recently rejected an EU letter calling for the
"internationalization" of Jerusalem and insisted the city would never
again be divided.
The EU based its claim that Jerusalem may not be the
property of Israel on UN resolution 181 of 1947. Foreign Minister
Ariel Sharon declared the resolution "null and void" this week.
Following the meeting, Husseini stressed that Jerusalem is
the Palestinian capital and Ariel Sharon may not dictate what is and
is not done in the confines of city. (IsraelWire, March 19, 1999)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arutz Sheva News items (3/19/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 09:55:12 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
NETANYAHU SOFTENS ON GOLAN, WAFFLES ON JERUSALEM
Prime Minister Netanyahu is no longer promising not to give away the
Golan. In a letter to the Golan Residents Committee, he wrote only
that he sees the Golan as a "strategic and security asset to the
State of Israel." Another 'softening' of the Prime Minister's Land of
Israel positions is evident from the protocol of a meeting he had
earlier this week with American-Jewish leaders. Despite the fact
that he later said he was merely joking, the protocol shows that he in
fact stated that the Jerusalem Arab suburb of Abu Dis could serve as
the capital of a Palestinian state.
On the other hand, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Arens revoked
yesterday the special travel privileges of Palestinian seniors Ziyad
Abu-Ziyad, Feisal Husseini, and Hanan Ashrawi. Abu-Ziyad will no
longer be allowed free entry into Israel, while the others will not be
allowed free passage within Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. This was the
government's response to the Palestinians' hosting of ten foreign
consuls in the Orient House yesterday. Before the meeting - in which
the British, Canadian, Australian, French, German and other consuls
participated - Husseini said that its goal was to disprove Netanyahu's
claims that he has reduced the scope of Palestinian diplomatic
activity at the Orient House. At the meeting, Husseini warned the
American administration not to implement the Congressional bill to
move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem two months from now.
Prime Minister Netanyahu met last night with European Union
representative Miguel Mauritinus to discuss the recent European Union
letter questioning Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. Netanyahu
stressed the severity with which Israel views the letter, while
Mauritinus emphasized that Israel and the PA are the parties that must
come to an agreement on the status of Jerusalem. The European added
that he has never visited the Orient House, and does not intend to do
so. He met afterwards with Yasser Arafat.
HIZBULLAH LEADER WANTS ALL OF ISRAEL
Israel Air Force jets bombed Hizbullah targets in the Jabel Sujud
area, north of the security zone in southern Lebanon this morning.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last night that his purpose is
to "push the Jews out of all of Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea
to the Jordan River." He said that he is acting to unite the entire
Arab world to this end.
FARRAKHAN ILL
The New York Post reported today that Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan is suffering from terminal cancer, and has only a short time
to live. In a speech last month, the anti-Semitic leader said that he
had lost 20 pounds and most of his muscle mass in less than two weeks
as a result of the radiation treatment. According to a confidante,
Farrakhan was stricken with prostate cancer in January, and the
disease has now spread to the rest of his body. Arutz-7's
correspondent reported that another noted anti-Zionist, Stokely
Carmichael, died of prostate cancer last year; he received financial
help for his medical care from Farrakhan.
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.a7.org>
Friday, March 19, 1999 / Nisan 2, 5759
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - US must pay UN $250M to keep seat
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:34:36 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
US Must Pay UN $250M To Keep Seat
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States must pay the United Nations at
least $250 million by the end of December to avoid losing its vote in
the General Assembly, a senior U.N. official said Thursday.
``At least - and underline it,'' said Joseph Connor, the world body's
undersecretary-general for management.
Connor said that nearly $1.7 billion owed by Washington has left the
world body without capital - and a perennial borrower.
``The level of unpaid assessments has become intractable,'' Connor
said. ``Unstable conditions hold hostage the financial future of the
United Nations.''
The loss of a vote in the General Assembly would be an embarrassment,
but it would not affect Washington's veto power in the Security
Council, the most powerful decision-making body at the United Nations.
Seven former secretaries of state from the Nixon, Ford, Carter,
Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations on Thursday expressed concern
in a letter to Congress that the United States ``is squandering its
moral authority'' by failing to pay what it owes.
``It's simply unacceptable that the richest nation on Earth is also
the biggest debtor to the United Nations,'' said the letter, which is
also running as an advertisement in several newspapers.
The letter came as the Clinton administration launched its annual
effort to get Congress to pay overdue bills to the United Nations.
``It's undermined our leverage in the U.N. on a broad range of
political and management issues,'' the deputy U.S. ambassador Peter
Burleigh told a House panel in Washington.
Connor said more of the U.N.'s 185 member nations are paying their
dues on time - 117 in 1998 compared with 75 in 1994 - and for the
first time in four years, the United Nations is borrowing less from a
separate peacekeeping fund to cover operating costs.
But at the end of February, member states still owed the United
Nations over $2.9 billion for current and past assessments.
By far the largest debtor, the United States owes $1.69 billion,
nearly 60 percent of the total. The U.S. debt includes $620 million
for the regular budget and slightly more than $1 billion for
peacekeeping and tribunals.
Congress - which had conditioned payments on financial and other
reforms at the United Nations - authorized legislation last year that
would have paid off a chunk of the arrears.
But President Clinton vetoed the bill because it contained unrelated
abortion restrictions.
Based on a formula used to calculate what nations owe, Connor said
Washington must pay $250 million this year.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/ap_headlines/story.html?s=v/ap
/19990 318/ts/un_us_arrears_2.html
via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - TLC Understanding Marathon
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 17:42:50 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Saturday, March 20, 1999
11:00 AM Eastern--Understanding Computing
01:00 PM--Understanding the Senses
02:00--Understanding Bacteria
03:00--Understanding Oceans
04:00--Understanding Cities
06:00--Understanding the Power of Genes
07:00--Understanding the Universe
08:00--Understanding Space Travel
Sunday, March 21, 1999
12:00 AM--Understanding Time
01:00--Understanding Flight
02:00--Understanding Electricity
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Mar 20, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 08:31:45 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
[The "Understanding" subjects listed here are different than
yesterday's post (which I got from TLCs website).]
7:00 PM Eastern
A&E - MYSTERIES OF THE BIBLE - OT Heroines
8:00
TLC - UNDERSTANDING - "Bacteria" - Mankind's battle
with bacteria; future technology.(CC)(TVG)
9:00
A&E - ALL ABOUT MONEY - Minting, counterfeiting and
ATMs are among issues of currency and its
use.(CC)(TVG)(2 hrs)
TLC - UNDERSTANDING - "The Universe" - Explaining the
universe; new discoveries.(CC)(TVG)
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arabia On Line items (3/20/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 13:27:52 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
First Arab Candidate to Run for Israeli PM
Azmi Beshara, a deputy in the outgoing Knesset, will become the first
Arab to run for the office of prime minister.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/israeli_20.shtml
Egypt, Jordan Support Palestinian Statehood in May
The Palestinian leader is currently on a six-day tour of world
capitals designed to drum up international support for statehood.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/palestine20.shtml
Bahraini Emir Names Son Commander of Armed Forces
The new commander has served as undersecretary at the defense ministry
since 1995. http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/bahrain_20.shtml
Arafat Embarks on Trip to Drum up Support
Arafat is to travel to Austria, France, the US -- where he will meet
US President Bill Clinton on Tuesday -- and finally to Canada.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/arafat_20.shtml
Report: Iraqi Diplomat Defects to US in India
Mohammed A.H Al-Daini, second secretary at the embassy, defected after
vacating his home in New Delhi quietly some 10 days ago.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/3_99/defect_20.shtml
Saudi Arabia to Cut Output
Saudi Arabia is to cut output by 585,000 barrels a day under an accord
between major oil producers.
http://www.arabia.com/content/business/3_99/saudi20.shtml
Dusty Zoo is Still Baghdad's 'Breath of Fresh Air'
The animals in Baghdad's zoo may be better fed than the sanctions-hit
state's human population.
http://www.arabia.com/content/living/3_99/zoo20.shtml
Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed with a mature, discerning eye.