To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Inside China Today items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:09:40 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

CHINA DEMANDS ISRAELI SPEAKER CANCEL DALAI LAMA
MEETING

JERUSALEM -- Israel's parliamentary speaker Avraham Burg said
Monday he has refused a Chinese request to cancel a meeting
next week with the Dalai Lama.
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=109732&text

NO CHANGE IN ONE-NATION POLICY ON CHINA FOR JAPAN

TOKYO -- Japan stressed Monday that it would stick to its one-
nation policy on China despite a visit to Taiwan by the governor of
Tokyo, known for his vocal criticism of Beijing.
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=109607&text

TAIWAN WARNS BEIJING NOT TO BLOCK THE ISLAND'S BID
TO JOIN THE WTO

TAIPEI -- China must not block arch rival Taipei from joining the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), Economic Minister Wang Chih-
kang warned Monday after Beijing struck a deal with Washington
over its entry into the global trade body.
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=109705&text

CHINA, UNITED STATES SIGN WTO DEAL

BEIJING -- China and the United States signed a deal on Monday
that paves the way for Beijing's membership of the World Trade
Organization, a Reuters photographer reported.
http://invest.insidechina.com/business.php3?id=109746&text

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - ...a new name...
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 13:03:43 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

Revelation 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches...and will give him a white stone, and in the
stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that
receiveth it.

1. The changing of someone's name in the Bible was sometimes
as a symbol of their new standing.

Genesis 17:4,5,15
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a
father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called
Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many
nations have I made thee...And God said unto Abraham, As for
Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall
her name be.

Genesis 32:28
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:
for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast
prevailed.

2. Names were also changed after conquest:

Daniel 1:1-3,6,7
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand...And the
king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he
should bring certain of the children of Israel...Now among these
were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he
gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of
Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-
nego.

3. W. M. Ramsay in "The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia"
(see http://philologos.org) states that some cities were renamed in
honor of a dignitary or after some catstrophe had befallen it.

4. We have many instances of people changing their names and
adopting foreign names when immigrating.

5. Prayer for the sick: "changing the name."

Rosh HaShanah 16b
"R. Isaac further said: Four things cancel the doom of a man,
namely, charity, supplication, change of name and change of
conduct."

When someone is desperately sick and his life is in danger or he
has suffered some other misfortune, Jews invoke this prayer in
hopes that it will change the outcome of the crisis, somehow
confusing the Angel of Death. The name is usually changed
(nowadays a name is added instead of completely changing the
name) to one that speaks of long life or recovery such as: Raphael
(may God heal), Hezekiah (may God give strength), etc.

The prayer is called "Mi she-Berakh" and the Ashkenazi formula
contains the following passage: "Just as his [her] name has been
changed, so may the evil decree passed on him [her] be changed
from justice to mercy, from death to life, from illness to a complete
cure." From then on, this new name is used for all religious
purposes, e.g.: "to be called up to the Torah, in a bill of divorce, on
the tombstone, etc."

Sources:
KJV
Encyclopaedia Judaica
The Soncino Talmud
The Complete Artscroll Siddur
IVP Bible Background Commentary, OT & NT

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arutz-7 News items (11/15/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 13:17:00 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

BARAK REBUFFS LATEST ARAFAT DEMAND

"Dividing up the Land of Israel is painful and injurious, but no one
will be permitted to challenge the authority of the government." So
asserted Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Sdei Boker today, at a
ceremony marking the 26th anniversary of the death of Israel's first
Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion. The next stage of the Sharm A-
Sheikh agreement was to have been carried out by Israel today,
but Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat had not agreed
to accept the areas stipulated by Israel. Specifically, Arafat
objected to the nature reserve in the Judean Desert, and demanded
area in the Shomron instead. A Prime Ministerial press release
announced today that the IDF is deployed to withdraw as planned,
but that only further contacts will clarify whether the withdrawal will
be today or at a later date.

Though couched in "diplomatic language," the release reflects the
tensions that permeated last night's Barak-Arafat encounter,
reports Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman. Arafat agreed last night that
the lands in the Judean Desert would not be replaced by stretches
of land in the northern Shomron and in the Ramallah area, but the
story is not yet over. "Arafat's position yesterday was, 'OK, we
won't change the maps, but I want Israel to agree in advance that
the we, the Palestinians, will determine the location of the next
withdrawal in January.' But here again, Barak refused," Huberman
explained.

Huberman noted that Arafat has a long history of map-refusals in
his negotiations with Israel: "At the signing ceremony for the
original withdrawals from Gaza and Jericho in Cairo in May, 1994,
Arafat initially refused to sign the maps, and then later, at Taba, he
actually threw them on the floor."

Government sources observed that Arafat's stubbornness may
indicate his mis-reading of the current political map. "He was
trying to bring about a crisis," said Huberman, "hoping that he
could drag the Americans into the fray, who would in turn pressure
Israel to capitulate. My sources told me, though, that Clinton
relayed to Arafat last night the U.S. position that Israel has the
sole authority to determine the location of the withdrawal. Clinton
also informed Arafat that Dennis Ross does not intend to get
involved with details of the withdrawal maps during his upcoming
visit to the region, and will focus solely on the final status talks."
Huberman noted that the U.S. position on this matter should also
be understood against the backdrop of Suha Arafat's verbal attack
on Israel last week.

NOT A DRY EYE IN THE HOUSE

A solution to a sometimes serious eye problem will be available
soon in Israel, thanks to research by a Hebrew University
Pharmacology Professor, Shabtai Dikstein. New eye drops that
deal with "Dry Eye Syndrome" - patented and commercialized
through the Yissum Research Development Co. of the Hebrew
University - have now been approved for sale in Israel. The problem
of temporary dry eyes is due to infrequent blinking, and occurs in
those who watch television or computer screens for prolonged
periods of time. In its most severe form, the syndrome can cause
damage to the conjunctiva - the mucous membrane that lines the
inner surface of the eyelids. Clinical tests have shown that the new
eye drops, which contain a combination of strong moisturizers in a
preservative-free formulation, can cure the problem even in serious
cases.

Arutz Sheva News Service
 <http://www.arutzsheva.org>
Monday, November 15, 1999 / Kislev 6, 5760

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - 25th anniversary of attempt to phone ET
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 13:26:53 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

It's the 25th anniversary of Earth's first (and only) attempt to phone
E.T.

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Twenty-five years ago next week, humanity sent
its first and only deliberate radio message to extraterrestrials.
Nobody has called back yet, but that's OK -- we weren't really
expecting an answer.

The message was sent during the dedication of a major upgrade to
the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico on the afternoon of Nov.
16, 1974, and contained some very basic information about the
human race. It included representations of the fundamental
chemicals of life, the formula for DNA, a crude diagram of our solar
system and simple pictures of a human being and the Arecibo
telescope.

"It was strictly a symbolic event, to show that we could do it,"
explains Donald Campbell, Cornell University professor of
astronomy, who was a research associate at the Arecibo
Observatory at the time. Arecibo Observatory is operated by the
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, managed by Cornell
University for the National Science Foundation.

The real purpose of the message was to call attention to the
tremendous power of the radar transmitter newly installed at
Arecibo and the ability of the telescope's 1,000-foot diameter dish
antenna to project a powerful signal into space. But many of those
present took the event seriously, according to Harold Craft,
Cornell's vice president for services and facilities, who was then
director of the Arecibo Observatory. "We translated the radio-
frequency message into a warbling audio tone that was broadcast
over speakers at the ceremony. When it started, much of the
audience spontaneously got up and walked out of the tent and
gazed up at the telescope."

While the audience that had gathered beside the huge Arecibo dish
was impressed by the idea of sending messages to space, others
were critical. Some actually suggested that sending such a
message was dangerous, because it might attract the attention of
hostile aliens.

They probably needn't have worried. The chance that the message
might actually be detected by some extraterrestrial intelligence is
extremely small. It was sent only once, over a period of about three
minutes, on a narrow beam directed toward a group of about
300,000 stars called the Great Cluster in Hercules, Messier 13.
The globular cluster is 25,000 light-years away in our galaxy, the
Milky Way. So far, moving at the speed of light, the message has
traveled only one thousandth of the distance, or about 147 trillion
miles. There are stars closer to our solar system than that, but
none of them is in the path of the message.

Ironically, the globular cluster at which the signal was aimed won't
be there when the message arrives. It will have moved well out of
the way in the normal rotation of the galaxy. But "anyone" in the
target area when the signal arrives, they could detect it with a radio
telescope of similar size, and it would appear at 10 million times
the intensity of the normal radio signals from our sun. From there,
the message will continue on its course through outer space,
ultimately, millions of years hence, reaching distant galaxies.

Since the transmitter was installed in 1974, Arecibo radar has been
used for extensive explorations of the solar system, including
detailed mapping of the surfaces of the moon and Venus. The radar
was upgraded to even higher power in 1997. No other formal
messages have been sent, but many of the radar signals have
continued on out of our solar system and if detected would clearly
be seen as created by intelligent beings, Campbell says. In
addition, a message, engraved on copper plate, accompanied the
Pioneer 10 spacecraft launched in March 1972 and now is about 7
billion miles from Earth.

Meanwhile, researchers constantly use the huge dish antenna to
listen for signals from alien intelligence. One project, known as
Phoenix, aims the telescope at specific stars; another, called
Serendip, collects data on certain likely frequencies during all the
telescope's other operations, and distributes the data to thousands
of volunteers to process on personal computers. Project Phoenix is
directed by the non-profit SETI Institute, based in Mountain View,
Calif. Serendip is a project of the University of California at
Berkeley.

The 1974 message was transmitted on a frequency of 2380 MHz
and consisted of 1,679 binary bits representing ones and zeros,
sent by shifting the frequency of the signal up and down over a
range of about 10 Hz, a method similar to that used by computer
modems to send binary code over a telephone line. If the ones are
translated into graphics characters and the zeros into spaces, the
message forms a symbolic picture 23 characters wide by 73 long.

The content of the message was developed by Frank Drake, then
professor of astronomy at Cornell and now a professor in the
Division of Natural Sciences at the University of California at Santa
Cruz and president of the SETI Institute; Richard Isaacman, then a
Cornell graduate student and now working at Research and Data
Systems Corp. in Greenbelt, Mass.; Linda May, another graduate
student now professor of physical sciences at Wheelock College in
Massachussetts, and James C.G. Walker, then a member of the
Arecibo staff and now professor of physical sciences at the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Others, especially the late
Carl Sagan, who eventually became the David Duncan Professor of
Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell, contributed to the
project.

[Image: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Nov99/Arecibo.message.ws.html]

A print-quality version of the graphic at upper left (plain black and
white) is available at http://www.news.cornell.edu/photos/decoded.GIF

A text file of the binary code in the message is at
   http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Nov99/Arecibocode.txt

Related World Wide Web sites:

The following sites provide additional information on this news
release. Some might not be part of the Cornell University
community, and Cornell has no control over their content or
availability.

* The Arecibo web site: http://www.naic.edu/
  http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/research/facilities/arecibo.htm

* Cornell News Service coverage of the most recent Arecibo
upgrade:
  
http://www.news.cornell.edu/science/June97/Arecibo/newsweb.html

* The SETI Institute:
  http://www.seti-inst.edu/
  http://www.seti-inst.edu/science/a-message.html

* Profile of Jill Tarter, director of Project Phoenix:
  http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/97/6.26.97/Tarter.html

via: SEDSNEWS@listserv.tamu.edu

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Interesting observation
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 22:18:47 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

"There are enough quotations from the early church fathers alone that
even if we didn't have a single copy of the Bible, we could still
reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament. And this
material was written within 150 to 200 years from the time of Christ."

"The Conspiracy to Silence the Son of God," Tal Brooke (General
Editor), p. 258; citing "Defend the Faith" by Dan Story, pp. 38-39)

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