To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Edupage items (10/6/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 09:25:45 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

ITALY FINDS US COMPANY LIABLE FOR COMPUTER BUG

In a case that may set a precedent for Y2K rulings, Italian
clothes manufacturer Industrie Zignago S Margherita has won its
case against U.S. computer supplier Unisys for refusing to pay
for an upgrade to fix a date-related computer bug. As doubt
lingers over the issue of who is responsible for paying for Y2K
repairs, the Italian case addresses many points likely to arise
in Y2K litigation. The ruling is one of the first to hold a
supplier liable for glitches related to the age of equipment.
Unisys in 1994 had warned that its aging System 1100 might crash
on Jan. 1, 1996, and refused to offer a free upgrade, although an
upgrade was provided at a charge. Zignago declined the upgrade,
switched suppliers, and took Unisys to court. The Italian court found
Unisys in violation of its contract to provide Zignago with software
and hardware until 1997. (Financial Times 10/06/99)

STANDARDS ON HIGH-SPEED NET SERVICE MAY SET NATIONAL PATTERN

Following a large number of complaints about the quality of
AT&T's AtHome Internet service, the Fremont City Council in
Fremont, Calif., was expected Tuesday night to adopt rules
requiring AtHome to offer the same levels of service as cable TV, a
move that analysts say has broad ramifications for the entire
industry. In addition to frequent outages and slow downloads, Fremont
subscribers to AtHome often had very long waits for service calls.
The new rules, proposed by an advisory committee consisting of AT&T
employees as well as AtHome customers, would require AT&T to answer 90
percent of support calls within 30 seconds and to fix 95 percent of
problems resulting in a loss of service within 24 hours. As the
monopoly holder of the local cable franchise, AT&T must obey Fremont's
city regulations. While Los Angeles has already passed similar rules,
Fremont is of particular interest to cable operators and local
governments because the city was chosen three years ago for the first
commercial launch of AtHome. (Los Angeles Times 10/06/99)

CONGRESS, CATHOLIC CHURCH MAKE STRIDES WITH FILTERING

Free speech advocates are vigilantly watching the movement to
filter Internet content, which has seen increased activity this
month. Dual juvenile justice bills in Congress are expected to
be reconciled by the end of the month, setting the stage for
mandatory filtering in schools and libraries in order for such
institutions to receive e-rate funding. Members of the Senate,
including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), are pushing for the
filtering of harmful Web content in schools and libraries.
Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association's
office for intellectual freedom, says many libraries have decided not
to apply for e-rate funding if mandatory filtering becomes a
requirement for consideration. The Catholic Church is also entering
the filtering debate, with the launch of the Catholic Families Network
on Thursday. New York-based iConnect will provide Net filtering for
the service, which will be aimed at millions of Catholics in the U.S.
(C|Net 10/04/99)

U.S. LAX ON COMPUTER THREATS, GAO SAYS

A General Accounting Office study has concluded that corporate
and government computer networks are increasingly vulnerable to
disruption. The report notes that "threats of severe disruption
and challenges to data integrity will continue long after the Y2K
problem has been solved." Private-sector networks may be even more
vulnerable, especially those that run the nation's financial-services,
transportation, energy, and telecommunications systems.
Carnegie-Mellon University's Computer Emergency Response Team reports
that the number of hacker attacks and other incidents it has handled
has increased from 1,334 in 1994 to 4,398 during the first half of
this year. The GAO says the federal government needs to develop a
clear strategy for containing cyber attacks and prioritize cyber
threats. The report said the administration's attempts to deal with
computer security issues were "unfocused, inefficient, and
ineffective." (Reuters 10/03/99)

THE PROMISE AND PROBLEMS OF A NEW WAY OF TEACHING MATH

Virginia Tech has created something new in college
instruction--the 24-hour, 58,000-square-foot Math Emporium, a
computer classroom with 500 Apple PowerMac computers. Last
autumn, mathematics professor John Rossi directed a
linear-algebra course for 1,600 students, with the help of the
emporium computers and student helpers. This freed up professors who
then increased faculty contact with students. The course includes an
electronic hyperlinked textbook, online quizzes, self-paced tutorials,
and lectures on CD-ROM. The professors designed and created the
software because they say so little is available in the way of
college-level courseware. Technology advocates praise the math
department's efforts. Carol A. Twigg, executive director of the
Center for Academic Transformation at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, notes that Virginia Tech has shown that the emporium can
reduce the school's per-student instructional costs for the course
from $77 to $24, saving the school $97,000 per year. (Chronicle of
Higher Education 10/08/99)

via: EDUCAUSE <EDUCAUSE@EDUCAUSE.EDU>

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Researchers look to develop throwaway chips
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 09:25:45 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

Researchers look to develop throwaway chips

By R. Colin Johnson
EE Times
(10/06/99, 11:42 a.m. EDT)

ITHACA, N.Y. - A multidisciplinary group at Cornell University is
chasing a disposable chip technology that would layer plastic
circuitry on top of thin, flexible silicon sheets to create throwaway
information displays. This cheap technology could be built into
consumer items such as milk cartons that scroll through pictures of
missing children, or one-sheet newspapers with a button to toggle
through the pages.

The group aims to layer a thin film of polymer-based transistors and
interconnections on top of amorphous-silicon sheets, the
easy-to-produce, flexible alternative to the thick, crystalline-pure
silicon that is used in today's advanced chip designs.

The sheets of amorphous silicon resemble ordinary overhead projector
transparencies and could be built as large as meters on a side. The
substrates have already been bonded to polymer-based electronics in
previous work, although no one knows exactly why the process works.
Now the Cornell team is looking to define the molecular bond between
the polymer and silicon.

"The technology for marrying these dissimilar materials is still
poorly understood," said Cornell professor and team leader Paulette
Clancy. "Our funding is supposed to just model and simulate the
polymer-to-silicon interface, but we will also seek experimental
verification."

To assist in the verification job, Clancy and Fernando Escobedo, both
specialists in chemical engineering, have enlisted fellow Cornell
professors Michael Thompson and George Malliaras in materials science
and engineering; Michael Teter, a professor of physics; and Edwin Kan,
a professor of electrical engineering.

Incompatible hurdle

The major roadblock to disposable electronics is the basic
incompatibility of silicon, which is inorganic, with organic
polymers. Organic and inorganic chemistries are so dissimilar that
college courses almost always separate them into two tracks.

In this study, the professors teaching those separate courses will put
their heads together with Clancy in an effort to figure out how the
dissimilar materials can work together.

"To understand the sandwiched materials, we will need to accumulate
knowledge that is hard to come by - amorphous silicon is not very
well-understood and polymer-based electronics even less [so]," said
Clancy.

Amorphous silicon is used in monolithic applications such as solar
cells and LED replacements. "Amorphous silicon is not rougher; it just
doesn't have a perfect crystal pattern," said Thompson, the group's
silicon materials expert. "If you look closely, it looks like
platelets stacked on little pedestals, but with no logic to how they
are stacked."

Polymer-based electronic materials are even more of a cipher. They
have proven essential for blue and green light emission, which is
difficult to achieve with semiconductors. But their incompatibilities
with inorganic amorphous silicon are manifold.

Silicon deposition and other common processes are routinely run at
hundreds or thousands of degrees, whereas low-temperature organics for
polymer construction are typically kept below 100=B0C. Researchers have
overcome those problems by trial and error. For engineers it is enough
that applications work, but Clancy's team plans to explain why.

"Electrically active organic polymers can act as displays by emitting
light like an LED," said Thompson. "You can make sound with organic
piezoelectric elements, and you can make sensitive sensors. We'll use
the silicon layer for computation and the polymer layer for what it's
best at. By using both technologies you can fine-tune the process to
get anything you want." The silicon-polymer bond was made to work with
a laser that superheats the boundary between the two materials.
Theoretically, the factor of 10-to-1 difference in temperature
expansion coefficients should doom the material to self-destruction as
soon as its temperature starts changing, but for some reason it holds
up.

"The theories say it should not work, so we are going to take a close
look to find out what is really happening," said Thompson.

Both sides now

Clancy is directing attacks from each side of the interface - Thompson
from the inorganic silicon side and Malliaras working on the organic
polymer.

For more complex architectures, Teter will work directly with Clancy
and Escobedo to perfect his novel approach to polymer circuit design
that harnesses quantum mechanics. The goal is to combine high
computational speeds with higher accuracy than conventional circuitry.

Kan's job, then, will be to use the molecular structures modeled by
Teter, Clancy and Escobedo to build real devices.

via: transhumantech@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The Math of God?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 09:59:49 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

The Math of God?: How scientists found a crack in the Bible's
"secret codes"

http://www.slate.com/Features/codedebunk/codedebunk.asp

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Russia, US Joint Nuclear/Enviro Hotline
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 10:03:26 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

Russia, U.S. Launch Joint Nuclear/Enviro Hotline

WASHINGTON, DC, October 6, 1999 (ENS) -For the first time,
Russia and the United States will jointly handle nuclear and
environmental emergencies in either country. A state of the art
video conferencing crisis center opened Saturday in Moscow is
one of a host of innovative cooperative efforts announced last
week during U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's visit to
Russia.

The Situation Crisis Center (SCC) in Moscow is equipped with
real time voice and video links to the U.S. Department of
Energy's (DOE) Emergency Operations Center in Washington D.C.
The Center will allow experts from both countries communicate
directly in times of nuclear or environmental emergency such as
nuclear accidents, the accidental release of radioactive
materials or the theft of nuclear materials.

Richardson and Russia's Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeniy
Adamov pointed to the nuclear accident in Tokaimura, Japan last
week as evidence of the need for international cooperation on
nuclear crises. Drawing on their combined expertise, and
signaling a growing trust between the two countries, Richardson
and Adomov extended an unprecedented offer of joint assistance
to Japan.

"This unique and historic partnership is already working,"
Richardson said. "Just this week we combined our areas of
expertise and offered information assistance to the government
of Japan. It also will allow us to have a swift and coordinated
response in the event that radioactive materials fall into the
wrong hands."

c Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved.

Full story:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct99/1999L-10-06-07.html

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - "Celebration Ephesus" in Historic Turkish Ruins
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 12:48:51 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

                           "Celebration Ephesus" in
                             Historic Turkish Ruins

         EPHESUS, Turkey (CHARISMA) -- An estimated 4,000 Christians
         took part in a four-hour service in the ruins of a giant
         Roman amphitheater in Ephesus, Turkey, to celebrate what
         organizers say is the breaking of the power of a major global
         spiritual stronghold.

         Participants from more than 50 countries--including South
         Africa, Greenland, Peru and Taiwan--traveled to the Oct. 1
         event. They praised God, danced, blew the shofar, proclaimed
         Scripture and prayed at the historic site of the apostle
         Paul's establishing of a key New Testament church.

         "Celebration Ephesus" was organized by Global Harvest
         Ministries, the Colorado-based ministry of leading spiritual
         warfare authority C. Peter Wagner. The event was intended to
         "take another step in pushing back the same forces of
         darkness that are again, like in the days of Paul, preventing
         millions from hearing the gospel and getting saved," he said.
         "There is no doubt in my mind that this goal was achieved."

         The archaeological site was the ancient center of worship for
         the goddess Diana of Ephesus, mentioned in the book of Acts.
         Wagner says she was the "Queen of Heaven" referred to in the
         Old Testament, a "demonic principal of very high
         rank...responsible for sending more people to hell than any
         other idol."

         The Ephesus gathering followed prayer team journeys to
         strategic sites around the world in the last two years to
         engage in spiritual warfare against the Queen of Heaven. "It
         is our understanding that the job has been done," Wagner
         said.

         Among the enthusiastic participants was Sheila Garvie, who
         along with 13 others from South Africa defied the sun and the
         ruin's many slippery and broken steps. Before arriving in
         Ephesus, her team "visited the seven cities of Revelation,
         praying and placing pieces of paper with Scriptures in cracks
         in idol statutes along the way."

         About half of those present were from North America. Canadian
         Brian Anderson said: "Turkey is about to explode with the
         Holy Spirit. It is wonderful to celebrate in this place."

         The Ephesus event had been criticized by some church leaders,
         however. They feared that a mass gathering of Western
         Christians claiming victory over a Middle Eastern god could
         be perceived as militant and undo the good achieved by the
         recent Reconciliation Walk, which saw Christians retracing
         the steps of the medieval Crusades to apologize for the way
         the "holy wars" had misrepresented the gospel.

         Attitudes began to change after August's devastating
         earthquake in Turkey, and Christians around the world
         responded with prayer and aid. Many of the celebration
         participants arrived with offerings from their home churches,
         and a special offering was also taken in the amphitheater.

         "Until the earthquake, the Turkish church was opposing the
         Ephesus event," Wagner said. "The readiness of the global
         church to pray and help made them change their minds."

         A few hundred Turkish Christians attended the event. Zekai
         Tanyar, pastor of the Protestant Church in Izmir--known in
         the Bible as Smyrna--thanked those present for "responding to
         the Lord's call to remember Turkey." He said later that no
         matter how the event had come about, "ultimately all these
         people have gathered to pray, and prayer will always be
         answered."

         (c 1999, Charisma News Service)

http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3487.htm

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - In the Likeness of God
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 12:54:07 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

"And G-d said, 'let us create Man in our form, in our likeness, and
they shall rule over the fishes of the sea, and the birds of Heaven,
and the animals, and over all the earth, and over all creeping things
that creep on the earth... And G-d formed man, dust from the earth,
and He breathed into his nostrils the Soul of Life, and Man became a
living being." [1:26, 2:7]

The Torah teaches us that we, as human beings, are entirely unlike any
other creature on the planet. We are created in the likeness of G-d,
with a Soul of Life uniquely close to our Creator -- in a Kabbalistic
sense, a "part" of G-d's Essence. He breathed into Man a unique soul,
rendering every human being precious.

This fundamental truth applies to every human life, and at every
moment. What we might perceive as the "quality" of life pales before
the radiance inherent in the very existence of that life, regardless
of illness or disability. Indeed, with regards to the disabled, Jewish
sources teach that a person comes into the world in order to have the
opportunity to grow closer to G-d -- and a severely limited person
obviously requires less improvement! A father once brought his
daughter, who was profoundly mentally disabled, to Rabbi Avraham Y.
Karelitz (the Chazon Ish) for a blessing -- and the Chazon Ish rose to
his feet when she entered the room, in respect for her holy and
uplifted soul.

Obviously there are uniquely Jewish values expressed here, but
nonetheless many of us believe that the precious nature of life is
something understood by everyone. We go about under the impression
that we live in a modern, sophisticated society well-equipped to
differentiate between right and wrong. To me, this is hardly so clear.

"Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a
person. Sometimes it is not wrong at all." Who wrote this? A raving
lunatic, an Adolf Hitler? No, not at all -- a professor at a modern
school. And not just any school, but one of the leading lights of our
so-called sophisticated era, Princeton University (for what it's
worth, my alma mater). And not just any professor, but one in the
field of bioethics [sic], seated in an endowed chair at the new Center
for Human Values [sic]. Princeton has given him an outstanding
position from which to promote his belief that "a period of 28 days
after birth might be allowed before an infant is accepted as having
the same right to live as others."

Of course, some say that discussion and debate are required in order
for learning to happen. Professor Singer himself told the Associated
Press that "I think it's a good thing to stimulate people to think,"
while Princeton President Howard Shapiro said that "some of the
controversy arises from the fact that he works on difficult and
provocative topics, and in many cases challenges long-established ways
of thinking -- or not thinking -- about them." In their opinion,
nothing should be beyond the pale of discussion, although Shapiro
would surely deny that anyone should act upon Singer's views.

Both Shapiro and Singer are Jewish; let them hear the words of a
Jewish scholar. Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, of blessed memory, the late
Dean of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, once outlined how something
like euthanasia, once regarded as clearly immoral, became an act which
people were willing to seriously consider implementing in practice. It
did not start, he said, with doctors in hospitals, or with a vote in
the legislature. Rather, certain academics said, "let's discuss it.
Let's think about it. Let's challenge long-established ways of
thinking about it." His words should ring ominously in our ears.

What is the root of all this? Where does it come from? Let us return
to our Torah reading. Both the Meshech Chochma, Rabbi Meir Simcha of
Dvinsk, and Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, note that unlike the
Creation of the birds or animals, G-d precedes the Creation of Man by
announcing what He is about to do: "let us create Man in our form, in
our likeness." They explained that this is because Man is to rule over
the creatures of the world, as is explained in the verse. Man is the
apex of Creation, and all the world exists for our benefit. Therefore,
G-d announced His intentions.

This, too, is challenged by Peter Singer -- and apparently this came
first. In 1975, Singer wrote "Animal Liberation," which he apparently
considers his most important work, again according to the AP. In it,
"he argues that the life of a person is not necessarily more valuable
than that of an animal. The 1975 book led to the founding of People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and turned Singer into the
philosophical father of the animal rights movement." And at some
point, this led Peter Singer to the conclusion that, because animals
are self-aware while babies are not, "the life of a newborn is of less
value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee."

The Talmud warns that "one who is merciful towards the cruel, will
eventually be cruel towards the merciful." Putting down that which is
uplifted begins by affording equal status to that which is inferior.
Singer did not suddenly decide that human life was without value -- he
started by saying that animal life was equal!

Of course, the prohibition against cruelty to animals is one of the
Commandments of the Torah, and a vegetarian diet is healthy and
beneficial. But when one decides that we have no _right_ to eat
animals, that their lives are no less valuable than our own -- well,
then it can lead a person to the obvious corollary. If animal life is
equivalent to human life, then it follows that the value of human life
is merely the equivalent of that of animal life. And, of course,
horses who break their legs at races are routinely "put down."

People deceive themselves, when they imagine that morality is
something that can be improved upon in our "enlightened era." "Blessed
be our G-d, Who Created us for His Glory, and separated us out from
those who err, and gave us the Torah of Truth." Thank G-d we have a
moral compass. Now, more than ever.

And let us, at least, remember that every human being was created in
the Image of G-d. Even as we hope and pray that no one will act upon
Singer's beliefs, let us spend every day, as we encounter every
person, acting upon our own.

Project Genesis LifeLine - "It is a tree of life to all who cling to
it." D'var Torah and News from Project Genesis - learn@torah.org -
www.torah.org Volume VII, Number 4 - Bereishis