BPR Mailing List Digest: 10/26/99

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
October 26, 1999

Digest Home | 1999 | October, 1999

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Pig organ recipients 'must not have children'
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 05:33:11 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

OCT 26 1999

Pig organ recipients 'must not have children'

LONDON -- British transplant patients who receive pigs' hearts
and lungs will have to sign a pledge that they will never have
children, according to draft proposals reported yesterday.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the patients will also have to
agree to have their current and future sexual partners
registered and monitored by the medical authorities.

The newspaper said the requirement had been drawn up by
scientists in the national regulatory body on animal-human
transplants to ensure that pig viruses do not leap the species
barrier and spread to humans.

Britain has agreed to allow research on the use of pigs for
transplants because of a shortage of human organs.

The first application for the transplant of a pig organ is
expected to be imminent, the Telegraph said, adding that Britain
already had a herd of "humanised" pigs bred for the purpose.

But patients about to receive the organ would have to agree to
use "barrier contraception consistently and for life" and never
to give blood, and they would also have to consent to accept
life-long monitoring, which will include giving blood samples,
it said.

Health monitors will also check "household members and sexual
partners and others with whom the transplant recipient may
engage in activities in which bodily fluids may be exchanged" to
see if there has been any contamination through exposure to
blood, saliva or semen.

Doctors and nurses involved in such operations would also be
checked and patients planning to go abroad on holiday or
business would have to inform the authorities.

According to the paper, anti-vivisection groups, which are
opposed to the use of animal organs in humans, said the proposed
monitoring was "intrusive".

The Telegraph said the guidelines were set down in a draft
report on monitoring xeno-transplantation, as the use of animal
organs is known.

They also called for the setting up of an "incident control
team" to deal with an emergency outbreak of infection.

It has been authored by a scientific panel of the United
Kingdom xeno-transplantation interim regulatory authority
(Ukxira), set up by the government to look at medical ethical
implications of animal transplants.

The draft will be discussed by a full meeting of Ukxira in
December. -- AFP

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/wrld/wrld1_1026.html

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Newsweek: Millennium Madness
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 05:41:09 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Millennium Madness

For those who see the Bible as a literal blueprint and 2000 as
an apocalyptic pivot, these are days of portents, hopes--and fears

By John Leland Newsweek, November 1, 1999

For most of the 1990s, the man who called himself only Elijah
was one of Jerusalem's lesser curiosities, an American who
claimed to be the Biblical prophet. He called himself a witness
from the Book of Revelation, predicting that 2000 would usher in
the end of the world. Then in the last year he attracted a small
following from among the thousands of Christians, many of them
American, who have lately flocked to the city to be on hand for
the prophesied return of Christ. For Israeli authorities, Elijah
was no longer a harmless eccentric. In this most tense of
nations, which expects 3 million visitors during the millennial
year, officials fear that some may try to hasten the Second
Coming by sparking a violent conflict. Elijah was asked to leave
the country. "We don't expect masses of cults coming over," says
an Israeli police officer who declined to be identified. "The
majority will be innocent pilgrims. But we have to be prepared."

For millions of Americans the prophecies found in Revelation
are not literary allegories but a blueprint of the events to
come--if not in 2000, then soon enough. According to a new
NEWSWEEK Poll, about 18 percent of Americans expect the endtimes
to come within their lifetime. This translates to roughly 36
million people--not just fringe extremists but your office mate,
mail carrier or soccer coach. Or your U.S. representative: House
Majority Whip Tom DeLay has a wood carving in his office that
reads this could be the day, a phrase widely used to refer to
the Rapture.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell recently announced that the Antichrist
was "probably" already among us. Speaking to NEWSWEEK last week,
Falwell avoided setting a date for the big day--"That's usually
the tragedy of these surges of prophecy preaching"--but applauded
what he sees as a grass-roots rise in endtimes sermons. "There
are happenings today: the approach of one world government, the
global-nation syndrome that is so prevalent today, the cashless
society," he said. "There are many who believe that we could be
in the last century." Tapping this spirit, a rash of best-
selling novels and movies--including the stealth-hit film "The
Omega Code," which grossed $2.4 million in its opening weekend
this month after being marketed strictly through Christian
networks--has rechanneled the last days as popular entertainment.
Monitoring all these rumblings, the FBI is warning local police
departments to be on the lookout for increased militia
activities as the new year approaches. As many as 239 Web sites,
by one recent count, are multiplying millennial scenarios.
"Doomsday sayers aren't standing on street corners proclaiming
the end of time," says Ted Daniels, director of the one-man
Millennium Watch Institute in Philadelphia. "Instead they've all
gone on the Internet."

In his small, nondenominational End Time Ministries in
Elizabeth, N.J., the Rev. Al Horta is one of the keepers of the
apocalyptic faith. The signs, he believes, are all around: wars,
school shootings, AIDS, earthquakes, the Y2K bug. The founding
of the state of Israel in 1948--an oft-cited precondition for
Armageddon--means to Horta that we are "of the generation" and
"in the season" that will see Christ's return. Carmen Lanier,
39, a member of the New Hope Revival Church in Columbus, Ga.,
concurs. For her, these "last days" are a time to get right with
God. As "things get darker on the earth and the perversion of
man increases," she says, she and other faithful will be
"emboldened" to minister to lost souls. "I will have the power
of Jesus Christ," she says. "I will be able to heal the sick, to
speak to the dead." For those not saved in the Rapture, she
envisions a world sunk in "complete madness, a period of
darkness, a horrible time to be alive."

Yet among Christian communities, the coming millennium has
inspired a surprisingly low count of doomsday survivalist cults,
says J. Gordon Melton, a researcher at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. After two decades of studying
Christian schisms, splinter groups and rogue denominations,
Melton finally concluded that the millennium is a bust,
apocalypsewise. Except for the odd group hoarding water or
fretting over the Y2K computer bug, the Armageddon wires have
been surprisingly quiet. "I expected to have a field day with
millennial groups," he says. "And there was nothing."

But for true believers, ground zero for apocalyptic zealotry
remains the city of Jerusalem. There are already about 100
Christians living on the Mount of Olives, the spot where the
Bible says Jesus will return to earth. On a recent Jerusalem
evening, an American named Brother David led five congregants in
an ecstatic prayer vigil, singing and speaking in tongues. David
once had a ministry in Brooklyn, N.Y., but he sold everything 18
years ago to launch his House of Prayer group in Jerusalem,
where he expects to be on hand for the day of days. "I feel the
Lord's returning," he told NEWSWEEK, "and the millennium is to
be the time of his coming." He hastens to distance his sect from
those who would commit violence. Such groups, he says, "are not
Christians, they are cults. Nobody I know would do any violence.
But with these cults, well, you never can tell."

Even among such dedicated millennialists, the deadline of all
deadlines remains fungible. History has not been kind to
prophets who fixed a date for Christ's return, only to see it
pass. After one 19th-century believer sold his worldly
possessions, his son sued him for squandering his inheritance.
For modern would-be prophets, maybe it's just too soon to know.
Some doomsayers are already looking ahead to 2033, the second
millennium of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. And why not?
In this game, you only have to be right once.

With Anne Underwood, Matt Rees, Jill Jordan Sieder and Andrew
Murr

http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/so/a29844-1999oct24.htm

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Millennial Reading
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:25:23 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

[The following news item and the various books listed
at the end of this article does not mean that I support or
encourage others to go out and buy these products. I personally
don't subscribe to the general scenario painted by the "Left
Behind" series. I just thought many would find this article of
some interest.]

Millennial Reading; Religious Publishers Get a Grip on the
Apocalypse Byline: Bill Broadway Washington Post Staff

Local television stations from around the world reported
bizarre occurrences. . . . CNN showed via satellite the video of
a groom disappearing while slipping the ring onto his bride's
finger. A funeral home in Australia reported that nearly every
mourner disappeared from one memorial service, [along with] the
corpse.

-- From "Left Behind," by LaHaye and Jenkins

Since publishing their first "Left Behind" novel four years
ago, Christian authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have
released five sequels and a separate series for teens and sold
more than 10 million books. This puts them in the same league as
secular blockbuster writers Danielle Steele, Michael Crichton
and John Grisham.

"Assassins," LaHaye and Jenkins's sixth work, came out in
August and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for
eight weeks. "Apollyon," published in February as the fifth in
the Left Behind series, is No. 15 on the Times hardcover list,
while the inaugural "Left Behind" ranks No. 18 among paperback
bestsellers.

The next installment, "The Indwelling," is due out in May. And
Illinois publisher Tyndale House, which produces a variety of
Bibles and Christian books, next month will release LaHaye-
Jenkins's nonfiction account of the Tribulation, "Are We Living
in the End Times?"

Rufus Walsh, a buyer for Spring Arbor, a major Christian book
wholesaler near Nashville, said the increasing popularity of the
Left Behind series is notable now that "a lot of millennium
publishing has died down."

The spate of millennium-oriented religion books, especially
those focusing on the potential Y2K computer glitch, came early
this year, he said. By now, most readers seem to have "formed an
opinion or estimate of what might happen to them personally or
said, 'Y2K is not that big a deal.' "

But millions of people are intrigued by the biblical prophecy
of a millennium to end all millennia--the prediction that Jesus
will return to Earth to rule for 1,000 peaceful years before the
end of the world as we know it, Walsh said. And the Left Behind
books are fueling that interest.

The series features a Mission Impossible-type cadre called the
Tribulation Force, people whose wives, husbands, sons, daughters
or friends have vanished into thin air, as evidenced by piles of
clothing, jewelry and other personal effects. Members of the
force realize that the prophesied Rapture has occurred and that
they have been "left behind" because they did not accept Jesus
as their savior. After committing their lives to Christ, they
try to win over other left-behinders during a seven-year period
called the Tribulation. They also must fight the forces of the
Antichrist and endure the horrible wars, plagues and desolation
prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

Future books in the series--the 12th and final offering is
scheduled for 2003--probably will continue the countdown to the
battle of Armageddon, which concludes the period of Tribulation
and marks the Second Coming of Jesus. But LaHaye and Jenkins are
keeping mum on how their story will end and at what point in the
end-times process, a Tyndale spokeswoman said.

Other religious publishers have joined the effort to explain
the millennial events foretold in the Hebrew Bible and New
Testament. Here is a selected list of new and recently published
works on biblical prophecy.

MILLENNIAL PROPHECIES:

ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES? by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B.
Jenkins (November, Tyndale, $16.97 hardcover; $15.99 two-
cassette audio-book). This nonfiction work offers an overall
interpretation of biblical prophecy concerning the Tribulation,
or "end times," dramatized in the six-book fictional Left Behind
series. LaHaye, a former pastor and educator who is a graduate
of Bob Jones University, and Jenkins, biographer of sports
heroes Walter Payton and Hank Aaron, among others, chide "date
setters" who tryto pinpoint Jesus's return. But they leave no
doubt that they believe "He will come in our generation."

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BIBLE PROPHECY, by Mark Hitchcock
(Tyndale, $11.99 soft cover). More outline than prosaic text,
this handy guide presents prophetic scriptures using graphs,
time lines, charts, lists. It also addresses terms and theories
with an accessible question-answer format. The Oklahoma pastor
explains, for example, that the word Rapture does not appear in
most English-language Bibles but does occur in Latin
translations of the original New Testament Greek: rapturo,
meaning "to snatch," "seize" or "take away."

END-TIME PROPHECIES OF THE BIBLE, by David Haggith (Putnam,
$30). The next millennium will be the seventh 1,000-year period
of human history, according to biblical accounts. Will this
"Sabbath millennium" have sacramental significance like other
sevenths, such as the seventh day of creation or the seventh
Sabbath (Jubilee) year? Haggith intersperses such philosophical
issues and speculations, with reasoned but non-didactic answers,
throughout this anthology of prophetic passages. He arranges
Hebrew andNew Testament scriptures thematically, rather than
chronologically, under such headings as Covenants, Visions,
Signs (Is the End Near?), Antichrist, Armageddon and Paradise.

END-TIME VISIONS, THE DOOMSDAY OBSESSION, by Richard Abanes
(Broadman & Holman, $9.99 soft cover). Abanes, a self-proclaimed
former cult member (The Way International), tracks centuries of
failed and misguided doomsday believers, including the
Millerites, Jim Jones, David Koresh and Heaven's Gate. He
challenges the prophetic conclusions of many modern-day
interpreters, including Tim LaHaye. And he concludes with a
"Timeline of Doom" citing dozens of proclamations of the
imminent world's end--beginningwith the year 60.

MILLENNIUM BIBLES, TEXTS

APOCALYPSE 2000: THE BOOK OF REVELATION, edited by John Miller
with an introduction by Andrei Codrescu (Seastone/Ulysses,
$17.95). Spiteful demons, vengeful angels and thundering horses
seem to come alive in this dramatic presentation of the ultimate
book of prophecy--printed entirely in black, red and white.
Apocalyptic visions by Gustave Dore, Albrecht Duerer and other
classic artists illustrate John's text, complemented by quotes
from a host of writers: William S. Burroughs, D.H. Lawrence,
Dylan Thomas, Zoroaster, Lawrence Ferlinghetti et al. Even Fox
Mulder of "The X-Files" gets a word in: "Look around, Scully.
Maybe it does not look like you thought, but it's the apocalypse."

THE CELEBRATE JESUS MILLENNIUM BIBLE, devotions and commentary
by Calvin Miller (Broadman & Holman, $29.99). Where would we be
without at least one "official Bible of the Millennium"?
Broadman & Holman, the nation's oldest Bible publisher, took the
initiative with this boxed, gold-trimmed maroon edition of the
King James version. Miller, a best-selling Christian author,
offers 366 daily devotions plus personal views of religious
artworks by Rubens, Dali, Raphael, Vermeer and others. A 16-page
section for filling in family records suggests the editor's
belief that life may go on after 2000.

NIV PROPHECY STUDY BIBLE, Grant R. Jeffrey, general editor
(Zondervan, $34.99). Prophetic Subjects. The Holy Spirit.
Salvation. Temporal Blessings. Solid blocks of blue, red, dark
green and light green highlight these themes throughout all 66
books of the Bible. Color-coded citations aid cross-referencing.
Includes an introduction to prophecy and 13 color maps.

PROPHECY STUDY BIBLE, John C. Hagee, general editor (Nelson,
$34.99). This edition of the New King James version contains
more than 300 pages of articles on prophecy, plus two large
charts illustrating events prophesied in the Scriptures. Hagee
also explains differing views on the sequence of the Rapture,
Tribulation and Second Coming that have created acrimonious
divisions among evangelicals. Like LaHaye and Hitchcock, he
comes down on the side of those who believe the Rapture precedes
the Tribulationrather than the other way around. As a
"premillennialist," he argues that Jesus will return before, not
after, the final millennium.

VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE: SELECTIONS FROM THE ANCIENT PROPHECY
OF REVELATION (International Bible Society, $2.50 soft cover;
text online at www.Visions-of-Apocalypse.com). This 48-page
booklet, designed in size and format to resemble a CD, includes
the editors' choice of key verses from Revelation about the end
of time. The interactive effect is cute--the creators hope
effective--as the reader must break a "seal" to open the first
page, then follows the recurring image of a digital clock
counting down to 0:00:00.

Bill Broadway Washington Post Staff Writer, Millennial Reading;
Religious Publishers Get a Grip on the Apocalypse. , The
Washington Post, 10-16-1999, pp B09.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/16/106l-101699-
idx.html

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Science: 50 years of bar codes
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:41:40 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Science: 50 years of bar codes: how the
supermarket tag was born

The Daily Telegraph
Prof Steve Jones
10-20-1999

THIS year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, announced a
few days ago, was given to Gunter Blobel for finding out how
proteins are sent to the correct places within cells. But how to
explain that in layman's terms? Several journalists came up with
the same idea; that each protein has an attached bar code label
rather like those on a piece of airline baggage that allows it
to be shuffled through the system until it reaches the right
airport. That is a helpful but elderly metaphor, for Alec
Jeffreys himself described his famous DNA fingerprint in just
the same way.

But what about bar codes themselves? What do they mean? On
October 20, 1949 - 50 years ago today - a US Patent entitled
"Classifying Apparatus and Method" was filed. It described
"article classification . . . through the medium of identifying
patterns" and was the first attempt at that universal tag, four
white lines on a dark background. The idea was based on Morse
code; the dots and dashes extended to make broad or narrow
lines, and read by picking up the reflection with a
photomultiplier tube after shining a bright light onto the label.

The machine had a disconcerting habit of bursting into flames
and it took 25 years before lasers and computers were cheap
enough to allow the system to be utilised in shops. The first
scan was in 1974 at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, on a
packet of Wrigley's chewing-gum. The event is now being
celebrated in what may be the most boring exhibition ever (it
has the very gum in pride of place) at the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington.

Now, five billion codes are scanned every day. Each set of
numbers has an internal logic. They are split into two halves of
six digits each. The first is usually zero, the next five are
the maker's own code (which allows him to sell 99,999 different
things) and the remainder the identifier of the manufacturer
himself. All rather complicated and easily corrupted by dirt, or
a tear.

However, the last number is a check on the others: it uses an
internal proof-reading test based on multiplying some of the
others together and subtracting the total from 10. The remainder
in the sum is the check; if it does not fit the last in the
string of numbers, the label has been misread and the purchase
is rejected. One time in 10 the system will fail as the check
digit is, by coincidence, the same as that on the label, but
even so it is a help.

Such technology is widely used. Cyclic redundancy code, as it
is called, is universal; every message sent from computer to
computer has a block of information (much longer than a paper
label's to avoid chance fits) at the end that can be tested with
an internal calculation agreed by both sender and receiver. If
it agrees, the message is accepted; if not, it has been
corrupted and is thrown out.

And that's where the bar code metaphor begins to take on an
uncanny life of its own. When proteins are made and passed to
the cell from the nucleus, there is an internal proof-reading
mechanism rather like that on a frozen chicken or an e-mail
message; every protein has an added hanger-on called ubiquitin
that is recognised by its target. If the tag's shape reflects
that expected from an undamaged protein it is removed and the
newly-delivered molecule does its job. If passenger and vehicle
do not match, both are destroyed. Cells, it transpires, have a
system of message verification that works just like that of a
supermarket. When it goes wrong, terrible things (cancer
included) can happen.

Search though one might, you will find no American grocery code
whose number includes 666, for that is the Mark of the Beast,
and a hundred million fundamentalists would refuse to buy it (as
some will not accept change of $6.66). The Book of Revelations
prophesies that at the end of time everyone will have to bear
Satan's mark to be allowed to buy or sell - and what better than
a bar code (perhaps based on one's personal DNA stripes)? Those
who believe that Armageddon is near claim that there is a secret
plan to tattoo an anti-fraud tag onto everyone: if tag and
credit card do not match, the heavies are called in.

All nonsense, needless to say. The Great Beast, in St John's
New Testament vision of Apocalypse, was no more than a metaphor
for the Emperor Nero (who was persecuting Christians at the
time). It was written on the Greek island of Patmos - and the
Greek for the trolley that takes the bar-coded baggage to the
check-in or the equivalently marked food to the check-out is
metaphoros: a thing that moves forward. Just a coincidence, of
course.

Prof Steve Jones,
Science: 50 years of bar codes: how the
supermarket tag was born View from the lab.
The Daily Telegraph, 10-20-1999, pp 22.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

[Note: to view this article online, you will
have to register at the site. Registration
is free. After registering, do a search for
"supermarket AND Armageddon."]

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Princess Mononoke: Disney's Newest Release
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 08:17:02 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Disney's Newest Release

Princess Mononoke ("mononoke" means forest spirit) was made in Japan
in 1997 and opens in the U.S. October 29 via Miramax. "Princess is
about the fragile balance between humans and the environment. In
medieval Japan, a young prince is cursed by an ancient god driven mad
by a bullet wound. To lift the curse, he must forge peace between the
gods of the forest and the people of Iron Town, an industrial outpost
hungry for ore." (Holley J. Morris, Beyond Mickey, U.S. News & World
Report, Oct 25, 1999; p70).

Film review:
http://www.filmcritic.com (search for "Princess Mononoke")

Princess Mononoke FAQ:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~stvirtan/mh/faq.html

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - List help
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 08:38:47 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Hi guys...

I have received a couple of questions or search-related items
that I'm asking the list to help me out on. If you have any
info on the following, write to me and I'll forward your response.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Question 1: "In the book of Matthew, it says that a sparrow was
sold for 2 farthings which was 1/16th of a days wages. My
question is what was a days wages in Jesus's day?"

Question 2: "I have heard a rumour that CNN has aquired the
valley where they believe the Armageddon battle will take place.
Is this true? Could you tell me some more about this, or give me
some hints about internet sites that addresses this question?"

[Please Note: #2 is questioning a rumor. It's most admirable
to find that the person posing the question is trying to find info
on it instead of taking it for fact and spreading it without any
supporting evidence. I suspect that it is just that -- a rumor.
Nevertheless, any info would be appreciated.]

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Real World News 10/26/99
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:41:55 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Selected Items from:
REAL WORLD NEWS 10/26/99

=======
CLINTON ORDERS HUMAN EXPERIMENTS

A day after Republican Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut ended
congressional hearings on the controversial decision mandating
the inoculation of 2.4 million U.S. troops against anthrax,
President Clinton quietly signed an executive order, or EO, that
denies soldiers the right to refuse experimental vaccines. .
EO13139, titled "Improving Health Protection of Military
Personnel Participating in Particular Military Operations,"
caught Congress off guard as it directed the Pentagon to
disregard the authority of the Food and Drug Administration, or
FDA. The order authorized use of experimental vaccines -- those
not approved by the FDA and therefore illegal -- to be
administered to members of the armed forces without informed
consent.
http://www.insightmag.com/articles/story3.html

========
COMPUTER TO SPOT CLASSROOM KILLERS

A Questionnaire to spot pupils who might turn guns on their
classmates is to be tested in 25 schools across America in
December. The computer-aided system will be used to assess
schoolchildren who make threats of violence or who are causing
concern to teachers because of their anti-social behaviour. The
initiative, prompted by the massacre of 12 pupils and a teacher
at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in April,
is being run by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000271261842766&rtmo=lQbPuSFt&atmo=99
999999&pg=/et/99/10/26/wcomp26.html

========
RUSSIA THREATENS TO OVERWHELM ANY U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE

Russia's military leadership is threatening to deploy enough
nuclear warheads to defeat any anti-missile system the United
States may build. The sobering question confronting U.S.
strategists: Do the Russians have the funds and industrial
capability to make good on that threat?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-10/26/047r-102699-idx.
html

==========
NEANDERTHALS AND MODERN HUMANS MAY HAVE COEXISTED

According to new radiocarbon dating of bones from a cave in
Croatia, Neanderthals and modern humans may have coexisted in
central Europe for thousands of years, possibly even mating.
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/0,1080,500049541-5000811
11-500245787-0,00.html

=======
IS THERE REALLY EVIDENCE THAT MAN DESCENDED FROM THE APES?

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/263.asp

=======
THE NEANDERTHAL: A MODERN MAN WITH DISEASE?

In a controversial paper published in the Geographical Review,
Jerome E. Dobson, a geographer at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, has suggested that the Neanderthal actually could be
a species of modern man who suffered from chronic iodine
deficiency and cretinism that caused the thick, curved bones,
large heads, ridged eyebrows and heavy muscles that are
Neanderthals' common characteristics.
http://www.marshill.org/neandertal_diseased_people.htm

=======
CHINESE SKEPTIC CRUSADES TO DEBUNK MEDITATION MYSTICS

Sima Nan swings a bicycle around by his teeth, bashes bricks
with his head and lectures his audiences on the art of deception
- all part of a crusade to debunk the supernatural powers
claimed by leaders of the outlawed Falun Gong movement and other
meditation sects.
http://www.nandotimes.com/global/story/0,1024,500049580-500081173-5002
46290-0,00.html

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CHURCHES DEAL WITH INCREASED SECULARISM IN EUROPE

Could it be, as Christians around the globe prepare to
celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus' birth, that in
Europe, the embers are dying? "Institutional religiosity is on
the decline, but personal religiosity is not in danger," says
Loek Halman, a Dutch scholar who runs Europe-wide studies of
personal values. "People who leave their churches still go on
searching for meaning. They may not be willing to accept
traditional Christian beliefs, but that does not make them
unbelievers."
http://www.nandotimes.com/global/story/0,1024,500049521-500081082-5002
45505-0,00.html

via: http://www.onelist.com/community/real_world_news

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - ...a day is as a thousand years...
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 17:44:24 -0400

From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>

...a day is as a thousand years...

Heshvan 16, 5760
October 26, 1999

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past,
and as a watch in the night.--Psalm 90:4

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.--2 Peter 3:8
-------------

Every 88 of our days, Mercury orbits the Sun once.
Therefore, Mercury's year equals 88 Earth days.

Mercury spins 1 1/2 turns per orbit of the Sun. If you were to stand at
point X on Mercury with the Sun overhead at noon, wait for it to set and
night to pass and then have it appear again overhead at noon, this would
constitute one day and would take two orbits around the sun--two years.
Therefore, one Mercury day lasts two Mercury years. One of Mercury's days
lasts 176 (88 x 2) of our days.

Is there some point out there in the Universe where one day equals 1,000
years? I guess it's pretty close to heaven.

Moza

See http://philologos.org/bpr for additional info.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - China says Vatican must break with Taiwan to secure diplomatic links
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 18:09:32 -0400

From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>

China Says Vatican Must Break With Taiwan To Secure Diplomatic
Links

PARIS, Oct 26, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The Chinese
government insisted Monday there could be no diplomatic links
with the Vatican unless the Roman Catholic Church broke ties
with Taiwan and stopped interfering in religion in China.

Zhu Bangjao, the foreign ministry spokesman who is accompanying
President Jiang Zemin on a six nation tour, was responding to a
Hong Kong newspaper report Monday that the Vatican and China had
held secret talks and that relations could be established by the
end of the year.

But the foreign ministry spokesman said "first the Vatican must
break relations with Taiwan. Second, it must stop interfering in
China's internal affairs under a religious pretext.

"If we could get rid of these problems there could certainly be
progress."

The Taiwanese authorities have already dismissed the report, in
the Chinese language daily The Sun, which said there had been a
year of secret talks on breaking ties with Taiwan, regarded by
China as a renegade province.

"The report is groundless," said an official with the Taiwanese
foreign ministry's European affairs department. "It was a
vicious-minded report intended to scare us," he told AFP in
Taipei.

A Vatican spokesman said the Roman Catholic church wanted "good
relations" with China.

China has an "official" church, which is recognized by the
state and has four million followers, and a clandestine church,
recognized by the Vatican, which has a reported 10 million
followers. Many of these have been detained by the Chinese
authorities.

The foreign ministry spokesman said Jiang and President Jacques
Chirac had discussed Taiwan during their talks. He added that
Chirac had "reaffirmed" France's position recognising Beijing as
the government of all China, including Taiwan.

http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=104083&text

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