-Caveat Lector-
SkeptiNews 990402c - - - - - - - - - - - All The News That's Fit To Question
: Passages starting with ':' are editorial comments to provoke discussion.
: Nothing contained herein is ever endorsed for truth, accuracy or meaning.
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# Amazon Tribes Fight Patent On Sacred Vine. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon
tribes asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to revoke a patent granted
to an American businessman on their most sacred plant, a vine that grows
wild in the jungle. Shamans of the Amazon rain forest believe the vine
called ayahuasca has medicinal properties and they use it to make a potent
hallucinogenic brew for their religious rituals. Other sacred plants should
be free too - see http://nt.excite.com/news/r/990331/13/odd-patent
: Has your favorite medicinal herb been commercially desecrated? Is this an
unforgivable outrage against your deities? Will divine punishment be forth-
coming? Will the desecrators suffer eternal damnation, bad implants, warts?
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# WONDER BRA FOR MEN? The male version of the Wonder Bra is here - the
Bulge. For $19.95, a nylon-polypropylene mold of a very large penis can be
purchased to be inserted into Speedos or tight jeans. Warning: the possible
side effects include your partner's shocked disappointment when you shed
your pants. www.healthcentral.com/drdean/DeanFullTextTopics.cfm?ID=8505
: Is male genital size a function of evolutionary selection, alien biolo-
gical programming, the will of {YHWH}? Is The Bulge counter-evolutionary?
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*** John Paul washes feet of clergy. VATICAN CITY (AP) - Dipping their toes
in a basin of gold, Pope John Paul II bathed the feet of 12 priests in a
Holy Thursday ceremony evoking Jesus' Last Supper with his apostles. The act
recalls "in a profound sense the sacrifice of Christ," John Paul said in his
homily. The rite marks Jesus' washing of the apostles' feet the day before
his crucifixion Good Friday and is maintained by the church as a symbol of
humility. John Paul poured water from a beaker on the feet of the clergymen
as they sat in a row on a platform in St. Peter's Basilica. John Paul is to
carry a cross Friday in a traditional procession around the Colosseum,
symbolically tracing Jesus' path to his crucifixion. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559023836-a0d
: Which world religious/political/economic/artistic leader would you prefer
to give you a pedicure? Would you get your feet nice and stinky first? Is
this ritual the only remnant of Jubilee, when the roles of the powerful and
powerless were reversed for a day? What position of power would you like?
Whose feet would you wash? Whose would you refuse to wash? Can you choose?
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@ The Evolution of Culture. "Theorists of culture - historians, anthropol-
ogists, economists, psychologists, and others - can benefit from adopting a
different vantage point, Richard Dawkins' meme's-eye point of view, which
recognizes - and takes seriously - the possibility that cultural entities
may evolve according to selectional regimes that make sense only when the
answer to the <i>Cui bono?</i> question is that it is the cultural items
themselves that benefit from the adaptations they exhibit." Do scientific
approaches to culture threaten our sense of self? How memes make us who we
are - focus in on http://www.feedmag.com/essay/es195_master.html?alert
: Are humans and their cultures just mechanisms whereby memes reproduce and
proliferate? Are you only the tool of an idea? What infects your mind most?
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# Genetics enters the laundry room - Directed evolution used to create new
breed of enzyme. (MSNBC) Scientists are harnessing genetic engineering to
address one of the scourges of modern life: colors that run in the wash.
There's more at stake here than pink underwear. In the future, researchers
say genetically altered enzymes could carry out industrial and household
tasks in more environmentally friendly ways. www.msnbc.com/news/255040.asp
: What tasks would you like mutant chemicals and germs to perform? What will
happen if they get out of control? Will humanity be devoured by mauve slime?
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# Diamonds Aren't Forever. A laser built for nuclear weapons research has
turned diamond into a metal. Normally, a diamond is nothing like a metal, as
its electrons cannot flow freely. However, scientists suspected that if you
compress a diamond enough, it becomes metallic. But until recently, the
technology to do this was not available. "Nobody had ever metallised diamond
before." The highly pressurised carbon might be similar to the matter at the
centres of dense stars such as white dwarfs, which form when Sun-like stars
run out of fuel. By analysing the properties of melted diamond, these
experiments might tell astronomers more about the conditions inside these
dying stars. http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990403/newsstory5.html
: What would you do with the core of a white dwarf? Would it make a radical
fashion statement? Does such material power/encompass interstellar drives?
Will the Zeta Reticulans allow us to gain this secret? When will we know?
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@ Infrared thermal imaging can see many things the naked eye cannot.
$ Military night vision discount outlet: http://www.x20.org/nightvision
$ Thermal infrared imaging warehouse: http://www.x20.org/thermal
$ Alcohol breath-analyzer factory outlet: http://www.x20.org/alcohol
: Would you rather know that what you thought you saw is really there [via
infrared imaging], or that you're just blasted [via breathanalysis]? Would
you spend good money for rapidly-obsolescent detection technologies? Why?
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# Cell breakthrough offers transplant hope. (BBC) Scientists have isolated
the particular parent cells that become bone and muscle, opening the door
to potential new treatments for damaged tissues. Or even just ugly ones -
see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_309000/309571.stm
# Learning 'protects the brain'. (BBC) A stimulating environment that
encourages learning could help children avoid developing degenerative
brain diseases in later life, scientists say. A garden of the mind -
see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_309000/309851.stm
# Cut nerves repaired in animals. (BBC) Cut nerves in animals have had
their function restored after being stuck back together. The technique
will be tested on humans soon. Maybe graft human/animal nerves together -
see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_309000/309601.stm
: Are your brains/nerves better served by stimulation, regeneration, patch-
up repairs, finely-tuned implants, correct thought, rosary meditation? Why?
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"The slime-green appendage suckingly worked its way under the satin
blanket and rippled along the sheets, staining them with a putrid ooze,
streaked by the cancerous scabby warts that pimpled its surface, until
it reached the unblemished ivory-like naked body of Candice, where it
hesitated, gathering itself for the final scum-smearing surge toward
her innocence, when she rolled away from it suddenly, muttering, 'I
told you I had a headache!'" --Michael A. O'Neill
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