-Caveat Lector-
SkeptiNews 990504a - - - - - - - - - - - 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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# 'Earliest writing' found. (BBC) The first known examples of writing may
have been unearthed at an archaeological dig in Pakistan. So-called
'plant-like' and 'trident-shaped' markings have been found on fragments of
pottery dating back 5500 years. They were found at a site called Harappa in
the region where the great Harappan or Indus civilisation flourished. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_334000/334517.stm
@ Links: The Harappa Project: http://www.harappa.com/
@ Discovering Archaeology: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/
@ ArchNet: http://archnet.uconn.edu/
@ Ancient Scripts of the World:
http://alumni.eecs.berkeley.edu/~lorentz/Ancient_Scripts/
# Also: Were Egyptians the first scribes?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_235000/235724.stm
# Prehistoric Irish tomb alligned to the Sun and Moon:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_313000/313720.stm
: Were ancient humans taught to write by ancient astronauts? Are humans too
dumb to invent writing? Are you too dumb to write? Am I? What's the proof?
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*** Turk pres stays pro-secular. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's president
stood firm against mixing Islam with politics, reappointing his pro-secular
premier amid an uproar created by a legislator who defied convention by
wearing an Islamic head scarf to Parliament. For Turkey's establishment,
the scarves are a political statement challenging the secular system. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559412037-ec0
# Women Cyclists Banned In Caspian Seaside Resort. TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran
has outlawed women cyclists at northern seaside resort as an affront to
Islamic morality. http://news.excite.com/news/r/990503/08/odd-women
: Does your belief system regulate your dress and exercise? Do you engage in
behaviours that affront morality? Is challenging secular establishments fun?
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*** Inderground Christians detained in China. BEIJING (AP) Police broke up a
church service at a rural home and detained all 25 worshipers in the latest
raid on Protestants worshiping outside state control in China. Police confi-
scated all Bibles found at the home in Sui county in central Henan province.
Eight days after the 25 Apr raid, 15 worshipers remained in detention. Many
rural Christians in China meet in homes due to lacks of clergy and churches.
The raid in Sui county was at least the 5th police have conducted in Henan,
a center of activity for the underground Protestant church, since October.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559413531-a69
: What religions or states would you like to control? Is your faith under-
ground? Are political/religious systems better suppressed, controlled, used?
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*** Church quits Southern Baptist group. GREENVILLE, SC (AP) - A church that
helped found the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 has quit the denomina-
tion over its fundamentalist stand on such issues as the role of women. 1st
Baptist Church of Greenville voted 500-47 to sever its affiliation with the
nation's largest Protestant denomination. "This vote is about integrity,"
the Rev. Hardy Clemons said in a sermon before the vote. "Our call is to be
honest about who we are." 1st Baptist, with about 2,500 members, had already
stopped contributing to the convention in 1993. Then, last summer, the con-
vention declared that women should "submit graciously" to their husbands.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559411597-5ad
: Has SBC evolved beyond integrity? Is religious schism/factionialization
inevitable? How many different entries for BAPTIST are in your phone book?
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*** Not just kids buying Star Wars toys. LOS ANGELES (AP) In a galaxy
loca-ted somewhere between reason and insanity, 30-year-old construction
worker Gil Juarez was spending $100 for a one-way ticket back to childhood.
"You can buy whatever you want right now," Juarez observed of the benefits
of adulthood, as he shopped for "Star Wars" action figures, models and
child-ren's underwear at a Toys R Us near outside downtown Los Angeles. "It
used to be you had to ask your parents. Now it's just your wife saying, 'No,
no, no.' And since I have the money, I say, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.'" "Star Wars"
fans, collectors, shop-a-holics and others just feeling frisky from the
Force invaded toy stores Monday just after the stroke of midnight. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559412156-e27
: Is THE FORCE all about money, icons, souvenirs? Who does better marketing,
George Lucas or the Pope? Do you have both a crucifix and R2D2 on your dash?
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SansComment:
# Supermarket Links Melon Sales To Breasts. LONDON (Reuters) Britain's
biggest supermarket chain has asked growers to supply smaller melons after
research showed women shoppers subconsciously compared them to the size of
their breasts. http://news.excite.com/news/r/990503/08/odd-women and
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/melon_050399.html
# Royal Oxen Predict Peace, Good Harvest. PHNOM PENH (Reuters) Royal oxen
Monday predicted a year of peace and the best harvests in Cambodia in two
decades at a traditional planting-season ceremony outside the palace.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990503/08/odd-omen
# Jury Rules For Dead CIA Agent In LSD Case. NEW YORK (Reuters) A jury
Friday ruled against the estate of an artist who said he was driven mad
by a clubfooted CIA agent who slipped LSD into his drink in 1952.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990503/08/odd-drugs-lsd
# Up close and Martian. (BBC) Planet Mars has reached its closest point to
Earth for 10 years, giving observers all over the world an unusually clear
view. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_333000/333647.stm
# Fresh space failure for US. (BBC) An American attempt to put a $1.2bn
military satellite into orbit suffers a spectacular failure. Not exploded:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_332000/332935.stm
# Blind Men Behaving Badly? (BBC) The newest publication for lads who love
lager, ladies, footie and frollicks is in Braille. Feel the passion:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_334000/334371.stm
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"They came at him from both sides at once, the Greek with a sapper, the
Turk with his nasty curved blade, and it crossed his mind that nothing had
gone right that morning - the milk on his cereal was blinky, his newspaper
was torn from the way the boy hurled it, one of his laces broke, and he was
wearing one black and one brown shoe, strictly against the department's
neatness policy - and now this." --Charlotte Mortimer
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