-Caveat Lector-
SkeptiNews 990525d - - - - - - - - - - - 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.
: No extinct species of carnosaurs were cloned to produce this bulletin.
* SKEPTINEWS CONTRIBUTORS/EDITORS WANTED * VOLUNTEER, OR ELSE * SOONEST *
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# Taliban boss urges end to attacks. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The Taliban's
reclusive leader called for an end to revenge attacks between his mostly
Sunni fighters, and Shiite Muslims in central Bamiyan province. Oh really?
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559677342-4f3
: Which dissident factions of your belief system do you most like to attack?
Which faction is the dominant heresy? If you're right and they're wrong, is
it necessary to kill them, or are wounding, flogging, banishment sufficient?
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# NZ probes suicide rumors. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Police are investi-
gating rumors that foreign cults could travel to New Zealand's east coast
town of Gisborne for millennium suicides at the first dawn of 2000. Police
became aware of the suggestions two or three weeks ago. Gisborne will be a
center for millennium celebrations, with its claim to be the first city to
greet the new millennium dawn, due to its proximity to the International
Date Line. http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559678212-fa4
: Should doomsday cultists be encouraged to suicide? Where would you prefer
that they off themselves? Should special Doomsday Zones be established, for
easy cleaning and maintenance? Should the festivities be televised? Where?
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# Baggy-pants toys spark controversy. LOS ANGELES (AP) Homies, tiny baggy-
pants-clad plastic figures sold as 50-cent toys, have come under attack by
authorities who say they glorify gang culture. A million of the figures,
with names like Droopy, Mr. Raza and Big Loco, have been sold since they
went on the market four months ago. "It's scary that kids are playing with
this. We're trying to fight and teach kids to stay away from gangs, and we
have to contend with this as well?" said a cop trying to get merchants to
stop offering Homies, which are sold as keychain figures and in gumball
machines. Their creator, David Gonzales, 39, says the figures are simply
caricatures of people he knew growing up in a Mexican-American barrio near
San Jose. http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559671616-511
: Do toy figurines encourage violence? Do toy plastic soldiers make you want
to kill? Does Barbie encourage you to shop, dress fashionably, starve? Do
toy aliens make you want to abduct or be abducted or levitate or die? Why?
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# Papal Cover-Up Planned For Polish Billboards. WARSAW (Reuters) - Posters
showing scantily clad women advertising lingerie will have to be removed
from Polish billboards during a visit by Pope John Paul in June, state
television reported Tuesday. "The clergy thinks the images of half-naked
women will offend the Pope," the television said. Then it shut itself off.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990525/16/odd-billboards
: If the leader of your belief system mandated procreation but deplored any
images that might stimulate such procreation, would your system be insane?
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# Spy Report Imperils Crypto Bills - by Declan McCullagh. WASHINGTON - A new
congressional report claiming widespread technological espionage by China
will thwart any changes to US encryption rules in the near future, a top
White House official said. www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19864.html
"The combination of legislators and the Internet is a dangerous one. It's
dangerous for those of us who use the Internet because we get bad laws.
It's dangerous for the Congresscritter because he looks stupid." -Declan
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# Universe is 12 billion years old. (BBC) Hubble Space Telescope astronomers
have come up with the best estimate yet for the age of the Universe. So far.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_352000/352563.stm
@ Links: Hubble Space Telescope: http://www.stsci.edu/
@ Hubble constant background: http://www.hubbleconstant.com/
@ Expansion rate: www.sciam.com/specialissues/0398cosmos/0398freedman.html
: Does knowing that the universe isn't 15-20 billion years old make you feel
any younger? How much of reality that we can't observe is older? How much?
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1999-05-03 What's New in AIR [Annals of Improbable Research]:
AIR 5:3 (May/June 1999) is the special "SCIENCE & THE MOVIES" issue.
If you haven't seen your copy yet, or if your library unfathomably does
not yet subscribe to AIR, here's some of what you are missing:
"The Curious Deaths of Movie Museum Curators," by Sally Y. Shelton.
The author analyzes the peculiarities, perversities, and predatory personnel
of museums as they are depicted in movies. She undispassionately dissects
the spectacularly dispiriting oddities of the curators, especially those
who wear safari hats.
"Case Analysis of a Historic Killer Tornado Event in Kansas on 10 June,
1938," by Charles A. Doswell III and Harold E. Brooks. The authors analyze
an unusual tornado that has been well documented on film.
"Script an Astronomer, Then Reach for the Stars," by Eric Schulman.
The author, an astronomer, presents a compelling case why every movie
should have an astronomer as a main character.
"Nobel Thoughts: John Polayni," by Marc Abrahams. 1986 Nobel laureate
John Polayni explains why he is too busy to be interviewed right now.
These and many other articles and features are in the current issue
of AIR. A full table of contents will be posted on the AIR web site
(http://www.improbable.com) any day now, our web archivist tells us.
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SkeptiLinks:
@ PARANORMAL ASSOCIATION: http://www.ping.be/aura-oasis/
@ FAQ of Newsgroup Chaos: http://www.psicounsel.com/faqchaos.html
@ UFO sightings database: http://cs.tu-berlin.de/~thomasg/ufodb.htm
@ Black Energy Particles - physics unencumbered by Heisenberg:
http://AmbassadorForMankind.org/ri-bulletins/livesessions.htm
@ Chupacabrae: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/1259/chupacabra.html
@ el chupacabra online: http://www.rocketcharged.com/chupa/
@ Art Bell's Chupacabra Site: http://www.artbell.com/chupa.html
@ World La Chupacabra http://classes.colgate.edu/GNED339/Chupa/fool.html
@ Chupacabra resources: http://home.earthlink.net/~mej023/chuppage.html
@ Chupacabra Home Page: http://www.princeton.edu/~accion/chupa.html
@ Chupas mapped: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/luxor/LUXOR9.HTM
$ Adventures Beyond - videotapes: http://www.adventuresbeyond.com/
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"Love really is a many-splendored thing, Mamba thought to herself as Thad
shoved another handful of peanuts up her trunk." --Eric Sandstrom
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