-Caveat Lector-
SkeptiNews 000110a - - - - - - - - - - - All The News That's Fit To Question
* Passages starting with ':' are editorial comments to provoke discussion.
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@ Dissertation Topic Generator http://www.stanford.edu/~turner/dissgen.shtml
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# Fashion with a future. Imagine a jacket that pays your bills, a frock that
sends email, or a dinner suit that cleans itself. These are just some of
the new mind-blowing, high-tech innovations, known as "smart clothes" that
you could be wearing in the future. But how to stop clothes from spilling
your secrets? http://fashion.iafrica.com/trends/7309.htm?src_id=tmp0401
: Do you resent having clothes that are smarter than you? Can you out-think
a vest? Will the laundry industry suppress self-cleaning clothes? Will you?
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# DID IRISH MONKS BUILD THIS NEW ENGLAND CHAMBER CIRCA 700 AD? Curious
stone chambers dot the New England countryside. Are they all potato
cellars built by farmers? Most archeologists insist that they are.
But some seem too sophisticated for such a mundane application. Go
figure: http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/sf103/sf103a02.htm
: Have you built any underground chambers lately? What do you store there??
Potatoes, UFOs, aliens, corpses, drugs, fish, mushrooms, aliens, robots, me?
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# Cops: We saw a huge UFO -- really!: They laughed when the citizen report
came in, but then the Missouri cops saw it and realized this UFO was real.
"It's been driving me nuts since I've seen it," sez officer Craig Stevens.
"I haven't been able to sleep for the last day and a half." The UFO moved
blimp-like about 1,000 feet off the ground, was 2 stories high and 3 times
as long. Of course, Stevens picked up the phone and called Art Bell. Yup.
www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/CDB95E73110536A98625686100418E43
: Have you seen [m]any UFOs lately? Did you call in? Did they laugh at you?
Were you taken seriously? Did MiB come by and wipe your memory? Who are you?
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WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 7 Jan 00 Washington, DC
# BUDGET 2001: CLINTON WILL CALL FOR A MAJOR SCIENCE INITIATIVE. A proposal
for a major new science initiative will be in the President's 2001 budget
request in February. As Pres. Clinton made clear in his speech in December
(WN 10 Dec 99), the call will be for a "balanced" research portfolio--the
unified message delivered by scientific societies over the past 3 years
has sunk in. And the emphasis will be on "fundamental" research. You'll
recall that in his first term Clinton stressed technology. That didn't fly
with Gingrich Republicans, and opposition to NIST's Advanced Technology
Program even led to efforts to abolish NIST (WN 8 Sep 95). But industry
R&D is up sharply in this economy, and there is a consensus in Washington
that the government should concentrate its support on basic research.
: How much cash would you spend on the future? How much is the future worth?
# SNAKE OIL: FDA CAVES TO SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY--AGAIN. The Dietary Supplement
and Health Education Act of 1994, passed in response to a massive lobbying
campaign by the supplement industry, turned the clock back a hundred years
to the days of traveling snake-oil salesmen. It exempts "natural" dietary
supplements, such as vitamins, minerals and herbs, from proof of safety,
purity or efficacy. The only legal requirement is that dietary supplements
not be promoted as preventing or treating disease. So what is "disease"?
Compliance turned into a tightrope act. Two years ago FDA proposed a new
regulation to cover such natural conditions as morning sickness, menopause
and memory loss due to aging, within the definition. The industry launched
a new lobbying campaign. Result? The FDA dropped the broader definition
from the final rule issued this week. Pour out the snake oil, boys! Slurp.
: Have you sold much snake oil lately? D'ya hire many lawyers? D'ya need to?
# POKEMON: SPOON-BENDING PSYCHIC SUES NINTENDO. The litigious Uri Geller
wants $96M for suffering he says he has endured as a result of having been
parodied as a Pokemon character. Alakazam is described as an evil magician
whose brain possesses incredible psychic powers. He is drawn with a spoon
in each hand--and the same character is named Ungeller in Japan. It looked
like more than a coincidence. Are other Pokemon characters also drawn from
real life? This not being exactly the hotest news week of the year, the WN
staff decided to investigate. Imagine our shock when we encountered Prof.
Oak. He is drawn in a white lab coat so he must be a scientist, and is
described as a kindly professor who possesses great knowledge and has ded-
icated his life to study. Sound like anyone we know? Hmmm, if the Pokemon
creators had a real person in mind, the clue must lie in the name "Oak."
Oak is a tree. And where would you go to find trees? Yes, the forest, but
where else? The Park! Actually, the adjective "kindly" was a dead giveway.
: Do games libel you? Are you psychic but defenseless? What good are you??
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY (Note: Opinions are the author's
and are not necessarily shared by the APS, but they should be.)
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@ Importance Of Millennial Accuracy: US Naval Observatory (time keepers):
http://psyche.usno.navy.mil/millennium/whenIs.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/faq/docs/millennium.html
"The end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third will be
reached on January 1, 2001."
@ Royal Observatory in Greenwich (the Time Lords):
http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/new_mill.html
"...the 3rd Millennium and the 21st Century will begin at the same moment,
namely zero hours UTC (commonly known as GMT) on January 1st 2001."
@ Other pages making the case for millennial accuracy:
http://centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/millennium.htm
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~schittek/millenni.htm
http://bridge.anglia.ac.uk/~systimk/Millennium.Html
http://members.tripod.com/not_2000/ok_I_will.htm
http://timeanddate.com/counters/mil2000.html
http://www.wilstar.net/millennium.htm
http://www.nargundkar.com/y2k.htm
: Do you give a shit just when the millenial rollover occurs? Can you count?
*Do* you count? Does the millennium change whenever you say it does? Really?
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"Zipcodes? ZIPCODES?!? We don't need no steenkin' ZIPCODES!!!!" --anon
* Rev.R.Carter, ULC * http://www.sonic.net/~ric * FAX: 603-415-3736
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