BPR Mailing List Digest: 08/23/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
August 23, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | August, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Tougher shmita rules will raise prices
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 08:36:06 -0400

Wednesday, August 23, 2000

Tougher shmita rules will raise prices

By Shahar Ilan
Ha'aretz Religious Affairs Correspondent

Increasingly ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem rabbis are tightening the shmita laws
that require Jewish farmers to leave fields fallow every seven years, so that
starting in March, the Hebrew month of Adar, produce sellers who want to
keep their kashruth licenses won't be able to sell vegetables grown by Jews
in Israel, according to the Jerusalem rabbinate.

The initiative requires kosher merchants to only sell produce grown in the
territories, Jordan or outside of the historic borders of Israel. The religious law
covers vegetables and because of traditional ways of drawing the boundaries
of the Land of Israel it means that vegetables grown by Jews from Gush
Katif, the Arava and the Golan Heights will be considered kosher in
Jerusalem during the coming shmita year.

In addition to Jerusalem, these new, tougher shmita rules will apparently be
also applied in towns where the local rabbinate is headed by particularly
zealous ultra-Orthodox figures. These include Rehovot, Herzliya, Rishon
Letzion, and Bat Yam.

The restrictions are likely to cause a steep rise in prices, and heavy losses
to Jewish farmers. They represent a new stringency in shmita observance,
as enforced by Haredi rabbis.

According to Jewish law, Jewish farmers in the Land of Israel are forbidden
from cultivating the soil during the shmita year, and from bringing produce
from their fields to markets. So, in shmita years, only agricultural products
that are grown by Arabs, or imported from abroad, can be sold by bought by
those keeping kosher according to the strictest rules.

For the purposes of this religious law, the borders of the Land of Israel and
the country's current political borders do not entirely overlap. For instance,
the Arava, in the south, is not included.

Rabbi Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, ruled that
Jewish farmers could till their soil during a shmita year - but they had to sell
their produce to non-Jews, meaning Arabs. This special arrangement was
designed to prevent undue hardship to Jewish farmers in Israel.

In recent months, Haredim have been seeking tougher enforcement of
shmita. Several weeks ago, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and other
rabbinical leaders of Degel Hatorah, one of the factions of the United Torah
Judaism party in the Knesset, issued a special "holy entreaty" related to
shmita, condemning the special arrangements that eased traditional shmita
requirements, and referring to them as "blasphemous breaches of religious
law."

Rabbi Eliashiv, considered a leading authority on halakha for ultra-Orthodox
Ashkenazim, has explicitly prohibited heads of local rabbinates from allowing
vegetables grown and brought to market under the specially eased shmita
arrangement from being sold.

Shmita is to be enforced according to religious law, Rabbi Eliashiv decreed,
even if it means that food industries, restaurants and events-facilities lose
their kosher licenses.

Jerusalem religious council chairman Yehoshua Polak confirmed yesterday
that starting in March, the city's rabbinate will cease kashrut certification to
any business selling vegetables under the former special arrangements.
"One of the reasons for the people of Israel going into exile was lack of
observance of shmita requirements," he said, adding that leaving fields fallow
would prevent them from being handed over to the Palestinians. He said the
rabbinate will take measures to ensure that vegetable prices don't rise, and
"that residents of Jerusalem don't lack a single tomato."

Should a shortage of vegetables arise, and prices rise steeply, the Jerusalem
rabbinate will permit sales under the old special shmita arrangements, Polak
said. In any case, the Jerusalem religious council chairman said, two-thirds
of vegetables sold in Jerusalem come from Arab farmers - and should Jewish
farmers lack employment during the shmita year, he added, the state should
compensate them.

Speaking anonymously, one chief rabbinate source criticized the Jerusalem
initiative. He warned that such shmita stringency "is liable to undermine
kosher certification in Israel, since many hotels and restaurants will refuse to
pay high prices for vegetables, so they'll lose their kashruth licenses." For
the time being, that's the unofficial response to the Jerusalem initiative, while
the chief rabbis remain silent on the Haredi diktat.

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=08/23/00&
id=90424

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arrow test expected soon
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 09:01:23 -0400

Arrow test expected soon
By Arieh O'Sullivan

TEL AVIV (August 23) - Israel Aircraft Industries is preparing another test of
its Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile, with plans to launch it against a live,
incoming target missile fired from the Mediterranean Sea in a simulated
enemy attack, sources close to the project said yesterday.

The target, dubbed the Black Sparrow, will be dropped from an IAF F-15 from
a high altitude and assume the flight path of a Scud.

The Black Sparrow was developed and produced by Rafael, the Armaments
Development Authority. It will be the first live test of the Black Sparrow
in an Arrow test. Until now, the Arrow missiles have been shooting at a
US-made, sea-launched rocket.

Experts involved in the project have reportedly said that using the Black
Sparrow will improve the conditions of the test. The Arrow-2 will be fired
from its launch site at Palmahim Air Force Base south of Tel Aviv.

The sources wouldn't say when the launch would take place, but past tests
of the
missile have taken place in September.

The Arrow-2 was handed over to the air force with widely covered fanfare in
March. It was declared semi-operational, with further tests needed to move
Israel closer to the vital missile shield it seeks.

Maj.-Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael, director of development of weapons systems
and infrastructure, has said that the Arrow-2 system will undergo one or two
test launches each year.

The last test was conducted on November 1 and was declared a success. In
that test, its seventh, the Arrow-2 for the first time hit a real incoming
missile, integrating the Arrow-2 interceptor, the Citron Tree fire-control
system, and the Green Pine tracking radar.

Besides this test launch, project leaders reportedly want to conduct tests
in the US against a real Scud, which the Americans have managed to
procure.

The US has put up about 65 percent of the $1.1 billion spent so far on the
project, and is estimated to ultimately fund about half of its final $2
billion cost.

This cost could be reduced if the Arrow-2 is sold to other countries which
have expressed interest, such as Great Britain, Turkey, Japan, and
reportedly India.

Israel is already planning upgrades for the Arrow to tackle the more
advanced missiles, such as the Shihab-3 and Shihab-4 being developed by
Iran. Ben-Yisrael has said the Arrow-2 is designed to strike and destroy a
warhead, be it nuclear or other, well before it is supposed to explode.

The first battery of Arrow missiles is deployed in the center of the
country. A second battery is slated to be placed east of Hadera, but that
has been delayed by strong opposition from residents, who claim its radar
would be hazardous to their health. Last week, arbitrators said the air
force could prepare infrastructure for the second battery, but could only
deploy it in a national emergency situation.

Israel had originally planned to deploy just two Arrow-2 batteries, but has
since sought and won promises of funding for a third. The US Congress
approved
$81.6 million toward the purchase of a third battery, whose total cost is
estimated to be about $170 million.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/08/23/News/News.11255.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - New Assiryian Coalition Can Nuke America
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 09:06:58 -0400

New Assiryian Coalition Can Nuke America

By Marshall Masters
YOWUSA.COM, August 23, 2000

If history repeats (as it may very well be doing this time) a New Assyrian
Coalition (PLO, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq) already possesses ballistic missiles
that can strike the continental United States, with nuclear warheads or
biological agents. Using the demand for an independent PLO state as a
political catalyst, this coalition may very well launch against Israel and it's
greatest ally, the United States.

Full Story:
http://www.yowusa.com/authors/mmasters/3Q00/MiddleEast2/middleeast2.html

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - ReligionToday News Items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 09:19:07 -0500

Selected items from

C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
by the Editors of ReligionToday

August 22, 2000

More than 2 million young people prayed and sang at a Mass celebrated
by Pope John Paul II in Rome Aug. 20. It closed the six-day World
Youth festival, a gathering that the Italian press called "The
Catholic Woodstock" or "Popestock." The festival drew hundreds of
thousands of young people from 170 nations to packed prayer services
at churches throughout the city, mass confessions at Circus Maximus,
and the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum.

..It was "a teeming love-in without the sex, drugs, or rock 'n'
roll, but with much of the same enthusiasm and abandon," according to
The New York Times (see link #1 below). One young girl burst through
security lines and hurled herself into the arms of frail John Paul
II, 80, as if he were a pop star, the newspaper reported. The pope
gently patted her head as she wept on his shoulder.

..The festival was an effort by young Catholics to show that not all
of today's young people shun faith and traditional morality. "The new
generation still believes," said Étienne Corpechot, 18, a high-school
student from Paris. Participants paid $120 each for food and lodging,
and those from poor countries were not required to pay at all,
according to Ecumenical News International.

..It was a personal triumph for the pope, who is quite fond of young
people. The pope tapped his armchair to the music and swayed both
arms above his head during Saturday night's three-hour candlelit
ceremony, according to the Times. "I return, rejuvenated," he told
the cheering crowd.

The number of Messianic Jews in Israel has increased with the wave of
immigration from Russia, according to a recent report. Many Messianic
Jews came to the country with the massive influx of Russian Jews in
the past decade, Israeli pastor Baruch Maoz said. Messianic Jews
believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

..Russian speakers make up about half of the Messianic Jewish
population in Israel, Maoz said. A little more than half of the
country's 70 Messianic congregations are Russian-speaking, he said,
and 30 of the country's 53 house groups are Russian-speaking. There
are 7,000 Messianic Jews in Israel.

..A second-generation of Messianic believers is emerging, Maoz said.
He estimated that there will be 20,000 Messianic Jews in Israel by
2010 and at least half will have been raised in Israel. Most Russian
speaking congregations will either adopt Hebrew as their main
language or disappear by then, he said.

-----------
News from ReligionToday is Copyrighted by Crosswalk.com. Content may
be reproduced provided proper credit is given to
religiontoday.crosswalk.com. Please go to
http://www.crosswalk.com/info/copyright to be sure you meet all legal
requirements.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Sky lights up over the Everglades
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 09:20:06 -0500

--- Forwarded Message ----

via: hblondel@tampabay.rr.com

Sky lights up over the Everglades

At 8:30 Monday night [Aug 21], people as far north as Pompano Beach
and as far south as northern Miami-Dade County reported seeing a
phenomenally bright light in the western sky over the Everglades.

Barbara Schwebel of Fort Lauderdale was taking a walk when she saw a
cloud light up as if a lamp were shining through a curtain.

The light then moved away from the cloud into the open sky and she
saw a bright, white, crescent-shaped light with a short tail arc
across the sky and disappear behind some trees.

At the same time, Broward County Fire-Rescue started getting calls of
"a bolt of lightning" and "a ball of fire" in the sky, said spokesman
Todd LeDuc.

One caller said it may have been a Lear jet crashing near U.S. 27 and
Interstate 75.

Broward County launched its air-rescue helicopter to do a grid search
with a heat sensing scope over the pitch-black Everglades, but
firefighters found no signs of fire.

Jack Horkheimer, director of the Miami Air Transit Planetarium, said
people probably saw "a nice sporadic meteor."

"I wish I'd seen it," he said when reached at home late Monday night.

"You're really lucky to see something like that."

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - August turns white in freak storm
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 09:24:15 -0500

--- Forwarded Message ----

via: hblondel@tampabay.rr.com

21 August, 2000, 17:36 GMT 18:36 UK

August turns white in freak storm

Braving the elements on the North Yorkshire Moors Homes and
businesses were hit by freak storms which caused up to five inches of
hail, torrential rain, lightning and even a tornado.

The abnormal weather affected parts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and
Wales.

In the area between York and Hull at least 60 properties were
flooded, closing businesses. Lightning disrupted rail services.

A tornado was also reported off the Humber Estuary. Coastguards said
no-one had been injured, but the tornado sucked water up to form a
spectacular water spout.

Humberside Fire Service received more than 80 calls from the village
of Hedon, east of Hull, and snow was reported in several parts of
Humberside and North Yorkshire.

In Wales, homes and businsses were flooded, two bridges collapsed and
some people were trapped in their homes.

Lincolnshire fire service received more than 100 calls from people
affected by flooding.

Torrential rain caused flash floods along the county's coast,
especially in Sutton-on-sea, Trusthorpe and Mablethorpe.

Lightning on railway

Train services in and out of York rail station were disrupted after
it was struck by lightning four times in a few minutes.

The strikes just before 0900BST caused a power surge which knocked
out systems controlling signalling and track circuits.

A Railtrack spokesman said: "It was an amazing storm - I've never
witnessed anything like it - there was ice all over the ground.

"The lightning hit the north and south of the station, and
unfortunately it stopped everything."

A house in York was also struck by lightning. A fire service
spokesman said the roof was set on fire but no-one was injured.

'Horrendous'

A fire service spokesman said the village of Hedon near Hull had four
or five inches of hail.

"The weather conditions have been horrendous," he said.

Sub officer Ian Daddy said: "It's weird. There's snow in some parts
of the village and flooding in other parts.

"The downpour lasted just over an hour and it was unbelievable. I've
never seen anything like this before."

Eight fire engines were called to village and started pumping the
water from the flooded streets. No residents were evacuated.

John Plater from Hedon Post Office said: "I have never seen anything
like it.

"There is about eight inches of hail banked up by the side of the
shops - the hailstones were huge.

"We've had customers in their 80s saying they've never witnessed
summer weather like this in their lives."

BBC weather forecaster Helen Young said although the storms might
have looked as if they were snow, they were technically hail storms.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - More cultural craziness ...
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 10:34:56 -0500

U.S. News and World Report

Outlook 8/21/00
By John Leo

You can't make this up
More cultural craziness that's stranger than fiction

Another harasser brought to justice. In Canton, Ohio, a 6-year-old
boy who jumped from his bathtub and ran to a window to stop a school
bus was suspended by his school for sexual harassment. The boy's
mother said she put him in the tub so he wouldn't see the bus go by;
he had a doctor's appointment and couldn't attend school that
morning. But when his sister told him she saw the bus coming, the
tyke ran to the window and shouted for the driver to wait. Since he
was nude at the time, the school ruled that he had harassed
youngsters on the bus. The school forced him to sign a paper
admitting that he knew the nature of the charges against him.

...

Now sit, Ingvar, sit. Young women in Sweden, Germany, and Australia
have a new cause: They want men to sit down while urinating. This
demand comes partly from concerns about hygiene–avoiding the splash
factor–but, as Jasper Gerard reports in the English Spectator, "more
crucially because a man standing up to urinate is deemed to be
triumphing in his masculinity, and by extension, degrading women."
One argument is that if women can't do it, then men shouldn't either.
Another is that standing upright while relieving oneself is "a nasty
macho gesture," suggestive of male violence. A feminist group at
Stockholm University is campaigning to ban all urinals from campus,
and one Swedish elementary school has already removed them. In
Australia, an Internet survey shows that 17 percent of those polled
think men ought to sit, while 70 percent believe they should be
allowed to stand. Some Swedish women are pressuring their men to take
a stand, so to speak. Yola, a 25-year-old Swedish trainee
psychiatrist, says she dumps boyfriends who insist on standing. "What
else can I do?" said her new boyfriend, Ingvar, who sits.

...

New, nicer language! Mutilative elective surgery (the declawing of
cats), pet guardians (pet owners), peace room (war room), guest
service employees (bellhops), people of advanced chronology (the
elderly), nondiscretionary fragrance (body odor), states of concern
(the State Department's new term for rogue states), and Green Bay
Pickers (a new name for football's Green Bay Packers suggested by the
animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,
which doesn't think anyone should eat meat, let alone pack it).

What about hissing and herpes? Because it begins with the
masculine-sounding syllable "his," the word "history" has been banned
at Stockport College in Manchester, England. Also banned are the
phrases "ladies and gentlemen" (offensive connotations of class) and
"slaving over a hot stove" (which "minimizes the horror and
oppression of the slave trade"). No word, though, about that
offensive first syllable of "Manchester."

Full story:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000821/21john.htm

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Re: Sky lights up over the Everglades
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Tracy")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:53:10 -0400

Wow! About 10 days ago I saw a streak of fire in the sky. It was
different than any shooting star I have ever seen. This one was like a
burst of flames that shot out in a strait line.

I don't know if it was the same were you are but the moon last week was
unusual to say the least. It had a red hue to it but it also had a
different expression! The "man on the moon" had a huge smile on. I am
not the only one to see it. My mother (don't worry I am 32) was also
driving that night and when we were talking the next night she asked me
if I saw it. The funny thing is when I got out a telescope and looked
it looked like the moon always did. But with the naked eye it had the
smile, sort of like a pumpkin smile.

I guess it is like some paintings. At a certain distance paintings
come into focus. I dunno.,

For what it is worth.

Tracy

> Sky lights up over the Everglades
>
> At 8:30 Monday night [Aug 21], people as far north as Pompano Beach
> and as far south as northern Miami-Dade County reported seeing a
> phenomenally bright light in the western sky over the Everglades.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Bringing Back the Tiger
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:37:10 -0500

Bringing Back the Tiger
Scientists Hope DNA Will Allow Cloning of Extinct Marsupial

A captive Tasmanian tiger at the Hobart Zoo. The last known living species,
it died in 1936. Though called a tiger, it was really a marsupial wolf.
Settlers drove it into extinction to protect their sheep. (Hobart Zoo)

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/cloning_tasmaniantiger00082
2.html

B R I G H T O N, Tasmania, Aug. 22 - A sign by the small enclosure near the
Bonorong Park Wildlife Center entrance says "Tasmanian tiger" but the fabled
carnivore is nowhere to be seen.
     The last known Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, died in captivity in
1936, but a team of Australian biologists believes the animal's extinction
may simply be a 70-year hiccup. DNA from a Tasmanian tiger has been found
and cloning is underway.
     Hope for the rebirth of the tiger - not a cat at all but a striped
marsupial wolf - lies in the murky depths of a museum specimen jar, where a
six-month-old thylacine pup has sat preserved in alcohol since 1866.
     Australian Museum director Mike Archer said he knew 15 years ago the
specimen held the key to the return of the tiger, but it was not until Dolly
the sheep was cloned in Scotland in 1997 that technology caught up with his
dream.
     "It became a matter of not if, but when," Archer said.
Incubation in a Relative
In April, small samples of heart, liver, muscle and bone marrow tissue were
extracted from the preserved pup, and a small team of evolutionary
biologists in Sydney began working to unravel the tiger's genetic code.
     Once DNA damage is assessed and repaired, the tiger's genetic blueprint
will be inserted into the egg of a close relative, probably the Tasmanian
devil or the numbat, another marsupial, for incubation.
     While there have been similar extinct-animal cloning projects elsewhere
in the world, the Australia Museum's project is the first to find good
quality DNA from an extinct specimen.
     But there is much work to be done and Archer said it could take another
10 to 15 years to clone the tiger.
     Experts disagree on the project's chance of success - with odds ranging
from close to zero to 50-50.

Settlers' Bitter Enemy
Most of what is known about thylacines is from myths and museum exhibits,
which sprung up around the world in the 1930s as the tiger headed toward
extinction and zoologists clamored for specimens. There is a skeleton in
Heidelberg, Germany, and a mounted stuffed tiger in Zurich, Switzerland.
     Black-and-white photographs abound, showing a large doglike marsupial
with tan fur and black stripes across its lower back and rump. Like the
Tasmanian devil and its more distant relative the kangaroo, the female tiger
carried its young in a pouch. The animal had a heavy, rigid tail like that
of a kangaroo.
     The tigers were only seen by white settlers on Tasmania, the island
state that appears like a teardrop beneath Australia's southeast coast, but
the predators once roamed the mainland and the island of New Guinea, where
they were killed off by wild dogs introduced by man some 6,000 years ago.
     On Tasmania, the tiger quickly became the bitter enemy of British
settlers. It was blamed for killing sheep and other farm animals and, after
a bounty was put on its head in 1888, tiger trapping became a paying
occupation.

Protest Over Cloning
In popular imagination, the tiger is plucked from extinction with sightings
reported, blurred photographs produced and debate refired about its ability
to survive undetected for nearly 70 years, even in the virtually untouched
wilderness of Tasmania.
     Sightings have even been reported from remote parts of the southern
mainland.
     A far more emotional debate rages over the plan to reincarnate the
tiger through cloning. Archer has crossed angry picket lines at his museum
and his work has been denounced by religious groups who accuse the
scientists of playing God.
     "My response is that people played God when we exterminated the animal
in the first place," Archer said.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel 'may have 200 nuclear weapons'...
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:47:52 -0500

Israel 'may have 200 nuclear weapons'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_892000/892941.stm

New satellite photographs published on the internet indicate that Israel
could have made enough plutonium for up to 200 nuclear weapons, US
scientists say.
The photographs of the secret Israeli nuclear facility at Dimona in the
Negev desert appear on the website of the Federation of American Scientists
(FAS).

The new images were obtained last month by Space Imaging Corporation's
Ikonos satellite.

The FAS draws its conclusions from comparisons of the latest images with
pictures of the Dimona facility taken by a US reconnaissance satellite in
1971.

Part of the FAS work is to monitor non-conventional weapons capabilities
throughout the world.

The pictures "indicate that no new cooling towers were constructed in the
years between 1971 and 2000," the FAS report says.

"This strongly suggests that the reactor's power level has not been
increased significantly during this period. This would suggest an annual
production rate of plutonium of about 20kg."

Nuclear arsenal

"Based on plausible upper and lower bounds of the operating practices at the
reactor, Israel could have thus produced enough plutonium for at least 100
nuclear weapons, but probably not significantly more than 200 weapons," the
FAS said.

The latest pictures have been shown on Israeli television and published in
the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonoth.

Israeli censorship laws allow local media to quote foreign reports, provided
the source is mentioned.

The new Dimona photos as they appeared in the Israeli press

Israel is now the only state with nuclear weapons that does not admit to
having such weapons. It has always refused to allow international inspection
of the Dimona facility, and is among the few states that have refused to
sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Israel maintains what is known as a policy of 'nuclear ambiguity', saying
that it will not be the first country to introduce them to the Middle East.

In 1986 Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at the site, was jailed for 18
years for providing information about Dimona, including photos published in
the UK's Sunday Times.

Israeli-US 'understanding'

The Israeli authorities have said they want to question Avner Cohen, an
Israeli writer living in self-imposed exile in the United States, in
connection with his 1998 book "Israel and the Bomb".

The book argues that there was an Israeli-US understanding that Washington
would turn a blind eye to Israel's nuclear programme provided Israel kept a
low profile and did not carry out nuclear tests.

The Dimona reactor has been operating since 1965.

The FAS says that by the late 1990s the US intelligence community estimated
that Israel possessed 75-130 nuclear weapons.

They would include warheads for mobile Jericho-1 and Jericho-2 missiles,
bombs for Israeli aircraft and possibly other tactical nuclear weapons.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Robots rule OK?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:06:33 -0500

Sunday, 20 August, 2000, 11:42 GMT 12:42 UK
Robots rule OK?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_888
000/888059.stm

Scientists ask: How human do we want to make our robots?

By Peter Day in Pittsburgh
I went to Pittsburgh to talk to a man about robots. Once a dirty coal and
steel town, it is now a centre of finance, medicine and learning.

I went there to meet a remarkable academic whose predictions may make your
flesh creep.

In fact, Hans Moravec is the most amiable of men. He has been building
robots since he was 10. Talked about for so long, now, he thinks, their time
has come.

By around 2050, predicts Hans Moravec, a computer costing only a few hundred
pounds will have the capacity of the human mind - after that, it will start
exceeding it

Certainly the little machines were buzzing along the corridors of Carnegie
Mellon University's Department of Robotics on the day I was there,
recognising their surroundings and edging around them. But that is nothing.

Mr Moravec's thesis is that some time in the next 50 years, machines like
these are going to become more intelligent than we are. It is, he says, the
way the world is evolving.

Brain power

Currently, he says, men can create machines such as the ones negotiating his
corridors with the calculating powers of insects. But with computer power
doubling every year, or year and a half, robots will evolve from insects to
animals to human intelligence - at breakneck speed.

By around 2050, predicts Hans Moravec, a computer costing only a few hundred
pounds will have the capacity of the human mind. After that, it will start
exceeding it.

It may sound like pure science fiction, but it is serious academic stuff.
Sometimes we non-scientists glimpse the details of it.

Human chromosomes - but will robots soon be superior?

The American computer chip maker Gordon Moore enunciated what is now known
as Moore's Law 30 years ago, when he noticed that the power and pace of
computing was doubling every 18 months or so.

But the roboteer Hans Moravec thinks the evolving change we are now
experiencing in computing has in fact been going for centuries in human
evolution.

When machines have more intelligence than men, they will be able to do the
things we do better and faster than we do.

Taking over

For Hans Moravec - and he keeps a straight face here - that means they will
start taking over from us. It is not, he insists, a frightening prospect.

These super-intelligent machines will be our children, says Mr Moravec. Each
generation of humans eventually learns to accept the idea of handing over
continuing existence to its own offspring.

Well, the abiding faith in technological progress has long been one of the
defining features of American life - it is a mainspring of the country's
current extraordinary optimism. But even some Americans see a dark lining to
the silver cloud.

In the networked computer world...knowledge about all these things is now
readily available to everyone - for good uses or bad

The scientist Bill Joy is an influential man. He is one of the founders of
the huge computer company Sun Microsystems. The magazine Fortune called him
the "Edison of the Internet".

Last year when I saw him in his think-tank hideaway in Aspen, the ski resort
in the Rocky Mountains, he was still one of the optimists.

But now Bill Joy is having second thoughts, about things such as the
advances in robotics that Mr Moravec is predicting.

Plagues

Add to them the human genome project, and nanotechnology, the new ability to
build minute machines that can replicate themselves, too small for the human
eye to see.

The result, says Bill Joy, is the possibility of electronic and biological
plagues which could threaten the future of the human race.

In the networked computer world he has been instrumental in creating,
knowledge about all these things is now readily available to everyone - for
good uses or bad.

Most of the technology experts dismiss out of hand the idea of reining
themselves in

Bill Joy first voiced his concerns in a magazine article last spring, and
because he is co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's Information Technology
Advisory Committee, he got a lot of attention.

With genetic codes now cracked by computers, people will soon be able to
choose desirable attributes for their babies.

The smallpox genome may soon become very easy for anyone to get hold of.
Bill Joy's message to his fellow scientists is: stop and think.

He is so concerned about the misuse of knowledge that he is urging restraint
- limits, voluntary or imposed, on where scientists should tread, and what
science should do.

Forging ahead

But most of the technology experts dismiss out of hand the idea of reining
themselves in.

Nevertheless, we have been warned.

A few days later on my summer trip criss-crossing America, I saw one of the
wittiest advertisements I've ever seen.

A billboard sign just outside Philadelphia said in huge letters: "Go Ahead.
Pick Your Nose". The message was followed in small print by the name of the
advertiser: Gehry's Cosmetic Surgery.

It won't be long before we're picking more than just our noses. And within a
few decades, it is just possible that our noses may be picking us.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Firestorm of 1910 contributed to today's blazes
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:10:07 -0500

Firestorm of 1910 contributed to today's blazes

http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/0,1080,500242419-500357672-502
090539-0,00.html

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. (August 22, 2000 1:38 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
They were the greatest wildfires the nation had ever seen. On Aug. 20-21,
1910 - 90 years ago this week - a firestorm of biblical proportions raged
across Idaho, Montana and Washington.

Three million acres in the Bitterroot Mountains exploded in flames. Whole
towns were incinerated. Eighty-five people were killed, including 78
firefighters, dozens of them burned alive. Smoke drifted across the country,
darkening the skies so much that street lights remained on all day in
Watertown, N.Y.

The fire became known as The Big Blowup and so traumatized the nation that
Congress for the first time decided to spend federal money to fight forest
fires. The government eventually required that all reported fires be
extinguished by 10 a.m. the next day.

The irony is that the lessons drawn from The Big Blowup contributed to the
fix the United States is in today, with more than 5 million acres burned
this year so far in the nation's worst wildfire outbreak in decades.

By aggressively fighting blazes, the government prevented wildfires from
performing the housekeeping role nature assigned them. Over the years,
forests became overgrown with trees and vegetation that can fuel fires even
more catastrophic than those seen before man began interfering.

The result: giant blazes like those burning now on more than 850,000 acres
in Montana and Idaho, many in the same Bitterroot Mountains.

"People have been trained to hate fire," said Mark Petersen of the Lands
Council, a Spokane-based environmental group. "But fire is to our ecosystem
what rain is to a tropical rainforest."

In the forest primeval, natural wildfires burned brush off the forest floor
and opened the pine cones that seeded new trees. Indians used to set fires
to speed this work.

When the West was first settled, forests were thinned by timber companies
that logged the trees and burned the logging debris, and by ranchers looking
to increase pasture land.

"The last herder coming out of the mountains would set a fire to ensure good
forage the next year," said Leon Neuenschwander, professor of fire ecology
at the University of Idaho.

Before The Big Blowup, forest fires were fought primarily by timber
companies seeking to protect their investments.

But the fire of 1910, and large fires in the 1920s, led the federal and
state governments to create well-trained, standing armies of firefighters,
Neuenschwander said.

To extinguish fires early, the nation built roads and telephone lines into
the forests, set up fire lookout towers and built campgrounds to concentrate
tourists rather than having them spread out. Many of those facilities were
built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression.

World War II brought a temporary stop to aggressive firefighting, because
most of the men were at war. But the end of the war saw a bounty of surplus
equipment like bulldozers and airplanes added to the war on wildfires.

"In the 1950s, fires were suppressed almost instantly," Neuenschwander said.

And the woods were transformed, especially pine forests of the Northwest
that were used to big fires at least every 30 years.

The forests became denser, often with undesirable trees that were not
resistant to fire. Trees that could not get enough sunlight or water were
left stunted or dead, infested with bugs and easy to ignite.

In forests that had just 30 big trees per acre, flames used to stay close to
the ground. Now flames dance across the tops of forests crowded with 300 to
3,000 trees per acre.

"That's a fire almost impossible to fight," Neuenschwander said. "The flames
are 90 feet tall instead of 3 feet tall. The fires we have now are hot, real
hot, and resemble nothing of what the fires of 1910 would have looked like."

Federal firefighting policy changed a bit in the early 1970s, when some
fires in the wilderness were allowed to burn themselves out.

After big fires in 1988 and 1994, federal policy was changed again, this
time requiring the Forest Service to create plans for specific areas,
showing which fires would be fought and which would be allowed to burn. But
many plans have yet to be written.

Faced with tinderbox forests, the nation has the option of setting fires to
clear growth, allowing loggers to remove trees or suffering huge
conflagrations, said Robert Nelson of the University of Maryland.

The Clinton administration has shown a preference for prescribed burns to
clear away growth, Nelson wrote recently in The Washington Post. But those
can be controversial. It was a prescribed burn that went out of control and
destroyed more than 200 homes in Los Alamos, N.M., in May.

More logging is complicated by political disputes between environmentalists
- suspicious of any logging - and timber companies, who say they must remove
the biggest trees in order to make money.

The Clinton administration has sharply reduced logging in the national
forests. However, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the
administration wants to expand nationwide an experimental effort in
Flagstaff, Ariz., to reduce fire danger by thinning out small trees.

Without a change in direction, Nelson wrote, "The West can expect to see
even worse fire seasons in years to come."

The fires of 1910 were stopped only when rain and snow began falling on Aug.
23. Despite all the advances in techniques and equipment since then, the
firefighters in the Bitterroots now are also looking to nature for relief.

"You just pour money onto a fire until it rains," Petersen said. "Hopefully
it will snow in the next month or two."

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Weird weather: sprites, frogs and maggots
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:11:30 -0500

Weird weather: sprites, frogs and maggots

http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/0,1080,500242194-500357238-502
085957-0,00.html

PAMELA D. JACOBSEN, The Christian Science Monitor

(August 22, 2000 2:17 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - How's this for a
weather forecast? "Temperatures in the low 70s tonight, with a slight chance
of raining frogs. Thunderstorms tomorrow, with ball lightning and perhaps a
few elves." Frogs from the sky? Ball-shaped lightning and elves? Can that be
right? It can. And there's more. Read on.

Thunder, lightning, and ... croaking

You've heard the old saying "It's raining cats and dogs," yet no one expects
a downpour of small mammals. But frogs, fish, maggots, and even beer cans
have fallen with rain, says Mel Goldstein. He's the chief meteorologist at
WTNH-TV in New Haven, Conn. He recalls the story of a yacht race in
Acapulco, Mexico, in 1968. The "boats were littered with maggots after the
rain," Dr. Goldstein says.

Falling frogs and fish can occur "with any tornado or waterspout that goes
over a body of water with frogs and fish," says Marcin Szumowski. He's an
assistant professor at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev. Swirling
winds moving over bodies of water can suck up small creatures or light
objects. They may be carried for many miles before falling as odd rain.

On July 12, 1873, Scientific American reported that a storm in Kansas City,
Mo., had blanketed the city with frogs. In 1939, a superintendent working
near an outdoor pool in England was caught in a downpour. He ran for cover.
When he looked out, he saw large, dark lumps falling. Hundreds of small
frogs were coming down with the rain!

Baseball-shaped lightning

The ancient Greeks reported seeing strange glowing balls moving across the
sky. They are not alone. Many people all over the world have seen such
things. The luminous globes are called ball (or globe) lightning. Sometimes
ball lightning is the size of a baseball, but it can be up to six feet
across.

Dr. Szumowski says ball lightning is generally "red, or red and yellow,
changing to white, and disappearing with a loud bang." It may also leave a
bad smell behind. (The odor is believed to be caused by ozone.) It usually
lasts for only 20 seconds or so, but it can linger for many minutes.

Ball lightning generally occurs during high-energy thunderstorms, but not
always. Sometimes it appears seconds after a regular lightning strike, or
just before. What's more, ball lightning travels in weird ways. Eyewitnesses
describe it moving parallel to the ground. It may also descend vertically
from clouds - or bounce! It can hiss, too.

While it's very startling, ball lightning does little damage. Sometimes it
leaves scorch marks.

Scientists don't exactly know what ball lighting is or why it acts the way
it does. It may be glowing plasma (electrically charged gas) trapped in a
series of magnetic fields.

Whirling dust, whirling fire

The fire dust devil begins as a regular dust devil or whirlwind. Dust devils
are swirling columns of air full of sand and debris. Columns can be 3,000
feet tall and from three to several hundred feet in diameter. They most
often occur at midday in arid regions. That's because the ground temperature
must be at least 68 degrees Faren. hotter than the air directly above.

Doug Sisterson, a research meteorologist at the Argonne (Ill.) National
Laboratories, says an intense updraft from the heated ground collects the
rising air. The force of the earth's rotation gets the air spinning. When
dust is picked up by the swirling air, a dust devil is seen.

They are like mini-tornadoes, but with important differences. Tornadoes pack
winds of up to 300 miles per hour. A dust devil spins at only 30 to 70
m.p.h. Tornadoes develop underneath thunderstorms. Dust devils form when the
weather is clear, hot, and dry.

Sometimes, a dust devil picks up more than sand. According to Szumowski at
the Desert Research Institute, dust devils may also suck up flames from a
nearby forest fire. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it creates "a
spectacular image of a rotating fire rope."

Scientists prove that sprites exist

How far up in the atmosphere is weather produced? According to Dr. Sisterson
at the Argonne National Laboratory, the answer was thought to be the top of
the troposphere. That's about 12 miles up.

But after some dramatic discoveries in the last 10 years, that answer has
been revised. The "weather boundary" has been extended well above the
troposphere. You can thank sprites, elves, and blue jets for that. Each is
linked to extremely powerful storms. Sprites are the most common.

Sprites are barely visible to the naked eye. They sometimes look bluish
closest to the clouds, but extend red, wispy flashes upward. Some occur as
high as 60 miles above the storm. On images from weather satellites and
space shuttles, sprites appear as marvelously complex shapes. They look like
"picket fences," "octopi-like," or "enormous strange blobs," according to
observers.

No one knows how long the three phenomena have been around. They may be as
old as the planet, or they may be more recent. Scientists have found reports
going back to 1886. They mention strange lightning shooting high above
thunderstorms. But scientists didn't really notice them until they examined
images from space.

Sprites were scientifically proven to exist in 1989. Researchers at the
University of Minnesota saw strange plumes of light shooting almost 18 miles
upward from a storm.

A team from the University of Alaska filmed similar red flashes in 1994.
They were named sprites, after the elusive creatures in Shakespeare's play
"The Tempest."

Researchers have captured images of sprites (and elves and blue jets) using
low-light-level television technology. A person on the ground has a slight
chance of seeing one, though. They appear most frequently in the Midwest, as
far south as Texas and as far west as Colorado. The space shuttle has
spotted them over Australia, Africa, Indonesia, and Panama. Not all violent
thunderstorms produce sprites.

What causes them? Don Latham, of the Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula,
Mont., has a theory. During massive forest fires, sprites are more abundant.
It is already known that forest fires produce positively charged particles
that rise into the air. You don't need big fires to create sprites, but
maybe the positive electrical charges from fires are a link.

Not long after the existence of sprites was verified, blue jets were found.
A team of scientists from the University of Alaska was studying a massive
hailstorm in Arkansas. Flying nearby, they saw rays of blue light
discharging far above the tops of clouds. The rays were streaking along at
216,000 m.p.h.!

Blue jets are very rare, though, and can barely be seen with the naked eye.
They may be linked to powerful hailstorms.

And elves? These are the latest of the strange weather phenomena to be
documented. Elves look like huge bluish or white disks or cone-shaped light
coming from the top of a thunderstorm. Some grow to be 250 miles or more in
diameter. They can extend 60 miles into the air.

Elves may be produced when electromagnetic pulses move through the
ionosphere. This is the atmospheric layer containing electrically charged
air. The pulses could come from radio waves within the lightning flashes
themselves.

Elves last less than 1/1000th of a second. Like those impish creatures in
fairy tales, they're gone in the blink of an eye!

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Changing the Times and Seasons
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:18:31 -0500

Items of interest...

http://www.reformation.org/changing_the_times_and_seasons.html

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Sheikh Yasin: Israel will disappear in a few decades
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:25:37 -0500

thr 051
Palestine-Yasin
http://www.irna.com/newshtm/eng/01160006.htm

Sheikh Yasin: Israel will disappear in a few decades

Athens, Aug. 22, IRNA -- Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yasin has predicted that the Zionist regime will cease to exist in a few decades, said a report from al-Qods.

Speaking on Sharja satellite tv program Monday night, Sheik Yasin said the disappearance of Israel was a religious and historical eventuality.

''The Quran says that very clearly...I have no doubt that this will happen in a few decades, certainly this century,'' said Yasin during a special program marking the passage of 31 years since the burning of al Aqsa Mosque by a Zionist arsonist.

The Islamic leader pointed out that he was optimistic that Arabs and Muslims were increasingly aware of the grave dangers surrounding the Aqsa Mosque.

''The Jews want to destroy the mosque in order to build their temple...this should be clear to us all.''

Yasin stressed that the path of resistance and Jihad was the only way to liberate Palestine, saying that this method proved its validity in south Lebanon.

He also called on Arab regimes to wake up, because the Zionists don't aim to swallow only Palestine but the Arab world as well.

''There is going to be a larger confrontation and we'd better be prepared for it.''

The Mufti of al-Qods, Ikrema Sabri spoke during the same program, saying that Zionist attacks on Haram al-Sharif increased in frequency in the last few years.

He pointed out that the recent decision by the Zionist regime's high rabbinate to discuss the prospects of building a synagogue within the confines of the Haram al-Sharif signaled a serious development in their designs against Islam's third holiest shrine.

KA/NK/JH End
::irna 22/08/2000 16:00

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Re: Bringing Back the Tiger
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Brenda")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 14:17:16 -0400

I am curious as to why they would want to bring this wolf back, since it
kills sheep and livestock?

Brenda

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shophar_Sho_Good" <bpr-list@philologos.org>
To: BPR Mailing List <bpr-list@philologos.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 12:37 PM
Subject: [BPR] - Bringing Back the Tiger

> Bringing Back the Tiger
> Scientists Hope DNA Will Allow Cloning of Extinct Marsupial
>
> A captive Tasmanian tiger at the Hobart Zoo. The last known living species,
> it died in 1936. Though called a tiger, it was really a marsupial wolf.
> Settlers drove it into extinction to protect their sheep. (Hobart Zoo)

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Crime syndicate in internet bank raid
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 14:35:23 -0400

Crime syndicate in internet bank raid
by Justin Davenport and Tom Sykes

Organised criminals have staged what is believed to be the first bank raid
in cyberspace with a suspected attempt to gain hundreds of thousands of
pounds from online bank Egg.

Three suspects were arrested by National Crime Squad officers after a
six-month inquiry involving the bank, which has 1.2 million customers.

Egg, Britain's first internet bank, today said it had not lost money, but
police sources said there had been a loss, understood to be several thousand
pounds rather than earlier reports of hundreds of thousands.

It is believed that no money was stolen from individual accounts.

The bank said its online security had not been breached but the raid will
send shockwaves through the internet banking industry.

The alleged robbery was carried out by members of a suspected crime
syndicate and is a sign that gangsters are turning to the computer from
conventional crime such as bank robbery or vice.

While credit card and personal details have been obtained by hackers on the
internet, so far no one has managed to obtain money from a bank. The latest
incident is understood to have involved multiple bogus applications for savings
accounts and loans.

The three men were questioned for 24 hours at Milton Keynes police station
before being released on police bail today pending further inquiries.

Police made early-morning raids on seven homes in Milton Keynes in
Buckinghamshire and on other addresses in Bedfordshire and
Northamptonshire. Computer equipment and a small amount of cash and drugs were seized.

Police said they had been approached by Egg several months ago, saying
they had a problem. Later it emerged that other internet banks were targeted by the
alleged criminal group, though it is unclear how many were at risk.

Detective Sergeant Mick Randall, who led the operation, said: "This has
been a complex investigation involving organised criminals who we believe are using
the internet as a medium for committing serious crime."

The National Crime Squad, which tackles organised crime, said: "We worked
with Egg and acted at an early stage. This could have been a lot worse."

Egg's spokeswoman said the bank worked with police to develop software to
enable them to trace people making fraudulent applications. She said: "This
software was installed about two months ago and led to the arrests today. No
loss was suffered by Egg or any of its customers.

"We confirm Egg's security has been unbreached and that customers'
money is secure."

Police intelligence sources believe it only a matter of time before
organised criminals begin to seriously target the internet. The Home Office
recently launched a specialist internet crime unit.

Internet analyst Mamoun Tazi, of investment bank Schroder Salomon Smith
Barney, said online banks were in a race to stay ahead of criminals.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=310694
&in_review_text_id=254455

via: cyberwar@egroups.com

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Lunary Embassy
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 14:46:57 -0400

Lunar Embassy
http://www.lunarembassy.com/
Extraterrestrial Real Estate

Well, that is quite a story!

A declaration of ownership was filed with the american government 20 years
ago by Mr. Dennis M. Hope of the Lunar Embassy, to ensure that a legal
basis for the ownership of the properties sold here can be claimed. On that
wonderful day in 1980, the Lunar Embassy was born.

If this sounds like a joke to you, please read on, because this is no joke. The
sale of lunar property has been ongoing for 20 years by the Lunar Embassy,
which are THE ONLY COMPANY in the world to posess a legal basis and
copyright for the sale of lunar, and other extraterrestrial property within the
confines of our solar system. This is discussed in detail in our general FAQ
on this website as well as our space law page (Warning...that one is heavy
reading!).

In 1996, we opened our first web site, the MoonShop, which was the first
Internet website ever, to be selling properties on any extraterrestrial body.

Within 9 months of opening the MoonShop, the Lunar Embassy was
showered with Internet awards and an overwhelming press attention
worldwide, which is continueing today. At the time of writing, the Lunar
Embassy has appeared on TV in over 180 countries worldwide on
approximately 80 different TV channels, including CNN International, RTL,
NBC and Australia Channel 9 to name only four. There have been literally
hundreds of press articles and radio shows covering the Lunar Embassy and
its offers, which are literally, out of this world. You can sample several
extracts of the press articles and TV shows (in Quicktime Movie format) that
the Lunar Embassy where on, by looking at our TV press reports page.
Unfortunately our computer center is too small to show you all of them (!).
Further, the Lunar Embassy has also received many reviews in magazines,
journals and newspapers around the world, which you can check out here.

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Weekend News Today items (8/23/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 18:53:49 -0400

EPA trying to bury past DDT toxins on ocean floor

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: faith
                         Source: Yahoo/ AP

Wed Aug 23,2000 -- Federal officials have started dropping thousands of tons
of silt onto the ocean floor in an ambitious attempt to overlay the country's
largest deposit of the pesticide DDT. Dredging crews working around the
clock began pumping sediment Tuesday off the Palos Verdes Peninsula into
120-foot-deep waters. The project by the EPA is the first attempt to cap a
hazardous waste deposit in such deep water. Skeptics have questioned
whether the sediment layer can effectively control DDT and resist erosion
and earthquakes. Some believe the cap could unleash even more
contamination by stirring up the pesticide. The test, however, should
determine if the technique can be applied to a larger section of the ocean
floor. From 1947 to 1971, chemical manufacturer Montrose Corp. allegedly
dumped residue into the sewage system, allowing 110 tons of DDT to spread
across 17 square miles of ocean floor. DDT has been linked to cancer and
reproductive problems in humans. ``With this project, we're putting a pretty
small Band-Aid on a very large wound,'' said Fred Schauffler, an EPA
environmental engineer. ``But ... we want to find out if there is a significant
risk to what we're doing. From what we've seen so far, we don't think there
is.''

Strong quake hits western Turkey

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: faith
                         Source: AP

Wed Aug 23,2000 -- A strong quake shook western Turkey on Wednesday,
hitting an area devastated by a massive quake last year. The quake, with a
preliminary magnitude of 5.8, was centered near the town of Hendek, 105
miles east of Istanbul. Hendek is 13 miles east of Adapazari, a town that
was virtually leveled in last year's earthquake, which killed 17,000 people and
destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings. ``No reports of damages or
injuries have reached us yet,'' said Kutluay Oktem, the coordinator of relief
work in the quake zone. The quake hit at 4:41 p.m, shaking buildings in
Istanbul, Turkey's largest city with some 12 million inhabitants.

Russian scientists to build pyramid over volcanic vent in Japan

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Reuters

Wed Aug 23,2000 -- Russian scientists are building a wooden pyramid over a
volcanic vent on an island off the north coast of Japan to try to trap gases
containing the rare metal rhenium, the New Scientist reported on
Wednesday. Rhenium, a hard-wearing silvery metal with a high melting point,
is an essential part of aerospace components, satellites and missiles and is
also used as a catalyst for producing high octane fuels. The scientists hope
rhenium sulphide gas will be trapped in the pyramid and then channelled to
another trap filled with a mineral called zeolite, which absorbs the gas.

Israel threatens to intercept PA helicopters

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Arutz-7

Wed Aug 23,2000 -- Israel has threatened to intercept Palestinian
helicopters, or force them to land, if they again deviate from their flight paths.
Arafat's choppers, of late, have repeatedly flown over Gush Katif during their
training exercises, and have even entered civilian airspace. The helicopters
are part of a special formation under the direct control of Arafat. The
Palestinians originally claimed that the problem lay in the narrow air-strip
they were assigned, but when that contention was shown to be false, they
said that the deviations were a result of human error.

International 10-member panel plans UN overhaul with it's own defense force

                         Weekend News Today
                         Lead: Kelly
                         Source: Nando Times

Wed Aug 23,2000 -- The United Nations will face more peacekeeping failures
in the 21st century without major overhaul, according to an international
panel. The panel called Wednesday for the equivalent of a U.N. ministry of
defense to bolster the world body. The 10-member panel did not endorse a
United Nations army, but it did encourage the 188 U.N. member states to
form several brigade-size forces of 5,000 troops each that could deploy in 30
to 90 days, depending on the complexity of the U.N. peacekeeping
operation. In the future, the panel said, U.N. military forces must be capable
of responding to greater challenges - which means bigger, better equipped,
and more costly missions with the authority to use force. It also means
radical changes in U.N. procurement to facilitate rapid deployments.

Annan asked the panel to make recommendations to improve prospects for
peace in the 21st century, which he wants world leaders to consider at the
upcoming Sept. 6-8 Millennium Summit at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The historic meeting presents a unique opportunity to begin renewing the
United Nations' capacity "to secure and build peace," the secretary-general
said in letters asking the Security Council and General Assembly to
circulate the report to U.N. member states. The 58-page report called for a
substantially larger, modernized, high-tech U.N. peacekeeping department in
New York staffed by well-trained military professionals who use information
technology and plan operations with a U.N. team including political, human
rights, development and election experts. It did not give a price tag.

http://www.upway.com/cgi/readnews.cgi?day=00_08_23&item=#967059511

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Ransom Demand Made for Papal Skull
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 19:16:01 -0400

03:18 AM ET 08/23/00

Ransom Demand Made for Papal Skull

ILLUECA, Spain (AP) _ The mayor of a Spanish town has received a ransom demand for the stolen skull of a 14th-century pope.

The cranium belonged to Benedict XIII, a Spaniard whose 14th-century papacy was part of a tumultuous period called the Great Schism because there were rival popes in the Roman Catholic Church.

After Benedict XIII died in 1423, his remains changed hands several times, and over the centuries all but the skull was lost. It was stolen in April from a rundown mansion in the town of Sabinan, in his native Aragon region in northeast Spain.

Now, the mayor of Illueca _ the pontiff's birthplace _ says he was contacted by someone claiming to have the skull and willing to relinquish it for a price.

``I honestly believe this is no joke,'' Mayor Javier Vicente Ines said Tuesday.

He said he received photos late last month along with the first of two letters, including shots of the cranium inside the glass urn where it had been stored in the Sabinan mansion.

The second letter, received early this month, suggested a meeting in the city of Zaragoza to exchange the skull for $5,400. Vicente Ines agreed, and went with a hidden microphone and plainclothes police watching from a distance. But no one asking for ransom turned up.

Vicente Ines said Illueca wants the cranium _ he called Benedict XIII ``our most noble son'' _ although it cannot pay because it is stolen property.

``Besides its historical significance, we attach sentimental value to this skull,'' the mayor said.

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2569128338-c4d

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

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

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