Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
July 19, 2000


Digest Home | 2000 | July, 2000

 

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Drink without drinking
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 08:37:51 -0400

Drink without drinking
David Jones

The liver is a vigilant guardian of our health. All the blood from the stomach
and digestive tract passes through it before entering general circulation. Any
poisons or dangerous substances we have swallowed are likely to be
detoxified by the liver before they can do any damage. This prudent
arrangement annoys pharmacologists, many of whose drugs are badly
degraded by the liver before they can reach the organ in need of them. It also
sabotages drinkers, for the liver rapidly oxidizes alcohol. So Daedalus is
looking for some way of by-passing the liver. Dedicated alcoholics could then
get drunk on far less alochol.

Direct injection seems an unattractive option. Skin-abosorption seems
better, yet few drinkers would want to sit in a bath of beer. But Daedalus
recalls that the skin is very permeable to fatty substances. Suppose the
alcohol was converted into a fatty ester such as ethyl oleate, and smeared
on the skin. It would be abosrbed rapidly. Once inside, the body's esterases
would hydrolyse it to alcohol. The challenge is to smear the ester on a site
whose subsurface blood flows, not towards the liver, but to the brain.
Somewhere on the neck, over the carotid artery, might perhaps work. The
alcohol would then reach the target organ directly, without wastefully
saturating all the rest of the tissues. A very small quantity, easily within
smearing volume, would suffice; and the liver would be helpless to intervene.

So would the taxman. Ethyl oleate, not being alcohol, would be free of
excise duty. Even if the law caught up with the trick and deemed ethyl esters
to be potable alcohol, the duty on such a small amount would be trivial.

Even the excuse for excise duty, the social damage caused by alcohol,
would largely vanish. Daedalus' 'Rubbing Alcohol' will give the user total
control of his habit. With such small quantities in play, he will reach and
maintain his desired state of intoxication very rapidly. And when the ester
has been abosrbed and metabolized, he will recover sobriety equally fast.
After a cheerful evening's ester carouse, he could sober up in minutes and
drive home entirely safely. He might, of course, wish to maintain tradition by
drinking large amounts of alcohol-free wine or beer at the same time. His liver
would be relieved of its burden; his bladder would not.

Nature Magazine
18 May 2000

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - July 19, 2000 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 08:37:51 -0400

8:00 PM Eastern

 HIST - THE SPANISH ARMADA - Historians consider what really
          happened to the ``invincible'' fleet.(CC)(TVG)

9:00

 HIST - THE GREAT COMMANDERS - "Napoleon: The Battle of
          Austerlitz" - Napoleon exploits the French Revolution to
          become emperor.(CC)(TVG)

 TLC - JUNKYARD WARS - "Marine Salvage" - Teams lift a car
          from a water-filled quarry.(CC)(TVG)

9:30

 TBN - JACK VAN IMPE PRESENTS

10:00

 TLC - JUNKYARD WARS - "Walking Machines" - Teams build and
          race walking machines.(CC)(TVPG)

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - U.N. Security Council adopts first health-only resolution -- on AIDS
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 08:43:19 -0400

U.N. Security Council adopts first health-only resolution -- on AIDS

                  July 18, 2000
                  Web posted at: 4:48 p.m. EST (2048 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations Security Council has
adopted its first-ever resolution on a health issue, asking countries to
establish anti-AIDS strategies and to increase testing and education efforts
among peacekeeping troops.

"AIDS is as great a security challenge as we have faced since the founding
of the Security Council," said U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.
"Wherever peacekeepers go they attract women who are working full-time or
part-time as prostitutes. The process of spreading is self-evident."

The United States sponsored the resolution, which was passed unanimously
Monday after considerable revision caused by objections raised by several
countries, including Indonesia and Russia. Diplomats said delegates
protested what they viewed as U.S. interference in their internal affairs.

Also, ambassadors whose nations provide peacekeeping troops complained
that the United States, which has about 800 UN police and observers but no
soldiers, was trying to mandate training and education for others.

"My delegation holds the view that linking HIV to international peacekeeping
operations raises serious questions," said Hazairin Pohan of Indonesia.

Holbrooke acknowledged the criticism, saying the resolution "in no way
infringes on sovereignty (or) authority of countries, but shows the collective
will of the Security Council."

While there are no statistics concerning HIV and AIDS among UN
peacekeepers, Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the UNAIDS program,
called the problem "significant."

"Peacekeepers and other international workers must be made to realize that
in the HIV/AIDS virus they confront as deadly an enemy as the traditional
enemies they usually come in contact with," said Malaysian Ambassador
Hasmy Agam.

The resolution may not have an immediate effect on the world's 36,000
peacekeepers. Delegates questioned the United States' focus on AIDS
among peacekeepers rather than more immediate treatments such as
making AIDS drugs available more cheaply.

"It remains painfully clear the profit motive takes precedence over humanity's
well-being," said a delegate from Zimbabwe.

The important thing, said Piot, is that action is being urged on a global scale.
 

So far, the UN has ordered the distribution of nearly 2 million condoms to
peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, East Timor and other war-torn areas.

"Commitment is vital," Piot said. "Resolutions will help, but the world must
do more than talk about this epidemic. We must end it."

CNN Correspondent Brian Palmer and The Associated Press contributed to
this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/AIDS/07/18/un.aids/index.html

Link via:
http://www.newsviewtoday.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Unseen Dimensions Could Explain Weaknes Of Gravity
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 08:51:09 -0400

Unseen Dimensions Could Explain Weaknes Of Gravity

  In just two years, a new proposal for solving some of science's most
persistent puzzles -- most important, how to include gravity in an
explanation of the fundamental forces of nature -- has become the hottest
theory in physics.

Now, in an article titled "The Universe's Unseen Dimensions," Nima
Arkani-Hamed of the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Savas Dimopoulos of Stanford University and Gia
Dvali of New York University explain their revolutionary ideas in the August,
2000, issue of Scientific American.

The notion sounds deceptively simple: besides the familiar three dimensions
of space there may be other dimensions, too small to see yet perhaps as
large as a millimeter.

Arkani-Hamed and his colleagues came up with the theory to explain why
the Standard Model of particle physics can give a common explanation for all the
forces of nature except gravity.

Another way of phrasing the conundrum is to ask, why is gravity so feeble?
Although we think of gravity as strong -- we can get hurt if we fall down --
compared to electromagnetism, gravity is astonishingly weak. It takes the
gravity of the whole Earth to hold a pin on a tabletop; a toy magnet can lift
it easily.

Perhaps gravity only seems weak, however. If electromagnetism and the
forces that act on quarks are confined to our familiar three dimensions of space and
one of time, while gravity is free to propagate in all dimensions, we would
experience only part of its effects.

It's a worldview that opens bizarre landscapes -- including possible parallel
universes coexisting with our own, in real space and near enough to touch.
Our familiar world may inhabit a kind of "membrane" in a multidimensional
"bulk" of possible universes.

So strange is this picture that "the most extraordinary thing about the
theory is that it didn't die an immediate death," says Arkani-Hamed, who is a
member of Berkeley Lab's Physics Division and an assistant professor of
physics at the University of California at Berkeley. "It explains a lot and
raises a lot of possibilities, yet it contradicts no experimental results."

Many other attempts to explain the Standard Model's shortcomings have
been made, but the new theory has an enormous advantage over them all: it can
easily be tested in giant particle accelerators already under construction
and in tabletop experiments already underway. Indeed, the theory's
predictions will most likely be proved or disproved within a decade.

Proof will signal the biggest upheaval in fundamental physics since Isaac
Newton saw the apple fall in 1665. Scientists have long assumed that G, the
gravitational constant Newton devised to calculate the attractive force
between masses at different distances, is fundamental and unchanging.
Arkani-Hamed and his colleagues suggest we have little reason for assuming
that G is fundamental.

"It has only been measured down to about a millimeter," he says. "What if
gravity is actually as strong as the other forces at distances we haven't
measured yet?"

While in three spatial dimensions, gravity obeys an inverse square law -- if
you halve the distance between masses, the gravitational attraction between
them quadruples; cut the distance to a third, and the force increases nine
times -- in four spatial dimensions, gravity increases or falls off as the
inverse cube of the distance. With each additional dimension, the inverse law
increases.

Two extra dimensions need only extend about a millimeter for gravity to be
comparable in strength to the other forces.

There may be more than two extra dimensions, but even if there are seven --
a number favored by string theorists -- the distance across which the strength
of gravity would rapidly increase would be as wide as a uranium atom, still
vast compared to the tiny "rolled-up" dimensions of string theory.
The new theory of Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Dvali is not string theory,
but they have shown that their theory of gravity in extra "large" dimensions
is not only compatible with string theory, it offers interesting solutions to
many outstanding questions.

For example, there may be other membranes in the bulk -- real worlds less
than a millimeter from our own -- which communicate with ours only through
gravity; invisible masses confined to these parallel worlds could be the
universe's mysterious dark matter.

"Or instead of invoking parallel universes, we might live on a folded
universe," Arkani-Hamed suggests. "In this view, 'dark matter' might be just
ordinary matter, because the light from a star on a fold only one millimeter
away might have to travel billions of light years along the wall to reach us.
Although we feel its gravity, we haven't seen it yet."

Moreover, if the force of gravity increases dramatically at short distances,
it may be possible for the next generation of accelerators -- such as
Europe's Large Hadron Collider scheduled to begin operation in 2005 -- to
create black holes, regions smaller than the radius of the extra dimensions
where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape.

Since small black holes quickly evaporate by Hawking radiation (orphaned
members of pairsm of virtual particles whose partners are swallowed by the
hole, and which carry off some of the hole's mass), this low-energy radiation
from a high-energy collision would be an unmistakable signal that a black
hole had been created.

"All the old mysteries of the Standard Model can be addressed in this
theory, and there is no conflict with either supersymmetry or string theory," says
Arkani-Hamed. "If we do the experiments, we have a good chance of seeing
evidence for or against these ideas in the next ten years." - By Paul Preuss
(For more on the theory of gravity in large extra dimensions, go to this
website or visit the Particle Adventure website and click on "extra
dimensions.")

http://unisci.com/stories/20003/0718001.htm

via: Third_Watch@egroups.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Police Patrol Hospitals for Smoking Offenders
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:04:03 -0400

 Tuesday July 18 8:22 AM ET

 Police Patrol Hospitals for Smoking
 Offenders

 ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police began patrolling hospitals Monday to
 arrest any staff, patients or visitors caught smoking as they enforced a
 long-ignored cigarette ban.

 Angry at persistent smoking in hospitals, the health ministry issued a
decree saying anyone caught doing it would
be arrested and taken straight to court for summary trial.

 Television showed uniformed police walking through the large Athens
Evangelismos hospital corridors on the
 first day of the decree's enforcement. Offenders face fines at the discretion
of the judge.

 Greece has the highest per capita cigarette consumption in the European
Union.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000718/od/smoking_dc_1.html

Link via:
http://www.newsviewtoday.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - AIDS-Hit Country to Ban Mini Skirts at Schools
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:07:04 -0400

 Tuesday July 18 8:22 AM ET
 AIDS-Hit Country to Ban Mini Skirts at
 Schools

 MBABANE (Reuters) - Swaziland will ban mini-skirts in schools to try to halt
 the spread of AIDS, a government official said on Tuesday.

 The aim is to put a stop to sexual relationships between teachers and their
 female pupils in a country where at least one quarter of the population is
infected with HIV. Schoolgirls are
 widely blamed for enticing teachers with their short skirts.

 ``The ban will go into effect next year and schoolgirls 10 years and older will
be required to wear knee-length
 skirts,'' a source at the ministry of education told Reuters.

 ``We are living in tough times because of HIV/AIDS and...we need to
address the problem of dress code
 among students because it all starts from there,'' the source added.

 Girls face expulsion if they breach the ban.

 In 1969, Swaziland banned all mini-skirts for morality reasons but the order
lapsed because it was difficult to
 police dress codes in public. A ban in schools would be easier to enforce,
the ministry official said.

 Like much of Africa, where the majority of the world's 34.5 million people
infected with HIV live, Swaziland is
 struggling with an AIDS crisis.

 At least 250,000 of the population of one million is infected with HIV, and life
expectancy is predicted to drop
 to 30 years from the present 38.

 But Swaziland's efforts to curb the disease have been questioned by health
experts. The country's parliament
 this week begins debating legislation for the mandatory sterilization of
people infected with HIV/AIDS.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000718/od/skirts_dc_1.html

Link via:
http://www.newsviewtoday.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Afghan Taliban Shave Pakistani Players in Shorts
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:08:55 -0400

 Tuesday July 18 8:22 AM ET
 Afghan Taliban Shave Pakistani Players in
 Shorts

 QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The religious police of Afghanistan's ruling
 Taliban movement arrested visiting Pakistani football players and shaved
their heads because they were wearing shorts, Afghan and team officials said
 Monday.

 The players from the Pakistani border town of Chaman were released after
Saturday's incident at a playground in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar, the Taliban headquarters.

 The movement regards wearing shorts as a violation of its strict Islamic
dress code.

 A junior team of Chaman's Young Afghan Football Club had played two
matches in Kandahar and was warming up for a third when the Taliban police took the players into custody
as thousands of spectators watched, club manager Abdul Qayyum said.

 ``Their heads were shaven and (they were later) released,'' he said. ``Five of
our players managed to escape from the scene.''

 A Taliban Information Ministry official in Kandahar, Maulvi Hameed, said the
action was taken because the players had violated the Taliban dress code under which male athletes must
wear trousers while playing.

 Qayyum said his club players were ``quite annoyed'' at the treatment they
received in Kandahar. ``Guests are not treated like this in our society.''

 A source at Pakistan's consulate in Kandahar said: ``It's a common thing
here.''

 The Taliban, which has vowed to create the world's purest Islamic state, has
ordered women to wear an all-enveloping ''burqa'' veil while going out and men to grow long beards and
wear ``shalwar-kameez'' (baggy trousers and long shirt) with their heads covered by a turban or cap.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000718/od/shorts_dc_1.html

Link via:
http://www.newsviewtoday.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Kindergarten Children to Get Sex Education
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:09:56 -0400

 Tuesday July 18 8:22 AM ET
 Kindergarten Children to Get Sex Education

 BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai children as young as four will receive sex
 education in a bid to halt underage pregnancies and the spread of HIV and
 AIDS, the state-owned Thai News Agency reported on Tuesday.

 It quoted the Thai public health ministry as saying a formal program of sex
 education was needed from the nursery schools upwards because class
 teachers had been too embarrassed in the past to explain the facts of life to
pupils.

 ``Teaching children at a younger age sex education can reduce the
incidence of HIV and AIDS and cut the
 abortion rate,'' it quoted Suwanna Vorakamin, the head of the ministry's
family planning division, as saying.

 About one million Thais are estimated to be infected with HIV, the virus
which leads to AIDS. Officials say the
 rising number of underage pregnancies is a problem. There are no
authoritative figures on youthful pregnancies
 on Thailand.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000718/od/thailand_dc_1.html

Link via:
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Forced from job by 12-year-old sex offender: teacher sues the State
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:14:29 -0400

Forced from job by 12-year-old sex offender: teacher sues the
                    State
                    By BRAD CLIFTON
                    18jul00

A SCHOOLTEACHER forced to accept a 12-year-old sex offender into her
class became so stressed she suffered a breakdown which destroyed her
career, a court heard yesterday.

Elizabeth Sheargold claims she was not told the true nature and extent of
the pupil's crimes =96 which included almost 40 sexual offences against boys
and girls younger than himself.

Ms Sheargold =96 herself a victim of sexual abuse in the past =96 allegedly could
not cope with the student's presence and left teaching to seek psychiatric
help.

The 43-year-old is suing the State of NSW for up to $750,000, claiming the
Education Department was negligent by placing the child in her class.

Ms Sheargold told the District Court yesterday the student was placed into
her Year 6 class at Thomas Acres Primary School, Ambarvale, near
Campbelltown, in April 1996.

She said she was told by her deputy principal the child was a sex offender
but that the school "probably never will know" the extent of his crimes.

"In relation to a 12-year-old boy, I honestly thought if he was being enrolled in
a public school it was probably very minor offences like lifting a dress or
grabbing a young girl on the breast," Ms Sheargold said.

But she later learned from a child care worker the boy had been charged with
"36 counts of sexual assault, nine of penetration, on boys and girls younger
than himself".

"I was quite astounded ... I became very anxious worrying about the other
children within my class and my school," she said.

In the months that followed she was forced to deal with complaints from
young girls in her class that the boy "would not leave them alone".

At one stage, after instructing the child to write her a letter explaining why he
misbehaved, the teacher was shocked by the written reply.

"Ms Sheargold, the reason I have been misbehaving in your class is because
I want to sexually assault a child in my neighbourhood and I know I can't,"
the boy wrote.

After approaching her deputy principal for help, Ms Sheargold was allegedly
told nothing could be done and everyone "would just have to muddle along
together".

"I became unable to sleep or eat, I was constantly worried about the
implications on the other children," she said.

She told the court she had been the victim of years of physical and sexual
abuse at the hands of her former partner, which included being "held
hostage" in a car for a night.

"I started having flashbacks into my past, I lost weight down to 42kg."

The child was removed from her class only after Ms Sheargold began
abusing other students and even "grabbed one by the scruff of the throat"in
front of his mother.

But her emotional state was allegedly such that she left teaching and sought
psychiatric help.

Her barrister Michael Cranitch said Ms Sheargold had never been trained to
deal with such a student.

The hearing continues.

http://dailytelegraph.com.au/common/story_page/0,4511,952810%255E2422,
00.html

Link via:
http://www.newsviewtoday.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Ancient Queensland mine could change world history
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:18:35 -0400

Ancient Queensland mine could change world history, ABC News, 19/7/00

 The discovery of a 3,000-year-old mine and harbour on the coast of central
 Queensland is set to change Australian, if not world history.

 Resident Val Osborn has traced the remaining structures to the early
 mining endeavours of the Phoenicians around 1000 BC.

 Mr Osborn, who has been closely guarding his discovery for four years,
 says the area's rich mineral deposits attracted the Phoenicians to the
 northern Australian coast more than 2,700 years before Captain Cook.

 Mr Osborn says the discovery at Freshwater Point, near the big coal ports
 south of Mackay, has attracted world scientific attention.

 It includes huge sea walls designed to allow exporting by sea.

 "They were labour intensive, huge, the one at Sarina is some 800 metres
 long," he said.

 "The harbour wall and the boulders are polished granite and they're set in
 iron slag cement and copper slags.

 "I mean it's a monstrous thing you could put three, 200 foot ships end to
 end in there. It's as calm as a mill pond and beautifully engineered."

 Mr Osborn says the structures will be further dated when archaeologists
 visit Sarina.

 "We've got also a Phoenician bell temple and it's typical and we've also
 got a cemetery and we'll have to wait and see the archaeologist."

 "Nothing has been done yet, we've got various academics around the world
 interested in it of course, it's changing world history."

via: origin@egroups.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - High-risk high school students getting paid to attend class
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:25:51 -0400

Tuesday, July 18, 2000

                     High-risk Spaulding High
                     freshmen getting paid to attend
                     class

                     By KATHELEEN CONTI

                     Democrat Staff Writer

                     ROCHESTER =97 Selected eighth-grade students
                     considered to be at "high risk" for dropping out of
                     school will be getting paid while they learn.

                     The students will earn $6 an hour while taking
                     summer classes as part of a federally funded
                     program that would give them the opportunity to
                     earn half of a high school credit.

                     The program, Drop Out Prevention Through
                     Family Support, is funded through a $75,000
                     Goals 2000 grant. It will focus on improving the
                     academics of 20 at-risk students by matching
                     them with 10 teacher-mentors during the
                     summer and through the school year, according
                     to grant administrator and Spaulding High School
                     Principal Liz Mantelli.

                     The summer component of the program will
                     require a total of 110 hours from each student,
                     for which they will be paid $660 gross income.

                     Students will have to take 80 hours of classes,
                     including English, math and "life skills," which
                     includes study skills and behavior. They will use
                     the remaining 30 hours for community service
                     and homework.

                     "It=92s radically different," Mantelli said. "We
                     wanted to give them one last try before they drop
                     out. To get them before they reach high school.
                     It was our chance to help them get excited about
                     high school and to ultimately do something good
                     for society instead of dropping out."

                     Councilor Ralph Torr expressed outrage that the
                     program offers the students money.

                     "They=92re paying them for going to school," Torr
                     said Monday. "You have to have a little initiative
                     to make it in this world. These kids obviously
                     don=92t. I know people who are working harder for
                     less than $6 an hour."

                     "If you can start on welfare when you=92re 18 years
                     old, you can start when you=92re 14," he said.

                     Torr said he does not think School Board
                     members were aware that the students would be
                     getting paid.

                     "Paying them to go to school is just like putting
                     fuel on a fire. This is outrageous. The School
                     Department shouldn=92t approve this," he said.

                     At last Thursday=92s School Board meeting, the
                     board indicated that they were not aware that the
                     students would be getting paid. According to
                     Superintendent Raymond Yeagley, board
                     members who came on board this year might
                     have not been aware of that fact because the
                     grant was approved last year.

                     "The new ones (board members) probably didn=92t
                     have all the details and it=92s been over a year for
                     the rest," Yeagley said.

                     Payment details were not fully worked out last
                     year, which may have caused confusion among
                     the current board members, according to
                     Yeagley.

                     "I don=92t think they had a complete view of how
                     students were getting paid and for what, but they
                     were made aware that there would be some
                     payment aspect for the students," he said.

                     Mantelli said she thinks that if the program was
                     up for vote and the current board knew about the
                     payment plan, they would still have approved it.
                     "The board loved the program (and) the state
                     approved the entire grant. The state said that this
                     was one of the top grants they read last
                     summer," Mantelli said.

                     The social worker hired to work with the students
                     will also be paid from the grant, while the
                     teacher-mentors will get a stipend of $500.

                     The original grant proposal stated that each
                     student would get their own personal computer
                     to take home, but the state frowned on that idea,
                     Mantelli said. Instead, the state approved about
                     $14,000 worth of funding for 10 computers, one
                     for each teacher-mentor.

                     The academic year portion of the program
                     requires students to meet with their
                     teacher-mentors for an hour after school every
                     day, per a contract agreement. If they do well for
                     the first quarter, then they will no longer be
                     required to see their teacher-mentors.

                     If they do not improve, they will have to keep
                     working with their teacher-mentors for each
                     quarter, Mantelli said.

                     "If it (the program) will turn 20 students=92 lives
                     around, then that will be good for everyone. If it
                     keeps them from dropping out and getting on
                     welfare that=92s good," Mantelli said.

                     "It=92s radical. The state approved it. We don=92t
                     know if it will work, but we wanted to impact our
                     dropout rate," she said.

                     According to Mantelli, Rochester had the sixth
                     highest dropout rate in New Hampshire at 7.9
                     percent in 1997-1998. The following year, the
                     rate went down to 5.7 percent, but Mantelli said
                     it still needs improvement.

                     The federal program is in its third year.
                     Previously, the grant was used to improve
                     technology and students=92 mathematics abilities.
                     According to Mantelli, the goal is to have the
                     dropout prevention program around for another
                     two years.

http://207.180.26.213/news2000/july/18/ro0718c.htm

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Illinois mayor vetoes plan to buy out Muslims
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 11:38:22 -0500

Illinois mayor vetoes plan to buy out Muslims
  
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500229818-500332505-501896268-
0,00.html

By MARTHA IRVINE, Associated Press

PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. (July 19, 2000 12:19 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com)
- Calling the proposal "fiscally irresponsible," Mayor Dean Koldenhoven
vetoed a measure to pay a Muslim group $200,000 to drop plans to convert a
church into a mosque.

The mayor, who had previously called the City Council plan "embarrassing"
and an insult to Muslims, struck it down Tuesday night.

The proposal has raised issues of religious bigotry in this mostly white and
Christian south Chicago suburb of about 12,000 residents.

After the veto, the Rev. Edward Cronin, a local Catholic priest, called for
the community to "heal the hurt." He said the debate has made Palos Heights
appear bigoted and intolerant of non-Christian religions.

"There may be some truth to that perception," he said.

Many of the town's 450 Muslim families attend an overflowing mosque in
Bridgeview, a few miles to the north. They had agreed to purchase a
Christian Reformed church for $2.1 million, but met with resistance from
residents and some council members.

At one City Council meeting, a resident suggested that Muslims needed to be
converted to Christianity and told them to "go back to your own countries."

Council members maintain they want the city to buy the church instead so it
can be converted to a recreation center annex.

The council eventually came up with the plan to give the group $200,000 to
cancel the sale.

The council decided not to try to override Koldenhoven's veto.

Rouhy Shalabi, an attorney for the Al Salam Mosque Foundation, did not
attend the meeting and was not available for comment. He has said the
foundation might sue if the city rescinded the offer.

"I must do what I believe is best for the city," Koldenhoven said.

At least two residents called for the mayor's resignation. "It was wrong to
call the residents of this community racist," said Michael Patt, pointing at
the mayor.

Several others spoke in support of Koldenhoven. "If he doesn't get
re-elected, at least he'll be able to look at himself in the mirror," Eind
Matariyeh said.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Quake fears rise as islands shift
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 11:47:03 -0500

Wednesday, July 19, 2000
  
JAPAN TODAY

Quake fears rise as islands shift

PETER HADFIELD
http://www.scmp.com/News/Asia/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-200007190342440
52.asp

People on the remote island of Oshima are feeling a little closer to their
cousins on the mainland this week. Two centimetres closer, in fact. That's
how far the island has shifted in the wake of seismic activity this month.
Oshima is the most northerly of the Izu islands, named after the peninsula
off which they lie. Politically, they are part of the Tokyo metropolis,
150km to the northeast, but geologically they are an oddity.

As Oshima heads north, the most southerly of the Izu chain, Kozushima, has
shifted west-south-west by a whopping 16cm in the past couple of weeks. Yet
Shikinejima, in the middle, has moved southeast by 5cm. In other words, the
three islands have moved in different directions. But just what is going on?

Seismologists think a huge glob of magma - underground molten rock - is
welling up and pushing the seabed between them apart. This has been going on
for millions of years, and explains how the islands formed. But how does
this recent geological activity relate to a nearby fault line?

The Tokai fault, running parallel to the Izu peninsular's west coast, is the
most widely monitored on Earth. The Japanese Government has installed a
multi-billion yen network of monitors around it in order to measure every
nudge and every twitch, and the data is instantly sent to a nerve centre in
Tokyo.

The fault is the boundary between two tectonic plates. The Philippine sea
plate is moving northwest and slowly diving beneath the Japanese mainland.
As it does so it drags the lip of the mainland down a little each year.
Every 120 years or so the lip of the mainland springs back up, causing a
massive earthquake.

The last time this happened was in 1854, and the next quake is now overdue.
In the past, major earthquakes have been preceded by an eruption on Oshima.
This year the eruptions have been on another island in the chain,
Miyakejima. So this week scientists are watching the nudges and twitches on
the fault line much more closely than usual.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - 'Ghosts' shut Kenyan schools
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 12:03:51 -0500

'Ghosts' shut Kenyan schools
TWO Kenyan boarding schools have closed following invasions of ghosts, it
was reported yesterday. Gitogo secondary school, in Kinangop, was closed
after ghosts attacked boys on Thursday night and pupils stampeded, said the
Daily Nation. Kambaa girls' school, Kiambu, was allegedly invaded by spirits
on Saturday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002550734463243&rtmo=VPZx444x&atmo=tttttttd
&pg=/et/00/7/19/wbul19.html#go2

* Man Admits Sending Ghosts to Attack Girls. A businessman has confessed to
sending ghosts to attack schoolgirls in eastern Kenya, a newspaper reported.
The unnamed businessman was arrested over the weekend after the pupils of
Itokela Girls Secondary School marched to the district commissioner's office
to protest against an invasion of ghosts at the school, the East African
Standard said. The girls said the man had hired the ghosts to torment them
after his daughter left the school. The man apparently agreed to meet the
cost of exorcising the spirits - who seem to delight in pushing the girls to
the floor - and hired a ghostbuster named Ntingili who "retrieved shells and
other witchcraft paraphernalia" from the school grounds. [Source: Reuters]
http://paranormal.about.com/science/paranormal/library/blnews600.htm?iam=dpi
le&terms=Kenya%2C+ghosts

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - (Fwd) Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, July 19, 2000
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 13:13:20 -0400

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 18:04:08 +0300
To: arutz-7@arutzsheva.org
From: Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@IsraelNationalNews.com>
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Send reply to: netnews@a7.org

Arutz Sheva News Service
  <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Wednesday, July 19, 2000 / Tammuz 16, 5760
------------------------------------------------
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
  1. JEWS WORLDWIDE TO FAST FOR JERUSALEM
  2. ISRAELI SOURCES: ARAFAT HAS NOT BUDGED SINCE THE START
  3. SUITCASE TRICK NUMBER 2?
  4. CAMP DAVID COMMENTS
  5. THE ONGOING PALESTINIAN MESSAGE
  6. CLINTON AND THE MONEY
  7. KNESSET: ISRAEL WILL ACT AGAINST UNILATERAL P.A. DECLARATION
  8. SUIT AGAINST BARAK SIGNATURE

1. JEWS WORLDWIDE TO FAST FOR JERUSALEM
Some 30 people are now participating in the hunger strike against the
developing Camp David agreement. The strike, in the Rose Garden outside
the Knesset, is now into its ninth day. Many supporters, including MKs of
the National Religious Party, have come to show their solidarity with the
strikers. Several of the strikers have required medical treatment, but
others have come in their place. Hundreds are expected to take part
tomorrow, the fast of the 17th of Tammuz, in the Mincha prayer service
there. The fast tomorrow was instituted over 2,500 years ago to
commemorate the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem.

2. ISRAELI SOURCES: ARAFAT HAS NOT BUDGED SINCE THE START
The Camp David talks again continued late into the night, with U.S.
President Clinton, then Secretary of State Albright, then Clinton again
trying to convince Arafat to give up on his demand for full sovereignty
over most of the Old City. Israeli sources confirmed today that the only
"concessions" at Camp David have been made by Barak, as Arafat has not
changed his positions since arriving in Camp David last week. A Barak
spokesman in Washington, Eldad Yaniv, was asked if Barak still stands by
his obligation to retain a "united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty;"
Yaniv answered only, "Jerusalem will be large and strong with a Jewish
majority."

Barak's position on Arab refugees has also suffered over the past few days.
 Although until now he has insisted that Israel will take no responsibility
for the refugee question, he is now prepared to express "sorrow" over the
"results of the 1948 war." The Israeli Prime Minister has agreed to accept
100,000 Arabs into Israel, and an unlimited number into Judea and Samaria.

3. SUITCASE TRICK NUMBER 2?
Shortly before 1 PM Israel time (6 AM in Camp David), reports were
received, and later confirmed by Labor party sources, that Prime Minister
Barak had instructed his entourage to prepare to leave Camp David, in light
of "Arafat's intransigence." MK Ophir Pines-Paz said that Barak told him
that "it has become clear that Arafat is not a partner to peace." Paz
further said that he does not think this is merely a ploy by Barak to
pressure Arafat.

Reports circulated later to the effect that this was, in fact, only a
"suitcase exercise" coordinated with the Americans, reminiscent of former
Prime Minister Netanyahu's gesture of packing his suitcases during the Wye
Plantation talks. No preparations by the Israelis to leave have been
noted; Israeli spokesmen continue to say, however, that Barak's intentions
to leave are "serious," and that he will leave at 3 AM Israel time (8 PM
Washington time).

4. CAMP DAVID COMMENTS
        "Whoever lifts his hand, Heaven forbid, against the Land of Israel,
Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount, will be forever disgraced in Jewish
history for this strike against the Jewish religion." So state the two
former Chief Rabbis, Shapira and Eliyahu, in a statement released today...
        Eitan Golan, mayor of the Yesha town of Efrat, is not happy about the
reports that Barak plans to annex his town, as well as Ma'aleh Adumim and
Givat Ze'ev, to Israel: "If the annexation of Gush Etzion to Israel is
good news in itself, it becomes very bad news if it means the division of
Jerusalem or the abandonment of other Yesha settlements to the hands of the
PA... We see the entire Yesha settlement enterprise as one entity. It is
inconceivable that some of us will be saved at the expense of the others..."
        Chavi Atlas of Beit El, one of seven children on a mission to Camp David
to protest Ehud Barak's plan to abandon the Jews of Judea and Samaria, told
Arutz-7 today, "We were not allowed in to Camp David, but as a compromise,
we wrote a letter to Barak, saying that we do not agree to his gambling on
our future... We have spoken with journalists of the entire world, and told
them that we deserve a future just like the rest of the kids in Israel...
The giant demonstration of Sunday night [against the transfer of Yesha]
apparently had some effect here; we were told that Barak asked several
times how many people were there..."

5. THE ONGOING PALESTINIAN MESSAGE
"Yesha settlers corner an Arab farmer in his home, demand his land, and
when he refuses to give in - they beat him to death. With his last
breaths, the Arab begs his son to protect his land from the Yesha
settlers..." The above did not actual occur, but is rather a scene from a
play produced by a Palestinian girls' summer camp and broadcast on
Palestinian television last week. Itamar Marcus, of Palestinian Media
Watch, says it is typical of the message being given to the Palestinian
public. "This is not a lone incident," he told Arutz-7 today, "but one
that reflects the ongoing educational message fed to Palestinian children
and youth. Furthermore, these cultural activities complement actual
military training provided to Palestinian youth."

Marcus, whose organization researches the Palestinian press on a daily
basis, said that the Palestinian papers are filled with daily threats of
violence. A case in point is an announcement sponsored by the Fatah youth
wing announcing special military training exercises for Palestinian youth
in case of a 'potential clash with the conquerors.' "These messages
continue to be published at an unprecedented
pace - I would say that the PA papers [convey] an atmosphere of being on
the verge of war," he said.

Arutz-7's Haggai Segal noted that some of the Israeli press regularly call
on Barak to "make peace, even at the expense of major concessions. Are
there any similar calls in the PA press calling on Arafat to make
compromises?" Marcus responded, "No, just the opposite... The Palestinian
press consistently supports Arafat's stance in Camp David... I doubt that
we will see a 'compromise' by Arafat on the issue of Jerusalem, for he
would then be perceived by his population as a traitor... The PA has been
stressing that just as Sadat received the entire Sinai, the Jordanians
received all they demanded, and Israel has totally withdrawn from Lebanon,
the Palestinians expect no less in their case..."

6. CLINTON AND THE MONEY
A full-page ad appears in The New York Times today against the plan by Bill
Clinton to give $40 billion to the Palestinian Authority in the framework
of the agreement being worked in Camp David. The ad features a large photo
of Clinton and Arafat, and large letters blare, "Mr. Clinton, the American
people would rather spend $40 billion to rescue Social Security - than to
rescue your legacy." The ad, sponsored by Americans for Responsible Public
Spending, can be seen on Arutz-7's website, "www.IsraelNationalNews.com".

Clinton and his wife are at the same time under strong attack for the
anti-Semitic epithets used by Senate-candidate Hilary Clinton several years
ago. Ms. Clinton has denied saying the offensive remarks, but several
witnesses have said that they heard her. Hilary Clinton is eagerly seeking
the Jewish vote in the New York State Senate race.

7. KNESSET: ISRAEL WILL ACT AGAINST UNILATERAL P.A. DECLARATION
The Knesset, by a sizeable majority, passed five bills today sponsored by
the Likud and the National Union parties regarding Israel's reactions to
unilateral Palestinian initiatives. The bills must still pass their second
and third readings. Among other things, the new bills require the
nullification of the Oslo Agreements and the annexation of Jewish
settlements to Israel in the event of a unilateral declaration of a
Palestinian state. The absence of many Labor party Knesset members on Camp
David-related business eased the way for the opposition to pass the bills.

Likud MK Limor Livnat said, "These votes send a clear message to the
Palestinians, to the world, and to Prime Minister Barak: that if the
Palestinians take unilaterally moves, Israel will not sit idly by." Her
party colleague MK Tzachi Hanegbi said that today was a dramatic day in the
Knesset - "the first time that the Knesset, with a significant majority,
voted that if the Palestinians show that the Oslo agreements no longer
exist for them, then we, too, will declare them null and void." Hanegbi
played down the fact that the bills are unlikely to pass their second and
third readings by Sept. 13 - the expected date of the declaration of a
Palestinian state - and said that the message conveyed by the Knesset today
has sufficient impact.

8. SUIT AGAINST BARAK SIGNATURE
The Prime Minister may not sign any agreement in Camp David without
receiving prior confirmation from the government and the Knesset - at least
according to a petition submitted to the Supreme Court today by Prof.
Hillel Weiss and Zo Artzeinu head Moshe Feiglin. The two maintain that
although the majority of the Knesset that voted no-confidence in the Prime
Minister on the eve of his departure to Camp David was not enough to topple
his government, the vote showed that on diplomatic matters Barak does not
enjoy the confidence of the Knesset. For this reason, claim Weiss and
Feiglin, the Prime Minister should not be allowed to represent the State of
Israel in a manner that contrasts with the declared will of the Knesset. A
date for the Court session on the petition was not set.

In other Supreme Court business, Justice Dalia Dorner rejected today a
petition by MK Limor Livnat, who filed against the use of Tal Silberstein
and Moshe Gaon as spokesmen for Barak in Washington. Judge Dorner said she
accepts the affidavit by Prime Minister's Office head Yossi Kucik that the
two are not using Israeli facilities - despite a Channel 2 Television News
report last night to the effect that Kucik lied. Regarding a third
Barak-friend, Yossi Koren, Dorner requested "further clarifications..."

Hebrew News Editor: Haggai Segal and Effie Meir
English News Editor: Hillel Fendel and Ron Meir

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - URI Global Charter Signing and Summit 2000
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 12:17:44 -0500

[Moderator: Just for clarification to any new members.
Items of this nature (i.e., a one world religion) are
posted for informational purposes only -- not as a
show of support. ]

URI Global Charter Signing and Summit 2000
http://www.united-religions.org/newsite/urinews/index.htm

"If the religions of the world ever stop killing each other, it will be in
large measure because of what happened today in Pittsburgh."

These words, broadcast by a San Francisco radio station on June 26, 2000,
announced the birth of the United Religions Initiative to an estimated
100,000 listeners. On that day, fifty-five years after the signing of the
United Nations Charter, approximately 300 people in religious and cultural
dress from a wide range of spiritual traditions and from around the world
gathered at the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to sign the
URI Charter, which begins:

We people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous
traditions throughout the world hereby establish the United Religions
Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end
religiously motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice and
healing for the Earth and all living beings...

The Charter Signing Ceremony was, itself, a picture of the world the URI
seeks to create. It began with music and meditation. The music came from
drummers from Manipur, India, and from Pittsburgh jazz singer Eta Cox, who
gave a stirring rendition of "Keep Hope Alive", a song which she had written
especially for the occassion. The meditation, led by Mrs. Gedong Oka, a
revered Gandhian from Bali, Indonesia, culminated with the entire community
singing "Pray for the peace of humanity. The embrace by Muslims and
Christians from Pakistan of Sikhs, Hindus Christians and Muslims from India
was one of many signs that the URI is committed to an active prayer that
seeks to heal divisions and forge new relationships dedicated to cooperative
action for the common good. A highlight of the event was the roll call of
founding Cooperation Circles with representatives of nearly 80 groups from
around the world standing to growing applause at the visible expression of
the URI as a locally rooted, globally connected organization.

This commitment was made even more real in the days following the signing
ceremony as delegates went to work creating a vision and plans for a growing
URI presence around the world. During long working days punctuated by
periods of prayer and meditation, and song and dance, they met in regional
groups to build networks of support for URI development in particular parts
of the world. Delegates from Israel and Egypt discussed interreligious
peacebuilding possibilities in that troubled part of the world. Delegates
from India and Pakistan explored how they might develop a credible
interfaith effort to support peace between those two countries.

In Latin America, delegates planned a major conference of Indigenous peoples
in Quito, Ecuador this coming September to help heal the relationship
between Indigenous peoples and people of mainstream religion whose ancestors
sought to destroy Indigenous culture In Europe delegates planned a European
Charter signing at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris as a major step forward
for the URI in Europe and as a sign of the partnership URI has with UNESCO
in their Cultures of Peace initiative. Delegates from Africa discussed
peacebuilding efforts in Ethiopia, community education in Uganda, and the
possibility of an innovative AIDS prevention program in Sub-Saharan Africa.

People from North America formed URI-USA and discussed a first ever URI
North American Conference, and the positive role North America must take in
helping to generate financial resources to help with URI development around
the world. Buddhists from Sri Lanka and a Christian from New Zealand
discussed a cooperative interfaith effort to deal with land mines in Sri
Lanka.

Midway through the summit, the doors were opened for members of the larger
Pittsburgh community to experience this extraordinary global community and
to share its vision. The evening opened with an electrifying performance by
the drummers from Manipur and was sanctified by blessings from different
traditions from different parts of the world. URI Founder, the Rt. Rev.
William E. Swing raised the vision of returning to Pittsburgh in 2050 to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Charter Signing and challenged all
present to work so we might celebrate how far we have come together in
realizing the URI's purpose.

Swami Agnivesh, a leader of the Arya Samaj movement, Chair of the United
Nation's Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, and member of a URI
Cooperation Circle in New Dehli, India spoke passionately of the work the
URI must do to help abolish all forms of slavery and bonded labor, and to be
a voice for a just economic system around the world. Sister Laetitia, a
Franciscan nun and leader of the URI effort in Ethiopia, painted a vivid
picture of URI work for peace in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. She
called for the URI to be an active force for peace all over the world,
preparing for the day when wars would not be the rule but the rare exception
and when active peacebuilding pervaded every corner of the globe and every
area of human endeavor.

As the Summit ended, people returned home inspired by the lived experience
of a global, interfaith community dedicated to peacebuilding. They returned
carrying visions and hopes, and plans to put them into action. A Sikh leader
from Washington, D.C. is committed to creating a Cooperation Circle of
Parliamentarians, aiming to forge bonds of interfaith cooperation among
elected officials in governments all over the world. Already, a URI leader
from Brazil has helped to organize an interfaith ceremony for peace which
attracted 25,000 participants as part of a national movement for peace in
Brazil. And people around the world are exploring a plan for 72 days of
peace pilgrimages around the world. A model pilgrimage will take place in
India in August.

With the Charter Signing in Pittsburgh, the global URI was born. In the days
that followed the infant URI began its first movements out into the world.
Through the inspiration, commitment and sacrifice of people around the
world, the months and years ahead will see this infant mature into an
effective, transformative global organization engaged in enduring, daily
cooperation for peace all over the world.

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