BPR Mailing List Digest: 07/30/00

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
July 30, 2000

Digest Home | 2000 | July, 2000

To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Ga. 'Creator' Language Stirs Talk
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 08:56:55 -0400

Friday July 28 5:41 PM ET
Ga. 'Creator' Language Stirs Talk

By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - A new curriculum that encourages Georgia teachers to
promote ``respect for the creator'' is drawing criticism that it violates the
separation of church and state.

``Respect for the creator'' is one of 27 traits that schools must encourage as
part of a character curriculum that
takes effect this year. Among the other traits: courage, patriotism,
citizenship, honesty, fairness, kindness,
tolerance, punctuality and cleanliness.

In north Georgia's Lumpkin County, the school board voted this week not to
teach the creator curriculum until
the state attorney general issues an opinion on whether the requirement
violates the Constitution.

People for the American Way, a national civil-liberties group, said it may
sue Lumpkin County and the state
over the language. The group is representing parents of two Lumpkin
schoolchildren who object to the
language.

``The government can't tell citizens they must have respect for God or the
creator or whatever name the
government wants to use,'' said Judith Schaeffer, deputy legal counsel for
the group.

Legislators who approved the character law in 1997 said the creator
curriculum was acceptable because it
does not specify a religion.

``It allows everybody to look at it through all different theories of creation,''
said state Sen. Richard Marable,
chairman of the Senate Education Committee. ''`Respect for the creator' is
very open.''

The law allows local school systems to decide how best to encourage the
character traits.

Lumpkin School Superintendent David Luke said county lawyers are
scrambling to put together a formal
request for an opinion on the ``creator'' language from the state attorney
general.

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker,
said there was no way to predict
which way Baker might rule.

School begins Aug. 14 in Lumpkin and many other counties.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000728/us/creator_dispute_1.html

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

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Giving sight to blind fish, scientists track DNA puzzle
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:00:03 -0400

Giving sight to blind fish, scientists track DNA puzzle
Findings assist researchers studying quirk in evolution

Saturday, July 29, 2000

By KEAY DAVIDSON
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

In caves in northeastern Mexico, underground ponds house eerie occupants:
ghostly fish without eyes. The subterranean darkness made eyes
unnecessary. So evolution eliminated them hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago.

Experimenters have figured out how to restore eyes to these creatures by
indirectly switching on the gene or genes that regulate eye development.

These blind cave fish are unwittingly helping scientists better understand
one of the most fascinating phenomena in evolution: atavisms.

Atavisms are supposedly vanished evolutionary traits that, from time to
time, reappear in a plant or animal..

For example, the ancestors of modern horses had multiple toes. The genes
for multiple toes still exist in modern horses, but are silent, genetically
speaking. Still, in very rare instances, a naturalist records seeing a horse
with at least partial formation of toes.

Now two University of Maryland researchers have figured how to bring
atavisms back to life, so to speak, in blind cave fish, by making them grow
eyes.

Their achievement is a bizarre example of how primeval traits that we carry
in our genes are no longer expressed because we don't need them and they
have been excised by evolution.

All that remains is a genetic record of those traits, a record that passes
via DNA down through the eons. It's like an attic full of instruction
manuals for antique devices like crystal radios and kerosene lamps.

Some day, perhaps, a nuclear war will wreak havoc on civilization; at that
time those old instruction manuals could be useful, because humanity might
again have to make crystal radios and kerosene lamps. Nature works like
that, too: When the environment changes radically, it selects for survival
the lucky few blessed with atavistic traits that prove ideal for the new
conditions.

For example, humans with extremely heavy body hair are rare nowadays, but
they would rank among the most likely survivors of a future ice age.

Which brings us back to blind cave fish: They're a few inches long and a
pale yellowish-white or pinkish-white color. They are descendants of an
older, sighted fish species that still inhabits surface waters.

Over time, underground streams carved caves. A few fish were sucked into
the
caves and thrived there. Over hundreds of thousands or millions of years,
their eyes proved useless in the dark. Hence their eyes gradually
disappeared.

But the blind cave fish retained some basic structural components of eyes.
(Likewise, modern snakes, which are legless, retain useless pelvic girdles
that once supported their ancestors' limbs.)

The Maryland scientists, Yoshiyuki Yamamoto and William Jeffery, have
given blind cave fish back their eyes. They did it by removing lenses from the
eyes of their sighted cousins, then implanting the lenses in the eyes of
young blind cave fish.

To their amazement, the blind cave fish grew fully restored eyes, each of
which included "a distinct pupil, cornea and iris," according to a summary
of their work released by the University of Maryland.

Somehow, they infer, the lens implantation told the fish genes to trigger
the formation of complete eyes.

It is unclear whether the eyes can actually see, however.

For now, "we are not sure what gene is inactivating cave fish (eye genes)"
in untreated fish, Yamamoto said in a phone interview this week.

An extended report by Yamamoto and Jeffery on their work appears in
yesterday's issue of Science magazine.

=A9 2000 San Francisco Examiner.

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/fish29.shtml
All rights reserved.

via: isml@egroups.com

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Ban on engineered humans, but 'therapeutic cloning' may be allowed
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:10:43 -0400

Ban on engineered humans, but 'therapeutic cloning' may be allowed
Date: 28/07/2000

By DEBORAH SMITH, Science Writer

Cloning of human beings will be banned nationally, but Australian health
ministers, meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, yesterday, left open the door
for "therapeutic cloning", in which cloned human embryos are used as a
source of cells for tissue repair, an option regarded as unethical by some
religious groups.

The Federal Minister for Health, Dr Wooldridge, said this issue was being
looked at by a parliamentary committee that would report this year.

A consultant ethicist to the Catholic Church, Mr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini,
welcomed the ban, but criticised the ministers for not going far enough.

"I am extremely disappointed they used the term therapeutic cloning,
because
it is highly misleading and obscures the reality that this would be
producing embryos for the purpose of destroying them."

Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia already have legislation
prohibiting cloning of human beings, and last year the Australian Health
Ethics Committee advised Dr Wooldridge to urge the remaining states to
develop similar laws. The Australian Academy of Science has also said
reproductive cloning should be banned, but it has supported therapeutic
cloning because of its medical promise.

With such cloning, which is not permitted under National Health and Medical
Research Council guidelines, a cell from an adult would be cloned to create
an embryo from which perfectly matched embryonic stem cells could be
harvested and grown into different types of tissue for organ repair.

The ministers agreed yesterday to develop a consistent national approach to
banning the creation of a cloned person.

But Dr Wooldridge added: "There is currently a scientific revolution
occurring in the engineering and use of human tissue, and it is very
important that Australian research remains at the cutting edge for the
benefits of all Australians. However, it is also vital to ensure this occurs
within a framework that is acceptable to the wider Australian community."

Associate Professor Loane Skene, of the University of Melbourne Faculty of
Law, said it was significant that the ministers had made a distinction
between reproductive and therapeutic cloning, and recognised the medical
potential of the latter approach. It would be a great pity if the
parliamentary inquiry did not do the same, she said.

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or
mirroring is prohibited.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0007/28/text/national4.html

via: isml@egroups.com

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Days of The Locust Threaten Russia's Harvest
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:22:28 -0400

Days of The Locust Threaten Russia's Harvest

MOSCOW, Jul 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) Millions of locusts have descended on
the crop fields of Siberia, posing a dire threat to this year's already poor
harvest, the private television station NTV reported Saturday.

Full Story:
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=183997

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Tzemach News Service items (7/29/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:25:25 -0400

US TRIES SCAM ONCE AGAIN: When the US asked Israel to not take
action against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War, then-US President George Bush
promised to sign $10 billion in loan guarantees for Israel's help. Bush
then hung the same loan guarantees over Israel's head to attend the Madrid
Conference. Eventually, Israel finally got its loan guarantees, but not
before being lied to over and over again by the US administration (which
was Republican at that time).

Eventually, after Rabin and Peres made a covenant with the PLO terrorist
organization, the US again needed to make promises it had no intention of
keeping. This time it was during the negotiation of the agreement signed
by Netanyahu and Arafat at the Wye Plantation. Clinton promised to release
convicted spy Jonathan Pollard if Netanyahu would sign the agreement.
After signing the agreement, Netanyahu asked to take Pollard home. Clinton
reneged on the deal.

Now it seems the US administration is up to its old tricks. During the
Camp David talks, Clinton again mentioned the possible release of Jonathan
Pollard. This time he added an additional bonus: moving the US Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 1995, Congress passed a law obligating the
US to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by May 31, 1999. A
clause in the law has allowed the president to invoke a security waiver to
delay the move three times. When he invokes the "security wavier", he must
state that it is "in the interest of national security". If he has delayed
it three times already due to "national security", why would he want to do
it now? Clinton will be out of office in six months. He obviously cannot
complete the move in that time. If the next president refuses to move it
(remember, the reasoning is because of "national security interests", and
it doesn't matter if the president is Republican or Democrat), Clinton
will not be held responsible.

ALIYA UP 35%: Some 77,000 immigrants arrived last year, a 35% increase
over 1998, the Central Bureau of Statistics recently reported. This is the
largest number of people to immigrate since 1995. Some 66,000 Russian
immigrants accounted for 80% of the increase. Ari Paltiel, head of the
CBS's demography section, called the increase "sudden and unexpected."
He said that some 960,000 immigrants have arrived in the past decade,
compared to the 700,000 that came between 1948 and 1951, and the
150,000 that came in the 1980. Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jenkelowitz saw
the rise as a result of specific factors. "The economic chaos, uncertainty,
and antisemitism that prevailed in Russia in 1998 and the Jewish Agency's
efforts to establish educational programs throughout Russia contributed to
the increased number of Russian immigrants to Israel in 1999," he said.
In contrast, the number of immigrants from England, France, the US, and
Canada has been gradually decreasing. Argentina and South Africa were two
of the few countries that had higher numbers of immigrants in 1999 than
in 1998, 936 and 228 respectively.

The number of Jews living in Judea and Samaria increased over the past
year by 7.5%, and is now close to 200,000. Sample Interior Ministry
numbers, as of June 30:

Ma'aleh Adumim - 25,422 people;
Ariel - 16,134,
Modi'in Illit - 14,264,
Beitar Illit - 14,115,
Givat Ze'ev - 10,332,
Gush Katif, including N'vei Dekalim - 6,755.
Kiryat Arba is 5,779,
Hebron - 460,
Karnei Shomron - 5,995,
Efrat - 5,446.
Beit El - 4,035.

Week Ending: 29 July 2000 / 26 Tammuz 5760
Tzemach News Service - http://www.tzemach.org/fyi

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Police to track mobile phone users
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:29:50 -0400

Police to track mobile phone users

Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday July 30, 2000

Police are to be given new powers to track people using satellite technology
that can pick up signals emitted from mobile phones.
In a move denounced as sinister by civil liberties campaigners, software
being fitted into the new generation of mobiles will enable police to
pinpoint the exact whereabouts of a person whenever the phone is switched
on.

But privacy campaigners fear the police could use the new phones as homing
devices that will allow them to carry out mass surveillance without those
targeted knowing about it One campaigner likened it to putting an
`electronic tag' on large swathes of the population.

The Government and the police say the powers are needed to fight certain
crimes, including drug trafficking. They believe the technology will guide
paramedics and firefighters to the locations of emergencies.

These unprecedented powers are part of the Regulatory of Investigatory
Powers Bill which received Royal Assent on Friday. They will allow the
security services to intercept private emails.

Privacy campaigners and Opposition peers urged the Government to ensure
that the read-outs of physical location produced by the new mobile phones should
be made available only after a warrant is obtained from a judge. But the
appeals were rebuffed. The police will be able to track somebody's
movements on the authority of a police superintendent.

Caspar Bowden, who runs the Foundation for Information Policy Reseach, the
internet policy think-tank which brought these concerns to light, last night
expressed alarm over the move.

`Anyone using the new phones will be able to be tracked with pinpoint
accuracy at the click of a mouse, for very broad purposes,' he said. `It's
like putting an electronic tag on most of the population.'

John Wadham, of the civil liberties group Liberty, said: `This technology is
of great concern, and the legislation is simply not keeping up with it. It
is frightening what the police will be able to do without having to go
before a judge. Under the Act, the only authority overseeing these
capabilities will come from an Interception Commissioner, who does not have
to be notified pro-actively of their use, or whether tracking data is passed
between government departments once acquired.

Currently, police can obtain information about where a call was made from a
specific mobile, if they can satisfy telephone operators there is sufficient
evidence for their suspicions. Under the RIP Act, the authorities will be
able to bypass the phone companies.

The mobile phone companies believe these new location facilities in their
products will be hugely popular because they will allow users to find the
nearest bank or Indian takeaway, and then get precise directions to the
restaurant. The companies also believe it will give callers greater security
knowing that the emergency services can track them down in a crisis.

A spokeswoman for Vodafone said: `It is true that under this new Act the
police will not have to get our approval to access this information any
more. But we believe the new software in the phones will bring many benefits
to our customers and will be warmly welcomed.'

The National Criminal Intelligence Service denied that the new technology
would mean the age of mass surveillance in this country . A spokeswoman
said: `We will not speculate about how police will use technology that does
not yet exist. But we will still be governed by Data Protection Act and
believe the RIP bill has strengthened the rights of individuals, not
weakened it.

http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,348607,00.html

Third_Watch@egroups.com

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Albright to confer with Vatican on Mideast peace, Jerusalem
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 09:59:38 -0400

Albright to confer with Vatican on Mideast peace, Jerusalem

TOKYO, July 30 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is to
travel to Rome this week to confer with the Vatican on the Middle East
peace process, particularly the status of Jerusalem, the State Department
said Sunday.

Albright, who was originally scheduled to return to the United States on
Monday after visits to Thailand and Japan, will instead fly to Rome for talks
with Vatican secretary for foreign relations, Monsignor Jean-Louis Tauran.

The abrupt change in schedule will allow Albright on Tuesday to bring Tauran
up to date on the Middle East peace process, focusing on ideas for the holy
city's future raised at the failed Camp David summit, spokesman Richard
Boucher said.

"This has been an area of great interest to the Vatican," Boucher said, noting
in particular Pope John Paul II's calls for Jerusalem to be granted special
status in any peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Their view is quite well known and we do keep in mind the views of others as
we proceed in this," he told reporters travelling with Albright.

The secretary's meeting with Tauran will come exactly a week after the
Camp David summit collapsed over the question of Jerusalem, which both
Israel and the Palestinians claim as a capital.

It will also coincide with the beginning of a marathon tour of the Arab world
by US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Edward Walker,
who is to visit at least 12 Muslim countries to drum up support for a
compromise on Jerusalem.

"This is one of those times we want to keep interested parties up to date,"
Boucher said.

The city -- home to the most holy sites in the world's main monotheistic
religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism -- is the main issue separating
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Arafat is demanding Palestinian sovereignty over east Jerusalem, captured
by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not
recognized by the United Nations, which he wants as the capital of an
independent state he says he will declare by mid-September with or without
a peace pact.

But Barak insists the entire city remain undivided and under Israeli
sovereignty although he has offered the Palestinians autonomy, short of
sovereignty, in Arab neighborhoods.

During the Camp David summit the Pope urged negotiators to find a solution
in which Jerusalem is protected by international safeguards that "effectively
preserve the most sacred parts of the Holy City and guarantee religious
freedom for all the faithful in the region and the world."

The Vatican has for years demanded that Jerusalem's future status include
international guarantees to preserve its sacred nature and a senior State
Department official said Albright would be discussing with Tauran a variety of
options considered at Camp David.

"We want to probe their view in more detail and generally discuss with them
the status of Jerusalem and the kinds of ideas out there," the official said,
declining to discuss specifics of any suggestions that were raised.

Boucher's announcement of the Albright-Tauran meeting followed statements
by Camp David host, US President Bill Clinton, which were supportive of the
Israeli view of Jerusalem, and as Arafat continued an international tour to
build support for his position.

In an interview with Israeli television on Friday, Clinton praised Barak's
"courageous" efforts at the 15-day summit and said Washington's embassy
could be shifted from Tel Aviv to west Jerusalem by the end of the year.

Clinton has continually put off that move, required by US law, by using a
presidential waiver to avoid interfering with the ongoing peace process, and
his statements have led to accusations in Arab countries that he had
damaged Washington's credibility as an "honest broker" in the talks.

He also warned Arafat against going ahead with his vow to unilaterally
declare Palestinian statehood on September 13.

Meanwhile, Arafat, under pressure in Arab capitals not to concede on his
demands for Jerusalem, arrived in Saudi Arabia from France on Sunday,
continuing his quest for support for his stand.

In Paris on Saturday Arafat reiterated his position, saying he would declare
an independent state "when the time is right, taking into consideration the
advice of our friends".

"Under normal circumstances, the deadline is September, in a few weeks,"
he said.

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Hizbollah Warns U.S. on Embassy Move to Jerusalem
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 18:03:16 -0400

Sunday July 30 12:03 PM ET
Hizbollah Warns U.S. on Embassy Move to
Jerusalem

JIBSHEET, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hizbollah leader
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah threatened Sunday to destroy the U.S. embassy in
Israel and kill its diplomats if the mission was moved to Jerusalem from Tel
Aviv.

``You can move your embassy to Jerusalem and send your diplomats there.
But honest people can turn your embassy to rubble and send back your
diplomats in coffins,'' Nasrallah told a rally in the village of Jibsheet in south
Lebanon.

President Clinton said in an interview with Israeli television he would
seriously
review the possibility of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He said a
decision would be made by the end of the year.

Repeating his threat twice, Nasrallah said the U.S. decision did not
constitute
pressure against Palestinian peace negotiators but was a position taken
against all Arabs and Muslims. He called on Palestinians to revert to the
option of fighting.

``Because Jerusalem might face a new occupation, you have to go back to
the option of resistance and Jihad (holy war) and to reject American help and
money,'' Nasrallah said.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000730/ts/hizbollah_usa_dc_1.html

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arutz-7 News items (7/30/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 18:14:38 -0400

CAUGHT IN THE ACT
Antiquities thieves were caught red-handed late last week by Antiquities
Authority supervisors. The inspectors noticed three Palestinian Arabs
engaging in illegal diggings in 3,500 year-old burial caves in the Judea
region. The Arabs, prior to being caught, had successfully recovered dozens
of ancient vessels that had been buried with the dead there. An Israeli
police spokesman announced that the group is the fourth such cell
apprehended this year from the same Arab village. In related news, a rare
coin, 2000 years old, was confiscated by police today in a Jerusalem
antique store. The bronze coin bears the caption: "To redeem the holy city
of Jerusalem." The merchant caught with the coin admitted that he had
transgressed an Antiquities law that obligates him to register the coin in
his stock.

PA CLAMPS DOWN ON OPPONENTS
Palestinian Authority security forces yesterday arrested Hamas terror
organization senior, Abdul Aziz Rantisi. A Hamas spokesman told the
French
news agency today that a group of Palestinian paramilitary policemen
arrived at Rantisi's house and arrested him without offering an explanation
as to why. A spokesman for the PA police confirmed the Rantisi arrest, and
said that the action was taken given "the false accusations against the PA
spread by Rantisi in the media." Last week, Rantisi granted interviews to
television stations from various Arab countries, during which he sounded
harsh criticisms against the PA.

IN BRIEF
         A heat wave has hit Israel. Temperatures in Jerusalem and the
Judean Hills today reached 41 Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit). Tomorrow, a high
of 44 Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) is expected in the Arava and Eilat
regions. Temperatures are expected to fall on Tuesday of this week...
         Voice of Israel radio reported this afternoon on a large fire in
the southern sector of the Golan Heights. The likely cause is a downed
electrical line. Officials of the National Parks Authority are concerned
that the fire will harm the region's turtle population. A total of 200
dunams of natural brush has so far been destroyed. The fire is presently
spreading to an area of minefields, left over from previous wars.
Representatives of the National Parks Authority and Jewish National Fund
are on hand, and special fire- extinguishing helicopters are attempting to
put out the blaze...
         Israeli taxpayers spent more than 11 million shekels to finance
the Israel delegation's trip to Camp David this month. According to an
official Foreign Ministry document just made public, prior to Camp David,
another four million shekels had been spent in the year 2000 for expenses
entailed in the talks with the Palestinians...

Arutz Sheva News Service
<www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Sunday, July 30, 2000 / Tammuz 27, 5760

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

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Join Us, Don't Fight Us, Pentagon Tells Hackers
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 18:16:48 -0400

Join Us, Don't Fight Us, Pentagon Tells Hackers

3:52 p.m. ET (1952 GMT) July 29, 2000

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The largest-ever convention of computer hackers has

opened here with top-ranking U.S. military officials offering to hire the

elite of the cybervandal world and put them to work defending against

foreign government attacks.

"I invite you to join the government, or private industry for that matter.

But get on the defense side,'' said Art Money, U.S. Assistant Secretary of

Defense, and the Pentagon's Chief Information Officer with responsibility

for command, control, communications and intelligence.

Money and a panel of colleagues from the Pentagon, the Air Force and
Federal

police agencies, were at turns cordial, threatening, moralizing and

patriotic in their remarks Friday to the conference, called DEF CON 8.0,

which has drawn up to 5,000 attendees this year.

"If you are thinking about what you want to do the rest of your life, then

... maybe you want to come work with us,'' Money told a standing-room
crowd

of hundreds of hackers who paid rapt attention to his comments and let out

only an occasional jeer.

Money took the audience to task for irresponsible break-ins, citing a

little-publicized break-in to a military hospital two years ago in which he

said data on the blood supply was tampered with, putting lives at risk

before it was uncovered.

The surprise appearance by high-ranking military officials at the once

underground event now turned media spectacle highlighted the seriousness

with which U.S. authorities view what they classify as information warfare

threats, from incidents of Web site vandalism and computer virus scares to

unspecified state-sponsored threats to national security.

It also showcased the transformation of DEF CON, as the eight-year-old

gathering is known, from a controversial summer camp for teenage and

twenty-something computer break-in artists with criminal arrest records into

a mainstream event drawing thousands of professional network security

managers with responsible corporate or government jobs.

"There's a lot of people just sitting on the fence,'' said DEF CON founder

and organizer Jeff Moss. "Sooner or later you understand there's a limited

life span to doing this stuff,'' Moss said of criminal penalties that can

now stretch up to two or three year prison sentences for some hacking

activities. ''Maybe (it's) because people are just growing up.''

The three-day conference includes sessions devoted to cloaking one's

identity, network "lock-picking,'' how to break into every major software

system available, including residential, corporate and government networks.

It also involves plenty of poolside lounging, drunken parties, social mixing

and antic behavior from a crowd that - at its extremes - has a variety of

participants with neon green hair and one fellow in military fatigues and a

helmet sprouting deer antlers.

Moss, 30, told reporters afterward that the focus of this year's conference

was heavily skewed toward technical issues and meant to discourage those

with half-hearted interest in complex computer security. He said organizers

had deliberately downplayed some of the semi-legal sessions of past years

and were focused on provoking hackers to think more broadly about the

consequences of their actions.

"Corporate America is interested in this stuff,'' said Moss, who himself

started out as a teenage hacker breaking into phone systems and university

computers but later became a consultant for Secure Computing Corp
(SCUR.O),

a major computer security firm. "It's not just for kiddies anymore,'' he

said.

Internet security and the vulnerability of individual, business, government

and even military computers to attack has become a daily topic of media

coverage worldwide.

This year's attacks on major Web sites and a wave of computer virus attacks

that have infected millions of computers has elevated many of the habituates

of the hacker underworld to the status of counter-cultural celebrities on a

par with rock stars and leading social activists.

As the military panel was in progress, a uniformed Navy recruiting officer

stood up at the back of the room, ready to sign up potential applicants.

But no one rushed forward at a conference where paranoia about the

government's crackdown on hacking remains high and the "Spot the Fed

Contest'' among conference participants is a featured event on the agenda.

Still, a crowd that had in past years hooted and shouted down federal

prosecutors who dared to appear at the event, was on its best behavior,

perhaps somewhat in awe that an official of Money's stature would take time

to address them.

The glare of world media attention also may have cooled some ardor, as one

organizer specifically warned hackers facing potential legal showdowns that

they might want to conceal their faces from the roving eyes of cameras.

<underline><color><param>0000,8000,0000</param>http://www.foxnews.com/vtech/0729/t_rt_0729_2.sml

</underline>via: cyberwar@egroups.com<color><param>0100,0100,0100</param>

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The Bible, as History, Flunks New Archaeological Tests
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 18:20:51 -0400

July 29, 2000
The Bible, as History, Flunks New Archaeological Tests

By GUSTAV NIEBUHR

The Bible's account of King David is so well known that even people who
rarely crack the Good Book probably have an idea of his greatness.

David, Scripture says, was such a superb military leader that he not only
captured Jerusalem but also went on to make it the seat of an empire,
uniting the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Thus began a glorious era, later
amplified by his son, King Solomon, whose influence extended from the
borders of Egypt to the Euphrates River. Afterward, decline set in.

Yet what if the Bible's account doesn't fit the evidence in the ground? What if
David's Jerusalem was really a rural backwater -- and the greatness of Israel
and Judah lay far in the future?

Lately, such assertions are coming from some authorities on Israel's
archaeology, who speak from the perspective of recent finds from
excavations into the ancient past. "The way I understand the finds, there is
no evidence whatsoever for a great, united monarchy which ruled from
Jerusalem over large territories," said Israel Finkelstein, the director of the
Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. King David's Jerusalem, he
added, "was no more than a poor village at the time."

Statements like these have earned Finkelstein -- who is leading excavations
at Megiddo, a vitally important site for biblical archaeology in northern Israel --
a reputation as a fascinating but controversial scholar. His reports from
Megiddo that some structures attributed to Solomon were actually built after
his reign have touched off fierce debate in Israel.

Within a larger context, what he says reflects a striking shift now under way
in how a number of archaeologists understand Israel's past. Their
interpretations challenge some of the Bible's best-known stories, like
Joshua's conquest of Canaan. Other finds have turned up new information
that supplements Scripture, like what happened to Jerusalem after it was
captured by the Babylonians 2,600 years ago.

In an interview by e-mail from the Megiddo site, Finkelstein said that not long
ago, "biblical history dictated the course of research and archaeology was
used in order to 'prove' the biblical narrative." In that way, he said,
archaeology took a back seat as a discipline.

"I think that it is time to put archaeology in the front line," said Finkelstein,
the co-author with Neil Asher Silberman of "The Bible Unearthed," to be
published in January by The Free Press.

His reference to past practices can be illustrated by a remark by Yigael
Yadin, an Israeli general who turned to archaeology and who once spoke of
going into the field with a spade in one hand and the Bible in the other.

Many archaeologists, both before and after the founding of the modern state
of Israel, shared a similar approach: seeking direct evidence for biblical
stories. This outlook was shaped either by their religious convictions or their
Zionist views, said Amy Dockser Marcus, the author of "The View From
Nebo" (Little Brown), a wide-ranging and engaging book that describes in
detail the shift in archaeology taking place in Israel. The problem with that
outlook, she said, is that "you can't help but go in and look at material and
interpret material in a certain way." And that, she added, "led to certain
mistakes."

In her book, Marcus -- formerly the Middle East correspondent for The Wall
Street Journal -- notes that Yadin believed he had unearthed evidence in the
ruins of a place called Hazor that corroborated the biblical account of how
that Canaanite city had been destroyed. The Bible says Hazor fell to invading
Israelites led by Joshua.

But these days, she said, an increasing number of archaeologists have
come to doubt that Joshua's campaign ever took place. Instead, they
theorize that the ancient Israelites emerged gradually and peacefully from
among the region's general population -- a demographic evolution, not a
military invasion. "And that would explain how their pottery is so similar to
the Canaanites', and their architecture, their script," Marcus said.

Finkelstein makes the same argument: "Archaeology has shown that early
Israel indeed emerged from the local population of late Bronze Canaan." In
addition, he said, archaeology has turned up no physical remains to support
the Bible's story of the Exodus: "There is no evidence for the wanderings of
the Israelites in the Sinai desert."

Asked how such conclusions have been received in Israel, Finkelstein replied
that they have been producing a "quite strong and negative" reaction. But the
anger, he said, was coming not from strictly Orthodox Jews ("who simply
ignore us," he said) but from more secular Jews who prize the biblical stories
for their symbolic value to modern Israel. "I think that the young generation --
at least on the liberal side -- will be more open and willing to listen," he said.

Still, considerable disagreement exists among archaeologists on how to
interpret many recent finds. And the new theories about ancient Israel are
emerging against the backdrop of a raging dispute over the biblical
"minimalists," a group of scholars who argue that biblical accounts of early
Israel, including the stories of David and Solomon, have little, if any, basis in
history.

(This debate was recently fought out in a lively issue of the Biblical
Archaeology Review, a bimonthly magazine published in Washington, in
which one of the minimalists, the British scholar Philip Davies, wrote that
biblical accounts of early Israel were purely theological, not historical. In
response, a major critic of the minimalists, the American archaeologist
William Dever, wrote that ample physical evidence pointed to early Israelites
living in the region's highlands 3,200 years ago, two centuries before the time
of David and Solomon.)

But if many archaeologists are far less interested in trying to corroborate the
exact biblical accounts than in how the area's ancient history fits into the
larger picture of the Middle East, that change of perspective, Marcus said,
reflects an intellectual shift among the people doing the digging. Many
current archaeologists, she said, were born in modern Israel and don't need a
link to the biblical King David to think of themselves as part of the Israeli
nation: "They see themselves as part of the broader Middle East."

Yet while archaeology is challenging some of the biblical narrative, it is also
adding to it. At Megiddo, Finkelstein said, he found that the period 2,900
years ago -- the century following the rule of Solomon -- was a far more
interesting and powerful time for the Kingdom of Israel than the Bible says.
Another tantalizing discovery, in 1993, turned up a stele with an inscription
referring to the "House of David," the first real evidence that refers to the
biblical king. Still other recent excavations have provided compelling new
evidence about the lives of the residents of Jerusalem 2,600 years ago, when
they were besieged by the Babylonian army, and about the nearby people of
ancient Judah who did not go into exile in Babylon.

Marcus said that such discoveries illustrate how archaeology can restore
information "left on the cutting room floor," as it were, by those who compiled
the biblical narrative. "Archaeology is giving you back all this history," she
said. "So archaeology doesn't just deconstruct the Bible, but reconstructs
it."

http://www10.nytimes.com/library/arts/072900david-bible.html

via: AncientBibleHistory@egroups.com

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