According to a prediction emailed to governments and media around the globe, a comet is supposed to kill us all today, so maybe this News Brief will remain unread. If we all survived the doomsday again, here is todays news.
- Although they may be asked to die for their country, Wiccans in US service have difficulties with recognition of their beliefs. Meanwhile, a Pagan is being persecuted by townspeople who killed her pet and send her death threats.
- Whereas previous administrations commonly framed their anti-drug arguments in secular terms, Bush’s drug war, at least rhetorically, resembles that of a religious crusade.
- The Bush Administration demand that any HIV-prevention education relies on abstinence. You only had until Monday to protest.
- It really is little wonder that 4,000 scientists say Bush’s religious intolerance is interfering with scientific progress.
- However, since Kerry is just as concerned to woo the 40% of Americans who are “Born again”, its uncertain that the possible futures are really all that different.
- The big question puzzling archaeologists who uncovered a near-perfect skeleton is: why would a corpse be buried in the middle of a busy Iron Age workshop?
- A shadowy and polygamous cult, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been accused of kidnapping one of it’s own Bishops.
- The head of the lab who cloned Dolly the sheep has tragically been found hanged.
- A new species of flightless bird is found in the Philippines, and looks likely to join it’s relatives on the endangered list right away.
- Leading media, scientific and government organistaions have received e-mail warnings of a huge comet predicted by Nostradamus which is supposed to hit Greece today. Hello, is there anyone left alive to read this?
- The pin-up pundit of the American right gives an interview to a flabbergasted British journalist. Sometimes it’s difficult for us foreigners to understand how many Americans think.
- First it was the fridge mountain, then it was the tyre mountain. Now discarded computers have got environmentalists worried
- Decades ago, some hunters built a Bigfoot trap in the woods of Southern Oregon. It’s still there, and has never caught a Bigfoot.
- A curator of a former Chinese Imperial palace has been put to death for stealing relics he was supposed to protect.
- The fossil of an ancient sea monster has been uncovered in Manitoba, Canada
- The Thylacine or Tasmanian Wolf may not be as extinct as it is thought to be.
- The Governor of New Mexico wants to reopen the investigation into the supposed and famous flying saucer crash at Roswell.
- Chill out, man! Scientists have found the switch in the brain that appears to control anxiety. Thinks: I wonder if governments have plans for a new water additive?
- Europe is warming up more quickly than the rest of the world, and cold winters could disappear almost entirely by 2080 as a result of global warming. Scots ask what the downside is…
- A woman may enter the record books as the first Briton to be struck by a meteorite.
- Austrain scientists have successfully teleported information 600 metres, a new record which brings quantum computing a bit nearer.
- Current theories of gravitation fail to explain the behaviour of some objects, including the Pioneer spacecraft.
- “There is a substantial chance that the result of the 2004 U.S. presidential election will be suspect…there will be sufficient uncertainty about the honesty of the vote count that much of the world and many Americans will have serious doubts.” New York Times columnist reprts.
- Religious leaders in Austin, Texas were asked “How would Jesus vote?”
- World miltary spending is set to increase above 1 Trillion dollars for the first time, mostly due to huge U.S. weapons and weapons development spending. This doesnt include the $5 billion per month war spending on Iraq by the U.S. That’s $17 dollars per U.S. man woman or child every month!
- Australian farmers are bracing for an expected plague of up to 100 billion locusts.
- A report on the recent Transhumanist Conference bemoans low attendance while still being upbeat about the movement’s progress.
- Both Mars robotic explorers have found further evidence that water has flowed at some time on the red planet.
- Christian fundementalist archeologists still believe that Qumran was a religious community, despite evidence to the contrary.
- The African “miracle babies” reported by Greg come under further scrutiny as the evangelist behind the scam calls the Church of England a “tool of Satan” and the Archbishop of Monmouth “a devil worshipper”. Amusing though the thought is, I doubt it.
- More details on the previously reported particle physicists who hope to learn the secrets of Mexico’s pyramids. Who needs a robot?
- An ancient Chinese herbal cure for malaria is the basis for a new drug which may be the best weapon yet against the disease.
- The confusing world(s) of American morality and censorship. Was the furore over Janet Jackson’s nipple diliberatley stirred up to distract from more weighty matters in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay?
- Scientists may have demonstrated that homeopathy works, and James Randi may soon be $1 million out of pocket.
Quote of the Day:
The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility.
And vice versa.
Lazarus Long
