-Caveat Lector-
SkeptiNews 990127a - - - - - - - - - - - All The News That's Fit To Question
: Passages starting with : are editorial comments to provoke discussion.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
# Life in the Extreme. (ABC) Organisms can survive the vacuum of space,
crushing ocean depths and lead-melting temperatures. So maybe such
creatures exist outside our planet. NASA’s efforts to find out more -
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DyeHard/dye990127.html
: Will x-orgs [extreme organisms] be useful templates for rebuilding humans
to colonize extreme environments? How would you like to be modified? Why?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
> A MATTER OF GRAVITY: TOOLING PLANTS, ANIMALS FOR SPACE. Sometime in the
next century humans may colonize the moon or Mars; researchers are looking
for plants and animals that settlers from Earth will take with them. "For a
long-term habitation of Mars, you'll have to grow crops, deal with microbes
and so forth." http://cnn.com/TECH/space/9901/27/space.ark.ap/index.html
: Will terraforming planets be easier than adapting terrestrial organisms
to alien environments? Would you rather change yourself or your destination?
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*** Female religious activism seen up. NEW YORK (AP) US women have moved
markedly toward accepting religious activism in politics, according to a
poll by a feminist group. Respondents split 50-50 when asked if elected
officials should be guided by religious values and whether "religion and
politics shouldn't mix." In a comparable survey done in 1992, 63% of women
picked the second choice. 8% shift away from abortion rights in 2 years -
see http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558225183-cef
: Should more pagan activists be in politics? Should there be a strict wall
of separation between gov't and Wicca, UFOlogy, pantheism, Zen, the Tao?
*** Liberal Judaism sees political win. JERUSALEM (AP) Two liberal streams
of Judaism won a new battle when their representatives were allowed to par-
ticipate on the religious council of a small Israeli town, despite the bit-
ter opposition from Orthodox Jews. Orthodox Judaism held power monopoly -
see http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558225991-780
: Can theocratic power ever be stable if dissident groups aren't suppressed?
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> POPE URGES U.S. TO BE ROLE MODEL IN NEXT MILLENNIUM. Pope John Paul II
headed back to Rome after urging the United States to be the 21st Century
model of a "humane society" that seeks peace through justice and defends
life by embracing God's truth. "Radical changes in world politics leave
America with a heightened responsibility to be for the world an example of
a genuinely free, democratic, just and humane society," the pope said in a
homily. http://cnn.com/US/9901/27/pope.us.04/index.html
> Links: The Man Behind the Pope:
http://cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/pope/bio/early/
> Journey with the Pope: VideoActive Map:
http://cnn.com/interactive/specials/9901/pope.map/
> POPE TO STAR IN MUSIC VIDEO, CD
http://cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Music/9901/27/pope.music.ap/index.html
* Also: Pope condemns death penalty:
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558228102-fd6
# Vatican Unveils Interactive TV Plan:
http://nt.excite.com/news/r/990128/10/odd-tv
: Do Islam's growth and Xianity's decline mean the Pope's picked the wrong
"God's truth"? Have Judeo/Xian/Moslem societies traditionally been "free,
democratic, just and humane"? Does your religion do interactive media?
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*** Japanese dance with machine. TOKYO (AP) ...A relentless, demanding part-
ner who always takes the lead. Countless Japanese have succumbed to the lat-
est dance craze - an electronic arcade game called "Dance Dance Revolution"
that could change the look of arcades worldwide. For $1.75, players climb on
a lighted platform and dance with a computer-generated partner, trying to
match their footwork to arrows on a 29-inch screen. The partner does his
own, completely different, thing. Music, mostly '70s disco stuff, pumps at
the players' feet, while a sensor underneath the platform monitors whether
they are stepping up, down, left or right, and keeping time with the rhythm.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558223138-772
: Does this make you long for a good old Karaoke bar? When will all enter-
tainments, dance partners, sex partners, lifestyles, memories be virtual?
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# Organ transplants 'on a knife edge'. The future of organ transplantation
is under threat because of a shortage of donors and transplant doctors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_264000/264317.stm
@ Links: British Organ Donor Society: www.argonet.co.uk/body/index.html
# Organ donation: decide now:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_199000/199477.stm
# The art of transplantation:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/background_briefings/newsid_179000/1
79946.stm
: Have too many doctors and donors been abducted by Grays? What have they
done with them? Would you like to have any organs transplanted? Which ones?
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# Goodbye mother tongue. (BBC) As many as 40% of the world's languages could
disappear by 2100. Only the elderly will remember the more traditional ways
of speaking as younger generations around the globe tune in to a more common
way of talking. From 7000 to 3000 in 100 years; globalization is extinction.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/specials/anaheim_99/newsid_262000/
262145.stm
: Every language is a worldview; will yours be abducted, extincted? How much
cultural genocide can humanity survive? Are Urdu, Dutch, Tagalog necessary?
# Typography’s New Technology. (ABC) For years, speakers of Arabic, Chinese
and other languages with non-Latin alphabets had to make do with limited
resources in electronic media. That's changing as software developers awaken
to the non-English-speaking world. A yen for new typefaces - see
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/scripts990127.html
: Will computers save endangered languages? Will the first online literature
in such languages be bibles and proselytizing? Still more cultural genocide?
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# How Climate Shaped History. (ABC) Farming laid the foundation for
civilization. But we may have been pushed into it. A 1,000-year spell
of cool, dry weather may have caused people to start cultivating.
Climate also shaped other epochs. Reacting to changes - see
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/paleoclimate990127.html
: Will global warming and other unintended weather modifications force us
to leave the planet? Will the Greenhouse Effect spark a galactic diaspora?
# America's alien invasion. (BBC) The United States is in the grip of an
alien invasion that is costing the country $123bn each year. Overwhelmed -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/specials/anaheim_99/newsid_262000/
262899.stm
: Have the black helicopters reached your neighborhood yet? Are they kewl?
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"The man who laughs has not yet been told the terrible news." --B.Brecht
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