-Caveat Lector-
SkeptiNews 990622b - - - - - - - - - - - All The News That's Fit To Question
: Passages starting with ':' are editorial comments to provoke discussion.
: Nothing contained herein is ever endorsed for truth, accuracy or meaning.
: No telephones were disconnected during the production of this bulletin.
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# China working on cloning panda. BEIJING (AP) Scientists have taken a step
toward cloning giant pandas by growing a embryo containing a dead animal's
genes, which China hailed as a possible breakthrough in efforts to save
the endangered species. Scientists grew the embryo by squirting cells from
a dead female panda into egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. The embryo
was nurtured over 10 months & will be implanted in a host animal's uterus.
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560017900-72e
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_374000/374616.stm
@ Links: World Wildlife Fund: The threat to the panda:
http://www.panda.org/resources/publications/species/threatened/index.htm
@ Roslin Institute: http://www2.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk/library/research/cloning/
# And: Giant pandas follow Dolly - fewer than 1000 in wild:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_135000/135979.stm
: Is the cloning of endangered species more convenient than preserving their
habitats? Would you rather be free-range, or cloned and zoo-bound? Would you
rather clone pandas, humans, aliens, condors, dinosaurs, pigeons, dogs, me?
_ _ _ _ _ _
# Colombian shaman now 'fashionable'. BOGOTA (AP) Taxis honk on the avenue
below and venetian blinds block the glare of street lamps in the midtown
loft where urbanites gather for a ritual until recently practiced only in
the Amazon jungle. Candles and incense are lit, and disciples take seats
as an aging Indian medicine man starts hissing, spitting, chanting and
stabbing at the air with a dried branch. One by one, jean-clad men and
women kneel before the shaman. Each downs a cup of bitter brown tea, then
awaits its psychedelic effects to set in. For decades, intrepid westerners
trekked to the Amazon to find the reclusive men who made yage (ya-hey), a
tea brewed from a jungle vine, Banisteriopsis Caapi. Beatnik writers Alan
Ginsburg and William Burroughs published a book, The Yage Letters [City
Lights Books, 1971.] Nearly a half-century later, the shamans are reaching
out to the West, taking their healing rites to urban living rooms. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560019468-1ec
: Do you favor belief systems that use hallucinogens? Is your belief system
so psychotic that hallucinogens would be redundant? Are you psychedelic???
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# INSURERS COULD PAY UP TO $35 BILLION IN Y2K COSTS IF FORCED TO:
http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/21/y2k.insurers.reut/index.html
# U.S. says world better prepared for Y2K than it was 6 months ago:
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560023874-d44
# Fearing Y2K Panic, Venezuela Hires Psychiatrists - feed your head:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990622/01/international-millennium-venezuela
# UN tackles millennium bug - hopefully with better results than in Rwanda:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_374000/374872.stm
: Who'll pay insurance claims after armageddon? Is Y2K panic justified, not
insane? Are you prepared for obliteration? Are you insured against Rapture?
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# Colder climate may stifle volcanoes. WASHINGTON (AP) Do ice ages suppress
volcanoes? Scientists have long known that the gases blasted into the air
by volcanoes can cool the climate. This may be a 2-way street. A study of
volcanoes in east California shows that over millions of years, eruptions
occurred in between cycles of colder climate; researchers say that glacial
conditions may have suppressed the volcanoes. "The correlation between
volcanic outbursts and climate suggests that the two are linked;" see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560022389-2c6
# Philippine Volcano Spews Ash, Smoke - no immediate reports of casualties:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990622/06/international-philippines-volcano
# Mexico Quake Rattles Nerves, Damages 700 Homes, Overturns Shrines:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990622/01/international-quake-mexico
: Will global warming stimulate volcanic/tectonic activity, as well as raise
sea-levels to drown coastal areas? Do aliens/deities control earthchanges?
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# Remote desert city takes the heat. LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (AP) There is
just no reason for this city to exist. It's you-must-be-kidding hot, it's
in the middle of nowhere, yet it's booming. The main reason is Lake Havasu
itself. http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560019933-1e2
# Ultra-Orthodox platoon on patrol. NIRAN, West Bank (AP) In the blistering
heat of the Jordan Valley, soldiers with black skullcaps and white fringes
hanging out from under their khaki shirts stood guard at a base along the
border with Jordan. In addition to guard duty, foot patrols and training,
these soldiers pray three times a day and receive daily Torah lessons from
a rabbi. The unit - the first consisting entirely of ultra-Orthodox Jews -
is part of an test program aimed at defusing the bitter draft controversy
between secular Israelis, who must serve in the military, and the ultra-
Orthodox, who have been exempt since the state was founded in 1948. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560020708-f08
: Would you rather patrol near Lake Havasu or the Dead Sea? Does your belief
system make you wear a black skullcap under the desert sun? Would you rather
pray at day, dusk or night? Do your deities have good tans? All over? How?
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SkeptiLinks:
@ Treaty of Versailles (and Why We're There Now)
http://ac.acusd.edu/History/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.html
@ False rumors about Proctor & Gamble: http://www.pg.com/rumor
# BILLIONAIRES' CLUB - 3 of the 4 richest guys on Earth are Microsoft execs.
http://www.wired.com/news/news/email/tip/business/story/20314.html
@ Cassini Project: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/Spacecraft/
# Columbine memorial ideas pour in - mass catharsis:
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560026118-cee
# Artist's Wake Ends In Nightclub Inferno - party 'til you burn:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990622/08/odd-dutch-funeral
# Russia In Biggest Military Exercise Since Cold War - who pays?
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990622/07/international-russia-military
# Oswald files called a breakthrough
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560023167-b5a
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"Gnawing sleep from his foggy brain like a cat scratching for the last clean
spot in a sandbox, he threw his feet to the cold bare floor." --C.M.Blount
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