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Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, May 1, 2000

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
 http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP
site
 was rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine. Send
comments
 regarding SI DIGEST to editors Matt Nisbet at mcn23@cornell.edu and Barry
 Karr at skeptinq@aol.com.

 In this edition of SI DIGEST:

 --TIME COVER STORY: The Truth about the Vikings
 --NEWSWEEK: The Big Bang and How it all Began
 --WASH. POST: "This is not a Scam"; and Other Lies
 --NY TIMES: Rooting Out Falun Gong
 --NY TIMES: Genetically Altered Salmon Raise Concerns


 TIME COVER STORY: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE VIKINGS

 ARCHAEOLOGY
 MAY 8, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 19
 The Amazing Vikings
 They earned their brutal reputation--but the Norse were also craftsmen,
 explorers and believers in democracy
 BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK; ANDREA DORFMAN

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,44020,00.html
 [Ravagers, despoilers, pagans, heathens--such epithets pretty well summed
up
 the Vikings for those who lived in the British Isles during medieval
times.
 For hundreds of years after their bloody appearance at the end of the 8th
 century A.D., these ruthless raiders would periodically sweep in from the
 sea to kill, plunder and destroy, essentially at will. "From the fury of
the
 Northmen, deliver us, O Lord" was a prayer uttered frequently and
fervently
 at the close of the first millennium. Small wonder that the ancient
 Anglo-Saxons--and their cultural descendants in England, the U.S. and
 Canada--think of these seafaring Scandinavians as little more than
violent
 brutes...]

 NEWSWEEK: THE BIG BANG AND HOW IT ALL STARTED

 The best-ever observations of the origins of the universe hint at the way
it
 will end

 By Sharon Begley and Thomas Hayden
 Newsweek, May 8, 2000
 For the full article, go to
 http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/st/a19261-2000apr30.htm

 [To understand the latest discovery about how the universe began, it
helps
 to go back to the saga of the pigeon poop. In 1964, two radio astronomers
at
 Bell Labs were working on an antenna for the new Telstar
 communications-satellite system. But no matter where Arno Penzias and
Robert
 Wilson pointed the horn-shaped antenna, it picked up a hiss. Some
kibitzers
 suspected that bird droppings in the antenna might be responsible, so the
 astronomers shoveled out the guano and shooed away the birds. Still the
 hiss. Scientists at Princeton University eventually traced the sound to a
 somewhat more distant source: the hiss was radiation left over from the
 cosmic fireball in which the universe was created....]


 WASHINGTON POST: "THIS IS NOT A SCAM"; AND OTHER LIES

 By Lawrence Lindner
 Special to The Washington Post
 Tuesday, April 25, 2000; Page Z10

 Featuring Stephen Barrett and William Jarvis of CSICOP.

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7753-2000Apr24.html


 [Sure, you know that an ad for coffee that "burns fat, reduces
appetite" and
 "helps control sugar cravings" is puffery, as is one for a
stress-reducing
 supplement that is made from "the greatest concentrated source of life
 energy on Earth." But what about a promotional effort for a nutrition
 product that purports, say, to give you "more energy" or "control
symptoms
 of premenstrual syndrome"?]



 NY TIMES: ROOTING OUT FALUN GONG

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/043000falun-gong-review.html

 April 30, 2000

 China Cracks Down on Mysticism
 By CRAIG S. SMITH

 [SHANGHAI -- Surely China's rulers never dreamed that a spiritual
movement
 started by a former grain company clerk could turn into the most serious
 challenge to their authority since the pro-democracy demonstrations in
1989.
 But that is what the brutal suppression of the group called Falun Gong
has
 accomplished. Extensive media coverage of China's actions -- which have
led
 to at least a dozen deaths, alleged death by torture, thousands of cases
of
 abuse and the harassment of tens of thousands -- has blighted the human
 rights reputation of the government. But little light has been cast on
why
 so many people feel Falun Gong, founded seven years ago and now claiming
 millions of adherents, is worth dying for. Nor is it widely understood in
 the West that aspects of the movement, or cult, suggest that its
followers
 are misled and its leader deluded, or even a fraud. In fact, a closer
 examination of Falun Gong's beliefs and practices challenges some of the
 easy assumptions about Beijing's behavior....]


 NY TIMES: GENETICALLY ALTERED SALMON RAISE CONCERNS

 Monday, May 1, 2000

 By Carol Kaesuk Yoon
 For the full article, go to
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/050100sci-gm-animal.html

 Scientists are creating genetically modified animals, which critics say
 could slip through a net of federal regulations that has surprisingly
large
 holes.

 --------------------------------

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee
for
 the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)

 Visit http://www.csicop.org/.

 Rated one of the Top Ten Science sites on the Web by HOMEPC magazine.

 The Digest is written and edited by Matthew Nisbet and Barry Karr. SI
Digest
 is distributed directly via e-mail to over 4000 readers worldwide, and is
 sent from CSICOP headquarters at the Center for Inquiry-International,
 Amherst NY, USA.

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