Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>]

 Strange Lights
 ABC News
 http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/ufo010717.html

 "Something dazzled the people of New Jersey this weekend. Something bright,
 high in the sky."


 Crop Circles Show Aliens Returned?
 Reuters
 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010716/od/aliens_dc_1.html

 "Russian officials said on Friday that strange circles found in a remote
 southern field showed aliens had returned to collect Earth soil, four years
 after first dropping by, Itar-Tass news agency reported."


 Spiritual Leader Visits Bay State
 WCVB
 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wcvb/20010716/lo/859237_1.html

 "An Indian religious leader came to Massachusetts Monday to offer her
 spiritual embraces. NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that her
 followers say a hug from her is like a blessing from God."


 Sounding alarm on potential swindles
 By Edgar Sanchez
 Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
 http://www.sacbee.com/news/scamalert/071701.html

 "Their victims fall into three categories: the good, the greedy and the
 gullible."


 Sightings of rare, ghostly eastern cougar still haunt Maritime forests
 by CHRIS MORRIS
 Canadian Press
 http://www.recorder.ca/cp/national/010714/n071411A.html

 "A fleeting form on a back country road; a chilling screech on a dark,
 spring night. Are these clues to solve one of New Brunswick's most enduring
 mysteries, or simply figments of busy imaginations eager  to experience a
 legend?"


 El Chupacabra Lives!
 by Brian Linder
 Film Force
 http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/301320p1.html

 " Watch out! El chupacabra is coming!  According to today's Variety, Joe
 Roth's Revolution Studios will bring the legendary chupacabra to the big
 screen."


 Mystery of lost treasure endures
 By Robert Pavey
 Augusta Chronicle
 http://augustachronicle.com/stories/071601/met_gold.shtml

 "In the vestibule of the Mary Willis Library, a dusty iron trunk continues
 to attract curious visitors - as it has for seven decades."


 Teenage myths about contraception
 BBC News
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1441000/1441898.stm

 "Some teenagers think Coca Cola and wrist watches are contraceptives."


 Paranormal investigators looking into 'shunned topic'
 by Melanie Brooks
 Ottawa Citizen
 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city/010714/5011685.html

 "A man wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing  noise. He looks
 up to see a figure cloaked in black materialize at the end of his bed,
 staring down at him. Before he has time to cry out, the figure disappears."


 Will Bobos ever see scientific truth?
 By Chet Raymo
 Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/198/science/Will_Bobos_ever_see_scientific_truth_+.shtml



 "Is scientific knowledge true?"


 'I can feel that it's there --somehow I can see it'
 BY ANNIE SWEENEY AND BRENDA WARNER ROTZOLL
 Chicago Sun-Times
 http://www.suntimes.com:80/output/news/icon15.html

 "In slight repose, she gazes upward and east down Rogers Avenue past a
 beat-up bus shelter, under the railroad tracks and toward Lake Michigan."


 Trickster lives on to haunt Bytown Museum
 by Melanie Brooks
 Ottawa Citizen
 http://www.ottawacitizen.com:80/city/010715/5016544.html

 "In the shadow of Parliament Hill, where the Rideau Canal meets the Ottawa
 River, an old limestone building stands witness to the flow of water and
 time. When it's stormy, you can hear waves crash against the rocks below."


 New law opens door to an old treatment
 BY NANCY HICKS
 Lincoln Journal Star
 http://www.journalstar.com:80/local?story_id=4090&date=20010716&past=

 "In a small hospital treatment room, eight patients lie on their stomachs
 with a dozen needles lined up along their spines."


 E.T. comes to N.J.?
 By MIKE KELLY
 Bergen Record
 http://www.bergen.com:80/news/kelly071720010717.htm

 "Paulette Holmes wants us to know that she is a completely rational
 38-year-old clerk-typist who has never, ever seen a space alien."


 Sweat lodge gives cancer patient hope
 by Kerry Fehr-Snyder
 Arizona Republic
 http://www.azcentral.com:80/news/0718sweatlodge18.html

 "The sweet scent of cedar burns through the sweat lodge, a Native American
 hut that's more about sweating than it is about lodging."



Arts Beat
Heeding the Masters' Voices
Brazilian Painter Maria Gertrudes Says She's Channeling Great Artists

By Nicole M. Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 12, 2001; Page C05

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49753-2001Jul11.html


Maria Gertrudes paints only in public. And for good reason.
She wants people to see her signing the names of Renoir, Monet and Picasso.
After all, says the Brazilian painter, visiting Washington this week, it's
their work she's doing -- from the grave. Really.

******************************************************************


From Massimo Pigliucci,


Friends,

this is to alert you and your mailing lists that my attempt to create a
permanent taskforce to deal with creationism within the Society for the
Study of Evolution has succeeded.

The Council of the Society (the premier organization of evolutionary
biologists) has agreed to establish a subcommittee of the Education
Committee to study ways in which professional evolutionists can help in the
fight against creationism and ID.

I will be chairing the taskforce for the foreseeable future, and prominent
authors and evolutionary biologists (including Robert Pennock, author of
"The Tower of Babel" and Joseph Graves, author of "The Emperor's New
Clothes") have already agree to help out.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Cheers,
Massimo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, Assoc. Professor
Department of Botany
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1100
phone 865-974-6221, fax 2258