LOS ANGELES — He’s not the enemy of God, his name really isn’t Lucifer and he isn’t even evil. And as far as leading Adam and Eve astray, that was a bad rap stemming from a case of mistaken identity. ‘There’s little or no evidence in the Bible for most of the characteristics and deeds commonly attributed to Satan,’ insists a UCLA professor with four decades in what he describes as ‘the devil business.’ In ‘Satan: A Biography’ (Cambridge Press), Henry Ansgar Kelly puts forth the most comprehensive case ever made for sympathy for the devil, arguing that the Bible actually provides a kinder, gentler version of the infamous antagonist than typically thought. ‘A strict reading of the Bible shows Satan to be less like Darth Vader and more and more like an overzealous prosecutor,’ said Kelly, a UCLA professor emeritus of English and the former director of the university’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. ‘He’s not so much the proud and angry figure who turns away from God as [he is] a Joseph McCarthy or J. Edgar Hoover. Satan’s basic intention is to uncover wrongdoing and treachery, however overzealous and unscrupulous the means. […]
Scientists believe they may have found a narrow slice of DNA that separates us from chimpanzees. Current research holds that humans and chimps split on the evolutionary tree about 7 million years ago. In identifying a section of DNA that has changed more than 70 times as rapidly as the rest of the human genome, researchers may have found out how, though not why, that split came about. ‘The suggestion is that this region of DNA is crucial to the development of uniquely human brains,’ said David Haussler, a molecular biologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the co-author of a study reported in the journal Nature. Finding the gene, or genes, that underpin the runaway brain of humans as compared to every other species is one of modern biology’s holy grails. ‘It’s not like the problem is solved,’ said Richard Gibbs, director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Human Genome Sequencing Center. ‘But this is a nice paper. And it’s persuasive to me that they have found a significant difference in the genomes. ‘But it’s unknown how many significant differences will have to add up to make us different from chimpanzees.’ […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A three-day tour with U.S. and Iraqi troops aiming to stop Baghdad’s plunge toward civil war showed one thing clearly: Iraqi forces remain unprepared to police the capital city alone. The joint operation’s neighborhood searches illuminated the growing distrust that the average Iraqi has for the security forces in the midst of sectarian warfare that’s claiming more Iraqi lives each month. Many members of the Shiite Muslim-dominated security forces are suspected of siding with death squads that target Sunni Muslims. During an operation in the Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah, a majority Sunni area that’s been a hotbed of insurgent activity, resident after resident said they opened their doors to Iraqi forces only when they saw American troops with them. U.S. forces tried to assure them that not all Iraqi troops are bad. ‘I think the Iraqis like Americans more than each other,’ said Maj. Barney Hill, of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Division Military Transition Team, of Winnemucca, Nev. The show of might by U.S. forces quelled the violence in what’s usually one of Baghdad’s most dangerous neighborhoods, but many Iraqis told the soldiers that they feared more killings when the […]
METULLA, Israel — Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades and suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas. ‘We fought for nothing. We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time,’ said Ilia Marshak, a 22-year-old infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon. Marshak said his unit was hindered by a lack of information, poor training and untested equipment. In one instance, Israeli troops occupying two houses inadvertently fired at each other because of poor communication between their commanders. ‘We almost killed each other,’ he said. ‘We shot like blind people. … We shot sheep and goats.’ In a nation mythologized for decisive military victories over Arab foes, the stalemate after a 34-day war in Lebanon has surprised many. The war was widely seen in Israel as a just response to a July 12 cross-border attack in which Hezbollah gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two. But the wartime solidarity crumbled after Israel agreed to pull its army from south Lebanon without crushing Hezbollah or rescuing the captured soldiers. […]
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would temporarily halt production at 10 assembly plants between now and the end of the year, blaming high gas prices for pushing many consumers away from its pickups and SUVs and toward higher-mileage models. Ford said the cuts will reduce the need for costly incentives to reduce bloated inventories. But they also illustrate just how out of step the lineup at the nation’s second-largest automaker has become, as it loses market share to mostly Asian competitors under the watch of Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford. General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group also have been caught in the shift away from trucks and SUVs to smaller cars and crossovers as consumers seek better fuel economy. The Big Three’s combined U.S. market share fell to 54.5 percent for the first seven months of 2006, down from 58.7 percent in the same period a year ago. GM already has announced it will cut production 7 percent to 8 percent in the third-quarter. Ford announced a turnaround plan in January that called for shedding 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and closing 14 plants by 2012. By year’s end, the company […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
