What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
Stephen Hawking
--A Brief History of Time
Month: November 2003
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Hell's angels
29 November 2003
The Yezidi are Iraq's most persecuted minority. The overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime has opened them to the outside world ...
A people who live in the remote mountains at the borders of Turkey, the Yezidi pray to the fallen angel Christians and Muslims call Satan, because they believe he was forgiven by God and reinstated in heaven.
They do not call this angel Satan but Malek Tawwus, or the Peacock King, and they pray to him. As a result, the followers of other religions have condemned them as Devil-worshippers.
The Yezidi never wear the colour blue. They are not allowed to eat lettuce. They believe in reincarnation, which they call the soul "changing its clothes". They have two holy books, but they believe the only copy of one of them, the Black Book, was stolen years ago and taken to Britain, where, they say, it is kept in a museum.
"We have faced 72 genocides. I fear we may face a 73rd."
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Reservist's frankness puts career in jeopardy
By Corydon Ireland
Staff Writer
The Associated Press
Capt. Steve McAlpin salutes as he and others in his battalion are praised by Gov. Pataki in January.
(November 28, 2003) — A Rochester-area reservist faces being drummed out of the service after charges of insubordination were filed.
Capt. Steve McAlpin says the reprimand is related to his comments that the battalion may be violating federal law by not allowing troops who have served in a combat zone a required 12-month “stabilization period” at home.
McAlpin said he is being singled out for punishment because of his comments regarding the law confering reservist leave.
Soldiers being redeployed at the 401st were asked to sign a waiver of Title X rights, a provision of the U.S. Code since 1953. Most of the officers refused to sign and all but four of the enlisted personnel called to redeploy agreed to sign.
“If an officer said to sign something, you signed it — that’s what I did as a kid,” said McAlpin. -
Swedes told to beware drunk and disorderly elks
Swedish authorities are warning citizens to be on the look out for berry-intoxicated elks.
It follows an attack on a woman in the city of Karlshamn.
Experts say the animals are likely to get even more aggressive as they feast on the last of the summer berries which have fermented into potent alcoholic fruit.
"Some elks get very calm but others very aggressive after they've had alcoholic fruit, just like humans."
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From burning_angel101
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Pensioners 'have better sperm than men of 20'
Twenty-year-old men have worse sperm quality than men of 60, according to a new Danish report.
The average 20-year-old had half as many sperm as the average 60-year-old, and many of the younger men were close to infertile.
"One explanation is that more and more woman are heavy smokers. We need more and better studies of how the foetus is affected during pregnancy."
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Air Canada Service Staff Get Bonus
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Pleased with workers who scored top marks on customer service, Air Canada recently picked 100 at random to give them a bonus -- a $3.78 hamburger coupon that expires in five weeks.
Some Air Canada in-flight service employees were forced to forgo a bonus earlier this year when the airline won court protection from its creditors and squeezed some $840,000 of concessions from its unions.
The burger bonus comes as two groups bidding to control Montreal-based Air Canada have offered its chief executive and top restructuring manager multimillion-dollar bonuses to remain with the airline through its bankruptcy protection proceedings
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