Agent13
29th August 2003, 10:16 PM
The Real Estate Guru
by Jimmy Fowler
D Magazine
http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=583
"NOT LONG AGO, A FRIEND OF MINE WAS between opportunities and needed a place to stay for a few weeks while she hunted for more permanent lodging. I'll call her Lisa. Lisa is a puppeteer and an actress and a singer. She saw a small ad in the back of the Dallas Observer that offered "hotel living at apartment prices" and decided to give it a try. The ad turned out to be for the Hotel Santa Fe, that dilapidated, slightly sinister-looking, entirely drab building that sits on the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway. One day Lisa called and said, "You've gotta come see this place.""
Out of this world
BY MARA SHALHOUP
Creative Loafing Atlanta
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-08-28/cover.html
"On Dec. 27, 2002, at a Holiday Inn just north of Hollywood, Fla., the leader of the largest UFO sect in the world made a rather unique announcement to reporters. For years, Claude Vorilhon had been telling whoever would listen that, while hiking atop a dormant volcano in central France in 1973, he saw a spaceship touch down. Out of the ship walked a 4-foot, bearded being -- not quite human, but almost. Within minutes, the extraterrestrial cleared up centuries of debate about the origin of man: Humans -- indeed all life on Earth -- were created neither through evolution nor a divine power, but by aliens. And through science, humans would one day develop the technology to become like their creators. At least, this is what Vorilhon -- who would rename himself Rael -- says he was told."
Catching Rays with Radiation Man
BY JUSTIN BERTON
East Bay Express.com
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2003-08-27/feature.html/1/index.html
"Walter Wagner unzipped the black carrying case holding his Geiger counter and headed toward the bushes. For the past half hour, the former radiation safety officer had scoured the UCBerkeley campus on the hunt for ceramic tiles. He'd nosed his way into a few unlocked lecture halls and inspected half a dozen bathroom floors, all to no avail. According to Wagner, many tiles we pass by every day -- including the ones in our own showers -- are still coated in a uranium-based glaze that beams with radiation. Depending on what Wagner's counter tells him, some tiles, he believes, emit enough radiation to cause cancer."
Dead man walking was live man faking
BY AMY BECKER
St Paul Pioneer Press
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/6634512.htm
"A man who missed a court hearing in Washington County appeared to have a good excuse — until authorities realized his obituary was a fake."
A Watch Powered by Snake Oil
By Katie Dean
Wired
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,60183,00.html
"Like a deflector shield protecting the Starship Enterprise from its enemies, a new watch promises to shield the body from "electronic pollution" from cell phones and other gadgets."
Building a Time Machine by Spam
By Brian McWilliams
Wired
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60141,00.html
"This summer, Dave Hill got a refreshing break from the run-of-the-mill spam that routinely invades his e-mail inbox. Instead of hawking mortgages, penis-enlargement pills or weight-loss products, a message arrived that seemed straight out of a science fiction novel."
Tanzania 'witchdoctors' held
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3188541.stm
"Police in the south-western Tanzanian town of Mbeya have detained three people claiming to be traditional doctors with money making powers."
State orders Cryonics Institute to stop freezing bodies
Associated Press
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/sports/6623689.htm
"The state on Tuesday ordered a company to stop freezing bodies after media reports surrounding the death of baseball legend Ted Williams alerted regulators that the practice was taking place in Michigan."
Minister charged with felony abuse in boy's death
By JESSICA McBRIDE and REID J. EPSTEIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug03/165087.asp
"A self-described minister was charged with felony child abuse Tuesday in a complaint that says he had lain on an 8-year-old autistic boy during a two-hour prayer session meant to expel demons - but which resulted in the boy's suffocation death."
Minister barred from exorcisms
By JESSICA MCBRIDE and REID J. EPSTEIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug03/165293.asp
"A self-described minister facing a criminal charge in the death of an autistic child during a prayer session was ordered not to perform exorcisms as a bail condition during a Wednesday court appearance."
More crop circles found on Cranbrook-area farms
by Susan Hundertmark
Seaforth Huron Expositor
http://www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com/story.php?id=72260
"A second - and possibly a third - crop circle has been reported in the Cranbrook area."
Witness says boy charged in murder plot was swayed by friend's power
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--teenplot0828aug28,0,3160875.story>
"A teenager charged with plotting a killing spree believed the alleged ringleader was a powerful anti-Christ figure with special powers, a psychiatrist testified Thursday."
Memphre: It's OK To Say
BY ROBIN SMITH
Caledonian-Record News
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/887f3e397
"A gathering Wednesday of people interested in Memphre became the stage for more than sound bites in a film about the Lake Memphremagog sea serpent."
'Haunted house' exposed on public television show
By John W. Barry
Poughkeepsie Journal
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/lifeentertainment/stories/li082903s10.shtml
"Roxanne Wentworth believes her Town of Wappinger home is haunted."
Controversial notion could be making its way into public schools
By Kevin Quinn
KTRK
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/82703_local_intelligentdesign.html
"It's a controversial move that some say could open the doors to teaching creationism in public schools. A local group is gathering signatures that would require science teachers in Montgomery County to teach a concept called 'Intelligent Design'."
In Thrall to Don Juan
Review by Brian Doherty
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29263-2003Aug21.html
"Carlos Castaneda's books have been a pop-cultural phenomenon since the late '60s. His 1968 UCLA anthropology dissertation, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," was seized upon by Simon & Schuster and turned into a mass-market sensation. It and a continual series of sequels became standard accoutrements for those yearning to exhibit their interest in a mystical world of awareness beyond the bland boredom of middle-class American existence."
The blatant blanket blag
by Ben Goldacre
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1030189,00.html
"My informants send news of the new Magneto-Tex blankets, available for only £399. They have set themselves apart from other magnet therapies (many of which have been successfully prosecuted for fraud in the US) by offering "patented alternating magnets" that, remarkably, don't seem to require an alternating electrical current."
Doctors caution against overusing herbs
Iowa City Press-Citizen
http://www.press-citizen.com/news/082903herbs.htm
"Two University Hospitals physicians are calling attention to the issue of polyherbacy, the excessive or inappropriate ingestion of herbs for the treatment or prevention of disease, especially in older patients."
Naturopath killed child
By NATALIE WILLIAMS
Daily Telegraph [Australia]
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=111001
"THE death of a baby who was treated by a naturopath instead of undergoing lifesaving heart surgery should encourage moves to license and regulate people who practise natural therapies, a court heard yesterday."
Torrington women to face pyramid scam charges
By Denise Heilbrun
Torrington Telegram
http://www.torringtontelegram.com/main.php?story_id=436&page=23
"After nearly a year from when the “gifting club” surfaced in Goshen County, charges have been filed against two local women."
Designer water with big price tag absorbs the spotlight
BY SHARI RUDAVSKY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/6640750.htm
"The product: Penta Water."
No spirit in cheap tricks
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7071750%255E12284,00.html
"ONE of legendary showman P.T. Barnum's most famous exhibits was the FeeJee Mermaid _ which was actually the head and torso of a monkey seamlessly stitched to the bottom half of a fish. In the famous saying wrongly attributed to Barnum, there's a sucker born every minute."
Space Centered
By Brett Martin
Inc. Magazine
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030901/design.html
"There comes a point in a discussion of the precepts of feng shui -- the ancient Chinese discipline of environmental design -- when the eyes of a nonbeliever tend to glaze over: "CEOs shouldn't sit next to the front door." Okay, that makes sense. "Your desk should be near a window." Yes, yes. We're with you. "Don't use toxic materials." Well, of course. "Place a red cloth under your phone, and money will come in." Come again?"
Residents say there's something 'fishy' in their lake
Boca Beacon
http://www.bocabeacon.com/story.htbml?number=429
"Boca Grande might have its own Loch Ness monster. Only residents say this mysterious creature is a dolphin."
State seeks to retain $943K in alleged scam
By Kevin Murphy
The Capital Times [WI]
http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/55734.php
"Wisconsin wants to retain $943,668 of the $1.09 million it seized from the bank account of a Nevada firm that the state says ran an illegal Internet lottery from a Web site controlled in Columbus and Sun Prairie."
Group gathers both acolytes, doubters
By DENNIS YUSKO
Albany Times Union
<http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=164605&category=REGION&BCCode=&newsdate=8/28/2003>
"More than 300 students from around the world are in the Adirondacks this week to celebrate "Vanguard Week," the birthday of Keith Raniere, a self-described philosopher and entrepreneur."
Alleged Leaders of Pyramid Scheme Strike Plea Bargains with Prosecutors
KXTV
http://www.kxtv10.com/storyfull.asp?id=5172
"Two Fair Oaks women who allegedly led the Women Helping Women gifting parties have accepted a plea bargain that will let them avoid jail time."
An inbox of incredible information
By Steve Feitl
Lawrence Ledger
<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1091&dept_id=425648&newsid=10079055&PAG=461&rfi=9>
"I received some rather exciting news last week — I won the lottery."
A year after nurse disappeared, family and friends fear the worst
By Ariel Zangla
Kingston Daily Freeman
<http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10082624&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6>
"It's been 12 long months of worry and unanswered questions for the family and friends of Audrey May Herron, who has been missing since she left work in Jefferson Heights a year ago today."
Nude Safari Operator Pleads Innocent
Associated Press
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=777212
"A man who used a Web site to sell videos depicting men hunting naked women with paintball guns pleaded innocent Thursday to operating without a business license."
Dueling ghost tours cry foul as they try to scare up customers
By Charles Fiegl
Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror
http://www.ack.net/IM/current/4161news_storypage.html
"Apparently, this town’s not big enough for two ghost tours."
GENETTE SAYS POLICE DIDN'T LOOK ENOUGH
South Devon Herald Express
<http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=102060&command=displayContent&sourceNode=100885&contentPK=6828511>
"A Torbay woman has contacted police to say she knows who killed missing schoolgirl Genette Tate and where her remains are hidden."
GELLER REJECTS PAYMENT CLAIMS PROBED BY FA
Exeter Express
<http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=100384&command=displayContent&sourceNode=99903&contentPK=6829176>
"Psychic supporter Uri Geller today rubbished accusations that he made illegal payments to Exeter City players during last season's doomed relegation battle. Former vice-chairman Mike Lewis reported Geller to the Football Association earlier this summer following a conversation with a senior player."
Five on trial for child ritual murders
Agence France-Presse
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?storyid=109262§ionid=1274
"FIVE influential members of Brazilian society went on trial this week for the suspected torture, castration and murder of five children, aged eight to 13, in satanic rites over a decade ago."
Condi's Phony History
By Daniel Benjamin
Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2087768/
"As American post-conflict combat deaths in Iraq overtook the wartime number, the administration counseled patience. "The war on terror is a test of our strength. It is a test of our perseverance, our patience, and our will," President Bush told an American Legion convention."
Thousands in NY ask ConEd for spoiled milk money
Reuters
http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/08/26/rtr1066904.html
"Thousands of New Yorkers may be crying over spoiled milk when they find their utility is not going to pay for food ruined by a colossal power blackout earlier this month."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticsearch/
-------
If you'd like to support the Skeptic NewsSearch, please consider making a small donation via PayPal - <https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=agent-13%40attbi.com&item_name=Skeptic+NewsSearch&no_shipping=1&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD> or the Amazon Honor System - <http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P1H8VARI20KBKA>
by Jimmy Fowler
D Magazine
http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=583
"NOT LONG AGO, A FRIEND OF MINE WAS between opportunities and needed a place to stay for a few weeks while she hunted for more permanent lodging. I'll call her Lisa. Lisa is a puppeteer and an actress and a singer. She saw a small ad in the back of the Dallas Observer that offered "hotel living at apartment prices" and decided to give it a try. The ad turned out to be for the Hotel Santa Fe, that dilapidated, slightly sinister-looking, entirely drab building that sits on the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway. One day Lisa called and said, "You've gotta come see this place.""
Out of this world
BY MARA SHALHOUP
Creative Loafing Atlanta
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-08-28/cover.html
"On Dec. 27, 2002, at a Holiday Inn just north of Hollywood, Fla., the leader of the largest UFO sect in the world made a rather unique announcement to reporters. For years, Claude Vorilhon had been telling whoever would listen that, while hiking atop a dormant volcano in central France in 1973, he saw a spaceship touch down. Out of the ship walked a 4-foot, bearded being -- not quite human, but almost. Within minutes, the extraterrestrial cleared up centuries of debate about the origin of man: Humans -- indeed all life on Earth -- were created neither through evolution nor a divine power, but by aliens. And through science, humans would one day develop the technology to become like their creators. At least, this is what Vorilhon -- who would rename himself Rael -- says he was told."
Catching Rays with Radiation Man
BY JUSTIN BERTON
East Bay Express.com
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2003-08-27/feature.html/1/index.html
"Walter Wagner unzipped the black carrying case holding his Geiger counter and headed toward the bushes. For the past half hour, the former radiation safety officer had scoured the UCBerkeley campus on the hunt for ceramic tiles. He'd nosed his way into a few unlocked lecture halls and inspected half a dozen bathroom floors, all to no avail. According to Wagner, many tiles we pass by every day -- including the ones in our own showers -- are still coated in a uranium-based glaze that beams with radiation. Depending on what Wagner's counter tells him, some tiles, he believes, emit enough radiation to cause cancer."
Dead man walking was live man faking
BY AMY BECKER
St Paul Pioneer Press
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/6634512.htm
"A man who missed a court hearing in Washington County appeared to have a good excuse — until authorities realized his obituary was a fake."
A Watch Powered by Snake Oil
By Katie Dean
Wired
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,60183,00.html
"Like a deflector shield protecting the Starship Enterprise from its enemies, a new watch promises to shield the body from "electronic pollution" from cell phones and other gadgets."
Building a Time Machine by Spam
By Brian McWilliams
Wired
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60141,00.html
"This summer, Dave Hill got a refreshing break from the run-of-the-mill spam that routinely invades his e-mail inbox. Instead of hawking mortgages, penis-enlargement pills or weight-loss products, a message arrived that seemed straight out of a science fiction novel."
Tanzania 'witchdoctors' held
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3188541.stm
"Police in the south-western Tanzanian town of Mbeya have detained three people claiming to be traditional doctors with money making powers."
State orders Cryonics Institute to stop freezing bodies
Associated Press
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/sports/6623689.htm
"The state on Tuesday ordered a company to stop freezing bodies after media reports surrounding the death of baseball legend Ted Williams alerted regulators that the practice was taking place in Michigan."
Minister charged with felony abuse in boy's death
By JESSICA McBRIDE and REID J. EPSTEIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug03/165087.asp
"A self-described minister was charged with felony child abuse Tuesday in a complaint that says he had lain on an 8-year-old autistic boy during a two-hour prayer session meant to expel demons - but which resulted in the boy's suffocation death."
Minister barred from exorcisms
By JESSICA MCBRIDE and REID J. EPSTEIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug03/165293.asp
"A self-described minister facing a criminal charge in the death of an autistic child during a prayer session was ordered not to perform exorcisms as a bail condition during a Wednesday court appearance."
More crop circles found on Cranbrook-area farms
by Susan Hundertmark
Seaforth Huron Expositor
http://www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com/story.php?id=72260
"A second - and possibly a third - crop circle has been reported in the Cranbrook area."
Witness says boy charged in murder plot was swayed by friend's power
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--teenplot0828aug28,0,3160875.story>
"A teenager charged with plotting a killing spree believed the alleged ringleader was a powerful anti-Christ figure with special powers, a psychiatrist testified Thursday."
Memphre: It's OK To Say
BY ROBIN SMITH
Caledonian-Record News
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/887f3e397
"A gathering Wednesday of people interested in Memphre became the stage for more than sound bites in a film about the Lake Memphremagog sea serpent."
'Haunted house' exposed on public television show
By John W. Barry
Poughkeepsie Journal
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/lifeentertainment/stories/li082903s10.shtml
"Roxanne Wentworth believes her Town of Wappinger home is haunted."
Controversial notion could be making its way into public schools
By Kevin Quinn
KTRK
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/82703_local_intelligentdesign.html
"It's a controversial move that some say could open the doors to teaching creationism in public schools. A local group is gathering signatures that would require science teachers in Montgomery County to teach a concept called 'Intelligent Design'."
In Thrall to Don Juan
Review by Brian Doherty
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29263-2003Aug21.html
"Carlos Castaneda's books have been a pop-cultural phenomenon since the late '60s. His 1968 UCLA anthropology dissertation, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," was seized upon by Simon & Schuster and turned into a mass-market sensation. It and a continual series of sequels became standard accoutrements for those yearning to exhibit their interest in a mystical world of awareness beyond the bland boredom of middle-class American existence."
The blatant blanket blag
by Ben Goldacre
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1030189,00.html
"My informants send news of the new Magneto-Tex blankets, available for only £399. They have set themselves apart from other magnet therapies (many of which have been successfully prosecuted for fraud in the US) by offering "patented alternating magnets" that, remarkably, don't seem to require an alternating electrical current."
Doctors caution against overusing herbs
Iowa City Press-Citizen
http://www.press-citizen.com/news/082903herbs.htm
"Two University Hospitals physicians are calling attention to the issue of polyherbacy, the excessive or inappropriate ingestion of herbs for the treatment or prevention of disease, especially in older patients."
Naturopath killed child
By NATALIE WILLIAMS
Daily Telegraph [Australia]
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=111001
"THE death of a baby who was treated by a naturopath instead of undergoing lifesaving heart surgery should encourage moves to license and regulate people who practise natural therapies, a court heard yesterday."
Torrington women to face pyramid scam charges
By Denise Heilbrun
Torrington Telegram
http://www.torringtontelegram.com/main.php?story_id=436&page=23
"After nearly a year from when the “gifting club” surfaced in Goshen County, charges have been filed against two local women."
Designer water with big price tag absorbs the spotlight
BY SHARI RUDAVSKY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/6640750.htm
"The product: Penta Water."
No spirit in cheap tricks
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7071750%255E12284,00.html
"ONE of legendary showman P.T. Barnum's most famous exhibits was the FeeJee Mermaid _ which was actually the head and torso of a monkey seamlessly stitched to the bottom half of a fish. In the famous saying wrongly attributed to Barnum, there's a sucker born every minute."
Space Centered
By Brett Martin
Inc. Magazine
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030901/design.html
"There comes a point in a discussion of the precepts of feng shui -- the ancient Chinese discipline of environmental design -- when the eyes of a nonbeliever tend to glaze over: "CEOs shouldn't sit next to the front door." Okay, that makes sense. "Your desk should be near a window." Yes, yes. We're with you. "Don't use toxic materials." Well, of course. "Place a red cloth under your phone, and money will come in." Come again?"
Residents say there's something 'fishy' in their lake
Boca Beacon
http://www.bocabeacon.com/story.htbml?number=429
"Boca Grande might have its own Loch Ness monster. Only residents say this mysterious creature is a dolphin."
State seeks to retain $943K in alleged scam
By Kevin Murphy
The Capital Times [WI]
http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/55734.php
"Wisconsin wants to retain $943,668 of the $1.09 million it seized from the bank account of a Nevada firm that the state says ran an illegal Internet lottery from a Web site controlled in Columbus and Sun Prairie."
Group gathers both acolytes, doubters
By DENNIS YUSKO
Albany Times Union
<http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=164605&category=REGION&BCCode=&newsdate=8/28/2003>
"More than 300 students from around the world are in the Adirondacks this week to celebrate "Vanguard Week," the birthday of Keith Raniere, a self-described philosopher and entrepreneur."
Alleged Leaders of Pyramid Scheme Strike Plea Bargains with Prosecutors
KXTV
http://www.kxtv10.com/storyfull.asp?id=5172
"Two Fair Oaks women who allegedly led the Women Helping Women gifting parties have accepted a plea bargain that will let them avoid jail time."
An inbox of incredible information
By Steve Feitl
Lawrence Ledger
<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1091&dept_id=425648&newsid=10079055&PAG=461&rfi=9>
"I received some rather exciting news last week — I won the lottery."
A year after nurse disappeared, family and friends fear the worst
By Ariel Zangla
Kingston Daily Freeman
<http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10082624&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6>
"It's been 12 long months of worry and unanswered questions for the family and friends of Audrey May Herron, who has been missing since she left work in Jefferson Heights a year ago today."
Nude Safari Operator Pleads Innocent
Associated Press
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=777212
"A man who used a Web site to sell videos depicting men hunting naked women with paintball guns pleaded innocent Thursday to operating without a business license."
Dueling ghost tours cry foul as they try to scare up customers
By Charles Fiegl
Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror
http://www.ack.net/IM/current/4161news_storypage.html
"Apparently, this town’s not big enough for two ghost tours."
GENETTE SAYS POLICE DIDN'T LOOK ENOUGH
South Devon Herald Express
<http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=102060&command=displayContent&sourceNode=100885&contentPK=6828511>
"A Torbay woman has contacted police to say she knows who killed missing schoolgirl Genette Tate and where her remains are hidden."
GELLER REJECTS PAYMENT CLAIMS PROBED BY FA
Exeter Express
<http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=100384&command=displayContent&sourceNode=99903&contentPK=6829176>
"Psychic supporter Uri Geller today rubbished accusations that he made illegal payments to Exeter City players during last season's doomed relegation battle. Former vice-chairman Mike Lewis reported Geller to the Football Association earlier this summer following a conversation with a senior player."
Five on trial for child ritual murders
Agence France-Presse
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?storyid=109262§ionid=1274
"FIVE influential members of Brazilian society went on trial this week for the suspected torture, castration and murder of five children, aged eight to 13, in satanic rites over a decade ago."
Condi's Phony History
By Daniel Benjamin
Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2087768/
"As American post-conflict combat deaths in Iraq overtook the wartime number, the administration counseled patience. "The war on terror is a test of our strength. It is a test of our perseverance, our patience, and our will," President Bush told an American Legion convention."
Thousands in NY ask ConEd for spoiled milk money
Reuters
http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/08/26/rtr1066904.html
"Thousands of New Yorkers may be crying over spoiled milk when they find their utility is not going to pay for food ruined by a colossal power blackout earlier this month."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticsearch/
-------
If you'd like to support the Skeptic NewsSearch, please consider making a small donation via PayPal - <https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=agent-13%40attbi.com&item_name=Skeptic+NewsSearch&no_shipping=1&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD> or the Amazon Honor System - <http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P1H8VARI20KBKA>