Y2K-inspired scams perpetrated against individuals and businesses are on the rise. According to an April 27 Associated Press report, con artists have generated a host of schemes to make money from the fear and ignorance surrounding the millennium bug. Scam Y2K "quick fix" products for home computers are popular. Internet sites tell how to make a killing in stocks of companies specializing in Y2K protection.
Science, March 5, 1999, reported the House of Representative's Committee on Government Reform heard testimony from an "alternative" doctor praising "alternative" medicine. Jane Seymour, the actress who plays Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, on television, testified about the virtues of homeopathy and other alternative therapies. According to the report, "Seymour claimed, among other things, that 'homeopathy can cure acne within four days'." The hearing was "held by Representative Dan Burton (R-IN) to explore how to integrate homeopathy, herbal treatments and other therapies into mainstream medicine."
Carrying a different message, James Randi spoke March 18th to Representatives on the need to educate the public about pseudoscience. Using the example of homeopathic remedies now available in drugstores, he held up an insomnia cure and read aloud the instructions to take no more than "one tablet every two hours." With that, he proceeded to swallow 45 tablets-the entire bottle.
"What have I taken?" he asked. According to the label, silver nitrate at 6x and coffee at 30x-one poisonous ingredients and one, coffee, that certainly doesn't induce sleep. Despite the listed ingredients, Randi explained, he had ingested nothing of the sort. In fact, he pointed out, he would need to eat 16 swimming pools of full of these pills to get one molecule of caffeine!
"When you buy these quack preparations, you are buying nothing," said Randi. "The point of this demonstration is not to prove that homeopathic compounds are safe -they certainly are-but to show that they are useless."
The text of Randi's entire talk can be found at the James Randi Educational Foundation website at http://www.randi.org.
Catherine Bennett, a clairvoyant and clinical hypnotherapist, offers a unique service to anyone seeking "perfection and health." Bennett will "activate" your DNA. If you cannot make one of her DNA Activation workshops, she provides the service by phone from her Phoenix, Arizona, home for only $33 per activation. She recommends two activations, two to four weeks apart.
According to Bennett, 97% of our DNA is dormant and is referred to by scientists as "junk DNA"; however, it responds to "a cohesive wave form such as Unconditional Love." She claims that her technique "activates the DNA within the two achetypal chromosomes located in the pineal gland...Activation actually decodes the existing two-strand double helix DNA with itself and activates the blueprint for the multi-strand DNA."
"The trigger mechanism that signals the DNA to spontaneously mutate into the next quantum leap in our evolutionary cycle is the frequency of Unconditional Love...which vibrates at 13 Hz. This just coincidentally happens to be the Schuaman Resonance of Mother Earth that scientists have been measuring. We are going from a tetrahedron-based, two-strand 'factory model' DNA to a dodecahedron-based, twelve-strand 'original blueprint' DNA. Many well-known authors who are grounded in science have mentioned the twelve-strand model...," writes Bennett.
"The DNA's consciousness literally takes over the operation of the body ... Once activated, each of the ten trillion cells in the human body are directed towards improved health and cellular cleansing begins. Not only are toxins eliminated, but emotional garbage as well."
Bennett claims that "in most cases, individuals realize spontaneous healings and well-being." Skeptics, however, beware. Bennett warns that while "DNA Activation works subtly and by-passes the individual's belief system...one can still overpower the effects, if determined to do so."
To find out more about how you can Activate Your DNA!, visit Bennett's web site at http://www.globaldrum.com/dnaact/
Following the tragic school shootings in Colorado, letters from Christian fundamentalists have appeared in papers around the country placing the blame directly on the teaching of evolution. Similar arguments were heard from a congressman in the House of Representatives on June 16. The "reasoning" goes that if you teach children they are animals, they will behave like animals.
One such letter appeared in the Corvallis Gazette-Times on May 2, prompting Arthur Boucot, a professor of paleontology at Oregon State University, to respond that he has taught Darwinian evolution since 1957 and not one of his students has committed such a crime. Mike Meyer, on the other hand, responded that only "Children of God"-not animals-massacre their own. "Perhaps more evolution teaching is needed...Being more like animals is a great thing to aspire to."
