Y2K
Various, all
the time in '99
With so
much hype and special significance being given to the year 2000, one
needs to put the whole number thing in perspective...
Our year
2000 on the Christian calendar is:
A.M.
5760/5761 in the Hebrew calendar,
A.H.
1420/1421 in the Islamic calendar,
4698 in
the Chinese calendar,
2544 in
the Buddhist calendar,
2753 in
the Old Roman calendar, and
1716 in
the Coptic calendar.
On TV Violence
Reuters, May 28/99
"In
all the police records I've ever examined, I've never seen a 30-inch
Sony listed as a murder
weapon." -- ``Law & Order'' creator DICK WOLF, on political
outbursts against violence on television. He
may be right, but it likely could be listed as an accomplice.
'Satanic
Ritual' Stabbing
APBNews.com,
May 28/99
A
17-year-old accused of repeatedly stabbing a friend he asked to
participate in a satanic ritual faces up to life in prison.
Authorities
said the two struck up an acquaintance through e-mail and an
interest in satanic Web sites. The two (who met in a wooded area
along with at least two others) sliced their hands, mixed their blood
and drew a pentagram in the dirt while chanting. Darrel Harris then
allegedly took the bloodshed one step farther and turned the butcher
knife on Menendez, striking him as many as nine times in the neck.
For
more on modern versions of Satanism check out our new book on the
influence of occult. (See John 8:44; John 10:10)
Television Influence?
Reuters, May 19/99
A sudden
increase in eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia among
teenage girls on Fiji appears to be linked to the arrival of
television in the Pacific island nation in 1995, Harvard researchers said.
Some 74%
of Fijian girls reported feeling "too big or fat" in a 1998
survey (Anne) Becker conducted 38 months
after the country's one television station began broadcasting. It
airs British, New Zealand and U.S. programs such as Seinfeld, ER,
Melrose Place and Zena: Warrior Princess.
Traditionally,
Fijians have preferred what Becker called a "robust,
well-muscled body" for both sexes. With television's advent on
the island (which didn't even have electricity until 1985),
adolescent girls became more aware of Western ideal of beauty.
"Nobody
was dieting in Fiji 10 years ago," Becker said, adding that at
the end of almost every interview with teen-age girls they asked
about dieting. "The teen-agers see TV as a model for how one
gets by in the modern world. They believe the shows depict
reality," she said.
We have
seen the effects of how media has shaped our society for decades now
it isn't a pretty sight. (Psalms 119:37)
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