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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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best friends
After humans, rats and mice, dogs have become the fourth mammal species to be genetically sequenced. Scientists have found that dogs have a close relationship with humans genetically. So far only 80 per cent of the dog genome has been mapped, but according to research, dogs share at least 18,500 genes with the 25,000 human genes.
sugar not the only problem
New research blames increasing tooth erosion among teenagers on soft drinks. It found the risk of tooth erosion was 59 per cent higher in 12-year-olds and 220 per cent higher in 14-year-olds who drank fizzy drinks. It stated that though diet soft drinks have less sugar and therefore lessen the risk of decay, the acidity of these products still causes tooth erosion.
treasure to trash
A charity, Digital Links, is recycling unwanted computers by sending them to countries where 95 per cent of children leave school without ever having touched a PC. These computers, dumped as technology changes, are still usable and many have had minimal use. Many international corporations have provided more than 3000 computers at low cost, through Digital Links, to 12 Third World countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Gambia and Armenia.
costly mix-up
Two burglars robbing a German post office were distracted when the alarm went off. One of them grabbed the bag he believed contained the stolen money, and scampered. But, as police authorities later found, he had left the bag with the money and had taken a bag that contained an employee’s lunch of potato salad.
graven images
If a statue of a horse with a person riding it has both front legs in the air, then the rider died in battle. If it has just one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. But if all four legs are on the ground, the rider died of natural causes.
giant fungi
A three-tiered mushroom measuring a metre across found in the tropical forest of the Congo has left experts scratching their heads. “It’s the first time we’ve seen a mushroom like this, so it’s difficult for us to classify. But we’re going to determine what it is scientifically,” Pierre Botaba, head of Congo’s veterinary and zoology centre, told reporters. The fungi stands half a metre high and has three, tiered caps.
tree of surprises
A French farmer recently found a cache of ammunition and explosives concealed in the trunk of a tree he was about to fell. Police retrieved the metal box filled with ordnance, slightly damaged by the farmer’s chainsaw, assuming it to be stores hidden by the French Resistance during World War II.
Sources: Sheila O’Connor, Reuters, www.abc.net.au/science, www.theage.com.au, Agence France-Presse, www.bbc.co.uk.
““World conditions foreshadowing the world’s end,” said the headline of Signs of the Times of July 2, 1923. “The Scriptures definitely and clearly foretell an event known as ‘the end of the world,’” it stated. In fact, it was to herald this to the world that the Signs of the Times and Bible Echo, as it was then known, was begun more than a century ago. The lead article included a summary of the signs of the end of the world prophecied in the Bible. Half of your Signs for this month is devoted to the subject of prophecy and how to understand it, in this instance, those contained in the two prophetic Bible books—Daniel and Revelation.
Extract from Signs of the Times, July 2004.
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