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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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end-of-the-world pope prophecy
Internet doomsayers eyeing a 12th-century Catholic prophecy believe that judgment is nigh. The prophecy, dismissed by scholars as a hoax, is attributed to St Malachy, an Irish archbishop recognised by members of the church for his alleged ability to read the future. Believers claim that Pope Benedict XVI fits the description of the second-to-last pope listed in the prophecy before the last judgment, when the Bible says God separates the wicked from the righteous at the end of time.
playing god
A football club boss has commissioned a version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, with himself as Christ. The owner of Steaua Bucharest will be surrounded by his manager and 11 favourite players as the 12 apostles. The same owner once promised to build a new church in Romania for every round of the UEFA Cup his side reached.
global warming
Scientists claim to have found conclusive evidence that humans are warming the earth. Using realistic computer models analysing data from the oceans, they’ve found evidence that the earth is absorbing more energy from the sun than it is giving back into space.
smart washer
A Spanish designer has come up with a washing machine called “Your Turn,” which will not let the same person use it twice in a row. It uses fingerprint recognition technology to ensure the job of loading is not dumped on just one individual.
pollutant affects sex chromosome
A team of scientists from Sweden claim that an environmental pollutant from industry and agriculture can change the ratio of sperm-carrying male and female chromosomes. Researchers found exposure to two persistent organochlorine pollutants DDE and CB-153—from eating fatty fish, such as salmon—increases the Y-chromosome-carrying sperm.
new state icons
A rock, a tree and a snack have been declared state icons of South Australia. Every year, the state’s National Trust adds to its heritage icon list, and the 2005 effort includes bluestone, Kangaroo Island’s mulberry tree and the snack, Menz FruChocs.
marriage card
Divorce, remarriage and children born out of wedlock are now so common in Britain that one greeting card retailer is tapping into the lucrative market with new card messages such as: “For Mummy and Daddy on your wedding day.”
Hugging T-shirt
Italian designers have developed a hugging T-shirt for people in long-distance relationships. Based on information transmitted by mobile phone, the T-shirt simulates the missing partner’s breath, touch and heartbeat. The hug is transmitted via sensors installed in the upper arms, back, hips and shoulders of the T-shirt, which recreate the physical pressure of a hug by inflating and deflating.
Sixty years ago, with the war in the Pacific over, delegates of many nations were meeting in San Francisco to establish the United Nations Organisation (UNO). In the wake of war, freedom was high on the agenda. Signs of the Times of August 20, 1945, included part of a petition sent to the new UNO that sought to include religious liberty as one of the freedoms that would be part of its founding principles.
“One of the chief contributions which can be made in bringing war to an end is completely free religion in its profession, its practice, its prorogation. Freedom of worship is not enough. What is required is complete freedom of religion in all its phases.”
Signs continues to defend religious liberty and personal freedom, as it has done for its 120 years of publication, highlighted again in Mark Kellner’s take on a presentation on the topic made by former US First Lady, Hillary Clinton.
Extract from Signs of the Times, August 2005.
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