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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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caning cures
A Russian scientist claims that a beating on the buttocks with a cane will cure everything from depression to alcoholism. He argues that caning releases endorphins, the body’s natural “happiness” drug. He recommends a standard treatment of 30 sessions, delivered by a person of average build. The Russians are charging £57 for a standard caning. “The treatment works. I’m not sadistic—at least not in the classical sense,” protested the scientist.
credit-finger
A German supermarket chain has introduced a new method of customer payment using the finger. Customers who register for the service, run a finger over a scanner at the cash desk to confirm their identity when making a purchase, then receive the goods.
metallic glass
A high strength “metallic” glass three times stronger than the best industrial steel and 10 times springier has been developed. Its strength comes from metal atoms, which normally arrange themselves in ordered arrays, or crystals. The atoms in metallic glass are a disordered jumble, rather like the atoms in a liquid or glass. With many properties, such as low melting temperature and super strength, glass has many potential applications.
literal promise
A Texas oilman is using his Bible as a guide to finding oil in the Holy Land. Literally interpreting the text of Deuteronomy 33:24, he believes there is oil lying beneath the biblical territory assigned to the Tribe of Asher following the Exodus. The passage relates Moses’ blessing to one of the 12 tribes of Israel in, “Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be favoured by his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil.”
foot in jar
A man from Kansas who had a foot amputated has decided to keep it for old time’s sake. The man, who keeps the foot on the front porch of his home, says, “I’m not sick or, like, a danger. I just wanted my foot.”
snail trail
A pharmaceutical company in Chile is marketing snail slime as a cough cure. According to the company owner, the slime is an effective cough remedy, because it contains antibiotics and has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory uses. The company has more than 8500 snails working to produce the elixir, which comes in strawberry and avocado flavours.
video fatality
A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost nonstop died only minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe. The 28-year had been playing online battle simulation games at the cybercafe, leaving only for toilet breaks and a brief nap on a makeshift bed. Authorities reported that the man died from heart failure stemming from exhaustion.
an Ironic twist
An Acehnese man walks through the devastated Lam Pulo neighbourhood of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. There aren’t many places in the Islamic world where they name streets after American presidents, past or present. But through the tsunami-devastated heart of this village, embedded in the highly conservative Muslim society of this western province, runs George Bush and Bill Clinton Road.—AAP
In January of 1897, the Signs of the Times and Bible Echo, as Signs was then known, under the title “Divine Heralds,” gave a description of the signs of the period just prior to the second coming of Christ, as described in the Bible.
“The greatest events which now await the world, the coming of Christ and the end of this age, are frequent subjects of discourse in the Scriptures. Signs are given whereby [people] may know when they are near. . . . In Matthew 24 these signs are plainly described. The sun and moon were supernaturally darkened May 19, 1780. Then the stars began to fall. First a shower in 1799 . . . 1833 . . . 1866; and some are looking for another in 1899. . . . Men may try to account for them as they will; they are signs of the approaching end. Christ meant what He said. . . .
“If one lone star seen by a few wise men of the East was sufficient to herald the first advent of the Saviour, surely nothing but wilful blindness and stubborn unbelief can reject this as a true harbinger of His second appearing.”
Extract from Signs of the Times, January / February 2006.
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