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This file is entitled SOAP0001.TXT. In any re-distribution, please name it as such to avoid any confusion. --- Soapbox Issue #1 January 1993 --- Contents: a1 - Preamble TOP STORY a2 - Book of The Dead Re-Incarnated [ anon. ] Gibson's Agrippa Decoded and Printed in Full FEATURES a3 - Tricky Wording [ by Citizen's Project ] Did Ignorance Cause Amendment 2 to be Passed? a4 - An Eye For An Eye [ Chad Skelton ] Why Capital Punishment Doesn't Work a5 - When Hell Freezes Over [ Applied Optics ] New Analysis Reveals there is something hotter than Hell - Heaven. a6 - The Size of a Grapefruit ... [ anon. ] New Information from NASA Supports the Big Bang Theory a7 - High Winds, Shallow Waters [ by Chad Skelton / Discover Magazine ] The Truth Behind The Parting of the Red Sea DEPARTMENTS [ all assembled by Chad Skelton ] a8 - BOYCOTT Animal Testers and Colorado a9 - TOP 7 New Sins in the Catholic Church a10 - 10 Great Taglines 43% of Statistics are Made Up a11 - "Endnotes" --- a1 Letter From The Editor Hello, and welcome to the Premiere edition of SOAPBOX magazine. An electronic magazine that has "nothing to do with electronics". In this edition, Soapbox is pleased to present William Gibson's AGRIPPA. The story that some felt would never be cracked is presented in full. We also have interesting articles on Capital Punishment, Colorado's Amendment 2 and The Big Bang. Contributions If you have something you'd like to contribute to Soapbox. Be it articles, criticisms, praise or threats, you can send it to us in many ways. DIRECT CALL: The home board of SOAPBOX is The Blue Room [ (519)-885-3623, open 4pm to 7am EST ]. This will allow you to contribute anything you wish, as well as pick up the latest edition of SOAPBOX magazine. THE NETS: You can contact me under the alias PROFESSOR MORIARTY on both OOFNET and CyberCrime International in the General sections. As well, you can contact me on usenet at my usenet address: cskelton@realm.kwnet.on.ca MAIL: Of course, you can also contact us through the mail at the following address: Soapbox Magazine c/o Chad Skelton 379 Dunvegan Drive Waterloo, Ontario N2K 1W7 Distribution Soapbox Magazine is always available at my home board [ The Blue Room / (519)-885-3623, from 4pm to 7am EST ]. Soapbox will also be posted on Canada's biggest Bulletin Board System : Canada Remote Systems (CRS). As well, Soapbox Magazine will be printed regularly on the following nets: OOFNET and CyberCrime International in the General Sections Usenet in the following sections: alt.cyberpunk alt.conspiracy alt.censorship alt.atheism.moderated If you have usenet, but none of these conferences, either request the conference, or you can request a copy of Soapbox from: cskelton@realm.kwnet.on.ca [ back issues may also be requested from this address ] If you do not have access to a modem, and wish to have this magazine in hardcopy, send a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to: Soapbox Magazine c/o Chad Skelton 379 Dunvegan Drive Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2K 1W7 If you live outside of Canada, and are unable to get Canadian stamps, funds equaling 1 Canadian dollar (for those living in the US) or 2 Canadian dollars (for those living in other foreign countries) should suffice. As well, you can help the distribution of Soapbox by uploading it to any BBS which doesn't have it available. If you know of a BBS or service which regularly carries Soapbox, please contact me so that I can list it in those places where it may be obtained. Copyright All articles may be reprinted if credit is given to Soapbox Magazine (and any other author or organization which is listed). However, if the work is copyrighted (if it has a c. 1993 or the like) then it may not be reprinted without first receiving permission from the said writer (this may be done through contacting myself). a2 The Book of The Dead Re-Incarnated Gibson's Agrippa Decoded And Printed in Full --- The following text came to my attention through a user named ARGUS in alt.cyberpunk. However, he did not claim responsibility for it's decoding. In fact, according to some on the net, he was not even the first to post it. For those who do not know, Agrippa is an experimental book created by William Gibson (author of Neuromancer) and Dennis Ashbaugh (artist). The book was published last September by Kevin Begos, Jr. A 95 copy edition sold for $1,500, the 10 issue deluxe copy cost $7,500 and the 350 copy edition sold for about $450. Ashbaugh created an ancient looking book cover and inside the cover, was a disk containing the text of Gibson's story. However, the tricky part was that there was an encryption program on the disk which eliminated the text as you read it - making it a "one time deal". The text of Agrippa has already been distributed, however, only with the encryption intact. According to Ashbaugh "You'd have to hit it with a lot of brute mathematical force. Anyone with access to a supercomputer would have a chance, but you couldn't do it with a PC." Well, somehow it was cracked. And now, Soapbox proudly presents the complete text of a book which many thought would only be seen once! - ed. --- ____________________________________________________________________________ AGRIPPA (A Book of The Dead) Text by William Gibson Etchings by Dennis Ashbaugh (C)1992 Kevin Begos Publishing 1411 York Ave. New York, NY All Rights Reserved I hesitated before untying the bow that bound this book together. A black book: ALBUMS CA. AGRIPPA Order Extra Leaves By Letter and Name A Kodak album of time-burned black construction paper The string he tied Has been unravelled by years and the dry weather of trunks Like a lady's shoestring from the First World War Its metal ferrules eaten by oxygen Until they resemble cigarette-ash Inside the cover he inscribed something in soft graphite Now lost Then his name W.F. Gibson Jr. and something, comma, 1924 Then he glued his Kodak prints down And wrote under them In chalk-like white pencil: "Papa's saw mill, Aug. 1919." A flat-roofed shack Against a mountain ridge In the foreground are tumbled boards and offcuts He must have smelled the pitch, In August The sweet hot reek Of the electric saw Biting into decades Next the spaniel Moko "Moko 1919" Poses on small bench or table Before a backyard tree His coat is lustrous The grass needs cutting Beyond the tree, In eerie Kodak clarity, Are the summer backstairs of Wheeling, West Virginia Someone's left a wooden stepladder out "Aunt Fran and [obscured]" Although he isn't, this gent He has a "G" belt-buckle A lapel-device of Masonic origin A patent propelling-pencil A fountain-pen And the flowers they pose behind so solidly Are rooted in an upright length of whitewashed concrete sewer-pipe. Daddy had a horse named Dixie "Ford on Dixie 1917" A saddle-blanket marked with a single star Corduroy jodpurs A western saddle And a cloth cap Proud and happy As any boy could be "Arthur and Ford fishing 1919" Shot by an adult (Witness the steady hand that captures the wildflowers the shadows on their broad straw hats reflections of a split-rail fence) standing opposite them, on the far side of the pond, amid the snake-doctors and the mud, Kodak in hand, Ford Sr.? And "Moma July, 1919" strolls beside the pond, in white big city shoes, Purse tucked behind her, While either Ford or Arthur, still straw-hatted, approaches a canvas-topped touring car. "Moma and Mrs. Graham at fish hatchery 1919" Moma and Mrs. G. sit atop a graceful concrete arch. "Arthur on Dixie", likewise 1919, rather ill at ease. On the roof behind the barn, behind him, can be made out this cryptic mark: H.V.J.M.[?] "Papa's Mill 1919", my grandfather most regal amid a wrack of cut lumber, might as easily be the record of some later demolition, and His cotton sleeves are rolled to but not past the elbow, striped, with a white neckband for the attachment of a collar. Behind him stands a cone of sawdust some thirty feet in height. (How that feels to tumble down, or smells when it is wet) II. The mechanism: stamped black tin, Leatherette over cardboard, bits of boxwood, A lens The shutter falls Forever Dividing that from this. Now in high-ceiling bedrooms, unoccupied, unvisited, in the bottom drawers of veneered bureaus in cool chemical darkness curl commemorative montages of the country's World War dead, just as I myself discovered one other summer in an attic trunk, and beneath that every boy's best treasure of tarnished actual ammunition real little bits of war but also the mechanism itself. The blued finish of firearms is a process, controlled, derived from common rust, but there under so rare and uncommon a patina that many years untouched until I took it up and turning, entranced, down the unpainted stair, to the hallway where I swear I never heard the first shot. The copper-jacketed slug recovered from the bathroom's cardboard cylinder of Morton's Salt was undeformed save for the faint bright marks of lands and grooves so hot, stilled energy, it blistered my hand. The gun lay on the dusty carpet. Returning in utter awe I took it so carefully up That the second shot, equally unintended, notched the hardwood bannister and brought a strange bright smell of ancient sap to life in a beam of dusty sunlight. Absolutely alone in awareness of the mechanism. Like the first time you put your mouth on a woman. III. "Ice Gorge at Wheeling 1917" Iron bridge in the distance, Beyond it a city. Hotels where pimps went about their business on the sidewalks of a lost world. But the foreground is in focus, this corner of carpenter's Gothic, these backyards running down to the freeze. "Steamboat on Ohio River", its smoke foul and dark, its year unknown, beyond it the far bank overgrown with factories. "Our Wytheville House Sept. 1921" They have moved down from Wheeling and my father wears his city clothes. Main Street is unpaved and an electric streetlamp is slung high in the frame, centered above the tracked dust on a slack wire, suggesting the way it might pitch in a strong wind, the shadows that might throw. The house is heavy, unattractive, sheathed in stucco, not native to the region. My grandfather, who sold supplies to contractors, was prone to modern materials, which he used with wholesaler's enthusiasm. In 1921 he replaced the section of brick sidewalk in front of his house with the broad smooth slab of poured concrete, signing this improvement with a flourish, "W.F. Gibson 1921". He believed in concrete and plywood particularly. Seventy years later his signature remains, the slab floating perfectly level and charmless between mossy stretches of sweet uneven brick that knew the iron shoes of Yankee horses. "Mama Jan. 1922" has come out to sweep the concrete with a broom. Her boots are fastened with buttons requiring a special instrument. Ice gorge again, the Ohio, 1917. The mechanism closes. A torn clipping offers a 1957 DeSOTO FIREDOME, 4-door Sedan, torqueflite radio, heater and power steering and brakes, new w.s.w. premium tires. One owner. $1,595. IV He made it to the age of torqueflite radio but not much past that, and never in that town. That was mine to know, Main Street lined with Rocket Eighty-eights, the dimestore floored with wooden planks pies under plastic in the Soda Shop, and the mystery untold, the other thing, sensed in the creaking of a sign after midnight when nobody else was there. In the talc-fine dust beneath the platform of the Norfolk & Western lay indian-head pennies undisturbed since the dawn of man. In the banks and courthouse, a fossil time prevailed, limestone centuries. When I went up to Toronto in the draft, my Local Board was there on Main Street, above a store that bought and sold pistols. I'd once traded that man a derringer for a Walther P-38. The pistols were in the window behind an amber roller-blind like sunglasses. I was seventeen or so but basically I guess you just had to be a white boy. I'd hike out to a shale pit and run ten dollars worth of 9mm through it, so worn you hardly had to pull the trigger. Bored, tried shooting down into a distant stream but one of them came back at me off a round of river rock clipping walnut twigs from a branch two feet above my head. So that I remembered the mechanism. V. In the all night bus station they sold scrambled eggs to state troopers the long skinny clasp-knives called fruit knives which were pearl handled watermelon-slicers and hillbilly novelties in brown varnished wood which were made in Japan. First I'd be sent there at night only if Mom's carton of Camels ran out, but gradually I came to value the submarine light, the alien reek of the long human haul, the strangers straight down from Port Authority headed for Nashville, Memphis, Miami. Sometimes the Sheriff watched them get off making sure they got back on. When the colored restroom was no longer required they knocked open the cinderblock and extended the magazine rack to new dimensions, a cool fluorescent cave of dreams smelling faintly and forever of disinfectant, perhaps as well of the travelled fears of those dark uncounted others who, moving as though contours of hot iron, were made thus to dance or not to dance as the law saw fit. There it was that I was marked out as a writer, having discovered in that alcove copies of certain magazines esoteric and precious, and, yes, I knew then, knew utterly, the deal done in my heart forever, though how I knew not, nor ever have. Walking home through all the streets unmoving so quiet I could hear the timers of the traffic lights a block away: the mechanism. Nobody else, just the silence spreading out to where the long trucks groaned on the highway their vast brute souls in want. VI. There must have been a true last time I saw the station but I don't remember I remember the stiff black horsehide coat gift in Tucson of a kid named Natkin I remember the cold I remember the Army duffle that was lost and the black man in Buffalo trying to sell me a fine diamond ring, and in the coffee shop in Washington I'd eavesdropped on a man wearing a black tie embroidered with red roses that I have looked for ever since. They must have asked me something at the border I was admitted somehow and behind me swung the stamped tin shutter across the very sky and I went free to find myself mazed in Victorian brick amid sweet tea with milk and smoke from a cigarette called a Black Cat and every unknown brand of chocolate and girls with blunt-cut bangs not even Americans looking down from high narrow windows on the melting snow of the city undreamed and on the revealed grace of the mechanism, no round trip. They tore down the bus station there's chainlink there no buses stop at all and I'm walking through Chiyoda-ku in a typhoon the fine rain horizontal umbrella everted in the storm's Pacific breath tonight red lanterns are battered, laughing, in the mechanism. a3 Tricky Wording Did Ignorance Cause Amednment 2 to be passed? AMENDMENT 2 (AMENDING THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION) "Neither the State of Colorado, through any of its branches or departments, nor any of its agencies, political subdivisions, municipalities or school districts, shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation, ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships shall constitute or otherwise be the basis of or entitle any person or class of persons to have or claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status, or claim of discrimination." --- The Above is the wording of Amendment 2, the controversial anti-gay bill which passed by a referendum in Colorado. The following contains excerpts from the Citizens Project Newsletter Dec. 92. The newsletter was excellently written and very informative. If you would like more information about Citizen's Project, you can contact Ken Farmer at the following: Ken Farmer Internet: kfarmer@oldcolo.com Voice: 719-685-9899 - ed. --- A COLORADO SPRINGS LEGACY ======================================================================= Although Freedom Watch is designed primarily to provide information, in certain circumstances we must also state our opinion. The campaign for and subsequent passage of Amendment 2 provides issues so clear, evidence of chicanery by Colorado for Family Values so strong, and potential for harm to the community so great, that Citizens Project Board member Richard Skorman wrote the following on behalf of Citizens Project: The election was over a month ago, and many of us at Citizens Project are still stunned by the passage of Amendment 2. The Pikes Peak Region has a new legacy: Colorado Springs originated the Colorado For Family Values (CFV) group and Amendment 2; we were the home of one of the most vicious campaigns of misinformation in recent American politics; and El Paso County voted nearly two to one (105,000 to 54,000) in favor of Amendment 2--a margin decisive to its statewide victory. This is the first major success of the religious right in our community, and one with serious implications across the country. Soon after the election, CFV moved from temporary to permanent offices. Phone calls and money have been pouring in from across the nation. Will Perkins was quoted on television the day after the election as saying, "We have learned a great deal from this election, and we think we can help many others with similar campaigns across the country." A California-based group, Traditional Values Coalition (led by Rev. Lou Sheldon), has already announced its intention to push a similar ballot initiative in California and other states. CFV'S CAMPAIGN What did CFV learn in their successful campaign? They learned to hire constitutional lawyers to write the amendment using confusing language and voter-negative buzzwords such as "quotas, protected class, minority status". They learned to convince the media to call this a "special rights" amendment, and reporters obligingly spoke and wrote about Amendment 2 during the entire campaign as the "special rights" amendment. (Ironically, the words "special rights" do not appear in the amendment.) CFV learned how to cleverly write and market this amendment so that voters in Colorado didn't have a clear choice. Amendment 2 contains two types of language: language prohibiting "quotas, protected class, and minority status", and language permitting discrimination. Voters were not allowed to choose between these two, but were sold Amendment 2 "as a package". Throughout their campaign, CFV steadfastly maintained that Amendment 2 didn't discriminate against anyone. Yet, discrimination was clearly written in the last clause of Amendment 2. (Amendment 2 is reprinted on page 4, and the discrimination argument is analyzed on page 16.) And finally, CFV learned that two weeks before the election was the best time to flood Colorado with vicious, grossly inaccurate and fear-producing misinformation about gay and lesbian behavior, because countering this mass of misinformation in the short time remaining would be very difficult. Fears, stereotypes and misinformation about gays and lesbians are already ingrained in our culture. CFV added new fuel to those fires in order to mobilize voters against gays and lesbians. Legally, Amendment 2 makes Colorado gays and lesbians a pariah class--the only group in the United States specifically barred from receiving protection from discrimination. The message that voters have given, whether real or perceived, is that the vast majority of the El Paso County electorate doesn't care if gays or lesbians are denied employment, housing or public accommodations, or actually wants to deny them those rights. WHAT ABOUT HOMOPHOBIA? Three issues surrounding Amendment 2 and homophobia are especially disturbing. First, why weren't Coloradans outraged about this amendment from the first? If any other of the groups now receiving legal protection from discrimination (such as Jews, African-Americans, veterans, women, parents, handicapped or Christians) had been substituted for gays and lesbians in this amendment, the public outcry would have been tremendous. Second, why was this the only statewide election or amendment campaign where the polls were so inaccurate (at least 10 percentage points different than the final result) going into election eve. Could it be that many voters intentionally misled pollsters even as they planned to vote for discrimination? And finally, since Amendment 2 passed, many of our local public officials, clergy, civic, and business leaders have been afraid to publicly address the issue of discrimination and the level of fear and hatred that now divide our community as a result of Amendment 2. Amendment 2 is one of the most significant discrimination issues we've faced in our community for many years, and one with serious economic and social impacts for the future. Why don't our community leaders grapple with this issue? WHAT CAN WE DO? We can all help the enormous legal challenge (which may go to the U.S. Supreme Court) to declare Amendment 2 unconstitutional by making contributions to: Colorado Legal Initiatives Project, Box 44447, Denver, CO 80201 (voice phone 303-830-2100). This will likely be a long and expensive battle. We can also place an amendment to repeal Amendment 2 on the ballot next November. Our new Amendment 1 now allows for state referendums in every November election. A ballot approach, if pursued, would require the collection of 49,271 valid signatures to be filed with the Secretary of State at least three months prior to the election. However, waiting for a successful court outcome before pursuing a new ballot campaign may be an appropriate approach, because a decision declaring Amendment 2 to be unconstitutional may effectively block similar amendments elsewhere in the country. If Amendment 2 is repealed in a new election, pending court actions about this amendment may be terminated without a decision. BOYCOTT? We can also support the boycott. A national boycott of Colorado by various groups is underway, and a local group, Ground Zero, recently restated the need for a boycott (see page 4). This national boycott has both pros and cons, but it has been almost singlehandedly responsible for keeping Amendment 2 and its aftermath alive in the press. At this stage in Colorado's very fragile economic recovery, a threatened boycott might help to educate voters in our state and elsewhere about the discriminatory aspects of Amendment 2. One of the arguments made against a boycott is that "the people have spoken" and that should be the end of it. However, economic boycotts for moral reasons have a long and honored history in America. Three of the more recent examples are: 1) the boycott of Arizona that persisted until that state established a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, 2) Focus on the Family's 1990 article calling for a boycott of American Express to protest their financial support of certain disapproved groups (which resulted in cardholders canceling their accounts), and 3) the ongoing American Family Association's boycott of certain businesses in response to their social policies. To quote American Family Association on the morality of boycotts: "AFA ..believes economic boycotts are an effective way to bring about change and voice Christian principles and stewardship in the marketplace." American Family Association's Journal (Nov./Dec. 1992, p. 15). The question remains whether visitors and businesses will view Colorado discrimination against gays and lesbians as equal to Arizona's refusal to recognize the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Is it all right to boycott a state that sent a message of racism, but not all right to boycott a state sending an anti-gay message? Who will suffer the most from a statewide economic boycott? Boulder, Denver, and mountain resort towns--all communities who solidly voted no on Amendment 2. Colorado Springs, paradoxically, may fare better in a boycott than most of the rest of the state. WHAT MUST WE DO? We at Citizens Project believe that all of us, particularly the heterosexual community, must let gay and lesbian citizens know that we will not be complacent if others in our community attempt to isolate or vilify them. We must let them know that we will not tolerate anyone being denied employment, housing, public accommodations or simply being harassed because of their sexual orientation. We must let our gay and lesbian neighbors know that they are wholeheartedly welcome in our lives. Citizens Project is in the process of formulating a broad-based, city-wide coalition and educational campaign to support these goals. We would like individuals, civic leaders, clergy and business leaders to actively share our commitment to diversity and tolerance in our community. If homophobia, fear and intolerance are as widespread as some have suggested since the election, then our commitment to education must be a long one. OUR ANSWER TO THE MESSAGE We have heard a number of interpretations about why Amendment 2 passed, ranging from hatred to misunderstanding. We do not know where the balance lies. We do know that, whether intentional or not, the voters of El Paso County sent a message of discrimination on November 3rd: a message to many in our community who already live with the constant fear of having their sexual identity discovered; a message to many who have courageously come out of the closet hoping to be accepted and welcomed by a city that now seems to hate them; a message to many who have gone through a lifetime of discrimination, humiliation and mental anguish for loving someone of their choice; a message to many in our community who have lost the people about whom they care most to the long, painful disease of AIDS and who live daily with the fear of becoming sick themselves. We at Citizens Project can't live with that message. All of us need to get involved. CFV CARRIES ON. Colorado's Amendment 2 proponent, Colorado For Family Values, is soliciting funds for future activities in Colorado and nationwide. CFV has connections to other "family values" groups, including California's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) through the director of Colorado's chapter of TVC, Barbara Sheldon, who sits on CFV's executive board, and Focus on the Family, which provided $8,183 in in-kind contributions to CFV's recent Amendment 2 campaign here in Colorado. "GROUND ZERO" GROUP FORMED ======================================================================= A new group, Ground Zero, has formed in Colorado Springs to "Undo 2" and to counter gay, lesbian and bisexual "ethnic cleansing". According to their mission statement, "Ground Zero is a grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual and gay supportive movement dedicated to securing and maintaining basic civil rights for lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens and to unifying and promoting full participation of lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens in the community at large." Ground Zero actively supports the boycott, will increase the visibility of the local gay and lesbian community to combat stereotypes promoted by Colorado for Family Values, and is planning a national march in Colorado Springs next spring. For more information or to volunteer money, time or support, contact Ground Zero at P.O. Box 1982, Colorado Springs, 80901; phone 719-635-6086. DISCRIMINATION? ======================================================================= The last clause of Amendment 2 says gays and lesbians can make "no claim of discrimination". What does that mean? Everyone agrees that this language bars lesbians and gays from protection if, because they are gay, they are fired from their jobs or kicked out of their rental homes. Will Perkins described protection from these types of discrimination as a "special right", and in a Dec. 11 Gazette-Telegraph article said: "I don't have a special right to keep my job as a heterosexual. Why should they if they are homosexual?" In Colorado Springs and in most of Colorado, Will Perkins is correct. There is no protection from those types of discrimination for either heterosexuals or gays or lesbians. However, the fallacy in Will's reasoning is that heterosexuals simply do not encounter much, if any, discrimination in these areas due to their heterosexuality. However, lesbians and gays suffer significantly higher levels of discrimination in those areas. Due to Amendment 2, such discrimination cannot ever be remedied by law. This is, in a sense, "equal rights", but the result is very unequal justice and an unequal right to petition for redress of grievances. In the cities of Boulder, Denver, and Aspen, Will Perkins is not correct. Each of those cities had by ordinance extended discrimination protection to all people on the basis of sexual orientation. Amendment 2 now withdraws that protection from gays and lesbians. But note that Amendment 2 does not alter these ordinances as to protection from heterosexual discrimination. Thus, in those cities, the result of Amendment 2 has been to grant heterosexuals "special rights" against discrimination by virtue of these pre-existing city ordinances. Consequently, for those three cities, the Amendment 2 argument was not one of "special rights", but one of "equal rights", which lesbians and gays now no longer have. a4 An Eye for An Eye Why Capital Punishment Doesn't Work by Chad Skelton In this essay, the major points in favour of the death penalty will be discredited through documented information. The points which will be discussed are the following: the death penalty deters crime, the death penalty guarantees the criminal will not re-offend, the death penalty saves money and the death penalty is a just punishment. As well, this essay will look at the inherent flaws of capital punishment and the political implications of having a death penalty. The primary argument made by death penalty supporters is that it deters crime. They base this assumption, not on homicide statistics (which clearly contradict the point), but instead on what they consider to be common sense. After all, death would certainly be a larger deterrent to a potential murderer then 25 years to life in prison. However, what this 'common sense' fails to realize is the fact that most individuals who commit murder do not weigh the punishment against the pleasure of their crime. In fact, most murderers are under the influence of alcohol when they commit their crime and alcohol is a drug which is known to impair rational thought. Almost all statistics show that the death penalty does not deter homicides. In fact, in almost all cases, the death penalty increases the rate of murders. For instance, in Canada from 1961 to 1975 (years in which the death penalty was still legal), the murder rate steadily rose from 0.94 murders per 100,000 to 2.50. In 1976, the death penalty was abolished in Canada. From 1976 to 1980, the murder rate fell from 2.43 to 1.92. This dramatic fall in the murder rate could be coincidence, and it would be almost impossible for a link between the two to be proven. However, this is not a singular example. In most US states, when the death penalty was instated, the murder rate went up, and when it was abolished, it went down. As well, it was shown in a Philadelphia study that there were more murders in the eight weeks after an execution then in the few days before one. The one flaw with many of these studies is that they are related to the total murder rate and not the rate of those murders which would be eligible for the death penalty. In fact, 70-75% of all murders are ineligible for the death penalty in most US states. This one flaw was rectified when Ruth Peterson of the Ohio State University concluded a study that the rate of murders which were eligible for the death penalty was unrelated to the existance or non-existance of the death penalty, or the amount of press coverage a certain execution received. These dramatic statistics which study the effect of the death penalty on the murder rate, may or may not prove that the death penalty increases murders. However, the statistics certainly prove that the death penalty does not deter them. Furthermore, one thing which is often forgotten is that most criminals do not think they will be caught. Therefore, the number of crimes committed is often unrelated to the severity of the punishment. If a murderer were 100% sure that after they committed the homicide, they would be put in jail for 25-75 years, they would probably not commit the crime. However, they believe that they will not be caught, and therefore, whether the punishment is death or incarceration, they will most likely still commit the crime. In fact, in the words of psychiatrist A.K.M. Macrae: " ... the murderers I have seen have not convinced me that the presence or absence of a death penalty was in any way relevant to the crime committed". In addition, statistician Kilman Shin, in attempting to find the variables that affect the homicide rate investigated the way in which the homicide rate is influenced with changes in the rate of inflation, the urban population ratio, the industry ratio, the economic growth rate, the percent of illiteracy, the per capita GNP, the rate of unemployment and the death penalty. In the 1960 data of 50 US states, Shin found that "the death penalty variable is not significant in explaining the variations in the murder rate". In the 1970 data for 50 US states, Shin concluded that "the positive sign of the death row variable rejects the deterrence hypothesis of the death penalty, and rather supports the brutalization effect"(the brutalization effect is the theory that capital punishment increases the homicide rate). In the time series data for 50 US states from 1931 to 1971, Shin found that the "positive sign of the death penalty variable again rejects the deterrence hypothesis of the death penalty, and supports the brutalization theory". And, in cross section data from 20 countries for 1966, Shin concluded that "the positive sign of the death penalty variable again rejects the deterrence hypothesis of the death penalty, and supports the brutalization hypothesis". These unbiased statistical findings indicate that the death penalty is not helping to reduce the problem, and seems to be escalating it. A similar argument to deterrence made by those supporting the death penalty is perhaps one of the few arguments which is irrefutable: The argument that the execution of a murderer guarantees he/she will not re-offend. While executions do eliminate the chance of a criminal re-offending, and it would certainly reduce the amount of murders carried out by prior murder convicts the actual overall murder rate is not reduced, which makes the rate of recidivism trivial. Furthermore, the actual rate of recidivism for murders is surprisingly low. Because many of the people who commit murder are not career criminals, their chances of committing another crime after they are released, much less a murder, is significantly less than other crimes. In fact, those individuals on death row, who are eventually released (either by having their sentence commuted or by the death penalty being abolished) are less likely to commit another crime than the average ex-convicts. Much of the fear of murderers re-committing is due to the massive amount of media coverage recidivism receives, when in reality, the rate of those who are released on parole who commit another murder is surprisingly slim. While it is unbelievably callous to equate someone's life with dollars and cents, one of the most common arguments in favour of the death penalty is that keeping a criminal in jail for the duration of their life is more expensive than killing them. Many find the idea of having to pay to keep a serial killer alive reprehensible. However, if one looks at the situation of homicides in US states, one finds that the opposite is often the case. For instance, in California, the average execution, including trials, appeals and the waiting period, costs a total of $4.5 million dollars. That is the equivalent of a 300-year stay in a California State prison. Therefore, at least in California, the death penalty is only cost effective if the convicted individual can be expected to live for another 301 years. The cause of the high cost in execution is that there are often many more appeals, and there is often a wait of up to 10 years before the execution takes place (10 years is almost half of the 25 year minimum sentence in Canada). These costs could be reduced of course, through limiting the number of appeals and having executions sooner. However, this would mean sacrificing justice for cost effective killings. The final argument put forth by those supporting the death penalty is that, regardless if it doesn't deter crimes, regardless of if it's more expensive, it is the only fair punishment which can be given to a murderer. To begin with, in many ways, the death penalty is not an equitable punishment in relation to the murder which has been committed. Which is more cruel: Being killed or being told that on a certain date you will be killed, and up until that date, you will be confined to a cell to contemplate your death? It is quite clear that the latter is the crueler of the two. In this sense, the death penalty is often not a fair punishment for a murderer. Second, one must seriously consider whether our punishments should be equitable with the crime committed. For instance, should we rape a rapist, beat up an assaulter or burn down an arsonist's home? If the government, in its punishments, only re- commits the crime in question against the offender, then the offender gains morality, and the government loses it. As the system stands now, no matter what the crime, the punishment is non-violent and non-cruel. This gives the government a 'moral highground'. If this moral highground is eliminated through equitable punishment, then the government and the criminals simply become two warring camps in which neither one can claim that their actions are simply disciplinary. Therefore, it is essential that the government maintain its punishments at a passive level, so that they can claim to be morally superior to the offender, and those individuals cannot get the satisfaction of believing that they are now even with society. Something which must be addressed in regards to the death penalty is whether or not it should be an 'across-board' penalty. For instance, should a wife who kills her abusive husband receive the same penalty as a serial killer who rapes his victims? Furthermore, how will the government safeguard against the racism and prejudice inherent in the current US system, where criminals from lower economic classes, cannot afford good counsel. These individuals are in turn put on death row more often than criminals with equally heinous acts who are from the upper class and can hire better lawyers to receive lower sentences. A disturbing figure is that in the entire history of the United States there have been 16,000 executions. Of those 16,000 executions only 30 have been for a white man killing a black man. In the USA, the murder of a white individual is 4 times as likely to end in execution than the murder of a black individual. Fifty percent of all murder victims in the USA are black, yet 86% of those executed are convicted of the murder of a white man. When capital punishment was still legal in Canada, of those who were convicted of murder, English Canadians had a 27.4% chance of being executed, French Canadians had a 46% chance of being executed, and Canadians of African origins had a 55.6% chance of being executed. This subjectivity in capital punishment, while needed to differentiate between crimes of passion and serial killers, often becomes an unfair tool which incarcerates those who cannot afford a good defense or who are from an ethnic or racial minority who become victims of prejudice in the courtroom. A popular slogan often used by those against capital punishment is as follows: "CAPITAL PUNISHMENT - THOSE WITHOUT THE CAPITAL, GET THE PUNISHMENT". And under the system that used to operate in Canada, and under the current system in the United States, that is sadly the truth. The concluding points which must be addressed are the political ramifications of instating a death penalty. This can be easily investigated by looking at those countries which do have a death penalty, and those who do not. The United States is currently the only western industrialized democratic country which has the death penalty. It is also, along with Canada, one of the few such countries which has popular support for the punishment. In most of the other western bloc countries, the death penalty is seen as a punishment used in barbaric societies and dictatorships, and not one of an advanced intelligent people. Furthermore, no member of the European Community ( the European organization for political and economical unity consisting of 12 member nations ) has the death penalty among it's available punishments. In fact, outside of the United States, most countries practicing the death penalty are communist states or dictatorships. Two styles of government who's methods the United States has often deplored as barbaric and inhumane. In conclusion, this essay has explained the flaws in the arguments for the death penalty. It has been shown that the death penalty does not deter homicide, the fear of recidivism is unwarranted, the death penalty is not economically cheaper, it is not a fair punishment and it is politically frowned upon by most of the advanced nations of the world. Several Amnesty and Human Rights organizations deplore capital punishment. They see the penalty as barbaric, ancient and ineffective. And they therefore see the United States government often in the same light as countries who commit violent acts of punishment upon their people. Canadians must ask themselves whether they wish to re-instate the death penalty, and be listed amongst human rights abusers like Iraq, Iran, China, Libya and Vietnam. Or, we can maintain our ban on the punishment and be amongst the names of other sound democracies like France, Austria, Japan and Germany. Unfortunately, according to recent polls on the subject, it seems like we are heading in the wrong direction. a5 When Hell Freezes Over ... New Analysis Reveals there is something "Hotter than Hell" - Heaven. --- The following was provided to me by Space Amoeba. However, he does not take credit for it's origins. It originally appeared in Applied Optics. - ed. --- The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed. Our authority is Isaiah 30:2, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shal be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun shal be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days." Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition 7*7 [49] times as much as the Earth does from the Sun, or 50 times in all. The light we receive from the Moon is 1/10,000 of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore that.... The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heal lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation, ie: Heaven loses 50 times as much as the Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of earth (-300K), gives H as 798K (525°C). The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed...[However] Revelations 21:8 says "But the fearful , and unbelieving....shal have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone means that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, 444.6°C. We have, then, that Heaven, at 525°C is hotter than Hell at 445°C. The above is originally from "Applied Optics" vol.11, A14, 1972 a6 About the Size of a Grapefruit ... New Information from NASA Supports the Big Bang Theory --- The following is information from NASA explaining information it has received from it's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) studies which support the Big Bang Theory of the Universe. --- BIG BANG THEORY PASSES TOUGHEST TEST The Big Bang Theory passed its toughest test yet with the latest results reported from NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., today. Precise measurements made by COBE's FIRAS of the afterglow from the Big Bang -- the primeval explosion that began the universe approximately 15 billion years ago -- show that 99.97 percent of the early radiant energy of the universe was released within the first year after the Big Bang itself. "Radiant energy" is energy emitted in any form of light, from x-rays and gamma rays to visible and infrared light or even radio waves. COBE's Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) was designed to receive the microwave and infrared energy from the Big Bang. "The Big Bang theory comes out a winner," said COBE Project Scientist and FIRAS Principal Investigator Dr. John C. Mather of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "This is the ultimate in tracing one's cosmic roots," Mather said. All theories that attempt to explain the origin of large scale structure seen in the universe today now must conform to the constraints imposed by these latest measurements. This includes theories that postulate large amounts of energy released by such things as black holes, exploding supermassive stars or the decay of unstable elementary particles. In other words, there were not a lot of "little bangs," as suggested by some theories. The Big Bang Theory predicts that the spectrum of relic radiation should be that of a perfect "black body" unless there were major energy releases more than a year after the explosion. (A black body is a hypothetical cosmic body that absorbs all radiation falling on it, but reflects none what-so-ever. A black body emits at the same temperature at every wavelength.) These latest FIRAS results reveal that later energy releases did not occur. The COBE scientists now can say that the temperature of the afterglow radiation is 2.726 degrees above absolute zero (273 degrees below zero on the Celsius scale) with an uncertainty of only 0.01 degrees. Today's announcement is the result of analyzing data from the FIRAS during its 10 months of observations. Hundreds of millions of measurements were combined to obtain these unprecedentedly pre "Making certain that all of the measurements were combined correctly required exquisitely careful work and lengthy analysis by a large team of COBE scientists," Mather reported. "We are seeing the cold glow still remaining from the initially very hot Big Bang. These results now limit the size of any 'after shocks' following the Big Bang. The closer we examine the Big Bang the simpler the picture gets," said Mather. "It took us 18 years of careful effort to reach this point, but now we can say that the Big Bang Theory has been tested against observations to a fine degree of precision," explained Mather. "Experimental evidence of the Big Bang was first found by Edwin Hubble in the 1920's. He found that distant galaxies in ever direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance. Therefore, gallaxies that are farther away are going faster. This is exactly the pattern that would occur if the entire universe originated in a single explosion, now called the Big Bang. Papers on these results and their implications soon will be submitted to the Astrophysical Journal for publication. COBE, launched Nov. 18, 1989, is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications, Astrophysics Division, Washington, D.C. a7 High Winds, Shallow Waters The Truth Behind The Parting of the Red Sea by Chad Skelton "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land , and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen ... And the Lord said unto Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, there remained not so much as one of them." - Exodus 14; 21 - 29 Up until now, the parting of the Red Sea has been considered one of the great miracles of Biblical times. However, after a recent article in January 1993 edition of Discover, that theory is slowly changing. Doron Nof of Florida State University and Nathan Paldor of the Hebrews University in Jerusalem claim to have devised a scientific explanation for the great miracle. The key to their theory is the shallowness of the Gulf of Suez (that believed to have been where the Israelites crossed) and high winds (which, as shown above, were reported. The Gulf of Suez is only 15 miles wide, yet 217 miles long. It "sticks up from the Red Sea like a watery finger and is bounded on each side by towering mountains", according to Discover. This causes a wind tunnel, making the average winds in the area about 10 miles. According to the theory, if their was a good-sized gale (about 45 miles an hour), the force would push the gulf waters ahead of it, in the same way you can "push water to one end of your bathtub before it sloshes back". However, because of the shallowness of the Gulf of Suez, the water would have gone right out the far end. Nof and Paldor claim that if the gale was sustained for one hour, there would have been enough force to clear enough water for the water level to drop to 8 feet. Nof then suggests that at the northern tip of the gulf there was an underwater ridge that was exposed when the water level dropped. The ridge trapped some water behind it, and then the Israelites were able to cross with the water on either side of them. Nof's diagrams and prototypes illustrate a very wall-like appearance. As for the Egyptians not being so lucky in this tidal luck, they explain that if the wind were to cease, or even change directions abruptly, the water would return to it's original state within four minutes. With this recent discovery, explaining one of the Bible's paramount miracles, one wonders how much else of the Bible is just exaggeration of natural wonders. - For the official article, read the Discover Magazine's "50 Top Science Stories" on page 62 under the title "Exodus by Numbers" a8 BOYCOTT! In this, our opening issue, we have a very special boycott. A comprehensive list of those companies which unnecessarily test on animals, compiled by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), and provided to us by Craig Cardiff. You will find this list, at the end of this section. Please boycott the following: BOYCOTT: Any and all products produced in Colorado REASON : In a recent referendum, Colorado allowed discrimination on the basis of homosexuality in regards to housing and employment. [ see related story in this issue ] Please boycott the following: BOYCOTT: Alberto-Culver / Allergan, Inc. / American Cyanamid, Co. / Arm and Hammer / Aziza / Bausch & Lomb / BeautiControl Cosmetics / Beth Co. Frag / Block Drug Co., Inc. / Boyle-Midway / Breck / Bristol-Meyers / Calvin Klein / Carter-Wallace / Chanel / Chattem / Chesebrough-Ponds Church and Dwight / Clarion Inc. / Colgate-Palmolive / Commerce Drug Co. / Consumer Value Stores / Cosmair / Coty / Cover Girl / Del Labaratories / DeMert / Dial Corporation / DowBrands / Drackett Products Co. / Eli Lilly & Co. / Elizabeth Arden / Erno Laszlo / Faberge / Fendi / Flame Glow / Gillette Co. / Givaudan Corp. / Helena Rubenstein / Helene Curtis Industries / ISO / Jergens / Jheri Redding (Conair) / Jhirmack / Johnson & Johnson / S.C. Johnson Products Co. / Jovan / Kimberley Clark / Lamaur / Lancome / Lever Brothers / L'Oreal / Mary Kay Cosmetics / Max Factor / Maybelline / Mennen Co. / Naturelle / Nina Ricci / Noxelle Corp. / Pantene / Parfums International / Pfizer / Physicians Formula Cosmetics / Playtex Corp. / Prince Matchabelli / Procter & Gamble Co. / Purex Corp. / Quintessence / Reckitt & Colman / Redmond / Richards-Vicks / Sally Hansen / Schering-Plough / Schick / Scott Paper Co. / Shiseido Co. Ltd. / SmithKline Beechman / Stanhome Inc. / Sterling Drug / Sunshine Makers / Sun Star / 3M / Unilever / Vidal Sassoon / Warner-Lambert / Westwood Pharmaceuticals / Whitehalls REASON: For uneccesarily continuing the suffering of animals, when alternative methods of product testing are available. For more information on Animal Testing, please contact: PETA ( People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) PO BOX 42516 Washington, DC 20015 a9 THE TOP 7 LEAST KNOWN NEW SINS IN THE CATHOLIC CATECHISM 7 - Eating with your mouth open. 6 - Unwrapping Candy during the climactic part of a feature film. 5 - Stealing those small little Hotel Soaps. 4 - Trying to do up your seatbelt just as a Cop pulls around the corner. 3 - Listening to Country Music in Mixed Company. 2 - Jumping the turnstiles on a Subway. 1 - Eating Mexican food before a long airplane trip. a10 10 GREAT TAGLINES! 1) A man's house is his hassle. 2) 43% of all statistics are worthless. 3) ASCII to ASCII, DOS to DOS 4) Jesus saves sinners ... and redeems them for valuable prizes. 5) Manners are noises you don't make while eating soup. 6) Never say "I'm Game" at a meeting of the NRA! 7) No, No .. not "Born Again", I said I was into "PORN Again"!! 8) Nothing is ever constant .. unless it's dead. 9) Prevent noise polution - Shoot a Rapper!! 10) Support your right to keep and arm BEARS!! NOTE: 10 Great Taglines is assembled by the editor of Soapbox, however, the actual origin of each tagline is unknown. Considering the public domain nature of taglines, the editor of Soapbox accepts no responsibility for infringing on copyright. a11 Endnotes Well, that concludes this edition of Soapbox Magazine. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, if you have anything you think would be of interest to us, contact us in the ways listed above. 'Till Next Time Chad Skelton/Professor Moriarty editor of SOAPBOX magazine.