JADA Study Proves Fluoridation is Money down the Drain

RJ Note: This study raised my eyebrows. Fluoridated water doesn't reduce cavities? I wonder if the children studied in this research brushed and/or flossed their teeth. Was fluoridation the only variable? Hmmm. At any rate, it seems like fluoridated water has been the norm for something like 40 years or so.

/PRNewswire/ -- Children's cavity rates are similar whether water is fluoridated or not, according to data published in the July 2009 Journal of the American Dental Association by dentist J.V. Kumar of the NY State Health Department(1), reports NYSCOF.

In 2008, New York City spent approximately $24 million on water fluoridation ($5 million on fluoride chemicals)(1a). In 2010, NYC's fluoride chemicals will cost $9 million(1b).

Fluoride in water at "optimal" levels (0.7 - 1.2 mg/L) is supposed to reduce tooth decay without creating excessive fluorosis (fluoride-discolored and/or damaged teeth). Yet cavities are rampant in NY's fluoridated populations(1c).

Attempting to prove that fluorosed teeth have fewer cavities, Kumar uses 1986-1987 National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) data which, upon analysis, shows that 7- to 17-year-olds have similar cavity rates in their permanent teeth whether their water supply is fluoridated or not (Table 1).

In 1990, using the same NIDR data, Dr. John Yiamouyiannis published equally surprising results in a peer-reviewed journal. He concluded, "No statistically significant differences were found in the decay rates of permanent teeth or the percentages of decay-free children in the F [fluoridated], NF [non-fluoridated], and PF [partially fluoridated] areas."(2).

Kumar divided children into four groups based on their community's water fluoride levels:

Less than 0.3 mg/L where 55.5% had cavities
From 0.3 to 0.7 mg/L where 54.6% had cavities
Optimal 0.7 to 1.2 mg/L where 54.4% had cavities
Over 1.2 mg/L where 56.4% had cavities


"Dr. Kumar's published data exposes more evidence that fluoridation doesn't reduce tooth decay," says attorney Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.

"It's criminal to waste taxpayers' money on fluoridation, while exposing entire populations unnecessarily to fluoride's health risks, especially when local and state governments are attempting to balance budgets by cutting essential services," says Beeber.

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NASA Spacecraft Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts

RJ Note: Cool.

/PRNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet.

Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth from approximately 1.5 feet to 8 feet. The craters did not exist in earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright patches darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for one of the orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water ice.

The finds indicate water ice occurs beneath Mars' surface halfway between the north pole and the equator, a lower latitude than expected in the Martian climate.

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago," said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona.

Byrne is a member of the team operating the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, which captured the unprecedented images. Byrne and 17 co-authors report the findings in the Sept. 25 edition of the journal Science.

"We now know we can use new impact sites as probes to look for ice in the shallow subsurface," said Megan Kennedy of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, a co-author of the paper and member of the team operating the orbiter's Context Camera.

During a typical week, the Context Camera returns more than 200 images of Mars that cover a total area greater than California. The camera team examines each image, sometimes finding dark spots that fresh, small craters make in terrain covered with dust. Checking earlier photos of the same areas can confirm a feature is new. The team has found more than 100 fresh impact sites, mostly closer to the equator than the ones that revealed ice.

An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed apparent cratering that occurred after an image of the same ground was taken 67 days earlier. The opportunity to study such a fresh impact site prompted a look by the orbiter's higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2009, confirming a cluster of small craters.

"Something unusual jumped out," Byrne said. "We observed bright material at the bottoms of the craters with a very distinct color. It looked a lot like ice."

The bright material at that site did not cover enough area for a spectrometer instrument on the orbiter to determine its composition. However, a Sept. 18, 2008, image of a different mid-latitude site showed a crater that had not existed eight months earlier. This crater had a larger area of bright material.

"We were excited about it, so we did a quick-turnaround observation," said co-author Kim Seelos of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., "Everyone thought it was water ice, but it was important to get the spectrum for confirmation."

The Mars orbiter is designed to facilitate coordination and quick response by the science teams, making it possible to detect and understand rapidly changing features. The ice exposed by fresh impacts suggests that NASA's Viking 2 lander, digging into mid-latitude Mars in 1976, might have struck ice if it had dug four inches deeper.

The Viking 2 mission, which consisted of an orbiter and a lander, launched in September 1975 and became one of the first two space probes to land successfully on the Martian surface. The Viking 1 and 2 landers characterized the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface. They also conducted on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. The Context Camera was built and is operated by Malin. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo., built. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory led the effort to build the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer and operates it in coordination with an international team of researchers.

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Does China's Growing Overseas Investments Signal a Global Power Shift?

RJ Note: Interesting story from Emory University--- Thought you'd be interested in reading it as well.

On July 20, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that the country intended to invest some of its record-breaking $2 trillion foreign exchange reserve to accelerate China’s overseas investments in natural resources and resource-extraction companies.

Although Chinese officials have refused to specify how much of their reserve they plan to reinvest, and some experts cite practical reasons China’s foreign currency reserve should be kept intact, on September 1 the country’s state-controlled lender, China Development Bank, formed a $5.1 billion investment fund that will be used in part to help Chinese companies acquire essential natural resources abroad.

Regardless of the ultimate dollar value of China’s overseas investment plans, professors at Emory University and its Goizueta Business School see these moves as the latest signs that China is increasingly in the driver’s seat of the world economy.

The tactical move Wen announced is part a larger strategic shift that China is making to transform itself from an export-driven economy and toward an economy fueled mostly by Chinese consumers, according to Jagdish Sheth, a chaired professor of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and author of the book Chindia Rising: How China and India Will Benefit Your Business (Tata-McGraw Hill, 2007).

Building a huge consumer market in China makes good strategic sense, Sheth says—and it’s similar to a shift the U.S. economy made in the late 19th century.

But why would a strong domestic economy entail buying commodities and assets outside China? The reason is that unlike the U.S., which had abundant resources but needed technology to harvest them, China has technology but limited resources. “In order to achieve its vision, its biggest challenge is going to be access to natural resources, including agricultural resources,” Sheth says. “China has great human talent, but it does not have sufficient natural resources within its own geographical boundaries,” he says.

Wen’s announcement is far from the first sign of the country’s plans to diversify the economy. Over the past six years, China’s overseas investments have risen geometrically, from $143 million in 2002 to $40.7 billion in 2008, according to Chinese government statistics, and up over 63% in 2007 alone.

In search of energy and other natural resources, the Chinese have been reshaping the face of Africa. Some authorities estimate that there are now more than 750,000 Chinese expatriates at work throughout the continent, many involved in developing mines and oil fields. Now they are reportedly looking farther afield, particularly to natural resources and resource companies in South America.

Although China has been criticized for its involvement with unsavory regimes such as the government of Sudan, Robert Ahdieh, a professor at Emory School of Law who has a specialty in international trade law, doesn’t see an ideological agenda involved in these investments. The Chinese are in such places, he says, mainly because assets in more stable and desirable spots were bought up long ago by Western companies. “The Chinese didn’t randomly say we only want to buy oil from rogue states,” he explains. “It’s just that the rogue states are the only ones on the table.”

Why the obsession with commodities? China’s reasoning, Ahdieh believes, is that getting hold of commodities in 10 years’ time could be difficult if India and China continue to grow as quickly as they have lately. “If their growth rates and industrialization pace continue, the level of demand for commodities is going to look very different in 10 and 20 years than it does today,” Ahdieh says.

The decision to cut down its foreign exchange reserve might seem like an internal matter for China, but it has significant implications for the U.S. In June, China, currently the largest holder of U.S. Treasury securities, reduced its holdings of U.S. Treasury debt by 3.1%, the largest percentage drop in eight years, according to Reuters and a Treasury Department report issued on August 17. In addition to the clear hint that China’s leaders may be tiring of the dubious privilege of serving as America’s largest creditor, the presence of a new competitor in the scramble for natural resources heightens geopolitical rivalries in an arena once dominated primarily by U.S. and European companies.

If China were to reduce its foreign exchange reserve, it could have a huge impact on federal borrowing costs and interest rates generally, since many of China’s foreign exchange assets are thought to be kept in U.S. Treasury bonds. (China does not divulge the exact breakdown of its foreign currency stockpiles.) “At the worst, if they really stopped buying they could throw America into a recession because they are now a major purchaser of the Treasury securities we have to sell in order to finance the government deficit,” explains Jeffrey Rosensweig, a professor of international finance at Goizueta and director of Emory’s Global Perspectives Program.

But Rosensweig and other professors don’t anticipate China making this move, except perhaps in a gradual way over time. It’s not in China’s interest to see the dollar go down or to see its best customers out of work, says Rosensweig.

“They may move some of the money they hold in foreign exchange reserves into some of those investments, but I don’t expect them to move a very significant part of it,” agrees Narasimhan Jegadeesh, a chaired professor of finance at Goizueta.

Levent Bulut, a visiting assistant professor of economics at Emory, is also of the mind that China will instead “gradually try to invest in profitable areas in the real market, in the real economy.”

The question remains if the Chinese can’t get away with a large-scale diversification right away, what is the meaning of Wen’s announcement? Rosensweig says we should read Wen’s announcement partly as a warning to the U.S., “reminding us that we’re now in a very vulnerable position. We can no longer just call the tune and lord it over other economies; part of it is saying, `you better respect us, because we could break you.’”

At the moment, it may be only a threat. Although the Chinese seem stuck in what both Chinese and American economists call “the dollar trap,” Emory scholars don’t appear optimistic that they will stay in that trap for good. When they finally escape, Americans could have a major adjustment ahead.

Although the U.S. has dealt with competition before, such as with Germany and Japan, Sheth argues that the competition with China will be different. “The scale economy of the domestic market China has is much larger and that gives it enormous advantages, both in making products but also in sourcing raw materials because you become such a big buyer,” he says.

The volumes demanded by a market of 1.3 billion could create a “Wal-Mart effect,” in Sheth’s view, in which China becomes the dominant buyer of a number of commodities, giving it a built-in cost advantage over other markets.

If that happens, Israeli business strategist Eli Goldratt has quipped, in ten years, the U.S. will have moved from the world’s number one power to “an island of 300 million, six weeks from China.”

Sheth argues that the rise of China to economic superpower isn’t at all far-fetched. Already, the U.S.’s position in the world has changed profoundly, he says. “Think about it—ten years ago, who would have ever imagined that China would become the biggest lender to America?”

While some critics point to the many challenges China faces—the need to feed and employ an enormous population; a government that lacks an electoral mandate; huge gaps between rich and poor—others see, as does Sheth, a country that has made precious few missteps on its way to economic power and is unlikely to start now. “In my view, they’ve done everything right,” Sheth says.

On the other hand, U.S. policy has few defenders among the faculty, some of whom see a much less important future ahead for the U.S.

“It’s our own bloody fault,” says Rosensweig. “We’ve run deficits for so long and had to borrow to finance them, and our own people have not saved enough to buy the bonds themselves—we’ve dug ourselves a debt trap.”

Sheth sees one problem that looms even larger: “The biggest problem in America is we are in a denial stage. We still don’t accept where the world is going and adapt accordingly.”

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Reading Not a Lost Art for Travelers Stuck at Airports

RJ Note: Reading a great book while twiddling my thumbs at an airport or a doctor's office ranks high on my list. I've certainly ready my share of them while I've been a captive audience at both venues. Reading. It does a body good.

/PRNewswire/ -- Despite a measurable decline in reading among the general population, travelers overwhelmingly prefer to read when killing time at the nation's airports, according to a recent survey.

Conducted by GO Group, LLC, the nation's largest airport and ground transportation provider, the survey asked travelers to identify which activities they engaged in while waiting at the airport. Some 83 percent cited reading a book, newspaper or magazine as the No. 1 choice on a list of several options available.

The poll of more than 200 travelers also shows that doing crossword puzzles, Sudoku or other thinking games is the second-most popular method for entertaining oneself while waiting for take off, cited by 29 percent of respondents. Listening to music on an MP3 player was the third-most popular activity at 21 percent, in a survey that allowed for multiple responses.

About 45 percent of the respondents said they found other diversions, such as grabbing a bite to eat, accessing the Internet or buying gifts at airport shops. Other activities included playing handheld video games or watching DVD movies on laptop computers or other devices. Respondents were able to check all of the methods that applied to their time traveling, but reading was the clear favorite activity.

"These results imply that travelers primarily use their downtime at the airport to become either better informed or entertained as they deal with the delays often encountered at the nation's air hubs," says John McCarthy, president of GO Airport Express.

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Social Security Administration Plans to Raise Identity Verification Fees by Nearly 900%

RJ Note: I can see it now-- another $4.46 on a mortgage will take the deal down. Right.

/PRNewswire/ -- Effective October 1, 2009, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will be raising its fees for mortgage and financial companies to authenticate borrower Social Security numbers from $0.56 to $5.00 per verification. This price increase could significantly impair the industry's move to protect itself against identity-based mortgage fraud.

According to a letter sent to Michael Astrue, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration by Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Texas), this fee increase could lead to the de facto cancellation of the CBSV (Consumer-Based Social Security Number Verification) program, as it could significantly lead to fewer and fewer lenders using the program. According to that same letter, the decision to increase fees for the CBSV program was made by the Social Security Administration without collaboration with the U.S. Congress. Mr. Astrue denied Congresswoman Granger's initial request for a 60-day delay to evaluate the necessity of this fee increase.

On Tuesday, September 22, Congresswoman Kay Granger and key staff, which includes committees of oversight for the SSA, plan to meet with the Social Security Administration to discuss the negative repercussions this planned increase in fees will have on the mortgage industry and the nation as a whole, and intend to re-propose a delay in implementing these fees. Senate Majority Leader Reid, House Speaker Pelosi, House Majority Leader Hoyer and Senators Hutchinson, Harkin, Cochran and Cornyn have been contacted and are expected to support a delay in implementation as well.

"With lower loan production and lenders' increased focus on cutting costs, this fee increase could have a highly detrimental impact on the mortgage industry, as well as the U.S. and global economies," says fraud expert Jay Meadows, CEO of Rapid Reporting, the mortgage industry's largest provider of third-party income, identity and employment verification services. "While unfortunate, it's a definite possibility that lenders will avoid using these higher priced CBSV-based Social Security number authentication, even though it's a reliable way to protect against identity fraud."

Mortgage fraud has been widely recognized as a leading cause of the industry's collapse, and of the economic troubles that the nation is facing. Increasing the cost for lenders to screen for fraud could prove counterproductive to the industry's recovery efforts, particularly at a time when the industry is still struggling to repair the damage caused by fraud in the earlier part of this decade, asserts Meadows.

According to an article published by National Mortgage News on September 18, 2009, written by Paul Muolo, co-author of Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis, "The country has seen a 'drastic increase' in mortgage fraud cases as a result of the upheaval in the housing market, according to FBI director Robert Mueller. FBI agents are investigating 2,600 mortgage fraud cases as of July 31, up from 1,600 for all of 2008."

Furthermore, the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI) lists elderly and immigrant identity fraud -- the predatory practice of stealing the identities of elderly and non English-speaking individuals for use in straw-buying or other property transactions -- as one of the three emerging fraud schemes expected to rise throughout 2009, and a Reuter's article citing the FBI Mortgage Fraud report states that higher lending standards have increased the value of identities of individuals with good credit to those who perpetrate fraud.

"Lenders need to remain diligent in their efforts to combat fraud," says Meadows. "With buy-backs costing companies hundreds of thousands of dollars per incident, even adding a few extra dollars per applicant still brings about a strong return on investment."

About Rapid Reporting

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Rapid Reporting Verification Company is a national provider of definitive income, identity and employment verification services for mortgage lenders to help combat fraud. In 2007, the company won the 2007 Fix-It Award for a technology solution that solves an industry problem. Core offerings include IncomeChek, which is used to verify income through information obtained from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), DirectChek, which meets USA Patriot Act compliance and verifies identity via a direct comparison of the SSN to the Social Security Administration (SSA) database and searches of over 15 billion records in public and private databases for identity fraud and abuse, and EmploymentChek, the company's newest offering that combines live, person-to-person telephone contact and comprehensive database research to verify borrower employment. All services operate over a secure Web-based portal, which is audited daily for security purposes, and both IncomeChek and DirectChek are available through RapidChek, a web services platform that allows companies to access both solutions through a single interface. Rapid Reporting formed and continues to build relationships with government agencies, such as the IRS and the Social Security Administration (SSA), to gather electronic data for verification purposes. Rapid Reporting's executive team led the successful lobbying efforts to secure the continuation of the enumeration verification system (EVS) with the SSA database. For additional information, email Info@RapidReporting.com, call 888.749.4411 or visit www.RapidReporting.com .

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Hope you'll take a minute to do this...

If you care about making sure we're not dependent on foreign countries for our energy, we have a very timely call to action that will take you less than 1 minute.

The Department of Interior, which decides when and where we drill for oil and gas, has been holding a "notice and comment" period. This is when they solicit input from the public as to whether we should drill or not.

This is one way that the anti-energy interest groups have been able to successfully block any common sense development for decades.

Well the deadline for submissions is on Monday, and we need your help to overwhelm the Interior Department with comments in favor of drilling.

Please take 1 minute to submit your comments right now at YourEnergyOpinion.com.

If you don't have time to write anything, don't worry. We've already taken care of it for you.
Once you submit your comment, please forward YourEnergyOpinion.com to anyone else that you think would be willing to help out.

This is an opportunity that we must seize.

Thanks so much for your participation, and we'll report back soon as to how we all do.

Sincerely,
Dan Varroney
Senior VP & COO
American Solutions

Dreamin' of th' Scurvy Pirate Again

Th' the seven seas outside be all wet 'n gloomy, so we might as well find a way to put a smile on our faces.

Bin always adored th' image 'o th' handsome scurvy pirate wit' his white billowin' shirt open exposin' his wonderfully bronzed muscular chest. But somehow, all th' accounts 'o Blackbeard just don't jive wit' th' scurvy pirate 'o me imagination. Nope, I suspect th' scurvy pirates were probably much, much worse.

Heartly enjoy speak Like a scurvy pirate Day, me buckos.

Just in case ye're not up on ye scurvy pirate shout, here's th' link to fix that gross lack 'o education fer ye.

Arrggghhh Mateys, Get Ready for Talk Like a Pirate Day

The day all you lovers of pirates have been waiting for is on Saturday, September 19. Arrrgggg, remember to talk like a pirate or be prepared to walk the plank!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day-- kinda makes me want to see good ole Captn Jack Sparrow again.

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National Poll Finds Most Americans Believe Immigration Adversely Affects the Quality and Cost of Healthcare

/PRNewswire-/ -- The American Council for Immigration Reform (ANCIR) national poll on immigration and its impact on health care issues conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC, of 1,000 likely voters on August 26, 2009 found that 78% of Americans believe that high immigration levels have had an adverse impact on the quality and cost of our health care system. Republicans (89%) felt more strongly on the issue, but Democrats (69%) were not far behind. Other key findings were:

-- Seventy-three percent (73%) of likely voters agreed that hospitals
should be allowed to inquire and collect data about the immigration
status of those seeking Emergency Room care without affecting the
legal requirement that they must provide emergency care. Just 18%
said no.
-- Seventy-seven percent (77%) of the respondents believed that providing
health insurance to illegal immigrants will just encourage more
illegal immigration.
-- After receiving emergency medical care, if it is determined that an
illegal immigrant will require long term follow-up medical care, 47%
believed that the person should be deported to his/her home country.
38% believed care should be provided, but time and cost limits should
be established for eventual deportation. Only 8% believed long term
care should be provided in the U.S.
-- Eighty-three percent (83%) of likely voters were very or somewhat
concerned that the United States will add 135 million people to its
population in the next 40 years, 75% of which is due to immigration.
Republicans (90%) were more concerned than Democrats (74%).
-- Seventy-eight percent (78%) of likely voters were opposed to
legalizing the status of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants
in the U.S. with only 19% supporting it. 88% of African-Americans
were opposed to legalization.
-- Fifty-five percent (55%) were opposed to a government insurance option
under any national health care plan with 28% in favor and 17% not
sure. 73% of Republicans were opposed with 11% in favor. A plurality
of Democrats (47%) supported a government option with 34% opposed and
19% unsure.

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Justice Department Commemorates Fifteen Years of the Violence Against Women Act

/PRNewswire/ -- The Department of Justice today commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was signed into law on September 13, 1994. This critical legislation was created in recognition of the severity of the crimes associated with domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. The anniversary also marks 15 years since the creation of the Department's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), which administers financial and technical assistance to communities around the country to facilitate the creation of programs, policies and practices aimed at ending domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

"We've made tremendous progress since the Violence Against Women Act first passed in 1994, but we have much more to do. We cannot rest. It will take all of us to fulfill the promise to end domestic violence and sexual assault," said Vice President Joe Biden, the author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act.

"The Violence Against Women Act forever changed the way this nation meets our responsibility to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. It has been an essential building block in the Justice Department's work to end violence against women," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "It is only in working together that we can make a difference and save lives, and the Justice Department will continue to take every possible step to enforce laws protecting victims of violence and to provide resources to aid victim service providers."

"Without a doubt, VAWA would never have happened without the steadfast commitment and work of the countless advocates, coalitions and community partners who worked tirelessly for federal legislation to mark the importance of the issue and provide vital resources," said Catherine Pierce, Acting Director of OVW. "In the past 15 years, countless lives have been saved, the voices of survivors have been heard, families have been protected, and the criminal justice community has been trained on the complex responses to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking."

The anniversary marks the start of a year-long anniversary effort to raise public awareness on issues around violence against women, to reinforce and build coalitions among federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement and victim services communities, and to reinforce the goal of ending domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking for men, women and children across the country.

In recognition of the severity of the crimes associated with gender-motivated violence, Congress passed VAWA as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. VAWA is comprehensive legislative designed to end violence against women through criminal penalties, civil remedies, federal grant programs, and research and was reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. Since the passage of VAWA, there has been a paradigm shift in how the issue of violence against women is addressed in communities throughout the nation.

OVW was created to specifically implement VAWA and subsequent legislation. Currently, OVW administers two formula grant programs and 17 discretionary grant programs, all of which were established under VAWA and subsequent legislation. The office has also maintained a 15-year partnership with state, local and tribal governments, coalitions, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and court personnel, victim advocates, health care providers and national organizations.

Every day, VAWA funding makes a difference in how communities across America help victims and hold offenders accountable. For example, subgrantees receiving funding awarded by states through OVW's STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program reported that, in calendar year 2007:

-- More than 505,000 victims were served;
-- Over 1,201,000 services were provided to victims; and
-- More than 4,700 individuals were arrested for violations of protection
orders.

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Bible Literacy Quiz: How Well do You Know the World Around You‏

/Standard Newswire/ -- Bible Literacy Project, publisher of the acclaimed public school Bible
textbook "The Bible and Its Influence," has released a new Bible Literacy Quiz to demonstrate how widespread Biblical references are in our culture. This fall, the textbook is being taught in 337 schools in 43 states, including more than 50 in Texas.

"In national surveys, both high school English teachers and English professors at leading
universities said almost unanimously that students must know the Bible to understand English literature. Our research also found that students need basic biblical literacy to even understand the daily newspaper -- much less to study history, music, art and culture," said Chuck Stetson, Chairman of the Board of the Bible Literacy Project.

The importance of academic study of the Bible was recently underscored by USA Today contributor William R. Mattox's August 17 column, "Teach the Bible? Of Course." The column quoted Barbara Newman, Northwestern University professor of English, Religion and Classics, who said, "Students who want to do serious study of Western civilization need to know the Bible. They need to know the Bible, even if they do not believe the Bible." In February, the United Kingdom's Poet Laureate, atheist Andrew Motion, joined the call for public school education
about the Bible, saying he had struggled to teach Milton's "Paradise Lost" to undergraduates because they had no concept of the fall of man.

Below is an eight-question quiz. How do you fare in understanding the world around you? For more questions, visit http://quiz.bibleliteracy.org.

1. On the evening before he was assassinated, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke these words: "I've been
to the mountaintop....And I've looked over. And I've
seen the Promised Land." To what place does the
Promised Land refer?

A. Atlanta, Georgia.

B. Washington, D.C.

C. The "new world," or North America.

D. A land flowing with milk and honey.



2. A sign at the gas pump gives payment
instructions: "Insert first-born child here." To what
Biblical story is this an allusion?

A. Plagues inflicted on the Pharaoh of Egypt.

B. The crucifixion of Jesus.

C. The stoning of St. Paul.

D. Eli's instructions when Hannah dedicated her son
to the Lord.



3. Erik Brady called basketball star Marcus Vick
a "Prodigal son" ("USA Today," 9/19/05). Why might
someone be called a prodigal son?

A. He is extremely bright and brings honor to his
father.

B. He did something regrettable and brought shame
to the family.

C. He hosted a big family gathering, celebrating victory
over evil or over a formidable opponent.

D. He parted the Red Sea.



4. A national nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that
provides hot, nutritious meals is named Loaves and
Fishes. The name is a reference to ...

A. Psalm 23, "Thou preparest a table before me in the
presence of mine enemies."
B. The Lord's Supper, a traditional meal of "broken"
bread, wine, and fish.

C. The meal the Good Samaritan offered to the victim
of hoodlums.

D. Five loaves and two fish that fed 5,000 people.



5. Which law giver is sculpted on the peak of the
eastern entrance of the U.S. Supreme Court Building?


A. Jesus.

B. Abraham.

C. Moses.

D. George Washington.



6."U.S. News & World Report" reported: "King
Solomon had it easy.... he never would have dreamed
of the complexities that face modern family court
judges, or the rise in the number of stepparents,
unrelated guardians, unmarried couples, gay parents,
and surrogate moms..." (1/17/00, page 46). What
famous dispute is the magazine article referencing?


A. Dividing the land of the Medes and Persians.

B. Sibling quibbling of twins Jacob and Esau over their
father's inheritance.

C. Two mothers disagreeing about a newborn.

D. Dividing the Jewish Kingdom into Israel and Judah.



7. The bronze monument outside the United Nations
Building, New York City, is titled "Let Us Beat Swords
into Plowshares." This is an allusion to ...

A. Words of the prophet Isaiah.

B. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

C. Jesus' parable of the mustard seed.

D. Jesus' parable of the seed sown (1) near the path,
(2) on rocky soil, (3) among thistles, and (4) on good
soil.



8. To what does the title of John Steinbeck's "Grapes
of Wrath" allude?

A. Fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.

B. God's judgment (wrath) on those who follow the
ways of the devil.

C. Years of famine which prompted the Israelites to
migrate to Egypt where they were enslaved by
Pharaoh.

D. The new (at the time) breakfast sensation named
Froot Loops.



Answer Key: 1:D, 2:A, 3:B, 4:D, 5:C, 6:C, 7:A, 8:B.



Bible Literacy Project is a division of Essentials in Education, an educational publisher. Its web sites are

www.bibleliteracy.org (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102697998978&s=13633&e=001FrGMa0_To9QiTX0cZ4ArUWatf8ZMH1NrZn9NRkXO3sLeXubrOm_FFMzZ1gR
Totnb3BntwZF9a06CTjzJqvcgSN_af6lOW3jpRWYZrP2LTOYBU2chu27VXg==) and
www.essentialsineducation.org (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102697998978&s=13633&e=001FrGMa0_To9TGPPKlH1-7iw3XMkxBk5RsPKdpOikDSVaRG2HgpxY5KJxCqAxFeRkOIzIy
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