..today's interesting news!

thanks to salbert, i stole this pic from you!

• Israelite Alphabet May Have Been Found - Two lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C.
• Kan. School Board OKs Evolution Approach - I love this one! Revisiting a topic that exposed Kansas to nationwide ridicule six years ago, the state Board of Education approved science standards for public schools Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution. The 6-4 vote was a victory for intelligent design advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power. The new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that the basic Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life have been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.
  In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena. (THEY RE-WROTE THE DEFINITION OF SCIENCE!!! DAMN, I DIDN'T KNOW SCHOOL BOARDS HAD SUCH POWER! GOOD GOD, IMAGINE THE PTA!) In August, President Bush endorsed teaching intelligent design alongside evolution.
• 'Intelligent design' school board booted - DOVER, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum. Dover's school board adopted a policy in October 2004 that requires ninth-graders to hear a prepared statement about intelligent design before learning about evolution in biology class.
  Eight of the nine school board members were up for election Tuesday. They were challenged by a slate of Democrats who argued that science class was not the appropriate forum for teaching intelligent design. (AHH, VICTORY).
• And finally, a positive light on the USA - Michael Jackson May Not Live in U.S. Again - NEW YORK - Michael Jackson will come back to the United States, but it's unlikely the King of Pop would ever make it his home again, says his father.
  "He'll come back to visit, but not to stay, not to live," Joseph Jackson told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
  Jackson said his son, who was acquitted in June of child molestation, has received lots of threats in the United States. The superstar now lives in Bahrain and his lawyers have said that he no longer considers his Neverland Ranch in California as his home.
  "They didn't treat him right here. I know if I was him, I wouldn't come back," his father said.