Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
 http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP site
 was rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine. Send comments
 regarding SI DIGEST to editors Matt Nisbet at mcn23@cornell.edu and Barry
 Karr at skeptinq@aol.com.

 --NY TIMES: 'Battlefield Earth' Film Linked to Scientology
 --FORBES: Voodoo Science and Power Line Scares
 --LA TIMES: Can Doctors Really Turn Back Time?
 --WASH. POST: Diet Gurus Seek Taxpayer Dollars to Prove Their Claims


 --NY TIMES: 'BATTLEFIELD EARTH'FILM LINKED TO SCIENTOLOGY

 `Battlefield Earth': Film Dogged by Links to Scientology Founder
 By RICK LYMAN

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/051100battlefield-travolta-film.html

 HOLLYWOOD, May 10 -- The anticult networks are kicking up a fuss. Discussion
 on Internet movie sites is picking over the potentially sinister
 implications. Anonymous e-mails are whizzing around the country charging
 that, among other things, subliminal messages are being used to recruit
 unsuspecting moviegoers. Big summer action movies, filled with stars and
 special effects, don't often come with such fascinating accessories.
 "Battlefield Earth," starring John Travolta as a nine-foot alien with talons
 for fingers, will open in more than 2,000 theaters nationwide on Friday.As
 directed by Roger Christian, who most recently had been the assistant
 director of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," "Battlefield
 Earth" is set in the year 3000 and follows the adventures of enslaved
 earthlings, led by Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (played by Barry Pepper, the
 sharpshooting redneck in "Saving Private Ryan"), trying to break free of the
 tyrannical Psychlos (led by Mr. Travolta's character). Controversy has
 swirled around the film because it is based on the 1982 novel by L. Ron
 Hubbard, who founded the Church of Scientology, and because the film was the
 pet project of Mr. Travolta, who has made no secret of his dedication to
 Scientology. Could this be a sneaky attempt to lure unsuspecting moviegoers
 into Scientology?...]

 --FORBES: VOODOO SCIENCE AND POWERLINE SCARES

 For the full text of the articles, go to
 http://www.forbes.com/forbes/00/0515/

 The Alchemists of Energy
 Time and time again investors, congressmen and the general public get swept
 off their feet by crackpot schemes to create free energy. Why? In this
 adaptation from his new book, Voodoo Science, a professor of physics at the
 University of Maryland blames...
 By Robert L. Park

 Voodoo Science and the Power-Line Panic
 The American public's feeble grasp of science and statistics makes it easy
 prey for scaremongers.
 By Robert L. Park

 --LA TIMES: CAN DOCTORS REALLY TURN BACK TIME?

 Monday, May 8, 2000

 Can Doctors Really Turn Back Time?
 A new cadre of physicians sees aging as a treatable condition, but others
 say there's more hype than science behind their methods.

 By BENEDICT CAREY, Special to The Times

 For the full text of the article, go to
 http://www.latimes.com/news/science/science/20000508/t000043341.html

 WASH. POST: DIET GURUS SEEK TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO PROVE THEIR CLAIMS

 By Lawrence Lindner
 Special to The Washington Post
 Tuesday, May 9, 2000; Page Z18

 For the full text of the article, go to
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28920-2000May8.html

 How would you like it if someone talked you into buying his invention by
 suggesting to you that it was scientifically proven but, after you spent the
 money, told you it really wasn't proven? And then suggested that you pay for
 experiments to test whether the invention did indeed live up to the claims
 he had made for it? That's exactly what the authors of several popular
 weight-loss books are doing. And you, my fellow taxpayers, are the objects
 of this double-dip duping.
 --------------------------------

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
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