coelacanth6's Xombytes

During the final purification process, cane sugar (but not beet sugar) is filtered through activated carbon (charcoal) which may be of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin. Over half of the cane refineries in the United States use bone char (charcoal made from animal bones) as their activated carbon source.

Most individuals that are fortunate enough to live in "first-world" countries do not even consider the irony when they use treated drinking water to flush their toilets while many of the world's population has to suffer great difficulties just to obtain enough marginally clean water (or in many instances, water that is unfit for human consumption) just to survive.

The South Carolina Senate has approved a proposal to name indigo as the official South Carolina state color. Indigo was one of South Carolina's first cash crops and was an important export during the entire colonial period but its commercial cultivation in the state ceased following the Civil War.

According to Environmental Elements ECO Mowers' website, "the average gasoline powered mower tested by the EPA emits in 1 hour of operation the same amount of hydrocarbons that a 1992 Ford Explorer emits over 23,600 miles".

If you wanted to know where some of the dollars you are spending on high-priced gas are going - Apparently, Dubai is building a rotatating skyscraper with penthouse apartments selling for as much as $38.7 million each (http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/062708/bus_296146408.shtml).

The US has responded to Iran's test firing of missiles with a lot of hot air and fiery rhetoric. What's the big deal with Iran developing conventional missiles to defend themselves. They are a sovereign nation (just like the US and Israel) and have every right to develop and test convential munitions in order to defend themselves - In fact, about a week ago, Israel carried out a training mission to show that they had the capability to carry out a bombing mission of Iran.

Currently in all U.S. National Parks, under rules last updated 25 years ago, visitors to the parks must keep all firearms unloaded and inaccessible, generally locked in a trunk or elsewhere in a vehicle.

According to a recent MSNNBC article, "Nine years ago, John Edwards had this to say about Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky affair: 'I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter.'"

The United States may have succeeded in getting the lead out of our gasoline but, in addition to your kids' toys, lunchboxes, and sippy cups, your red lipstick may also be the fully-leaded variety.

The Shroud of Turin is a very interesting historical and religious "relic" BUT even if the Shroud of Turin is a fake, one's Faith should be unaffected. Many other aspects of Jesus' life and the of Bible are historically verifiable while others are only "believable" through Faith. If the Shroud is somehow proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be either a clever fake or the actual burial shroud of Jesus this should have no bearing on Belief or Disbelief.