<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dear Visionaries:</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>To add to Frank Cheng’s post, I'd like to point out that Steven D. Schafersman has published a critique (</FONT></SPAN><A href="http://www.skeptic.ws/shroud/"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>http://www.skeptic.ws/shroud/</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3> ) <SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">of Ray Rogers’ critique of the 1988 carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The 1988 carbon dating placed the Shroud’s creation to between 1260 and 1390 CE.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Dr. Cheng reported, </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Rogers</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">’ work suggests that the Shroud is much older, possibly 3000 years old, which would make it a Roman rather than a medieval artifact.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But Dr. Rogers, it would seem, is not the last word on the Shroud’s date, nor on the accuracy of the 1988 carbon-14 tests.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The labs that conducted those tests dispute Dr. R</SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">ogers</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">’ assertion that the material they tested was from a 14th century repair patch.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They maintain that they tested the fabric itself, not a medieval repair, and that in three blind tests by three different labs, they all came up with the same conclusion: that the Shroud was of 14th century origin.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <DIV> <TABLE class=MsoNormalTable style="BACKGROUND: white; WIDTH: 100%; mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes"> <TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" vAlign=bottom> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Now, the site on which I found Schafersman’s critique is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but I have come across a few of those, also taking Dr. Rogers to task.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m afraid I didn’t bookmark the sites, and I don’t have time this morning to dig them out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Even as I type this, I’m supposed to be updating New West Magazine, <A href="http://www.newwest.net">www.newwest.net</A>, with lots of fascinating </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Northern Idaho</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> insider information.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>BTW, any ideas from any of you on this subject would be most welcome.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> What's the best coffee shop in Lewiston? Where do people like to hang out in Coeur d'Alene? </SPAN>At the moment, my part of </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Northern Idaho</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> is looking rainy and dank and dull, and my collection of the Emma Peel episodes of “The Avengers” is calling to me, loudly, and siren-like.)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Oh, one other thing I've picked in my casual Shroud browsing is that it would seem as though the late Ray Rogers fell into what's called "the Shroud believer" camp.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As far as I can tell, there are Shroud skeptics, Shroud believers, and some ill-defined scientific middle filled with the researchers who don’t have a stake in either authenticating or de-bunking the Shroud but are instead interested in its date, its method of creation, and etc., for other reasons.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Purely scientific reasons? Who knows? Anyhow, a</SPAN> professor named Alan Mills has proposed that the Shroud is a natural phenomenon, created by a kind of reactive oxygen, specifically “singlet oxygen,” but other scientists have been very busy critiquing his work.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> This stuff is interesting, and if you're bored -- or want to engage in legitimate work avoidance -- you might check out </SPAN></FONT></SPAN><A href="http://www.petech.ac.za/shroud/Singlet.htm"><FONT face="Times New Roman">http://www.petech.ac.za/shroud/Singlet.htm</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman">. I've learned all sorts about oxygen singlets, stuff I could have used when I was taking (and flunking) chemistry way back when. Now, if I could just find a way to work oxygen singlets into my coffee shop reviews . . </FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">So, who knows?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Medieval fake?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Roman reality?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Whatever and however the Shroud was made, we do know that it is A) older than panes of distortion-free glass, and B) that it has not been successfully re-created on the rooftop of the New St. Andrews.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a shame, actually, as I’d kind of like one to hang in my living room.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It would go so well with the sofa.</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></o:p> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman">"Mrs Peel, we're needed."</FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A href="http://www.auntie-establishment.com/"><FONT face="Times New Roman">www.auntie-establishment.com</FONT></A></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>