From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 22:20:39 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The Bible Code
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19970530135617.00858be0@pop.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Published today with great fanfare, "The Bible Code"
describes the fruits of three Israeli mathematicians in
decrypting hidden messages in the Bible by textual
analysis algorithms. Blurbs claim that the work passed
peer review for publication in a math journal a few
years back, was confirmed by "a US Defense Department
code-breaker" and predicted the assassinations of
JFK, RFK, Sadat and Rabin.

The NYT reported on the fanfare a few days ago and
quoted some who claimed that the Israelis' claims were
examined and faulted when first published, that the book's bunkum, 
and that if enough analysis is done on any text, any message 
can be found -- holy writs being perdurable candidates.

Even so, are any here familiar with the Israelis' work?

Better, is this book the first of many to come to celebrate the
cook-ups of codes and cyphers and algorithmic chefs? Is a 
film in the works, or, best, a Seinfeld of 0s and 1s?