Master of the paranormal Uri Geller continues his countdown to the Millennium with another selection of off-beat news snippets which only go to show what a crazy world in which we live...

Day 274 - Friday, April 2

It's not just disasters - miracles are on the increase too. More Americans than ever now believe God makes good things happen, claims the Pew Research Center. They say 61 per cent of people have faith in miracles, up from 47 per cent in 1988 - with books on the subject selling 500 per cent better. Theology profesor Daniel Wojcik,author of The End Of The World As We Know It, says the approaching Millennium means people's willingness to suspend disbelief "has gotten riper".

Day 273 - Saturday, April 3

Viennese millionaire Friedrich Robert Falkner has placed a 20-ton ship named Aurora's Ark on the side of an Austrian mountain, to await the next Great Flood. The symbol is designed to remind people how easily our bad behaviour could destroy the world. But it has a practical purpose too. Herr Falkner believes Nostradamus's verses predict the planet will be under water by October 13, and he plans to escape onto the Ark with his family, his staff and a collection of animals.

Day 272 - Sunday, April 4

An ESP machine is to tour Britain's shopping centres in an experiment to get thousands of ordinary people testing their psi-power. Psychologist Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire has designed the Mind Machine, a £30,000 kiosk with a touch-sensitive screen to help users predict the future. He hopes to involve 250,000 shoppers during the coming year.

Day 271 - Monday, April 5

Changing rooms will become redundant if new technology at Marks & Spencer catches on. Customers will be issued with 'smart cards' containing all their measurements after being sized up electronically in a scanning booth. All M&S clothes, with microchips sewn in, will measure themselves against the smart cards, making every buy a guaranteed fit.

Day 270 - Tuesday, April 6

Even the ultra-sceptics are becoming convinced there must be life out there. Darwinist Richard Dawkins, Oxford's professor for public understanding, says: "I suspect that life is out there orbiting other stars, but so sparingly dotted through space and time that no one island race ever encounters another."

Day 269 - Wednesday, April 7

If there is life, it may be too small to spot. Geologist Philippa Uwins has found biological organisms ten times tinier than the smallest microbes, in Australian petrol drilling samples. The 'nanobes' match fossil traces identified in meteorites from Mars. Now Dr Uwins has to prove the specks are truly alive, with identifiable DNA.

Day 268 - Thursday, April 8

Star-gazers are urging Whitehall to spend £5m on research to track asteroids - and prevent a cosmic collision. Asteroid strikes like the one which wiped out the dinosaurs are rated as a 100,000 to one outside chance - but as scientists point out, the chances of a lottery jackpot are 14 million to one, and jackpots get won. Professor Mark Bailey of Armagh Observatory says: "This is the biggest threat facing mankind, but it's preventable. As things stand, though, we could have only 20 seconds warning."

Uri Geller's novel Ella is published by Headline Feature at £5.99, his Little Book of MindPower by Robson Books at £2.50, and Jonathan Margolis's Uri Geller, Magician or Mystic? By Orian Books at £17.99.

Visit Uri Geller's Interactive Psychic City: www.tcom.co.uk/hpnet/ or email him at urigeller@compuserve.com 2/4/99

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