News & Submissions 1/13/2011

January 13th, 2011 by sivodd

Hub City Hogwarts? Magic classes on offer
MONCTON – Witchcraft class: for many, the term calls to mind a bunch of little wand-toting English kids running around yelling ‘Expelliarmus!’

Okay, so there’s no Hub City Hogwarts concealed in a secret dimension off St. George Street. But wannabe witches and warlocks are, in fact, lining up for local classes in witchcraft and wizardry.

The instructor is Tony Raven, a 36-year-old Moncton business owner and practicing witch for 20-plus years. The aim? Training credulous New Brunswickers in the basics of magic.

The term ‘witchcraft,’ Raven explains, means different things to Wiccans, Pagans, and Stregheria (to cite just a few strains of modern magic). The traditional witchcraft that Raven teaches traces its roots to ancient Europe. As he defines it, magic means the “art and science of causing change to conform to one’s will.” Read full story from herenb.canadaeast.com

East Meets West in the Bedroom
When it comes to sex, there’s a lot of noise out there. Do it this way! Buy this! Try this! Do it more! Do it now! Do it today!

It’s a message we see and hear all around us. It makes you wonder what the real deal is. So, I thought I might take a step off the well-beaten path and look in an entirely new direction for some insight — Eastern religion and philosophy. I wondered if I might be able to find a little quiet in the sex storm, and I did.

So, here it is. The top things we can learn about sex from the Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Shinto philosophies. Read full story from foxnews.com

Third mass grave found in Ivory Coast, says UN
A third mass grave has been discovered in Ivory Coast, according to the UN, following weeks of politically motivated killings that have raised fears of a new civil war.

After two days of deadly clashes it was also claimed that a UN vehicle had been set ablaze and its driver dragged out and beaten.

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, told Reuters that her officials had been denied access to three mass graves including a site alleged to contain 80 bodies.

“I am very concerned now that a third mass grave has been discovered,” Pillay said in Geneva. “Not only my representative there but the UN representative has not been allowed access to the mass graves.” Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Worship has no place in schools
Lots of children like studying religions. They enjoy thinking about religions, philosophy and morality. They are engaged by questions about capital punishment, euthanasia and whether prayer actually works. What they don’t like, they tell me time and time again, is feeling that it’s “being rammed down their throats”, or that they’re “being told what to believe”. Such activities should have no place in our schools.

To argue, as The Church Mouse does, that it is “hard to imagine how a child’s spiritual development can be supported if they never experience any form of worship” is fallacious, and conflates the terms “spiritual” and “religious”. We should see “spiritual’ as a flexible term, that could incorporate the religious and the nonreligious. Look, for example, of the definition Ofsted offered in 2004:

“[Spiritual development] is about the development of a sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning and purpose. It is about the development of a pupil’s ‘spirit’. Some people may call it the development of a pupil’s ‘soul’; others as the development of ‘personality’ or ‘character’” Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Monks make, donate casket for youngest victim in Arizona shooting
A group of Trappist monks in Iowa have donated a handmade casket to bury 9-year-old Christina Green, the youngest victim in the Saturday attack that killed six and wounded 13 others in Arizona.

Sam Mulgrew, the general manager of Trappist Caskets in Peosta, Iowa, told CNN a family representative of the Greens reached out to the monks at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque after her death. The custom-made casket arrived in Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday morning.

“We didn’t want to send an adult coffin that would be too big, we wanted something just for her,” said Mulgrew, who is not a monk but who manages the 11-year-old casket business that is part of the abbey. Read full story from cnn.com

The Housing Slump Has Salem On a Witch Hunt Again
SALEM, Mass.—There’s a certain look and feel to a foreclosed home, and 31 Arbella St. has it: fraying carpet, missing appliances, foam insulation poking through cracked walls.

That doesn’t faze buyer Tony Barletta since he plans a gut renovation anyway. It’s the bad vibes that bother him.

So two weeks before closing, Mr. Barletta followed witch Lori Bruno and warlock Christian Day through the three-story home. They clanged bells and sprayed holy water, poured kosher salt on doorways and raised iron swords at windows. Read full storyi from wsj.com

Conservative Media Attack Native American Blessing At AZ Memorial Service
Hume: “While I’m Sure [Native American Ritual] Has An Honorable Tradition With [Gonzales'] People, It Was Most Peculiar.” After Fox News aired the Tucson memorial live on January 12, several Fox News anchors commented on the service. Brit Hume said he thought the “sobriety you might have expected was not to be found” at the service and attributed this “tone and atmosphere,” in part, to the “opening blessing” by Gonzales, which he called “most peculiar.” From the Fox coverage following the service: Read full story from mediamatters.org

Not all in northern Sudan embrace Islamic law (source cnn)

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News & Submissions 1/12/2011

January 12th, 2011 by sivodd

Haiti one year on: “living in a tent is not really a life”
The angelical voices of a choir dressed in pristine white singing hallelujahs do not match the hellish scenery that surrounds them: piles of debris, an acid stingy smell of rotten rubbish, women crying while waving their hands at the skeleton of what used to be the country’s main Catholic church, Cathédrale Notre Dame de L’Assomption, thanking God for still being alive, but some also blaming him for plunging the Caribbean country into an abyss.

Exactly a year ago the earth grumbled violently, killing 230,000 people and flattening the cities along the centre of an impoverished country that is now no more than a mass of rubble and twisted iron. Today, broken Haitians are commemorating their losses following their hearts and their faiths. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Faith: Local community responds to hate by celebrating religious freedom day
This year, many in Ann Arbor will celebrate our local religious diversity and freedom through community service, discussion, and learning about other faiths as they mark Religious Freedom Day on Jan. 16. While these activities affirm respect and inclusion, they come in response to bigotry and harassment.

When Bryan Weinert saw the growing anti-Muslim sentiment in September of last year, including the stabbing of a New York cab driver for being Muslim, vandalism of mosques and a burnt Qur’an left outside a mosque in East Lansing, he felt that it was important for the community to respond.

Weinert, who serves as the board president for the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ), explains, “I saw the hatred, the animosity and the violence, and I thought, ‘This isn’t how we should be treating members of our community.’” So ICPJ began working with local faith leaders, the Ann Arbor City Council and others to respond to the anti-Muslim activities and promote a community that welcomes and respects all. Read full story from annarbor.com

Phelps won’t picket girl’s funeral
Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church won’t picket the funeral of a 9-year-old girl killed in Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., in exchange for getting airtime on two radio stations, a church spokeswoman said Wednesday morning.

Church members earlier had announced plans to picket the funeral of the girl, Christina Taylor Green, who was one of six people killed during Saturday’s shooting spree that also wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

However, Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the Westboro church, said KXXT-AM, a 50,000-watt radio station in the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson, Ariz., and Canadian station CFNY-FM, 102.1 “The Edge” in Toronto, offered to give the Topeka church airtime to discuss its views in exchange for its members not picketing the girl’s funeral. Read full story from cjonline.com

Interview with P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Founder of Ekklesía Antínoou
I was fortunate enough to spend some time this past week with Pagan author P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, a scholar, devotee of Antinous, and author of the book The Phillupic Hymns through Bibliotheca Alexandrina and The Syncretisms of Antinous through The Red Lotus Library. He’s been doing some fascinating work in reviving the cultus of the God Antinous within contemporary Reconstructionist Paganisms, so I was very happy when he agreed to answer a few questions.

This interview took place on November 7, 2010. Read full story from patheos.com

Alcohol poisoning, not avian flu, killed Romanian birds
Birds that were thought to have died from avian flu in Romania instead apparently drank themselves to death.

Residents of Constanta in eastern Romania found dozens of dead starlings on the outskirts of the city on Saturday.

They alerted authorities, fearing the birds had died from avian flu.

But local veterinary officials decided the starlings had died after eating grape ‘marc’ – the leftovers from the wine-making process. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Casting a spell on the government
THERE’S been a lot of talk about the rising popularity of paganism and witchcraft in Wales.

So here’s their chance to do something about VAT and all those hidden taxes.

Simply consult their Romanian sisters like Bratara Buzea, who, although she sounds like a Mafia hitman, is actually the Queen Witch of that country. For years Romanian witches have gone about their eerie business untaxed. Read full story from walesonline.co.uk

Religion is not needed to teach morality
The question: Should schools require Christian worship?

I asked my nine-year-old son, who attends an ordinary – though high-achieving – primary school in Clapham, what the “collective worship” mandated by English law in his school assemblies consists of. He reports that his assemblies feature a hodgepodge of broad brush-stroke outlines of a variety of religious festivals – Diwali, Eid, harvest festival – mixed in with basic moral messages about things like bullying (bad), being kind (good) and the dangers of Facebook (many). God, he was pretty sure, has never been mentioned and nothing he would describe (within his admittedly limited experience) as “worship” has ever taken place. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Why people abandon religion
The question of why some people lose their faith and what to do about it has long vexed those who don’t – check the Old Testament for some heated discourse on the topic. Recent polling indicates that the trend toward secularism has increased – even in the United States, one of the most religious countries in the world. The results of the latest American Religious Identification Survey (Aris) reveal that the “nones” – people whose stated religious affiliation is “none” – have grown from 8.1% in 1990, the first year the study was conducted, to 15% in 2008.

A November 2010 article in Christianity Today sought to discover why, and cited “moral compromise” as the first reason, meaning that people leave religion because they want to do things religion forbids, such as have premarital sex. Other reasons include intellectual doubts and being hurt in some way by a church.

Recognising the necessity of understanding specific reasons for specific departures, I propose an overarching reason for why people abandon religion: they leave when the tension becomes too great between what they want and need, and what religion tells them they should want and need. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Jared Lee Loughner apparently sought community online at Abovetopsecret.com
The Web site Abovetopsecret.com is a place where odd ideas are welcome: Its discussion threads ask questions about UFO sightings, evidence of God, and “How do you kill an alien zombie?”

But it became an unwelcome place for a new user, who joined the site in early 2009 and called himself “Erad3.” Now – based on the language in his postings, and information about where he logged on – the site’s operators believe Erad3 was accused Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner, 22.

“I’d go with 99 percent,” said Bill Irvine, chief executive of the site’s parent company, when asked how certain he was that Erad3 and Loughner were the same person.

The story of those postings – now compiled online at Abovetopsecret.com – adds new detail to the story of Loughner’s apparent unraveling. Read full story from washingtonpost.com

Skull pulled from box renews Bradenton mystery
BRADENTON – Police here are trying to solve a mystery over how an unidentified human skull sat in a box in their property room for more than 35 years until it was discovered last week.

And they have virtually no records to indicate to whom it belongs or what happened to the person.

In late 1974, someone found a human skull submerged in 4 inches of water in an area vaguely described as “near Bradenton.”

The skull was apparently sent by the Bradenton Police Department to the FBI and back again to the local agency’s evidence room, where it was wrapped in newspaper, put in a box, marked with the word “SKULL” and forgotten.

Until last week. Detectives, sifting through old evidence to see if any of it could be used to crack cold cases, found the box, and the skull, and are now trying to figure out to whom it belongs. Read full story from heraldtribune.com

Authorities handling fallout of breaking up polygamist cult
One year after police raided the Tel Aviv headquarters of a suspected polygamist cult that involved some 40 children and 20 women, welfare authorities say they are still dealing intensely with the fallout and rehabilitation process of the cult members as they return to live a normative life.

According to information published Tuesday by the Welfare and Social Services Ministry, the 20 wives and 40 children of the yet-to-be convicted cult leader Goel Ratzon continue to receive a wide range of welfare services, including constant psychological monitoring.

“The Goel Ratzon affair is a clear sign that we have a policy of zero tolerance to cults and other groups that prey on vulnerable women and children,” Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog said in a statement Tuesday. Read full story from jpost.com

Jewish groups respond to Palin’s use of ‘blood libel’
Several Jewish groups are criticizing Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” in her video statement on the Arizona shootings. The phrase traditionally refers to false anti-Semitic myths about Jews using the blood of Christians, often children, in their rituals.

[Defining terms: What is "blood libel"?] Read full story from yahoo.com

Voodoo priests killed in Haiti (source cnn)

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News & Submissions 1/11/2011

January 11th, 2011 by sivodd

Freshwater officially fired
On January 10, 2011, the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 to terminate the employment of John Freshwater. A middle school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Freshwater was accused of inappropriate religious activity in the classroom — including displaying posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses, branding crosses on the arms of his students with a high-voltage electrical device, and teaching creationism. After a local family sued Freshwater and the district in 2008, the board voted to begin proceedings to terminate his employment in the district. Finally, after administrative hearings that proceeded sporadically over two years, the referee presiding over the hearings issued his recommendation that the board terminate his employment with the district. Read full story from ncse.com

Mourners to hold ‘community healing’ Mass after Arizona shooting
Mourners will gather at a memorial Mass Tuesday for victims of the weekend shooting outside an Arizona supermarket that killed 6 people and wounded 14 others.

The Mass will be held at 7 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) at St. Odiilia Church in Tucson, Arizona – where 9-year-old shooting victim Christina Green had her First Communion a year ago.

“Right now it is important as a community to pull together and to reach out in care and concern to all who have been affected by this tragedy,” Bishop Gerald Kicanas wrote Monday in a letter to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson. Read full story from cnn.com

Religion Today and Spell Craft
Many people are religious such as a few friends of mine are. I have religious friends and not so religious friends and Wiccan and Pagan friends as well. I used to be in a coven of witches and liked the faith I was in, but for some reason or another, I decided to become a solitaire witch and sometimes I cast good spells for myself as well as for family and friends.

I would say I been practicing witch magick since I was teen and my one aunt did not like me reading ghost stories or witch craft books so she made me burn them and ask God for forgiveness. There maybe a Supreme Being but I am like my uncle, as he does not feel God is tangible. There maybe many Gods and Goddesses whom control us and our minds, or aliens from another planet that control the universe, for all I know. Read full story from modernghana.com

Hubble finds ghostly object in deep space
There’s a green blob in space, but unlike a bad science fiction movie, it’s not coming to take over Earth. Probably.

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a green cloud of gas about 650 million light-years from Earth. It’s been named Hanny’s Voorwerp, Dutch for Hanny’s Object. Read full story from cnn.com

In Pictures: Builders please Gods to create posh Roman villa for Wroxeter Roman City
Workmen have built a huge villa on haunted land at the fourth-largest Roman settlement in Britain as part of a television series lauded as “the ultimate exploratory archaeology project”.

English Heritage and Channel 4 have recreated a villa urbana – a townhouse used as a country retreat by upper class Roman families – using traditional Roman methods at Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire. Read full story from culture24.com

AP-Petside poll: Most pet owners see a 6th sense
LOS ANGELES — Lassie could always sense when Timmy was in trouble. Black Beauty knew the bridge was out.

Now two-thirds of American pet owners say they can relate — their pets have a sixth sense about bad weather. Forty-three percent say the same about bad news, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll.

Seventy-two percent of dog owners said they’ve gotten weather warnings from their pets, compared with 66 percent of cat owners.

For bad news, 47 percent of dog owners and 41 percent of cat owners said they’ve been alerted by their pets, according to the poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. Read full story from chron.com

Dying Wolf Given Stem Cells Stuns Vets With Recovery
Along a stretch of highway in central Brazil, a female wolf was hit by a truck and left to perish on the roadside. Death seemed imminent for the animal when it was discovered by a compassionate passerby and rushed to the veterinarian at a nearby zoo. With the wolf in a near-coma and suffering from a severely broken leg, animal care workers opted to try an untested method in hopes of saving it — treating a wild animal, for the first time ever, with stem cells. Within hours after surgery, the animal was on its feet. Within days, it had broken free of its enclosure and escaped back into the wild. Read full story from treehugger.com

Jared Loughner: Focus on delusions, not politics
FRANCISCO — Posting strange and paranoid messages on the Internet and fixating on the end of the world, accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner appeared to be more driven by a delusional mind than a real interest in politics, mental health experts said Sunday.

“I doubt people who say this is about politics have a good understanding of mental illness,” said Dr. Bob Dolgoff, medical director of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center‘s mental health division. “It could be conspiracy theories or men from outer space. The important thing here is, why wasn’t he in treatment?” Read full story from sfgate.com

Arizona lawmakers plan to block protesters within 300 feet of funerals
Tucson, Arizona (CNN) — The Arizona Legislature is expected to pass legislation Tuesday that will bar protesters at funerals from getting within 300 feet of services, a spokesman for the state House said.

The action, according to House spokesman Daniel Scarpinato, is in direct response to a controversial church’s announcement that it will picket the funeral of Christina Green, the 9-year-old who was among six people killed during Saturday’s attempted assassination of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona. Read full story from cnn.com

American Islamophobia (source YouTube – patcondell)

Jacobs: Birds Dying Because of DADT Repeal (source YouTube – RWWblog)

Supreme Court Ruling Religion Cannot Be Used To As A Reason To Refuse To Marry Gay Couples(source Youtube – MOXNEWSd0tCOM)

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News & Submissions 1/8/2011

January 8th, 2011 by sivodd

Truth about Darkey kelly, burned as a ‘witch’ 250 years ago … but who was really a serial killer
A MACABRE anniversary this week marked the gruesome public execution of a Dublin woman whose reputation in the city’s folk memory has just been debunked.

For generations, Darkey Kelly was regarded as a woman who was burned at the stake for witchcraft after she accused the notorious Sheriff of Dublin Simon Luttrell of fathering her baby.

But new research has revealed she may have been Dublin’s first female serial killer. Read full story from herald.ie

Extrasensory perception experiment: how it worked
One reversed a simple memory test in which people are typically found to be better at recalling a selection of words – taken from a larger set – on which they focus attention.

In his version, students were shown 48 nouns – drawn from the categories of foods, animals, occupations, and clothes – on a screen for three seconds each, and asked to visualise the object described.

They were then given a surprise memory test, in which they had to recall as many of the words as possible.

Their computer then randomly selected six words from each of the four categories and these 24 nouns appeared on the screen.

The student was asked to click the 6 “food” words, which turned red when clicked, and then to retype the words into empty slots on the screen. They did this for all four categories of noun. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Google Maps Tracking Mysterious Animal Deaths
This is insane! I really mean it. At first I was skeptical and a bit stoic when hearing about these birds dying in a few states in the U.S., but now I can’t help but be alarmed at the plethora of reported mysterious animal deaths around the globe.

Google Maps is now tracking the rash of mysterious animal deaths that are plaguing the world. Take a look at this impressive map (or click here): Read full story from ghosttheory.com

Kirk Cameron: Dead birds aren’t the end of the world (source cnn)

Countdown with Keith Olbermann (source msnbc)


The Colbert Report: Bill O’Reilly Proves God’s Existence – With Neil deGrasse Tyson (source colbertnation)

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bill O’Reilly Proves God’s Existence – Neil deGrasse Tyson
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

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Friday’s Food For Thought

January 7th, 2011 by sivodd

Happy Friday everyone! I know it may be a little cold for this recipe but, it’s really Yummy and easy to make. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie

pie

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Freezing time: 1 hour
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup chocolate syrup
  • 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2 cups crisp rice cereal
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 quart chocolate chip ice cream softened

Preparation:

  • Coat bottom and sides of an 8-inch pie plate lightly with butter
  • Combine chocolate chips and syrup in a microwave safe bowl and heat on HIGH (100% power), about 45 seconds. Stir until smooth. Reserve 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture.
  • Combine remaining chocolate mixture and cereal in a medium bowl and mix to coat cereal. Press mixture over bottom and up sides of prepared pie plate. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
  • Combine reserved chocolate mixture and the sour cream in a small bowl and mix well. Spread half the ice cream in the prepared pie plate. Drizzle with half the sour cream mixture. Top with remaining ice cream and drizzle with remaining sour cream mixture. Freeze pie, covered, until firm, about 1 hour.

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News & Submissions 1/6/2011

January 6th, 2011 by sivodd

Discovery, Catholic Church behind exorcism series
(EW.com) — Discovery Channel is teaming with the Vatican for an unprecedented new series hunting the deadliest catch of all: Demons.

“The Exorcist Files” will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican’s case files, as well as interviews with the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television.

“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think,” says Discovery president and GM Clark Bunting. Read full story from cnn.com

Bhutan offers rare glimpse inside historic temples
(CNN) — The isolated kingdom of Bhutan has opened its doors to a team of art experts in order to preserve its Buddhist history.

Working for the first time in collaboration with Bhutan’s Department of Culture, conservators from The Courtauld Institute of Art in England have spent the last three years documenting some of the reclusive kingdom’s most precious wall paintings.

According to Lisa Shekede, leader of the project, the wall paintings date from around the 17th century and are some of the best surviving works in the region.

The team visited over 200 temples — sometimes trekking for an entire day to reach remote monasteries — and documented around 50 paintings in detail. Read full story from cnn.com

Romanian Witches Use Spells to Protest New Taxes
(AP) MOGOSOIA, Romania – Everyone curses the tax man, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time are planning to use cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government.

Also among Romania’s newest taxpayers are fortune tellers — but they probably should have seen it coming.

Superstitions are no laughing matter in Romania — the land of the medieval ruler who inspired the “Dracula” tale — and have been part of its culture for centuries. President Traian Basescu and his aides have been known to wear purple on certain days, supposedly to ward off evil. Read full story from cbsnews.com

Egyptian police fear repeat of new year’s bombing in Alexandria
Egyptian authorities put up a heavy security cordon today around the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo hours before Christmas Eve mass, using bomb-sniffing dogs, metal detectors and officers to thwart another attack like the New Year’s suicide bombing at a church in Alexandria that killed 21 people.

Al-Qaida in Iraq had threatened Christians in Iraq and Egypt in the weeks leading up to the holidays, while militant websites have allegedlyposted online lists of churches in Egypt to target.

Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, which makes up 10% of the 80 million population, celebrates Christmas tomorrow. Some have said they will avoid Christmas Eve services. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

‘Psychic’ predicted lottery syndicate win
A GROUP of work colleagues have scooped £1m on the lottery, after a ‘psychic’ co-worker predicted a win.

The syndicate of 15 workers from West London Training in Aldershot are sharing the prize, which was won on the EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle on Christmas Eve.

Each is £66,666.66 better off thanks to catering manager Ocean Kinge, whose predictions they would win spurred them to start the syndicate. Read full story from gethampshire.co.uk

Mass Animal Deaths Leading To End Times Panic
What started with reports of unusual blackbird deaths in the southern United States earlier this week has now snowballed into multiple reports of mass bird and fish deaths from around the globe, prompting some to theorize that they may be signs of the end times.

“When the term ‘dead fish’ became a top Google search Wednesday, soaring past the likes of Lindsay Lohan and leaving Justin Bieber in its scaly wake, it looked as if the end were near,” Jill Rosen of the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. “That’s what everyone was saying, anyway.”

“After millions of tiny fish went belly up in Chesapeake Bay this week, much of the populace immediately dismissed the official scientific explanation (the water was just too darn cold),” she added. “What made more sense, they reasoned? The approaching apocalypse. Of course.” Read full story from redorbit.com

What we Muslims can learn from converts
If Muslims have a bad reputation – and they do – converts to Islam have it even worse. Among their dreadful alumni are such characters as the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, the 7 July bomber Germaine Lindsay, and Nicky Reilly who tried to blow up a restaurant in Bristol with a nail bomb. And Lauren Booth. Yet despite these poor recruiting sergeants and in spite of the overwhelmingly negative media depiction of Islam, the number of people converting to Islam seems to be rising.

A report this week suggested the number of converts had doubled in the past 10 years from about 60,000 in 2001 to up to 100,000 with around 5,200 people converting to Islam in the UK last year. These figures come with a health warning – they are estimates derived from extrapolations – but if we accept that increasing numbers of British men and women are turning to Islam, it does lead to questions of why: why are people voluntarily signing up to a faith that is, if you believe what you read, a cesspit of misogyny, violence and hate?

The growth in conversions in the past decade is partly a reflection of social and geopolitical changes in Britain and the world during the past 10 years. Prior to 11 September 2001 there was relatively little press attention given to Islam. Following the attacks there was an understandable rise in focus on the faith, which led non-Muslims to want to find out more about the religion that was now so often in the news. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Mainstream Pakistan religious organisations applaud killing of Salmaan Taseer
The increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society was today laid bare when mainstream religious organisations applauded the murder of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, earlier this week and his killer was showered with rose petals as he appeared in court.

Taseer was buried in his home town of Lahore. The 66-year-old was assassinated yesterday by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his police bodyguards, after he had campaigned for reform of the law on blasphemy.

Qadri appeared in court, unrepentant, where waiting lawyers threw handfuls of rose petals over him and others in the crowd slapped his back and kissed his cheek as he was led in and out amid heavy security. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Ancient practice: Why I’m pagan
I am pagan. I make no excuses for this. I am not ashamed of my decision to follow a spiritual path that strays from the mainstream. I would be happy to explain my beliefs to anyone who is curious. However, I find that most are not willing to know my beliefs, as though the mere mention of a pagan ritual should send them scrambling to the nearest confessional to repent for the remotest ounce of curiosity for something so evil and fiendish. Why are pagans discouraged from celebrating our faith in the open?

Upon my decision to become pagan, I did my homework in the form of purchasing books, surfing the internet, and joining online groups with like-minded individuals. One common theme was clear: Informing those you know of your new religion choice should be viewed as if you were coming out of the closet. If you wouldn’t tell someone that you were gay, you probably shouldn’t tell them that you’re pagan. Read full story from newsreview.com

Core tradition returns to Herefordshire
ONE of Herefordshire’s strangest customs will return to an orchard near Hereford this evening (Thursday).

Families and cider drinkers have been invited to join a wassail in Tillington.

The ceremony dates to Pagan times and involves greeting an apple tree on the twelfth night to promote a good harvest.

Participants often sprinkle cider around a tree, hang toast from its branches and light fires nearby to ward-off evil spirits. Read full story from herefordtimes.com

BBC Newsnight: UK Homeopathy Update 2011 (source bbc)

Sanitation Dept. Gets Earful In Wake Of Cemetery Destruction (source cbs news)

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News & Submissions 1/4/2011

January 4th, 2011 by sivodd

World’s Buddhist Traditions Pray for Peace and Inter-faith Harmony
Taipei: Addressing a grand prayer congregation for world peace and religious harmony held on the New Year eve in Taipei, Tibet’s spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s Representative to Taiwan has underscored the importance of religious harmony among different religions of the world.

Representative Mr Dawa Tsering also spoke on the essence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s commitment in the promotion of religious harmony and understanding among the world’s major religious traditions. Read full story from thetibetpost.com

More atheists to come out in 2011, leader predicts
We kicked off this new year by asking thinkers representing various traditions to offer predictions for 2011. The responses came in from best-selling authors, esteemed religious leaders and heads of organizations dedicated to faith awareness and understanding. Read full story from cnn.com

Jason and the argot: land where Greek’s ancient language survives
An isolated community near the Black Sea coast in a remote part of north-eastern Turkey has been found to speak a Greek dialect that is remarkably close to the extinct language of ancient Greece.

As few as 5,000 people speak the dialect but linguists believe that it is the closest, living language to ancient Greek and could provide an unprecedented insight into the language of Socrates and Plato and how it evolved. Read full story from independent.co.uk

Finding the Fingerprints of Climate Change in Storm Damage
Hurricanes could become more prevalent with climate change, but the economic pain they deliver might not be recognized as man-made for 260 years.

That means smashed homes and ruined roads may not be attributable to greenhouse gases for centuries, according to new research that suggests climate policies like adaptation should be designed without financial evidence of climate-enhanced windstorms.

The researchers also warn environmentalists and policymakers against making claims that damage from Hurricane Katrina and other storms are rising from carbon dioxide emissions. Insurance companies that promote climate change as a reason for rising prices could also lose credibility. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

We are programmed to believe in a god
As a psychologist, the focus of my work has been on people’s reasoning about such things as God, the afterlife, and destiny. I am not a philosopher or a theologian, so I have not considered the actual, outside-the-head existence of these things. Not only do I find the latter ontological question rather dull, but I also start with the assumption – because there is simply no good scientific reason to assume otherwise – that these things do not exist. In my view, atheism is an essential starting point for the psychological scientist, because it enables us to examine the more intriguing and, more importantly, empirical question of why the human mind is so easily seduced by a ubiquitous set of unnecessarily complex claims. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Sabretooth cats threatened most ancient human ancestor
Humankind’s oldest known ancestor probably lived in fear of several large sabretooth cats that roamed the same ancient lakeside habitat in Africa.

Palaeontologists have identified two new sabretooth species among fossils unearthed at Toros Menalla in Chad.

In 2001, a team unearthed remains of a seven million-year-old human-like creature – or hominid – known as “Toumai” at the central African site. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Haunting Beauty of NGC 3190: Prime Habitat of Deadly Supernovas
This magnificent galaxy forces us, again, to ask: does advanced life exist there? The fact that we have no proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe may simply mean that intelligent civilizations have all too finite lifetimes. NGC 3190 is a spiral galaxy of unbearable beauty in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. In 2002, astronomers uncovered one supernova in March in the southeastern part and then another team uncovered a second supernova on the other side two months later -sure destroyers of vicinity-based life. Read full story from dailygalaxy.com

Helping explore alternative healing
The sharp smell of herbs and essential oils greets health-seeking visitors at a unique shop in Ladysmith.

The Medicine Garden, owned and operated by Francis Cherrett and Connor Drader, is a one-stop shop for everything alternative.

Cherrett, a master herbalist, hypnotherapist, Reiki master and aromatherapist, is not only multi-talented, but has a warm and inviting presence. Read full story from bclocalnews.com

Years of seeking leads St. Petersburg woman to life as Buddhist nun
Sandra Steers dressed in white one recent Saturday morning and drove to Clearwater for one of the most significant moments of her life.

Hours later, the 68-year-old grandmother of five returned to her St. Petersburg home to begin a new life. If neighbors had been peeking through their windows, they would have seen a petite woman with a shaven head wearing saffron robes. Sandy, as she was known to friends, had taken the vows of a Buddhist nun and a new name — Ayya Suseela. Read full story from tampabay.com

Healing your pain
In Telluride, moms are mountaineers, schoolteachers are ripping snowboarders, the postal worker is an endurance runner and the guy at the gear shop is a super strong mountain biker.

It’s a town of athletes — of tough and sometimes half-crazy people who put their bodies through an impressive gamut. Which means that it’s also a town where people get injured often. And while some can afford to take care of their injuries, others forgo or cut short treatment because they simply don’t have the money. They power through it, with mixed results.

Jay Holt and Jane Del Piero, who run Luvlight Acupuncture, want to change that. The practitioners want to ensure everyone who is injured or in pain has the chance to get proper treatment, regardless of how much money they make. Read full story from telluridenews.com

Deadly blast outside Egypt church (source Youtube – AAIJazeeraEnglish)

BBC Horizon – The Secret You (source BBC)

This Remarkable Thing (source YouTube – philhellenes)

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News & Submissions 1/2/2011

January 2nd, 2011 by sivodd

Press Release: Shopping for Wiccan Supplies Has Gotten Easier at Wiccan Joy
Palm Coast, FL, January 02, 2011 –(PR.com)– Shopping for Wiccan supplies has gotten easier with the December, 2010 launch of Christina Naves’ new website Wiccan Joy. She believes it will not take long for her Palm Coast, FL based company to grow into a leading, nationwide on-line shopping location.

Wiccan Joy contains blogs written by Ms. Naves in which she expresses the challenges of finding acceptance for a Wiccan lifestyle, which is often misunderstood. She also advocates understanding and acceptance of others despite their making different lifestyle choices. Furthermore, she claims Wiccan Joy is a visually appealing website that promises to be continually growing and evolving throughout its existence. Read full story from americanconsumernews.com

German Archeologists Uncover Celtic Treasure
German archeologists have unearthed a 2,600-year-old Celtic tomb containing a treasure of jewellery made of gold, amber and bronze.

The subterranean chamber measuring four by five meters was uncovered near the prehistoric Heuneburg hill fort near the town of Herbertingen in south-western Germany. Its contents including the oak floor of the room are unusually well preserved. The find is a “milestone for the reconstruction of the social history of the Celts,” archeologist Dirk Krausse, the director of the dig, said on Tuesday. Read full story from spiegel.de

Heavenly skies provide inspiration for angel charity
Floating serenely in the sky, this beautiful angelic cloud provided the photographer with the inspiration for a new charity.

CJ Holding was travelling through Somerset when she glanced up to see the fiery scarlet-framed head with its glowing yellow body and turquoise wings.The image left a stunning blue trail in its wake.

Miss Holding, 32, said: ‘The angel picture was actually taken during a despairing moment in my life nearly seven years ago.

‘I was travelling through a small village in Somerset on my way to the coast.

‘I looked up through my tears and saw the most amazing sight of my life.’

Miss Holding, from Henley in Oxfordshire, said: ‘I thought to myself, that cloud looks so strange.

‘It lingered in the sky for about 15 to 20 minutes before I took a picture of it, then it vanished.

‘I thought I’d imagined it and it wasn’t until I got home and printed the image that I would let myself believe what I had seen was real.’ Read full story from dailymail.co.uk

11 faith-based predictions for 2011
To open 2011, CNN’s Belief Blog asked 10 religious leaders and experts – plus one secular humanist – to make a faith-based prediction about the year ahead. Read full story from cnn.com

10 women share stories of challenge and triumph that will inspire you
At some point in a woman’s life, there comes an event or a moment that tests her – who she is, who she wants to be, where she will go next or what she’s made of. She has to decide whether to get up, dust herself off and keep going. She has to choose between keeping quiet or speaking up. She has to work through heartache. She has to do what she knows is right, no matter the consequences. She has to choose to lead. Or she has to take a chance. We have gathered 10 inspiring women who will awe you with their determination, grace and dignity. Read full story from azcentral.com

Witchcraft declared legal profession in Romania
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania has changed its labor laws to officially recognize witchcraft as a profession, prompting one self-described witch to threaten retaliation. Read full story from ap.org

Scunthorpe psychic to be buried alive for a week to raise money for charity
A SCUNTHORPE psychic will be buried six feet underground for charity.

Ian Lawman, who is also an exorcist and TV star, says he wants to stretch his talents and get as close to death without actually dying.

Of the week-long burial he said: “I have had the idea of being buried alive for two years now.

“At first it was just a thought, but now my coffin has been made I am becoming a lot more nervous.”

As the date of the burial approaches, Mr Lawman is training to ensure everything goes to plan.

“I won’t have any food or drink for seven days, but I will be taking 12 food tablets equalling 2,000 calories a day.

“My training involves hours of meditation, lying still for long periods of time. The coffin is larger than your average size, but movement is still limited.”

A live webfeed will be streamed throughout the seven days, enabling Mr Lawman to share his experiences and feelings with his fans. Read full story from thisisscunthorpe.co.uk

Pagan bride raises charity funds with wedding cookbook
PAGAN bride Sarah Bell has collected recipes from her unusual wedding to create a charity cookbook.

The 25-year-old, who lives in Burslem, decided to produce the Handfasting Recipe Book when all the guests to her Pagan wedding on October 2 started asking each other for their recipes.

Sarah and her husband Chris, aged 31, wanted to get married on a budget so they asked all their friends to bring a dish to their ceremony in Meerbrook.

The food was such a hit she has put all her guests’ recipes into a book, which is being sold to raise cash for SANDS – the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, which supports bereaved parents. Read full story from thisisstaffordshire.co.uk

Viking wolves return for first solar eclipse of 2011
Two beasts of Norse mythology are set to trouble the skies of northern Europe on Tuesday for the world’s first solar eclipse of 2011.

Ancient Viking legends recount that a giant wolf named Skoll chases the Moon, and its brother Hati pursues the Sun — and if either sinks their teeth into one and holds it back, an eclipse occurs.

For astronomers, though, eclipses are less superstitious affairs, occurring when the Moon swings between the Sun and Earth.
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Tuesday’s event will be a partial eclipse. This occurs when a fraction of the Moon obscures the Sun, and to those in its shadow a “bite” seems to have been taken out of the solar face. Read full story from smh.com.au

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January 1st, 2011 by sivodd

NewYear

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Have a safe and Happy New Year’s Eve!

December 31st, 2010 by sivodd

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