Posts Tagged ‘Neanderthals’

News & Submissions 5/12/2011

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Headlines:

100,000 to get Jason Pitzl-Waters on the Daily Show
In an effort to support religious equality and equal voice, we are trying to get Jason Pitzl-Waters a spot on the Daily Show to address recent attacks on minority religions. Media responds to numbers, if we show that enough people are actively interested in seeing Jason on the Daily Show then it is likely he will get on! Spread the word and let’s make it happen!

Archeology:

The Last Neanderthals?
As if deciphering human evolutionary chronology isn’t complicated enough, recent discoveries at a site in the foothills of the Ural Mountains of Russia have thrown yet another wrinkle in the developing fabric of the human ascent through the Ice Age.

While excavating at Byzovaya, Russia, an archaeological site in the cold western foothills of the Ural Mountains at the edge of the Arctic Circle, Dr. Ludovic Slimak of the Université de Toulouse le Mirail, France, along with a team of colleagues, had unearthed a total of 313 human artifacts, along with a massive accumulation of remains of mammoths and other animals, (such as reindeer, wooly rhinoceros, musk ox, horse, wolf, polar fox, and bear). Examination of the mammoth remains indicated that they had been butchered using human-made tools. But these artifacts, a stone tool technology known as Mousterian and associated most commonly with Neanderthals, were dated to about 28,500 BP, too late for the Neanderthals.  The dating didn’t seem to match the nature of the technology, as the newly discovered artifacts defined a toolkit that belonged primarily to the Middle Paleolithic period (300,000 to 40,000 years ago), and Neanderthals are generally thought to have become extinct before that time — replaced, as many scientists have suggested, by Homo sapiens (anatomically modern humans) around 75,000 to 50,000 years ago with a more advanced stone tool industry.  Read full story from popular-archeology.com

Astronomy:

Planets Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Mars to line up in Australian sky
FORGET the hippie-era song that has Jupiter aligning with Mars and love steering the stars. The fact is, those two orbs get together all the time.

The truly remarkable event – when Jupiter lines up with Venus, Mercury and Mars in the pre-dawn sky – will be visible in Australia’s eastern sky on Friday.

The alignment of the four planets, which happens only once every 50 to 100 years, will occur just before sunrise, Sydney Observatory says. Read full story from heraldsun.com.au

History:

Boscastle’s Museum of Witchcraft celebrates a long and colourful history
An interesting day can be expected on May 14 when a famous museum in Boscastle opens its doors for a day of talks and a new book launch.

To celebrate the anniversary of its 60th year, the Museum of Witchcraft has gathered together the memories of 50 people who have a connection with the museum and published them in a book called The Museum of Witchcraft – A Magical History.

Together with the book launch there will be talks throughout the day under the moniker The Guardians of Cornish Magic. Read full story from culture24.org.uk

Native American:

Sacred Languages
A relation to the sacred is inherent within many indigenous languages. The justification for the renewal of tribal languages is often the belief that language contains meaning that is not well understood or translated into English, or other languages. For many tribal cultural programs, language is a major strategy for renewing culture and identity. There is great wisdom in this viewpoint, but what can it mean? Read full story from indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

News:

Spain: Earthquake rocks Lorca, Murcia, killing 10
Hundreds of people have spent the night outdoors in the southern Spanish town of Lorca after an earthquake which killed at least 10 people.

The magnitude-5.2 tremor toppled several buildings after striking at a depth of just 1km (0.6 miles), 120km south-west of Alicante.

Lines of cars lay crushed under tonnes of rubble and a hospital was evacuated as a precaution.

Wednesday evening’s quake came about two hours after a 4.4-magnitude tremor. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Religion:

County Board Considers Wiccan-Proof Prayer Policy
Prayer may soon be part of the Frederick County, Md., commissioners’ public meetings.

Republican Frederick County Board of Commissioners President Blaine Young suggested implementing the prayer at the start of the meetings. Read full story from nbcwashington.com

Religious belief is human nature, huge new study claims
London (CNN) – Religion comes naturally, even instinctively, to human beings, a massive new study of cultures all around the world suggests.

“We tend to see purpose in the world,” Oxford University professor Roger Trigg said Thursday. “We see agency. We think that something is there even if you can’t see it. … All this tends to build up to a religious way of thinking.”

Trigg is co-director of the three-year Oxford-based project, which incorporated more than 40 different studies by dozens of researchers looking at countries from China to Poland and the United States to Micronesia. Read full story from cnn.com

Science:

Mind Reading: Technology Turns Thought Into Action
An old technology is providing new insights into the human brain.

The technology is called electrocorticography, or ECoG, and it uses electrodes placed on the surface of the brain to detect electrical signals coming from the brain itself.

Doctors have been using ECoG since the 1950s to figure out which area of the brain is causing seizures in people with severe epilepsy. But in the past decade, scientists have shown that when connected to a computer running special software, ECoG also can be used to control robotic arms, study how the brain produces speech and even decode thoughts. Read full story from npr.org

Media:

Dr. Andy Thomson – Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith

Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith — Dr. Andy Thomson from Kurt Volkan on Vimeo.

Blogspot:

Feel free to leave comments regarding the articles posted.

If you’re interested in guest blogging or would like to submit an article or event, contact me at pagansworld.org@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Well wishes to you all and have a great day!

Lisa

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News & Submissions 12/28/2010

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

What is paganism, really?
Paganism.

Who wrote the dictionary on the word paganism exactly? The World English Dictionary defines this interesting umbrella term as “a member of a group professing a polytheistic religion or any religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam” then in the second definition names a pagan as “a person without any religion; heathen.” Pagan, to The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, is a term that describes a person who “belong[s] to a religion which worships many gods, especially one which existed before the main world religions.” Its origins span as far back as to the early Roman empire as another word for “civilian” compared to “miles Christi” (Soldiers of Christ). More derivations conclude the simple-minded ridiculed “country bumpkins,” “outsiders,” and “hicks.” Basically an episode of Glee. The pagans are the underdog, the overseen and underrated. At least in word alone, causing animosity through time of medieval Witch hunts, the obsession with magic and outside misunderstanding of human mortality in a organized religion. Read full story from examiner.com

A Cultural History of the Moon
The book “Moon: A Brief History,” with its wide variety of illustrations from classical texts, science fiction and other sources, describes not just the history of the celestial body but the ways it inspired the human imagination to take flight, fueled, as Proust put it, by “the ancient unalterable splendor of a Moon cruelly and mysteriously serene.” Read full story from nytimes.com

2010: A Good Year For Neanderthals (And DNA)
This year was a good year for Neanderthals. Yes, they did go extinct about 30,000 years ago, but scientists now say their genes live on — in us.

Scientists also found a 40,000-year-old finger in a Siberian cave that apparently belonged to an unknown human-like creature. And hair from the corpse of a 4,000-year-old hunter revealed his blood type and a predisposition for baldness.

What made these discoveries possible was DNA, which is becoming biological science’s window into the past. Read full story from npr.org

Harry Potter was a good Christian?
In a new book out this month, author Danielle Tumminio asserts Harry Potter is good Christian. Tumminio argues Potter lives a life that lines up with Christian values.

“I see him best as a seeker in a world where Christianity is not the vocabulary. I see him best as a seeker trying to live a life of faith in the same way a Christian seeker tries to live a life grace,” Tumminio told CNN.

Tumminio said she wrote God and Harry Potter at Yale: Teaching Faith and Fantasy Fiction in an Ivy League Classroom, to explore the contention by conservative Christians that Harry Potter is akin to heresy. Read full story from cnn.com

Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables
Neanderthals cooked and ate plants and vegetables, a new study of Neanderthal remains reveals.

Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth.

The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The popular image of Neanderthals as great meat eaters is one that has up until now been backed by some circumstantial evidence. Chemical analysis of their bones suggested they ate little or no vegetables. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Palm oil in our everyday products pushing indigenous peoples off their land
It’s the usual morning rush. You put your makeup on, take a dry creamer in your morning cup of coffee, luxuries we don’t give a thought to in the U.S. What – luxuries?

When it’s “pushing indigenous peoples off their lands,” it’s a luxury, said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chair of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “Hundreds are murdered and thousands are forced off their land of origin to grow the palm oil that goes in your cosmetics.”

Besides deforesting land for palm oil plantations, the controversial crop also used in biofuels, detergents, toothpaste and foods has fueled a ruthless landgrab by paramilitary groups in Colombia’s rural areas. In a desperate bid to protect themselves Colombia’s Internally Displaced People have set up “Humanitarian Zones” on small patches of collective land. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Santeria faith in Park City: decapitated animals are telltale sign of followers
The decapitated animals discovered in Park City in mid-December appear to have been killed in sacrificial ceremonies conducted by people practicing a faith that originated in Africa, an expert said in an interview, affirming a suspicion by local investigators that the animals were killed as part of some sort of ceremony.

Don Rimer, who spent 30 years as a law enforcement officer and now provides training in the fields of ritual crimes and the occult, said the decapitated animals are telltale evidence of people who practice a faith known as Santeria. Followers brought the faith with them to the New World when they were taken from Africa during the slave trade, first establishing themselves in the Caribbean region, he said. Santeria is a blend of ancient African religion and Catholicism, Rimer said. Read full story from parkrecord.com

WRIGHT WAY: Behind New Year’s Day
The New Year celebration is considered the oldest holiday observance in history, dating back some 4,000 years to Babylon. It was also known as Akitu and it lasted 11 days. Each day had its own unique celebration.

The carnival atmosphere laced with laughter, food and drinks epitomized each new year celebration as the most vibrant occasion of Mesopotamia, according to www.123newyear.com. Some form of a New Year’s celebration is performed around the world by people of all cultures.

In fact, it would be difficult to understand our days of the week and months of the year without considering the origin of New Year’s Day. Why is this true?

According to The World Book Encyclopedia, “The Roman ruler Julius Caesar established Jan. 1 as New Year’s Day in 46 B.C. The Romans dedicated this day to Janus, the god of gates, doors and beginnings. The month of January was named after Janus, who had two faces — one looking forward and the other looking backward.”

Although the Romans continued celebrating the new year into the first century, the early Christians condemned their festivities as paganism. Centuries later the church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many pagan celebrations, blending the two, including New Year’s Day. Read full story from clevelandbanner.com

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