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News & Submissions 1/27/2011

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Pagan Studies Conference a success
Pagan scholars discussed “Building Community” on Jan. 22 and 23 at the 7th Annual Conference of Current Pagan Studies in Claremont.  More than 70 Pagans gathered to hear the ideas and results of research by the 27 Pagan scholars, researchers and leaders who came from greater LA as well as from other areas of the country.

They gathered to discuss issues that relate to the Pagan community at large. It is important to that community’s health and growth to meet and learn from one another. It’s also important for all Pagans to be involved in the public arena and have their voices heard. With an estimate of over a million Americans now self-identified as Pagan, the Pagan religion is coming of age. And it is feeling, now more than ever, the need for trained leaders and clergy to build stronger Pagan communities that also see themselves as a part of a larger community. Read full story from examiner.com

Rabbis warn Rupert Murdoch: Fox News and Glenn Beck ‘using’ Holocaust
Four hundred rabbis, including the leaders of all the main branches of Judaism in the US, have signed an open letter calling on Rupert Murdoch to sanction the head of Fox News and one of the channel’s most famous hosts for frequent inappropriate references to the Nazis and the Holocaust.

The rabbis chose a poignant place to make their protest: they took out an advert costing at least $100,000 in one of Murdoch’s own newspapers, the Wall Street Journal. The advert was printed today – the UN-designated Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In the letter, the Jewish coalition calls on Murdoch to take action against Roger Ailes, the bombastic president of Fox News, as well as against Glenn Beck, the channel’s most notorious rightwing commentator. “We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News,” the letter says. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Do You Need an Exorcism? Take the Quiz!
Anthony Hopkins portrays Father Lucas Trevant, a veteran exorcist, in the new film The Rite, which opens Friday. The story follows Trevant as he teaches a younger priest how to tell if a person is possessed by a demon, and what to do if that is indeed the case.

Many religions claim that humans can be possessed by demonic spirits, and offer remedies to address this inconvenience. The Bible recounts six instances of Jesus casting out demons, while voodoo and Catholicism proscribe elaborate rituals and cleansings to remove spiritual stains.

The Vatican (which, as the film accurately notes, offers courses on exorcisms) accepts only a small percentage of demonic possessions as “authentic,” which of course suggests that there are a lot of unauthentic cases of possession out there. The Vatican issued official guidelines on exorcism in 1614, and revised them in 1999. Read full story from discovery.com

Popularity of vampires spawns subculture, scholar says
(Reuters) – They work as doctors and lawyers by day but lurk as vampires by night. While they may not wish to suck your blood, there are plenty of willing victims on tap, according to a top U.S. scholar on a subculture that emulates the undead.

Idaho State University sociologist D.J. Williams, newly hired as a consultant for a proposed television documentary about “self-identified vampires,” said true modern acolytes of Dracula seek consensual blood-sharing relationships.

The popular fascination with vampires dates back to the 1897 publication of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, and later books such as Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles.”

But it exploded in recent years with the best-selling “Twilight” series of novels by Stephenie Meyer and movie adaptations. The seductive vampire character Edward Cullen in the movie, played by actor Robert Pattinson, became a teen idol and made vampires cool. Read full story from reuters.com

Woman claims literal witch hunt in dead cats case
A Jackson County woman charged for keeping more than 100 dead cats in a freezer says she is being persecuted because she practices the Wiccan religion.

Gabriella Bernabei, 46, and her husband, Robert J.A. Grassi, 56, are charged with child neglect, 16 misdemeanor counts of intentional mistreatment of animals and a felony count of animal mistreatment.

Grassi has reached a plea deal with prosecutors that calls for probation. Bernabei has vowed to fight the charges.

“It’s a total all-out assault with everything that’s got to do with my religion, with my cats and how I look,” Bernabei said. “It’s a witch hunt.” Read full story from lacrossetribune.com

New course reconnects students with nature
A new 12-credit learning community will focus on the importance of reconnecting with nature. The series, which is now open to students eligible for advanced registration, will consist of three different courses that meet different requirements for the Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree in ecology, religion and political science.

Jerry Hall, a retired faculty instructor, spearheaded the program’s creation. Hall, a Native American, offers a cultural perspective central to the themes within the sequence.

Stan Taylor, chairman of the Lane Peace Center, teaches the Environmental Politics course in the module said that students studying in learning communities have a very unique learning experience. “Students in learning communities form lasting relationships. The experience for many is very transformative,” Taylor said.

Clif Trolin, who teaches the Nature, Religion and Ecology class, said the course of study includes a Native American perspective and has both a scientific and cultural view that fits well with his religion class. Read full story from lcctorch.com

Filmmaker Psychs Out Psychics and ET Believers
Many of us have given a few bucks to some alleged psychic to tell us stuff we already know, but what if you spent your entire life savings looking into the future, attempting to contact ghosts and protecting yourself from aliens?

That’s the premise behind filmmaker Blake Freeman’s newest documentary, “Gawd Bless America,” in which he travels across America with a 69-year-old “believer” named LeRoy Tessina who’s gone bankrupt after years of buying into fraudulent fortune-tellers and alien-protection devices.

In hopes of setting Tessina straight, the duo set out on a weird cross-country adventure to debunk self-proclaimed psychics, healers, alien-abduction experts and ghost hunters. Read full story from aolnews.com

“The Rite” stuff: interview with exorcist Fr. Gary Thomas
Since priests and demons frighten me, my colleague Peg Aloi, who in addition to being a fine critic and writer is also a practicing Wiccan, agreed to conduct this interview with the exorcist who inspired the new film “The Rite,” which opens Friday.

Here’s Peg’s story:

Father Gary Thomas is the subject of Matt Baglio’s book “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” (Doubleday Religion), which was the inspiration for Mikael Hafstrom’s film “The Rite,” opening in theatres January 28, 2011. I spoke with Father Thomas on the phone last weekend, and excerpts from our conversation appear below. Read full story from thepheonix.com

U.S. missionary in Mexico fatally shot
(CNN) — An American missionary was fatally shot in Mexico on Wednesday, police said.

The preliminary investigation indicated that Nancy Davis, 59, and her husband were traveling on a Mexican highway near the city of San Fernando, Mexico, when they were confronted by gunmen in a black pickup, the Pharr Police Department in Texas said in a statement. San Fernando is south of the border city of Reynosa in Tamaulipas state.

“The gunmen were attempting to stop them and the victims accelerated in efforts of getting away from them,” the police statement said. “At a certain point the gunmen discharged a weapon at the victim’s vehicle and a bullet struck the victim Nancy Shuman Davis on the head.” Read full story from cnn.com

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News & Submissions 1/19/2011

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

International Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2
Coming out to someone is a decision only you can make and it’s a decision best made when you are ready to do so. IPCOD encourages Pagans who are ready to come on out!

There are benefits, personally and for our religious community as a whole, as more Pagans come out. Some of these benefits include the reduction of anxiety caused by living a double life and creating a climate of greater acceptance for all Pagans. Read full story from pagancomingoutday.com

Bountiful a ‘cult,’ says polygamous leader’s brother
The isolated polygamous commune of Bountiful, B.C., is a “cult” where religion is used to control residents and take away their rights, says the brother of one the community’s leaders.

Truman Oler, whose brother James leads one of two divided factions within Bountiful, left the fundamentalist Mormon community in southeastern B.C. several years ago and has rarely seen his family since.

Oler, now 29, testified Tuesday at a B.C. court case examining Canada’s anti-polygamy law, describing a community where children are taught from an early age that anything less than complete obedience — including entering into polygamous marriages– would mean an eternity in hell.

“My thinking about Bountiful and the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) has evolved the longer I have been away from the community,” Truman said in a written affidavit filed in advance of his testimony.

“I now think that the FLDS is like a cult and that it is damaging for children to grow up in that environment. The FLDS does not permit anyone free choice. You are told what to do.” Read full story from ctvbc.ctv.ca

Savannah officials reject ghost film in cemetery
The Syfy TV channel wants to shoot an epsiode in a Savannah cemetery, but city officials won’t approve the idea.

Producers want to film an episode of “Fact or Faked,” which would examine a tourist’s 2008 claim that he filmed a ghostly image of a boy running through the cemetery.

Acting City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney and Jerry Flemming, director of cemeteries, say they’re following city policy on the use of cemeteries.

“The municipal cemeteries are not for sensational or entertainment purposes. Any tours or events marketed as haunted, paranormal, or involving ghosts, spiritualists or mediums are strictly prohibited from any of the municipal cemeteries,” the policy states.

Aldermen Tony Thomas, Mary Ellen Sprague, Clifton Jones and Larry Stuber agreed the sanctity of the cemetery and the respect owed to the deceased and their families has to be considered. Read full story from ajc.com

Faith & Religion: ‘Living Library’ allows the curious to explore other faiths at Ann Arbor event
In small circles inside the Social Hall at the Temple Beth Emeth/St. Clare Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, “patrons” leaned in close to hear “living books” like Doug Jackson talk about their religious experiences.

As part of the Interfaith Round Table of Washtenaw County’s “Living Library” program last Sunday, representatives from various religions and faiths shared their experiences and answered questions while maintaining the feel of a traditional library.

“My first patron asked about my life, the success and failures in my own practice of Christian Science,” said Jackson, representing the First Church of Christ, Scientists.

Each representative was given a call number and patrons were allowed a 20-minute checkout.

“It’s nice for me to hear the variety of paths people have taken,” said Mark Salzer of Ann Arbor Township.

Salzer, who attends a Mennonite church, was conflicted as to whether he wanted to look into the Pagan or Universalist faiths next after having heard about Science of the Mind. Read full story from annarbor.com

An act of faith, desperation or protest: Self-immolations through time
(CNN) — Night had fallen when the men heard the sounds on the mountain. First it was a chime, then a recitation of verses, followed by the crackle of wood burning. They scrambled to the summit to see what was happening.

There, seated with his palms together and facing west, was their friend. Flames leapt around the peaceful man, engulfing him. It was just as he’d intended.

The year was 527.

This story of Daodu, a Buddhist monk, is told in James Benn’s “Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism.” Benn, an associate professor of religion at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, writes that the act of setting one’s self on fire dates back in Chinese Buddhist tradition to the late fourth century.

But no matter how old, self-immolation still leaves people horrified, riveted and moved. Read full story from cnn.com

Psychotherapy and the healing power of narrating a life
An important part of the psychotherapy process, as I understand it and have practiced it, involves constructing a narrative of one’s life.

This may seem like a curious task given that we all know or should know the story of our lives. We’ve been imagining the movie to be made from that story forever, right?

Well, that may be true of some us, but a surprising number of people actually don’t have a coherent story: something that hangs together, makes sense, and has some internal consistency. The story may have large, important chunks missing. Or the narrative is fragmented and chaotic. Sometimes the story is there but it is self-condemnatory and unfair.

A woman who was raped at the age of 16 was telling herself that she consented to sex with a man much older than she was, someone she barely knew. She thought of herself as a slut. All the adults in her family would agree (if they knew the story): a 16-year-old is a grown-up and responsible for her actions. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

India must face up to Hindu terrorism
For far too long, the enduring response of the Indian establishment to Hindu nationalists has rarely surpassed mild scorn. Their organised violent eruptions across the country – slaughtering Muslims and Christians, destroying their places of worship, cutting open pregnant wombs – never seemed sufficient enough to the state to cast them as a meaningful threat to India’s national security.

But the recently leaked confession of a repentant Hindu priest, Swami Aseemanand, confirms what India’s security establishment should have uncovered: a series of blasts between 2006 and 2008 were carried out by Hindu outfits. The attacks targeted a predominantly Muslim town and places of Muslim worship elsewhere. Their victims were primarily Muslim. Yet the reflexive reaction of the police was to round up young Muslim men, torture them, extract confessions and declare the cases solved. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Russians seek omens and foretell husbands in winter ritual
MOSCOW — On winter nights set aside for fortune telling, young Russian women drip hot wax, throw shoes out of the window and crumple newspapers, hoping to foresee their future husbands and careers.

In a ritual vividly described in 19th century literature and still alive today, Russians tell fortunes in the evenings between Russian Orthodox Christmas (January 6-7) and the festival of Epiphany on January 19.

While fortune-telling is practised between Christian holidays, it is frowned upon by the Russian Orthodox Church, which sees it as a remnant of paganism. Read full story from google.com

Church letter warns against mandatory reporting of child sex abuse
Belfast, Northern Ireland (CNN) — Irish victims of sexual abuse are “disgusted” by a newly revealed letter in which a Vatican official expresses “serious reservations” about requiring bishops to report suspected abuse by priests to police, they said Wednesday.

Abuse survivors will question the cardinal leading a special papal delegation to Ireland about the letter, they said.

“We are disgusted by details revealed in the letter. Many of our members just can’t take this in and have been deeply affected by the revelations,” Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse spokeswoman Margaret McGuckin told CNN. Read full story from cnn.com

Yoga For Unity Flash Mob (source YouTube – YogaForUnity)

Unreported World: Witches on Trial (source YouTube – TrVelocita)

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News & Submissions 1/13/2011

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

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

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

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

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

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

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

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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News & Submissions 1/6/2011

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

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 1/2/2011

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

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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News & Submissions 12/30/2010

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

Dark future for wrong psychics
There are many things to dislike about end-of-year celebrations — the pressure to make New Year’s Eve memorable, the shameful amounts of money wasted on fireworks, drunken renditions of Auld Lang Syne. But perhaps the most annoying tradition is the value placed on predictions made by psychics.

According to a 2009 Neilsen poll, 49 per cent of Australians believe in psychic powers, despite — it must be pointed out — a distinct lack of supporting evidence.

However, as 2010 draws to a close, we have a unique chance to put some of these beliefs to the test by reflecting on the accuracy of psychic predictions made at the start of the year. After all, the rest of us face performance reviews at this time of the year, so why not critically appraise clairvoyants as well? Read full story from haroldsun.com

January, New Year and the Compitalia
For many people, after the December festivities January comes as a quite a gloomy anti-climax. However, Classical Pagans (i.e. those following a Roman/Greek pantheon) perceive the world with somewhat different eyes.

Subsequent to the festivities of Yuletide and the Midwinter Solstice, or Christmas – if one subscribes to the more recent Christian ethos, we swiftly arrive at the start of another contemporary year. I accentuate the word ‘contemporary’ because calendars have so frequently changed over the centuries.

The bucolic, pre-Christian, Celtic land dwellers regarded the period we now call Halloween (originally Samhain) as the end of summer and commencement of winter. It marked the start of the New Year.

When we disregard the ‘man-made’ calendar and take a long look at nature’s moods, this old agricultural method of time calculation begins to make a great deal of sense. Read full story from ufodigest

Secular Coalition Calls for Email Campaign to Mayor-Elect Gray
December 29, 2010 (Washington, D.C.) – The Secular Coalition for America (SCA) is calling for an email campaign by all D.C. residents to let Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray know that discrimination in any form, for any reason is unacceptable.

CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO MAYOR-ELECT VINCENT GRAY.

The efforts come one day after SCA went public with the decision from the mayor-elect’s transition team to exclude a secular representative for atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nontheistic Washington, D.C. residents at his first official inaugural event—an ecumenical service entitled “One City … Praying Together” at 8 a.m. Sunday, January 2, 2011. Read full story from richarddawkins.com

Seven arrested for killing man over witchcraft
Seven people were arrested at Thabine village outside Tzaneen on Thursday after a man accused of practising witchcraft was stoned to death, Limpopo police said. Read full story from thenewaga.co.za

Man banished from Busia village over witchcraft
RESIDENTS of Buwhera village in Buyanga sub-county in Busia district have banished a man from their village for allegedly practicing witchcraft.

Robert Barasa, 24, was banished from the village after a meeting held at Buwhera on Tuesday. Karim Sityabude, who is field operations chief of the Uganda traditional healers Busia Chapter, was present at the meeting. Read full story from newvision.co.ug

Yes, Virginia, Hellenes Have Christmas Traditions
Two decades ago, Ann Landers did a column about how various cultures celebrate Christmas. Halfway down her list was this gem: “If you are Greek Orthodox, your sect celebrates Christmas on January 7.” Several people wrote back that 1) the Orthodox church is not a sect — it is the original church from which the Catholic one split after the Schism of 1054 and 2) only the so-called Old Believers track Christmas by the Julian calendar.

I was reminded of this when I was leaving work a week ago, and a colleague asked, “Should I wish you Merry Christmas? I heard you Greeks don’t celebrate it like we do.” As those who read my posts know, I’m an atheist who misses many of my culture’s old customs, particularly those that thrum with pagan echoes. So I’m going to put my tour guide’s hat briefly on, and tell you what we Hellenes do around the time of the winter solstice. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Need a Job? Losing Your House? Who Says Hoodoo Can’t Help?
Jennifer Forness, a 39-year-old in Groton, Conn., felt her life falling apart earlier this year. Her husband announced he wanted a divorce. She lost her job as a store clerk. She developed health problems from the stress.

Then one night she discovered a website selling products for hoodoo—an ancient belief system based on spells, potions, balms and curses that slaves developed long ago in the Deep South. Ms. Forness ordered several items and instructions for performing certain rituals. She also had a telephone session with a hoodoo “doctor” who specializes in employment matters. Read full story from wsj.com

Forecasters keep eye on looming ‘Solar Max’
PARIS, France — The coming year will be an important one for space weather as the Sun pulls out of a trough of low activity and heads into a long-awaited and possibly destructive period of turbulence.

Many people may be surprised to learn that the Sun, rather than burn with faultless consistency, goes through moments of calm and tempest.

But two centuries of observing sunspots — dark, relatively cool marks on the solar face linked to mighty magnetic forces — have revealed that our star follows a roughly 11-year cycle of behaviour.

The latest cycle began in 1996 and for reasons which are unclear has taken longer than expected to end.

Now, though, there are more and more signs that the Sun is shaking off its torpor and building towards “Solar Max,” or the cycle’s climax, say experts. Read full story from google.com

Christ In Woman’s Chest X-ray (source abc news)

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News & Submissions 12/29/2010

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Dig deeper to find the real news
As voted by the Religion Newswriters Association’s members, among the year’s most consequential religion newsmakers were Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Pope Benedict XVI, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, and the U.S. bishops.

How would you have ranked them? Has their influence been harmful or constructive? What issue or person do you expect to have the biggest impact in the year to come?

Many of the noted figures making the biggest waves in the world of religion journalism in 2010 have a troubled, sometimes hostile, relationship to religious minorities in general, and modern Paganism in particular. Their prominence and influence are a constant reminder that our freedoms are sustained by secular ideals of a separation between church and state, a concept under constant attack by those who would prefer a “Christian America,” or at least one that gave special dispensation to their majorities. This tension is often characterized as a mere difference of opinion, but this is a fundamental disconnect that allows outlandish statements and associations to be ignored by mainstream media outlets. Read full story from washingtonpost.com

Berwyn Mountains “UFO” mystery deepens
THE mystery behind the famous Berwyn Mountains “UFO” incident has deepened after a document revealed a major military operation was underway that night.

Dubbed the “Welsh Roswell”, on January 23 in 1974 locals reported hearing a huge bang, felt earth tremors and saw a brilliant light in the sky over the Berwyn Mountains.

Now a document from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has surfaced, which reveals a military operation – codenamed Photoflash – was scheduled for that evening.

It involved about 10 military aircraft and a series of powerful flashes across the North Wales coast and Liverpool Bay. Read full story from dailypost.co.uk

Ice Sheets Act as Giant Solar Mirrors Controlling Future Climate Change
Recent Antarctica research may provide critical clues to understanding one of the most dramatic periods of climatic change in Earth’s history – and a glimpse into what might lie far ahead in the planet’s climate’s future.

The giant ice sheets of Antarctica behave like mirrors, reflecting the sun’s energy and moderating the world’s temperatures. The waxing and waning of these ice sheets contribute to changes in sea level and affect ocean circulation, which regulates our climate by transporting heat around the planet Read full story from dailygalaxy.com

Year in Review: Top Stories of July 2010
As the year 2010 draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the top stories we’ve seen here at About Pagan/Wiccan. There were archaeological discoveries, tales of religious discrimination, news stories about church/state separation issues, and more. Let’s take a look at some of the most significant stories of 2010, and see how July played out for us. Read full story from Patti’s Paganism / Wicca Blog

Image of the Year: Billion-Year Old “Black Widow” Pulsar Ripping Through Milky Way at 1 Million KPH
The “Black Widow” pulsar is zipping through the galaxy at a speed of almost a million kilometers per hour. A bow shock wave due to this motion is visible to optical telescopes, shown in this image as the greenish crescent shape. The pressure behind the bow shock creates a second shock wave that sweeps the cloud of high-energy particles back from the pulsar to form a cocoon.

The Black Widow,  a class of extremely rapid rotating neutron stars called millisecond pulsars, is emitting intense high-energy radiation that appears to be destroying a companion star through evaporation. Read full story from dailygalaxy.com

Atheists Excluded from Mayoral Prayer Service
Atheists Excluded from Mayor-Elect Gray’s Inauguration Humanist Celebrant Denied Equal Time at Ecumenical Prayer Service

For Immediate Release Contact: Amanda Knief, Government Relations Manager Phone: 202-495-9974 Email: amanda@secular.org

December 28, 2010 (Washington, D.C.) – Atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nontheistic Washington, D.C. residents will have no representation at Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray’s first official inaugural event—an ecumenical prayer service entitled “One City … Praying Together” at 8 a.m. Sunday, January 2, 2011.

“We would prefer that a government function such as an inauguration not be entwined with religion,” said Amanda Knief, a Humanist Celebrant and government relations manager for the Secular Coalition for America (SCA). “However, we find it overtly discriminatory when we request to be part of an ecumenical prayer service that is supposed to unite the entire city and are told there is no place for nontheists.” Read full story from richarddawkins.com

Archaeologists to probe Sherwood Forest’s ‘Thing’
A team of experts hope to shed new light on one of Nottinghamshire’s most mysterious ancient monuments.

A ‘Thing’, or open-air meeting place where Vikings gathered to discuss the law, was discovered in the Birklands, Sherwood Forest, five years ago.

In January 2011 experts plan to survey the hill and see if they can detect signs of buried archaeology and the extent of the site. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Celebrate the New Year with Intoxicated Animals
When someone starts getting a little too sloshed at a New Year’s Eve party, you can tell them to stop acting like an animal, literally. Many animals seem to enjoy getting a good buzz on just as much as humans.

In fact, some animals may have introduced humans to a number of drugs, including psychedelic mushrooms, alcohol, caffeine, and cocaine.

Even the legend behind Santa’s flying reindeer may have its roots in a psychedelic experience.

Reindeer are known to feed on the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), then stumble about, twitching and making strange noises. The mushrooms contain the hallucinogen muscimol. Read full story from discovery.com

World Religion Day offers spiritual party
World Religion Day will be held Jan. 23 at The Highland Center. As a treat for many locals, keynote speaker will be neurosurgeon Dr. Anil Nanda.

Nanda will represent the Hindu faith.

“I don’t think faith is something you wear on your arm,” Nanda said. “Thomas Jefferson said faith is how you treat other people.”

Each year at World Religion Day there are upwards of 17 different religions represented along with educational services about the different religions. Read full story from shreveporttimes.com

Planet 100: Is it Time to Solar the Sign? (Video)
The White House may have plans to reinstall solar panels on its roof but across the country another of the world’s iconic landmarks is perfectly positioned to harness the energy of the sun.

Situated high in the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood sign has been a cultural landmark since it’s erection back in 1923. Now a group of environmentalists are hoping to light the sign using solar energy. Read full story from treehugger.com

Letter from rabbis’ wives urge Israeli girls to avoid dating Arabs (source cnn)

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