On trial: Faith, delusion or excuse for crime?
He’s a self-proclaimed prophet who called his bed an altar.
He wore robes, grew his beard long and penned a rambling manifesto.
He said he received revelations and was destined to take 49 wives.
And he is on federal trial for kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, now 23, and moving her across state lines for sex. Read full story from cnn.com
Saudi Arabian court rejects ‘sorcery’ death sentence
Amnesty International has welcomed a decision by the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court this week not to ratify the death sentence on a Lebanese man convicted of “sorcery”.
The court in the capital Riyadh said that the death sentence for ‘Ali Hussain Sibat was inappropriate because there was no proof that others were harmed as a result of his actions.
The court ordered that the case be retried in the original lower court in Madina with a view to considering commutation of his death sentence and deportation to Lebanon at the end of his sentence. Read full story from amnestyusa.org
How modern day witch trials are destroying rural Africa
Sixteen-year-old Sapavi was sitting in her English class at the Assemblies of God primary school in Ghana, following a lesson she can no longer remember, when she felt something or someone knock her on the head.
The concrete room’s tiny windows meant the airless space stayed relatively dark. It was crowded with low desks and bench seats filled with lanky Ghanaian students wearing uniforms of blue skirts or pants and short-sleeved white blouses. When Sapavi turned to see who was annoying her, what she saw was the ghostly apparition of an old woman holding a long knife and a bowl made from a dried gourd. Read full story from nypost.com
Expert insists end of world is not nigh
DESPITE WHAT you might have heard, the world is not set to end on December 21st, 2012. There are no asteroids to worry about, nor astronomical alignments nor changes in the Sun that will destroy Earth, according to one of Ireland’s top astrophysicists. Read full story from irishtimes.com
Roman Ruins Show Modern Sea Level Rise Didn’t Start Until Industrial Revolution
Over the weekend the New York Times ran an article on sea level rise, which for the seasoned TreeHugger reader may not add tons new to the discussion (Climate Progress has some analysis of it and gives it mostly a thumbs up, rare for mainstream media reporting on climate), but check it out if you need a refresher course. But what caught my eye was a really interesting companion article, highlighting research on Roman seaside ruins which indicate that for the past two millennia or so that sea levels have been comparatively steady, and that the level of increase we witness today really started with industrialization. Read full story from treehugger.com
Rainforests, wildlife preserved by indigenous spiritual beliefs
New research within the native Wapishana and Makushi communities of Guyana suggests that indigenous cultural beliefs such as shamanism help preserve tropical forests and wildlife.
The analysis, published in the September 2010 Journal of Latin American Geography, draws from a massive data set that tracks wildlife populations, hunting kill sites, and spiritually significant features of the landscape within a 48,000-square-kilometer area in southern Guyana. The authors recruited the hunters themselves to record much of the data. Read full story from mongabay.com
The ‘Wee Good Folk’ – what are they?
A remarkable amount of confusion surrounds the subject of fairies, so let’s take a closer look.
What are we to make of these winged, ephemeral creatures that inhabit the hidden regions of the human psyche and the overgrown forests where our ancestors once worshipped their mysterious Old Gods? It is easy to see why a strange mystical state, enveloping fairies has arisen when we examine the various (at first seemingly contradictory) factors attached to these splendid beings.
For the sake of simplicity I shall hereby explore the preeminent working strands of thought-process connected to Fairy Lore.
FAIRIES FROM THE OLD GODS AND AS A SUPPRESSION OF NATIVE CULTURAL PAGAN BELIEF Read full story from ufodigest.com
Lead in reusable grocery bags prompts call for federal inquiry
Lead found in some reusable grocery bags is raising concerns that the toxin could pose environmental or health concerns to consumers.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is asking for a federal investigation into the reusable bags following a series by The Tampa Tribune. The newspaper found lead in bags purchased at Winn-Dixie, Publix, Sweetbay, Walmart and Target. Read full story from usatoday.com
Maya pyramids pose acoustic riddle
Crumbled ruins of pyramids litter Central America’s jungles, trees growing from their tumbled staircase blocks.
Why the ancient Maya abandoned these towering temples remains one of the big riddles of archaeology. But there is one other question: Why build them in the first place? Read full story from usatoday.com
