Harry Potter tour hopes to cast spell on UK Muggles As all good students of the Harry Potter saga know well, Muggles are not usually allowed at Hogwarts school of witchcraft of wizardry. However, a new exhibition will soon give those not gifted with magical powers the chance to see some of the famous Potter film sets, such as the Great Hall and Dumbledore’s office, for themselves. Read full story from guardian.co.uk
Gif Recap: ‘True Blood’ Oh, yes. It’s finally happened! Sookie and Eric! Well, that is until King Bill walks in on them. Damn it Bill! Royal or not, you have crappy timing! We wanted to see some Sookie/Eric sex! And really, Sookie shouldn’t have stopped Eric from staking Bill with that poker. Instead, Eric kneels before his liege. Oh, that isn’t going to end well. Read full story from screenjunkies.com
Study Sheds New Light on Archaeology of the Dura-Europos Expedition A recent study of the photographic archives of one of the 20th century’s most sensational archaeological excavations and discoveries lends powerful credence to the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Tucked away carefully within the archival collections of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, more than 5,000 unpublished photographs taken between 1928 and 1937 recount a story in visual detail that cannot be fully told in the printed words of excavation reports, site journals or the popular press of the time. Read full story from popular-archeology.com
The lost city where the Olympics began may have been destroyed by tsunamis Alasdair Wilkins — The Olympic Games first began in the ancient Greek city-state of Olympia. For all its fame, the city suffered a mysterious fate, destroyed by an unknown natural disaster. Now it looks like tsunamis were the culprit…despite being 30 kilometers inland.
The origins of the ancient Olympics are shrouded in mystery, but the generally accepted date for the first Olympiad is 776 BCE, and the games endured for an incredible 1,170 years before the Emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in 394 CE because they were too reminiscent of paganism. The city remained inhabited for another 150 or so years, but by around 551 CE Olympia lay in ruins, and it wouldn’t be until 1829 that it would be rediscovered and excavations could begin. Read full story from io9.com
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
Astronomers Discover Alien Planet In Our Milky Way
We’ve talked about colliding galaxies on this blog before. But this piece of science news today is a little weirder: The journal Science reports that astronomers have found the first extragalactic exoplanet in our Milkyway. Read full story from npr.org
Ghost caught on camera
People who are open to the supernatural see ghosts everywhere. For instance a speck of dust as it moves on an air current and caught in a camera flash becomes an ‘orb’: a ball of otherworldly energy left by the souls of the departed. Read full story from manchesterconfidential.co.uk