Reindeer ‘cruelty’ slammed by rights group Reindeer are being tormented when slaughtered, according to the animal rights organisation World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA).
WSPA released a video on Monday that shows reindeer in distress when herded and transported, and while at the slaughterhouse.
Pagan prisoners given time off to worship the Sun God
Hundreds of criminals are to be given four days a year off prison work - to celebrate pagan festivals.
Prison governors have been issued with a list of eight annual pagan holidays and told pagan inmates can choose four to celebrate.
The festivals include Imbolc - The Festival of the Lactating Sheep - which falls on February 1 and is dedicated to the goddess Brighid. Read full story from dailymail.co.uk
A season for everyone
ST. GEORGE - Christmas may dominate the holiday schedule, but December is a special and spiritual month for many local residents, regardless of their religious beliefs.
Cedar City resident Melanie Cottam is clear evidence of that.
Though her Cedar City home is adorned with wreaths, candles and even a decorated tree, Cottam said she doesn’t focus her celebrations on Christmas each winter. As a pagan, she and her family observe a different December celebration. Read full story from thespectrum.com
Christian Colomnist: We’ve Won the War on Christmas
Despite renewed attacks on Christmas, one Christian columnist says in the grand scheme of things “it’s not a war” because Christian principles are deep within U.S. and world customs.
Gary McCullough, director of Christian Newswire, says he is annoyed and bothered by the latest atheist attacks on Christmas and the story of Christ’s birth. He asserts that Christians have already won the culture war by using their principles to “co-opt” rituals and holidays in America and abroad.
Masters of Math, From Old Babylon
If the cost of digging a trench is 9 gin, and the trench has a length of 5 ninda and is one-half ninda deep, and if a worker’s daily load of earth costs 10 gin to move, and his daily wages are 6 se of silver, then how wide is the canal?
Or, a better question: if you were a tutor of Babylonian scribes some 4,000 years ago, holding a clay tablet on which this problem was incised with cuneiform indentations — the very tablet that can now be seen with 12 others from that Middle Eastern civilization at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World — what could you take for granted, and what would you need to explain to your students? In what way did you think about measures of time and space? How did you calculate? Did you believe numbers had an abstract existence, each with its own properties? Read full story from nytimes.com
Christopher Hitchens vs. Tony Blair: the full transcript
You may need to set aside the rest of your Saturday to get through this, but here in full is the transcript of the long-anticipated Munk debate between Christopher Hitchens and former prime minister Tony Blair. The motion: “Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world”. No prizes for guessing who was arguing for and against.
The debate was hosted last night in Toronto, Canada before an audience of 2,600. Reports suggest that touts were selling tickets for up to five hundred Canadian dollars.
Ross: Being thankful on Thanksgiving
Sometimes it’s simply about saying “thank you;” nothing more, nothing less.
The prayers went on forever. Actually, they lasted – usually – about 45 minutes, maybe an hour. It really did seem like they would never end, though.
And the worst part was that he knew what he was doing to us! He knew that it was torture – the smells, the sights, the waiting. He and grandma put all of the boiling meats and the red hot dogs and the sweets all on the little table with the yellow, vinyl table cloth on it – right there for all of us to see. We all knew that the potato salad was going to be good and mustardy, and we knew that we were gonna get some pop that was not warm Cragmont Cream Soda. And it was simply mean, what he was doing, gosh darn it – the smells were incredible! Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com
Thanksgiving symbolizes Native generosity and kindness
VERONA, N.Y. – When the first immigrants from Europe arrived on the North American shores, they were homeless and hungry. They survived thanks to the generosity and kindness of Native peoples, who helped them through the first brutal northeastern winter and shared traditional methods of agriculture that would sustain them through future seasons.
That tradition of hospitality and help is replayed throughout Indian country during the Thanksgiving season in various acts of kindness by tribal nations. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com
2010 Wild Hunt Winter Pledge Drive, Nov 15-21
Since it started in 2004, the Wild Hunt has become a vital news source for modern Pagans, and a crucial resource for those outside the Pagan movement who want to explore the issues that are important to us.
The Wild Hunt doesn’t simply alert you to the interesting (or infuriating) stories of the day, but adds analysis, context, and unique features. Read full story from wildhunt.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