Posts Tagged ‘Global Warming’

News & Submissions 12/27/2010

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Strange & Fun New Year Food Customs
Only a day away from Christmas, which means it’s only days left until the end of the year. This also means there are only days left to accomplish those 2010 resolutions! To start the New Year on the right foot, many will be out celebrating and setting the tone for the next year. There’s no better way to do that than with food, holiday traditions, and great company. Many people around the world agree and so here’s a round up of the strangest New Year food customs from around the world. Read full story from planetgreen.com

The art on the cave walls at Chauvet continues to thrill
Imagine, for one moment, that first shock of recognition when the creatures of the cave wall at Chauvet in the Gorges de L’Ardeche were exposed to artificial illumination and human consciousness for the first time in thousands of years.

The date is December 18, 1994. Here is Jean-Marie Chauvet, the archaeologist who discovered the caves, recalling the impact of those long-forgotten dream images: “Time was abolished, as if the tens of thousands of years that separated us from the producers of these paintings no longer existed. Deeply impressed, we were weighed down by the feeling that we were not alone; the artists’ souls and spirits surrounded us. We thought we could feel their presence; we were disturbing them.” Read full story from thenational.ae

Hitler’s Triumph of the Will & Christ
Do Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther and Christ really have anything in common? Consider the story of Hitler’s battle against Luther over the soul of Germany. This event reveals the political side of religion in Hitler’s Germany, found in the Nazis and their propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1934), placed against Luther’s greatest work—Bondage of the Will (1525). Hitler sought to move Germany beyond indomitable Luther and his Bible by sheer humanistic effort. Here was a politician trying to advance his cause by undermining traditional religion, which still occurs today, perhaps more than ever. Read full source from canadafreepress.com

Ft. Leavenworth’s military bloggers react to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal
The student blog of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, is a great way to find out how soldiers really feel about life in the military.

Naturally, Congress’ repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military’s stale stance forbidding gays to serve openly, has inspired discussion. Some are all for it, others against, and still others seem to have missed the point entirely. Read full story from pitch.com

Did It All Happen in the 1980s?
Technoccult uses Google’s new Ngram Viewer, which searches for trends among various corpus of books Google has scanned, to track a seeming explosion of interest in the occult and “magick” in the mid-1980s. So I decided to do my own search, and compare the terms “Wicca”, “Paganism”, and “Magick.” Read full story from wildhunt.org

New Year’s Resolution: I will believe in free will
In the wee hours of this morning my eyes popped open, and I spent the next half hour trying to figure out what to write about in this column. After careful, albeit groggy deliberation, I decided to go with free will, both because of the tie-in to New Year’s resolutions and because some high-profile scientists have been questioning whether free will exists.

One is the neuroscientist Sam Harris. His new book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (Free Press, 2010), which I critiqued in a previous post, has a section titled “The Illusion of Free Will”. Harris argued that “no account of causality leaves room for free will.” He cited experiments in which magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) “predicts” that a subject is going to do something—on the basis of activity in the subject’s brain—up to 10 seconds before the subject consciously decides to do it. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Did global warming stop in 1998, 1995, 2002, 2007, 2010?
A common claim, made by those who deny man made global warming, is that the Earth has been cooling recently. 1998 was the first year claimed by ‘skeptics’ for “Global Cooling”. Then 1995 followed by 2002. ‘Skeptics’ have also emphasized the year 2007-2008 and most recently the last half of 2010.

NASA and climate scientists throughout the world have said, however, that the years starting since 1998 have been the hottest in all recorded temperature history. Do these claims sound confusing and contradictory? Has the Earth been cooling, lately?

To find out whether there is actually a “cooling trend” it is important to consider all of these claims as a whole, since they follow the same pattern. In making these claims, ‘skeptics’ take short periods of time, usually about 10 years or less, out of context (“Cherry picked.”) from 30 years of evidence; the minimum needed to make a valid judgment. Read full story from skepticalscience.com

Year in Review: Top Stories of March 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 what happened in March. Read full story from Patti’s Paganism / Wicca Blog

Rare earth metals mine is key to US control over hi-tech future
It’s a deep pit in the Mojave desert. But it could hold the key to America challenging China’s technological domination of the 21st century.

At the bottom of the vast site, beneath 6 metres (20ft) of bright emerald-green water, runs a rich seam of ores that are hardly household names but are rapidly emerging as the building blocks of the hi-tech future.

The mine is the largest known deposit of rare earth elements outside China. Eight years ago, it was shut down in a tacit admission that the US was ceding the market to China. Now, the owners have secured final approval to restart operations, and hope to begin production soon. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Leopard attacks villagers in India (source itnnews)

Mysterious creature found in Nelson County (source wave3)

News & Submissions 12/16/2010

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Celebrating paganism with a winter solstice
A solstice is the celebration of the sun’s rebirth. Every year, Sudbury’s pagan community celebrates a summer and winter solstice, noting the longest and shortest days of the year.

Kristan Cannon-Nixon, one of five organizers who helps run both annual events, said its a way for pagans of all denominations to celebrate their beliefs together, and celebrate the shifting of seasons as it’s happening.

She said it’s “absolutely beautiful” that people who hold varying beliefs can get along at one celebration. Read full story from northernlife.ca

Black Plants and Twilight Zones: New Evidence Prompts Rethinking of Extraterrestrial Life
Astronomers have long searched for a planet that could harbor life outside our solar system. When reports came in earlier this fall of the not too hot, not too cold exoplanet Gliese 581g, it was like the answer to a dream. “If it’s confirmed, I think it’s definitely the planet we’ve been waiting for, for a long time,” says Rory Barnes, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington who wasn’t involved in the research.

The wait may continue for a while. Soon after University of California, Santa Cruz, astronomer Steven Vogt and his collaborators reported the “Goldilocks” exoplanet, a rival Swiss group said it could not find evidence for Gliese 581g in its own data set. Confirming the new find, based on 11 years of subtle and indirect telescope-based measurements, could require several more years. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Why haven’t we found aliens yet?
The question of whether or not we are alone in the galaxy is one that has fascinated everyone from mathematicians to conspiracy theorists.

But, if extra-terrestrial life forms are abundant in the Universe – as some people believe – why have they not been in contact?

From Doctor Who to Superman, ET to Marvin the Martian, fiction has regularly brought aliens to Earth as friends or enemies but, as yet, no-one has proved they have ever seen an alien apart from on film or TV. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

EcoAlert: Ancient 2-8 Million Year-Old Forest Discovered in Canada’s Arctic
Ohio State University researchers and their colleagues have discovered the remains of the northermost  forest buried by a landslide that lived on the island two to eight million years ago, when the Arctic was cooling. The remains could offer clues to how today’s Arctic will respond to global warming.

The Ohio State team believe the trees — and exquisitely preserved – will help them predict how today’s Arctic will respond to global warming. They also believe that many more such forests could emerge across North America as Arctic ice continues to melt. As the wood is exposed and begins to rot, it could release significant amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -and actually aggravate global warming. Read full story from dailygalaxy.com

Lunar eclipse and solstice to overlap
This year’s winter solstice -an event that will occur Tuesday -will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn’t been seen in 456 years.

The reappearance of the celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that is associated with the rebirth of the sun.

“It’s a ritual of transformation from darkness into light,” says Nicole Cooper, a high priestess at Toronto’s Wiccan Church of Canada. “It’s the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation. Read full story from montrealgazette.com

’Tis our season
Some stores no longer put up a tree because they say it represents Christmas and not the whole “holiday season” in general. However this is not completely true, contrary to popular belief. The use of tree and lights began way before the birth of Jesus. Not in any way desecrating Christmas, I’m just shining a candle light on the subject.

The origin of the Christmas tree and lighting up our houses are ancient traditions that date back to more than 4,000 years in Egypt with palm branches celebrating the 12 months of the sun with a 12-day festival during the winter solstice. Evergreens, mistletoe, holly and ivy are the few plants alive during the cold winter months and are ancient symbols of eternal life which gave our ancestors hope for the coming months. Read full story from northjersey.com

Column: Local Mars Hill Church pastor Mark Driscoll bashes yoga and ‘Easternism’
Last fall, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, received national attention for an article he posted on his website arguing that Christians should not practice yoga. His argument was that yoga is rooted in the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Therefore, he believes that practicing yoga is corrupting to people that consider themselves Christians.

I guess you can lump yoga together with religion. However, most people just show up for their one-hour class at the local health club and then go back to their busy lives when it’s over. It is not necessary to debate the merits of Christianity versus another religion because commercialized American ‘yoga’ has hardly any religious significance. Making yoga into the enemy of Christianity is silly and paranoid. Read full story from nwasianweekly.com

Statue ‘Cemetery’ Found Near Egyptian Tomb
Two statuary fragments recently uncovered at the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor. On the left is the head of the baboon god, Hapi, and on the right are the legs of another red granite statue. (Photo: SCA)

Egyptian archaeologists believe they have found a type of cemetery of broken and damaged ancient statues near the northern side of the funerary temple of King Tut’s grandfather on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.

A team excavating the site, which has recently yielded many statues, has unearthed two red granite statue fragments.

One is part of a larger statue of Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of King Tutankhamun, and features two legs. The other is a 2.73-meter (9-foot) high head of the god Hapi. Read full story from discovery.com

A Winter’s Tale: Afghans Take Pride In Turning Away Occupiers
Afghans have a winter tradition that goes back centuries — they put hot coals in a pot under a table and put a quilt over that. It’s called a sandali. Everyone sticks their feet under the blanket and the freezing temperatures don’t seem so bad — as long as you don’t leave the table. Stories help pass the time

“We’d sit around the sandali and my grandfather told stories while we ate raisins and dried mulberries.” says Sayed Mushtaba Frotan, a 54-year-old former guerrilla fighter. Read full story from npr.org

Fish Thought to Be Extinct for 70 Years Rediscovered
In 1940, a hydroelectric dam was constructed in northern Akita Prefecture, Japan. The project, it was known at the time, would destroy the only native habitat of the black kokanee salmon by making the waters too acidic for the fish to survive. Still, developers went ahead with their plans.

A concession was made to protect the species: 100,000 eggs were transported to nearby Lake Saiko. Unfortunately, the transplanted eggs did not hatch and the species quickly became extinct. At least, that’s what was thought.

Now, a new discovery suggests that a small population of kokanee salmon may have survived. Read full story from treehugger.com

Change is afoot for 800-year-old whirling dance (source cnn)

News & Submissions 12/13/2010

Monday, December 13th, 2010

‘I’m Not A Witch’ Picked As Top Quote Of Year
Christine O’Donnell’s TV ad declaration “I’m not a witch” during her U.S. Senate campaign topped this year’s best quotes, according to a Yale University librarian.

O’Donnell’s quote is cited by Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School, who released his fifth annual list of the most notable quotations of the year. In the ad, O’Donnell was responding to reports of her revelations that she had dabbled in witchcraft years ago. Read full story from npr.org

Loch Ness monster ‘seen twice’
Simon Dinsdale, a retired police detective from Essex, insists that the two minute film recorded 50 years ago by his father, a famous Nessie-hunter, is genuine.

The footage, shot by Tim Dinsdale in 1960, is one of the best-known images put forward as evidence by those who insist on the existence of the mysterious creature.

Now the insistence of those who believe in Nessie that the film is genuine has been lent new weight after Mr Dinsdale claimed he had seen the monster with his own eyes on two occasions. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

BP Gulf Spill the #1 Twitter Trend in 2010
There were 25 billion 140-character tweets sent out in 2010, and more of them were concerned with the BP Gulf Spill than any other topic. Twitter has just released its list of the top 10 tweets for 2010, and it’s a pretty interesting blend of pop culture phenomena, world events, and debuting gadgetry. And seeing as how Twitter has grown to be pretty international in its reach and user base, I was a tad surprised to see that the BP spill took the top slot. Here’s how the top trends broke down: Read full story from treehugger.com

Global Warming Mapped
The world is getting warmer. Whether the cause is human activity or natural variability, thermometer readings all around the world have risen steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

According to an ongoing temperature analysis conducted by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about 0.8°Celsius (1.4°Fahrenheit) since 1880. Two-thirds of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15-0.20°C per decade. Read full story from nasa.gov

New Da Vinci mystery discovered in Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci’s 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece has long been steeped in mystery with even today, the true identity of the woman with the alluring smile still far from certain.

The painting also featured in the Dan Brown blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, which was turned into a 2006 film starring Tom Hanks, in which his character interprets secret messages hidden in the Mona Lisa and some of Da Vinci’s other paintings, including The Last Supper.

Now members of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa’s eyes letters and numbers can be seen. Read full story from scotsman.com

Jonathan Horwitz Discusses “Shamanic Inheritance” on December 14 “Why Shamanism Now?” Radio Show
Streaming live on the Co-Creator Radio Network on Tuesday, December 14, at 11 a.m. Pacific time/2 p.m. Eastern time, on her show “Why Shamanism Now?: A Practical Path to Authenticity,” shaman and founder of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt welcomes Jonathan Horwitz, co-founder with Annette Host of the Scandinavian Centre for Shamanic Studies. Horwitz says, “The shaman works by asking for help. We never get anywhere alone. We’re always being helped, although often we do not recognize… The shamanic path is excellent for learning to re-connect with being alive, re-discover the spiritual power we are all born with, and to re-learn what it means to be a part of the whole.” Read full story from pr-canada.net

Lost Civilization May Have Existed Beneath the Persian Gulf
Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggests.

At its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said.

The study, which is detailed in the December issue of the journal Current Anthropology, has broad implications for aspects of human history. For instance, scientists have debated over when early modern humans exited Africa, with dates as early as 125,000 years ago and as recent as 60,000 years ago (the more recent date is the currently accepted paradigm), according to study researcher Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. Read full story from livescience.com

Rooting for swarm intelligence in plants
They’re underfoot and underappreciated. But the roots of a plant may demonstrate the remarkable wisdom of crowds just as swarms of honeybees or humans can.

Three plant scientists now propose that roots growing this way and that in their dark and dangerous soil world may fit a definition for what’s called swarm intelligence. Each tip in a root system acquires information at least partly independently, says plant cell biologist František Baluška of the University of Bonn in Germany. If that information gets processed in interactions with other roots and the whole tangle then solves what might be considered a cognitive problem in a way that a lone root couldn’t, he says, then that would be swarm intelligence. Read full story from sciencenews.org

Now Playing: Geminid Meteor Showers, Year’s Best Sky Show
The annual Geminid shower is about to hit its peak, with anywhere from 60 to 100 meteors zooming across the night sky each hour between midnight tonight and dawn on Tuesday.

The weeklong shower is easily visible to the naked eye and is the best in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Associated Press calls the meteors (or shooting stars) “rocky celestial leftovers.” Earth passes through this stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon, which is considered an extinct comet, every December. Read full story from aolnews.com

Druid leader calls for Judicial Review on excavation of remains
DRUID leader King Arthur Pendragon went to The Royal Courts of Justice in London last week in a bid to see the return of cremated human remains taken from Stonehenge in 2008.

The Senior Druid and Pagan Priest presented a 36-page document asking for a Judicial Review on the decision by the Minister of Justice to grant Sheffield University an extension to retain the remains for five years.

King Arthur said: ‘This is not just a Druid or Pagan issue, and we have the support of thousands of people from all walks of life from nations around the world and all the major faiths, who have signed our petition demanding that the remains be re-interred at what should have been their final resting place. Read full story from salsburyjournal.co.uk

Challenge to Chillicothe council prayer should strengthen, not diminish, faith community
Another year, another civil liberties fight in the Scioto Valley.

Two years ago, a practicing Wiccan who was about to graduate from Southeastern Local Schools asked the district to eliminate the prayer at the graduation ceremony. Prayer went ahead as scheduled, and nothing more was said.

About a month later, it was the city of Greenfield — which had for years begun its city council meetings with a prayer that usually ended with “in Jesus’ name, Amen” — threatened with a lawsuit by The American Civil Liberties Union to stop the prayer. The practice was changed shortly thereafter. Read full story from chillicothegazette.com

Sarah Palin visits Haiti with Christian group (source cnn)

Fox News: Parents Outraged Over School Book Portraying Jesus as a “Socialist”

Fareed Zakaria: Glenn Beck wrong about 10 percent of Muslims being terrorists (source cnn)

News & Submissions 12/04/2010

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

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

Celebrating the solstice
With the changing seasons, another page is turned in the book of time.

It’s the “when” that we think of — seasons past, what’s to come.

But in astronomical terms, as Mr. Steele notes in his wonderful poem, the seasons also fall under the “where” category.

Where our Earth is tilted determines the seasons. At winter solstice, which this year occurs on the evening of Dec. 21, the axis of our planet is tilted the farthest away from the sun. Read full story from thechronicleharold.ca

Misconceptions about voodoo abound
It’s common for people familiar with Haiti to joke that 90 percent of the country’s inhabitants are practicing Catholics, 10 percent practice a Protestant faith and 100 percent practice voodoo.

But the truth is that “voodoo is a very important part of Haitian life. Americans often just dismiss it as superstition or witchcraft,” said University of Kentucky history professor Jeremy Popkin, who teaches a class called “Haiti in the Modern World.” “It is a religion with deep roots in the African beliefs that were brought by slaves” to the Caribbean nation.

Popkin’s class, which includes a section on the religion, grew out of interest in the country that followed the devastating earthquake in January. Popkin, who wrote a book about the 13-year-long Haitian revolution, said his class was formed in response to a talk about the country held on campus after the earthquake. Read full story from kentucky.com

Wooden cross work of vandals at Alaska store
SOLDOTNA, Alaska – A store owner says a wooden cross wrapped to the store sign in Soldotna was an unwelcome act of vandalism that goes against her pagan and spiritual beliefs.

Rondell Gonzalez arrived Thursday at her store, the Pye’ Wackets on the Kenai Spur Highway, and found a makeshift cross about 7 feet tall attached to her business sign with plastic food wrap, the Peninsula Clarion reported. Read full story from adn.com

UFO enthusiasts want to build memorial to ‘fallen aliens’ in Ukraine
In Ukraine, UFO enthusiasts want to build a memorial to “fallen aliens” who have died during their alleged Earthly encounters, the Russia-based news channel RT tells us. Read full story from usatoday.com

WikiLeaks to publish files on aliens, UFOs
LONDON: WikiLeaks will publish more secret US diplomatic files relating to aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), said the founder of the whistleblower website Julian Assange and claimed his life was at risk after the recent expose.

Assange revealed he would publish classified US files about aliens and UFOs.

According to the Daily Mail, none had so far satisfied the twin publishing criteria for WikiLeaks: that the documents are original and not self-authored. Read full story from indiatimes.com

Follow up: Does this answer the question of the ghost child?
After examining bobdezon’s modified photo above it all becomes quite clear….At least to me. Of course there are hard core believers out there that will never be convinced but it’s awfully hard to deny. Bea and Red are right in that it’s getting more and more difficult to pass an authentic picture. Sometimes technology can be a bad thing but it’s not going to stop anytime soon. However something tells me that if there ever was an authentic picture to come along there would be something about it that would indicate authenticity. Of course that’s just my opinion but we have to hold out some sort of hope. Read full story from ghosttheory.com

Ancient Mega-Lake Found in Egyptian Desert
The hyper-arid deserts of western Egypt were once home to a lush mega-lake fed by the Nile River’s earliest annual floods.

Fossil fish and space shuttle radar images have defined the bed and drainage channels of the long lost lake, which at times was larger than Lake Michigan, stretching as far as 250 miles west of the Nile in southwestern Egypt.

The discovery pushes back the origin of the “Gift of the Nile” floods to more than a quarter million years ago and paints a drastically different picture of Egypt’s environment than is seen today. It also explains the longstanding puzzle of the fossilized fish found in the desert — fish that are of the same kinds that live in today’s Nile River. Read full story from discovery.com

Atheist Ad Campaigns Are All the Rage
Atheists have been trying to get out their message, from city bus ads to the recent controversial billboard displayed at the Lincoln Tunnel which prompted a counter-billboard from the Catholic League. The latest: Co-opting rich billionaires into the act. Recently, the Illini Secular Student Alliance (ISSA), at the University of Illinois, launched a bus ad campaign to set the record straight when it comes to the charitable atheists of our world. Read full story from gothamist.com

Cancun talks start with a call to the gods
With United Nations climate negotiators facing an uphill battle to advance their goal of reducing emissions linked to global warming, it’s no surprise that the woman steering the talks appealed to a Mayan goddess Monday.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also “the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you — because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools.” Read full story from washingtonpost.com

Feature: Belief in witchcraft and the effects on human rights
Belief in witchcraft, which dehumanises the vulnerable in society, survives in modern technologically developed cultures and remains a potent factor in most illiterate societies.

It remains widespread in some communities, where witch doctors are believed to wield great power in tribal societies.

In some cases, witchcraft offers an easy explanation to why one person is successful and another is not. Read full story from myjoyonline.com

Research shows spiritual beliefs preserve rainforests
A recent study suggests that indigenous cultural beliefs such as shamanism help to preserve rainforests and their wildlife.

The report is the result of a large body of data collected by scientists along with indigenous Wapishana and Makushi Indians of Guyana who were trained to conduct wildlife population counts. Read full story from survivalinternational.org

David Silverman vs. Fox News Panel (source Fox News)

President Obama’s Hanukkah Celebration (source cnn)

Jay Leno spoofs the Belief Blog (source cnn)

News & Submissions 11/30/2010

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Can Faith Slow Climate Change?
Give us all a reverence for the Earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory.

The prayer was recited regularly by a young Sally Bingham growing up in San Francisco.

Only years later, as an ordained Episcopal Church priest, did Bingham realize something was amiss with the childhood supplication. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Headless Scorpio Seeking Answers
In a past life I was beheaded on the battlefield, and I’m unable to release my hatred towards the man who killed me. That’s the only professional explanation that I’ve received for my chronic upper back pain, and I’m not convinced of its validity. Thus far, my supernatural queries have failed to explain my life, yet I continue to consult the paranormal for answers.

The allure of the occult stems from my interest in explaining the vagaries of the world. My astrologist, Deb, who thankfully is also the chef at my fraternity house, attributes my fascination to the fact that I’m a Scorpio. She also tells me I should date a Pisces. Why a fish and a scorpion make a good combo is beyond me, but she’s my go-to gal for these matters. Read full story from cornellsun.com

Islands fear “end of history” due to climate changes
CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Some low-lying island nations face the “end of history” due to rising sea levels unless the world takes stronger action to slow global warming, a spokesman said at U.N. climate talks on Monday.

Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives were most at risk, said Antonio Monteiro Lima, a delegate of Cape Verde who is vice-chair of the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States. Read full story from Scientificamerican.com

7 Herbal Remedies You Already Have in Your Kitchen (PHOTOS)
Many people have asked me if I eat differently since writing “Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen: Recipes from the East for Health, Healing, and Long Life” with Chinese medicine experts Yuan Wang, L.Ac., and Warren Sheir, L.Ac. The answer is “Yes, but not always in the way you might imagine.”

Some formerly exotic foods have become familiar (Lotus root? Bring it on!), but a larger shift involves the way I look at many of the ingredients that were already on my kitchen shelf.

Here are seven familiar foods and spices that I have come to appreciate for their therapeutic properties in the 3000-year-old East Asian tradition of treating — and preventing — physical ailments through diet. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Stonehenge ‘was built by rolling stones using giant wicker baskets’
It is one of the abiding mysteries of Britain’s Neolithic past.

For all the awe-inspiring wonder of the standing stones at Stonehenge no one has ever worked out how our ancient ancestors were able to heave boulders weighing many tonnes over such huge distances.

But now an engineer and former BBC presenter believes he has come up with a theory which explains how the giant stones were moved.

Garry Lavin believes that the engineers who built Stonehenge used wicker basket-work to ‘roll’ the huge boulders all the way from Wales to their present location. Read full story from dailymail.co.uk

Judge issues permanent injunction on Oklahoma Sharia law ban
A federal judge in Oklahoma has issued an order putting on hold the certification of a ballot measure that forbids state courts from considering or using international laws, as well as Sharia, or Islamic law.

That permanent injunction will allow the judge more time to consider the constitutional issues raised by State Question 755, which was approved by voters earlier this month.

Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange had earlier issued a temporary restraining order in favor of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which had sued to nullify the law completely. Read full story from cnn.com

Gardens: Things to do in December
The leaves are down from the trees now, the light falling to earth for the first time in half a year. We have had frost, even in the microclimate of London, and there is no denying it, winter is with us. There’s a host of jobs to do now that the growing side of things is out of the way, but you need to be strategic over the next few months to work with the weather. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Onondaga Nation faces new environmental threat: Fracking
NEDROW, N.Y. – The Onondaga, a member nation of the Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederacy and long leaders as healers of the environment face a new threat: Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The technique, used for much of today’s natural gas extraction shoots chemicals mixed with millions of gallons of sand and water thousands of feet underground to break apart the rock, allowing more gas to escape and flow out of a well.

Complaints have soared as fracking has expanded across the country. “Every state where this is going on, people’s water is contaminated,” said Joseph Heath, general legal counsel to the Onondaga Nation. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Father Loses Custody of His Children for Being Agnostic (source Live Leak)

News & Submissions 11/04/2010

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Faith in America; The Transformation of Religion
From the gods of ancient Greece to Catholicism, religious beliefs have been very influential in the progression of civilizations. In the modern day, however, it seems as though religion is now very different in terms of people practicing it, and how people are beginning to leave the religion in which they were raised. The morals of religion are, unfortunately, also being left behind as well as more people abandon religion altogether.

The world has many different religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are major faiths that have believers across the globe. In the United States, religion is still a major part of the country’s make-up. Politics surrounding issues such as abortion and gay marriage are directly influenced by teachings of the Church and other religions. However, recent studies show that Americans in the 21st century are now changing the way they recog­nize religion in their lives. Read full story from theskylineview.com

An introduction into the world of Wicca
Massage therapist Star Kenney of Overland Park, Kan., is a witch. She practices the pagan religion of Wicca or witchcraft.

An introduction into the world of Wicca

This conversation took place at the Black Dog Cafe in Lenexa, Kan. Read full story from kansascity.com

Consulate works to restore Dia de los Muertos
In many small towns in Mexico, the main export isn’t the local chocolate, coffee or peppers, but labor.

An event Wednesday evening in Yuba City marked a concept to change that trade deficit, while celebrating both small business and a traditional Mexican observance.

Marta Sol, of the Chiapas state in Mexico, beamed as she used a modern coffeemaker to incorporate Chiapas coffee beans and chocolate to make hot beverages — leavened with spirits — to toast deceased loved ones. Read full story from appeal-democrat.com

Beyond This Mortal Coil
“The traditional celebration of Dia de los Muertos started over 3500 [years] ago by the Aztecs, who practiced a month-long celebration that honored those who had died and welcomed their spirits back to Earth for a visit. During this ritual, they would often display skulls that they had collected as symbols of life, death, and rebirth.” (“Sugar Skulls: History & Significance of Dia de los Muertos [Day of the Dead]” By Karen L. Hudson, About.com.) Read full story from sandiegoreader.com

Atheists: Utah Trooper Crosses “Offensive & Unconstitutional”
I received an email today asking why American Atheists was “attacking” the Utah Highway Patrol Memorial. The email accused American Atheists of having an “issue with honoring fallen Utah peace officers.” It wanted to know why we could not just drive past it and see it as a MONUMENT (their use of caps). The writer then went on to say that it doesn’t matter if the peace officer is Christian, Jewish, Hindu, or atheist: they are just being honored. Read full story from opposingviews.com

My Take: Why I changed from ‘Faith’ to ‘Being’
Since I left print journalism to study theology two decades ago, I’ve thought a great deal about the limits and possibilities of words – especially when we try to navigate the spiritual territory of human life.

And when I started a public radio program on religion, ethics and meaning seven years ago, I was also quite aware that I was inviting people to put words around something as intimate as anything we try to talk about, and as ultimately ineffable. Read full story from cnn.com

Earth will take 100,000 years to recover from global warming say geologists
A conference organised by the Geological Society in London this week will bring together scientists from around the world to look at how the world coped with climate change in the past.

By studying rock sediments from millions of years ago geologists have been able to model how increases in greenhouse gases led to temperature change and extinction of species. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Bel Air leaves in place ban on fortune-telling (source abc2news.com)

News & Submissions 1/26/2010

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Mystery as century-old Swiss watch discovered in ancient tomb sealed for 400 years
Archaeologists are stumped after finding a 100-year-old Swiss watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years ago.

They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant’s funeral. Read more from dialymail.co.uk

Capricology: Television, Tech, and the Sacred
Television’s latest contribution to the cultural intersection of science and religion — with bonus themes to include: the body, artificial intelligence, paganism, original sin, immigration, and race. Join Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed and Henry Jenkins every week as they delve into deep exegesis of Caprica. Read full story from religondispatches.org

Christian school puts financial faith in death
Richard Incandela came to Heritage Christian Schools as a smooth talker selling a creepy product.

In return for recruiting school staff and student relatives to sign up for life insurance policies, naming Heritage as beneficiary, the school was told in 2004 it could reap millions of dollars when the insured people died. The death benefits were meant to help build an endowment and lower tuition to entice more students at a time when enrollment was plummeting. Read full story from jsonline.com

Ghost hunters seek isle’s specters
Members of Southern Paranormal Investigations, equipped with an array of gadgets, went ghost hunting Saturday night in the J.D. Rogers building, 2021 The Strand, which houses Bistro Le Croy.  Read full story from galvestondailynews.com

Austria’s traditional ‘Mullerlauf’ wards off winter demons
Innsbruck, Austria – Austria’s western state of Tyrol is home to the pre-Christian tradition known as the Mullerlauf when men and boys don scary masks with crooked noses and bushy beards to conduct a procession to the sound of rattles and jingle bells in the cold month of February. The Mullerlauf takes place every year in one of the Tyrollean villages of Muehlau, Arzl, Rum, Thaur or Absam close to Innsbruck. These communities are collectively known as the Martha villages and are regarded as the true home of this spectacle that takes place on the eve of Lent. Read full story from earthtimes.org

Pagan Car Protection Charm
As a modern domestic witch a large amount of time can be spent in your car.  There are multiple spells for automobiles: everything from protecting your car from having issues in the snow to quick prayers to get a better parking spot.  Protection spells for your car can be elaborate rituals invoking gods and goddesses, burning herbs and casting circles. There is, however, a very simple charm that you can create to invite a protective spirit to your car, much like inviting a domestic deity into your home. Read full story from examiner.com

Using religious language to fight global warming
If the case for tackling climate change is backed by science, why do so many green campaigners rely on the language of religion? Read full story from news.bbc.co.uk