Fossils foot bones hint at mystery walker Scientists have obtained a fascinating new insight into the evolution of humans and our ability to walk.
It comes from the fossilised bones of a foot that were discovered in Ethiopia and dated to be 3.4 million years old.
The researchers say they do not have enough remains to identify the species of hominin, or human ancestor, from which the right foot came.
UNITING PEOPLE TO PROTECT THE PLANET Earth Hour 2012: Saturday 31st March, 8:30PM
Earth Hour is a unique opportunity for you to become more sustainable and do something positive for the environment. It’s been the source of inspiration for millions of people taking steps towards a cleaner, safer future. It’s not just about saving energy for one hour, it’s about going Beyond the Hour with lasting, behaviour-changing actions for a sustainable planet.
Interview with Author Dorothy Morrison Dorothy Morrison is the author of a number of books on Wicca and Paganism, including the brand new Utterly Wicked. Dorothy was able to take some time out from her busy tour schedules to answer a few questions for About.com.
Accepting death is difficult for patients and doctors, but it needs to be done My 64-year-old patient with terminal cancer and less than six months to live wanted to go to Oregon. He was contemplating assisted suicide, which is legal there. “My life has been long and good,” he said. “I believe it is my right. I want the ability to say it’s too much, I can’t do it anymore. A person should have a dignified quality of life.”
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
The Biggest Logic Fails in The Vampire Diaries Season 3, Episode 2: “The Hybrid” The Vampire Diaries is a show where witches can bring back people from the dead, vampires kiss humans instead of ripping their throats out, and werewolves have silky smooth chests when they haven’t transformed. And we accept all of this without the blink of the eye. Yet it’s the little things that make us scoff and say, “that would never happen.” Check out the biggest logic fails from Season 3, Episode 2, “The Hybrid.” Read full story from wetpaint.com
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
Friends honor Wiccan with Halloween burial
BARNEVELD — On a warm, sunny Halloween day, a group of 20 people drove up a rural road at Circle Sanctuary, a nature-based pagan church and ecological preserve here, to spread and inter the ashes of one of their own.
Bruce Parsons, of Milwaukee, who identified as a Wiccan or pagan, died in June at age 63, but his Circle Sanctuary ceremony was held Sunday afternoon, coinciding with the sanctuary’s green cemetery dedication. Read full story from madison.com
Lifestyle?
Pagan Lifestyle? Christian Lifestyle? Gay Lifestyle? Heterosexual lifestyle? Hippy Lifestyle? Green Lifestyle?
Huh?
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t have a ’lifestyle’, I LIVE a LIFE. No, not just A life, I live MY life. Read full story from fernsfrondblogpost.com
Anglesey Druids open book of the dead for Halloween
They will be holding a mourning tea at Glynllifon Mansion, Llandwrog, near Caernarfon, on Saturday to remember and celebrate loved ones who have died.
Witch Direction: The group for Leeds pagans
I’m proud of Witch Direction and the way we have grown stronger together over time.
The group used to be called the Leeds Pagan Moot before I took it over about a year ago. Read full story from yorkshireeveningpost.com
Alabama Wiccans find faith in nature
What do most students think of when they think of witches? Harry Potter? Halloween? “Hocus Pocus?”
Instead of thinking of fictional characters or a secular holiday, there is a more serious religious ideology that can be associated with the word witch. A number of Alabama citizens and local Tuscaloosa and Birmingham residents practice paganism or Wicca, which is a neo-pagan religion. Read full story from cw.ua.edu
Rise in paganism in Southeast Valley mirrors U.S. trend
Advocates of paganism say it is on the rise in the “Southeast Valley, mirroring a nationwide trend of growth in nature-based religions. Many local followers have been celebrating their beliefs and seeking the same acceptance and respect as any other religion. Read full story from azcentral.com
Michigan Woman Faces Civil Rights Complaint for Seeking a Christian Roommate
A civil rights complaint has been filed against a woman in Grand Rapids, Mich., who posted an advertisement at her church last July seeking a Christian roommate.