Paranormal news::Articles
The European brown bear's love of electricity and telegraph poles is helping scientists gain new insights into its behaviour.
Are colored eggs Pagan or Christian?
Image © Getty Images
While there's a lot of discussion in the Pagan community about where the idea of coloring eggs actually came from, in scholarly circles things seem pretty clear. Despite the image of our pre-Christian European ancestors frolicking on an egg hunt in the forest -- and one well-known Wiccan author's tale about a frisky rabbit and the goddess Eostre -- it looks like in Europe, colored eggs didn't come along until after Christianity moved in. However, in Persia, eggs have been painted for thousands of years as part of the spring celebration of No Ruz, which is the Zoroastrian new year. Learn more about the origins of the Easter egg, and then color your own Ostara eggs with natural dyes!
Don't forget to sign up for the free Seven Day Ostara Class!
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook.
Ostara Countdown: Are Easter Eggs Pagan? originally appeared on About.com Paganism / Wiccan on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 06:40:29.
A woman who lives in a remote Georgian village is claiming to be the world's oldest person at 130 years old. Antisa Khvichava claims she was born in ...
The cursed bread of Pont-Saint-Esprit 50 years ago has turned out to have been a CIA mind control experiment. It happened in 1951, a quiet little vill...
The Chinese space agency are planning several new endeavours in the near future including their own space station. The first module of their Tiangong ...
This past week, I saw an unusually large number of sightings from California. I have selected four of them for your review this week. Our first one is from a man who saw a strange light formation through his binoculars. Our second report comes from two witnesses who saw something strange while watching planes take off from an airport.
Our next report is from a woman who was startled when she saw a bright light come from the sky outside her window. A motorist files our last report. He saw a small, silver object while crossing the Richmond / San Rafael bridge.
See all of the details of these reports at href="http://ufos.about.com/od/sightingreports2010/a/sightings031110.htm"> UFO Sighting Reports, 03-11-10, and comment as you wish. Don't forget to keep your eyes on the skies.
UFO Sighting Reports originally appeared on About.com UFOs / Aliens on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 03:44:51.
The UN secretary general asks the world's leading science academies to review the UN's climate science body.
There's an ongoing debate about the powers and realities of the Ouija board. Essentially, there are three basic positions:
• It is inherently dangerous, can open portals to evil entities and should never be used.
• It is only dangerous if used with evil intent, but can be a useful tool for spirit mediumship if used properly and with good intent.
• It is inherently harmless and has no real powers of mediumship for good or evil; its effects, if any, are only psychological in nature.
Readers Respond: Is the Ouija board a harmless toy or dangerous portal?
The Ouija Debate originally appeared on About.com Paranormal Phenomena on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 21:00:04.
EU nations decide to support a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna until stocks recover.
Mystery surrounds the deaths of 75 starlings which fell from the sky on to the driveway of a Somerset house.
For those of you who dig archaeology as much as I do, there's a nifty find from the island of Crete. Last summer's excavation of a tomb at Orthi Petra has revealed, according to experts, the tomb of a high priestess of Zeus and three acolytes. Archaeologist Nicholas Stampolidis and his team date the graves to 2,700 years ago. Eti Bonn-Muller of Archaeology magazines says "People then may have considered them sorceresses, or intermediaries with the gods." What's really interesting, to me at least, is that these four women all appear to be related, and seem to be related to other women whose remains have been found at the site in graves spanning two centuries or more. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "family tradition."
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook.
Priestess' Tomb Unearthed in Crete originally appeared on About.com Paganism / Wiccan on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 16:25:03.
A selection of yesterday's headlines from the right-wing blogosphere:
"Now Obama Wants to Ban Sport Fishing."
"Obama Administration to Ban U.S. Citizens Fishing."
"White House Ignores Public Input, Proceeds to Limit U.S. Citizens' Fishing Access."
"Obama to Ban Fishing? What Next?"
What next, indeed. Here's what really happened:
Last month, per announced schedule, an Obama administration task force charged with developing a comprehensive plan for managing U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems stopped taking public input so it could prepare its final report.
In an op-ed piece published yesterday, ESPNOutdoors.com columnist Robert Montgomery characterized that development as follows: "The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters" (emphasis added).
Apocalyptic doomsaying ensued.
The trouble is, while it's true that the plan could impose restrictions on commercial or recreational fishing in some places, there have been no specific proposals to do so to date, and not a shred of evidence that the plan might include an outright "ban" on fishing (see the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force's interim report, released last September).
The real thrust of Montgomery's column is that sport fishermen need to speak up for their rights before the plan is adopted to ensure no such thing happens. Fair enough. In the meantime, we can do without any more works of fiction on the order of "Obama to Propose Ban on Sport Fishing."
Update:
• ESPNOutdoors.com Editor Admits 'Errors,' Says Column Wasn't 'Properly Balanced'
Read more about it:
• Public Input Period for Federal Fishery Strategy Has Ended
• Fishermen's Fear: Public's 'Right to Fish' Shifting Under Obama?
• ESPN Scaremongering: Obama to Ban Fishing?
• The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force
Rumor: Obama Bans Sport Fishing in America originally appeared on About.com Urban Legends on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 15:46:06.
Environmentalists and the EU lock horns over biofuels
The science spokesmen of the three main political parties cross swords on the issue of UK research funding.
The largest meat-eating plant in the world is designed not to eat small animals, but small animal poo, scientists discover.