Author Archives: marcia

Bodacious Religion Articles fr/THE ONION

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The Onion‘s World Peace-Inducing Religion Reporting (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

HuffPost Religion would like to pay homage to America’s finest Pulitzer-deserving news source: The Onion.

With a finger on the pulse of American and global (dis)belief, The Onion consistently churns out the hard-hittingest, holier-than-thou religion reporting and commentary.

Inspired by the lead story in this week’s print edition (“Vatican Reverses Stance On Gay Marriage After Meeting Tony And Craig“), we decided to compile the best of this paper’s God-centric gab.

It was tough. The Onion‘s archives are an abundant treasure trove of divinely inspired investigation. From getting the scoop on Jesus’ conversion to Islam to exposing the Dalai Lama’s history of violence, there really is no rival to this institution of pristine journalistic integrity.

So without further delay, since the end times are oh so near, here are our favorite religion reports from The Onion.

to check them out, go to:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/19/the-onion-religion-coverage_n_903499.html#s311447&title=Biblical_Armageddon_Must

Health Benefits of Smoking????

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Guy smoking a cigarette

Who says smoking cigarettes is so bad … well, aside from the World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and every medical board and association on the face of the Earth?

But should smokers be fortunate enough to dodge all that cancer, heart disease, emphysema and the like, they will be uniquely protected — for reasons unexplained by science — against a handful of diseases and afflictions.

Call it a silver lining in their otherwise blackened lungs. Although long-term smokingis largely a ticket to early death, here are (gulp) five possible benefits from smoking. Breathe deep.

to read more, go to:    http://www.livescience.com/15115-5-health-benefits-smoking-disease.html

 

Knights in Shining Armor….Oh, My

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Heavy Metal: Armor Drained Medieval Knights’ Energy

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 19 July 2011 Time: 07:01 PM ET
Armor locomotion
At the gym: A modern re-enactor walks on a treadmill in a full suit of 15th century armor.
CREDIT: Graham Askew, University of Leeds

As if flying arrows and burning pitch weren’t enough to worry about, medieval knights also had to battle their own armor.

A new study that put armor-wearing volunteers on treadmills finds that wearing a full suit of armor (which might weigh up to 110 pounds, or 50 kilograms), takes more than twice the energy of walking around unencumbered. Even lugging around a backpack of equal weight is less energy-intensive than wearing armor, the study found, because wearing 17 pounds (8 kg) of steel plates on each leg requires no small amount of extra exertion.

On occasion, armor’s weight may have turned the tides of battles, said lead study researcher Graham Askew of the University of Leeds. In 1415, heavily armored French knights advanced across a muddy field toward a lightly armored English force in the Battle of Agincourt.

to read more, go to:    http://www.livescience.com/15128-armor-drained-medieval-knight-energy.html

Fewer Aphids Found in Organically Farmed Fields

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Fewer Aphids in Organic Crop Fields, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2011) — Farmers who spray insecticides against aphids as a preventative measure only achieve a short-term effect with this method. In the long term, their fields will end up with even more aphids than untreated fields. This has been reported by researchers at the Biocenter of the University of Würzburg in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

What’s the status of the biodiversity in differently managed triticale fields? This is what the biologists at the Department of Animal Ecology & Tropical Biology wanted to find out. Triticale is a cross between wheat and rye. The cultivation of this crop is on the rise across the globe, because it delivers good yields even in poor soil conditions.

When comparing conventionally managed crop fields, which were either sprayed with insecticides or were left untreated, Jochen Krauss, Iris Gallenberger and Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter made a discovery, which should catch the attention of every farmer: “According to our results, the preventative application of insecticides against aphids does not produce any advantages even though it consumes a lot of time and money,” Jochen Krauss sums up.

to read more, go to:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110713101944.htm

 

Episodic Memory Linking

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Neural Signature of ‘Mental Time Travel’: Memories Formed in the Same Context Become Linked, Evidence Shows

The research was conducted by professor Michael Kahana of the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences and graduate student Jeremy R. Manning, of the Neuroscience Graduate Group in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. They collaborated with Gordon Baltuch and Brian Litt of the departments of Neurology and Psychology at the medical school and Sean M. Polyn of Vanderbilt University.

Their research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Theories of episodic memory suggest that when I remember an event, I retrieve its earlier context and make it part of my present context,” Kahana said. “When I remember my grandmother, for example, I pull back all sorts of associations of a different time and place in my life; I’m also remembering living in Detroit and her Hungarian cooking. It’s like mental time travel. I jump back in time to the past, but I’m still grounded in the present.”

to read more, go to:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110718171359.htm

Number of Verbs & Nouns As Indicators of Stock Market Trends?

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Fewer Verbs and Nouns in Financial Reporting Could Predict Stock Market Bubble, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (July 19, 2011) — When the language used by financial analysts and reporters becomes increasingly similar the stock market may be overheated, say scientists.

After examining 18,000 online articles published by the Financial Times, The New York Times, and the BBC, computer scientists have discovered that the verbs and nouns used by financial commentators converge in a ‘herd-like’ fashion in the lead up to a stock market bubble. Immediately afterwards, the language disperses.

The findings presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Barcelona, Spain, on July 19, 2011, show that the trends in the use of words by financial journalists correlate closely with changes in the leading stock indices.

“Our analysis shows that trends in the use of words by financial journalists correlate closely with changes in the leading stock indices — the DJI, the NIKKEI-225, and FTSE-100,” says Professor Mark Keane, Chair of Computer Science in University College Dublin, who was involved in the research.

to read more, go to:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110718101202.htm

Indonesia’s Mt. Lokon Erupts Twice

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Double eruption at Indonesia volcano: vulcanologist

(AFP) – 1 day ago

JAKARTA — An Indonesian volcano erupted twice on Monday following its biggest eruption in weeks over the weekend, a government vulcanologist said, forcing people to remain in safety shelters.

“The two eruptions happened within ten minutes which sent a column of ash and smoke up to 600 metres (1,968 feet) into the air,” government vulcanologist Freddy Korompis told AFP from a monitoring post.

The 1,580-metre Mount Lokon experienced its biggest eruption on Sunday with huge clouds of ash propelled 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) into the sky.

to read more, go to:    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iHkNq8gxx0wagcaNfO8iGj8m1-wA?docId=CNG.632dd3dcc1a56a277155541c2c08b556.91

Haboob Strikes Phoenix Again

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Wall of dust known as a ‘Haboob’ strikes Phoenix again

Published on July 18, 2011 6:30 pm PT
– By Dave Tole – Writer
– Article Editor and Approved – Ron Jackson


No larger image

(TheWeatherSpace.com) — Reports are pouring into TheWeatherSpace.com of yet another dust storm in Downtown Phoenix.

Storms formed southeast of the area between Phoenix and Tucson this afternoon. These moved northwest and took a similar track as the last ones.

to read more and see the video, go to:    http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-07_18_2011_haboob.html

Thomas Berry Quote

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It was an early afternoon in May when I first wandered down the incline, crossed the creek, and looked out over the scene. The field was covered with white lilies rising above the thick grass. A magic moment, this experience gave to my life something that seems to explain my life at a…profound level. It was not only the lilies. It was the singing of the crickets and the woodlands in the distance and the clouds in a clear sky…

…This early experience… has become normative for me throughout the entire range of my thinking. Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good, what is opposed to this meadow or negates it is not good…

That is good in economics fosters the natural processes of this meadow. So in jurisprudence, law, and political affairs—that is good which recognizes the rights of this meadow and the creek and the woodlands to exist and flourish in the ever-renewing seasonal expression.

– from The Great Work

to find out more about the works of Thomas Berry, go to:    http://www.thomasberry.org/Biography/

And in response to “What does the earth desire?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUnvd9hhpyE&feature=related

 

 

Manhattanhenge????

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Just what is Manhattanhenge?

By Virginia BrownBBC News Magazine

Sun setting

New Yorkers have witnessed an urban solar phenomenon, with the Sun setting in alignment with the city’s skyscrapers and giving an effect fans say is reminiscent of Wiltshire’s Stonehenge. Welcome to Manhattanhenge.

Twice every year amateur photographers gather in carefully-selected spots to set up tripods and wait to capture the ultimate sunset.

On Wednesday night at 2025 local time (0125 BST), the east-west lying streets of the city’s famous grid system neatly framed the setting sun, creating golden glows New Yorkers rarely see.

During the phenomenon, the Sun appears to be nestled perfectly between the skyscraper corridors, illuminating the north and south sides of the streets.

to read more, go to:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14150550