11 Nov 2009
Day of the Skulls

A fascinating look at how the church fights, wrestles with and eventually tries to subsume native beliefs, in this case ancestor worship. One has to wonder how much of this same process happened all over Europe a thousand years ago.

Ancient rituals and Catholic belief collide in Bolivia

(link) [BBC News]

19:28 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Heart of the Milky Way Photos From NASA

A really, really spectacular shot ...

PBH submitted a link to a really amazing composite image of the Milky Way released by NASA. They combined infra red, visible, and x-ray images taken by Spitzer, Hubble, and Chandra to create one beautiful image to commemorate the 400 years since 1609, when Galileo looked up.

(link) [Slashdot]

19:22 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Stressed?

Here's a formula for a do it yourself mash up ... brownies, anyone?

The "chocolate cure" for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.

(link)

Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a new study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department of Psychology. The study, carried out by research student Eti Ganon-Elazar under the supervision of Dr. Irit Akirav, was published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience.

(link) [both stories via EurekAlert!]

19:19 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link