RSS Feed - Nest Posts - Past 48 Hours http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_thismoon.html http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21839 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21839 Scientists have unearthed an almost perfectly preserved spider fossil in China dating back to the middle Jurassic era, 165 million years ago. The fossilized spiders, Eoplectreurys gertschi, are older than the only two other specimens known by around 120 million years. The level of detail preserved in the fossils is amazing, said paleontologist Paul Selden of the University of Kansas and lead au http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21838 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21838 Why, in their past lives, was everybody a princess or mighty warrior? Didn't anybody dig ditches in the ancient world? Who took out the garbage? Who fed the elephants? Despite these quibbles, reincarnation has many attractions as an idea: it offers us another spin of the wheel; it puts punishment or reward for our deeds into a more credible landscape than the flames or the clouds; it simplifies th http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21837 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21837 Margot Adler, an author and correspondent for National Public Radio, will lecture about paganism in America at 8 p.m. next Tuesday at the Long Theatre at University of the Pacific. Adler is a practicing Wiccan. She is author of "Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today," a book considered by scholars to be an authoritative guide. Her most re http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21836 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21836 The horrific destruction and human suffering in Haiti exert an almost irresistible pull on U.S. Christian missionaries eager to help. But as the jailing last week of 10 missionaries from a small Baptist church in Idaho illustrates, best intentions don’t always translate into good deeds in the chaotic aftermath of the monster earthquake. Many mission groups provide essential services for Haitian http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21835 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21835 Angel Perez leans on the counter in his botanica and listens intently as a tall blond woman tells him how she just lost her job - and her sense of purpose. Perez's Botanica Maria sits on Fifth Street in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia, between a laundromat and a pizza shop. The narrow, dimly lit store is stuffed with candles of various colors for various things, like red for love, ye http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21834 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21834 Two billboards, in Hillsborough County near Fowler Avenue and 17th Street and in Pinellas County near Ulmerton Road and U.S. 19, are the latest in a publicity blitz over religion. They are part of a national advertising campaign by the United Coalition of Reason. A group representing people who do not believe in God or any gods has revved up an awareness campaign in Hillsborough and Pinellas co http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21833 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21833 In a small house in Coeur d’Alene, 89-year-old Sid Rosen lives out his sunset years going through his life’s mementos. Tucked away in a box, the World War II veteran finds two small, dog-eared photographs of anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on his Coeur d’Alene restaurant in 1980. The vandalism – which still angers Rosen, his son says – was one of the first in a series of incidents that led to creati http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21832 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21832 The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes. FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users' "origin and destination information," a bureau attorney said at a federal task force me http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21831 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21831 A decades-old law banning teachers from wearing religious clothing in public classrooms received vigorous debate Friday during a public hearing on the 1923 law. Democrats are leading the charge to lift the ban because they say it is unconstitutional and discriminatory. In a move to make their proposed law more palatable to critics of repealing the ban, Democratic lawmakers recently added an ame http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21830 http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=21830 A pink version of the popular Ouija board game has some critics seeing red. The children's sleepover staple — sold by Hasbro since 1967 — now comes in hot pink, an edition released two years ago that gets tweens to call on "spirits" to spell out answers to life's pressing questions. It's designed for young girls ages 8 and older, but some say the mysterious product is a "dangerous spiritual