Deepak Chopra: Letter to Sean Hannity of Fox News

"I sent the following letter to Sean Hannity recently in response to his misrepresentation of what I said on his show regarding the Mumbai terrorist attacks. I have not received any response back from him. Today I read it aloud on my Sirius-XM radio program and am now making it public here as well."

Read Deepak's letter

1 December 2008 - World Aids Day

More people than ever before are living with HIV in the UK and new infections continue. HIV is a serious long-term condition and people living with HIV often face discrimination. Whatever your HIV status, there is a role you can play in ending HIV prejudice and stopping the spread of HIV.

The UK theme for World AIDS Day 2008, "Respect & Protect", is inspired by the UNAIDS and World AIDS Campaign ongoing international theme, 'Leadership'. The international theme is developed as an overall theme which each country is encouraged to adapt to suit more specific issues around the epidemic in their region.

For more information go to World Aids Day

Advent - Sunday 30 November 2008

The Christian church year begins with Advent (from the Latin adventus meaning "coming" or "arrival") which is also a time when Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Advent begins on the Sunday nearest November 30 (St. Andrew's Day) and lasts until Christmas Eve. The progression of Advent may be marked with an Advent calendar reckoning Advent to start on 1 December, a practice introduced by German Lutherans.
More information can be found at Wikipedia

St Andrew's Day

Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, Greece and Russia and was Christ's first disciple.

In Greek Andrew means 'manly'. St. Andrew's biographical details are simple: he was born between AD 5 and AD 10 in Bethsaida, the principal fishing port of Palestine. His parents were Jona and Joanna; his brother was Simon. Jona, along with his business-partner and friend Zebedee and his sons James and John, was a fisherman.

Andrew had a strong sense of curiosity. He would have gone to the synagogue school at the age of five to study scripture and then astronomy and arithmetic.
Continues at BBC online

What's it like living next door to a neighbourhood witch?

Mail Online

You'd think milkmen would be used to pre-dawn doorstep encounters with all manner of 'unconventional' folk, wouldn't you? Well, not in leafy Dorchester.

Grandmother Suky Burton roars with laughter as she remembers the day she and the man who delivers the pints locked eyes in a moonlit driveway.

'It was the early hours and I'd been to a ceremony at Stonehenge. Normally, I'd change out of my robes before coming home, but it was cold, so I didn't bother.

The milkman took one terrified look at me and scuttled off to his milk float as fast as his legs could carry him. I've never seen one of those vehicles move so quickly. He'd obviously never seen a witch before.'
Full Article

10 things fungi have done for us

BBC News

Mycologists are a rare breed, and scientists worry the UK will miss out lucrative fungi-based discoveries. Like what?

Mushroom risotto. And umbrellas for fairies. Obviously fry-ups, which go without saying. But apart from these, what have fungi ever given us?

All manner of discoveries, says Peter Roberts, of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, such as:
Full Article

William Blake - Happy Birthday

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker.

On Another's Sorrow

Can I see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too.
Can I see anothers grief,
And not seek for kind relief.

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrows share,
Can a father see his child,
Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd.

Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan an infant fear --
No no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small birds grief & care,
Hear the woes that infants bear --

And not sit beside the nest
Pouring pity in their breast.
And not sit the cradle near
Weeping tear on infants tear.

And not sit both night & day,
Wiping all our tears away.
O! no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

He doth give his joy to all.
He becomes an infant small.
He becomes a man of woe
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not, thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy maker is not by.
Think not, thou canst weep a tear,
And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy,
That our grief he may destroy
Till our grief is fled & gone
He doth sit by us and moan
~ by William Blake

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

'Buddha's skull' found in Nanjing

The Telegraph
Chinese archaeologists have claimed that a 1,000-year-old miniature pagoda, unearthed in Nanjing, holds a piece of skull belonging to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.

The pagoda was wedged tightly inside an iron case that was discovered at the site of a former temple in the city in August.

The four-storey pagoda, which is almost four feet high and one-and-a-half feet wide, is thought by archaeologists to be one of the 84,000 pagodas commissioned by Ashoka the Great in the second century BC to house the remains of the Buddha.

Ashoka, one of India's greatest emperors, converted to Buddhism after waging a bloody war in the eastern state of Orissa. He is widely credited with spreading Buddhism throughout Asia, and across his kingdom, which stretched from Pakistan through Afghanistan and into Iran.

The pagoda found in Nanjing is crafted from wood, gilded with silver and inlaid with gold, coloured glass and amber. It matches a description of another of Ashoka's pagodas which used to be housed underneath the Changgan Buddhist temple in Nanjing.

A description of the contents of the pagoda was also found: a gold coffin bearing part of Buddha's skull inside a silver box. Although scans have confirmed that there are two small metal boxes inside the pagoda, experts have not yet peered inside. The pagoda is currently on display in the museum.

Qi Haining, the head of archaeology at Nanjing Museum, told state media: "This pagoda may be unique, the only one known to contain parts of Buddha's skull".
Full Article

St Catherine's Day

Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael, c. 1507

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is a Christian saint and martyr who is claimed to have been a noted scholar in the early 4th century. She is believed to have been born in Alexandria of a noble family and converted to Christianity through a vision.

In the beginning of the fifteenth century, St. Catherine's was one of the voices heard by St. Joan of Arc.

Considered to be the Patron Saint of:

apologists; craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters, spinners, etc.); archivists; attornies; barristers; dying people; educators; girls; jurists; knife grinders; knife sharpeners; lawyers; librarians; libraries; maidens; mechanics; millers; nurses; old maids; philosophers; potters; preachers; scholars; schoolchildren; scribes; secretaries; spinners; spinsters; stenographers; students; tanners; teachers; theologians; turners; University of Paris; unmarried girls; wheelwrights