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POPSDurga Puja is coming up. Swami Sivananda says: do not sacrifice animals for Devi Commentary from Swami Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life society, on the observance of Durga Puja. Traditionally, animal sacrifice has often been a part of the ritual, but Sivananda declares this a violation of the principle of ahimsa, which is binding on all Hindus no matter what caste, jati, or situation they belong to. An interesting example of second-order discourse in contemporary non-Western religion.
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POPSThe Strangest Things Pulled Out of Peat Bogs more: Murder wasn’t all that happened out on the bogs. Multiple trepanated skulls, that is to say, skulls with holes drilled in them, have been found. Based on the use of the procedure in medieval times, one hypothesis is that the “operation may have been performed to remove a blood clot or a less-tangible thing like a spirit” from an individual. Even now, there’s still a small number of people who think drilling holes in their skulls is therapeutic. While we don’t know much about the people who wandered these bogs thousands of years ago, analytical chemistry has helped identify substances that make them seem startlingly modern.One corpse’s hair appears to have been coated with primitive hair gel, made from “vegetable oil mixed with resin from pine trees found in Spain and southwest France.” The man lived around 300 B.C.
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POPSTexas will Execute 10 Men in 30 days This is the worst place of the free world for execution, this is not just the worst place for America," he said of Texas. Before the state revised such laws in 2001, a defendant could be represented by a divorce lawyer with no experience in criminal prosecutions, and judges were not required to instruct juries of alternative punishments such as life in prison without parole, he said. Nine of the 10 to die this month were sentenced before 2001. Mr Halperin claimed "judges are very happy to get rid of these people as quickly as possible." He described a sort of year-end catch-up
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POPSDid the devil make him do it? The parents of a schoolby charged with kipping a fellow pupil said that he was "into satanism", as did some newspaper headlines. The trouble is, these allegations are tossed about, but never followed up. There were similar reports a few months ago in the Eastern Cape, but we have heard no more.
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POPS7 Terrible Abuses Suffered By Women Around The World Barbaric - we have no right to call ourselves developed nations of the 21st century until such scourges are removed from the face of this earth forever and those guilty of these heinous crimes are severely punished. I ask what 'honor' do people speak of when they treat women so degradingly?!
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POPSVikings acquitted in 100-year-old murder mystery The discovery of the ornate Oseberg oak longboat in south Norway, with a curling prow and the bodies of two women, was one of the archaeological sensations of the early 20th century The old woman suffered from Morgagni's syndrome, a hormonal disturbance that gave her a man-like appearance with a beard and a thick-set body
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POPSWitchcraft-related crimes
The recent arrest and appearance in court of three men accused of ritual killings in the Eastern Cape has highlighted the problem of so-called muti murders, one of which is that they are rarely highlighted. In another country one or two murders would be sensational. Eighteen murders in a small town within a few months should rival the Virginia Tech killings in the USA for newsworthiness -- at least in South Africa. But no, things like the Virginia Tech killings got more coverage in the South African media than serial killings in our own back yard. Why is this? Is it because many of the Virginia Tech victims were white, and the Mzamba victims were black? Are deaths of white people more newsworthy than the deaths of black people? And what happens to these case? So often it is reported that someone has been murdered, and that muti killing is suspected, and then no more is heard. If someone charged, that may be reported, and no more is heard. Is anyone ever convicted?
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POPSSchool’s shock over killings suspect There have been ritual killings before, to use human body parts for muti, but the scale of these killings goes far beyond most reported cases - 18 killings in a village within five months!
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POPSMurderer's Mother Blames Videogames for Sons's Actions It is staggering the lengths people will go to lay blame elsewhere. I knew he was playing the video games but we didn't really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were. Indifference to your child's activities cannot be blamed on an entertainment medium. he donned a long dark wig, sunglasses and jacket from the ‘killing kit' he had spent 10 months amassing on eBay. He then headed out with a large hunting knife. and police discovered that, before the murder, Harling spent days on the internet talking to paedophiles and researching serial killers So the internet supplied the research and the materials, where is the outrage against the internet? "Stuart never gave us any reason to think he was violent at all. He was a very normal boy—quiet and reserved. Except that he was playing violent games and the using the internet to research serial killers and purchasing the equipment necessary to mimic them
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POPS'Adults are denied the right to marry by choice' "Although such traditions seem to have moved out of urban towns and cities, the strictly rural areas, or far flung places where the enforcement of law and police is no more than a joke - where police officials themselves bow their heads in front of the potent wadero (chieftain of a rural tribe) - the tradition of honour killing is still on the rise and little concern, if any at all, has been shown by the governments of Pakistan on the issue."
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