Noumenal News

02/21/2007 - As I
write, I haven’t seen the Learning Channel’s episode of “My Unique
Family,” the one they called “The Witches Next Door.” I’ve heard quite
a bit of buzz about it, but I have little knowledge of the finished
product.
Oh, wait a minute. I’m in it. That’s me with the clunky
drum set, the “take seventeen” on-the-fly interview, […]

RATIONALISTS beware, Chingford is one of the most haunted places in the country and a ghost may patrol a home or hotel near you.
Disembodied footsteps, a mysterious man on horseback and the ghost
of a woman killed in a hotel fire at the beginning of the last century
are among the phantoms inhabiting the cemeteries, byways and […]

NEW YORK — As Mary Reagan folds her hands in prayer, chanting with her
friends in Japanese, multihued rubber bands hold her short black curls
in eight petite fountains atop her head. A black top tied in a
front-bow adorns her pink knee-length dress, accented by
rainbow-striped stockings.
In many ways, she’s like other
13-year-olds. But Mary is one of thousands […]

WHILE
THE DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED House voted 253-174 to expand federal funding
for embryonic stem-cell research, it fell far short of the 290 votes
needed to override a virtually guaranteed […]

He’s
been making wildlife films for more than 30 years, yet

Mike
Salisbury

says he was surprised to get the
lifetime achievement award at the Wildscreen Festival in Bristol
recently.

“I’m still learning”,
says the most experienced and respected wildlife film-maker of the BBC’s Natural
History Unit, in an interview with

Narayani
Ganesh

[…]

A team of Latvian specialists exploring Egypt’s ancient pyramids have
rediscovered a forgotten column from the Djoser Pyramid in Saqqara,
Egypt. The column had been taken to a Berlin Museum, but went missing
from its collection during World War II bombing.
A team of
Latvian specialists exploring Egypt’s ancient pyramids have
rediscovered a forgotten column from the Djoser Pyramid in Saqqara,
Egypt.
The […]

TRENTON — The American Civil Liberties union is backing a Kearny
High School student who objected when a teacher made religious
statements in the classroom, including allegedly telling students that
those who do not believe Jesus died for their sins belong in hell.
The
student’s lawyers filed a notice of claim on Feb. 13 against the school
district, claiming that instead […]

There is no such thing as a free lunch, some say, but they would be
wrong. In fact, the entirety of the universe defies them. According to
Stanford physics Professor Andrei Linde, one of the architects of the
inflationary theory, our universe (and all the matter in it) was born
out of a vacuum.
“Recent developments in cosmology have irreversibly […]

It may be possible to read a person’s personality through their eyes, Swedish researchers have said.

They have detected patterns which show warm-heartedness and trust or neuroticism and impulsiveness.

The team from Orebro University read pits and lines in the irises of 428 people.

Experts said the study in Biological Psychology showed that at least some aspects […]

Where
Mitt Romney goes to church doesn’t disqualify him for public office:
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution famously declares that “no
religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office
or public Trust under the United States.”
But when the former Massachusetts governor declared his candidacy
for president on Feb. 13, news coverage focused heavily on one […]