Nevada lithium mine leads to 'green colonialism' accusations
The rush to mine lithium for car batteries is dividing environmental and native American communities.
2023-10-08 11:19
An all girls cricket team in India breaks with tradition
A coach in a small village in Punjab state is training young girls to give them shot at a sports career.
2023-10-08 05:54
Spain's PLD Space launches private rocket in milestone for Europe
By Graham Keeley and Tim Hepher MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish company PLD Space launched its recoverable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday
2023-10-08 00:51
Scholar dedicated his career to arguing that Jesus was a hallucinogenic mushroom
Since the 1960s, one scholar has dedicated his career to arguing that Jesus was not a living man, but in fact a mushroom. John Marco Allegro was one of the first scholars permitted to decipher the ancient documents now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that were discovered in 1947 in the Judean Desert. They contained the oldest surviving versions of books that would later be incorporated into the biblical canon. Allegro and his colleagues were the first to go about making sense of the documents, as they were obviously discovered untranslated, eventually publishing the texts after hard work and disagreements. Allegro then went on to write two more books on the subject in 1958, The Dead Sea Scrolls and The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which remain extremely influential. Then in 1970 and again in 1979, Allegro published two more books. These expanded on his idea that Christianity was a cover for a secret cryptic sex cult generated by people under the influence of Amanita muscaria, more commonly known as Fly agaric. And that Jesus was a metaphor for the fungus and its influences. Using etymology, Allegro argued that early Christianity was created by an Essene cult that recorded their practices through the texts of the New Testament. And that evangelists misunderstood the text's true meaning when they transcribed it. There was never a man called Jesus, only a cult that used mushrooms to have hallucinations. He also argued that the God of the Old Testament was "a mighty penis in the heavens who in a thunderous climax of the storm ejaculated semen upon the furrows of Mother Earth." Allegro's views were not well received, with some believing he created the argument as revenge against Christian critics who dismissed his earlier translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whilst some believed he just ran away with the wrong idea. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-10-08 00:22
FTX’s Final, Frantic Days Through the Lens of a Bankman-Fried Insider
Standing outside the Bahamas Securities Commission, Gary Wang watched Sam Bankman-Fried and his father, Joseph Bankman, walk inside.
2023-10-07 22:22
India tells X, YouTube, Telegram to remove any child sexual abuse material
MUMBAI (Reuters) -India has sent notices to social media platforms X, formerly known as Twitter, YouTube and Telegram asking them
2023-10-07 18:50
Ange Postecoglou shoots down Jurgen Klopp's replay request over VAR error
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou rejects Jurgen Klopp's calls for a replay over a VAR error in Tottenham's 2-1 win over Liverpool.
2023-10-07 16:58
Orcas have been bullying porpoises for years – and scientists are baffled
An orcas diet consists of Chinook salmon and can eat up to two dozen fish a day - so why is it that the killer whales like to bully porpoises despite them not being part of their diet? That's the question which has left scientists scratching their heads, as the study published in Marine Mammal Science seeks to add further understanding to this subject. Around 78 cases of orcas targeting porpoises were noted by researchers from the UK, USA and Canada. It was said to be happening in the Salish Sea (located in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington). Some of the orcas' bullying tactics include pushing the porpoise along with their nose, holding the porpoise in their mouth, balancing the porpoise above water, slapping the porpoise with their tail, and raking the porpoise with their teeth, according to Science Alert. Killer whales also use porpoises as playthings as they catch them before letting them and proceeding to chase them once more - and they even play toss them around in a 'pass the porpoise' game, say whale watchers. That's some textbook tormenting. Out of these sightings, 28 of them have ended in the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) or a Dall's porpoise being suspected to have been killed, though there's no record of the porpoises being eaten by the orcas. In terms of size, the porpoise is said to be fairly small being a similar size to a Chinook salmon - a large fish species that can grow up to 1.5 meters (5 feet). There are three theories that have been considered by the experts. Firstly, the bullying is all about creating coordination, and cohesion within the group of orcas, or alternatively that the orcas do this as a form of hunting practice. The final theory is that orcas could be trying to look after weak porpoises as if they were their own aka 'displaced epimeletic behaviour.' This mismothering behaviour – also known as 'displaced epimeletic behaviour' to scientists – might be due to their limited opportunities to look after youngsters as the stat shows. "Our research has shown that due to malnutrition, nearly 70 per cent of Southern Resident killer whale pregnancies have resulted in miscarriages or calves that died right away after birth." It seems that orcas are not the only bullies of the seas, as smaller dolphins e.g. bottlenose have similarly been seen harassing and killing for no clear reason. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-10-07 15:51
Alphabet CEO Pichai Set to Testify in Google Play Trial
Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is set to be called by Epic Games Inc. to testify
2023-10-07 08:57
Hackers advertise sale of 23andMe data on leaked data forum
By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON A hacker is advertising millions of "pieces of data" stolen from the family genetics
2023-10-07 05:23
Can India cricketers win World Cup for a billion fans?
They are playing at home which could be an advantage but also a pressure point, writes Suresh Menon.
2023-10-07 05:17
Amazon launches first test satellites for internet network
By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Amazon's first pair of prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network were launched into
2023-10-07 02:29