Traditional carols are ‘nonsense’, says bishop
Some traditional carols are “nonsense” and have turned Jesus into a Father Christmas figure, according to a leading bishop.Away in a Manger cannot be sung “without embarrassment”, Once in Roy al David’s City is “Victorian behaviour control”; and O Come, All Ye Faithful is misleading, said the Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines.
He blamed the much-loved carols for adding to confusion over the season’s real meaning and turning Jesus into a figure as fictitious as Father Christmas.
While others defended the traditional songs as “joyful” and “triumphant”, the bishop complained that the carols have contributed to the story of Christ’s birth being seen “as just one more story alongside the panto and fairy stories”.
In a new book published by the Church of England, Why Wish You a Merry Christmas, the bishop argues that carols encourage images of Christmas that have more to do with Victorian sentiment than the Biblical account of Christ’s birth.
“I always find it a slightly bizarre sight when I see parents and grandparents at a nativity play singing Away in a Manger as if it actually related to reality,” he said.
Enigma Posters and Art Store Print Christmas Orders
Posters from both the Blog Store and Art Site will have the following rules applied:
We will continue to accept orders over the Christmas period – however we advise you to withhold over the period 11th Dec – 5 Jan where we will not be able to process orders.
Last order processing date is the 10th December.
We cannot promise delivery with the current state of the mail. Any orders received in the period 11th Dec-5th Jan will be dealt with on the 6th Jan and shipped as soon as possible after that date.
If you still have an order outstanding please email lostatsea@derrenbrown.co.uk and we will sort it out as quickly as possible. We apologise for any disappointment that may occur due to the hectic period. The mail seems more reliable at the moment however delivery dates are around 7 working days on average.
Want to improve your brain – try meditation
Everyone around the water cooler knows that meditation reduces stress. But with the aid of advanced brainscanning technology, researchers are beginning to show that meditation directly affects the function and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory.
ne recent study found evidence that the daily practice of meditation thickened the parts of the brain’s cerebral cortex responsible for decision making, attention and memory.
Blind man fitted with ‘bionic’ eye
A blind man who thought he would never be able to read again has had his vision partially restored after being fitted with a ‘bionic’ eye. Peter Lane, 51, is one of the first people in the world to have electronic receivers implanted into his eye which send signals mounted in a pair of glasses to the brain.
The technology has allowed Mr Lane, from Manchester, to see the outline of objects, such as doorways and furniture, and to read letters through a series of dots of lights for the first time in almost 30 years.
Man slept beside dead wife for 5 years
A Vietnamese man dug up his wife’s corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed, an online newspaper reports.
The 55-year-old man from a small town in the central province of Quang Nam opened up his wife’s grave in 2004, moulded clay around the remains to give the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said.
The man, Le Van, told the website that after his wife died in 2003 he slept ontop of her grave, but about 20 months later he worried about rain, wind and cold, so he decided to dig a tunnel into the grave “to sleep with her”.
His children found out, though, and prevented him from going to the grave. So one night in November 2004 he dug up his wife’s remains and took them home, Vietnamnet reported.
The website carried a photo of Van with the figure of his wife, which is still in his home.
The father of seven said neighbours did not dare visit the house for several years.
“I’m a person that does things differently. I’m not like normal people,” he was quoted as saying.
Extreme Healing
Go to cultures where people entrust their health to faith instead of medical science. See a girl eat a light bulb, a woman in need of an exorcism and a woman who allows a shaman to wield a razor blade to become pregnant.
Taboo is from the National Geographic series. To say this is a little disturbing is an understatement, but well worth watching along with the rest of the series.
Dear Mandy – Stay away from my family
Whatever your stance on this issue – this rather fun movie is rather clever and asks the question: if I go to the Library and illegally download a file, will they cut off the Libraries internet?
Via B3ta
12 Health Fads That Never Made It
When it comes to our health, we’re often ready to try almost any new potion that even a complete stranger suggests. Often many of these quick-fixes turn out to be baseless, and the so-called cures have only a placebo effect. Here are 12 health fads that ‘fad-ed’ away with time. Some did not do what they claimed to do. Others were in fact bad for your health!
1. Bee Venom
Bee venom therapists apply bee venom to specific points on the surface of the body. The natural sting of the bee was believed to cure a wide variety of diseases including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, tendonitis, fibromyalgia, and even breast cancer.
2. Blood-group diets
Celebrities like Liz Hurley made the Blood Type diet one of the most talked about health fads. The diet meant people with blood type B should avoid corn, wheat, lentils, tomatoes, chicken, peanuts and sesame seeds, and they should eat goat, mutton, venison, eggs, green vegetables, and low fat dairy.
3. Tapeworm Diet
Tapeworm diet pills were marketed in the early part of the 20th century. The practice involved swallowing beef tapeworm eggs and then taking a medicine to kill the tapeworm after reaching your target weight.
4. Placenta Drinks
A number of health and beauty products marketed by Japanese firms claimed to contain pig placenta or ‘afterbirth’ as the active ingredient.
The placenta products came as beverages, capsules, organic skin cream, wearable facial mask, and…er…placenta drinks and jellies!
Read the rest at Family Health Guide (Thanks Mill)
Competition roundup – win stuff for xmas
Just to remind you all that the last few days of the fantastic competitions out there are ending on Dec 1st.
First up we have the Parrot Zoo – Poly Wants a Cracker huge draw. With 15 prizes and only a few hundred entrants you have a pretty good chance. We know the pay pal option is a little sticky, but it’s out of our hands and has held a few people up, but we decided to make it part of the competition – 
Second is the Why Do We Read ultimate magic book comp. Win the incredible TASCHEN book of MAGIC 1400s-1950s, signed by Derren Brown himself and priced at a whopping £130 at the Taschen store – it’s a prize that any fan of magic would dream of owning. We’ve been told this is a very difficult competition and so entrant numbers are very low.
Any issues regarding these competitions please contact the relevant sites as they are not controlled by us. Good Luck (if you believe in that sort of thing).
30,000 Internet Users to Receive File-Sharing Cash Demands
As many as 25,000 BT and 5,000 customers of other ISPs will be receiving shock letters demanding big payments during the coming weeks. Lawyers in the UK have been granted more court orders which force ISPs to hand over the details of individuals who they say have been monitored sharing hardcore pornography.
For regular readers of TorrentFreak, this fresh news can hardly come as a surprise. The supposed anti-piracy scheme originally pioneered in the UK in conjunction with lawyers Davenport Lyons rolls on, but now in the hands of ACS:Law and their partners DigiProtect.
Although there is an insistence that the project is aimed at reducing piracy, in reality piracy is the scheme’s lifeblood, providing healthy profits for all concerned, except the original rightsholders that is.
On November 19th at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, ACS:Law made NPO (Norwich Pharmacal Order) applications in order to force ISPs to hand over the names and addresses of subscribers the company claims infringed their client’s rights.
The NPO’s related to approximately 25,000 IP addresses harvested from UK ISP BT’s subscriber base and a further 5,000 from various other ISPs, covering approximately 291 movie titles.
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