In Pure Spirit » america

Dolphins race surfer at St Pete Beach

Andrew — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:39:45 +0000

This video was taken off St. Pete Beach in Flordia. St. Petersburg/Clearwater is a popular holiday destination and is part of Tampa Bay. Until 1994 the beach was officially called St. Petersburg Beach but the name was changed officially; which makes sense as the city of St. Petersburg is miles to the east.

In the video a surfer is follows along behind a motorboat, riding in the wake and is joined by a pair of dolphins doing exactly the same thing.

In Pure Spirit

Have you ever swum with dolphins? Would you recommend it?

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The meaning of Santa Claus

Andrew — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:01:09 +0000

Does Santa Claus have a meaning? Where does the origin of the Santa Claus story come from? As it happens the modern Santa is largely a blend of Saint Nick and Father Christmas from the United Kingdom. The name “Santa Claus” is from the German “Sinterklaas” and has changed over the years.

This short video gives you all the background you need.

In Pure Spirit

Did you think Coca-Cola helped create the Santa Claus myth? This video seems to suggest they only helped establish the current appearance.

What about making a return of some of the elder Santa myths? Fancy some Christmas gnomes popping down your chimney on the solstice?

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Not a UFO in Cowley County? Police say “secret plane”

Andrew — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:09:02 +0000

If this is a UFO being transported then it’s one of the most brazen attempts to move one. The people of Cowley Country in Kansas, USA, got to watch as a super long truck carried a wrapped but very odd shaped “craft” down through the town.

Police say they helped with the operation; helping to direct traffic and even remove road signs which stopped the huge truck from turning corners. However, they deny this was a UFO – instead this was a secret aircraft that had been designed by a private firm. They don’t want to talk much more about it.

In Pure Spirit

Have you watched the video? What do you think? Is this really just a secret design of an aircraft, wrapped in plastic, being moved through a busy American town?

What else could it be?

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Is this Bigfoot caught on camera?

Andrew — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:00:20 +0000

Loads of us have phones with video cameras these days. We see the effect in the news every day – there is film footage of events that we’d never previously to get see; be those fires, inside of wars, riots, rescues or just animals being cute. Surely this means that our chances of catching video footage or rare or legendary animals is also increasing?

Samantha posted a short video of a hiking trip to YouTube. She didn’t spot the human figure at the time, she says, but noticed it only once she had the video on the PC. Check it out for yourself;

There’s a good deal of camera shake there. Samantha is walking across rough ground as she shoots this video. As it happens another YouTuber has stabilised the version – in this video its the frame that shakes but the central video image remains steady.

The video was taken at Downriver Park in Spokane, Washington in the States.

In Pure Spirit

Is this a hoax? Lots of people think it is – describing the scene nothing more than a man in a big suit walking entirely like a human, or walking in a strange way to begin with but reverting to a more humanlike gait as he moves to the left of the screen.

What do you think?

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Giant snake spotted escaping Mississippi floods

Andrew — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:44:33 +0000

The American army have opened flood gates in Louisiana to try and protect large cities along the Mississippi River. The move means some 3,000 square miles of land will be flooded, some 25,000 people and 11,000 buildings may be effected.

Boing Boing have unearthed a photo that suggests some rather interesting animals have also been effected. This photograph apparently shows a huge snake, fleeing along the roadside, away from the flood waters.

In Pure Spirit

Boing Boing hopes the photo is a fake. What do you think? Is it real?

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The First Day of Judgement – May 21, 2011

Andrew — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:18:28 +0000

The Apocalypse starts on Saturday says an American Christian sect. Harold Camping, who runs Family Radio, believes that there is a hidden calendar in the bible and that it marks 21st of May has the beginning of the end of the world.

Camping teaches that the Bible is in its entirety is the Word of God and absolute. The Bible, however, needs to be interpreted rather than taken sentence by sentence. He left the Christian Reformed Church in 1988 and now teaches a doctrine with some key differences. Some of these key differences are:

Humans are not totally depraved and have a relative amount of free will.
Salvation can not be earned through good deeds or prayer, it is simply an act of God’s good grace.
Rather than teaching of Hell, Camping preaches annihilationism; that life will simply cease for the unsaved.
Churches have become apostate and should be abandoned.

The First Day of Judgement is on May 21st, according to Harold Camping, which makes the end of the world due on October 21st, 2011. According to Camping some 200m people will be saved in the Rapture.

This is the second time Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world. His first prediction suggested the world would end in September 1994.

One of Harold Camping’s followers, Robert Fitzpatrick, 60, spent his entire lifetime savings on an advert campaign to warn New Yorkers of the coming end of the world.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think Camping is right? Why do you think his sect believe him?

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The loss of Native American Lands

Andrew — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:34:52 +0000

This animated gif shows the loss of Native American land in North America. It’s a series of maps that start at 1784 and animate up to the present day.

These maps are based on a collection by Sam Hilliard of the Louisiana State University and animated by Sunisup

In Pure Spirit

Do you think the United States of America should be increasing the size of the reservations? Or is it backwards to think that everyone from every culture wants to live as their ancestors did rather than in contempory cities?

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TSA fires employee for being a scary Wiccan

Andrew — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:32:53 +0000

America’s Transportation Security Administration (aka the TSA) had an interesting HR issue on their hands when one employee compained because she feared another employee might cast a spell on her.

Carole Smith, the Wiccan, had worked for the TSA for 7 months, was still a probationary employee but was in the top 10% of for catching weapons in the X-ray machine, had caught a $30,000 smuggling attempt herself and was better than some other officers at searching old or special needs travellers due, in part, to her massage therapist training.

Her one-time mentor, Mary Bagnoli, reported Smith because she was scared of witchcraft. Bagnoli claims that Carole Smith had once followed her along the the highway and casting a spell to hex Bagnoli’s car heater.

Oddly, Bagnoli admits she didn’t actually see Smith’s car. She just saw Smith. It’s perhaps understandable that Carole mused with press;

I thought to myself, what, did she see me flying on a broom?

In case you’re wondering how the TSA resolved this tension – don’t bother. They fired Carole Smith.

She first discovered she might be in for trouble when an assistant director at the TSA told her she was being investigated in a threat of workplace violence. The director, Matthew W. Lloyd said in his testimony that he realised straight away there was no real threat of violence. That highway? It was the only way towards her home from the airport. Lloyd acknowledges it was a personality conflict aggreggrated by fear of an unfamiliar religion.

Lloyd wanted to arrange a mediation session between Carole Smith and Bagnoli where Smith could explain what Wicca was about. This made Smith uncomfortable.

“I’m like, ‘No.’ I refused to do that. It’s not up to me to teach her my religion. I mean, would I have to go down and sit with her if I was Jewish?”

It does look as if Lloyd’s done his best. When he got the original complaint he took steps to keep both women on seperate shifts, even on different break schedules, while he investigated. He later admitted to the Judge that he knew nothing of Wicca at the time of the complaint, was not even aware it was a religion and had to investigate it afterwards.

It’s worth noting the TSA’s side of the story. At the hearing, their attorney Cheryl Scott-Johnson argued that;

“There was no discrimination here based on Ms. Smith’s religion. Ms. Smith was removed during her probationary period because of conduct, behavior and her performance. … It’s like almost every person, almost all the supervisors, had problems with Ms. Smith. … She just assumes, or concludes, that it all had to do with her religion. In fact, as brought out in the testimony, she started having problems before anybody even knew she was Wicca.”

The news site MSNBC has a detailed story on this case which is worth a read if you’re interested.

In Pure Spirit

What would you have done? One employee apparrently frightened another and yet was the fear due to small minded misunderstanding?

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Spaghetti fight on the New York Tube

Andrew — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:57:00 +0000

Is it terribly rude of people to eat on the tube? In New York one traveller certainly thought so and went out expressing her distaste. She may well have done it without the sort of diplomatic skills necessary for making your point safely to busy passengers.

What follows is foul mouthed exchange. The sound quality on this video is also effected by the fact it was filmed from a real life and travelling underground train.

In Pure Spirit

Is this video a summary on today’s modern culture? Or is it a rarity? Did you pick sides; was the woman right to complain? Share your thoughts.

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American Congress denies climate change exists

Andrew — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:35:19 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Each and every Republicanin the House Energy and Commerce Committee has voted that the Earth is not warming. This is an American political collective, part of Congress, that works to line up US lawmaking. Currently the Committee had been working on the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011. The Act would bar the Enviormental Protection Agency from regulation carbon dioxide emissions.

The vote against climate change occured when all the Republicans voted against the amendment which simply wanted Congress to acknowledge that warming of the climate was happening.

The site Scientific American has a podcast on the episode which is well worth listening to. They also cherry picked this fantastic quote from Ed Markey, the Democract Rep from Massachusetts;

“I rise in opposition to a bill that repeals the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet. However, I won’t rise physically, because I’m worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you have any thoughts on this? Do Republican Americans actually believe there is no climate change and the world’s scientists are wrong? Or are there political reasons behind the vote – such as protecting American commerical interests?

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