By Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.

Six hundred feet (183 metres) below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist.

That is why a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.

"We were operating on the presumption that nothing's there," said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler, who will be... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (xCall me Ishmaelx) http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4087 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:18:22 PST http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4086/t/Don-t-mock-my-lentils-vegans-to-get-discrimination-rights.html Don’t mock my lentils: vegans to get discrimination rights

Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor

VEGANS and teetotallers are to be given the same protection against discrimination as religious groups, under legislation championed by Harriet Harman, the equalities minister.

Members of cults and “new religions” such as Scientology, whose supporters include the film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, would also be offered protection, as would atheists.

A code of practice explaining the legal implications of the equality bill states that religions need not be mainstream or well known for their adherents to gain protection. “A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world.”

The code, drawn up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, singles out vegans, who... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (xCall me Ishmaelx) http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4086 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:35:32 PST http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4085/t/Imaginary-Friends.html .

Did any of you have imaginary friends? Do/did your kids?
]]> feeds@kickapps.com (The Electric Witch) http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4085 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:28:34 PST http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4083/t/The-Vatican-is-Haunted-by-SATAN-says-Priest.html Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".

He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia."

He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican "cover-up" over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (The Electric Witch) http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4083 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:26:32 PST http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4082/t/Japanese-Fear-Fish-Washing-Up-on-their-Beaches-is-Ill-Omen.html
The giant Oarfish can grow up to five metres in length and is usually to be found at depths of 1,000 metres and very rarely above 200 metres from the surface. Long and slender with a dorsal fin the length of its body, the oarfish resembles a snake. In recent weeks, 10 specimens have been found either washed ashore or in fishing nets off Ishikawa Prefecture, half-a-dozen have been caught in nets off Toyama Prefecture and others have been reported in Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures, all on the northern coast.

According to traditional Japanese lore, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4082 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:17:56 PST http://theelectricwitch.yuku.com/topic/4081/t/Archaeologists-Unearth-Find-1000-Years-in-the-Making.html