Now this is interesting: they're claiming the fastest growing churches are 60% male. I can't speak to the Christian experience in this regard, but I can wager an educated guess that "organized heathenry" (an oxymoron if there ever was such a thing) is probably closer to 75% male - and we are certainly growing.
We don't drum a lot, but we do drink beer (always a popular male activity), and I can guarantee you that our services are at least as thought provoking as theirs. We're not very multi-racial, but we're certainly not very reverent, either.
The baseline conclusion to be drawn from this: there's a real spiritual hunger out there, especially among men, and if a religious organization can fill that void, they're gonna find themselves growing like crazy.
Churches with rising attendance numbers have a lot in common with one another - a lot more than denomination, location, or even theological approach.
(link) [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]21:56 /Asatru | 1 comment | permanent link
Very rational and thoughtful account of the dangers of the ubiquitous "hot spot". Enable your WEP, at least!
For four years, I've been pretty clear about my personal opinions on wireless hackers. I don't worry about them. So when I say: "It's time to worry about wireless hackers," it's not just another security consultant scare story being recycled - it's because I think things have changed.
(link) [The Register]
07:00 /Technology | 2 comments | permanent link
Whoa! An ag story from Slashdot! Will wonders never cease? And more wonders: the very first commenter on the thread gets it exactly right:
This is great! Now we can go back to feeding the cows a healthy diet of dead sheep, which was how the whole "mad cow" thing started.
There's simply no need to "engineer" prion free cattle - feed them correctly and there will not be any prion disease! What a concept!
The other important note here:
The evaluation revealed no apparent developmental abnormalities in the prion-free cattle.
is the use of the word "apparent" in the concluding sentence. It can take many years and several generations for genetic defects to manifest, and yet these folks are willing to claim success after the first shot. This isn't science, this is voodoo, but come to think of it, it's the witch doctors at the USDA and FDA and other alphabet soup agencies that are causing most of the problems in the food supply that we face as we move into the 21st century.
Science Daily is reporting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is reporting positive results from a recent study designed to create genetically engineered prion-free cattle. From the article: "ARS studied eight Holstein males that were developed by Hematech Inc., a pharmaceutical research company based in Sioux Falls, S.D. The evaluation of the prion-free cattle was led by veterinary medical officer Juergen Richt of ARS' National Animal Disease Center (NADC) in Ames, Iowa. The evaluation revealed no apparent developmental abnormalities in the prion-free cattle."
(link) [Slashdot]06:59 /Agriculture | 3 comments | permanent link