Vlad Tepes (or Vlad III) was the Prince of Wallachia from 1456 to 1461 and earnt a bloodthirsty reputation for submitting his enemies to unusually cruel methods of execution. Most notable of these was impaling his victims them on spears, which earnt him the title of Vlad the Impaler.

Pattinson is allegedly related to Vlad Tepes through his connection to the British royal family: Princes William and Harry, who are distant cousins of Pattinson, are also distantly related to the Impaler.

Yesterday the police reported that they had seized a cache of weapons belonging to an Adelaide Doomsday cult. Twelve properties connected to the Agape Ministries cult were raided by police, uncovering more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition, several unregistered firearms, explosives and detonators.

The word “agape”, usually taken to describe “wide open” (like this :O) actually has a seperate meaning in Christian theology, where it is is used to describe the intense feelings of love that God has for mankind. How that translates into hiding high-powered ammunition in the steel frame of your bed, I don’t know.

Police are still searching for the leader of the cult, known as “Brother Rock”, which… and let’s be honest about this, sounds like it came out of a novel, or at least an episode of Criminal Minds.

It is believed that Agape Ministries was collecting funds (it allegedly asked all members of the ministry to contribute 10% of their total earnings) in order to establish a new Christian colony on a Pacific island, ahead of the world ending in 2012 (gee, that’s original).

The plan is reminiscent of similar atheist campaigns that have been carried out in the past year, including one that saw New York City subway stations plastered with “Good without God” posters.

The plan is to have the stickers placed on the sides of buses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand’s three most populous cities. But the project is already drawing strong criticism from some who insist that those responsible are “going to hell”.

Forum: What’s your opinion of these atheist advertising campaigns?

Jagannath (the “Lord of the World”) is but one avatar of the god Vishnu, who is also revered in the forms of Krishna and Rama; two primary heroes from Hindu mythology.

Government officials have requested that the temple release the turtle, as it is a member of a protected species. The temple priests, refuse to relinquish the reptile, however, which they believe has “holy markings” on its shell.

“Lord Jagannath has visited our village in the form of a turtle,” said one of the temple’s priests. “We will not allow anybody to take the turtle away.”

Hey, at least they’re not selling it to a casino.

The advertisements pose the question: “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?” and are designed to raise awareness about “people who don’t believe in a god” (otherwise known as atheists!). The organisations involved with the project are hoping that the the posters will help raise awareness about New York’s secular community, as well as promote conversation about religion and morality.

A number of recent sociological studies (like this one) have shown that atheists consistently rank among the least trusted minorities in America.

Van Wolde, a respected bible scholar, believes that the current translation is not an accurate representation of the actual Hebrew meaning. After analysing the original Hebrew text and comparing it against the Bible as a whole, Van Wolde concluded that the Hebrew verb “bara”, which appears in the first sentence of Genesis, refers to a process of “spatial seperation” and does not imply any direct act of creation.

This would mean that, according to the oldest Hebrew texts available, the Judeo-Christian God did not actually create the Earth, but simply seperated it from the Heavens.

Interestingly, this translation would bring the Judeo-Christian concept of creation in line with the mythologies of a number of other belief systems, including Hinduism in which the earth and the sky are propped apart as recounted in the Rig Veda:

“He by whom the awesome sky and the earth were made firm, by whom the dome of the sky was propped up…”
– The Golden Embryo, Rig Veda 10.121 (trans. Wendy Doniger)

Professor Van Wolde is soon to release her thesis on the subject, which includes comparisons with the creation myths of ancient Mesopotamia.

Garlaschelli is said to have reproduced the Shroud of Turin in order to demonstrate his belief that the cloth is a medieval fake.

The replica was created using a special cloth, which was wrapped over one of the scientist’s students and painted with pigment. The cloth was then baked in an oven (that Garlaschelli somewhat creepily refers to as a “shroud machine”) for several hours and then washed.

So now that you all know how to make your own Shroud of Turin, I expect to see a lot more of them on eBay.

Although the term can be applied to virtually any type of water spirit, undines are generally depicted as women with beautiful voices who linger around forest pools and waterfalls. It is said that you may be able to hear the song of an undine over the sound of running water, a legend which could be based on the idea that running water (such as that in a shower) provides a background of white noise that’s perfect for creating auditory hallucinations.

The most common undine story is based on a German folktale. In it, an undine must marry a human man and bear his child in order to gain a soul. She does this, but her husband is eventually unfaithful. As the man vowed to love the undine with “every living breath” she curses him that he may die if he ever falls asleep.

This story provides the historical basis for “Ondine’s Curse” the historical name for what doctors now call Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome, an illness in which the patient loses autonomous control of their breathing and therefore is unable to breathe unassisted while sleeping.

Another Shriner, duran, revealed that the dust was also responsible for setting off smoke alarms and delaying emergency services. Flights were cancelled from Sydney Airport, the M5 tunnel was closed and Sydney’s ferries were all suspended, while authorities urged people to close their windows and for people with respiratory problems to stay indoors.

Some people have already made claims that the sky is somehow a portend of doom. But is a red sky actually a sign of the apocalypse? I decided to take a look at the literature in an attempt to uncover the “truth” about the end times.

References to red sky in the Bible aren’t actually as prevalent as you might believe. The Biblical scholars among you might like to note that I’m taking these quotations from the New International Version.

In Matthew 16:3, there appears the statement: “…and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”

This is an interesting and multi-layered quote that draws a vivid distinction between signs “of the sky” and signs “of the times”. To me, this seems to provide a strong indication that a red sky alone is not sufficient cause to fear the apocalypse.

Crimson skies don’t really appear in the Bible again, though the moon does turn red (or, at least, the colour of blood) in Revelations: 6:12.

In the noble Qur’an, the sky doesn’t appear to change colour much at all. The 46th sura, called “Al-Ahqaf” or “The Sandhills” warns us of approaching clouds: “So when they saw it — a cloud advancing towards their valleys, they said: This is a cloud bringing us rain. Nay, it is that which you sought to hasten, a wind wherein is painful chastisement.”

It turns out that we need to look further afield if we truly want to find ominous “red light” within spiritual literature.

One of these can be found in the alleged Hopi Prophecy of the “Red Katchina”, as told by Dr. Robert “Ghost” Wolf in his book Last Cry: Native American Prophecies & Tales of the End Times.

According to the story, something called the “Red Katchina” or “Purifier” will appear and issue forth a “great Red Light”. The arrival of this figure will allegedly cause all things to “change in their manner of being” . Although this story appears in various forms all over the internet, “credible” accounts are hard to come by, casting serious doubts as to whether or not we might actually gain any real insight from it.

Perhaps our response to the sky turning red is better explained by the fact that, long after human civilisation has vanished from the planet, our own Sol is likely to become a red giant; expanding in mass until it extends beyond the current orbit of Earth.

There’s also the matter of that old saying that claims a red sky at morning is some type of warning for either shepherds or sailors. This idea was even touched upon by Shakespeare in his 1587 work, Venus & Adonis: “Like a red morn, that ever betoken’d wreck to the seaman — sorrow to the shepherds.”

Both of these professions (sailors and shepherds) require at least some working knowledge of changing weather conditions, seeming to indicate that the saying is more of an exercise in primitive meteorology than any real sign of Revelation.

So is a red sky actually any sort of sign of impending destruction? It is undoubtedly an emotive sight, and the type of event that doesn’t happen all that often. It is impossible to tell, however, if our innate distrust of such an event actually speaks of some deep, intrinsic understanding about reality; or if it is as natural as the musings of a confused dog that believes it’s standing outside, when really it’s beneath a red tent.