Church recruits Harry Potter magic to spread Christian message

Church leaders are using the magic of Harry Potter to help spread the Christian message.

In the past Harry Potter books and movies have been attacked by evangelicals for 'glamorising the occult.'

But now a guide published by the Church of England advises youth workers how to use the wizardry of fantasy novelist J. K. Rowling as a launch pad for exploring Bible themes.

The publication of the guide by Church House Publishing comes with the release of the final Potter book 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

Youth leaders are being told they can use the popularity of the Potter series to spread the word of God.

This is a shift in emphasis for the Church, which up to now had not always been sympathetic to the Potter magic.

Canterbury Cathedral shot down a request to become a location for the first film, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, for fear of upsetting Christians.

But in recent years, the Harry Potter phenomenon has won fans from among leading Church figures, including former archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey.

He described the film as "great fun" and a serious examination of good and evil.

Another Potter convert is the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, who described Harry Potter author JK Rowling as a "great storyteller".

He reminded people that Jesus used storytelling to engage and challenge his listeners.

Author of the guide, 24-year-old youth worker Owen Smith, said: "The magic in the books is simply part of the magic that JK Rowling has created.

"To say, as some have, that these books draw younger readers towards the occult seems to me both to malign JK Rowling and to vastly underestimate the ability of children and young people to separate the real from the imaginary."

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Hundreds ill after Peru 'toxic meteor crash'

Hundreds of people have suffered headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems after an object from space - believed to be a meteorite - crashed in southern Peru.Eyewitnesses watched a fiery ball fall from the sky and smash into the remote Andean plain near the Bolivian border on Saturday, local media reported.

When villagers went to investigate, they encountered fetid, noxious gases, according to local health officials.

Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the southern state of Puno, 800 miles south of Lima, said at least 200 people had become ill after inhaling "toxic" fumes emanating from the resulting crater.

"This is caused by the gas they have inhaled after the crash," Mr Lopez said.

Ursula Marvin, a meteor expert at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts, said it was likely the dust raised when the object hit the ground was causing the health problems.

She said a meteorite "wouldn't get much gas out of the earth".

Three geologists from Peru's Geophysics Institute are on their way to the site to determine whether it was, in fact, a meteorite, and are expected to present a report on the incident on Thursday.

Similar cases were reported in 2002 and 2004 elsewhere in southern Peru but were never confirmed as meteorites.

How to Write Something Worth Reading

90% of writing published online isn’t worth the server space it’s stored on. This is due to lack of purpose and underdeveloped style. Many writers fail to take themselves seriously. Perhaps they underestimate the validity of their ideas or the power of the medium.

Effective writing can be learned by practice and observation. The purpose of this article is to encourage the creation of forceful, passionate writing, the sort of writing people love to read.

1. You write what you read.

Stop reading the same meaningless, repetitive writing everyone else reads. Quality of output directly correlates to quality of input. I’ve noticed the technical quality of my writing and the originality of my ideas sharply decline when I fall into the habit of reading nothing but blogs.

Absorb fresh ideas and sublime style by reading old books, written by masters of language. Then take these ideas and pretend you invented them. You’ll be hailed as a prophet.

The subject matter of the books you read is secondary. The value comes from unconsciously absorbing the style of the author. This is how we learn to write rhythmic sentences and clearly convey meaning. You will also find unexpected inspiration.

2. Avoid balanced views.

When forming an opinion, it is necessary to consider the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives and select the most correct. Many writers use the same method when making an argument.

Unfortunately, this reasonable process makes for weak writing. If you wish to influence readers mentally and emotionally, do not concede the slightest degree of doubt. Overwhelm them with the strength of your conviction.

3. Style is king.

The hearts and minds of readers are won, not by judicious argument, but by force of personality. You aren’t selling an idea alone. You’re selling the authority of the mind that endorses it. Don’t believe for a moment that being in the right outweighs charismatic personality.

4. Unleash your noble scorn.

Digg and Reddit are filled, not with praise for Liberal politicians, but with rabid denunciations of Conservative leadership. Prose writing is most effective when used to expose injustice and unravel misconceptions. Channel your anger and frustration into passionate writing.

This is a great example, and this site has built a well deserved following by expressing disgust.

Scorn is a powerful tool, but it must be used with delicacy. Avoid insulting readers by making broad denunciations that allow them to believe your anger is directed at others. Consider the statement, “The population of the United States is 300 million, mostly fools.” Anyone who reads this will likely agree, considering themselves one of the exceptions.

5. Passion

Passion is the one quality essential to powerful writing. Writing without passion is a sailboat without wind. Whatever you write about, there must be a passion that drives you. The passion that lights your mind on fire and compels you to expose your private thoughts to the world.

Writing with passion leaps off the page. But this sort of writing is rare because we’re afraid of our inspiration. We’re afraid to express ourselves too forcefully, to overstep the bounds of our authority and risk being wrong.

To produce great writing, you must recognize these doubts as the byproduct of innovation. The only writing that matters is writing that challenges popular opinion, writing that changes minds. If you aren’t pushing limits, you aren’t going far enough.

Embrace your passion and share it with your readers. You may offend some, and you may be proven wrong, but unless you take that chance you’ll never make an impression.

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Ancient records help test climate change

EINSIEDELN, Switzerland — A librarian at this 10th century monastery leads a visitor beneath the vaulted ceilings of the archive past the skulls of two former abbots. He pushes aside medieval ledgers of indulgences and absolutions, pulls out one of 13 bound diaries inscribed from 1671 to 1704 and starts to read about the weather.

"Jan. 11 was so frightfully cold that all of the communion wine froze," says an entry from 1684 by Brother Josef Dietrich, governor and "weatherman" of the once-powerful Einsiedeln Monastery. "Since I've been an ordained priest, the sacrament has never frozen in the chalice."

"But on Jan. 13 it got even worse and one could say it has never been so cold in human memory," he adds.

Diaries of day-to-day weather details from the age before 19th-century standardized thermometers are proving of great value to scientists who study today's climate. Historical accounts were once largely ignored, as they were thought to be fraught with inaccuracy or were simply inaccessible or illegible. But the booming interest in climate change has transformed the study of ancient weather records from what was once a "wallflower science," says Christian Pfister, a climate historian at the University of Bern.

The accounts dispel any lingering doubts that the Earth is heating up more dramatically than ever before, he says. Last winter — when spring blossoms popped up all over the Austrian Alps, Geneva's official chestnut tree sprouted leaves and flowers, and Swedes were still picking mushrooms well into December — was Europe's warmest in 500 years, Pfister says. It came after the hottest autumn in a millennium and was followed by one of the balmiest Aprils on record.

"In the last year there was a series of extremely exceptional weather," he says. "The probability of this is very low."

The records also provide a context for judging shifts in the weather. Brother Konrad Hinder, the current weatherman at Einsiedeln and an avid reader of Dietrich's diaries, says his predecessor's precise accounts of everything from yellow fog to avalanches provide historical context.

"We know from Josef Dietrich that the extremes were very big during his time. There were very cold winters and very mild winters, very wet summers and very dry summers," he says, adding that the range of weather extremes has been smaller in the 40 years he has recorded data for the Swiss national weather service.

"That's why I'm always cautious when people say the weather extremes now are at their greatest. Without historical context you lose control and you rush to proclaim every latest weather phenomenon as extreme or unprecedented," Hinder says.

Most historians and scientists delving deep into archives seek accounts of disasters and extreme weather events. But the records can also be used to obtain a more precise temperature range for most months and years that goes beyond such general indicators as tree rings, corals, ice cores or glaciers.

Such weather sources include the thrice-daily temperature and pressure measurements by 17th-century Paris physician Louis Morin, a short-lived international meteorological network created by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1653, and 33 "weather diaries" surviving from the 16th century. In Japan, court officers kept records of the dates of cherry blossom festivals, which allow modern scientists to track the weather of the time.

Early records often are only discovered by chance in documents that have survived in centuries-old European monasteries like Einsiedeln, or in the annals of rulers, military campaigns, famines, natural hazards and meteorological anomalies. In Klosterneuberg near Vienna an unidentified writer notes a lack of ice on the Danube in 1343-1344 and calls the winter "mild," while the abbot of Switzerland's Fischingen Monastery laments the late harvest of hay and corn in the summer of 1639 when "there was hardly ever a really warm day."

Scores of similar clues are pieced together year by year to determine temperature ranges, says Pfister, whose team of four uses old "weather reports" to work back as far as the 10th century.

Pfister has found that from 1900 to 1990, there was an average of five months of extreme warmth per decade. In the 1990s, that number jumped to an unprecedented 22 months. The same decade also had no months of extreme cold, in contrast to the half-millennium before.

Even in the last major global warming period from 900 to 1300, severe winters were only "somewhat less frequent and less extreme," Pfister says. Over the past century, temperatures have gone up an average of 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which is often attributed to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.

Global warming is one of the world's top issues today because of fears of massive hurricanes and flooding. For most of history, though, it was the fate of farms and the fear of famine that encouraged careful weather observation.

The Einsiedeln abbots — princes within the Holy Roman Empire until 1798 — were powerful leaders who ruled over large swaths of central Switzerland's mountainous terrain. Agriculture was the primary source of income for the region and natural disasters such as floods and avalanches posed an omnipresent threat.

Debts accrued and honored, accidents, local conflicts and business transactions also fill Dietrich's accounts, "but most days start with the weather," says Andreas Meyerhans, who cares for the monastery's precious documents.

The diaries — written in German sprinkled with old Swiss dialect and margin notes in Latin — are "unique" because of the exceptional everyday detail they provide, Pfister says. He adds that centuries of weather records make it clear that people need to adapt when extremely hot or cold weather becomes more frequent. While the lives of earlier generations were ruled by the weather, "in the second half of the 20th century people slept and became completely unprepared for natural disasters, because they happened so rarely."

In Einsiedeln, Hinder reads from a barometer flanked by the Virgin Mary, and worries that humanity is in trouble.

"God still controls the weather," he says. But, he adds, people must do their part by taking better care of the planet.

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27 Lessons Learned on the Way to 3000 Visits a Day and 2200 RSS Subscribers

It’s been nearly 6 months since the first post was published at Pick the Brain. Over the course of 97 posts and 1602 comments, traffic has grown to over 3,000 unique visitors a day, over 2200 readers have subscribed to the Rss feed and several articles have been featured on the popular pages of Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Netscape. It isn’t the most amazing start (there have certainly been bumps along the way) but I’m proud of what I’ve built and optimistic the site will continue to grow.I want to share what I’ve learned, but it’d be pointless to try explaining it all. Rather, I’ve compiled a list of the 27 most important lessons.

1. Just in case you don’t get past number one, my two most important points are a) help people solve a problem, it’s the most powerful way to keep them coming back, and b) differentiate yourself. There are so many blogs that if you don’t stand out, you’ll get lost in the crowd.
2. Blogging is not a great way to make money. I don’t care what Pavlina says his earnings are. It takes talent, effort, and patience. Only do it if you love to write and have something to say. Be prepared to invest 2-3 years before seeing any serious returns.
3. Make it as easy as possible for people to suscribe to Rss feed.Subscribing is the best thing a reader can do.
4. Offer a full feed, even if it means people visit the site less often. A person reading you is always better than a person not reading you. Make it easy.
5. If you aren’t sure a post is good, sit on it for a day. If you still aren’t convinced, delete it. A bad post is worse than no post. Bad posts make people question if your blog is worth reading. When you make a bad post (and you will) learn from it and move on.
6. Be prepared to completely run out of ideas after the first 3-4 months. Do your best to stick it out and refrain from posting anything that’s absolutely lame. The inspiration does come back.
7. It’s not always what you know, who you know is important too. Content brings people back, but in the beginning you need a group of “internet friends” to network with. Don’t be shy about emailing bloggers in your niche, you’d be surprised how receptive they are when you share your best content.
8. Write catchy headlineslist posts that will be popular with the social sites. It’s the best way for thousands of readers to discover you.
9. Do everything you can to make your headline and opening paragraph as compelling as possible. If people aren’t drawn in early, the quality of the rest of the article is irrelevant.
10. Courteously encourage friends, family, and casual acquaintances to vote up and link to your posts. It may seem like cheating, but believe me, your competitors are doing it.
11. Don’t write every post for the social sites. It isn’t genuine and people get tired of it. My favorite A list bloggers rarely make the front page of Digg or Reddit. Although these sites are the easiest way to get a huge burst of traffic, it’s important to remember that they only represent a tiny fraction of the internet population.
12. Listen carefully to every piece of feedback but don’t be a slave to it. Most people don’t know anything. Your blog is your brainchild. It won’t work if you try to satisfy everyone.
13. Experiment. Take chances. Piss a few people off. Do things to stand out. If your writing doesn’t have an edge it might as well not exist.
14. Always look for a different angle. Even if what you’re saying is valuable, there is no point in reading if it doesn’t say anything different than the popular opinion.
15. Don’t participate in every meme or trade links with everyone who asks. If linking doesn’t provide value to your readers it’s a bad idea.
16. Write about your life in a way that’s relevant to your topic. People relate to meaningful personal experiences and it’s a consistent source of material.
17. Make people think. It doesn’t happen very often and they won’t easily forget it.
18. Don’t be anxious to plaster Google Ads all over the place. Before you have a ton of traffic readers are much more valuable than 20 cents a click.
19. Design matters. If your blog looks terrible, people won’t take it seriously. If it’s too cluttered or difficult to read, people will get frustrated and leave. A great design gives people a warm fuzzy feeling that makes a site worth visiting for its own sake.
20. Posting comments on other blogs is overrated. Writing a quality post and politely emailing a dozen bloggers in a relevant niche can do wonders.
21. Respond to your commenters, especially the ones who disagree. It’s the best way build community and it shows readers that you value their time and effort.
22. Obsessively reading other blogs and checking traffic stats are not productive activities. Your time is better spent doing things that actually increase traffic like creating content, doing research, and posting to relevant forums.
23. Once you have a bit of success don’t flaunt it but let other people know.
24. Make use of blog carnivals. They’re the easiest way to build links and find readers before anyone knows who you are. They’ve helped me crack the Tehnorati 5000 just today.
25. Display your best posts on every page in a prominent location. You want readers to find your best content and get hooked. Why bury your best work in the archives?
26. Read blogs about blogging. They’re a great source of knowledge, especially about the technical aspect. Don’t follow all the advice. If you do, chances are you’ll end up somewhere in the middle. Sure you won’t make a bad impression but most readers will forget about you.
27. Do what works for you. Be completely genuine. Trying to promote a fake persona isn’t sustainable. People will see through it.

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7 Ways to Make Your Own Good Luck

When I look back at the last 45 years, I feel the greatest factor in any success I have had, as a university student, diplomat or businessman, has come mainly from being lucky.

When Napoleon was asked if he preferred courageous generals or brilliant generals, he replied neither. He preferred lucky generals.

So, how do you get lucky?

These are seven habits that brought me luck.

1) Be adventurous but do not bet the farm.

Every thing that I achieved came from taking risks. I left the comfort of my hometown university to study abroad. I confronted my boss on something that really mattered to me. I quit the company and started out on my own. I lent money to a supplier against very little security, and on and on. These were the moves that brought me the greatest rewards. But in all cases, I could afford to lose. I was not going to be exiled to Elba if I lost. I did not always develop a business plan, or do a detailed ROI analysis. I followed my gut feel, but I knew that I could cope with failure.

2) Start by trusting people.

You cannot do it alone. You will only achieve your goals with the help of others: friends and family, colleagues, employers and employees, suppliers and customers. If you are suspicious by nature, or if you like to do everything yourself, your chances of getting lucky are diminished. Because it’s usually others that bring you luck.

3) Play your strong cards.

Know your strengths and try to use them. Know your weakness and try to avoid having to use them. Don’t pretend to have strengths that you don’t have. You can develop strengths and overcome weaknesses. But make sure you identify your specific skills, aptitudes, knowledge, and contacts and use them wherever you can. This will increase you chances of getting lucky.

4) Give more than you take.

If you want to attract lucky people to your campaign, be prepared to give. You need to go the extra mile for others without worrying too much about keeping score. In my experience the old saying “what goes around comes around” is definitely true in business and in life, and “it” comes around when you least expect it, believe me.

5) Get and stay fit.

I am not referring to only to physical fitness. I mean your overall mental, physical and psychological well being. Eat right and stay active. Keep learning and improving yourself. Look on the bright side. Not everything is going to go your way. Believe in your chances of success, even in the face of difficulties. Never deal with tough problems at night when you are tired. Health and energy will bring you luck, and the strength to rebound from reverses.

6) Be a good communicator.

You have to communicate who you are and what you want. Work on your language skills. I mean your use of words, your ability to speak and write clearly and simply but forcefully. If you have the time, learn another language. Knowing many languages has greatly increased my luck and business opportunities. In our global village, the importance of languages will only increase. Japanese is now the biggest blogging language on the web!

7) Be true to your craft and trade.

An accountant can write a good business plan and do the ROI analysis, but is unlikely to make a good shoemaker. Every start-up, every enterprise, every venture, is based on a craft or specialized field of knowledge. Be true to the Hippocratic Oath of your chosen field of activity. People will know if you are for real and then you will start to get lucky.

Give luck a chance to happen! Practice these seven habits. You can start as a student or any time you want, but there are no guarantees.

Love-heart Chihuahua

"How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie's for sale."

A Chihuahua puppy born in Japan with a natural heart shaped pattern on his coat has captured the hearts of animal lovers around the world.

Heart-kun, as he has been named by owner Emiko Sakurada, was born on May 18, 2007, one of a litter of puppies at the Pucchin Dogs shop.

His natural heart-shaped markings on his fur have made him an instant star in Japan. And it was a case of puppy love across the world as the tiny dog made television appearances worldwide.

Shop owner Ms Sakurada got the surprise of her life when she saw the birthmark heart markings in the fur of her tiny pooch.

She said it was the first time a puppy with these marks had been born out of the 1,000 animals that she has bred.

Since Heart-kun was born, he has brought a lot of luck, according to Ms Sakurada. He sister got lucky on the lottery and won a concert ticket.

Heart-kun's owner has been inundated with requests from people wanting to purchase the unique puppy. But they can keep their paws off him, she says, for her little four-legged friend ain't going nowhere!