News Briefs 29-01-2007

Last night I was woken from a terrific nap by Tool playing right across the road from my house, literally. Turn the volume down next time, Maynard! ;-)

• Part I of an article by Mary Alice Bennett discussing giants in the Americas. Chinese import basketballer Ming Yao doesn't count.
• Cryptomundo has screenshots of the San Francisco Bay sea serpent filmed by Bill and Bob Clark.
• A second O'Hare UFO pic has come to light. This must be a hoax, witnesses never mentioned lights around its rim.
• Another UFO was photographed in Poland last December, and this one's very interesting.
• France's National Space Studies Centre (CNES) are about to release an archive of over 1600 cases of UFO sightings. Their cellar of over 1600 cases of wine will remain top secret.
• Earthfiles has an excellent article (with photos) about encounters with UFOs and animal mutilations on a farm in North Dakota.
• A review of Hollow Earth by David Standish (Amazon US or UK). Looks like a good book, but where do giant drills fit into his idea that our fascination with a Hollow Earth "can be seen as a sort of ultimate metaphysical retreat to the womb"?
• New scientific research suggests the moon affects human behaviour and health. "That's lunacy!" the skeptics cry.
• Novelist Michael Prescott discusses the bullying behaviour of the academic elite and their crusading skeptics. Excellent read.
• Just don't mention the war at this meeting of 800 skeptics and "freethinkers".
• American Chronicle's R. Lee discusses the new meme of skeptics to discredit the UFO phenomenon; label it as a religion. Look out, R. Lee, I bet they have a voodoo doll in your likeness.
• New Scientist magazine and skeptics alike have been duped by a story suggesting Grand Canyon employees were ordered to give tourists the Creationist version of when the world wonder was formed.
• More than just ordinary sound vibrations are recorded by musicians; emotions, thoughts and a piece of their soul are transferred, according to Artie Wayne. That explains Soul music.
• Craniotomy, a surgical operation performed on the brain through an incision in the skull, may have been in use in China nearly 3000 years ago.
• The recipe for a 9000-year-old Chinese wine is being made and marketed as Chateau Jiahu by an American brewing company. I bet the label says Made In China.
• The inhabitants of a 2500-year-old city discovered in Mexico may have been influenced by the Olmec. By the Olmec themselves, or just the relics they left behind? With pics.
• A Taliban governor who oversaw the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas has been killed by a mystery assassin. Reports say he was whipped to death.

Quote of the Day:

Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

Rumi