Two, four, six, eight, bog in, don’t wait.
- Reports from soldiers in Iraq paint a different picture to what Bushco spins. Excellent article from the UK’s Independent newspaper.
- The rich found guilty of relatively minor offences are staying in private five-star jails, if they know the right people.
- Banning the building of new homes and schools within 60 metres of electricity pylons would dramatically reduce the occurence of childhood leukaemia, a UK report says. I’m glad I grew up within spitting distance of three power stations.
- Oddball schemes for tackling global warming, including a giant sunshade in orbit, will be rejected by UN experts this week. I saw the giant sunshade on The Simpsons.
- More than 100’000 people in rural India have benefited from an innovative loan scheme that helps families buy home solar power systems.
- Here’s a terrific orbital photograph showing the entire Earth lit up by electricity.
- Future Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd is offering a $300 million plan involving interest-free loans to households converting to green power.
- The largest earthquake in the UK since 2002 has shaken parts of Kent.
- The US Navy was recently granted a patent for a cavitation weapon that uses sonar.
- Grey whales in the eastern Pacific are disappearing, and scientists think it’s because of a lack of food.
- The legend of an eight-foot-long 800-pound wild pig named Hogzilla, shot in Georgia USA, will be made into a horror movie. I guess no one remembers the 1984 aussie flick Razorback.
- Adding to the mystery of disappearing bee colonies, millions of bees are also missing in Taiwan.
- People with migraines may also be suffering from brain damage, as brain cells swell and become starved of oxygen.
- Researchers hope to bypass the normal routes of bionics with video cameras set deep into the brain, allowing the blind to see.
- Nanotechnology is showing promise in treating spinal cord injuries and could eventually reverse paralysis.
- A British woman wears a metallic veil to protect herself from severe allergic reactions to electropollution caused by electrical appliances, WiFi and mobile phones.
- New mind-reading technology could revolutionise games and entertainment; or turns us all into mindless zombie slaves of [insert Multinational Corporation logo here].
- Sony is in big trouble for using a freshly slaughtered goat and topless women at a promotional party launching the new video game God of War II (Amazon US or UK). Sony defends itself. I hope I get invited to the promotional party for Age of Conan.
- A Dutch man has built a half-sized replica of Noah’s Ark, complete with model animals. Tours are completely booked out for the year 2012.
- The Palestinian Authority’s Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage is striving to have the famous ruins of Tel es-Sultan included on the World Heritage List.
- Archaeologists have discovered the place where Trojan hero Aeneas is believed to have first set foot in Italy.
- Ancient Roman artworks 1900-years-old have been discovered underneath an Italian restaurant in London.
- Excavations of a 3200-year-old cemetery in Iran have revealed humans and animals were buried together alongside clay vessels.
- Archaeologists have discovered a 2500-year-old tomb in China containing more than 40 coffins made of a rare wood called nanmu.
- Mexican archaeologists found the remains of two women and a man that could be more than 10’000-years-old, in the Mayan area of Tulum.
- An interesting article discussing the origins of otherworldly beings in myth and prehistory.
- NASA scientists believe they have found a way to predict the colour of plants on planets in other solar systems. Or they could just ask extraterrestrial visitors.
- Gyrochronology is a new method for accurately determining the ages of field stars based on their rotational rates. Not to be confused with gyrobotoxology, a technique that can determine the real age of Hollywood stars.
- A robotic probe designed to explore an Antarctic lake could be the ideal tool to explore Europa and other icy moons.
- The ashes of Star Trek actor James Doohan have been launched into space from a private spaceport in New Mexico. Live long and prosper, Scotty.
- An Australian woman is the first person to book a seat aboard Virgin Galactic.
- The Queen of England plans to stop by for a cup of tea at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center when she visits the USA in May. Advice to American tea-makers: boil the water in a kettle, don’t just pour it from the hot water tap!
- The head of Russia’s space agency says the USA has snubbed an offer to jointly explore the moon, but announced a separate contract with NASA for nearly US$1billion.
- After the announcement of a Goldilocks planet last week comes the problem of working out how to get to a planet 20 light years from Earth. One name: Robert Bigelow.
- Astrobiology magazine discusses the Goldilocks Zone, the Eldorado of exobiology.
- A World War II veteran talks about his encounters with Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl looks good for his age.
- Brendan Burton of the Open Minds Forum discusses whether the Guernsey UFO encounter is part of the extraterrestrial Disclosure show, or military technology.
- Is this a photograph of the Guernsey UFOs, taken by a passenger?
- The very colourful Cosmos magazine has a new online serialised novel by acclaimed scifi author Damien Broderick and his wife Barbara Lamar.
- Broderick has an excellent new nonfiction book coming out soon, Outside the Gates of Science: Why It’s Time for the Paranormal to Come In from the Cold (Amazon US or UK).
- For New Age tourism, you still need to pack clean underwear to visit sacred sites and partake in metaphysical activities.
Thanks Kat.
Quote of the Day:
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
Isaac Asimov
