News Briefs 08-10-2012

I'm betting on Greg to win this $10,000 prize...

• Get your Nic Cage on with Smithsonian's 'Great American History Puzzle' - a multi-step, cryptographic history puzzle with a $10k prize.
• Long before the Egyptians began the pyramids, Neolithic man built a vast temple complex at the top of what is now Scotland: the Ness of Brodgar.
• Archaeologists have unearthed some seemingly out-of-place depictions of the sun god Helios in the mosaic floors of ancient synagogues.
• When did humans and Neandertals stop having sex?
• Who Mastered Fire? The heated archaeological debate about which hominids first started cooking.
• When did bare breasts become taboo in Western civilization?
• Did human evolution favor individualists or altruists?
• Watchtowers atop the Mayan ball court at Chichen Itza marked astronomical seasons.
• 50 shattered skulls found at the Templo Mayor in the heart of Mexico City.
• The sky caves of Nepal. Photo gallery.
• Can boring into the Earth's mantle cause a volcanic eruption?
• New engine could cut Mars travel time to three months using a form of fusion fuel — dilithium crystals.
• SpaceX launches cargo to ISS.
• A team of astronomers is now looking for Dyson Spheres.
• Five Billion Years of Solitude: Lee Billings on the science of reaching the stars.
• Making new neurons by reprogramming another type of brain cell.
• Willpower is a measurable form of mental energy that runs out as you use it, much like the gas in your car.
• There are up to 40 million viruses per cubic meter of air. You breathe in several hundred thousand per minute.
• Magnets kill cancer cells in lab.
• Sudden savant syndrome: a rare, barely-understood phenomenon whereby damage to the brain somehow unlocks a hidden talent.
• Declassified at last: Air Force’s Supersonic Flying Saucer schematics.
• Japanese satellite in orbit around Earth will flash a Morse code message that will be visible around the world from next month.
• Bacteria produce 24-karat gold nuggets from toxic chemical found in nature.
• Can the whole of Facebook see your private messages? Facebook claims it's just your paranoia playing tricks on you.
• The cancer lobby: If chemicals are carcinogens, should the government hide that information?
• The new MakerBot Replicator might just change your world -- or not.
• Do you think like a psychopath?
• Cinemax blankets Wall Street with fake ads aimed at the 1% - and leading to a twisted five-part examination.
• Social factors have a powerful influence on intelligence.
• Host manipulation: Who's in charge inside your head?
• Permanent exhibition to honour James Hutton, the father of modern geology, will include a 'time machine' to transport visitors back billions of years to see how the Earth was formed.

Quote of the Day:

God's word is true. I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. It's lies to try to keep me, and all the folks who were taught that, from understanding that they need a savior.

You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don't believe that the earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says.

Congressman Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a high-ranking member of the House Science Committee - and an MD.
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