News Briefs 30-05-2012

I can't get a date to see Prometheus because of my ginger beard, which I'm growing for the Beards for Bears campaign to help Animals Asia rescue bears from bile farms. So please make my hairy loneliness worth it, and donate a few bucks.

• 'Mexico' and other words to avoid if you don't want the US Govt spying on you.
• Oldest known Olmec altar and stela unearthed at Chalcatzingo in central Mexico.
• The UFO sighting that convinced a British Government minister we are not alone.
• New movie Montauk Chronicles claims time travel, mind control, & ET contact at Long Island air force base.
• Texas witness saw hovering UFO's edges blur and sharpen.
• Arctic microbe hunt could help search for alien life on Mars, Europa, & Enceladus.
• Six days to go until the once-in-a-lifetime transit of venus!
• Two asteroids recently flew past Earth, in case you felt the wind whip past your ears.
• Climate change may have ended the Harappan civilisation... if ancient nukes didn't get them first.
• Families who call India's otherworldly Hampi temple complex 'home' face eviction.
• Fascination with a fatal mountain: Wade Davis on why people climb Everest.
• Boy buys polaroid camera at garage sale, recieves message from deceased uncle.
• Dog tangled & slowly strangled by phone cord manages to dial emergency services. The dog survived, but no one's seen the cat.
• Atheists & Neuroscience: Robert McLuhan comments on skeptics & consciousness.
• Why your perception of time will never be exact.
• Jim Henson's 1966 experimental short film on keeping time.
• Japan's hidden tropical island, Aogashima, is like a Bond villain's lair.
• New research suggests apes have human-like personalities. And vice-versa.
• Richard Leakey predicts skepticism of evolution will soon be history.
• Dormice use their whiskers to climb trees. I hope to do the same with my beard.

Thanks RPJ.

Quote of the Day:

Incredible the animal that first dreamed of another animal.

Carlos Fuentes, Terra Nostra