Stuart Hameroff's "Quantum Consciousness" website has been updated with a new addition from Sir Roger Penrose. This short piece is from an article in the January issue of Nature, in which the world’s top physicists were surveyed regarding their thoughts on the current status of the search for a “Theory of everything”.

Penrose, who has worked with Hameroff on the quantum consciousness model, commented:

The terminology 'theory of everything' has always worried me. There is a certain physicist's arrogance about it that suggests that knowing all the physical laws would tell us everything about the world, at least in principle. Does a physical theory of 'everything' include a theory of consciousness? Does it include a theory of morality, or of human behaviour, or of aesthetics?

Penrose goes on to outline that he thinks physics is still a long way from a 'Theory of Everything'. The full text is available from the link above.

The Biblical Archaeology Society has a couple of interesting pieces of merchandise on offer for those interested in the history and archaeology of the Biblical period. In the DVD Where Jesus Walked, presenter Hershel Shanks talks to the "world's most prominent archaeologists and biblical scholars" about the latest findings regarding 1st century Palestine.

Meanwhile, a second offering from the BAS is a CD-ROM containing the archives of Biblical Archaeology Review. This CD features 1600 articles and 8000 breathtaking photos, maps, drawings and charts from issues between 1975 to 2003. The CD also features a subject index for fast searching...quite a resource. More details available from the above links.

Magonia Magazine has released its Magonia Supplement #54, which this issue features an in-depth abduction experience investigation. Also in the latest supplement is a further analysis of the MJ-12 documents, as well as a letter on the supra-physical abilities of abducting aliens. Plenty of other cool articles to read in the Magonia Archives, so take your time and look around.

My third eye needs a good squeedgee-clean...

• JIMO and Hubble suffer in new NASA budget.
• Not content to do it to one planet, scientists theorise we could inject greenhouse gases into Mars' atmosphere to make it habitable.
• Science fact and fiction about space rescue technology.
• Get your tickets now to watch an asteroid fly-by in 2029. That graph makes things look a bit too close for a 25 year prediction...
• Arecibo begins massive sky survey.
• Dust devils and a high voltage Mars.
• Opportunity gives us a closer look at its own 'crash site'.
• Star Trek Enterprise cancelled after four seasons.
• Got a few pennies (okay, a lot of pennies) to spare? Why not bid at the origins of cyberspace auction at Christie's?
• New geometric computer programming language could move us towards a truly clever artificial intelligence.
• Spam fighters go on the offensive.
• Libido meter tests level of sexual arousal. Do these scientists realise that man has an inbuilt libido meter, with needle and all?
• Researchers study of bird flocking behaviour may lead to insights into mob mentality.
• Influential evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr passes away, aged 100.
• Anniversary of Bob Marley's 60th birthday brings Rastafarianism to the fore.
• On a related note, marijuana makes blood rush to the head. And yes, I would consider 50 joints a day a 'heavy' smoker. That guy must go through some chocolate biscuits.
• Why does a graph of sun cycles look like a butterfly?
• Wiccan stands her ground against local discrimination.
• Scholars debate Biblical archaeology controversies.
• Solar panels to power historic Scottish castle.
• Ancient statue of naked Hermes fitted with protection. Earthquake protection, that is...
• Uncovered ancient Malaysian ruins are not part of the lost city of Kota Gelanggi, says government.
• Will World Heritage listing make a difference to cultural treasures of India?
• Women thrashed with brooms to remove ghosts.
• 'Crazy Radio' gives mental patients a voice.
• University of California considers barcodes for cadavers. Is that for tracking or for distribution to Wal-Mart?
• Hoop snake story is quite a tail...err, tale. I live for the day when a hoop snake takes on a drop bear. We even have signs warning of the danger.
• Fiery objects across the UK.
• For all the latest in UFO activity, here's Filers Files #6-2005.
• To many Romanians, vampires are a terrifying reality.
• Tracks on Australian beach caused by panther or prankster?
• Move over Hogzilla, here comes Hog Kong (with image). Props to whoever came up with those names.
• Bigfoot Museum investigates everything Sasquatch.
• AmericanMonsters.com present an interview with Loren Coleman.
• Randi's latest newsletter, with weeping Madonnas, Sylvia Browne, and 'converts' to the CSICOPian religion.
• Here's the details of the latest issue of New Scientist. How they do that on a weekly basis I don't know.
• Also, here's the latest Near-Death Newsletter.
  

Thanks Pam.

Quote of the Day:

He who confronts the paradoxical exposes himself to reality.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Once again, what's happening on alternative radio this week:

Jeff Rense Show: No schedule at time of posting, check the link later for updates.

Coast to Coast AM: Monday night futurist Paul Guercio and physicist Dr George Hart will be discussing their 'Merlin Project', Tuesday author and Anglican Priest Lionel Fanthorpe returns to talk about Knights Templar and the story behind the Da Vinci Code, Wednesday Dr Bruce Lipton will be discussing the recent advances in cellular science that are heralding an important evolutionary turning point, Thursday night JZ Knight shares her story about channeling Ramtha.

More details including relevant guest links are available at the respective websites. Also C2C can be listened to through KOGO.

A tip of the hat to my good friend Blair Blake, for mentioning my book Da Vinci in America on the Toolband.com website. Regular readers here will be familiar with my respect (read 'awe') for TOOL, so it's a buzz to be linked from their website. Anybody not familiar with TOOL's music should begin their education now. And Blair's a handy wordsmith himself, you can check out his book of visionary poetry - IJYNX - by purchasing it from the 'Shop' section of Toolband.com.

Trying to quit drinks with too much caffeine/sugar is like learning how to fly by flapping your arms in a bird-like manner. It's a new moon this week -- I wish you all a happy Losar and Year of the Rooster.

• A Tibetan remembers childhood Losar celebrations. Who will remember the Tibetans?
• Soothsayers warn us to beware of earthquakes and typhoons in the Year of the Rooster. What else will the Chinese New Year bring? Shanghai dumplings, I hope.
• Thank the Gods it isn't the Year of the Duck.
• Unfortunately there's been no updates to the rumour of a UFO crash near the Nepal-Chinese border. Does posting no news count as news?
• In Xinjiang Province, Northeast China (close to the Mongolian border), Zhang Hui is excavating stone circles that he believes are prehistoric versions of modern-day crop circles.
• BIG NEWS: 600-year-old ruins of a Chinese fortress discovered somewhere on the Atlantic coast of North America. Is it May 16th yet? Is it? Is it? Awww, there's 97 days to go ...
• In China, a Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) fortress has been discovered. The Chinese made a lot of fortresses. Now they make Doctor Martens boots, stitched with triple happiness by Shaolin Monks, and wearing them is like floating on the Five Clouds of Immortal Comfort.
• In Liangzhu, skeletons of dogs lie next to their masters in tombs dating back 4000-5300 years ago. Dogs are so loyal. I hope my golden retriever Macy is reading this.
• Beijing's Drum Tower, built in AD 1272, is being destroyed by vandals and thieves.
• Imagine trying to piece together more than 700 fragments of oracle bones and inscribed tortoiseshell. That's one hell of a jigsaw puzzle.
• A fossil discovered in Antarctica contradicts the theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds.
• Is reading TDG making you hungry? Sample a delicious dish of stir-fried Mammoth with 10'000-year-old-rice.
• If you don't find this appetizing, then try eating it with 137-year-old Tabasco sauce.
• In the jungles of Malaysia, a 1000-year-old lost city thought to be Kota Gelanggi, an early trading center of the Srivijaya empire, waits to be discovered.
• In Kazakhstan, an ancient warrior's costume made of gold more than 2000-years-old will be presented to the public.
• The battle over the construction of a motorway through Ireland's sacred Tara Skreen Valley continues.
• In Russia's Valley of Death, megaliths are protected by isolation. Sounds like the Cave of No Return -- I know, because I've been there before.
• Mongolia has similar megaliths (with excellent photographs).
• Philip Coppens has an article discussing African artifacts made of gold found in an Illinois cave.
• Missing for 55 years, the search is on for the Pedro Mountain Mummy, which could prove Arapaho and Shoshone tales of savage pygmies who lived in the Wyoming mountains. Homo Floresiensis anyone?
• A rare, and very dead, sea creature washed up on a Perth (Australia) beach. Halellujah, this article has a photo! This'd make great sushi with the 10'000-year-old rice.
• Japanese researchers have discovered colonies of tiny soft-bodied animals in the deepest parts of the world's oceans.
• Caffeine addiction is a mental disorder, according to researcher. No, trying to quit caffeine is a mental disorder. I think I'm going crazy.
• A program is being developed that will project what you will look like in five years' time after too much alcohol, junk food and not enough exercise. Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? I'm going to rewrite the Snow White tale ...
• An American R&B singer says the devil made him poke out his eye. Listening to R&B and other McDonalds music makes me want to poke my eyes out too. In other entertainment news, Ozzie Osbourne says drugs made him have conversations with horses. No Ozzie, that was Britney Spears you were talking to.
• Are my witty jokes making you laugh? According to an Australian scientist, laughter changes the way you see the world, quite literally.

Quote of the Day:

To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.

Lao-Tzu

For anyone wanting to discuss my book Da Vinci in America, I'm actually the 'Author of the Month' over at Graham Hancock's website so drop on in if you have any questions about the book (or any topic really). In my capacity of AOM, I have contributed an article to GHHQ titled "Dan Brown and the Udjat", and will be available each day to discuss any topics at all on the Author of the Month messageboard. Thanks to Graham and Steve for having me at their site.

Everything's right here - the good, bad, and ugly. Oh yeah, don't forget unexpected and strange.

• In the name of poking holes in the theory of evolution, a man says he will pay $10,000 for one of the most mysterious artifacts ever dug up in Wyoming -- the Pedro Mountain Mummy.
• Was the Aztec and Mayan practice of human sacrifice as widespread and horrifying as the history books say?
• Archeologists plan to search for what they believe an ancient lost city in Malaysia's dense jungles.
• A unique book that purports to explain the past existence of giant beings referred to in the Bible as the Nephilim is skyrocketing up online best-sellers lists. Patrick Heron's web site is here. The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse is available at Amazon US and UK.
• An Arabic-language web site carried a hostage photo this week of a toy soldier with a gun to its head. All your toy soldiers are belong to us.
• Iran has conducted successful experiments on a crucial triggering mechanism for a nuclear weapon. We suppose the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that Iran ratified is off.
• Australian scientists are working on ways to make voice-operated booking systems, like ordering a taxi, recognize when callers are angry or stressed.
• Food scarcity predicted with rising temperatures. Seems to me that growing seasons would be extended in some places, but that's not mentioned.
• Coral reefs may start to dissolve in 30 years.
• What shall we do with all the notorious carbon dioxide? How about carbon burial in ageing oil wells?
• Lava lights up new spots on the Hawaiian coast. Wow, great pic.
• Older people get the big picture faster, and they are less inhibited.
• Tiny single-celled organisms are found beneath nearly 7-miles of water in the deepest part of the ocean.
• That damn groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, has forecast six more weeks of winter in the US. Animals clue weather watchers into trends.
• How do they all turn at the same instant? A study has revealed a remarkably simple mechanism that allows flocking birds, schooling fish or running herds to travel in unison without any recognized leaders or signaling system.
• In a place like no other place, where the Andes meet the Amazon, where icy peaks plunge straight down to steamy jungles, a monkey like no other monkey is discovered.
• Sour apples extend lifespan.
• The great evolution debate rages on.
• When mushrooms go wild.
• Home PCs to find Einstein's gravity waves.
• Lasers can help us fill in the gaps in one of Einstein's key theories on how particles move a century after he first published it.
• A South Korean professor has developed a series of artificial chromosomes that, he says, will allow robots to feel lusty, and could eventually lead to them reproducing.
• Do you need speed? Here's a compendium of the fastest things the world has to offer, and a celebration of the technological breakthroughs that feed the rush.
• On Wednesday, Jameske gave you a link to an article that claimed that birds aren't stupid. Allow me to show you that birds are very clever. You look like you need to laugh anyway.
• A new study suggests that race fear isn't hard wired.
• A mirror is being developed to show you what you will look like in five years' time if you take no exercise, eat too much junk food and drink too much alcohol. Why is all the fun stuff bad for you?
• What should one make of the prophetic secrets of Fatima?
• Man holds mysterious stones that he believes may have once been alive.
• Here's a list of all of the scientists and microbiologists that have recently died under 'mysterious circumstances'. Make of it what you will.
• It is possible to say now that the Sun will cause a mess on Earth in the near future?
• Officials at the British defence ministry are refusing to rule out the existence of alien life forms visiting Earth.
• Researchers with the High Frequency Active Aurora Research Program (HAARP) project in Alaska tickled the upper atmosphere to the extent that it glowed with green speckles. Sometimes things don't like to be tickled.
• Alan Boyle has some great pics of Mars that were snapped by NASA's Mars Odyssey probe. The newest face on Mars looks like Bugs Bunny; close friend Marvin the Martian should be around somewhere.
• A night-side glow has been detected on Mars.
• Britain's ill-fated Beagle 2 Mars probe should never have been given the go-ahead by the ESA. Hindsight is always easier, isn't it?
• Injecting synthetic "super" greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere could raise the planet's temperature enough to melt its polar ice caps and create conditions suitable for sustaining biological life. This GW might even work because Mars has no green plants.
• In the most precise reading of Saturn's temperatures ever taken from Earth, a new set of infrared images suggests a warm polar vortex at Saturn's south pole - the first warm polar cap ever to be discovered in the solar system.
• Like dew or dust caught in a spider's web, much of the universe's ordinary matter appears to be trapped in a vast lattice of intergalactic gas clouds.

Quote of the Day:

The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing.

Aleister Crowley

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