It’s a whopper of a news day, folks!
- Don’t worry, NASA says that asteroid won’t hit Earth. Oh, wait! Russian experts disagree.
- Satellites sitting on either side of Sun create the most complete photos to date.
- YouTube: Seeing the Sun in a new way.
- Universe’s First Stars May Still Shine.
- Images show Mars’ shifting dunes.
- Kepler Space Observatory is breaking open the Milky Way: A six-pack of planets defies conventional wisdom.
- A tale of two planets: What does Earth-like mean?
- Were Aborigines the first astronomers? Tribes carefully arranged rocks to map the progress of the sun 10,000 years ago.
- Chernobyl birds have smaller brains.
- Human brains are shrinking. A shrinking brain is bad for birds at Chernobyl, but good for us. Riiiight!
- Cognitive dissonance debunked? But what if believers in cognitive dissonance continue to believe in it?
- An avian savant: Researchers are trying to figure out how the New Caledonian crow became such an outlier.
- Quantum navigation in the blink of a bird’s eye. This is the third time Greg’s emailed me this story, so obviously he wants us to read it.
- Dragonfly wings inspire micro wind turbine design.
- Biodiversity breakdown: New Zealand scientists say the extinction of two pollinating birds over a century ago has lead to a slow decline in common plants.
- Lost and Gone Forever: The discovery that species could become extinct shook the 19th century view of the world, and it should continue to trouble us today.
- A gallery of species lost — and on the brink.
- Droughts turning Amazon into CO2 producer: Two ‘hundred-year’ droughts in five years have raised concerns over the Amazon rainforest’s ability to counter greenhouse gas emissions.
- Catastrophic drought in the Amazon: Region set to outstrip US as CO2 emitter.
- Globally, 85% of oyster beds have disappeared. More.
- What’s up with Arctic sea ice?
- Climate change will bring more monster winter storms.
- Droughts, floods and food.
- Are governments closing the net around web freedom?
- I confess. I’m a member of Anonymous. Hail Xenu. Aaron Barr put together a ‘dossier’ for the FBI which contains a long list of ‘People’ alleged to be in Anonymous. Predictably, Barr’s company-website, email, and Twitter account were then hacked by Anonymous, which posted a considerable volume of material online, including Barr’s dossier.
- UK scientists develop vCJD test. Currently patients suspected of having the human form of BSE have to undergo a series of tests, including a brain biopsy, to confirm a diagnosis.
- Worldwide, 10% of adults are now obese — almost double the percentage in 1980.
- Another world: First film footage of uncontacted Amazon tribe.
- In 2011, there are 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide
- Tomb of Prophet Zechariah found?
- Stone Age Fertility Ritual Object: Etchings on a carved elk antler, dating to nearly 11,000 years ago, suggest it may have been used as a fertility object.
- A 16,500-year-old cemetery found in northern Jordan is the earliest known formal burial ground in the Middle East.
- Using Google Earth, an Australian archaeologist has discovered 2,000 potential archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia.
- Built to last: Huge Roman road found in Dorset forest… 1,900 years after it was constructed.
- Edison’s predictions for the year 2011, made in 1911.
- Mark Twain and the Fortune-Teller.
- High noon on Friedrichstrasse: The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.
- The World’s Top Ten Uncracked Codes.
- Ronald Reagan cared more about UFOs than AIDS.
- How long is a severed head conscious for? Not long enough for these guys…
- Headless Egyptian Mummy Mystery Thickens.
- Are revolutions becoming more contagious?
- Why Jerusalem UFO is ‘almost certainly a hoax.’
- Monkey waiters are exponentially creepier when they wear human faces.
- Recent Mothman sighting near Cincinnati, Ohio. Update: Mothman sighting – Middletown, Ohio.
- My children see dead people.
- The Octopus Conspiracy — a vast puzzle whose solution promises to illuminate not only a father’s death but the dark forces behind the world’s apparent chaos.
- These are the voyages of the Starship Yorktown, under the command of Captain Robert April. Gene Roddenberry’s original 1964 Star Trek pitch found!
- Brian Barritt versus The Grim Reaper. Let’s call it a points decision.
- The big questions: Science has answered many of the big questions, yet some age-old puzzles remain a mystery. Ten of the world’s top thinkers reveal what they would like to see investigated.
- 42: The answer to life, the universe and everything.
Thanks to Greg, GC, and Red Pill Junkie.
Quote of the Day:
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
