**Splat**
Have you ever noticed that some walls are harder than others?
- Sean McCarthy and Richard Walshe: two men who think they’re about to change the world.
- 2,500-year-old mummy of Scythian warrior found in Mongolia.
- Newly-found condo-like neolithic cave complex suggests not all cavemen were club-wielding, nomadic hunter-gatherers, but included some farmers and shepherds.
- Ramses ll trundles back to Giza.
- Water system at Iron Age palace in Israel was renovated by the Persians after they took control around 539 BC. (3 click-to-enlarge photos)
- Amateur collector, who was unable to convince scholars during his lifetime that he had discovered a painting by El Greco, is finally proven right.
- Sulfur stinks up accepted ideas about when the Earth’s atmosphere began to contain oxygen.
- Pluto demoted to one of three newly-defined ‘dwarf planets’. Widow of Pluto’s discoverer shook up, but says Clyde Tombaugh would have understood.
- Countdown begins for Sunday’s space shuttle launch.
- International Space Station: Stepping-stone to Mars mission.
- Here we go again: Possible signs of alien life have been found inside a Martian meteorite.
- Row over hurricanes: Climate scientists are divided over why hurricanes have become so destructive.
- Worst hurricanes yet to come, hurricane chief says.
- The pumping of necessary liquids (e.g. oil and fresh water) consumes nearly 20% of the world’s electrical energy supply. That could soon change, due to a Russian researcher who claims he has designed a pump that uses 80% less power.
- Pioneering drug treatment restores memory function in mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
- Psychologists ponder what propels people who seek fame.
- Conspiracy theories abound as ‘evolutionary biology’ is mysteriously left off the list of undergraduate subjects eligible for a US federal grant.
- In Ecuador, newly-discovered spiders hunt in packs that employ tactics and teamwork, and live in cooperative family-based communities.
- To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across southern Alabama.
- Killer whales settle personal disputes like humans.
- Leading indicators of octopus intelligence are that they get bored, they play, and there are hints they may even have a sense of humor. They can also do mazes, learn shapes, distinguish colors, and use tools. Don’t you wonder how they manage all that without a brain?
- Fungi are the secret to tasty coffee.
- Thousands flock to see statues of Hindu gods drinking milk. Television pictures showed the milk disappearing as people held up spoonfuls to the dieties.
- Princeton study finds people take just a tenth of a second to make character judgments about the people they meet.
- Snakes on the Brain.
- Two NSA whistleblowers found dead: both had uncovered a secret bugging system installed in cell phones around the world. More.
- Peter Lance, author of Triple Cross: How Bin Laden’s Chief Security Adviser Penetrated the CIA, the FBI, and the Green Berets – and Paved the Way for 9/11 (Amazon US & UK), has accused the National Geographic Channel of diluting a documentary about the book in order to protect the government.
- Humboldt squid, jellyfish point to ocean upsets.
- Needed wisdom from a forgotten source: A review of Aaron Sachs’ The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism. Amazon US & UK.
Thanks Pam.
Quote of the Day:
It’s a long road for such a narrow path, and a po’ man’s [considered] no better than a yellow dog.
My dad, whenever he felt like I feel right now.
