Big badda boom. Badda boom crash. Need priest to exocise computer.
- Finally lending credence to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery, evidence suggests Druids committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice, possibly on a massive scale.
- Mexico City museum shines a torch on the country’s drug war in all its ugliness and complexity, but also devotes space to the ancient roots of drug use in Mesoamerica, such as the use of hallucinogenic peyote and mushrooms by the Maya and Aztecs.
- How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels. Janet Soskice’s Sisters of Sinai is available at Amazon US & UK.
- Revelation: Genius of medieval church builders rediscovered with crucifix that is only illuminated twice a year. Nice pics!
- A brief history of Stonehenge theories.
- Photos from the mid-1960s Lunar Orbiter program lay forgotten for decades, but archivist Nancy Evans was determined to see them restored.
- Shuttle and space station dodge debris again.
- Two former teachers take final spacewalk of shuttle mission. With video.
- Teens capture stunning images of space from 20-miles above Earth — with a £56 camera and a latex balloon.
- First two-time space tourist shells out $60 million for orbiting station vacations.
- With grit, spit and super gear, scientists cross icy unknown in search of climate clues.
- Maths professor comes up with formula that will solve any Sudoku.
- Enthusiasts say camel milk may be a cure-all.
- After legally buying poppy seeds, a University of Colorado student recently died of opium tea overdose. Unfortunately, as Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner discovered in the early 1800s, morphine and other opiates have a narrow therapeutic index, i.e. there’s an extremely fine line between their therapeutic and toxic effects.
- Teenager who fell unconscious in bath is saved by twin sister’s ‘sixth sense’.
- Parrot honored for saving toddler’s life.
- The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.
- Woman reports meeting ET with Scandinavian accent.
- I hate defending the religious beliefs of human beings to aliens.
- New stratospheric bugs probably not alien.
- Extreme sheep art goes viral.
- WikiLeaks exposes Australian web blacklist — and promptly crashes due to the huge surge in traffic.
- Obama administration says Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures does not apply to cell-site records.
- Geithner’s toxic asset bailout plan is worse than terrible (Galbraith), an awful mess and here’s why (Krugman), discouraging (Dean Baker), depressing (Calculated Risk), and utterly dishonest (Naked Capitalism).
- Are We Home Alone?
- Under US’s ‘education stimulus package’, well-off school districts will find themselves swimming in cash, while those that are struggling will get too little to avoid cutbacks.
- Wot, No Bush Rollback?
- Has Obama’s ‘Katrina Moment’ arrived?
Quote of the Day:
If this were a medical emergency, it appears it would look something like this:
The Illness– Reckless and irresponsible betting led to huge losses.
The Diagnosis– Insufficient gambling.
The Cure– A Trillion dollar stack of chips provided by the house.
The Prognosis– We are so screwed.
John Cole, at Balloon Juice.
