What’s next? Food riots in 2012, and The Great Famine in 2015?
- US military warns that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years, and there could be serious oil shortages by 2015.
- Ancient Assyrian treaty is very similar in form and style to the Biblical story of God’s covenant with the Israelites.
- Using satellites to find fossilized skeletons.
- Hidden treasure: The explosion in commercial archaeology (archaeologists brought in to excavate before any sort of construction) has brought a flood of information. The problem now is figuring out how to find and use this unpublished literature.
- Shroud of Turin enters 3-D age. Video.
- Nine recently-discovered pre-Stonehenge megaliths in England linked to death rituals.
- A prehistoric town that had remained untouched beneath the ground near Syria for 6,000 years is now revealing clues about the first cities, prior to the invention of the wheel.
- Caribbean abyss throws up secrets of ocean life. Scientists tell of their awe at discovering volcanoes three miles down in the Cayman Trough, setting for The Abyss.
- Ancient supervolcano created giant underwater mountain chain.
- Swirling dust shocks physicists: Swarms of self-charging particles defy gravity — and expectations.
- Prominent atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are paying lawyers to investigate the possibility of prosecuting Pope Benedict XVI for crimes against humanity. (Followed by 659 comments – so far.)
- Vatican ‘forgives’ The Beatles. Shouldn’t they be asking for forgiveness instead?
- Raj Patel: ‘Messiah? Me? Coincidence led to my being hailed as a prince of peace. But change will come from our own hard work, not a deity.’
- From Mortal to Messiah to a Screen Near You?
- Up close and phenomenal: 20-year-old Hubble telescope is still delivering stunning views of the universe. Hubble’s greatest hits: Top 20 images — or get out your glasses and view them in 3-D.
- Apollo 13: NASA’s finest hour? What caused the Apollo 13 accident?
- ‘Life as we don’t know it’ in the universe? Start with Titan.
- Mars microbes may juice up on rocket fuel.
- The first animals that do not depend on oxygen to breathe and reproduce have been discovered by scientists on the bed of the Mediterranean Sea.
- Earthworms form herds and make ‘group decisions’.
- Aliens are living on earth disguised as humans, according to one fifth of adults in a new global survey.
- Yeti and other mangy monster sightings on the rise.
- 30-second video clip reveals saucer-shaped UFO being chased by two RAF fighter jets. Nick Pope says, ‘This is one of the best videos I’ve seen.’
- Rock On, Brazil! The Brazilian glasnost on UFOs is starting to get embarrassingly endearing.
- Inventors wanted. Cool tools provided.
- Researchers harness viruses to split water – crucial step for turning water into hydrogen fuel.
- Britain’s first ever solar panel has been uncovered after being forgotten in a box for 60 years – and incredibly, it still works.
- An Internet for Everybody: FCC can regain its authority to pursue both net neutrality and widespread broadband access by formally relabeling Internet access services as ‘telecommunications services,’ rather than ‘information services,’ as they’re now called.
- Hallucinogens have doctors tuning in again.
- Doubts about the social plague stir in the human superorganism.
- Friends frozen out, as Botox deadens facial expression. But…
- Humans are hard-wired to equate looks with character, study finds.
- Egg donors offered up to $50,000. Fees far exceed ethics guidelines, study finds.
- Millions in UK have bought a high definition TV — but don’t have a clue how to make it work.
- Incurable gonorrhea may be the next superbug. Some strains of the STD show signs of becoming resistant to all treatments.
- Painful experiences, both physical and emotional, are blunted by handling cash.
- Treebeard was right — going south does feel like going downhill (so to speak). Chalk it up to cognitive distortion.
- A three-year-old boy brought back from the dead after his heart stopped beating for over three hours has told how he saw his great-grandmother in Heaven.
- Rothschild: Keep trains out of my 5,000-acre back yard. The financier is leading a revolt against plans for a 250mph railway line that will cut through swathes of the countryside.
- New nine-part, seventy-minute review of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones is now online at YouTube. ‘Bout time. 😉
Big hat tip to Mind Hacks.
Quote of the Day:
From the Bible to Knight Rider to The Matrix, the story’s the same: in crappy times, a single person will emerge to make all the difference and turn everything around. Although it makes for great viewing, it makes for a bad society. Ultimately, tales about messiahs are bedtime stories steeped in power. They’re debilitating soporifics, inducements to be passive as we wait for social change because, some day, our prince will come.
Why wait, though? If the world is to transform, faith in politicians offering hope and change is a recipe for disappointment. Ask almost anyone who voted for Obama. Change happens through millions of acts of rebellion and mutual aid, not through faith in one great leader. What’s depressing about this whole Maitreya thing is that it is a sign that we’ve given up on ourselves, that we need to depend on The One rather than finding the means to fix our own problems directly.
The thing is that there are millions of world teachers already. I’ve been lucky enough to report what they’re teaching: from former petrol-pump attendants in South Africa to masked women in Mexico, leaders are subjecting themselves to democratic control, and messing with the boundaries of private property so that everyone gets to share the world’s resources. Their vision of the commons looks a lot like what Maitreya might bring to Earth (and for which Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel prize in economics last year). And the good news is that it has been here all along.
Raj Patel, here.
