Strange beasts, evolving programs, ancient Americans and much, much more. It’s the Thursday news on TDG.
- Mass poisonings solved after 47 million years.
- The not-so-secret society: The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn.
- Tower of London’s raven mythology may be a Victorian flight of fantasy.
- A celebration of 30 years of Dungeons and Dragons, the game responsible for all the best parts of modern civilisation.
- Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet. Bill, what do you think, a new source of income?
- NASA scramjet breaks speed record. (As I reported a few weeks ago, the project has now been turned over to the military.)
- A monster hunter believes he may have filmed the serpent of Norway’s Lake Seljord
- A UFOlogist says those cunning aliens are simply spending years getting us ready for the ultimate encounter.
- Bigfoot’s cousin, the Florida swamp ape, is sighted shortly after Hurricane Charlie passed through.
- An author insists that the Tasmanian Tiger is alive but not at all well.
- The price of success: the recent test of the US’ airborne laser leads to a doubling of the program budget to around $3 billion (so far).
- Hey, where is my jet pack anyway? Tracking down progress on an elusive childhood fantasy.
- The solar system is like a great big grocery store, lets go mine the planets! So say some scientists and would-be space entrepreneurs.
- Ancient reptiles like plesiosaurs gave birth to live young. So much for that Nessie egg I got sold on ebay then…
- Both scientists and The Boss say we were Born To Run.
- The threats to rare US jaguars have increased along with sightings. Lets hope none stray onto that Texas ranch with the webcam guns eh?
- Lucky old Jameske – Ireland is the best place in the world to live.
- The Pentagon is turning biologists’ knowledge of evolution into a computer program to predict terrorist threats. Lets see the creationists match this one.
- A must-have reference work – the Ultimate Conspiracy Chart.
- When world’s collide – billions of years ago, the Moon was borne after a collision between earth and a companion planet.
- Geopolitics: Welcome to the new cold war. It’s Chirac vs. Cheney, SUVs vs. minicars, and pommes frites vs. freedom fries in the new transatlantic culture war. (This article is well worth getting the daily pass to read.)
- Oh, and welcome back to the old cold war, as Putin restarts his country’s push for newer and bigger nukes.
- Young chimps are smarter than human children, says a new study.
- “I see you your 15,000 year old pottery and raise you a 50,000 year old fire-pit“. More on the oldest Americans.
- The Kyoto Protocol becomes legally binding on its signatories on February 16th. It’s not enough but it’s a start.
- New Scientist carries an interview with an Israeli secret service interrogator under the banner “Meet the people shaping the future of science”.
Quote of the Day:
We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
Richard Feynman
