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News Briefs 19-10-2006

Learner spoon-benders, today has the news you’ve been waiting for…

  • Readers try to unlock code to ‘Da Vinci’ sequel. Marvellous how a long and interesting phone interview gets reduced to an extremely bland one sentence. I wonder if Kat will ever speak to me again for speaking to Fox News.
  • The Da Vinci Code provides a boost for Scotland’s tourism industry.
  • Spanish scholars look for the real man who ‘sailed the ocean blue‘ in 1492.
  • Another story on Google Earth being used for armchair archaeology.
  • Digging for the Garden of Eden in Turkey. Don’t eat any apples!
  • Investigating the truth behind the ‘Quamar Ali Dervish stone’.
  • John Keel remains hospitalised – and Loren Coleman provides an address for any get-well cards to be sent to.
  • Enfield poltergeist investigator Maurice Grosse passes away, aged 90.
  • Uri Geller seeks paranormal protege in reality TV show. Call me psychic, but I can already see the topic of next week’s newsletter from James Randi. Do I get the million if I’m right?
  • ‘Jolted’ fish gave early warning of Hawaii quake.
  • BBC News gives plenty of importance to the new US space policy, by making it their topline story this morning. For your convenience, they also provide the policy document as a downloadable PDF.
  • SETI Institute announcement turns out to be about the formation of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. I hope they allowed enough room for copious amounts of arm-waving…
  • Unusual meteorite uncovered in Kansas. Baby found inside answering to the name of Kal-El.
  • Hopes for lunar ice melt away, like…well, not like lunar ice obviously.
  • Google plans largest solar-powered office complex in the United States.
  • Research continues on marijuana-based drug for Alzheimer’s treatment. “Researchers are currently trying to develop a similar drug that could control inflammation in the brain without a concomitant high.” Damn killjoys. And here I was picturing pharmacists handing over packets of muffins…
  • New Scientist has another interesting article on ‘swarmbot’ technology, again with video.
  • Swarmbots of the natural kind – have you ever wondered how ants find their way so fast to that food you just put on the kitchen bench?
  • Ancient fish fossil may rewrite the story of human evolution.
  • Russian scientist seeks evidence for tsunami which inspired Biblical flood story.
  • Jordan plans new Temple Mount minaret.
  • Tycoon pulls out of deal to sell his Picasso painting for $139million, after he accidentally put a hole in it with his elbow.
  • Forget the old boy meets girl story. How about cat starts fire, dog saves owner, dog dies while trying to save cat. Perhaps proving that there is no such thing as a just and compassionate god.

Quote of the Day:

Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one.

Richard Dawkins

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