After several hours of queues on Saturday, I was told I couldn’t vote in the state election because I don’t exist. So I queued for several more hours to prove I do exist, only to be told, no, I don’t exist and I should come back on Monday. It’s Monday, and I didn’t go back. I quite like not existing.
- Experts who study dreams say we should throw out our dream dictionaries, because symbolism is personal.
- The Giving Gift, a holiday short story by Brian Joseph, author of The Gift Of Gabe (Amazon US or UK). I interviewed Brian somewhere on TDG, but can’t find it. Kat?
- A British historian is giving the bird to the belief that Thanksgiving is all about turkey. I’ll find you a proper parrot story next week, Shadows.
- A museum of sorcery and witchcraft has opened in Iceland. Bjork is the curator.
- Music therapy can improve the symptoms of schizophrenia, according to a new study. People playing walkmans too loudly on public transport make symptoms worse.
- A mysterious ‘dead zone’ in the US has scrambled remote-control car locks over the past few weeks.
- A US physicist says wireless electricity is on the way. That’s good news for the Japanese.
- Could the smudges that appear in Saturn’s rings be caused by massive lightning strikes?
- Cassini’s spectacular image of Saturn’s polar vortex puts in the same club as Venus.
- Indian scientists not only want to send probes to the moon, but also Mars by 2012. If that doesn’t inspire Alan Moore to write a new Captain Nemo adventure, I don’t know what will.
- Some scientists think air pollution could help combat global warming. It may save the Earth, but too bad we’ll all asphyxiate to death.
- A mass extinction 250 million years ago is responsible for the rich variety of sea creatures in the ocean today. Every time I eat sushi, I think of their sacrifice.
- Too bad the rich variety of sea creatures in the ocean today will be virtually extinct themselves in another 50 years. I feel like Fry eating the last anchovie in Futurama.
- According to Captain Obvious, money makes people selfish. It makes me happy.
- If you fancy busting Zahi Hawass for antiquities smuggling, then Operation Art Beat is for you. Good cop or bad cop, Greg?
- A Ming dynasty tomb has been discovered during the construction of a subway in Shanghai. Trains, not franchise food.
- Experts have always found tumi ceremonial knives through looters, but archaeologists in northern Peru have excavated the pre-Inca treasure for the first time. I guess that depends on how you define “looter”.
- An economic solution to the Fermi Paradox (we need a Red Pill entry for that) claims that extraterrestrials can’t afford to visit us. No wonder ET had no change to phone home.
- Scientific data supports the theory that a cow found mutilated on a Montana ranch dropped from the sky and bounced. Bill says it makes the beef more tender.
- Three people witnessed the transit of a triangular UFO over Caracas, Venezuela.
- Various reports from Tenerife of strange lights in the sky and household appliances playing up.
- Did an amateur photographer snap a UFO during a Dakota airshow?
- BBC’s Horizon is airing a program discussing the Panspermia theory, including India’s red rain.
Thanks Brian and Captain Obvious.
Quote of the Day:
Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about … Say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from the beginning of the universe.
Jalai Ud-Din Rumi