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News Briefs 04-12-2006

By Rick MGon

You’re gonna love today’s news.

  • A new study claims many of the Giza Pyramids’ stone blocks are made of concrete.
  • A Londonderry man claims in his new book that the Pyramids of Giza were built circa 800BC. Empire of Thebes, by Emmet Sweeney (Amazon US or UK).
  • A man has been arrested in France after advertising what he claims to be a lock of hair stolen from the mummy of Ramses II. So that’s why Zahi wears a hat.
  • A new theory suggests Stonehenge was a healing site.
  • A Roman sarcophagus discovered near Trafalgar Square could lead to the map of Roman London being redrawn.
  • A 1700-year-old stone tablet inscribed with an ancient curse aimed at a thief is one of many treasures excavated in Leicester.
  • A complex of tombs found under a pyramid in Peru offer clues to the mystery of a thousand-year-old pre-Incan culture. Includes pic of a tumi knife.
  • China has passed laws for the first time protecting the Great Wall, banning graffiti and driving on the wall. Blame Lara Croft.
  • More than 200 monuments at Delphi that were listed in a 1920s survey have since disappeared.
  • Experts say that Zoroaster’s Kaba will collapse if plans for the construction of a railroad near the ancient monuments continues.
  • The construction of a damn in northeastern India has been delayed by locals who claim it threatens a sacred lake holding the sword of a mythical hero.
  • The Book of THoTH has an interesting article discussing whether Vimanas of Ancient India were flying machines.
  • A Russian doctor of philosophy maintains that the mythical land of Hyperborea exists somewhere in the Arctic.
  • Russian officials apparently reported a UFO fell out of the sky and burned on impact somewhere in the taiga of East Siberia. A bit late with their news in Russia, Tunguska happened in 1908.
  • A Different Perspective discusses some of the best photographs of UFOs ever taken.
  • But it’s hard to please some UFOlogists — one pic is too fuzzy, while another is too clear to be true.
  • Does the Bayer stone head found in New York in 1932 depict the legendary Windigo from Native American folklore?
  • A 500-year-old document lists witchcraft and fairies as causes of death. One man was turned into a newt, but got better.
  • A researcher has found a link between lunar cycles and the stock market.
  • A 2005 article published in Scientific American by Christof Koch asking if “reality” is merely a movie inside our heads? If your brain can tap into the future, then you already know the answer to that.
  • Put this list of public parapsychology research centres next to the one containing emergency numbers and next of kin.
  • If you’re near Richmond, Virginia, why not check out the Virginia Paranormal Conference, hosted by the CPRI?
  • Japanese psychic Masako Mitaki endorses a new range of psychic USB memory sticks. Unidentified Supernatural Bullsh*t perhaps?
  • A professor has found chemicals gave the Stradivarius violins their uniquely beautiful sound.
  • Stephen Hawking says humans must colonize other planets if the species is to survive. He’s like a dog with a bone regarding this issue.
  • Astrobiologists ask if the Earth could be host to an undiscovered Shadow Biosphere, alternative forms of microbial life.
  • A meteorite that hit a lake is older than our Solar System.
  • Scientists have levitated small animals using sound. They’re looking for small children to volunteer, Greg.
  • Speaking of exhausted website administrators, is there an exhaustion epidemic? I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease last week, which explains my tiredness.

Thanks Kat and Pam.

Quote of the Day:

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.

Thomas Merton

Rick MG
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5 Comments

  1. Hashimoto’s Disease
    Rick said, ‘I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease last week, which explains my tiredness.’

    A research study published in the journals Microbiology and Infection reported strong evidence of a causative relationship between infection by a food-born bacteria known as Yersinia enterocolitica and development of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Why am I not surprised that, as this article points out, most labs don’t test for this bacteria; and your doctor may not know to order this test, and if he did order it, he’d also have to tell the lab to specifically look for this bacteria?

    Here’s more info, via google. As you’ll see, other infective agents have also been implicated, although none as strongly as Yersinia. If I were you, regardless of whether a lab test for it is + or -, I’d want to at least try a course of antibiotics before resigning myself to a lifetime of synthetic hormone pills.

    In any case, I hope you feel better soon.

    Kat

    1. Thanks Kat.
      Thanks Kat.

      I’ll definitely mention that to the specialist when I see them soon. Unfortunately, a course of antibiotics won’t fix the thyroid, it’s caused by a genetic autoimmune deficiency. Plus I was on a heavy course of antibiotics for a month to clear up a case of a bacterial infection caused by chicken not cooked properly, and that would have knocked any bacteria making a kingdom in my body out cold.

      Ah well, it could be a lot worse. At least I now know what the problem is, after bugging doctors about the symptoms for almost ten years now! And it can be treated. And it has a cool name. Domo arigato, Hashimoto-san.

      By the way, a study says most chicken is unsafe to eat, but the USDA disagrees.

  2. Lunar Stock Cycles
    Although we didn’t publish, in 1981 I was working with Domestic Investments at the Bank of Montreal and there was a new hip economic cycles theory that claimed to use “relativistic” computations, changing the wavelength depending on the market volume. When volume was above a certain threshold, they’d shorten the wave to 13 days, below another threshold, stretch it out to 15 days, and keep a norm of 14.

    “‘scuse me a moment …” sez I, the guy they all thought was pretty weird to begin with, “but that sounds awfully LUNAR to me”

    So we took 10 years of bond data graphed out on one long long roll stretched down the hallway of my apartment and Nick went down one side of the roll marking in the predictions of the relativistic cycle theory while I worked down the other side noting phases of the moon out of an ephemeris. At the end of 10 years data we compared our predictions; there was very little corrlation of the actual moments of action, but the net accuracy of both methods was nearly identical. We also noticed what probably every farmer and fisherman in the world already knows, that the market will TEND to change around the full and new moons; if it is going down, it will turn up or level out, if going up, it will go down or level out. Simply assuming that simple change model didn’t always make money on the trades, and a skilled trader would probably make a great deal more, but that simple model did score just as well on the profit side as the complicated relativistic cycles model.

    We didn’t publish, but we did tell the other economists about our informal experiments. Our results were taken by our colleagues as a discrediting of the “fringe-science” relativistic cycles method 😉

      1. hip?
        At first I thought that “hip economic cycles” were something like knee economic cycles, or maybe elbow economic cycles.

        It makes about much sense as some other economic theories. The “hip” stuff could be related to old rich people needing surgery, because of broken hip joints. “Hip joints” here are the uppermost part of the legs, not something that you would smoke. Unless you are a cannibal.

        It could make sense, when the next wave of old rich folk get these hip problems, and they need surgery, then they would get pessimistic.

        So that pessimism, and the cost of the surgery, could trigger a sell-off, stocks and real estate and all. This would be offset to some extent by increased revenues in the medical field.

        —-
        don’t let people drive you crazy, when it is within walking distance

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