Even though I’ve pared it by half, it’s still a huge news day.
- Update: Sir Richard Branson has offered a $25m (£12.8m) prize for scientists who find a way to help save the planet from the effects of climate change.
- Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, is a cosmic graffiti artist.
- Space scientists ponder which Jupiter moon will reveal the most.
- The saga of NASA’s lost moon tapes. WashPost log-in probably req’d.
- Astronaut sets US spacewalking record. Drat! – the largest photo I could find, and I still feel like I’m looking at one of Hoagland’s anomalies.
- Night clouds warm surface of Mars.
- 3-D model shows huge body of water in Earth’s deep mantle.
- LSD reveals its secrets: how hallucinogens are able to bend minds.
- Chile’s Armed Forces reveal presence of UFOs.
- UFO light show stuns crowds in UK.
- Covert iris scanner close to Minority Report future.
- Mysterious lights spotted over Phoenix, again. With video.
- Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies – Was Israel Tracking the Hijackers Before the 9/11 Attacks?
- Parasitic worms alter hosts’ sense of smell, making them more likely to be eaten by the parasites’ next host.
- American Museum of Natural History invites humans to meet their ancestors. That chimp skeleton looks more like a Star Wars droid.
- Scientists discover dinosaur nesting site. With photo.
- Highlighting an aspect of quantum mechanics’ elusive Casimir-Polder force, physicists find that the warmer a surface is, the stronger its subtle ability to attract nearby atoms.
- Scientists use HIV’s transport protein, TAT, to help kill cancer cells.
- Psychologists find that women shun ‘the man who has it all.’
- Economists find evidence that prison doesn’t deter crime. UK study finds that violent criminals who meet their victims face to face are less likely to reoffend.
- Brain scan that can read people’s intentions brings call for ethical debate over possible use of new technology in interrogation.
- Interview with Chris Hedges, author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (Amazon US & UK). More.
- Most commonly used anesthetic gas induces neuronal cell death, and produces Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain.
- Murdoch 2.0: The corporate giants who are determined to control your eyeballs and siphon your money. Global hegemony isn’t limited to the political arena.
- Enviro …err, Econ-(non)cateclysm of the week: Barclays predicts climate change will boost the global economy and dominate financial markets for the next 25 years. Gloating CO2 skeptics rush to increase their investments in companies that produce humble pies.
- Scientists find symptoms of autism can be reversed – by activating a specific gene.
- Divided by origins, united by wealth: It’s a wonderful world for Britain’s new super-rich. London has become a paradise for plutocrats with an unquenchable thirst for conspicuous consumption of such things as paintings and £84m penthouses which include bulletproof windows, eye scanners in the lifts, and panic rooms.
- Brazilian saves grandson from 5-meter-long anaconda.
- Forced to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals by a gay sex scandal, Rev. Ted Haggard feels that, after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is now ‘completely heterosexual.’ We do try to cover miraculous news.
- London museum’s spy show to uncover truth behind espionage. Plus, the latest gadgets for spooks.
- Since hardwood, carpeting, and concrete can be hard on the pocketbook as well as the environment, natural builders are experimenting with – and improving – earthen floors.
- Scientists convert humble carrot into revolutionary material to be used in everything from fly-rods to battleships.
- Got snow? You need Japan’s new autonomous snowplow robot.
Quote of the Day:
Aesthetically, earthen floors are “really special. After a while they look like an old cracked leather couch. When people walk in, they don’t say, ‘Oh, nice floor.’ Everyone gets down on their hands and knees to admire it.”
Frank Meyer, natural builder in Austin, TX
