News Briefs 04-06-2007

Sorry the news is late, I've been sedated all day and night because of a killer tooth-ache.

• An amateur scientist has captured incredible footage of what could be a 45-foot-long giant eel in Loch Ness. I have a craving for Japanese-style eel.
• But can Gordon Holmes be trusted? Loren Coleman turns sleuth and digs up some interesting facts about the amateur scientist.
• Here's a chance for Loren to rack up frequent flyer points -- a farmer and his daughter have dug up the remains of a mysterious animal in southern India.
• A great travel piece on Choquequirao, an Incan city built by Topa Inca to mirror Machu Picchu.
• An Indian tribe that has had very limited contact with the outside world has been located in a remote region of the Amazon.
• More royal pyramids stand in the deserts of northern Sudan than in all of Egypt, yet very little is known about the civilisations who built them.
• An ancient tomb almost 3500-years-old has been unearthed in Egypt by a Dutch archaeological team.
• Seven years on, the Giza Plateau Mapping Project continues to search for clues to answer the riddle of the pyramids.
• Archaeologists in Kerala, India, have discovered a 2000-year-old port settlement that could be the town mentioned in early Roman manuscripts.
• A British MP wants Stonehenge's World Heritage listing revoked, claiming conservation money is being diverted to the 2012 London Olympics. Why do I shiver everytime I see that year?
• Lynne McTaggart and Dr Gary Schwartz's Intention Experiment appears to have worked, with one leaf glowing under lab conditions.
• Blaze Labs Research believe science fiction is possible, and a new energy revolution is on the horizon.
• Former Canadian astronaut Steve McLean recalls the experience of seeing the Earth from space.
• A Polish man has woken from a 19-year coma, and thinks the "world is prettier now" than it was under Communism.
• Stimulating different parts of the brain with implanted electrodes could help treat millions of people who suffer severe depression.
• A new analysis of US birth ratios says there are less boys being born these days, and its expected to continue decreasing. Except for China.
• James Watson, who helped crack the DNA code half a century ago, has become the first person to be given the full text of his own DNA on a small computer disk.
• Deepak Chopra writes about the possibilities of the mind outside the body.
• A university researcher says people who are intuitive and in a good mood are prone to believe just about anything. Unfortunately for her, I'm in a bad mood.
• Gerald O'Donnell, founder of the Academy of Remote Viewing and Remote Influencing, writes about remote viewing's link to deep sleep.
• Circular patterns growing in moss have been found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, leaving scientists perplexed. They're definitely not my footprints from October 2000.

Thanks Kat and Nurofen.

Quote of the Day:

I was introduced to [Bosnian] President Izetbegovic, who lived in very humble lodgings... He talked about the siege... Sarajevo was home to one of the great libraries in the civilised world, housing lots of priceless Islamic, Christian and Jewish manuscripts. He told us, with tears in his eyes, that days after it was fire-bombed words were falling through the sky, falling on people's heads, falling on their hands, falling into prams as women pushed them down the streets, falling into people's cups of tea, falling in front of them as they walked the cobbled streets, words raining down days later...

Bono, from the book U2 By U2 (Amazon US or UK).