News Briefs 11-01-2010

Everything except the kitchen sink...

• Discovery of workers' tombs helps solve ancient riddle of the pyramids.
• Eye make-up protected Ancient Egyptians from disease.
• Terminally-ill volunteer sought for mummification on BBC's Channel 4.
• Archaeologists unearth evidence that Neanderthals wore makeup 50,000 years ago.
• Decorative shells suggest Neanderthals may have been capable of symbolic thinking.
• Bering Strait influenced ice age climate patterns worldwide.
• Dig this: The greatest archaeological finds of 2009.
• William Blake pictures found in train timetable. Tate buys eight hand-finished pictures by the poet and artist for £441,000.
• Zecharia Sitchin: Origin of the species, from an alien view.
• 'Sungrazers', comets whose orbits lead them very near the Sun, present an unresolved puzzle for astronomers -- but not for electric universe theorists.
• The theory of 'black holes' has received another blow from direct observation. It seems that their x-ray and light emissions more closely resemble the behavior of lightning than the supposed behavior of black holes.
• Paul Watson: Sea Shepherd's stern 'warrior' defies Japanese whalers.
• YouTube footage backs claim Ady Gil was intentionally rammed. Better YouTube (4:31). Video interview (2:32) with Paul Watson, from Sea Shepherds, after the attack on Ady Gil.
• Neodymium, dysprosium, cerium, praseodymium, lanthanum: Inside China's secret toxic 'unobtanium' mine.
• Are these widely-available children's products from China poisoning your children? These children's products aren't 'contaminated' with cadmium -- they're made of cadmium.
• China is now the world's top car market, and the world's largest exporter.
• Macroeconomic effects of Chinese mercantilism.
• Is true love only a cheek swab away? Websites offer DNA matching to help you track down your perfect mate.
• Quantum computer calculates precise energy of molecular hydrogen.
• They are the best of beings; they are the worst of beings. They are animals; they are plants. They are saviors; they are killers. They are predators; they are parasites. They are, in short, dinoflagellates.
• Rare self-rolling giant snow balls found in UK. They may look like winter's answer to crop circles, but are in fact a natural phenomenon usually found only in the world's most remote and frozen regions.
• Little Green Footballs: A blogger's parting with the right creates a maelstrom. Johnson's Nov. 30th post, Why I Parted Ways with The Right.
• Freud fires opening shot in battle for the soul of Fox News: Rupert Murdoch's son-in-law says family members are 'ashamed and sickened' of the mogul's right-wing channel Fox News.
• Undressing the Terror Threat: Running the numbers on the conflict with terrorists suggests the rules of the game should change.
• Security expert Bruce Schneier: Since September 11, exactly two things have made us safer.
• UK 'paid Afghan warlord $2million to find Osama Bin Laden'.
• Mexican drug gangs - now worshipping Saint Death - plumb new depths: gang kidnaps man, cuts him in seven pieces, then stitches his face onto a football.
• Mexico's drug wars take death toll to record high: 69 violent deaths this weekend, and 283 deaths since Jan 1 -- more than double the figure from the same period last year.
• Is this the end of food as we know it?
• Britain is on the brink of a massive expansion in foods containing 'grey goo' nanoparticles, which can worm their way into the brain, liver and kidneys with unknown consequences.
• First grit (road salt), then natural gas -- now it's vegetables in short supply in snow-covered Britain, as panic buyers strip supermarket shelves.
• Who will pay for Amazon's 'Chernobyl'? A film released this week in Britain recounts the 16-year battle by Ecuadorians for damages against Chevron for oil pollution.
• Attempt to introduce UK-style fixed speed cameras in US has ended in a public revolt, with motorists binning speeding tickets worth $90 million (£60 million).
• How the Magic Sleep Fairy cures babies' insomnia. Surely there's at least one Grailer out there with an infant.
• George Kramer, the 'Rain Man' of Brooklyn, has thrived in a small hardware store for nearly 60 years.
• YouTube: Is this Bigfoot? That's one high - and very freshly-broken - limb he's perched on.
• Scientists say animals are as heroic as humans.
• Avatar sparks 3-D makeovers: Hollywood is preparing to re-release some past blockbusters, including Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in 3-D.

Thanks Perceval and Lou.

Quote of the Day:

I went into my local Sainsburys late yesterday afternoon and couldn't believe my eyes - the vegetable aisles looked as though a swarm of scavenging locusts had passed through - a few bags of potatoes, 3 packs of broccoli and a few onions and that was it. A few containers of milk left, half a dozen loaves, virtually no fresh meat and not one single egg in the shop! I'd just returned from a week away and actually needed to buy some basics, but I never got the chance! What is the matter with people - are they really expecting snow so thick they're not going to make it out of the front door for the next 2 months or something? This is suburban Birmingham for goodness sake - few people round here are likely to live more than a mile or so from the nearest shops - its not like being isolated on a farm in the middle of Dartmoor or the Welsh mountains, whatever the weather.

Comment by ERS on the panic buying at UK supermarkets.