News Briefs 05-04-2010

Today's news is, to coin a term, i-free -- not least because a mere gadget is currently generating the kind of saturation news coverage which, imho, should be reserved for actual events of moment, such as the moon landings, the birth of AI, or extraterrestrials parking their spacecraft on the Whitehouse lawn.

• Why didn't early Earth freeze? The mystery deepens. Exploring Earth's youth - and beyond.
• Missing link between humans and their apelike ancestors discovered near Johannesburg. The nearly-complete fossil could rewrite human evolution.
• Why hasn't the ocean bottom sunk faster? Hot mantle may prop up the seafloor.
• Monster from the deep: Oil workers shocked to find gigantic cousin of the woodlouse clinging to their submarine.
• Unlike the old textbook diagram of the human brain with dotted lines around areas labeled 'speech' or 'vision', psychiatrist Norman Doidge's book The Brain That Changes Itself says the brain is more like the grand staircase at Hogwarts, with neurons constantly shifting, reconnecting and disconnecting. The Brain that Changes Itself is available at Amazon US & UK.
• The news that scientists can switch off our morals with a magnet illustrates how much we still have to learn about the human brain. More.
• People who are shy or introverted may actually process the world differently than others.
• Prudish reputation of Victorian women is challenged by a long-forgotten sex survey, which reveals intimate details of the bedroom habits of 19th Century wives.
• The mysterious X-37B, a robotic spacecraft resembling a small space shuttle, is to launch April 19th.
• NASA technology used to find underground ice on Mars could be used to search for water hidden in Earth’s deserts.
• That tortilla costs more than you think.
• The end of Peak Oil denial.
• The winners of this year's International Earth and Sky photography contest capture the beauty of the night sky and the ongoing battle with light pollution.
• Acrylics and nylon linked to breast cancer.
• Mysterious carvings inside a hidden cavern linked to the Knights Templar are in danger of disappearing before their riddle is solved.
• Coloradans strive to create 3-D rendering of Turin Shroud image.
• A ringside seat to the Russian revolution: Kyril and Elena Zinovieff lived through the days of Rasputin, mutinying soldiers, and widespread famine. On the anniversary of Lenin's return to Russia in 1917, Leo Hornak interviewed them.
• Doctor Who: Inside the new Tardis.

Quote of the Day:

In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.

Rachel Carson