- ‘At root, we’re still hunters’: Geneticist Spencer Wells believes that when our neolithic ancestors began farming, they set us on the road to ruin. Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilisation is available at Amazon US & UK.
- World’s best-preserved gladiatorial relics discovered in suburbs of York. The Mail has lots of photos.
- Storm exposes ship wrecked in the 1600s on North Carolina coast. CNN has photos.
- How sweet it…wasn’t. Based on some I’ve tasted, I’d say that ‘active counterfeiting’ is still going on.
- Real cavemen ate crocodiles: Crocs’ fatty flesh may have helped early humans evolve bigger brains.
- Saltwater crocodiles, the world’s largest living reptiles, travel hundreds of miles and cross large areas of open sea by surfing ocean currents.
- Digging back to days of alms for the… ‘poor needy persons, idle wandering vagabonds, sturdy beggars and parents of bastard children.’
- Rare, mint condition Anglo-Saxon artefact dates Berkeley’s history further back than ever before.
- The perniciously persistent myths of Hypatia and the Great Library.
- Blow to history: The collapse of the majestic 500-year old Rajagopuram of Sri Kalahastiswara Swamy temple.
- Five ancient technologies that were ahead of their times.
- 58,000-year-old glue and paint factory found in Africa.
- Do aliens live on a Saturn moon? Scientists find evidence of life. More on the Titan discovery.
- At the end of the last ice age, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels shot up by nearly 50 per cent. But where did the CO2 come from?
- Supercentenarians: The quest for the modern day Methuselah.
- Vegetation around the world is on the move – toward the poles, up mountain slopes, and toward the equator. Don’t encourage it, Merry.
- DMT and the Pineal: Fact or Fiction?
- If whales could scream, no man could tolerate their slaughter.
- Using iPads to bridge the communication gap with dolphins.
- Can otters smell underwater? Maybe they’re taught how to, just as baby otters are taught how to swim.
- Cockroaches act like mini-restaurant critics recommending good sources of food to each other, claims a new study.
- Alcohol and cigarettes may rewire the brain to make each substance more addictive and harder to give up.
- Dental X-rays linked to thyroid cancer.
- Asthma risk ‘linked to burgers’.
- Children with regular bedtime perform better at languages, reading and maths.
- Radio ghost mystery at former RAF station: World War Two radio continues to pick up vintage broadcasts despite not having any power.
- Google blames Wi-Fi snooping on rogue engineer.
- Bringing new meaning to the term “blue movie”: 23 hot, creepy or weird
sci-fi creatures humans have had sex with. - Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had ‘links’ with companies which stood to profit.
- WHO and the pandemic flu ‘conspiracies’.
- God, science and philanthropy: Depending on whom you ask, Templeton represents either the hijacking of nothing less than the meaning of life, or the restoration of its luster, which has been dulled by politics and cynicism.
- Viscount Monckton is an embarrassment to global warming sceptics everywhere.
- Update: Since the post above was apparently taken down by The Telegraph, here’s another link to Tom Chiver’s rant about Monckton. (Copied in full in the comments, lest it disappear from this link too.)
- Update: Via comment by yaosxx, Monckton’s reply.
- Update: John Abraham’s reply to Monckton, June 6, 2010.
- Update: Other wrenches in the mix include Delingpole (I’d rather have Monckton in a foxhole with me than Monbiot.), Monbiot, and John Abraham. Even PZ Myers has thrown in two cents worth.
- The wisdom of Oz. No matter what, based on the headline, you think this article is going to be about, you’ll still be surprised.
- The ten most disturbing scientific discoveries.
- The Smithsonian’s 7th Annual Photo Contest Winners.
- And the nominees for the 2010 3QuarksDaily Prize in Science are… What a list of articles! Your humble Daily Grail news editor is stricken with a sense of failure over how few of them I linked for you over the past year.
Thanks to Perceval, Greg, and Red Pill Junkie.
Quote of the Day:
Many of these trees were my friends. Creatures I had known from nut or acorn. They had voices of their own.
Saruman! A wizard should know better!
There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of men for this treachery.
My business is with Isengard tonight, with rock and stone.
Come, my friends. The Ents are going to war.
It is likely we go to our doom — the last march of the Ents.
Treebeard, the oldest of the Ents, on seeing the destruction of the forest wrought by the wizard Saruman, in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
