News, news and more news. We don't just fill your Xmas stocking, we're here for the duration.

News Briefs 12-03-2010

"One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea..."

Many thanks to RPJ, Kat and Greg!

Quote of the Day:

“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality-- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape…”

Walter Bagehot

News Briefs 11-03-2010

May your skies be full of vibrant iridescent clouds...

Thanks to Rick, Kat, Greg & Moezilla. And also thanks to Corey, for teaching me how to recognize a master vampire —Very handy info y'all.

Quote of the Day:
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal"

Albert Pike

News Briefs 10-03-2010

I think I remember how to do this, it's like riding a bike... without the LSD.

Thanks Greg, Kat, & Joanne.

Quote of the Day:

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll

News Briefs 09-03-2010

Aw look, Zorgy #4 for the mantelpiece. Congrats to all nominated, and thanks to all who voted, even if you didn't listen to my advice…

Thanks Rick.

Quote of the Day:

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

News Briefs 08-03-2010

So much strange - and anti-strange - news, reading it all could make your head spin. But not to worry -- for me, a little aspirin and caffeine cast that demon headache right back out.

Big thanks to Baldrick and Greg.

Quote of the Day:

Imagine you are in a Toyota on the highway at 60 miles per hour approaching stopped traffic, and you find that the brake pedal is broken. This is CO2. Then you figure out that the accelerator has also jammed, so that by the time you hit the truck in front of you, you will be going 90 miles per hour instead of 60. This is methane. Is now the time to get worried? No, you should already have been worried by the broken brake pedal. Methane sells newspapers, but it’s not the big story, nor does it look to be a game changer to the big story, which is CO2.

Dr. David Archer's analogy, here, regarding the recent news about methane leaking from the Arctic seabed.

News Briefs 05-03-2010

“Sunlight splatters dawn with answers, darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye…”

Ultra thanks to Greg, RPG, Moezilla, Holly the cat and the folks at the Anomalist!

Quote of the Day:

“Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills-- 
One man gathers what another man spills…”

Robert Hunter

News Briefs 04-03-2010

Fuerza Chile!!

  • Skeptic Susan Blackmore continues to be retired from Parapsychology by posting yet another screed against it: "In the service of science, not spin" —speaking of spin...
  • "We'll make great pets": computers can read our minds now.
  • Global warming may be normal at this point in glacial cycles, according to German & Russian scientists. You now what else is normal during glacial cycles? EXTINCTIONS.
  • Spirits in the Sand: Nat Geo investigates the Nasca lines [more here] .
  • Gorilleidolia on Mars: Best. Album. Publicity. Ever?
  • Search for Mars life to heat up in —when else??— 2012.
  • From the Big Bang to Sarah Palin there is an enormous —& kind of tragic— distance. Robert Lanza tries to find a new explanation for the origin of the Universe. Biocentrism [Amazon US & UK]
  • How do supermassive black holes in the centre of most galaxies gobble gas from their surroundings? maybe the black holes are like cosmic Sarlaccs, and stars act as Huttese kingpins —eat your heart out, Hawking!
  • Heavenly Palace: China to launch 1st module of their permanent space station next year —I wonder how many eunuchs it will house... [more]
  • Human Compulsions Among the Stars. Because self-awareness & radio-transmitting ain't the same thing, Seth.
  • Fotos de Ovnis? A collection of UFO photographs from regular Inexplicata contributor Prof. Ana Luisa Cid.
  • MUFON & Mexico: Marla Peña writes about the Close Encounters of the Embarasing Kind in Mexican Ufology.
  • Darth Vader on Washington's National Cathedral? the things I learn thanks to Dan Brown...
  • Don't call your agent just yet, Dan: the 'crucifixion nail' was found in an imaginary country —then again, since when have small details such as 'facts' ever stopped you? :)
  • Behold the power of the hive mind! wasps discovered penicillin millions of years ago.
  • Fighting dengue with... mosquitoes? wasn't this the same approach that brought us Saddam & Al Qaida?
  • Homeopathy: still the #1 alternative medicine in Europe.
  • God is in the dung: borrowing from Hindu spiritual traditions, researchers are working on medicines based on bovine's excreta. Gau Jal anyone?
  • The second coming of the Auroch. Now THAT would make bullfighting much more interesting —go bulls! ;)
  • Behenu, a 4000-years-old Egyptian queen, has been unearthed by French archeologists in Saqqara.
  • Egypt? *yawn* Sudan's land of 'black pharaohs' is a better spot for archaeologists with big enough kahones.
  • 200 Russian tanks found abandoned in forest. Because kids NEVER like to put away their toys after they finish playing.
  • Directing air traffic: so easy even a child can (literally) do it.

Thanks to Greg & Kat. And a special thanks to Turner Young & Perceval.

Quote of the Day:

"Past generations believed the world was a great ball resting on the back of a turtle; now science would have us believe it's a fairy universe that appeared out of nowhere and that expands into nothing. Angels used to push and pummel the planets about; now everything is a meaningless accident. We've exchanged a world turtle for a Big Bang. By reminding us of its great successes at figuring out the mechanics of things, and fashioning marvelous new devices out of raw materials, science gets away with patently ridiculous 'explanations' for the nature of the universe as a whole. If only it hadn't given us HDTV and the George Foreman grill, it wouldn't have held our respect long enough to pull the old three-card-monte when it comes to these largest issues."

Robert Lanza, M.D.

News Briefs 03-03-2010

If you haven't voted yet in this year's Zorgy Awards, head on over and rock the vote for The Anomalist for 'Top Paranormal News Service'. Three years holding the title is enough for the Grail, and The Anomalist is one of the all-time greats…

Thanks Rick.

Quote of the Day:

SETI is enormous fun and of great interest to the public. The momentous nature of a positive result hardly needs to be spelt out. Unfortunately, the subject represents a level of speculation unusual even by the standards of contemporary theoretical physics, and it may turn out to be a wild-goose chase.

Professor Paul Davies

News Briefs 02-03-2010

Spring has sprung! Actually, it's autumn here in the Antipodes…

Buckets of thanks to Rick and Perceval.

Quote of the Day:

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.

Walt Whitman

News Briefs 01-03-2010

Dinner-friendly edition. (I'll let Greg explain - if he wants to.)

Thanks Greg!

Quote of the Day:

If you’re at the cutting edge, then you’re going to bleed.

Neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen, in Depression's Upside.