More cosmic weirdness:

• 82,000-manuscript collection Vatican Library goes online.
• Filming of 'Fishing with David Lynch' interrupted by 'sea monster'.
• The Oatmeal's campaign to buy Tesla's old lab for a museum succeeds.
• We are avatars: our online psyches are leaking into meatspace.
• Was the UFO that nearly hit an airliner above Glasgow a remote-control flying shark?
• Rupert Sheldrake on potential positive outcomes of the TED fiasco.
• Two free chapters of Graham Hancock's new novel 'War God'.
• 3D-printed bionic ear made of cells and nanoparticles detects radio frequencies beyond human hearing range.
• Scientists make transistor out of DNA and RNA. Next step - a transistor radio for the bionic ear to listen to.
• Our solar system is a cosmic weirdo. As above, so below.
• Giant rubber duck draws attention to the global bathtub.
• First Tunguska meteorite fragments discovered.
• Disappointingly, déjà vu not a glitch in the matrix.
• An exerpt from The New Science of Psychedelics (Amazon US/UK) by David Jay Brown.
• Do blind people believe in ghosts?
• BoA Audio returns with a discussion of Michael Bott's new book (Amazon US/UK) on subterranean mysteries.
• From Baltimore to Venus - in 1928.
• Scale the universe with a scroll bar.
• Shroom Trip Opera.

Thanks RPJ!

Quote of the Day:

Our eyes are the eyes of the earth; our knowledge is the earth's knowledge.

Joseph Campbell

The Daily Grail: Where all materialistic assumptions come to die.

• Citizen Hearing on Disclosure: Despite the fact it's likely a futile pursuit, Lee Spiegel is doing a yeoman's work covering the proceedings.
• US media: Come for the credible testimonies, stay for the highlight of woo.
• YESSS! Radio Misterioso is back: now it's time for Brent Raynes, head of the long-running magazine Alternate Perceptions.
• On to the 2nd cup of java? time to f#$k up with your eyes then, courtesy of New Scientist.
• Is Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law flawed? --Do have a look on my comment thread, that guy (or gal) mxyzptlk is one smart cookie!
• Fusion is coming --at a #$%&ing snail pace, but it's coming.
• Time Crystals: not as interesting as Time Lords, but they could nonetheless upend the laws of physics.
• DIY God helmet.
• Tiniest. Animation. Ever!
• A monster in lough Foyle --& a MIB too!
• With Bigfoot there's weird, and there's beyond weird.
• From Paul to Patty: Seth Rogen producing a Bigfoot animated comedy.
• The aquatic ape theory: still hanging there after 50 years --Me? I'd rather explore the stoned ape theory...
• Catfish, beer & scorpions: The origins of Egypt.
• Good ole American traditions: 4th of July, apple pie & cannibalism.
• Red Pill of the Day: I <3 <3 <3 my madre, but this is freaking awesome!

Gracias, Ricardito! ojalá se te haya quitado lo huevón ;)

(thanks to Susan too)

Quote of the Day:

“To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head - and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself.”

~ Alan Moore

I think I remember how to post the news; now what does this button do...

• A William Blake print provides a portrait of May Day in London, 1764.
• Britain's ancient festival of Beltane is making a comeback.
• Spectacular images from Edinburgh's fiery Beltane festival.
• Loreena McKennitt's Huron 'Beltane' Fire Dance features a scorching violin performance, live in the Alhambra 2006.
• Fire & the Fire Bringers in mythology & folklore, by Heinz Insu Fenkl.
• UFOs & Oceans: close encounters of the submersible kind.
• Invisible Residents: The Reality of Underwater UFOs by Ivan T. Sanderson (Amazon US/Kindle & UK/Kindle).
• Australian man captures hundreds of UFO photos over Perth.
• Saturn's moon Enceladus ticks all the right boxes for habitability.
• Gaze into the spiraling eye of Saturn's 'hexagon' storm.
• Iran continues a ferocious crackdown on Sufi mystics.
• An ancient alien's satellite's view of the world's ancient sites.
• Robot finds mysterious spheres in ancient Mayan temple. Wait, what?
• Uncovered: ritual public drunkenness & sex in Australia ancient Egypt.
• The 150th issue of Parabola magazine is a Heaven & Hell special.
• 'I get paid to talk to dead people': interview with Australian medium Marilyn Whall.
• Cactus of Mystery: healing powers of San Pedro (Amazon US/Kindle & UK).
• New research suggests yoga can boost your immune system on a genetic level.
• Excerpt from Dean Radin's new book, Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities, available in July (Amazon).
• Can training your cat memory lead to extrasensory perception?
• Karate experts anticipate where an attack is coming from before their opponent has even moved. They can also anticipate Chuck Norris/Mr Miyagi jokes before you even think them.
• Death Valley Dreamlapse: stunning new timelapse video from the Sunchaser team includes a UFO!

Muchos Gracias to Perceval/Grailseeker/Richard, a terrific bunch of guys!

Quote of the Day:

When Rama spoke the secret mantras, the lords of the astras appeared before him. They were neither of this world nor yet in the next: they stood between the realms, their bodies of pristine light. The eyes of some were turquoise flames; others had locks of green tongues of fire.
They said to Rama, "Now we are your slaves; we will do your bidding, whenever you want."
Rama said to them, "Dwell in my mind, until I have need of you."

~ The Ramayana

Check out the latest Grail news briefs, and join us afterwards in the Scooby Lodge…

• Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has successful first powered flight.
• Is SETI science?
• ISON is not Nibiru: debunking Comet ISON conspiracy theories.
• ‘Bullet hole’ in the solar array of the International Space Station.
• UFO believers testify at Congressional-style hearings. Lee Speigel live blogs it for the Huffington Post.
• The unseen force that drives Ouija boards and fake bomb detectors.
• Association between belief in God and improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care.
• Controversy brews over Santa Fe church’s hallucinogenic tea ritual.
• The latest 'Psi in the News' collection from David Metcalfe.
• The aquatic ape hypothesis, revisited.
• Zombies are attacking and destroying the Egyptian pyramids!! Oh wait, may have over-read that headline…
• Speed of light may not be constant, physicist say.
• EU reacts to bee deaths by banning implicated pesticides.
• The nine most incompetent wizards of all time.
• Ground-breaking digital technology allows researchers to recover Alexander Graham Bell's voice from a Smithsonian recording.
• 'Smart-dust computers' will be no bigger than a snowflake.
• Mysterious energy discovered in thunderclouds.
• Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker dead at 78.
• Image of the Day: the Rose of Saturn.
• Bonus Image of the Day: SpaceShipTwo, to infinity and beyond!

Quote of the Day:

No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

Plato

Running the gamut...

• City of Heracleion, which sank off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago, brought back to the surface with the help of 3-D imaging and photos of artefacts.
• Earth's core far hotter than previously thought.
• Major earthquakes can permanently crack Earth's crust.
• DARPA: The element of surprise.
• Physicists say the quantum properties of space may change the speed of light.
• 'Part of 9/11 plane landing gear' - with a length of rope looped around it, and a broken pulley - found wedged between two buildings in New York.
• US Justice Department secretly granted immunity to companies that participate in cybersecurity monitoring programs, activity that might otherwise have violated federal wiretapping laws.
• New breathalyzer can detect 12 drugs in the body, including cocaine, marijuana, and amphetamines.
• Gut bugs produce artery-clogging compound linked to heart attacks, strokes.
• Microbes: The trillions of creatures governing your health.
• TB: For more than a million people each year, death arrives like a train wreck.
• GM E. coli converts sugar into oil that's almost identical to conventional diesel fuel.
• Why US supermarkets only sell 5 kinds of apples, and one man's quest to bring hundreds more back.
• Open your mind to the new psychedelic science.
• The biggest price-fixing scandal ever: There's no price the big banks can't don't fix.
• UFO carnival returns to National Press Club. Rebuttals aplenty in the comments.

Big thanks to my buddy Red Pill Junkie!

Quote of the Day:

I have frequently been asked why a person of my background—a former Chief of the Defense Staff, a former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee—why I think there is a cover-up of the facts about UFOs. Governments fear that if they did disclose those facts, people would panic. I don't believe that at all. There is a serious possibility that we are being visited—and have been visited for many years—by people from outer space, from other civilizations. It behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation, and not the subject of rubbishing by tabloid newspapers.

UK Chief of Defense and 5-star general Admiral Lord Peter Hill-Norton

Filling in for G.C. again. This time he mentioned something about 'trying out a new suit'...

• Red(dit) blood on their hands: Body of student wrongly accused for the Boston bombing found.
• The REAL international conspiracy.
• The American dream nightmare: Social mobility is a myth.
• Hidden Experience audio conversation with Jim Marrs: conspiracies, UFOs & the occult nature of Reality.
• Fireball UFOs over Ireland.
• Anthropologists explain how to approach aliens parked on Earth orbit --Hint: bring lots of canned cat food.
• So Greer's Atacama alien turned out to be human --that doesn't mean it's not a mystery.
• The origins of the Maya civilization, more enigmatic than previously thought.
• Dr. Sam Parnia: exploring the frontier between Life & Death.
• Weird Australia presents: The Coalbaggie hauntings.
• The modern sighting of... a plesiosaur?
• The tiny critter that has to cope with 7 sexes --and without resorting to colorful shirts.
• Bad news for captain Kirk: Sex in space may not be safe.
• Opening a century-old time capsule.
• The secret to longevity? First Person Shooters.
• Red Pill of the Day: If you're gonna ride a 14-foot-tall bicycle, at least wear a god-damn helmet, bro!

Thanks to my dad, for lending me a hand with my little tax problem.

Quote of the Day:

"There's an old saying; just because you're paranoid, that doesn't mean they're not out to get you. I have my own variation: just because you're insane that doesn't mean that things aren't slipping in unnoticed through dimensional gateways..."

~Christopher Knowles

If Vince Neil needed heart surgery, would he do a Kickstarter My Heart to raise funds?

• SpaceX's Elon Musk looks beyond Mars, and considers the possibility of a warp drive.
• Comet Ison could blast Earth with a weird meteor shower. We should do a Triffid cull beforehand, just in case...
• Meteorite crashes through roof of Connecticut home.
• Conspiracy ouroboros: Alex Jones' "false flag" Boston bomber was a fan of Alex Jones.
• 'Dowsing rod' bomb detector salesman found guilty of fraud.
• Giza secret revealed: how 10,000 pyramid builders got fed. C'mon - slaughterhouse, catering area, and graveyard all in the same vicinity? I think it's clear that we're looking at the location the ancient alien pyramid builders fed on humans.
• What does science know about dreaming?
• Dan Ackroyd talks spirits: both vodka and the ghostly kind.
• A skeptic reviews the latest documentary about alien life, Sirius.
• Bigfoot still has his/her fans in the northwest of America.
• Censoring magick in movies.
• The top ten strangest things in space.
• Is there evidence of a supernova in the fossils of ancient bacteria?
• Original Australians numbered around 1000-3000 individuals.
• Nanoparticles, self-assemble!
• How to use Twitter for fun and profit? One fake tweet from hacked Twitter account wipes $136.5 billion off the markets, before recovering.
• Ten popular myths, debunked.
• Video of the day: This rock band uses meteor strikes for pyrotechnics.Beat that Spinal Tap!

Quote of the Day:

Janine Melnitz: Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?

Winston Zeddemore: Ah, if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.

Ghostbusters

Two dicks get a mention this week (No, that other story is about a thumb)

• The cradle of Stonehenge could have been a site for hunting migrating aurochs.
• Ancient Europeans mysteriously vanished 4,500 years ago.
• Existential risk as a global priority: How are humans going to become extinct?
• Robot discovers three unexplored passages near Mexico's Pyramid of the Sun.
• Forget the face, here's the undisputable Penis on Mars.
• Richard Dawkins has lost: meet the new new atheists.
• Big foot found.
• Paralysed man's thumb becomes a surrogate penis. That would add a new dimension to sexting.
• Creatures of coherence: why we’re so obsessed with causation.
• Surrender to the flow: the doctor prescribes Brian Eno.
• 1,300-year-old doorstep sells for half a million quid.
• Ata the humanoid is... humanoid.
• Scientists intervene in TED controversy.
• The Chupacabras are back.
• A new reference to a 'William Shakespeare' is found, but did he exist?
• Is Freemasonry becoming hip?
• China wants to banish superstitious beliefs (but keep religion).
• Christopher Wren's plans for London realised.
• Rococo style porcelain skulls. I'd like to see a facial reconstruction artist let loose on those!
• Cops confiscate biggest joint ever on 4/20.
• Picture of the day: ISS over Stonehenge.
• Entomological bling.

Thanks Cat!

Quote of the Day:

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.

Tom Robbins

Dan Brown's Inferno arrives in three weeks. Get the lowdown on the likely mysteries and history that he'll discuss via Inside Dan Brown's Inferno.

• Richard Dawkins issues a mea culpa (of sorts) for yesterday's controversial tweet in which he ridiculed the idea that a journalist could be religious.
• Want to live on Mars? This company wants you to sign up.
• Nikola Tesla's amazing predictions for the 21st century.
• Fireball UFOs over Ireland: clever hoax or unexplained objects?
• Is Sirius going to be a serious alien documentary?
• Anthropologists explain how we might communicate with extraterrestrials parked in low-Earth orbit.
• Social media powers Boston bombing conspiracy theories.
• The TEDmess is now all about Deepak Chopra tearing down the gates of science. Apparently. How did it end up here?
• Crackpot science and hidden genius at physics meeting.
• Is a ghost haunting Gloucester Museum?
• Engineers use brain cells to control power grids. I hope they named the cells Neo.
• Seven ways to trick your brain.
• Psychedelic conference explores the rebirth of serious research into LSD, Ecstasy and psilocybin.
• India's 'human computer' Shakuntala Devi passes away.
• Woolly mammoth, dodo and Neanderthal man: Scientists debate ethics of reviving extinct species.
• New general manager required for Stonehenge.
• Technique unlocks design principles of quantum biology.
• One more story for the looming robot rebellion: Huge six-legged robot is coming for you (very slowly).

Quote of the Day:

Up to the Twentieth Century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see, and hear. Since the initial publication of the chart of the electromagnetic spectrum, humans have learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear is less than one-millionth of reality.

Buckminster Fuller

If the Earth took 72 hours to rotate I might actually achieve what I aim to each day...

• Robot to begin exploring tunnel under ancient Mexican temple at Teotihuacan. More here (with images).
• Who's your mummy? Mapping ancient Egyptian genetics.
• The TEDmess debate continues, with Deepak Chopra responding to Chris Anderson with letters of support from 19 leading scientists. Graham Hancock has a timeline and commentary on his Facebook page.
• Skeptics weigh in as doctor details his belief in an afterlife.
• The secret pi.
• 4000-year-old gold-adorned skeleton found near Windsor.
• Can space hackers colonise the Solar System?
• NASA and Bigelow Aerospace discuss ways of constructing a Moon base.
• An interesting Canadian UFO case from 2012.
• When do babies become conscious?
• Neurodiversity rewires conventional thinking about the brain.
• Testing the accuracy of Alex Jones' predictions.
• The conspiracy theory flowchart 'they' don't want you to see.
• Researchers use Moore's Law to calculate that life began before Earth existed.
• Bears in Russia sniff jet fuel to get high.
• Hobbit star in Freemasonry movie. Guess he likes big eyes hanging over impressive structures.
• In memory of Storm Thorgerson: 10 stunning album covers.

Quote of the Day:

We all feed, on tragedy, it’s like blood to a vampire…

'Vicarious' by Tool