Holding my nose

• Regulators discover a hidden viral gene in commercial GMO crops.
• "Up to half of all life on Earth are simple microorgs hidden in rocks." Mars?
• Ancient Sri Lankan moonstone artefact used as UK garden step.
• Why faking the Moon landing would have been impossible.
• The dark side of Buddhism?
• Controversy surrounds Santa Muerte statue found in cemetery.
• Rare spider species found in Highgate Cemetery's Egyptian Avenue vaults.
• Planetary Initiation - Daniel Pinchbeck at TEDxSanMigueldeAllende.
• Dead Sea not quite dead yet.
• Bleak images of e-waste in Ghana by Pieter Hugo.
• The hounded giant.
• Psychic talent show winner locked in prize row. She should have tried JREF's MDC.
• Winnie the Pooh visited Stonehenge.
• Cool anamorphic sculptures.
• Feline public safety film on the dangers of Catnip.
• Aliens 'cutting down visits to Earth' since introduction of camera phones.

Thanks David

Quote of the Day:

A secret of power -
I think it's another profundity.
Do you want power over something?
Be more nearly real than it.

Charles Fort

From can to can't.

• Quadruple helix DNA discovered in human cells.
• Gamma-ray burst 'hit Earth in the 8th century'. Wait a minute…gamma-ray burst, quadruple helix DNA - we're obviously on the brink of the Jack Kirby era of evolution.
• Speaking of...WTF, evolution?
• 'Adventurous' woman needed as surrogate for the first Neanderthal baby in 30,000 years. Also needed: 'adventurous' ethics committee.
• Identical twins marry identical twins, one of the couples has identical twins. Oh the pranking possibilities…
• Did NASA delete evidence of UFOs from its photo archive?
• From hunting UFOs to selling inflatable space station modules to NASA: the strange history of Robert Bigelow. More on the man here.
• NASA's planet hunting probe Kepler is injured.
• Deep Space Industries will venture into asteroid-mining marketplace.
• Ray Kurzweil plans to create a mind at Google - and have it serve you. Yup, nothing that could go wrong with that plan…
• Piece of music composed by waiting for bird droppings to fall onto giant sheets of manuscript paper. Sounds like sh*t.
• Hundreds of lost William Blake etchings discovered at a Manchester library.
• Television viewer captures "very weird subliminal message".
• Hoodoo gurus - Hoaxing mysticism within the theatre of transformation.
• Life after death: why the growing interest?
• Giving up the green bitch: reflections on cannabis, ayahuasca, and the mystery of plant teachers.
• There are whales alive today who were born before Moby Dick was written.
• A photography-based proof of why we most definitely did land on the Moon.
• Image of the Day: Stonehenge, in the snow.
• Bonus Image of the Day: Beijing, in the smog. Not, repeat not, a still from Bladerunner.

Quote of the Day:

Whether we are annihilated or attain in some strange way eternal life, to have loved is good.

Olaf Stapledon

Have a look at this brilliant video, posted by Richard in last Monday's comments:
Psychic Parrot - telepathy research by Rupert Sheldrake.

• Faces of our ancestors: 27 model heads based on fossil fragments collected across the globe.
• 300-million-year-old 'UFO tooth-wheel' found in Russian city of Vladivostok. What's your take?
• Found on Mars: ancient crater lake fed by groundwater.
• Now, where did I put that Ebola? Dangerous pathogens accidently released from labs.
• The Psychedelic World of Catnip. Yep - that's how catnip always makes me feel.
• Holly the Cat's 200-mile trek back home leaves scientists baffled.
• Geneticists discover what they are calling the first known social chromosome -- an inherited group of genes, which together dictate behaviour -- in fire ants.
• Leprosy spreads by reprogramming nerve cells into migratory stem cells.
• Cancer loves antioxidants. Oops.
• Koch-funded study finds 2.5°F warming of land since 1750 is manmade. Double-oops.
• US Navy plans to stash drones on ocean floors around the world. When needed, the drones will be easily raised, in perfect condition, by a summons from Davey Jones.
• The UK's MOD is employing a similar method of burning taxpayers' money.
• Deception is futile when Big Brother's new lie detector turns its eyes on you.
• Australian gold rush after 5.5kg nugget is found in Victoria. 5.5kg is 177 ounces. Looks like we grailers need to invest in a metal detector for RickMG!
• Forget the Placebo Effect: It’s the ‘Care Effect’ that matters.

Quote of the Day:

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all yearn for care when we suffer. When we can’t get genuine caring, we seek out the medical version: spendy and sometimes even counterproductive treatments. Some $210 billion is wasted annually on overtreatment, according to the Institute of Medicine, while a Medicare study found that overly aggressive treatment kills some 30,000 people a year. As a result, the number of U.S. adults who die from too much medicine is now higher than the number who die for lack of it.

The last article above.

”Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

• Black hole theory swallows itself.
• The disappearing dunes of Titan.
• Reality, in flux.
• The waters of Mars.
• …When bounce-houses went stellar.
• Russia plans first lunar mission since 1970's.
• Spring has sprung, early.
• Militarizing the abyss.
• An invisibility cloak for the masses?
• Recycling for teleportation.
• The DNA of homebuilding.
• To model all life.
• Weather synchronizes arctic species.
• Under the sea, 520 million years ago.
• Developer unemployed after outsourcing own job.
• This week’s proof of the looming robo-pocalypse… robo-fish.

Quote of the Day:

“Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.”

A. Huxley

Now that we finished moving I have Internet at the office again. What I don't have anymore? privacy :-/

• "You f#$%ing meatbag!!!" IBM forced to wipe out AI's hard drive in order from stopping it from swearing. Skynet's a pottymouth?
• You (probably) don't have free will and Science can prove it. So clicking (or not clicking) on this link is beyond your control.
• Move over, Che! SpongeBob is the new leader of the revolution.
• Taking the $#!t: it does a body good?
• The conundrums of a philosophical tapeworm.
• Brahma's dreamtime: Australian aborigines have Indian ancestry.
• Mythical El Dorado was not a city, but a dude with a thing for bling.
• Nick Redfern on the lookout of primitive humans in the UK. Presumably he started looking among the Millwall Bushwackers...
• Tim Holmes, Bigfoot hunter: Best. Valentine's. Ever!
• Megan Fox thinks Bigfoot, leprechauns & the loch Ness monster are all real. Reality TV offer in 3... 2... 1...
• NASA's Orion program will get help from the European space agency. Will the capsules be designed as Scandinavian sauna cabinets then?
• Skeptico podcast interviews Hidden Experience's Mike Clelland: a fascinating discussion about the nature of the Contact experience, and its spiritual implications.
• UFO spotted soaring over the surface of the moon.
• Robert Bigelow will test his inflatable space hotel at the ISS. Will the ISS astronauts be served with Mai Tais & Margaritas then?
• Picture of the Day: Rare photo taken half an hour after the bombing of Hiroshima.
• Red pill of the day: Meet Merlin, the loudest-purring cat in the world.

Thanks to Holly & Inanawhimsey

Quote of the Day:

"I call that mind free, which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven.
I call that mind free, which sets no bounds to its love, which is not imprisoned in itself or in a sect, which recognises in all human beings the image of God and the rights of his children, which delights in virtue and sympathizes with suffering wherever they are seen, which conquers pride, anger, and sloth, and offers itself up a willing victim to the cause of mankind."

~William Ellery Channing

Cat got your tongues?

• The return of the Hobbit (nope, not a remix of recent Peter Jackson movies): More evidence emerges that the Flores 'hobbits' were a separate species.
• Genome link between aboriginal Australians and Indians suggests continent was not isolated after all.
• White House gives official thumbs down to Death Star suggestion.
• Poll shows that quantum physicists agree to disagree about the nature of reality.
• From nuns to nones: the growth of the 'no religion' demographic.
• UFOs over Michigan (best said aloud like the main riff to Drones Over Brooklyn) resurrect the dreaded swamp gas.
• UFO sightings at the International Space Station are on the rise.
• Forget Star Wars - find out what flying through hyperspace would really look like. As long as it doesn't take more than twelve parsecs…
• Armed thieves plunder ancient Egyptian cemetery at Dashur.
• Japanese hacker continues to taunt police with clue strapped to a cat.
• Pentagon wonders whether they could use Twitter to predict the future.
• The clouds are alive as microbes fly unfriendly skies.
• Scientific evidence that you probably don't have free will. Upside: you can be guilt-free from all your actions. Downside: same applies to everyone else.
• The worst scientific mistakes, missteps and misdeeds of 2012.
• Man commits suicide after prompting from his wife's ghost.
• When proof is not enough: Eben Alexander's proof of heaven and the problem of objectivity in science.
• Are we nearing the maximum capacity of the human brain? Expecting mothers everywhere hope so.
• Image of the Day: In hyper-dimensional machine elf land, ballroom dances with you.

Quote of the Day:

The imagination is the goal of history. I see culture as an effort to literally realize our collective dreams.

Terence McKenna

How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?

• Ecuadorean tribe will 'die fighting' to defend rainforest.
• Climbing out of uncanny valley?
• Don't be a dick. The science of why comment trolls suck.
• 'Brian Cox effect' leads to surge in demand for physics.
• If the universe is a giant brain, then this is not the largest known structure in the universe (Brian Cox's head, maybe?).
• This isn’t the petition response you’re looking for.
• Ageing processs in mice reversed.
• Fisher-Price synesthesia.
• Emerging evidence of Jimmy Savile's satanic rituals involving rape, in public hospital.
• Could crows be mind-readers?
• Mongooses talk like humans.
• Fascinating survey of medieval church graffiti.
• The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational.
• Silbo gomero: A whistling language revived.
• Not mushroom for all that detail.
• Turtles all the way down, or just a jellyfish?

Quote of the Day:

Experiences are the chemicals of life with which the philosopher experiments.

Manly P Hall

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

• Einstein does it again.
• Life on Mars?
• Massive spiral galaxy lensed.
• Farewell Apophis.
• Apophis' size proves the need for a bigger boat.
• DNA vs. the cancer establishment.
• Irrationality, divided by 12.
• Egyptian tombs reveal 3000 yr. old bones.
• Will Los Roques achieve ‘Triangle’ status?
• From pattern to prediction.
• From deaf to sound.
• ...It's just a matter of time.
• Legal system? Leave it to the pre-cogs.
• 50 years of unstoppable fire.
• Brains… You’re doing it wrong.
• The power of play-dough.
• Images from above.
• This week’s evidence of the looming robot uprising… Compressorhead.

Quote of the Day:

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

A. Einstein

Spent entire day without Internet at the office. I'd forgotten how BORING Meatspace really is...

• Schwoom!! Doomsday asteroid Apophis just passed us by.
• Doomsday asteroid Apophis will pose no threat in 2036. So now we're completely in the dark as to which space rock's got our number.
• Dec. 21st came & went, but the sky booms are still going strong.
• Top films that capture the mystical experience (vol. 1). Started off the list with the right foot!
• What the frack! Matt Damon's new movie depicts gas companies as lying bastards.
• Inside the James Holmes --a.k.a. the Aurora massacre shooter-- online fandom community. Sheesh...
• First Atheist 'church assembly' in Britain. Didn't people become atheists so they wouldn't have to waste their Sunday morning by going to church?
• Sea-faring superstitions & St. Elmo's fire --Yep, that was a good 80's movie, kids.
• Best way to feed propaganda to the masses? serve it on a silver platter saucer.
• The Paracast interviews Micah Hanks, author of The UFO Singularity [Amazon US & UK].
• Regan Lee: "There's MUFON & then there's Mufon."
• Bigfoot's grave on sale, for over a quarter of a mill.
• Fossil of first bird with teeth discovered.
• Sean Carroll sums up the world ' everyday physics' in one simple equation. So which part explains synchronicities?
• Brace yourselves: there may be ANOTHER type of mysterious dark force in the Universe.
• Red Pill of the Day: Scientific paper debunks James & his giant peach.

Thanks to Inannawhimsey

Quote of the Day:

"... new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper – and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable."

~Sir Alec Guinness.

13 for 2013.

• Saving the ancient Buddhist city of Mes Aynak from a copper mine.
• Human-bird hybrid among 300 Neolithic figurines unearthed in Greece.
• Who created Mexico's Las Labradas petroglyphs?
• Pyramid dating to 700 B.C. discovered at Maya ruins of Kiuic.
• Gaza's archaeological treasures at risk from war and neglect.
• Ancient Jewish manuscripts discovered inside caves in Taliban territory.
• Afterlife researcher Titus Rivas discusses Near Death Experiences.
• Dr Diane Powell uses serious science to understand psychic phenomena.
• We are all shamans: interview with Itzhak Beery.
• Data saved in quartz glass might last 300 million years.
• A DNA-shaped cloud photographed in the Moscow sky.
• Overcoming Cynicism: Dark Pool of Light: Reality & Consciousness (US/Kindle).
• Mother duck leads police officer to ducklings trapped in drain.

Quote of the Day:

“I came to tell you that if you don’t want your body, there are others who do.”

~ An apparition named Elizabeth, to Tracy Cochran