The excellent crop circle website Swirled News has had one of its periodic mega-updates with much news to tell: Andy Thomas reviews the 2005 crop circle season, a new book looks at an intricate 2002 glyph, the Center for Crop Circle studies closes down, there's a look at the Erich von Daniken's Mystery Park controversy, and Barbara Waddell summarises this year's Glastonbury Symposium.

The Burning Man Festival is over for another year (without me, *sob*), if you're looking for information about how this year went try this portal page at SFGate which has blogs, audio and video from the event. No doubt more comprehensive reviews will appear soon.

The Burning Man Festival is sneaking up on us again (August 29 - September 5). If you're within driving distance of Nevada, then you have no excuse for not grabbing a ticket and packing your camping gear right now. The art theme for this year's festival is "Psyche: the Conscious, the Subconscious and the Unconscious". Check out the Burning Man website for a comprehensive (as in hours of reading) guide to the event.

For those of you who have tried out the stunning Google Earth software, I've written up a blog giving co-ordinates for some of our most discussed places here on TDG (and others that interest me). Feel free to add comments adding to or editing what I have there so far.

I should mention also that Google Earth is not the only software out there for doing this - NASA and the open source community have had a program called Worldwind out for some time now, which is very similar in function. While it has less detail in the city areas than Google Earth, some of the rural areas do seem to have a little more detail. Plus I find the interface for moving around a lot better. Be warned though - it is around 180mb to download.

With the Crop Circle season coming round again (pun intended), the ever-reliable Swirled News has come out of hibernation and is seeing some regular updates. If you head over today, you'll find stories on the new season, Erich von Daniken's crop circle hoaxing competition, and an update on the controversial 'Proclamation Initiative' which positively drips with sarcasm.

The crop circle season is underway again in the UK, with a few glyphs turning up late in April and continuing into May. Check out the Crop Circle Connector's 2005 page for a monthly archive of images. Nothing mega-spectacular as yet, although this crop circle appears within the ghost of a dolphin-themed symbol from 2004.

The excellent crop circle news site Swirled News has had one of its irregular eruptions of new material. New articles on site include a criticism of National Geographic's handling of the crop circle mystery, the official crop circle stats for 2004, and an outbreak of circles in Argentina. Full details (and more content) available at the Swirled News website.

UK newspapers are reporting that the increased amount of visitors to Rosslyn Chapel - courtesy of publicity from The Da Vinci Code - has led to restrictions being put on daily tours:

To control numbers and avoid overcrowding this summer, the chapel trust will allow only hourly guided tours. It will be the first time access has been restricted since the chapel was founded in 1446.

Visitor numbers have soared by 56 percent, up to 70000 annually, since the publication of The Da Vinci Code.

The central spot for the latest on crop circles, Swirled News, has had one of its intermittent update blasts. A number of new stories have been posted, including reviews of new crop circle books and calendars, as well as the low-down on new research into Italian "non-geometric" formations and an account of a candle-lit winter solstice at the Alton Barnes 'White Horse'. Sometimes I wish I lived in the U.K., sounds like my kind of a night.

The Egyptian State Information Service is reporting that Dr Zahi Hawass will undertake a new exploration of the "Gantenbrink Doors" late next year:

The University of Singapore is currently designing a robot to reach beyond the door which blocked the route of the robot used by the US National Geographic in September 2003, said Hawas in statements on Saturday.