Giant robots, Godzilla-type monsters, AND Ron Perlman? ZOMG I am there.

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

Apologies for the lack of updates this week, but am neck deep trying to get my book finished off at the moment. In the meantime though, here's a great Kickstarter to get behind: a fundraising effort by visionary artist Alex Grey - whose iconic images have graced Tool's album covers, and Rick Strassman's DMT: The Spirit Molecule - and wife Allyson to build their dream:

For over 30 years, the art of Alex Grey has reached the hearts and minds of people all around the globe with its portrayals of the physical and subtle anatomy of individuals in the context of cosmic, biological and spiritual evolution.

From 2004 to 2010 the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors installation was on view in the heart of New York City and saw tens of thousands come from all walks of life to experience the transformational power of art. Since closing its doors, the paintings have been in storage and unavailable to the public. It's time to bring the paintings back!

Our plan is to build a permanent exhibition space for these iconic works of art, along with works from other visionary artists. It will be a destination you can visit anytime of year to commune and contemplate with the art, now and for generations to come.

That place is ENTHEON.

This is your chance to help your favorite artist create his most ambitious project to date. Estimated cost of construction, complete with all the required amenities of a two-story building will be over $1.5 Million Dollars. The bank has approved a construction loan, but it won't be enough to cover the entire amount.

Head on over to the ENTHEON Kickstarter page to see the various pledge packages, and do your bit to help one of this generation's great artists fulfill his lifelong dream!

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

When Dan Brown tasted mega-success with his book The Da Vinci Code (selling upwards of 80 million copies), he did so on the back of seminal research by the team of Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, with their book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. But at that time, Brown was just the most recent of a number of authors and artists who had used this book - based on original research by Henry Lincoln in the 1960s - as their inspiration. The entire topic of the Priory of Sion and the mystery of Rennes le Chateau would likely have never 'caught fire' in the English language speaking world without the groundwork laid by Lincoln.

But with Henry now in his 80s, plans are now being made to archive and preserve the original research and documentation related to this influential body of work. For those who would like to assist in this goal, an IndieGoGo fund-raising project is now underway to help set this archive up:

From its inception, one man has been intimately involved in the extraordinary research which has led to changes in the world’s thinking about Christianity, the role of women and … even more importantly … the realization that we have much still to learn about the beliefs, the knowledge and the skills of our remote ancestors.

Now in his ninth decade, the necessity to preserve Henry Lincoln’s archive has become a priority.

Documents, photographs, recordings, books, films, diagrams, scripts, maps and manuscripts demonstrate the growth of the hypotheses and the many detours and stumbling blocks, which have led to new ideas and new attitudes. Future scholars will find that the contents of this archive can help in the understanding of many of the changes in society, which came in the second half of the twentieth century.

Whether Henry Lincoln’s arguments are accepted or not, their effect has been undeniable.

While it would be nice to see someone like Dan Brown chip in for such a worthwhile project, I'm sure there's enough interest in the wider community to get this project to it's goal.

Link: The Henry Lincoln Archive Project on IndieGoGo

Filling in for G.C. this week, who's too busy at the moment. Something about going up North in search of 'his true origins' or something...

• Kepler probe finds 2 potentially habitable exo-planets.
• ...But NO, you can't buy the right to name these new planets --Besides, 'planet Kardashian' sounds too B-movieish.
• Moore's law is so successful, why not use it to predict alien life?
• NASA: Antares debut launch date moved to Saturday.
• My homies of Mysterious Universe interviewed Stephen Bassett, about his upcoming Citizen Hearing on Disclosure.
• Fresh Prince's son Jaden Smith sez Obama confirmed aliens are real —or did he?
• The chupacabras returns to Puerto Rico —even cryptids can get homesick, yo.
• Finding Bigfoot: One limb at a time.
• When visiting Spain, beware of the crocodiles.
• Yosemite & The Epic Sierra: a gorgeous time-lapse video to help you finish the week (h/t Bad Astronomy)
• The 'Game of Thrones' approach to vetting TED talks. Watch out Chris: Winter *is* coming.
• Trailer: Tanks for the Memories, a documentary on sensory deprivation tanks.
• The secret of the great artists: Burning the midnight oil.
• First building powered by algae unveiled in Germany. So ugly, it might deserve to be under the sea...
• The risks of armchair vigilantism.
• Red Pill of the Day: The incest prevention app.

Quote of the Day:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

~Marcel Proust