Let’s deviate from the main thoroughfare, and choose the less traveled path. If you see something that tickles your fancy along the way, feel free to depart from the group and explore. All of the byways in the maze converge at the end of the tour, but all journeys are unique. Enjoy the ride.
- Scientists crack 40-year-old DNA puzzle and point to ‘hot soup’ at the origin of life.
- By examining microscopic marks on fossilized teeth, scientists have pieced together the diets of two ancient prehumans.
- Prehistoric hunters and not the last ice age are the likely culprits in the extinction of giant ground sloths and other North American great mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers. Culprits?
- An ancient lunar standstill pilgrimage that has not been made for nearly a millennium begins again on a high stony mesa in southwestern Colorado.
- Child mummy wows the Egyptologists.
- Prostitution in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Israel was glorified or mildly tolerated, according to a new analysis of the world’s oldest profession.
- Chinese calendars reveal ancient science.
- Clearing — or perhaps roiling — the murky and often contentious waters of Mesoamerican archeology, a study of 3,000-year-old pottery provides new evidence that the Olmec may not have been the mother culture after all. So who else was around?
- Much of what ancient scribes carved in stone is lost to weathering, but a new X-ray technique promises to reveal the message. This could be interesting – maybe we need some ancient wisdom.
- Are Earth ice ages created by stars? Makes my high school science project look pathetic, but I didn’t live next to an astronomer.
- Why we all need pornography. Trust me on this one.
- One in a new generation of computer climate models that include the effects of Earth’s carbon cycle indicates there are limits to the planet’s ability to absorb increased emissions of carbon dioxide. Yet another model.
- Senator Norm Coleman submitted a statement denouncing a final report issued by the United Nations’ Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) suggesting that the U.N. assume global governance of the Internet. Thank you Norm.
- Researchers are playing mind tricks to help dieters lose weight. Be careful there fatboy, mind tricks can have unintended consequences.
- Scientists invent a new love potion that works without fail, or so says Pravda.
- Scots bicker over birthplace of ‘Scotty’, a fictional Star Trek character played by the late James Doohan, a Canadian actor.
- Following the July 7 bombings in London that killed 56 people, the enforcement of laws that allow the deportation of Islamic clerics accused of whipping up hatred and violence has become more robust.
- Biotech giant Monsanto applies for a global patent on pigs.
- South Korea’s pioneering stem cell scientist has cloned a dog, smashing another biological barrier and reigniting a fierce ethical debate. Come Snuppy.
- Snuppy’s paving the way to our future. The Human-Techno Future: How Weird? How Soon? Author Joel Garreau describes research so cutting edge it seems mind-boggling in Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—And What It Means to Be Human is available at Amazon US and UK. I still want a 45-foot wingspan and a 10-foot tail.
- Why do men have nipples? That and hundreds of other questions are answered in a book subtitled ‘Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini’. (It’s also answered in the link.) It’s available at Amazon US and UK.
- The London-based company Intelligent Energy will sell hydrogen hogs. Well, not quite a hog with a top speed of 50 mph.
- Sea turtles that receive the highest protection in Costa Rica and other neighboring countries are dying by the thousands at the hands of unregulated commercial fishing in Nicaragua.
- Iran told the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency Monday of its decision to resume nuclear activities. Let’s think for a minute, why does Iran want uranium? Stop the presses – late input: Iran mullahs back off. Sort of, anyway.
- How close was Hitler to getting the bomb?
- A new cosmic look may cast doubts on big bang theory.
- Russian researchers claim to have solved the mystery of Crop Circles, and it’s not ol’ Doug and Dave.
- Deep in the forests of North America, if the stories are to be believed, lives a breed of hairy giants that are tall, dark, and ugly.
- A team of physicists from Glasgow University has landed more than £1million to help uncover whether there really is life on other planets.
- After performing an unprecedented repair, the astronaut may need another spacewalk to fix a different trouble spot.
- Scientists peering through a ground-based telescope say the surface of Saturn’s planet-sized moon Titan appears dry and not awash in oceans of liquid hydrocarbons as is commonly believed.
- Scientists speculated today on a solution to a longstanding mystery of why the Moon is overloaded with nitrogen. Guess from where the nitrogen came. Aw, go on, guess.
- Dissident scientists that sing the comet electric theory of the universe are having a field day in the wake of NASA’s Deep Impact comet collision earlier this month.
Quote of the Day
And justice is the one thing
You should always find
You gotta saddle up your boys
You gotta draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles
We’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back
At the local saloon
We’ll raises up our glasses
Against evil forces
Singing, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses!’
Toby Keith/Scott Emerick
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
