If Dan Brown is reading, there are a few stories in today’s news worth checking out in regards to your next book…
- Proof surfaces supporting the claim that the Skull and Bones society stole the skull of Geronimo? As interesting perhaps is the fact that CNN names John Kerry and President Bush’s grandfather as members…but fails to mention Dubya is as well.
- Further coverage of the ‘plasma UFO’ story (and a little more skepticism at last) from Wired, and also Nature. Sounds like the Nature story has jumped to a conclusion about ‘sprites’, which I think they’ll find will be incorrect.
- UK judge says that ‘UFO hacker’ Gary McKinnon can be extradited to the U.S. Perhaps more importantly, I managed to fit three acronyms beginning with the letter ‘U’ into one sentence (I did say ‘perhaps’).
- Will the web be a 3-dimensional metaverse within 10 years? I recommend that everyone read Neuromancer (Amazon US and UK), and see how William Gibson’s vision is being fulfilled.
- International Space Station at greater risk of being hit by space debris as it loses orbit-boosting options.
- The Sun’s ‘current of fire’ slows to a record low pace.
- Neptune may have stolen Triton from its original partner.
- Large fragment found of asteroid which created a 160km-wide crater.
- From the headlines you have to love department: Flying robot attack unstoppable .
- South Korea creates female android. I’m almost scared to ask why it’s called a ‘female’ android…
- Robotic tentacles get to grips with tricky objects. Doc Oc is only a few years away.
- The Albino Code unravels the ‘evil’ mystery of a much-maligned condition.
- Morgellons: the controversial disease that doctors don’t believe exists.
- Daydreams are different in autistic minds.
- Predicting the next big earthquake via the seismic battery hypothesis. Funnily enough, this story could tie in with the plasma UFO story (via Persinger’s Tectonic Stress Theory).
- British artist claims sovereignty over undiscovered island.
- Warner Bros signs deal with file-sharing ‘service’ Bittorrent. Finally, realisation that technology is here to stay…
- Ruins of a 2000-year-old walled city have been discovered in China, exposed when the water level in the Yunfeng Reservoir was lowered for repairs.
- The stunning art of the Lascaux Caves is under threat from a fast-growing fungus.
- One of the United States’ most endangered historic places is less than five years old, and is in the middle of New York.
- Controversy erupts over salvage rights to sunken British Naval vessel Fantome, which may have carried stolen White House treasures.
Quote of the Day:
When a belief is widely held in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we call it a superstition. By that criterion, the most egrerious superstition of modern times, perhaps of all time, is the “scientific” belief in the non-existence of psi.
Thomas Etter
