Posting early, because I have an early flight in the morning. To round off the year, a little look back…
- Round two of voting begins in the “Seven Fortean Wonders of the World” poll. Hmmm, three rounds of voting, over the Xmas period when Internet traffic drops by half – not the best planning right there! Get over and vote before you have that second glass of egg nog…
- Alan Boyle dishes out “The Weird Science Awards“. Careful Alan, or the ‘skeptics’ will be slapping a WOO sign on you soon…
- Alan has also got an excellent reading list on offer for the holiday season.
- Archaeology Magazine’s “Top Ten Discoveries of 2007“.
- Unfortunately, “Skeleton of Giant” is not one of the ten.
- The mother of all civilisations. In Peru. Check out Mike Jay’s Darklore article on ancient Peru, pyramid complexes and hallucinogen use – it’s a free download from the Darklore website!
- National Geographic’s “Top Ten News Stories of 2007“.
- Spy planes to recharge by clinging to power lines. Mmm, my tax dollars at work…pwning my ass. We are obviously a civilisation sleepwalking…
- Sony’s use of Manchester Cathedral as a backdrop for a violent game makes the Forbes “101 Dumbest Moments in Business“.
- Scientific American presents the SciAm 50 for 2007.
- Synthetic DNA on the brink of yielding new life forms.
- Ten weird psychology studies. Including their badly reported ‘Psychic Dog’ story.
- The Top Ten Cryptozoology stories. What’s the fascination with the ten number here? Why not something arbitrary, like….23?
- Phil Plait offers the “Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007“. Make that eleven.
- Eleven years ago today, Carl Sagan left this mortal coil. Let’s hope he’s surprised.
- God vs science. Unless science can set me on fire and have me consumed by a plague of locusts, I’m sticking with the big man upstairs.
- Borders under fire for atheist Xmas card saying “O come all ye faithless“. Oh come on, find a sense of humour already Reverend…
- Ever wanted to play with a neuron?
- Supercomputer offers new explanation for the Tunguska disaster. I was so hoping that was going to be a Santa Claus story…
- But wait, I do have a Santa story to finish: or at least, an alternative Santa. A wonderful commentary (without being a commentary). Merry Xmas to all!
Quote of the Day:
The paramount importance of psychical research is found in correcting the habit of Western thought – of the average men we meet – that the physical plane is the whole of Nature, or at any rate the only aspect of the universe which really concerns us. Under this false and deadly assumption all wider views and spiritual conceptions wither and die as soon as they are born. Instead of a universe peopled with unseen personalities, the science of today has gone to the other extreme, and as Mr. Myers once eloquently said, we are now taught to believe ‘the Universe to be a soulless interaction of atoms, and life a paltry misery closed in the grave’.
Sir William Barrett