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News Briefs 03-09-2009

So the big news in the Nerdosphere was Marvel being bought by the House of the Mouse. And you all know what happens every time there’s a merger of two big companies, right? Layoffs.

  • NASA’s most awesomely weird mission patches —because astronauts may be cool, but they still watched cartoons on Saturday mornings like the rest of us geeks 😉
  • India’s first Moon probe is lost —what’s the Sanskrit word for “Epic Fail!”?
  • Conspiracy theorist convinces Neil Armstrong Moon landing was faked —those dudes at The Onion are officially on Aldrin’s ‘to punch’ list now 😛
  • Using nothing but the sun to send a telegraph 150 years ago —beat that, Twitter!
  • This is your brain. And this is your brain on Halo —so you may want to reduce your fix of corpse humping, son.
  • Why Christopher Reeves wouldn’t have minded to become a cyborg.
  • The unfortunate sex life of the banana —stop giggling!
  • New understandings in the evolution of the <3.
  • Israeli researchers develop an algorithm that can decipher previously unreadable ancient texts —it would be such a disappointment to discover the Voynich manuscript is nothing but a cook book.
  • WWF warns that Artic ice melt rate is doubling, putting a quarter of the population in possible risk —and the first casualties were 1000 ice men in Berlin.
  • Dozens of birds drop dead in Quebec city —Aïe! @_@
  • Wasteland or Wonderland? The mystery of Chernobyl.
  • Video: 13,000 Mexican zombies danced to the rythm of Thriller to set a new (unofficial) record —and in case you’re wondering: No I didn’t go, ’cause I can’t dance to save my life (or my undeath).
  • …And speaking of Mexican gore: Amazingly preserved mummies of Guanajuato go on display.
  • 1997: Puerto Rico’s “Alien Foetus” —What *IS* it with all these alien babies? Is Earth the planetary equivalent of Tijuana for Zeta Reticuli?? [More here].
  • #1 Fortean podcaster Tim Binnall interviews iconic abduction researcher Budd Hopkins —maybe Budd can answer the alien babies puzzle for us.
  • Wife of new Japanese PM defends his nickname: The Alien —Meh… I once had a girlfriend who called me Bigfoot, after we broke she gave me a farewell present (12 cans of deodorant; go figure).
  • “Is that a long-necked plesiosaur in your loch, or are you just happy to see me?”
  • Chupacabras caught on Texas? You know that monster hunter Nick Redfern currently lives in Texas —so if you add 2+2 on this…
  • Nick also discusses Brad Steiger’s new book on vampires [Amazon US & UK] For a cool coincidence, check out today’s quote!

Thanks Rick & Moonchild.

Quote of the Day:

[…]”You know… there is one thing.” Redfern hesitated, his airline pilot’s confidence fading for a moment. “I do remember something, but it won’t be of any use to you, I don’t think…”
Eph shrugged almost imperceptibly. “We’ll take anything you can give us.”
– “Well, when I blacked out… I dreamed of something —something very old…” The captain looked around, almost ashamedly, then started talking in a very low voice. “When I was a kid… at night… I used to sleep in this big bed in my grandmother’s home. And every night, at midnight, as the bells chimed in the church nearby, I used to see a thing come out from behind a big old armoire. Every night, without fail —it would poke out its black head and long arms and bony shoulders… and stare at me…”
– “Stare?” asked Eph.
– “It had a jagged mouth, with thin, black lips… and it would look at me, and just… smile.”

Excerpt from ‘The Strain’, by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan [Amazon US & UK]

  1. The Onion or The Enterprise Misson?
    It used to be hard to know which web site was funnier until I discovered Richard Hoagland’s highly guarded secret…

    …he writes for The Onion!

    😛

    1. Moon hoax
      The Europeans and Asians are so gullible. Obviously the Americans didn’t land on the moon. Not only is the US space program a hoax, the entire existence of the USA is a hoax. I mean really, how many of those “experts” have really been there?

      —-
      No amount of cursing at the round earth will make it flat.

  2. Mission Patches
    My favorite mission patch comes from the 509th Bomb Wing, famous for such events (but for different reasons) as Hiroshima and Roswell. They get all the cool jobs, including flight testing the B2 bomber before its deployment. The mission patch can be seen at http://www.rense.com/general/509th.htm . The Latin translates to “Tastes Like Chicken”.

    No, I am not the brain specialist…..
    YES. Yes I AM the brain specialist.

  3. lovely!
    What a nice post to read while eating breakfast this morning.

    i am really enjoying it.

    But seriously, RPJ how do you know they are ‘mummies’? They could be ‘daddies’ too!

    As for the birds in Quebec- has anyone run stats to see if the rate of bird dying has anything to do with the rate of kitten births?

    Lot of birds here being killed because they are being sucked in by airplanes. i never heard of such a thing until Pilot Scully became a hero in my book- last week NYC Mayor came close to plane crash when a bird flew into his private plane.

    i am afraid to read about bananas.

  4. Gone Bananas
    With today’s technology, why not go back to the original cross and genetically engineer a reproducing banana? They spend all sorts of time, money, and effort on stupid GM food – “Let’s put bug genes in a tomato!” – for example. We know the problem with the banana. Just learn how to control the seed production (switch on, switch off) and you’re in business!

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