The Emerald Coast of Florida’s panhandle has the whitest beaches in the world, composed of 95% quartz crystals that look and feel like grains of sugar. I sure hope those beautiful beaches aren’t ruined by an oil spill.
- Mammoths had anti-freeze blood, gene study finds.
- New species of ancient flying reptile discovered.
- Bee numbers plummet as billions of colonies die across the world.
- Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe.
- Left-handed pets give paws for thought. Meet Tiddles – he’s a southpaw.
- Man’s best friends: 11 animals who saved human lives.
- Frogs and humans are kissing cousins.
- Unnatural selection: Darwin’s family was damaged by inbreeding.
- What you eat affects you, your kids, and your grandkids.
- A giant blizzard is raging on Saturn.
- Stephen Hawking: How to build a time machine. ‘Time travel was once considered scientific heresy. I used to avoid talking about it for fear of being labelled a crank.’
- Ronald Reagan and the occult. And all this time I’ve been thinking it was just Nancy and her astrologer.
- Ripping the Blue Book a new one: In a potent summary of UFOs buzzing nuke sites, the media, and Project Blue Book, Billy Cox focuses attention on the upcoming National Press Club gathering of ex-military officials regarding the ongoing witnessed accounts of weapon arsenals going offline seemingly under the control of unknown objects. (H/T to The Anomalist)
- Tricks aren’t for kids: New research shows lucky charms actually work.
- In Oz, real-life Spider-Man catches thief in comic book store — with a little help from some Jedi Knights with lightsabres.
- The hunt is on for ‘Jason Bourne’ who kept arms cache (and more) in penthouse overlooking U.S. federal bank in Los Angeles.
- Behavioral tracking – like shopping in the nude: Cameras follow you from the minute you enter a store to the moment you hit the checkout counter, recording every T-shirt you touch, every mannequin you ogle, every time you blow your nose or stop to tie your shoelaces.
- The prescience of Minority Report.
- Philip K. Dick’s Exegesis will receive a two-volume release.
- Once-skeptical researchers investigating the 10-year-old Global Consciousness Project are finding solid data to support the conclusion that we’re all connected.
- The war against a wind-rich super grid.
- The catastrophe lurking just offshore: ‘a swelling, churning slick of dense, rust-colored oil the size of Puerto Rico.’
- BP’s environmental impact analysis for the spewing well said an accident leading to a giant oil spill was unlikely — virtually impossible. Over two dozen lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. accusing BP of lying about safety plans and downplaying the likelihood of a catastrophe. Did Halliburton improperly cap the well, and cause the explosion?
- BP was warned of rig fault ten years ago.
- In a Nov., 2009 newsletter report on blow-out preventers (ironically titled Offshore BOP Companies Play It Safe), officials at Transocean, which owns the ill-fated rig, said the company was having trouble with blowout preventers.
- BP describes proposed fixes for the leaking well.
- Brainstorming: Is there a ‘Feynman Fix’ for the well? You can post your fix in the comments.
- Blowout trivia, including video of a swordfish stuck in an off-shore rig’s blowout preventer.
- Worst-case scenario: the well could begin venting 4.2 million gallons of oil a day. Currently, a crumpled ‘riser pipe’ is preventing the full flow of oil – like a kinked garden hose. Reports suggest the pipe is gradually deteriorating.
- Fed up with your country? Create your own!
Quote of the Day:
Is anyone else noticing a trend here? Decades of onslaught by Republicans (and many Democrats, as well) and business friendly interests have led to the complete inability or unwillingness of government to regulate our food safety, our water, our financial markets, our mines, and now, tragically, our offshore drilling programs. And in every case, defanging the regulators has led to expensive disasters. All so a select few can make more and more money.
