Err…was it something I said, Your Holiness? :-(

• Comet, planet or fad? Planet X’s hype is gaining momentum.
• 'MACSJ0025.4-1222' won’t mean much to us, but it sure means a lot to the scientists trying to figure out the mysteries of Dark Matter.
• Getting the Shuttle ready for her final date with the Hubble telescope.
• Space is the Final Frontier… for computer viruses.
• Stop worrying about your credit card debt, thanks to the good people of CERN.
• RIP: Fundamental Physics research at Bell Labs.
• Will Obama & Co. become an administration that believes in science? Well, first they will have to rely on the “science” of Advertising to win the job.
• Algebra: You didn’t believe your high-school teachers, but it really is everywhere.
• Using tracking chips to fight kidnappers in Mexico. Big Brother or the Wild Wild West: which is the lesser evil?
• Harry Knowles’ wet dream: The 10 greatest sci-fi films never made.
• New sphere to explore the abyss. Michael Chrichton is feeling real smug right now (Amazon US & UK).
• Divers discover amazing remains of HMS London at bottom of Thames, with great pics.
• Looking for ghosts? Head to Derby, in the English Midlands.
• Beyond Qumram & towards the Digital Frontier: Israel to display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet.
• Virgin Mary spotted in suburban tree trunk. Our Blessed Mother likes to blend with Nature, no matter how awkward.
• …Speaking of “blending with Nature”, our old friend the ‘Tree man’ has just left the hospital with his warts/branches removed.
• 'Greased Lightning!' From London to Athens using cooking fat as fuel (Video here).
• And if that is not ‘green’ enough for you, how about a super car built out of… WOOD??
• Good news for diabetics: Researchers turn living cells into insulin-makers.
• I smell danger! That’s because I’m a mammal… and a paranoid.
• A cousin of the saber-tooth tiger was found in a Venezuelan tar pit, guarding it against the imperialist oil companies… or so it was reported on the official Venezuelan news channel ;-)
• The Not-So-Colossal squid is sluggish and highly vulnerable to predators.
• Hobbits! Dwarves! Hobbits!!! Dwarves!!!! The Flores controversy is alive and well.
• ’5th Element’ style accommodations. 250 sq feet and “only” for US$279,000. Maybe Rick & I could afford to share a closet.

Thanks, Rick & Kat.

Quote of the Day:

"What is life? A madness.
What is life? An illusion,
a shadow, a story.
And the greatest good is little enough;
for all life is a dream,
and dreams themselves are only dreams."

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, from the play ‘Life is a Dream’ (great-grandaddy of The Matrix)