Diseased Rams: The First Biological Weapon?

From NewScientist: "The historical documents hint that the Hittites – whose empire stretched from modern-day Turkey to northern Syria – sent diseased rams to their enemies to weaken them with tularemia, a...

There be real treasure this time, matey

NPR reports: "Pirate ships exist mostly in legend, but a real one - the Whydah - was discovered off Cape Cod by Barry Clifford in 1984. It's the only authenticated pirate ship ever found, and just like in...

Killer fungus now airborne

The NewScientist reports: "A fungus that is devastating amphibian populations around the world is a relatively new disease that is spreading rapidly ... Worse, not only is the fungus being spread by infected...

Sounds like Banana? Orangutans adapt to human trickery

The BBC reports: "Researchers from St Andrews University have shown that the animals intentionally modify or repeat their signals to get their messages across ... [T]he researchers set up a situation where six...

An "Eh oh!" "Uh oh!" - Teletubbies stolen

From the BBC: "Dozens of figures from the Irish Republic's National Wax Museum have been damaged or stolen after a "rave" party at a warehouse, officials say. Models of famous children's characters, including...

Japanese money grows in the sky, mailboxes

The AFP reports: "Residents of a Tokyo apartment building are baffled after a total of 1.81 million yen (15,210 dollars) was found in 18 mailboxes by Saturday, a police spokesman said ... Since June, dozens of...

The C.H.U.D. live under Tokyo!

The Japan Times Online reports: "Shun Akiba, a former high-level foreign reporter, has identified hundreds of kilometers of Tokyo tunnels whose purpose is unknown and whose very existence is denied ... Shun...

Leather and wood doth a prosthesis make

BBC News reports: "An artificial big toe [known as the "Cairo toe"] found on the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy could be the world's earliest functional fake body part, UK experts believe ... Lead researcher...

Mysterious Symbols in your Walls?

From the AP: "It was a 3-foot-by-10-foot section of timeworn brick wall, its predictable rows abruptly interrupted by three distinct, deliberate-looking triangular shapes ... Painstakingly preserved from a...

Earth from Sagittarius Dwarf, not Milky Way?

Purportedly, "new" evidence from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) project suggests our solar system may actually be from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy, and that this is the cause of Earth's global...

35,500 people saved at BBC's Big Weekend

A few handfuls of people saved 35,500 unsuspecting music-goers from being mind controlled at the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend on May 19th and May 20th. I was one of those handfuls and the "neural override" plot,...

Perplex City at BBC'S Radio 1 Big Weekend

The Third Power, villains from the Perplex City alternate reality game, are set to test their subliminal messaging technology at Radio 1's Big Weekend, hosted by BBC Radio 1 on May 19th and 20th. Can you solve...

Perplex City Needs Plumbers: Stories ARG Begins

NowPublic has previously reported about Perplex City's season 2 and, while the new puzzle cards have been out for months, today was our first taste of the "Stories" alternate reality game (ARG) itself, with a new...

Rameses II's pots: makeup, not organs

From the New Scientist: "The blue jars arrived in the Louvre in 1905. They carry the name of Rameses II, and seemed to contain embalmed organs, including a trace of what appeared to be heart tissue. Yet Rameses's...

Killer frogs in San Francisco

CBS news reports: "According to KPIX-TV contributor and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Mattier, the city is preparing to do something to stop the African clawed frogs. While they are just 5 inches in...
 

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