The remains of a tiny and hitherto unknown species of human that lived as recently as 13,000 years ago have been discovered on an Indonesian island.My assignment to you, Dear Readers, is to find whoever started calling these hobbits and beat them senseless.The discovery has been heralded as the most important palaeoanthropological find for 50 years, and has radically altered the accepted picture of human evolution.
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Instead of following a simple evolutionary path culminating in modern humans - Homo sapiens - the discovery of LB1 suggests early humans branched into many more forms than previously thought - some of which survived until very recently. The find also shows that small-brained humans could evolve without losing much of their intelligence.
DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. -- A woman came home from vacation to find a stranger living there, wearing her clothes, changing utilities into her name and even ripping out carpet and repainting a room she didn't like, authorities said.We've all wanted to do this at some time or another, right?Douglas County authorities say they can't explain why Beverly Valentine, 54, broke into an empty home and started acting like it was her own.
During the 21/2/ weeks the owner, Beverly Mitchell, was on vacation in Greece, Valentine allegedly redecorated the ranch home, ripping up carpet and taking down the owner's pictures and replacing them with her own.
Link (via Dave Barry)
The blog has been receiving sporatic updates due to me being totally exhausted by the new family pet. Expect some bumpiness over the coming weeks, but don't fret; we're still here.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A University of Florida scientist has grown a living “brain” that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.The part that creeps me out is that these little rat brains sound like they start stitching themselves together. That cannot bode well....The “brain” -- a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat’s brain and cultured inside a glass dish -- gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene.
As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
“We’re interested in studying how brains compute,” said Thomas DeMarse, the UF professor of biomedical engineering who designed the study. “If you think about your brain, and learning and the memory process, I can ask you questions about when you were 5 years old and you can retrieve information. That’s a tremendous capacity for memory. In fact, you perform fairly simple tasks that you would think a computer would easily be able to accomplish, but in fact it can’t.”
While computers are very fast at processing some kinds of information, they can’t approach the flexibility of the human brain, DeMarse said. In particular, brains can easily make certain kinds of computations – such as recognizing an unfamiliar piece of furniture as a table or a lamp – that are very difficult to program into today’s computers.
A sunfish that washed up near the base of Farewell Spit is a monster with a strange sense of timing, a marine expert says.Holy crap. Click the link to see the picture.The 3m sunfish was discovered at Taupata Creek near Puponga by passers-by on Sunday.
Department of Conservation worker and Pakawau resident Heather Gunn said she was driving past when she saw "a big lump" on the beach, which she initially thought to be a whale.
The University of Kansas plans to pay homage to the giant lizard later this month, organizing a three-day scholarly conference for the 50th anniversary of his first film.It's not just about celebrating campy creature features. Planners want to provoke discussion of globalization, Japanese pop culture and Japanese-American relations after World War II.
"I would like people to take Godzilla more seriously," said Bill Tsutsui, a history professor at the University of Kansas and author of the book "Godzilla on My Mind," which discusses the history of the monster's movies.
Wouldn't we all?
According to Max Brooks, if you think you're safe this Halloween, you would be wrong -- dead wrong.If anyone would know about braindead monsters, it would be a former Saturday Night Live writer.For Brooks, an acclaimed author and former "Saturday Night Live" writer, the threat of a zombie attack is a global problem for all humans, including University students.
"Zombies are a virus," Brooks said. "They multiply and expand and affect the host -- the entire human race."
Brooks, the son of filmmaker Mel Brooks, will teach an anti-ghoul seminar at 7:30 tonight at the University Chapel.
"Zombies can attack at any time," Brooks said. "The key word is eternal vigilance.
"Their biggest weapon is our ignorance," he said. "Knowledge is power and that is how we are going to beat them."
Zombies look just like humans but are dead, he said.
Today's tip involves pointing you to a discussion on the Esoteric Science Resource Center.
Last weekend, the Czarina and I had a discussion along this line, talking about Stephen King's The Stand, among other horror novels. In particular, we talked about what Alan Dean Foster once referred to as "The Laws of Conservation of Reality" and "The Law of Conservation of Magic" when reviewing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom twenty years ago. In that film, Foster pointed out that viewers had regular bailouts of the characters that made no sense from a realistic viewpoint, such as the asinine concept of making a safe leap from a flying airplane to the ground via an inflated liferaft. Foster pointed out, quite succintly, that if a couple of seconds had been spent at the beginning showing Jones getting a magic talisman, and if he'd said a few syllables over the talisman as he and his cohorts were falling to the ground and the talisman magically lowered them gently to a perfect landing, the audience would have accepted the whole thing. Instead, the general litany in theaters and in home video ranges from "Oh, come ON" to "Oh, BOLLOCKS!"I think this is something writers should consider when working in the realm of the fantastic.
Ooplasmic transfer is supposed to overcome deficiencies in the oocyte that prevent fertilization. The result, in some cases, is a baby that has genetic material from three parents. Mitochondrial DNA from the ooplasm donor has been detected in 2 of the 15 babies born using this technique. The oldest child is now over four months and appears to be healthy.And we thought custody battles were difficult with two parents...Jacques Cohen, scientific director of the Institute, dismisses ethical concerns. Although the babies have been modified at the germline level by the addition of new mitochondrial DNA, Cohen comments "we haven't changed any genes."
Link (via BoingBoing)
For two precious weeks, already down 3 performances, the Storm Theatre in New York City, just next to Times Square, is playing host to The Last Starfighter, a musical based on the film of the same name. If spoilers do not interest you, if you only want the simplest of directions and want to make the next right move, then heed these words: if you live within driving, walking, bus or train distance of New York City, see this musical. Immediately.We're all geeks here, right? And this is pretty weird, so I thought it blog-worthy.Within the Storm Theatre's well-worn but proud walls, up several flights of stairs and in one of a few dozen seats, you will join an elite and unique crowd who have seen this musical put forth on its debut run.
This is not a big-budget production, billowing with special effects and the smell of untold thousands of dollars of smoke machines and sound equipment assaulting your senses. The sets, a trailer park and non-descript spaceport, are constructed on simple flats, painted professionally, and all put on with the air of summer stock.
However, the performers, production team, and staff were all true professionals, knowing what people in their business know; all show business is silly, but performances demand respect. And delivered as this musical was, with straightforward verve, full energy, and a healthy regard for the work, a very special moment happened for me, as it may very well for you.
Link (via BoingBoing)
Supposed psychic powers that enable people to see auras around others may simply be a quirk of the brain, according to a University College London (UCL) study of a rare form of synaesthesia where some people see colourful ‘auras’ around their loved ones.I'd write a witty joke here, but my dog won't stop sniffing my crotch.The case study, reported in the October issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology, shows how some people can experience colours in response to people they know or words that evoke emotions – a condition known as emotion-colour synaesthesia.
Dr Jamie Ward, author of the study, says: “A popular notion is that some people have a magical ability to detect the hidden emotions of others by seeing a colourful ‘aura’ or energy field that they give off. Our study suggests a different interpretation. These colours do not reflect hidden energies being given off by other people, rather they are created entirely in the brain of the beholder.”
1947. Antiaircraft guns of Transcaucasian Military District fired on the flying cigar-shaped object which came from the side of the Turkish border. The object"s flying altitude was below 4,000 meters, and the guns were capable of reaching a target at the altitudes up to 12,000 meters, but that time the fire made no harm to the "cigar". Then the cigar increased its speed and flew away over the mountains.
This incident could cause much trouble, because earlier the border guards and military ships monitoring service missed this target. Then the military was unable to trace this flying object over the country"s territory. The Border District command ignored and ordered the monitors not to disclose the information that the object reached a speed up to 2000 kilometers per hour. If it's in PRAVDA, it must be true!
Link (thanks, Roy!)
ANCOUVER (CP) - While the people of Nelson, B.C. were busy arguing with U.S. veterans about proposals for a statue honouring American draft dodgers last month, 50 kilometres down Kootenay Lake, the town of Creston was having a similar battle.Hey, Kokanee, the Fortean Bureau is looking for corporate sponsorship....There, the statue at issue is a three-metre bronze of a sasquatch carrying a case of beer. A case of made-in-B.C. Kokanee beer, to be precise.
A sasquatch is a mysterious, large ape-like creature reputed to roam the woods of North America. The legend is comparable to that of the Loch Ness monster or the abominable snowman.
Mexico City - A team of international archaeologists have set sail from Mexico to seek a sunken city that has been dubbed the "Mayan Atlantis", press reports said on Monday.What is the human fascination with cities beneath the sea? I believe it is clear evidence of Cthulhu's dreaming. These archaeologists must be stopped! Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Ftagn!Quoted by the Mexican newspaper Milenio, team leader Paulina Zelintzky, a Russian archaeologist, said sonar equipment had given indications there could be ancient structures on the ocean floor between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba.
Hey, regular Fortean Bureau submitters--we have 3/4ths of an accidental "foot"-themed issue here, and I would like to make it a 4/4ths issue. So if you've got something you think is funny/good and somehow involves shoes, feet, etc... send it in ASAP.
Fresh evidence has been found in the jungles of Sumatra supporting claims that a mythical 'jungle yeti' may exist, claim two UK explorers.I've long held the belief that if researchers ever discover a bipedal primate, Nike will quickly capture one and use it as their new spokesperson/celebrity endorser.Adam Davies and Andrew Sanderson found footprints which seem to match examples they found three years ago, which were shown to be from a new species of ape.
The orang pendek, as it is known, is said by islanders to walk like a man.
Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial. From the invisible strands of fungi waiting to sprout between our toes, to the kilogram of bacterial matter in our guts, we are best viewed as walking "superorganisms," highly complex conglomerations of human, fungal, bacterial and viral cells.You are what you incubate within your guts.That's the view of scientists at Imperial College London who published a paper in Nature Biotechnology Oct. 6 describing how these microbes interact with the body. Understanding the workings of the superorganism, they say, is crucial to the development of personalized medicine and health care in the future because individuals can have very different responses to drugs, depending on their microbial fauna.
Alien Loves Predator is an online comic strip, done with photographs of McFarlane toys of the classic movie characters. Imagine a universe in which Alien and Predator are not foe, but roommates in New York City. Not all that Fortean, but 95% funny. Check it out. Oh, one more thing. There's lots of cursing.
There was a very good question about our autoresponse down in the comments section on yesterday's tip, wondering how long one should wait before querying us about whether a story has been received if he or she has not received an autoresponse. To answer that question, I first should explain what the criteria my computer looks for in order to send an autoresponse.
Basically, there are two criteria. One: the email must have an attachment. And Two: the subject line must contain the word "Submission." Most of the time, it will accept "sub" in the line also.
The other thing that can be tricky is whether or not I have the email program turned on. Sometimes, we can go a day or two (at the most) without downloading the FB mail. Because the autoresponse is not at the server level, but in my email program, the autoreply does not get sent until I download the email.
So, to answer the question, you shouldn't wait more than 3 or 4 days before asking us if we received a submission, provided you followed the guidelines and met the requirements of the mail rule. I hope that clears up some things. I welcome these kinds of questions, so feel free to ask more, submitters. I think the ideal situation for the FB one day will be to have a completely transparent editorial process. We have some way to go before we achieve that.
Breastfeeding women and their infants produce a substance that increases sexual desire among other women, according to research at the University of Chicago.I don't want to hear anybody complaining about women breastfeeding in public ever again. Those women are doing a public service!"This is the first report in humans of a natural social chemosignal that increases sexual motivation," said Martha McClintock, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University, and the lead researcher in a team at the University's Institute for Mind and Biology. Chemosignals are substances that while not necessarily perceived as odors, nonetheless have an impact on mood and menstrual cycles when absorbed through the nose.
The researchers found that after being exposed to the breastfeeding compounds for two months, women with regular partners experienced a 24 percent increase in sexual desire as reported on a standard psychological survey. Women without partners experienced a 17 percent increase in sexual fantasies after exposure for the period.
Scientists believe they have discovered a new group of giant apes in the jungles of central Africa.Are they a new species? Are they hybrids? Is this good news for Bigfoot hunters? Will they now make the highly anticipated sequel to Mighty Joe?The animals, with characteristics of both gorillas and chimpanzees, have been sighted in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to local villagers, the apes are ferocious, and even capable of killing lions.
For me, the washed-up whale harkened back to memories of my childhood in the Santa Cruz-Italian fishing community with the legend of "The Old Man of Monterey Bay," a mythical sea monster reputed to live in the deep waters off our shores and which several of my uncles and cousins reportedly encountered while fishing in their small, double-ended vessels.The anecdotal sea monster stories are the best!My late uncle, Malio Stagnaro, once recounted for me the day that a badly shaken fisherman, Bill Totten, returned to the docks after a day of fishing in June 1941. "I saw that serpent or monster out there!" he screamed. "Get me out of here. I’m going home."
"He was scared to death," my uncle recalled with his characteristic high-pitched chuckle. "He must have seen something. I didn’t see him around the wharf for a while."
Hey writers-- I don't mind querying, and I encourage it after a few months. Most of the time, we're just running a little slow. Recently, someone waited over a year to query us on a story that we had responded to. Don't wait a year. We won't bite your head off if you query, and it's email, so sometimes submissions do get lost in the ether.
A deer survived a 25-mile ride in the bumper of a car after it was hit by a motorist travelling to work.As Professor Hex pointed out, you really must see the picture on the website. But this worries me. If the deer learn that cars are not just evil deer-killing machines, but devices used for the conveyance of human beings, they might start stealing cars and using them in great deer migrations to escape our hunting seasons. Unfortunately, this deer was released into the wild. It's too late. The knowledge will spread. We are doomed.The muntjac deer remained unnoticed by the driver who thought he had hit a stone and continued on his way.
Only when he reached Sainsbury's distribution centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, did his colleagues point out the animal was stuck in his Rover.
Vets examined the deer but found no injuries apart from cuts and bruises and released it back into the wild.
POCATELLO, Idaho (Wireless Flash) -- There may be a bright side to all the ash spewing from Mount St. Helens: It could help Bigfoot researchers prove that the hairy creature exists.The question remains; what bigfoot hunter could build a machine capable of causing volcanoes to spew ash? Hmm....According to University of Idaho anatomy and anthropology professor Jeff Meldrum -- who also investigates Bigfoot -- the volcanic ash could coat the ground in Bigfoot's Pacific Northwest habitat well enough to yield some superior footprints.
He says most of the ground in the area isn't soft enough to take a footprint, but a blanket of ash could provide a good medium.
Western scholars were not the first to decipher the ancient language of the pharaohs, according to a new book that will be published later this year by a UCL researcher.The next thing, you'll be telling me that Christopher Columbus didn't discover America! Pft. Historians...Dr Okasha El Daly of UCL’s Institute of Archaeology will reveal that Arabic scholars not only took a keen interest in ancient Egypt but also correctly interpreted hieroglyphics in the ninth century AD – almost 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.
It has long been thought that Jean-Francois Champollion was the first person to crack hieroglyphics in 1822 using newly discovered Egyptian antiquities such as the Rosetta stone. But fresh analysis of manuscripts tucked away in long forgotten collections scattered across the globe prove that Arabic scholars got there first.
The earliest known relative of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex had primitive feathers, probably to help it keep warm.I hope this means that Spielberg will be taking revisionist action next on Jurrasic Park, in which the famous roar of the T. rex will be replaced with the clucking of an ordinary hen.Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing found the remains of the early tyrannosauroid which roamed the earth between 139 and 128 million years ago, in western Liaoning, China, an area rich in fossil remains.
"This provides the first direct fossil evidence that tyrannosauroids had protofeathers," Xing Xu, one of the scientists, said in a report in the science journal Nature
LONDON (Reuters) - They rarely see each other, spend winters in different countries and don't communicate for long periods but pairs of a species of Icelandic migratory birds know exactly when to return home to breed.I have a theory. It involves the discreet use of sat-phones.The couples of black-tailed godwits somehow manage to coordinate their journeys, from different countries up to 1,000 km apart, to arrive back at their Iceland breeding grounds within about three days of each other.
"When males and females from a pair arrive back on their breeding territory in the spring, they do so with remarkable synchrony," Jill Gill, of the University of East Anglia said in an interview.
"We're astonished by it."
We see a lot of submissions at the FB that summarize the story in the body of the email. I recommend against this. We don't call for it in our guidelines, and all I can think is that there is some writing advice out there that suggests this. I personally can't think of a speculative fiction magazine that does ask for this, and I find it rarely makes me more interested in reading the story when I am the editor. In my opinion, the story should stand on its own.
For us, the cover letter should be nothing more than your name, the story name and word length, your contact information including email address, and finally, a short bio that should be written not with the editors as the audience, but for use on our website should we buy your story.
If you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Next time, I'll talk about the pros and cons of listing credits in the cover letter.
IT’S the ultimate trolley dash. Wacky Andy Tyler sits in a 50mph shopping cart after fitting a JET ENGINE.Was it really taking this fellow that long to buy his groceries?Its metal glows red hot at temperatures up to 600°C, so he has to sit with his back to a heat shield.
The microlight instructor, 35, built the gas and liquid fuel pulse jet from instructions off the internet.
From the rare eyewitness sightings, bone discoveries and a video recording, the animals have large, black faces, are up to 2m tall and weighs between 85-102kg.It's kind of hard to take any article seriously that appears in a paper called The Advertiser. At least they're honest.That would put them in the size category of gorillas - but the region lies 500km from the edges of the known habitats of the western and eastern species of gorilla.
The creature's face is gorilla-like and has a sagittal crest - a long bony ridge - that is typical of gorillas.
But other aspects of the skull morphology are that of a chimpanzee, according to Colin Groves, an expert at the Australian National University in Canberra.
From the rare eyewitness sightings, bone discoveries and a video recording, the animals have large, black faces, are up to 2m tall and weighs between 85-102kg.It's kind of hard to take any article seriously that appears in a paper called The Advertiser. At least they're honest.That would put them in the size category of gorillas - but the region lies 500km from the edges of the known habitats of the western and eastern species of gorilla.
The creature's face is gorilla-like and has a sagittal crest - a long bony ridge - that is typical of gorillas.
But other aspects of the skull morphology are that of a chimpanzee, according to Colin Groves, an expert at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Kevin Blum of Whitley wasn't sure exactly he shot on the opening day of archery season.Somewhere in Ohio, an exotic deer collector is looking at an empty pen and scratching his head.What he first thought was a whitetail buck - and then an elk - turned out to be an exotic species of deer, not native to North America.
On the one hand, East Coast Bigfooters say they have to fight discrimination from western colleagues who think the creature doesn't live east of the Rocky Mountains. On the other, they have to deal with sighting reports from a more urban population, which includes some who are unfamiliar with wildlife and apt to mistake a black bear for the missing link.Through it all, one thought keeps them going: Something really might be out there _ and somebody in the East might find it first.
This debate can only end with the senseless shootings of a prominent East Coast Bigfoot hunter, followed by a retaliatory killing, and then a big sing-a-long on MTV.
Link (Found by Rudi, thanks!)
Welcome to the Fortean Bureau blog. First, let me explain the purpose of this blog. The blog will have no primary purpose. It will consist of links to strange news on the web, reviews of media that we think are of interest to Fortean readers, and magazine news, including upcoming authors and reading pile updates. It will also include anything else that the editorial staff or the ocassional guest blog editor finds interesting.
We've got an RSS link in the left column, if that floats your boat.
We will take suggestions. Email us if you have one.
Enjoy!