Snows of Kilamanjaro Recede!

Insert Hemingway joke here.

From Science Daily:

The remaining ice fields atop famed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania could be gone within two decades and perhaps even sooner, based on the latest survey of the ice fields remaining on the mountain .

The findings indicate a major cause of this ice loss is very likely to be the rise in global temperatures. Although changes in cloudiness and precipitation may also play a role, they appear less important, particularly in recent decades.

For more on this story click here.

Video: Smallest Radio Controlled Aircraft!

Sometimes small isn’t great.  With bank balances, DVD collections and … cough … other things, large is in charge.  But when it comes to remote-controlled aircraft, small is awesome.

And the people who made the HoverDrone know this.  So they created this tiny hovering RC aircraft that fits in the palm of your hand and flies like nobody’s business.  And it costs less than a deluxe pizza.

Check it out in action:

To learn more or order one, click here.

Mysterious Black Cat Sighting in Luxembourg

The sightings of mysterious large black cats is one of the more intriguing phenomena in the world of cryptozoology.  And it’s one we find particularly intriguing.  Here’s the lastest report of such a sighting from Agence France-Presse:

A BLACK panther sighted in northeast France several weeks ago, and last seen in Belgium in September, was possibly spotted in neighbouring Luxembourg over the weekend, police said today.

“Police were alerted Sunday at 3.30pm by a lady who saw a black panther in an industrial zone in Bascharage,” a small community in southwest Luxembourg, spokesman Vic Reuter said.

“We sent out several patrols with dog handlers, and a police helicopter with a thermal camera searched for several hours but we couldn’t find anything,” he said, adding that the hunt was abandoned in the late afternoon.

He said police were taking the sighting “very seriously”, given that a similar animal had been seen in the Ardennes region not far away in Belgium.

This is one of the most interesting things about these sightings:  Police and other officials still take them seriously.

The panther hunt began on August 24, when a large wild cat was first spotted by hikers in woods in the Meurthe-et-Moselle region of northeast France.

Tracks at the site were found to be those of a “great cat, probably a black panther,” according to French hunting and wild fauna office (ONCFS).

Around a dozen further sightings occurred in France, including one by a natural sciences teacher which was thought to be very credible.

No circuses or zoos have reported such an animal missing, and officials believe the cat might have been raised by a person living in the area.

We don’t know what these sightings are:  Misidentification, an unknown species, some form of paranormal occurrence, or something we haven’t even thought of yet.  But, whatever they are, they keep us interested from story to story.

A Third of Dinosaur Species are a Fraud!

A controversial new theory posits that as many of a third of dinosaurs species have been miscategorized.  Rather than separate species they are just the juvenile versions of already identified dinosaurs.

National Geographic explains the reason:

… young dinosaurs didn’t look like Mini-Me versions of their parents, according to new analyses by paleontologists Mark Goodwin, University of California, Berkeley, and Jack Horner, of Montana State University.

Instead, like birds and some other living animals, the juveniles went through dramatic physical changes during adulthood.

This means many fossils of young dinosaurs, including T. rex relatives, have been misidentified as unique species, the researchers argue.

Hmm … think the parents out there would understand this.

Who hasn’t felt their children are an entirely new species? 

Source.

Video: Taiwanese Army has Transformers!

Or at least that’s what they want the children of Taiwan to think.  Here’s their latest ad to spur recruitment in the army.

We think this would only work if the five-year-olds were allowed to enlist in the armed forces.

The iPhone Gets Spooky!

Still don’t have an iPhone?  Well, Universal and Geodetic give you yet another reason to snap one up.   They’re launching a new ap to work in conjunction with the Universal theme park “Halloween Nights” events.   The ap creates an enhanced experience when visiting the park during the event.

And if this doesn’t convince to plunk for an iPhone, well, the app also works on Android phones as well.

For more info click here.

Stonehenge’s “Little Sister” Discovered

In secret, this summer, a group of archeologists uncovered something startling.  In an area about a mile from Stonehenge they found evidence of another stone circle.  This circle was smaller than Stonehenge, consisting of only 27 stones in comparison to Stonehenge’s 56 stones; and constructed early than Stonehenge.

Researchers are calling this new site Bluehenge, a reference to the type of stone (Preseli Spotted Dolerite) used which has a bluish appearance.

This discovery calls into question the full purpose of Stonehenge as these researchers believe Stonehenge and Bluehenge were used in concert.

Source.

How Pie Kept Neil Gaiman on the Best Seller List for a Year!

Anyone who follows publishing at all (yeah, the three of us) knows that Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel The Graveyard Book has been a phenomenal success.  But little did we know the part that fine baked goods played in its success.

It started casually enough when Gaiman suggested that if the book stayed on at the #1 spot for four weeks he’d buy the people at Harper Collins cupcakes.   It did.  And he did.  Then Gaiman’s editor casually suggested if it stayed on the list for a year, she’d bake him a pie.

This made it suddenly very important to keep the book on the list.  And when 51 weeks had passed it became very, very important.  Because, as Gaiman put it, “Firstly, 52 consecutive weeks is a lot more than 51 weeks, and secondly, PIE.”

Well, he just made it.  And that prompted a call for his editor, “What kind of pie would you like? I was thinking rhubarb…”

So, if you’re trying to find that thing which will prompt you to move your writing career another step forward, why not follow Gaiman’s lead.  Think baked goods.

If you want to read this whole story in Gaiman’s own words (like he needs more hits) you can read it here.

Matchstick Dalek!

From the Daily Telegraph:

This full scale matchstick model of one of television’s scariest aliens is the work of Brian Croucher, 66, who spent more than two years on the task in the sitting room of his end of terrace house in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.

He finished it last month by applying the last of three coats of clear varnish to the 480,000 matches which have been cut, shaped and sanded into the 5ft 3in extraterrestrial.

“I spent an hour or maybe two on it at a day because I have a bad back and it is difficult sitting still for such a long time,” said Mr Croucher, a retired electroplater. “Besides, it can be a tedious business.”

Mr Croucher was bitten by the matchstick modelling bug 30 years ago when he watched his nephew struggling to make a model of his mother’s house. He said: “I told him it looked good but bet him that I could make a matchstick boat and finish it before he finished his house. He gave up half way through but I carried on.

For the rest of the article click here.

Video: Mysterous “Alien” Corpse Photographed in Panama City