04 Mar 2008
UK reveals its spies had astrologer in World War Two

Remember the old saw about truth being stranger than fiction ...?

Reuters - British spies hired an astrologer during World War Two, although many thought he was a fraud, and even sent him to the United States on a propaganda mission, secret documents released on Tuesday revealed.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

07:41 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Physicist Neil Turok: Big Bang Wasn't the Beginning

Well, the Catholics may be upset, but a cyclic universe fits pretty well into heathen cosmology. Turok certainly isn't the first to have this thought, and it's always struck me as both more intuitive and more satisfying than any of the other options.

Physicist Neil Turok discusses his theory that the Big Bang is just one in an endless series of universal expansions and contractions -- a theory that has provoked the ire of many physicists, as well as the Catholic Church.

(link) [Wired: Top Stories]

07:06 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Daylight Saving Time Wastes Energy

Backwards ClockYeah, thanks, Mitch. We'll bear this number in mind come November this year, when we get up to vote for your opponent in the dark.

With the time approaching when we'll be changing our clocks again, the Wall Street Journal is running a timely article on a study done by a UC-Santa Barbara economics professor and a Ph.D. student. The study unambiguously concludes that Daylight Saving Time not only doesn't save any energy, it actually wastes energy and costs more. The study used energy company records from Indiana before and after that state mandated DST for all of its counties, and calculated that the switch cost Indiana citizens $8.6M per year. "I've never had a paper with such a clear and unambiguous finding as this." the professor said.

(link) [Slashdot]

06:52 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link