Another installment of ""Intersesting and "OffBeat" Stories from the Web

Most of these stories are taken from two or three of the more popular "non-mainstreem" web sites that tell the stories that the "Mainstream news" doesnt bother to cover...either because they are afraid of the reactions to said truths or they just dont think that humanity cares....I beg to differ.

I think we all need to know as much as possible about everything...no matter how "unimportant" it may seem to some.....
So onto the "other news".....
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These Puzzles May Finally be Solved in 2006

The March 19 issue of New Scientist Magazine reports on mysteries that continue to baffle scientists. These include cosmic rays, dark matter and the placebo effect. Will researchers find the solutions to these puzzles in 2006?

The placebo effect means that if you THINK you are taking an effective medication or treatment, it is often just as effective as taking the real thing—and with no side effects! Side effects are one of the biggest problems in medicine. This is obviously one way that shamans have traditionally healed, using methods—such as chanting or sand paintings—that modern physicians know cannot work (yet they often do).

Prayer may work the same way, except that controlled studies have shown that patients who are prayed for often get well faster than those who aren't—even if they don't know they are being prayed for.

Another mystery is homeopathy—medical remedies that are so diluted that just a few molecules of the original substance remain—and yet they work. This could be due to the mysterious placebo effect.

Another puzzle is cosmic rays that can't exist. Physicists in Japan have been measuring these for over a decade. Cosmic rays are protons (particles of light) that travel through the universe close to the speed of light. Some of them are produced by exploding stars, but scientists don't know what causes them all. However, Japanese scientists have detected cosmic rays that can only come from inside our own galaxy— which is impossible.

Dark matter is something else that can't exist—but it does. Galaxies should all be disintegrating, but somehow they don't. Astronomers think that dark matter is the "glue" that holds them together, except they can't find any of it.

Head on over to "New Scientist" on the web.......
http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns

Many interesting articles. And next time you are by a magazine rack or in your local bookstore...look for this magazine. It is written in such a way that it is not hard to read even for those of us that are NOT scientificly inclined. An easy and informative read in other words.
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Ancient City Found in the Middle of War Zone
26-Dec-2005
We are fighting the war in Iraq in the area where some the world's earliest civilizations began. Now archeologists have discovered the remains of a sophisticated city on the border between Syria and Iraq that is over 5,000 years old, much older than any similar metropolis in any other part of the world.
James Janega writes in the Chicago Tribune that this city shows signs of having been destroyed in a huge battle many years ago, although there is no historical record of this. One reason for this could have been that the war sent the left so few survivors that the population was, in effect, propelled technologically backwards many hundreds of years.

Other places excavated in the area are much smaller, but it's now thought they probably got their technology from the newly-discovered city of Hamoukar. Before, it was assumed that everyone in this part of what is now the Middle East received their knowledge from Mesopotamia, which is hundreds of miles away. Hamoukar appears to have been a big city in 4,500 BC and may have first been settled 8,000 years ago.
Syrian archeologist Abdal-Razzaq Moaz says, "This is the root of all the civilizations. It's not only Syrian heritage. This is also yours. It's heritage belonging to all humanity.
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Are You a Grinch?

According to psychologists, holiday Grinches who exclude themselves from parties or gift exchanges may be doing so in self-defense, pre-empting the possibility that family and friends will ignore or disappoint them. And a group of New Zealand Santas recently displayed the ultimate in Grincy behavior.

Psychologist Kipling D. Williams, who studies ostracism, says, "During the holidays there are high expectations about getting together with family, celebrating with friends and gift-giving at the office or with neighbors. As a result, people are more sensitive. They may avoid or not reply to phone calls from friends or develop a negative attitude, all in an effort to make being ostracized less hurtful, but more inevitable."

Psychologist Jon Allen agrees that, "For most people...the holidays will fall short of expectations." This can lead to depression. Some of the symptoms of holiday depression include significant decrease or increase in weight or appetite, insomnia or sleeping too much, loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, and difficulty thinking or concentrating.

The ultimate in Grinchcy behavior occurred in New Zealand recently, when group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus outfits, many of them drunk, went on a rampage through Auckland, robbing stores, assaulting security guards and urinating from highway overpasses.
They then went through a city park, overturning garbage containers, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on office buildings. Police have called the riot "Santarchy," instead of anarchy.

A spokesman for the group says Santarchy wasn't just a bunch of drunk grinches, it is was actually part of a worldwide movement to protest the commercialization of Christmas.
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Another Asteroid Heading Our Way???

Yet another asteroid is heading our way and could hit us in 31 years—will this one spell our doom, like an earlier one did for the dinosaurs? This one is called Apophis, after the ancient Egyptian spirit of evil and destruction.

Alok Jha writes in The Guardian that the asteroid is now aiming for Earth. It’s being watched by astronomers all over the world, and if it looks like it will hit a body of land, they may try to figure out how to deflect it or break it up in space. Most asteroids that hit the Earth land in the ocean, since oceans cover most of the Earth’s area. NASA says that an impact from Apophis, which could come in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy of the nuclear bomb that was detonated over Hiroshima in World War II.

No matter where it does hit, we would all be affected by the nuclear winter that effect from millions of dust particles being released into the atmosphere. This is probably what killed off the dinosaurs.

Astronomers have tracked Apophis ever since it was discovered in June but it has only started worrying them now, because they say the odds of it hitting Earth in 2029 are alarming.

We don't have much time to lose. It will take many years to design, test and build the technology we need to deflect the asteroid. Meteor expert Monica Grady says an impact by Apophis could cause "mass extinction…We are overdue for a big one."
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And one for my good friend Doris........

New cat family tree tracks global feline success
06 January 2006

NewScientist.com news service
Shaoni Bhattacharya

Despite their occasional fierceness, the domestic cat diverged from its “roaring” cousins, such as lions, jaguar and tigers, 10.8 million years ago – just after the evolution of the ancestor of all modern cats. The revelation comes from a thorough new genetic analysis of the cat family tree.

Cats are “one of the world’s most successful carnivore families, inhabiting all continents except Antarctica”, say the researchers, but modern species evolved only relatively recently – about 11 million years ago.

Originating in Asia, they successfully traversed and colonised the globe, with the periodic rise and fall of the sea level facilitating their spread and evolution into new species, suggests the study by Stephen O’Brien, Warren Johnson and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick in Maryland, US.
As well as the domestic cat and roaring cats, other modern cat species include pumas, cheetahs, lynxes, ocelots and wildcats.

The cat family tree has been notoriously difficult to decipher because there are few dated cat fossils and because most of today’s species appeared so recently.
But O’Brien’s team managed to piece together a tree by analysing DNA sequences from the 37 living cat species. They used DNA from the sex chromosomes, X and Y, and from mitochondria – structures in the cell which provide energy and are inherited only via the mother.

They suggest that after modern cats arose in Asia, the eight main lineages diverged during the course of at least 10 migrations across continents. The felines used geographical features such as the Bering land bridge, which once connected Eurasia to North America, and the Panamanian land bridge, connecting North and South America, to spread across the world.

The team also suggests that 60% of the modern species arose in just the last million years.
Journal reference: Science (vol 311, p 73)

Related Articles
How cats' eyes keep the world in focus
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925334.800
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Warm Regards for a realitivly worry free week to all........