Archaeologists are looking into the Tuscan sword in the stone. This sword is associated with a vain knight who is given a vision and becomes an hermit. Here's part of the story:
"There, another vision told him to renounce material things. Galgano objected that it would be as difficult as splitting a rock with a sword. To prove his point, he struck a stone with his sword. Instead of breaking, the sword slid like butter into the rock. Galgano once again became a recluse, isolating himself by the sword's side. There he remained until he died in 1181."
Some believe the story is old enough to have influenced the King Arthur legends of Excalibur.

Isn't Bigfoot a northwestern USA phenomenon? So what's up with this hunter claiming he sees Bigfoot in Levittown, Pa.? There is a picture of a pair of really unconvincing Bigfoot prints at that link.

Virginia company banking on underwater robots. Which gets me thinking. We have robot ships that float through the solar system, taking pictures of Jupiter and Saturn and so on. Why don't we have any automated ships to search the bottom of the ocean, to get pictures of the Marinas Trench and all the weird animals down there? Is it because there's no national agency, like NASA, to take control of that?

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alien 4, will be writing X-Men comic books.
(Link found at Bookslut.)

An instant just became shorter.
"Researchers in Austria and Germany measured the smallest time interval recorded, and found it lasted a ten million billionth of a second.
"It's about ten times shorter than the previous shortest measured interval, which lasted about one femtosecond or a million billionth of a second."

Debate rages over whether the Vinland map, which predates Columbus and indicates a land to the west, is a fake or the real deal.

Newspapers in the late 1800s wrote about the Night Doctors. Mysterious men who desecrated graves and killed people for their bodies. Might there be a rational explanation:
"Folklorists believe that these stories of Night Doctors were spread and encouraged by whites to keep the ex-slaves under an informal curfew."
(Found through Cylindrical Primate Storage Unit.)

Many people believed in vampires in New England in the 1700s. Rhode Island and Connecticut were particularly prone to the problem. People would go dig up graves because they believed the dead person was sucking away the life of a living relative. More than likely, the problem was tuberculosis rather than vampirism.

I've been going to Books by the Falls in Derby since I was in high school. It's a used book store inside an old factory. There are about four rooms and each of them has books stacked high above, ready to topple at any moment. There's that great smell of musty old books. All the aisles are barely passable for one person. When there are two people in one aisle, it's a real project to pass by. In a back corner by the windows, there's a little desk where the owner sits. He has an old record player behind him. Through the years I've heard him play classical, opera, blues, jazz and light jazz.
I always head over to the science fiction section first. One huge wall covered in every old rocket-and-bug-eyed-monster book you can imagine. All the classic names are there -- Asimov, Heinlen, Sturgeon, Pohl, Anderson -- and every once in a while there are the classic novels that have gone out of print. Twice I've seen "Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner there.
I've seen a couple of references to Books by the Falls as disorganized. "They probably have some good things, but who knows where to find them?" says one reference site on the Web. But for me that has always been part of the joy. You start scrounging through big piles of books and see what attracts you. There's nothing like digging through a pile of books and catching a glimpse of an R.A. Lafferty book or an obscure sword and sorcery novel. It's not the kind of store you run into for something particular and then run out. It's a store meant for leisurely exploration.
I just went to Books by the Falls Saturday. The owner, who has gotten used to seeing me, said "hey you're into science fiction right?" Sure am. He directed me to two new book shelves full of science fiction books. He had dug up some amazing collection. It seemed like every classic science fiction book was there. I ended up picking up these books:
Hardcovers
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
The Third Level by Jack Finney
Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
Paperbacks
All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By by John Farris
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze by Kenneth Robeson
Doc Savage: The Fortress of Solitude by Kenneth Robeson
I found all of those almost immediately. All those books cost a total of $12. But I ran out of money. There was a ton of other books I wanted. I'm going back soon to pick up more.
There's just something about being in a used book store that can't be beat.
So what about you? Do any of you have used book stores you love? Or book stores in general? Does anyone else find the pleasure in this that I do?

Robert Rodriguez is bringing the comic book "Sin City" to the movies. Frank Miller's comic book is an effective set of noir tales told with beautiful black and white drawings. Rodriguez says he will work directly with Miller to capture the look and feel of the stories.
Rodriguez has always been good with action films, I think he's a good choice. However, I don't think he has done any work quite as dark as "Sin City." The closest is "From Dusk till Dawn," but even that movie relied on a lot of humor. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Two new dinosaur species found in Antartica. One is a small carnivore, the second is a herbivore similar to a brachiosaurus.

Testimony in a big murder case:
"Jose Sandoval, making his first sworn statement since he was convicted of the Sept. 26, 2002, Norfolk bank shootings, is asked why he jumped the counter.

'Because somebody was talking s--,' Sandoval replies.
Madison County Attorney Joe Smith asks who.

'A Smurf.'

'A smirk?'

'A Smurf,' Sandoval repeats, as in the blue TV cartoon character.

'I take it from your answer you don't want to answer that question,' Smith says. 'Or is it really your testimony that a blue Smurf was in the bank?'

'That's what I said.'

The prosecutor tries once more: 'Did you jump the counter because you wanted to make sure everybody was dead?'

'No, I jumped the counter because the Smurf was talking s--,' Sandoval says."

Asteroid gave world a close call. Until the sky cleared, astronomers thought there was a one in four chance that a 30-metre asteroid would hit Earth's atmosphere. After they found out we were all safe, they realized the asteroid was 500 metres across.

Police hunt "bunny girl." The bunny girl is a man "who is about six foot four tall and has been nicknamed 'bunny girl' by residents, wears high-heeled shoes, fishnet tights, a thong, a basque and a Lily Savage-style wig." He waits for unsuspecting women, then pretends to be tied to a tree. He asks the women to help. And that's all. He's a very strange criminal. (Although, I'm not sure he's broken any laws.)

The Asian giant catfish, which is the size of a bear is dying out. (With pics.)

Iran is looking to introduce a new jellyfish into its waters to fight off another jellyfish, Mnemiopsis or "The Monster." They hope the new jellyfish will eat the Monster.

Making Light, who normally writes about publishing, editing and writing, writes about dwarf mammoths. Tiny little prehistoric elephants, too cool.

You're The Sound and the Fury!

by William Faulkner

Strong-willed but deeply confused, you are trying to come to grips
with a major crisis in your life. You can see many different perspectives on the issue,
but you're mostly overwhelmed with despair at what you've lost. People often have a hard
time understanding you, but they have some vague sense that you must be brilliant
anyway. Ultimately, you signify nothing.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I'd feel so much better about this if I'd actually read "The Sound and the Fury." Still, that paragraph accurately describes how I've been feeling lately.

Two mummies that pre-date the Incas were found in Peru. They were so well preserved that an eyeball and intestines can still be seen.

At Undiscovered, a Fortean blog I recently discovered, the writer looks at the question of Shakespeare authorship:
"This is why, the topic of Shakespeare authorship studies (for want of a better phrase, is one peopled with assorted oddballs, lunatic theories and outlandish unsupported speculation. It doesn't however, automatically follow that there is no substance behind the speculation.
"The reality is that there is a problem, one that academia is addressing by denying it exists. But the facts speak for themselves."