Sunday, July 11, 2010

Are mutant deer the cause of unicorn legends?

Maybe unicorns aren’t wholly mythological: a one-horned deer has been spotted in a nature reserve near Florence, Italy. And it’s not merely a case of having one weird antler off to one side; it’s a horn poking straight out of its forehead.  "This is fantasy becoming reality," said Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center for Natural Sciences in Prato, to the Associated Press.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/unicorns-are-re/Full article:  

Psychic parrot Meena (whose 'psychic' record isn't as accurate as Pauly's) makes same choice as Pauly the psychic octopus in choosing Spain to win World Cup!

Meena Kutti, an eight-year-old parakeet born in India, was advising punters which teams to back, according to its owner, fortune teller M.C. Mohan, who usually gives tips on business and life.  Mohan said he placed two small envelopes on the floor at his home in Kuala Lumpur and asked Meena to pick the winner of the World Cup final - the Netherlands or Spain - and without hesitation it chose the one marked "La Furia Roja." "Meena is one of a kind and is always accurate in her predictions," he was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times newspaper, which did not give any details of previous forecasts.

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7883865/World-Cup-2010-final-Meena-the-parakeet-backs-Paul-the-psychic-octopus-for-Spain-win.html


Dracula, Vlad Tepes,  got a bad rap from his European neighbors says museum curator

The show, which has just opened in Bucharest, attempts to rehabilitate Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, who ruled Wallachia in the 15th century.  "Vlad Dracula was doubtlessly cruel, but not more so than other princes of his time," said Margot Rauch, the Austrian curator of the exhibition, entitled "Dracula - Voivode and Vampire".

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/romania/7883928/Dracula-was-not-bloodthirsty-just-a-victim-of-bad-propaganda-new-exhibition-claims.html

Researchers believe they've discovered King Arthur's legendary Round Table and it was a Roman-style amphitheater!

Researchers exploring the legend of Britain’s most famous Knight believe his stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in Chester.  Legend has it that his Knights would gather before battle at a round table where they would receive instructions from their King. But rather than it being a piece of furniture, historians believe it would have been a vast wood and stone structure which would have allowed more than 1,000 of his followers to gather.  Historians believe regional noblemen would have sat in the front row of a circular meeting place, with lower ranked subjects on stone benches grouped around the outside.

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7883874/Historians-locate-King-Arthurs-Round-Table.html

Does a full Moon really cause us to go crazy?

There's a bad moon on the rise? Werewolves, lunatics and criminals, we all know, famously respond to the light of the full moon.

But Creedence Clearwater Revival lyrics aside, an upcoming crime study reinforces findings that the full moon's malign influence is, well, moonshine.

"Western lore has long suggested a relationship between the phases of the moon and various forms of aberrant, antisocial, deviant, and criminal human conduct," begins the Journal of Criminal Justicestudy led by criminologist Joseph Schafer of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. "Policing, crime, and criminal justice have not been immune from speculation concerning the lunar-crime relationship."
Full article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2010-07-11-moon-crime_N.htm