Swiss neurologist Olaf Blanke says out-of-body experiences are caused when a part of the brain called the angular gyrus, which controls our perception of the body, misfires under stress, causing the sensation of floating outside the body. He discovered this while mapping the brain of an epileptic patient. However, Blanke admits, “We do not fully understand the neurological mechanism that causes OBEs.”
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The CIA is beginning to assert that the 2001 anthrax attacks were a terrorist plot. This goes against the FBI’s accusation that they were a demonstration of our vulnerability to a bioweapons attack that was perpetrated by a U.S. government scientist. The problem is, the anthrax used in the attacks was the Ames strain, which so far has only been found in the U.S. Traces of anthrax were recovered from a bomb in Iraq, but they weren’t from the Ames strain.
Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough write in The Washington Times that the CIA points to the fact that the anthrax was sent to two U.S. senators and several media organizations in envelopes containing letters that ended with: “death to America, death to Israel, Allah is great.”
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Getting ready to buy a new car? You might want to pay attention to new research showing that people driving silver-colored cars are 50% less likely to be injured in a serious crash. Even white cars don’t protect you as well as silver. Researcher Sue Furness says, “We think it may be due to a combination of light color and high reflectivity.”
Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in New Scientist that white, yellow, gray, red and blue cars all have about the same crash risk, but black, brown or green cars are twice as likely to get into a crash causing serious injury.
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Earthquakes, like the recent ones in California and Iran, affect everyone on Earth. Geologist Ross Stein says, “You may not be able to feel them, but the entire planet is rung like a bell?Mountains have probably been pushed up about a foot or so by [the California] earthquake.” Eventually quakes in California will carve Mexico’s Baja peninsula off from the rest of Mexico.
Peter Henderson quotes Ross as saying, “For an earthquake this size, every single sand grain on the planet dances to the music of those seismic waves.” There’s a 5 to 10% chance that the recent quake will lead to “The Big One” that Californians dread.
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