On:

Some of us don’t want to live in a world without chocolate, but we may have to if a South American disease spreads to cocoa plants in Africa.

Julianna Kettlewell writes in bbcnews.com that the two diseases ravaging cocoa plants are called “witches’ broom” and “frosty pod.” They are both fungi and are closely related. WBD causes the branches of cocoa trees to become swollen, giving them the appearance of witches’ brooms, while FP attacks the pods containing the cocoa beans, leaving them with a white coating.
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We recently wrote that Atzlan, the Mexican Atlantis, might be in Utah. Now an ancient Indian site has been revealed that was kept secret by a rancher in Utah for over 50 years.

Paul Foy writes that Waldo Wilcox kept outsiders off his land, so no one knew it contained an incredibly preserved ancient Indian settlement, with arrowheads and beads lying out in the open. Now that they know about it, archeologists are calling it one of the most amazing finds they’ve ever seen.
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Psychologists have long thought that bringing women into traditionally male realms would create kinder, gentler institutions. However, female torture of male prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison seems to prove the opposite. Of the seven U.S. soldiers charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, three are women.
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Why have we been fascinated for so many years by Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile? It may be due to random noise in our brain.

Philip Cohen reports in New Scientist that Christopher Tyler and Leonid Kontsevich manipulated a computer image of the painting by adding random visual “noise” (like the “snow” seen on a badly tuned TV). They then asked 12 people if they thought this Mona Lisa was sad or happy.
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