Another day, another creepy anniversary nobody's ever heard of commemorated by Wikipedia. At least, likely nobody outside the Australian UFO community. You'd think that after so much time they'd be able to pry more records out of the various law enforcement agencies.

European booster manufacturer Arianespace has successfully launched a Soyuz rocket from its South American facility in French Guiana. This marks the first time in the history of that venerable booster that it has been launched outside the borders of the old Soviet Union. The inclusion of its services adds a valuable medium-weight launch capability to compliment Arianespace's own Ariane 5.

The promo machine for the upcoming movie Puss in Boots seems to be picking up steam. I'm sure I'd read somewhere else that Guillermo del Toro was in charge of the film, but I'd forgotten until I read this article. We've liked his other work quite a bit, but a Dreamworks family movie is certainly a departure from his normal fare. Here's to hoping it doesn't stink, because with a cute animated cat as the central star there's no way I'm getting out of seeing it.

New dating techniques have been used on an old archeological find to push back the date of the first human settlements in North America some eight centuries. Doesn't sound like too much when you're talking about an event that was at least 13,000 years ago, but you know scientists... always looking to get their name in the paper about something. Well, that, and the fact that such a push means the "new" old people used a culture different from the "old" old people.

While we here at AMCGLTD are perfectly aware this is parody. Or is it?

In the "I'm amazed nobody's thought of this before" file we have Crimson Trace's Lightguard, a combo flashlight/laser sight with an innovative switch mechanism that naturally turns on when a gun is gripped. Ditto on the warning about not using it as a substitute flashlight. Trying to find your keys with this is could have... unfortunate consequences.

Scientists have for the first time photographed a planet as it was forming. Tagged with the descriptive if inelegant name LkCa 15 b, the gas giant is coalescing in a system about 450 light years away from Earth's. Further study should provide much needed data for how planets form.

While (apparently) the idea that human females living close together synchronize their menstrual cycles is still controversial, it's now been proven a species of monkey synchronizes the sexual receptiveness of a troupe's females. It's thought this provides a reproductive advantage to the females, since it helps to prevent the dominant male from monopolizing them. Think "embarrassment of riches," that sort of thing.

I'm just glad I wasn't the one forced to watch monkeys go at it for hours on end and then pick at their poo after they're done.

Today's "kook mistaken for an audiophile" story is all about how cassette tapes are making a "comeback." Ok, slowly this time: audiophiles are people who spend $20,000 on a single 30 watt monophonic vacuum tube amplifier. Kooks are people who talk a guy down from $30 for an obsolete tape player.

While I'm not all that interested in giving the Lucasfilm juggernaut any more of my cash, a review of "The Sound of Star Wars" was interesting enough. And free!

The bones used to be buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery south of town. Heavy rains in 2009 washed away the wall of a neighboring ravine, and a strip of the oldest part of the cemetery slid into the maw. Several headstones and at least one body tumbled down with the soil.

Someone retrieved several gravestones from the ravine and set them at the back edge of the cemetery. Some of them indicate the graves were nearly old enough to fall under the state archaeologist’s authority. One, for a 2-year-old girl named Nellie Beem, says she was buried in 1867, which is 144 years ago.

How hard is it just to dig some new graves and put these people back to rest?

Only in Alaska: grocery store business stopped due to bear cub in the produce section. Me, I'd be much, MUCH, more worried about where momma bear was at that particular moment. Then again, it's nice to see it's not just human babies that can end up in the damnedest places when you turn your back on them.

We're (well, Ellen's) getting slow... how else to explain our total lack of albino cyclops shark coverage? Ah, I know. It wasn't an albino cyclops cat! Fish, fowl, feline, the distinction matters. Well, anyway, it's a great Halloween-style link!

A "fully intact" Viking boat burial site has been found in the highlands of Scotland. It represents the best-preserved example of this type found so far in the UK. The find is part of a much larger archeological project who's objective is to chronicle changes in lifestyle from the earliest known traces of habitation right through to the modern era. I'll give them this, they don't lack for ambition.

First we had an announcement of the electric DeLorean, now someone's done gone and driven the thing. In Houston, no less. It certainly sounds like they're serious about production. Will a different place, boss, and point in time finally see the fulfillment of John D's dream? I hope so!

By using a tiny robot originally developed as a spy, scientists have gained new insight into the evolution of flight. The "trees-down" team gets a boost while the "ground-up" side gets something to argue about.

Really? I know you are a country of nearly1.2 Billion, but you don't hit a child with car and then run her over.

The horrific part is over 4 people walked past her and she was hit multiple times!

China, you really are one sick country

One reason why you should not have a doggy door on your back door in Colorado.

Cougars(not the elderly women who feed off of young men)visit!

Finally, someone succinctly dissects both the reaction to, and the actuality of, the "occupy" movement. The weather is finally starting to turn colder, so it remains to be seen if my hypothesis holds out. Regardless, the main article does a fine job of putting the so-called percentages into real perspective. Pity that so few will pay attention to it.

Edgar Villchur, inventor of the modern loudspeaker, has passed away at the age of 94. I didn't realize the linchpin of my oldest, dearest hobby could be traced back to a single person, but now that I do it's good to know he did a lot of fine work and lived to a ripe old age. Salut!

An Israeli company has developed a new security sensor that doesn't use radiation or take naked pictures or anything like that. The trick? Mice. I think it's a neat idea, but I'd definitely like to see some extensive tests of the thing before trusting it to bust Hajji. But in principle, seems neat enough.

The resurrected DeLorean Motor Company has announced an all-electric model. It runs on gargantuan versions of the same sorts of batteries my RC helicopters use, but there's no word on what the projected range might be.

The things one learns, trolling Wikipedia's "on this day" section. To wit: on this day, 9 people were killed in 1814 during the "London Beer Flood." Sometimes beer does things you don't want it to do.

New Zealand is trying to stand a professional cricket series up in the US, but challenges abound. The note that the US has an unremarked built-in audience in its South Asian (SA)-born residents is well taken. Our neighborhood has a significant SA component, enough that my regular companions at my soccer-slash-helicopter-field are cricket players. I played it once, a very long time ago, and thought it was fun. Will it succeed here? Well, if curling and soccer can, I guess anyone has a chance. Versus will probably pick it up, they seem to be the home of orphaned US sports everywhere. Why not?

A BBC nature crew has finally caught "criminal" penguins red-handed. Adelie penguins, which build stone nests to keep their eggs away from spring runoff, had long been known to steal the best stones from each other but nobody'd manage to film it until now. Swoozie's cage is horrible enough. I can't imagine crawling around on ground pooped on by a quarter of a million birds.

And all this time, I thought it was the British museum that was old: a palace complex in ancient Babylon contained the world's first known museum. Built around 530 B.C., the museum contained exhibits still recognizable in the ruins when it was excavated more than two thousand years later.

Dan Weldon, 1978-2011

It looks like relativity isn't going anywhere any time soon. It seems all that noise about particles going faster than light boiled down to a relativistic effect on the GPS clocks used to take the measurement. In other words, they found another proof of relativity figuring out the thing that might have been disproving it.

Boeing is now pitching an up-rated version of its X-37B spaceplane as a manned vehicle for reaching the ISS. The unimaginatively named X-37C would still be far smaller than the Space Shuttle, but would (apparently) require little new hardware to be developed.

No, really, Piranha bark. Nature can be weirder than we can imagine, because nature just has to follow rules we're still not completely clear about. It doesn't have to actually be "creative."

Scientists have announced the discovery of the earliest-known paint factory. The 100,000 year-old cave site contains artifacts used in just about every part of the process needed to turn ocher into red paint, pushing the time we first started creating art some 60,000 years.

Prediction: The "occupying" movement will fade rapidly as ... the weather turns cold...

Observation: Wet weather curtails Wall Street protests in New York.

A surfer in Oregon got the ride of his life recently. I'd normally say, "yeah, right," but apparently there are witnesses to his little shark dance. Just another reason to stick with swimming pools, as far as I'm concerned.

A new study of the genome of the bacteria which caused the Black Death in the 14th century has revealed some surprising results. Not only has it not changed significantly in the past seven centuries, it appears that the plague of 1348 was in fact the very first caused by the bacterium we now know. Exactly why it was so virulent then, and what may have caused earlier less well-known plagues, is not clear.

NASA has announced its first findings from the Dawn space probe, and, as usual, they're spectacular and surprising. The neat thing about this probe is it's ion-powered, which means it'll be able to motor on to Ceres once it's done with its look at Vesta.

Progress toward a useful humanoid robot seems to be proceeding apace. Not sure why the author of the article rode "teh sexay" so hard, but the videos are definitely interesting. It'd be even more interesting if they got it to walk, or maybe talk.

By using actual skeletons instead of scale models, a team of scientists has determined T. Rex may have been nearly a third larger than previously thought. Which is neat as far as it goes, but those skeletons can have post-mortem "adjustments" over the eons which, I would think, may introduce the same sorts of errors that scale models often include. Unfortunately the article doesn't discuss how they controlled for this.

A family got so lost in a corn maze (maise maze?) they had to call 911 to be rescued. Pro tip: if you never want to get lost in a maze again, hold a finger against a wall and keep it there as you walk. You will find the center, and your way out. I got that from an old AD&D manual decades ago, but I have tried it and it does work. If I jog I can usually beat the "expert" time easily.

Great, now we have to watch out for "smishing." You know, this stuff wouldn't be so common if it didn't work. Wise up, people! Quit giving in to fear and out your information!

Love those wacky Aussies! I got news for him, though. In the US, at least, 1990 was just as risk-averse as the present day. It's the ones down under who've gotten more chicken-s* over time. Then again, considering those are full-sized helicopters bombing around inside a rodeo stadium, I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to attend.

After a 45 year production run, Mazda is ending its line of rotary-powered cars. Reading between the lines a bit, it seems that sales are weak for their venerable RX-8, and they don't have enough money to develop a new car. Mazda has an institutional fascination with the things, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it made a comeback if the company itself manages to turn things around.

Jeff gets a no-prize that'll shout "YAAHH POTENYA!!!" at the press of a button for bringing us proof that there is in fact something worse than getting hit by a deer on a bike trail. I regularly see deer during biking season. So far I haven't even had a close call, but I'm still very careful when I see signs they're around.

A UK team is preparing to drill into a deep lake in the Antarctic. Which just doesn't do justice to an effort requiring tons of gear to get a probe down through more than a mile and a half of ice to sample water sitting under 300 atmospheres of pressure at -20 degrees or more. All for a cup of water. Are humans a bunch of busybodies, or what?

The American Interest: "Unless there has been a heretofore unnoticed surge of Black voters into the ranks of the South Carolina GOP ... one out of every four voters in the most conservative electorate in the United States are now ready to vote for a Black candidate for president."

I like Cain a lot, and would be more than happy to see him as the GOP candidate because a) the more I hear about his policy ideas, the more I like them, and b) It would answer the question of what would happen if NOMAD was real. The prospect of all the heads on the left side of the peanut gallery exploding all at once just makes me... giddy!

First we hear of unions coming out to "support" the Occupiers, now they're starting to brag about getting paid. Although, since these are progressives, what they demand is far less than what they themselves are willing to pay. It'd be nice to think that the MSM will be all over this. It'd also be nice to think my Alfa will one day stop leaking oil. The latter is, of course, far more likely than the former.

Mike J. gets a no-prize that's a-changin' for bringing us this most welcome riposte.

Besides the noted Thanatron machine, which Kevorkian built, other items to be auctioned include some of Kevorkian's correspondences and invention ideas, a pearl flute, his doctor's bag, a master lock from prison and his signature blue sweater. People can also purchase provocative paintings that he created, which come with brief descriptions from the artist himself, according to Neal.

You know you want own a piece of real American History!

Observations:

• No celebrities have unexpectedly dropped dead.
• Greece refuses to implode on a schedule.
• The Republican candidates have all showed up, the hot one faded fast, the rest learned that, when the pin is pulled, Mr. Media is Not Your Friend.
• It's the middle part of the college semester, when assignments are light, mid-terms are over, and finals are in the far distance.
• It's an "Indian summer."

Hypothesis: The "occupying" movements are a perfect storm of bored students, unemployed hippies, nice weather, and a slow news cycle. Nothing more, nothing less.

Prediction: The "occupying" movement will fade rapidly as the primary season heats up, the weather turns cold, and finals start to rear their ugly heads.

Experiment: Wait for: a) the first day with a high below 50 in New York and Boston, b) a celebrity to suddenly keel over from a colorful drug overdose, c) a pretty white girl to become imperiled, or d) the Iowa caucus and/or New Hampshire primary to happen.

We'll see!

A scientific team believes it has discovered evidence of a for-real "Kraken" that once swam in the Earth's Triassic seas. The evidence is, per usual, circumstantial and contested, but if it all pans out it means that some time in the past a monster twice the size of a colossal squid once swam the seas. I, for one, am very glad about the "once" part of that sentence.

A 71 year-old retired Port Authority worker has gone and bought himself an island. Sure, it's not much of an island... 2.5 acres, most of which is underwater at high tide, but it's his. Oh, and it's in Long Island Sound, so it's got being at the center of Yankeeville going for it...

"Now, of course, Columbus Day is under attack as a holiday in the United States by the forces of political correctness. This is primarily an effect of the Calvinist Puritan roots of American progressivism. Just as Calvinists believed in the centrality of the depravity of man, with the exception of a miniscule contingent of the Elect of God, their secularized descendants believe in the depravity and cursedness of Western civilization, with their own enlightened selves in the role of the Elect. " -- Jim Bennett

An entrant in the Carmack Prize has posted this compilation of his successful test flight. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure Fairfax county would take exception to us setting all this up for Thanksgiving. Ah, well, guess we'll stick with the smaller ones.

Olivia just knocked out a recognizable version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the violin. Not bad for someone who's only had the instrument for a few weeks :).

Update: She let me film her! Olivia's very first performance!

Some notes: They're only using quarter notes right now, hence a few extra "beats" at the phrase ends. Swoozie decided to perform a test flight for no damned reason about 3/4th's through, but Olivia held her concentration and kept going. Ok, so it's more "recognizable" than "passable" but hey, she's 8 and has only been playing for about two weeks!

"As unemployment in Freedomland rises to hilarious extremes, filthy, pseudo-intellectual college hipsters concluded that the reason their liberal arts degrees weren't netting them $70,000+ salaried jobs straight out of the state university was because of the zionist one world government and their cronyism bleeding the country dry and oppressing the world, and now was the time to, like, throw off the chains of oppression, man!"

Related:

Coming to BBC America (I hope): using the latest imaging and surveying technology, scientists have digitally "raised" a Greek city which sank beneath the waves 3000 years ago. Danged Brits, always getting the good documentaries first.

Mark gets a no-prize starring James Arness for bringing us a new and innovative way of disposing of cremains. No mamby-pamby, vaguely gross "green" dissolving and then flushing down the drain here, folks. Nope, right here we got cases and cases of ammo. Ellen's always said she wants her ashes to be mixed with her cats' when she goes. She never was all that specific about what would happen after the mixing...

Unexpected! A surprise high energy blast coming from the Crab pulsar has scientists excited. It seems like any time some ball of squashed ball of subatomic particles the size of a city does something strange, they all get excited.

Me, I blame that rock in front of Rick Perry's old hunting lodge.

Via Instapundit.

By using newer software to analyze the images, astronomers have teased out pictures of four exoplanets taken by the Hubble space telescope. This technically makes them the earliest images ever taken of exoplanets, even though the ability to actually see them wasn't available at the time.

Can this get any cuter?

China really knows what they are doing when it comes to the Pandas!

Thank goodness for the old practice of selling show cars to private individuals, otherwise we may never have seen this quite unique BMW again. I can definitely see some of the same design cues that are present on the Montreal. That top is... different.

Journalist Michael Malone, who actually grew up a few streets down from Steve Jobs, has this thoughtful but far from panegyric look at the man as he saw him. It's precisely Jobs's reputation as an egomaniac which has prevented me from swooning at his passing. By reputation at any rate, he actually wasn't a nice man to be around much of the time. That said, his kids have stayed completely out of the news, which usually means they've grown up healthy and are successful. That's a better testament to the real man, as far as I'm concerned.

Headline says it all: scientists are developing alternative breast implants using nanotechnology. Bonus: the tech can also be used as an alternative delivery vehicle for things like chemotherapy, reducing debilitating side effects.

The guys who keep stealing "world's fastest production car" honors from Bugatti are at it again. Me, I'm just wondering where in the world they'll find a track that will let them get to 275 mph. The big one that was used to test the Veyron is owned by Volkswagen (who owns Bugatti), so I'm not sure they'll be all that keen to let their cut-throat competitor play around in their back yard.

Scientists have announced the discovery of the first known reptile with a true placenta. While live birth is something that's evolved independently many times in the history of life on Earth, it was long thought that only mammals had figured out placental nourishment. Now it looks like perhaps as many as three skink species have done it as well.

Proof people wobbling off their meds aren't exclusive to North America: a man flipped out and literally tore his eyes out during an Italian church service. No pictures, fortunately.

Tacky? Us? Next thing you'll accuse us of posting drunk videos or something...

Oh stop it. He was a zillionaire before he was 30, and he really did change the world. Hell, at least three times by my count. Very, very few of us will end it knowing our names will be in encyclopedias three hundred years from now.

Scientists are announcing a breakthrough in getting artificial limbs to provide a sense of touch as well as brain-powered movement. Tests with monkeys have been very positive (and surprisingly free of "let's chop up the monkey" procedures). It's hoped a production system can be fielded within the next three years.

India and Afghanistan have announced new, closer, agreements for mutual co-operation. That sound you heard was all the heads inside Pakistan exploding all at once. Nothing the Pakistan military, and the ISI in particular, does can be understood unless you realize the main goal is to kick India in the balls as often and as hard as possible. This irrational, reflexive need is the primary destabilizing force in the region. This is likely to generate a reaction about as strong as you'd expect from the Soviet Union if Poland were to join NATO, in 1972.

Except, you know, the USSR could occasionally be effective as a state. Ah, well. It's a lot easier to get a suicide bomber into Mumbai than it is to get one into DC.

The 2012 LeMans 24 hours just got a whole lot more interesting, to me at least. At first I wondered how it could even be legal in their regs, but it seems the organizers have re-created some sort of "run what you brung" unlimited class that this thing will fit in. Here's to hoping it doesn't break!

Scientists have announced the discovery of a significant new set of fossilized dinosaur tracks in southwest Arkansas. The find, which was laid down in the early Cretaceous period, includes the tracks of a very large predator which may be Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, as well as various other dinosaurs.

Remember when it seemed like every pundit with a microphone in their face was obsessing about how many white people were in the Tea Party? Yeah, about that... Never forget, it's only hypocrisy when they say it is.

A group of engineering students from Brigham Young University has set a new land speed record for an electric vehicle. Appropriately named "Electric Blue," it set a weight-class record of 155.8 mph. It's nothing you'd drive to the grocery store, but it sure does look neat.

Using carbon nanotubes to generate a steep temperature gradient, scientists have created yet another version of an invisibility cloak. With video! One of these days something like this will end up on the market, just not sure when.

Ares is featuring new looks at China's upcoming J-20 aircraft and pretty darned large UAV. Even I think that would be a bit much to control with my RC radio. I'll stick with tiny helicopters instead.

Fans of true crime stories may find this detailed description of how police discovered who they believe was the "anthrax killer" of interest. You'll probably not be all that surprised that the accused was completely unhinged, but just how that kookiness manifested is, as with nearly all such cases, more than a little unexpected.

Good, important, science: physicist and BBQ nut Greg Blonder has figured out what exactly causes the "smoke stall," and how to get around it. The result is excellent meat in a much shorter period of time. Anything that makes it good and gets it to the dinner table faster is fine by me!

Fiat has announced future Alfas will be equipped with a 1.8 liter engine capable of producing 300 horsepower. I thought the new fuel economy mandates imposed by the Obama administration would signal the end of power. Turns out it just signaled the end of cheap power. Par for the course, in other words.

A Russian woman's life was saved by her (apparently quite large) fake boobies. Or maybe the knife was just small? Save the boobies!

A US man has taken "royal obsession" to new heights: the body of a homeless man with a demented fascination with the royal family lay near one of the royal residences for three years before it was discovered. Camping out on an inaccessible island and hiding out in the bushes will have a tendency to cause that sort of thing. Crazy people... is there anything they can't do?

Headline basically says it all: the inside of the nose can help reveal the time of a person's death. It seems tiny finger-like projections called cilia continue to beat after death, and that they slow at a predictable and consistent rate. This should provide a more accurate estimation of time of death, especially in the first 24 hours. Sleep well tonight!

While it'd be easy to demonize Congress for the highly publicized new fees Bank of America, among others, is imposing, the reality is, as usual, a little more nuanced. At least we've identified the real problem, so it can be fixed after Obama and the rest of the children are put back in daycare where all the corners are padded and they're not allowed to play with anything dangerous. The grownups can fix this, once they're put back in charge.

Via Instapundit.

"Let’s start by sketching out the little that is known for certain. At 7 o’clock on the warm evening of Tuesday, November 30, 1948, jeweler John Bain Lyons and his wife went for a stroll on Somerton Beach, a seaside resort a few miles south of Adelaide. As they walked toward Glenelg, they noticed a smartly dressed man lying on the sand, his head propped against a sea wall..."

What better way to start the month known for the macabre than with a genuine, and deadly, mystery?

Crooked teeth are seen as imperfections in many western countries, and particularly in America, where braces are practically a God-given gift to man, but in Japan, a country where almost everything is different, they are considered cute, even adorable. Yaeba means double tooth in Japanese, but it doesn’t describe major dental deformities, but rather the vampire-like look obtained when the two molars crowd the canines pushing them forward to create a fang effect. According to some sources, yaeba gives girls a feline look which is apparently makes them even more attractive, while others say it’s this little imperfection that makes pretty girls look more approachable as opposed to the flawless magazine cover models of the western world.

Yet another way the Japanese are making themselves into living ANIME dolls.

With Video!

I'm a Republican, but a specific sort. I don't care who you sleep with, as long as they're not a child, and you're not doing it on my lawn. I don't care who you worship, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, and you're not doing it on my lawn. I do care when you decide my lawn is too big, and take it from me to give to someone who isn't even supposed to be here. I am a member of the tea party, and am damned tired of apologizing for it.