Most ancient writing?:

In 2007, excavators of a remote site in southeastern Iran reported finding evidence of a writing system that dates back more than 4,000 years. Featuring odd geometric symbols, three baked mud tablets unearthed near the Iranian city of ­Jiroft could reveal much about a sophisticated and independent urban culture that flourished between the Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilizations. However, many scholars are skeptical about the authenticity of the finds, which they ­suspect may have been planted by locals.

Of course “scholars” are skeptical. Any hard evidence of civilizations older than Sumer and Egypt are called into question. It’s amazing the evidence always seems to be “planted”  by the locals also.

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jan/tablets-of-unknown-ancient-script-surface

Texas UFOs:

Several dozen people, including a pilot, county constable and business owners, insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

“People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it’s the end of times,” said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. “It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.”

No surprise that people in the so-called “Bible-Belt” equate UFOs with the End Times, the constant talk of the Rapture and 2012 have been spewed non-stop from all kinds of media for the past eight years.

I just wish they would land and claim Lehaye, Hagee and Junior Bu$h for pete’s sake!

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jan/16/na-ufos-are-the-talk-of-a-texas-town/?news-nationworld

British Space Station Modules:

Two habitation modules emblazoned with the United Kingdom‘s Union Jack could launch to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2011 under a new plan devised by British scientists and engineers.

The proposal — not yet official with the ISS partnership — would not only improve living conditions on board the space station, but would also allow the United Kingdom to join other nations that have a foothold in space.

“I don’t think there’s an excuse for us not to be engaged in manned launches,” said Mark Hempsell, aeronautical engineer at the University of Bristol and lead author on the proposal published in Spaceflight magazine.

It’s nice to see the Brits get into the Space Station action. I always wondered why they haven’t.

Do they know something we don’t?

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/080116-tw-british-iss.html