Vietnamese Writer Won't Be Silenced Ms. Huong's novels are not openly political, but their leitmotif is the disillusionment of people trapped by a fate beyond their control.

Scientific Study of Consciousness-Influence on Random Physical Events. Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research. 'The observed effects are usually quite small, of the order of a few parts in ten thousand on average, but they are statistically repeatable and compound to highly significant deviations from chance expectations.' On the quantum level, a small effect can have dramatic overall consequences. Interesting.

"Moving Mannequins was established to fulfill the demand for an extremely lifelike display mannequin, which when coupled with movement, stimulates emotion and draws excited attention to the display." Eeeerie.

Space Shuttle Discovery is set to launch Wednesday. If all goes well, the shuttle should launch at 3:51 ET. more inside

<b>Curious George: Alternative Singapore Tour</b>. Off to Singapore on Thursday. 2nd trip there. First one bog standard touristy. However I make a lousy tourist. Guidebooks have been reread and Google links pursued. Am I destined to sit by a pool for a week? Or are there some quirky places/things to see? more inside

The Neanderthal genome is to be reconstructed. They have already had some success at sequencing Neanderthal proteins: John Hawks reckons they most probably have DNA sequences already. Incidentally, we have a better idea of what the Neanderthals looked like thanks to a 'Frankenstein' reconstruction.

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