"University of Arizona researchers have cracked one of the puzzles surrounding what has been called 'the world's most mysterious manuscript' – the Voynich manuscript, a book filled with drawings and writings nobody has been able to make sense of to this day.  Using radiocarbon dating, a team ... has found the manuscript's parchment pages date back to the early 15th century... "Rows of text scrawled on visibly aged parchment, flowing around intricately drawn illustrations depicting plants, astronomical charts and human figures bathing in – perhaps – the fountain of youth...  But a second, closer look reveals that nothing here is what it seems. Alien characters, some resembling Latin letters, others unlike anything used in any known language, are arranged into what appear to be words and sentences, except they don't resemble anything written – or read – by human beings." Source: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-experts-age.html View the Voynich...

A strong sense of time and place saves Hate: A Romance by Tristan Garcia. Ten years from now this author, who was only born in 1981, may well rank among contemporary greats. Certainly clear intimations of better things to come are woven throughout this novel. The novel is told through Liz, who describes herself as a tough, uncompromising journalist. Her lover, Leibo, is a married man who, like nearly all married men, has no intention of leaving his wife and children - though for years Liz seems oblivious to this, so maybe’s she’s not as hardnosed as she imagines. She introduces Willie and Doumé who first become inseparable lovers then later bitter enemies. These three men flit in and out of her Parisian life at their convenience, with Leibo sometimes in her bed, and Willie and Doumé sleeping on her couch and raiding her kitchen then moving on when something better comes along. Why does Liz tolerate this? Simply, she loves each of them for the dramatic, vivacious characters that...

"Dementia needs the same type of concentrated research as was put into tackling HIV in the 1980s, Sir Terry Pratchett claimed yesterday.  The author said despite the large number of sufferers, the world 'does not take much notice' because it was a series of 'small tragedies' played out behind closed doors. Dr Donald Mowat, a researcher at Aberdeen University and co-ordinator for Alzheimer’s Research UK’s east central Scotland research network, said, “Dementia is not a normal part of ageing – it is caused by brain diseases we can tackle, but we need more investment in the research that will give us answers.” Source: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2127563?UserKey = Four years ago, my father died following a long and cruel battle with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.  Watching the steady disintegration brought about by these and similar diseases, which tend to get bunched together under the umbrella term 'dementia', is an exp...

My dreams have been bizarre this week, weird versions of what I watched on DVD before going to bed.  For example, in my version of First Knight , Lancelot was determined to protect King Arthur's pie crust from Malagant, who wanted it as a symbol of kingly power.  They decided to settle things through a jousting match. Lancelot tried wearing the crust on his lance (similar to how a lady might tie her scarf to a lance) but it kept falling off as it wasn't a complete circle, as Arthur had eaten that bit. In my version of  13Hrs , the rambling old house was guarded from the werewolf by the army.  The soldiers were dressed in neatly-pressed desert camouflage trousers and black semi-transparent shirts which showed-off their fabulous physiques, and they were ridiculously camp.  None wanted to fight the werewolf in case they damaged a carefully manicured fingernail or spoiled their lovely shirts. The joys of having had a flu fever, hmm? As an old ...