The brain is a strange and wonderful thing, and we know relatively little about it.

How to hack your brain.

And I should point out that the Incredible Shrinking Pain aligns very neatly with some Eastern spiritual teachings about how the mind can control the body’s responses.

“The presence of the extra-universal matter suggests that our universe is part of something bigger—a multiverse—and that whatever is out there is very different from the universe we know, according to study leader Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “

Something on the edge of the universe pulling us inexorably toward it? Possible proof of the multiverse? And National Geographic wrap it up in a page…

A major study by medical experts at UK and US hospitals is trying to shed some light – of the end of the tunnel variety – on near-death experiences.

Attempts to explain NDEs away as hallucinations have generaly failed because hallucinations are random and person-specific. NDEs follow a very established pattern – rising out of the body, travelling up a tunnel towards a bright light, a sense of tremendous well-being, whole-life review, meeting a figure of light and dead relatives and friends. Those who experience it are profoundly altered.

Others have suggested its the dying brain dealing with a lack of oxygen and a flood of endorphins, but other studies have shown the brain responds in a totally different way to those two things.

Friends I have in the medical profession are certainly very interested in this, and see it as a definite phenomenon that deserves this kind of detailed study.

Spent a few hours on Bank Holiday Monday (or just ‘Monday’ to the world beyond the UK) travelling around the Mendip Hills in Somerset, which is rich in items of interest for anyone with a taste for prehistory or the Roman occupation, or the myths and legends of Britain. The landscape around the hills is wild and evocative and pretty unspoiled, as long as you ignore any business with Camelot, Arthur or Avalon in the name (otherwise known as the Glastonbury Tourist Fleecing Industry).

Cheddar Gorge is filled with plenty of spectacular caves that have turned up some great finds. Gough Cave delivered us Britain’s oldest complete skeleton in 1903 – mitochondrial DNA tests show his descendents still live in the area 9,000 years later. And nearby Soldier’s Hole contained some of the oldest Neolithic tools, dating back about 40,000 years and possibly Neanderthal.

I would normally advise you pass by Wookey Hole, not far from the cathedral city of Wells, which is essentially a pretty grotesque tourist attraction aimed unapologetically at the lowest, almost subterranean, end of the taste spectrum, complete with plastic dinosaurs and King Kong, a ludicrously inflated entry fee (£15 for adults, a tenner for kids) and the tired, desperate air of a travelling Carny. But the caves deserve to be seen, and the guides will give you a fantastic amount of interesting information if you catch them after the tour (thank you, James).

The legend says the Wookey Hole caves were the home of a witch, of the old-fashioned ‘evil’ kind, who terrorised the locals until a Glastonbury monk made sure she got her come-uppance in good old wrath of God, consigned to hell kind. Not sure how much of this is Carny huckstering – a great deal, I imagine. More interesting is the fact that the caves were sacred to the Celts, who used them as burial chambers. It’s also a powerful symbolic magical and spiritual site as the location of one of the biggest springs in the region the birthing point for the underground River Axe. There’s a suggestion that the Celts used the system of caves for numerous ritual acts.

Get past all the showmanship and there’s still a lot of power there.

Just back from a few days in Paris where I’ve been doing research for a new project, and I was struck by how much better the French capital is than our own stinky, slow-moving London. Not so much in the cutting-edge abstracts of ideas – the two cities are pretty equal on that front – but in the basic, bricks and mortar structures. Paris feels like a capital city, grand and weighty with a rich, powerful history. Looking up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe from the Place de la Concorde, you get a sense of awe that London never really evokes. It’s there throughout the city. The French have held on to their history well, but wtihout letting it get in the way of modernity and innovation.

The Pompidou Centre is head and shoulders above Tate Modern in my view. The design of the building matches form with function so much better, and the exhibitions just seem so much better curated.

And then there’s the Louvre. London has nothing like this. A temple to art and history that is as big as a village. With that great glass pyramid surrounded by those grand, ancient buildings, this is the point that shows up where the French are best at moving forward while holding on to the power of the past. The Louvre itself is just breath-taking in design and function. The big downside, as I’m sure others have mentioned, is that it’s a victim of its own success. So many people swarm through the warren of rooms that it’s impossible to appreciate the art and artefacts. Hot, sweaty, constant, blinding camera flashes… Seeing the Mona Lisa is like standing just before the stage at a gig, swept back and forth by the crowd and fighting to get close enough to get a glimpse. Dan Brown Tom Hanks and Ron Howard got to film here at night, and were allowed to wander through the rooms at will while making The Da Vinci Code movie. I envy them.

But still…good food, good wine and an abundance of surliness – what more could you want when you’re travelling?

1.2 billion years ago. Sorry. Bit late with this news.

I sometimes think scientists sit around all day reading pulp SF novels from the fifties while they’re looking for the next big thing to work on.

Plans for a doomsday ark on the moon.

Not saying it isn’t a good idea, but I’m still waiting for ray guns and Lensmen.

Forget about sitting on a cloud – when you’re dead you are going to work! Hard! The Bishop of Durham is an erudite man and has spent a lot of time studying the texts of his religion, and he’s put some interesting thoughts on the topic of the afterlife (from a Christian perspective) to Time magazine.

As an environmentalist and someone who’s been regularly involved in political activism, one of the big gripes for me is when right wing, evangelical Christians use their religious perspective to justify doing nothing about saving the world…and in some cases to stand back in the hope of armageddon in other countries.

The Bishop of Durham not only says they’re wrong, but if they want to be true to their religion they need to be doing the opposite – protecting the globe and not bringing devastation to Middle Eastern countries being somewhere near the top of the list, as Heaven is not going to be up there – it’s down here.

First someone suggests the poor scientists at CERN could destroy the universe, now they’re getting the blame for potentially attracting balloon-headed, spindly-bodied future men.

(Thanks to Lizzy Hill for flagging this one up).

If you’re not all bored at the possibility that a genius like Da Vinci makes his work operate on numerous levels, read this.

Yes, I did.

‘Tiny “smart” devices that can be borne on the wind like dust particles could be carried in space probes to explore other planets, UK engineers say.’

I like this idea. More proof that we are now living in an SF world.

The final design for a “doomsday” vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.

“Yes,” she says. “Big dog’s penis…”

“In scenes reminiscent of medieval witchhunts, Catholic pilgrims in Glastonbury have attacked pagans and threatened to “cleanse” them from the town.”

“In 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology. Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.”

“Scientists have calculated the year when the human race will cease to exist. It will be October 31, otherwise known as Halloween…”

‘Maybe our universe isn’t real. Yale Philosopher Nick Bostrum has claimed that we are probably living in a computer simulation.’

Just one of ten great, insanely brilliant theories about the origins of the universe.

And you lot think I make this stuff up…

There’s a review of Dominic Sandbrook’s White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties in today’s Sunday Times culture section.

It’s part political history – looking at the coming to power of Howard Harold Wilson – part cultural history of the era. The reviewer, Peter Clarke, concludes that it’s a “lively narrative” with the central concept that the ‘cultural revolution’ of the ’60s maybe wasn’t so revolutionary after all…

You can read the review in full on the Sunday Times website.

–Ariel–

We now know where all the aliens have gone.

TITAN MAY BE RIDDLED WITH CAVES. The highlands of Titan may be riddled with caves, according to the latest images of Saturn’s giant moon. On 30 April, the Cassini spacecraft flew over a large bright region called Xanadu that spans about 4000 kilometres.