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Scientists at Bashkir State University have found proof of an ancient, highly developed civilization. A large relief map, made by an unknown technology and found in 1999, shows a region in Russia. Today?s military has similar maps of the same area. The ancient map shows civil engineering works, such as a system of channels and powerful dams. It also contains inscriptions. At first, scientists thought these were written in the Old Chinese language, but they have decided that they were written in hieroglyphics of unknown origin. They haven?t been able to decode the language.
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Faye Flam writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer that investment tycoon Sir John Templeton is giving out grants worth a total of $1 million to 15 scientists to look for proof that God exists. These scientists, many with international reputations, have spent their careers studying the Big Bang, the origin of stars and galaxies, the fundamental physical constants, and the origin of life.

The question that intrigues Templeton, as it has philosophers and astronomers for centuries, is this: Is the universe the product of design or accident? Templeton, who is 88, sold his mutual fund empire in 1992 for $913 million and now devotes himself to his quest for common ground between science and religion.
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People around the world are having fewer children and living longer. The U.S., Europe and even large parts of the developing world are becoming aging societies without enough social services.

In many countries the old are neglected and abused, even if they?re still productive, and many don?t have enough health insurance or pension money to live decently, according to a United Nations report to the Second World Assembly on Aging. “In Africa, when an old man dies, a library disappears,” says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “Without the knowledge and wisdom of the old, the young would never know where they come from or where they belong.”
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Parents who smoke produce fewer boys, according to research on Japanese couples. The researchers don?t know why this happens, but say both the mother’s and father’s smoking habits are important.

Stress, temperature, birth order and even the number of wives in a man’s harem are all known to influence the relative proportions of girls and boys at birth. But this is the first time the sex ratio of babies and smoking have been linked.

The researchers questioned over 5000 Japanese women on their smoking habits and those of their partner around the time they conceived their children. The 11,815 births reported were then split into groups based on parental smoking habits and the team compared the ratio of boys to girls in each category.
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