On June 5th and 6th, you will be able to witness a true once-in-a-lifetime event. Venus will pass across the face of the Sun - for about six hours, it will appear as a small black dot on the Sun's surface. It won't happen again until 2117.

Transits of Venus occur only when Venus and the Earth are in a line with the Sun. At other times Venus passes below or above the Sun because the two orbits are at a slight angle to each other. Transits occur in pairs separated by eight years (the last transit was in 2004) with the gap between pairs of transits alternating between 105.5 and 121.5 years.

France is not exactly known for being pro-science (nor is Europe generally) but when it comes to autism, they are decidedly anti-science.

For decades, France has turned its back on the latest scientific thinking and treats autism as a form of psychosis. Instead of using behavioral therapy (developed in the 1970s and '80s in the US and Canada and now the norm in most of the world) to treat autistic children, stimulating and rewarding them to develop the skills they need to function in society, France puts its faith in psychoanalysis. Freud would be proud but most of the world is shocked.

I've talked tangentially about a new book by Chris Mooney called The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science -- and Reality, but only because of specific studies he used in doing op-eds to promote the book.  

For centuries, women have been reporting engorgement of the upper, anterior part of the vagina during the stage of sexual excitement - but it took an 83-year-old cadaver to prove the existence of a G-spot.

That's right, I said 83-year-old cadaver.  If you expected something sexier by that title, you can stop reading now.

iPads are apparently pretty sexy.  I don't know, I don't have one. I do have a Kindle Fire, I like to be able to download and read old books I have that are too valuable to me to risk reading in hardback, and I bought an iPad for my wife, but I do most things on a laptop, so an iPad is too small, and my Kindle Fire is about the size of a book, so an iPad is too big.

But 10% of Internet gambling men in the UK said they would rather than an iPad than a girlfriend, and 3% of respondents to the RoxyPalace.com survey said they would leave the girlfriend they already have.  That's sexy folks.

When we are talking about anti-science beliefs that fall on the left and the right, we often use astrology and belief in ghosts for left-wing crazies.  But astrology may be as accurate as psychology, at least when it comes to personality assessments (1) so perhaps it deserves more respect.

Neuroskeptic, the, well, neuroscience skeptic, from the UK recently discussed this 2008 update of a 1985 double-blind test of astrology. 

If you are going to brag about your hacking, don't use a photo of your online honey's boobs and leave the EXIF information intact.

Yes, it is cool you have an online chick who will send you pictures, and that she actually has boobs (webcams don't lie!), but it doesn't take long to track that stuff down.  The FBI saw it, tracked the EXIF data to her and then to him. 

Pwned by the FBI can be his next pic.  



Suspected Anonymous Hacker Busted By FBI — Thanks To A Racy Photo CBS Houston

Greece has reopened a major archaeological site on the island of Santorini. It was closed for over six years years after a roof collapsed, killing a tourist.

The bronze-age town at Akrotiri reopened today, following completion of a new roof that shelters the entire site of the excavation from the elements.

The deaths of millions of bats in the United States and Canada due to 'white nose syndrome' over the last few years has been linked to a fungus that came from Europe, scientists have reported.

In North America, more than 5.7 million bats have died since 2006 when white nose syndrome was first detected in a cave in upstate New York. The disease does not pose a threat to humans but people can carry fungal spores, so while it's not known exactly how the fungus crossed the Atlantic, it was likely brought accidentally introduced by tourists. Spores are known to stick to people's clothes, boots and caving gear.