NITESHIFT: Where Life Is Like Science Fiction

via Mail Online.

A cockfighting rooster appears to have taken deadly revenge on its trainer for forcing it back into the ring too soon.

The bird is said to have attacked owner Singrai Soren and slit his throat with razor blades he had attached to its legs.Villagers in Mohanpur, West Bengal, were warned not to approach what police described as ‘an unknown rooster with black and red feathers’.

Are your friends more popular than you are? There doesn’t seem to be any obvious reason to suppose this is true, but it probably is. We are all more likely to become friends with someone who has a lot of friends than we are to befriend someone with few friends.

via Scientific American.

Spanish scientists have documented how this bird of prey will decorate its nest with large amounts of rubbish.

It is a symbol of success, apparently – the biggest collections of plastic are displayed by the black kites with the most chicks and the best territory.

via BBC News

Cooling the brain of patients who have suffered a stroke could dramatically improve their recovery, a group of Scottish doctors has said. They are joining others from across Europe who believe that inducing hypothermia in some patients can boost survival rates and reduce brain damage.

via BBC News

It’s the ultimate experience for Star Wars fans – staring forlornly off into the distance as twin suns sink into the horizon.

Yet it’s not just a figment of George Lucas’s imagination – twin suns are real. And here’s the big news – they could be coming to Earth.

via News.com.au.

Scientists picked up on the never-before-seen phenomenon by peering at thunderstorms with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The antimatter particles were likely created by what scientists call a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst of gamma rays produced inside thunderstorms and known to be associated with lightning, researchers said.

via LiveScience.

Thanks to Earth’s wobble, astrological signs are, well, bunk. (Or even more bunk than you might expect.) Astrological signs are determined by the position of the sun relative to certain constellations on a person’s day of birth. The problem is, the positions were determined more than 2,000 years ago.

via LiveScience.

They will live to be more than 100, because, again, barring accidents or something, or war, well over. They should. They’ll be replacing body parts like we do tires.

via Wonk Room.

“The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe,” Benedict said, in the Reuters article. He also urged Christians to reject the idea that the universe came about by accident.

via LiveScience Etc..

When Martin Kenny came across what looked like a phallic carving at a site where workers had been excavating to build a new barn, he didn’t know what to make of the thing.

via LiveScience.