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I couldn't find a thread on this topic, so I'm starting this one: There's a piece on the BBC website: Scientists uncover St Columba's cell on Iona Archaeologists say they have identified the remains of the cell of St Columba on the Scottish island of Iona. They have used radiocarbon dating to...

Ancient stone monuments may have been used for mysterious moonlit ceremonies, say archaeologists Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 7 July 2017 • 10:00pm Ancient stone monuments may have been used for mysterious night-time ceremonies, archaeologists believe, after finding that some rock carvings...

An unusual love story... The Plymouth couple who found forbidden love in a TB sanatorium By CGOSLING | Posted: June 01, 2017 A Plymouth couple who met in a Dartmoor Tuberculosis sanatorium after both contracting the deadly illness, are celebrating 60 years of happy marriage today...

SOS mystery in remote Western Australia stumps police Is it a false alarm, or a genuine plea for help? An SOS signal made of rocks in a remote part of Western Australia has prompted fears that someone, or more than one person, could be missing. The distress signal was spotted by a helicopter...

Very long and fascinating article: Isdal Woman: The mystery death haunting Norway for 46 years By Helier Cheung BBC News, Bergen In November 1970, the badly burnt body of a woman was found in a remote spot in Norway's Isdalen valley. Someone had cut the labels off her clothes, and scraped...

United Airlines in fresh PR nightmare after rabbit set to be world’s biggest dies on UK flight Chris Graham 26 April 2017 • 7:20am United Airlines is battling another PR nightmare after a rabbit destined to be the world’s biggest died on a flight from Britain to the US. The airline, which...

Turkish cabin crew help woman give birth at 42,000ft Cabin crew on a Turkish Airlines flight celebrated the arrival of an extra passenger at 42,000ft (12,800 metres) when a woman gave birth to a baby girl. Passengers also assisted at the birth, which took place soon after take-off on a flight...

How Tetris therapy could help patients By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online Tetris is a relatively basic yet compelling video game. The aim is to line up falling blocks so they fit together in horizontal rows. When a perfect line with no gaps is made, it will vanish, making room...

German PoW and hero goalie stars in tale of reconciliation Film tells how Bert Trautmann, who played in Cup final with broken neck, overcame Nazi past As a piece of fiction, a film about a former Nazi paratrooper who becomes a hero of English football might struggle to convince audiences. But...

Police were called to Veryan by neighbours trying to protect rooks from being made homeless By WBCaroline | Posted: March 16, 2017 Video, 41s. Villagers called police on workers spotted chopping down trees that are home to 500 resident rooks. Neighbours are enraged because the work to fell a...

No need to go trudging round muddy fields with a metal-detector - just look in your piano! Piano gold hoard is 'life-changing' sovereign stockpile A hoard of gold discovered hidden inside an old piano has been revealed to be a collection of sovereign coins. The discovery was made in Shropshire...

Eyeglasses were being made over a century earlier: The earliest recorded working telescopes were the refracting telescopes that appeared in the Netherlands in 1608. Their development is credited to three individuals: Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen, who were spectacle makers in...

Cornish granite giant to set sail for saints valley in Brittany Carving a giant granite statue of St Piran, transporting it from Mabe to Falmouth by traction engine then having rowers haul it through town before it sets sail for Brittany aboard an old fishing vessel. This may sound bizarre...

Researchers claim to identify Camelot's location - say it was nowhere near Tintagel or Cornwall By LBarton | Posted: January 14, 2017 A retired academic has claimed to have solved a 1,400-year-old riddle surrounding the location of Camelot - and it's not in Cornwall but 300 miles away in...

If there's better place for this story, Mods, please shift it. YOUR newspaper needs your help NOW! A message to readers from Packet editor Paul Armstrong Imagine, for a moment, life without the Packet. Even if you are not a weekly purchaser of the printed newspaper, you – or someone you know or...

Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey | Episode 1 Telegraph Video 13 December 2016 · 5:56pm Joanna begins her Greek Odyssey at the Parthenon in Athens, created by the ancient Greeks two and a half thousand years ago. From here Joanna travels around the southern region of Greece from Athens to the...

This is a strange one: Garden dug up of missing woman last seen in public in 1999 The garden of a woman reported missing in Inverclyde six weeks ago is to be excavated after it emerged she was last seen in public 17 years ago. Police Scotland said that apart from her carers, the last...

'Kangaroo mothering' helps boost a child's health and intelligence, study finds Henry Bodkin 12 December 2016 • 6:00am Kangaroo mothering”, the practice of continuous skin-to-skin contact with a newborn baby, results in healthier, more intelligent and successful offspring, a new study...

Caesarean births 'affecting human evolution' By Helen Briggs BBC News The regular use of Caesarean sections is having an impact on human evolution, say scientists. More mothers now need surgery to deliver a baby due to their narrow pelvis size, according to a study. Researchers estimate cases...

Devon has a brand identity issue with German tourists who think it's part of Cornwall By Oli_Vergnault | Posted: December 03, 2016 We all know how much German tourists love Cornwall. They simply can't get enough of the place and love anything the Duchy has to offer from its rugged coastline...

"The plague doctor's costume was the clothing worn by a plague doctor to protect him from airborne diseases. The costume, originating in the 17th century, consisted of an ankle length overcoat and a bird-like beak mask often filled with sweet or strong smelling substances (commonly lavender)...

New ITV drama series on ITV Hub: Supernatural drama series spanning three time periods. A tragic death in 1944 sends ghostly ripples down the years ensuring that truth will eventually surface, whatever the cost. 4 Episodes so far, I've only just started watching it, but it seems promising...

Vatican bans Catholics from keeping ashes of loved ones at home Cremation guidelines state remains cannot be scattered or kept at home but rather stored in a sacred, church-approved place Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent Tuesday 25 October 2016 14.41 BST Catholics are forbidden from...

Killing of Pedals 'the walking bear' sparks hunting debate He may have been the internet's most cherished bear. But news of the apparent slaying of Pedals - who became famous for walking upright on his hind legs through the suburbs of New Jersey - has outraged many animal lovers. The "official...

Gay men convicted of now-abolished sex offences to be pardoned Thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of now-abolished sexual offences are to receive posthumous pardons, the government has announced. It will mean formal pardons for those convicted over consensual same-sex relationships...

I've started reviewing ITV's Hub of these programmes: eg, http://www.itv.com/hub/wycliffe/WFEa95a002 I watched most of them when they first broadcast live in the 90s, but I wasn't very impressed. But now I remember I was watching on a small B&W mobile TV at the time. The pictures on ITV hub...

Hollie McNish: The things new mothers aren't always told Hollie McNish is a poet who writes about motherhood - from morning sickness and breastfeeding in public to the impossibility of ever finishing a hot cup of tea. Here she argues that taboos still prevent people talking openly about...

This is the first I've heard about this. I may have to dig out my baptismal certificate again! Cornwall Council to offer tax breaks based on religious beliefs By cg_graham | Posted: August 20, 2016 Cornwall Council is granting tax-breaks to people because of their religious beliefs – and...

Luckily this was an incident rather than an accident: 'Reckless drone operator' in 'near miss' with Flybe flight 11 August 2016 A "reckless drone operator" is being sought by police after reports of a "near miss" between a drone and plane. The Flybe passenger aircraft was flying at about 900ft...

Some topics are difficult to pigeonhole, and this is one: From MI6 to tea with Trotsky: the secret life of Swallows and Amazons author Arthur Ransome Lewis Jones 7 August 2016 • 8:00am "Any book worth reading by children,” wrote Arthur Ransome in his autobiography, “is also worth reading by...

...well, Devon and Cornwall, anyway! Giant miner puppet walks through Cornwall A giant puppet of a Cornish miner has taken its first steps on a 130-mile journey. The 10-metre (32.8ft) Man Engine will travel across the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site to mark the 10th year of its Unesco...

Updated map of the human brain hailed as a scientific tour de force Researchers reveal that human brain has at least 180 different regions, confirming the existence of 83 known regions and adding 97 new ones Ian Sample Science editor Wednesday 20 July 2016 18.00 BST When the German neurologist...

Trailer here, to get your glands secreting! http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p040cvp9/robot-wars-meet-the-house-robots Robot Wars - Meet the House Robots Back in the days when the internet was a little baby, and we had to make our own entertainment… we all watched a programme called...

Why are these Legal Name Fraud billboards appearing in Cornwall? By CGBen | Posted: June 07, 2016 These bizarre advertising boards are appearing all over the country - including here in Cornwall - and no one knows why. You may have even seen one yourself. There's one in Truro next to the...

Now my attitude to exercise is, if you're healthy, you don't need it. If you're not healthy it can be dangerous! :twisted: Nevertheless some people do put themselves through the torments of exercise. Here's an account of one such long distance run, which happens to pass through one of my...

The man is back! (A little more aged, but then aren't we all...) Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini...

A new thread, for stories like this: Goodbye Mrs Nosworthy, tributes after shock death of 'inspirational' 36-year-old teacher By RDoddHerald | Posted: May 19, 2016 A teacher from Riverside Primary School in Plymouth has died after suffering a stroke. Kirsten Nosworthy, 36, was admitted to...

A short while ago I got a brief chest pain, but on the right, not the left. But it reminded me of an article I read some years ago about how psychological trauma can also manifest as physical pain. About the next thing I found on the computer was this: How does grief cause physical pain? By Jon...

Mad scientists, or what..? Dead could be brought 'back to life' in groundbreaking project Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 3 May 2016 12:15pm A groundbreaking trial to see if it is possible to regenerate the brains of dead people, has won approval from health watchdogs. A biotech company in...

Flags of Devon and Cornwall banned from Eurovision Song Contest By NeilShaw | Posted: May 03, 2016 The flags of Devon and Cornwall are banned from this year's Eurovision song contest - along with the flags of ISIS, Palestine and Nagorno-Karabach. The semi-finals of the annual singing...

Defying the odds is what's behind all the amazing Fortean stories, and this story is being described as one without equal in all of sport, not just football. But I don't have to wear out my typing fingers describing it, because it has completely taken over the media. Lead story from the BBC...

I enjoy cooking, and I enjoy watching cookery shows on TV, but I also have a science background, so this 90 min iPlayer offering sounded fascinating: Chef vs Science: The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge Materialist scientist Professor Mark Miodownik challenges two-Michelin-star chef Marcus Wareing...

Professor Steven Hawking announces mission to Alpha Centauri [Talking heads VIDEO] Sarah Knapton 12 April 2016 • 1:52pm Professor Stephen Hawking has announced an astonishing space mission to send a probe to our nearest star system - Alpha Centauri. The project, which is being funded by...

Mysterious giant sphere unearthed in forest divides opinion Adam Boult 11 April 2016 • 8:28pm This round rock could be the oldest stone sphere made by human hands, says Bosnian archaeologist Semir Osmanagic. Discovered in a forest near the Bosnian town Zavidovici, the ball has a radius of...

The augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, interpreting the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups or alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of birds...

I've never heard of these creatures before, and they don't seem to have featured on the MB before. Not well understood, the Olms seem to lie on the boundary of Crypto and natural science. Olm eggs: Tense wait for baby Slovenian 'dragons' By Jonathan Webb Science reporter, BBC News In a...

30-year wait to analyse bodies of 22 medieval monks goes on By Cornish Guardian | Posted: February 24, 2016 THE remains of medieval monks discovered in Bodmin more than 30 years ago could end up at Cornwall's flagship museum in Truro. The skeletons of 22 people which were found beneath the...

[Video] How Bridlington was turned into Dad's Army's home front 26 January 2016 Last updated at 00:01 GMT The town of Bridlington is housing the set for the Dad's Army film that premieres in London on Tuesday evening. The town's cobbled High Street was transformed into wartime Britain with cast...

Facebook users solve mystery of 'ancient' relic unearthed in Jerusalem Israel’s Antiquities Authority spent six months trying to identify the object. Within hours, Facebook users had named it as a New Age ‘energy harmoniser’ Staff and agencies Wednesday 23 December 2015 01.37 GMT Israel’s...

I couldn't find a suitable thread for this topic, so here's a place to collect similar information. The church at Breage, inland from Porthleven, has a new Friends website, with a page devoted to the old wall paintings: http://www.breagechurchfriends.org.uk/medievalwallpaintings.php Medieval...