At www.usatoday.com August 26th .... it is claimed archaeologists are near to finding out why the Maya abandoned their cities - in the 9th century AD. It was very rapid it seems - pottery and tools were left behin, and grinding stones used to mill corn. The interior of houses appeared to suggest people had left quickly - leaving behind some of their belongings. We know when they went, it continues, as many of them still live in the north or along the coast.

At http://nofrakkingconsensus.wordpress.com Donna Laframboise does a demolition job on the lead author for the Health chapter in the up and coming AR5 IPCC Report (which is under construction). He is branded a shrill alarmist that in the past has urged doctors in New Zealand to discuss with their patients the AGW threat. What this might have to do with a diagnosis of illness is anyone's guess - and needless to say he is an academic and not a practitioner.

At the io9 website (www.io9.com ) there is a feature, ask the scientist. In this instance, it is Physicist David Sparks who poses as teacher and knowledge bringer, and the question asked is, what happened to magnetic monopoles? Are they still out there in space?

BBC 2 'Digging for Britain' 26th August ... looked at various archaeological sites from Creswell Crags to the Beaker people - and surprisingly, they moved around a lot. Unsurpringly, this occurs between 2300 and 2000BC (but you need to read Moe Mandelkehr's articles in SIS journals on what might have been going on then to understand why). However, what caught my attention was the Neolithic farm and various associated buildings.