A relatively new discipline, “archaeoacoustics” has shed some possible light on the original purpose of Stonehenge. A team of researchers from the University of Salford, in a four years study of ancient Britain’s most famous site, have concluded that Stonehenge may have been designed with acoustics very much in mind. Whilst not asserting the exact purpose of the stones, the study found that the “sonic experience” would have been distinctly noticeable to Neolithic man.

They got there in the end – 36 hours after the two week talks were due to have ended. A final marathon 60 hour negotiating session with barely a break saw a “result” at dawn on Sunday after the climate change talks had looked inconclusive – a result that still leaves lots of work to be done.

A report in Saudi Arabia has warned that if Saudi women were permitted to drive, it would have dire consequences with the end of virginity cited as the main issue. The report submitted to the all male Saudi Arabian legislative assembly, the Shura Council, also warns that in addition to pre-marital sex, increased prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce would also result from any relaxation in the prohibition on women driving.

Once upon a time Stonehenge, some 500 years before its stones were erected, was used as a place of sun worship. This reminder of magical ancient Britain comes from an international archaeological survey team from Birmingham and Vienna, that has surveyed the subsurface using geophysical imaging techniques. It has discovered two new Cursus pits at Stonehenge – one towards the enclosure’s eastern end while the other is nearer its western end.

Birth rates in the U.S. hit new lows in 2010 according to a federal report released last Thursday with the U.S. birth rate dropping for the third consecutive year. The decline is consistent among most ages and all races but the decline was most pronounced in teens and women in their early 20s who had the lowest rates since record-keeping started in the 1940s.