A New Year's Eve news roundup

Secret Weapons. Agence France-Presse reports on researcher Ray Waru’s discoveries in New Zealand’s national archives, including a top-secret World War II effort by New Zealand and the United States to create a “tsunami bomb” that would devastate coastal cities (via The Anomalist): http://www.france24.com/en/20121230-ufos-tsunami-bomb-nz-archive-secrets-revealed

Space Travel. Prolonged exposure to radiation could hasten Alzheimer’s among space travelers, says a new study in PLOS ONE. Lots of coverage, including Space.com (http://www.space.com/19082-space-radiation-astronauts-alzheimers.html) and Science Daily (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121231180632.htm). 

UFOs. Saturday Night UFOria has posted a tribute to ufologist J. Allen Hynek, including the text of his speech at a then-classified 1960 symposium at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida (via The Anomalist): http://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/ourspeakertonight-drhynek.html

Werewolves. Geneticist Ricki Lewis reports at PLOS.org on the latest genetic research into Ambas syndrome, a rare disorder that gave the world Fedor Jepticheff – whom P.T. Barnum christened Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Man – and may have influenced Hollywood’s depiction of werewolves: http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2012/12/27/the-curious-genetics-of-werewolves/