Fly Me to Venus

You've probably heard that Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of Japan's new prime minister, believes she rode in a spaceship to Venus twenty years ago. This seems unlikely for a few reasons. Number one: she claims she didn't physically travel to Venus but was instead spiritually transported while she slept. I don't know if she know this, but sleeping often leads to dreaming, an altered state of consciousness in which humans sometimes experience delusional adventures involving ridiculous things like being chased by giant hamburgers or having our taxes done by a manatee in a tuxedo. Also, she claims Venus was "a very beautiful place and it was really green". It's possible that spiritual eyes don't have the same rod/cone functionality as physical ones, but Venus is more yellow than green. And blazing hot. And quite sulfuric acidy. Not really optimal gardening conditions. But more interesting than the details of her claim is the fact that she says while her husband at the time insisted she was only dreaming, her current husband (the new prime minister of Japan, mind you) would have met her space travel story with a more comforting "Oh, that's great". Possibly bad news for those Japanese people who would like a head of state with critical thinking skills, but there may be another explanation. Perhaps the same visual deficiency that made Venus appear green to Mrs. Hatoyama also makes her incapable of seeing her husband's sarcastic eye rolls. More details here. And thanks to Karl for the link.