Strange Phenomenon

Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord

2010-02-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html

By NORIMITSU ONISHI
New York Times, February 6, 2010

GENERAL SANTOS, the Philippines — After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.”

Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.”

“I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Mr. Gregorio here in this city in the southernmost Philippines, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.

Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Karaoke-related assaults have also occurred in the United States, including at a Seattle bar where a woman punched a man for singing Coldplay’s “Yellow” after criticizing his version.

Still, the odds of getting killed during karaoke may be higher in the Philippines, if only because of the ubiquity of the pastime. Social get-togethers invariably involve karaoke. Stand-alone karaoke machines can be found in the unlikeliest settings, including outdoors in rural areas where men can sometimes be seen singing early in the morning. And Filipinos, who pride themselves on their singing, may have a lower tolerance for bad singers.

Indeed, most of the “My Way” killings have reportedly occurred after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.

“The trouble with ‘My Way,’ ” said Mr. Gregorio, “is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion.”

Others, noting that other equally popular tunes have not provoked killings, point to the song itself. The lyrics, written by Paul Anka for Mr. Sinatra as an unapologetic summing up of his career, are about a tough guy who “when there was doubt,” simply “ate it up and spit it out.” Butch Albarracin, the owner of Center for Pop, a Manila-based singing school that has propelled the careers of many famous singers, was partial to what he called the “existential explanation.”

“ ‘I did it my way’ — it’s so arrogant,” Mr. Albarracin said. “The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody. It covers up your failures. That’s why it leads to fights.”

Defenders of “My Way” say it is a victim of its own popularity. Because it is sung more often than most songs, the thinking goes, karaoke-related violence is more likely to occur while people are singing it. The real reasons behind the violence are breaches of karaoke etiquette, like hogging the microphone, laughing at someone’s singing or choosing a song that has already been sung.

“The Philippines is a very violent society, so karaoke only triggers what already exists here when certain social rules are broken,” said Roland B. Tolentino, a pop culture expert at the University of the Philippines. But even he hedged, noting that the song’s “triumphalist” nature might contribute to the violence.

Some karaoke lovers are not taking chances, not even at family gatherings.

In Manila, Alisa Escanlar, 33, and her relatives invariably gather before a karaoke machine, but they banned “My Way” after an uncle, listening to a friend sing the song at a bar, became enraged at the laughter coming from the next table. The uncle, who was a police officer, pulled out his revolver, after which the customers at the next table quietly paid their bill and left.

Awash in more than one million illegal guns, the Philippines has long suffered from all manner of violence, from the political to the private. Wary middle-class patrons gravitate to karaoke clubs with cubicles that isolate them from strangers.

But in karaoke bars where one song costs 5 pesos, or a tenth of a dollar, strangers often rub shoulders, sometimes uneasily. A subset of karaoke bars with G.R.O.’s — short for guest relations officers, a euphemism for female prostitutes — often employ gay men, who are seen as neutral, to defuse the undercurrent of tension among the male patrons. Since the gay men are not considered rivals for the women’s attention — or rivals in singing, which karaoke machines score and rank — they can use humor to forestall macho face-offs among the patrons.

In one such bar in Quezon City, next to Manila, patrons sing karaoke at tables on the first floor and can accompany a G.R.O. upstairs. Fights often break out when customers at one table look at another table “the wrong way,” said Mark Lanada, 20, the manager.

“That’s the biggest source of tension,” Mr. Lanada said. “That’s why every place like this has a gay man like me.”

Ordinary karaoke bars, like the Nelson Carenderia here, a single room with bare plywood walls, mandate that a singer give up the microphone after three consecutive songs.

On one recent evening, at the table closest to the karaoke machine, Edwin Lancaderas, 62, crooned a Tagalog song, “Fight Temptation” — about a married man forgoing an affair with a woman while taking delight in their “stolen moments.” His friend Dindo Auxlero, 42, took the mike next, bawling songs by the Scorpions and Dire Straits. Several empty bottles of Red Horse crowded their table.

“In the Philippines, life is difficult,” said Mr. Auxlero, who repairs watches from a street kiosk, as he railed about government corruption and a weak economy that has driven so many Filipinos to work overseas, including his wife, who is a maid in Lebanon. “But, you know, we have a saying: ‘Don’t worry about your problems. Let your problems worry about you.’ ”

The two men roared with laughter.

“That’s why we come here every night — to clear the excesses from our heads,” Mr. Lancaderas said, adding, however, that the two always adhered to karaoke etiquette and, of course, refrained from singing “My Way.”

“Misunderstanding and jealousy,” in his view, were behind the “My Way” killings. “I just hope it doesn’t happen here,” he said.

Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home

2010-02-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7129952/Cat-predicts-50-deaths-in-RI-nursing-home.html

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.
By Tom Leonard in New York
01 Feb 2010

Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.

The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island, which specialises in caring for people with severe dementia.

Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar's gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the geriatrician that it is no fluke.

The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.

If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.

When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat's judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.

Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar's accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a bed and stretches out beside its occupant.

"It's not like he dawdles. He'll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he's back at the patient's side. It's like he's literally on a vigil," Dr Dosa wrote.

Dr Dosa noted that the nursing home keeps five other cats, but none of the others have ever displayed a similar ability.
In his book, "Making rounds with Oscar: the extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat", Dr Dosa offers no solid scientific explanation for Oscar's behaviour.

He suggests Oscar is able - like dogs, which can reportedly smell cancer - to detect ketones, the distinctly-odoured biochemicals given off by dying cells.

Far from recoiling from Oscar's presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in newspaper death notices and eulogies, said Dr Dosa.

"People were actually taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass. He was there when they couldn't be," he said.

Mystery as century-old Swiss watch discovered in ancient tomb sealed for 400 years

2010-01-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1096959/Mystery-century-old-Swiss-watch-discovered-ancient-tomb-sealed-400-years.html

By Cher Thornhill
Last updated at 4:34 PM on 18th December 2008

Archaeologists are stumped after finding a 100-year-old Swiss watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years ago.

They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant's funeral.
But inside they uncovered a miniature watch in the shape of a ring marked 'Swiss' that is thought to be just a century old.

Mystery: Archeologists have uncovered a 100-year-old watch in a tomb believed to have been undisturbed for 400 years

The mysterious timepiece was encrusted in mud and rock and had stopped at 10:06 am.

Watches were not around at the time of the Ming Dynasty and Switzerland did not even exist as a country, an expert pointed out.

The archaeologists were filming a documentary with two journalists when they made the puzzling discovery.

'When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the coffin, suddenly a piece of rock dropped off and hit the ground with metallic sound,' said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the Guangxi Museum.

'We picked up the object, and found it was a ring.

'After removing the covering soil and examining it further, we were shocked to see it was a watch,' he added.

The Ming Dynasty - or the Empire of the Great Ming - was the was ruling dynasty in China from 1368 to 1644.

Shades of the Island of Dr Moreau? Body with 'Very Long' Fingers Discovered on Plum Island

2010-01-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-human-body-found-plum-island%2C0%2C5592896.story

Stephanie Barish
WPIX
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:44 EST

An alleged mutated human body washed ashore on Plumb Island, a small island where the U.S. Government typically studies dangerous animal diseases.

A security guard on foot patrol reportedly discovered the clothed decomposing body Thursday afternoon on the southwest beach area of the island, where access is restricted, police said.

The body was described as that of a white male about 6-feet tall with a large build and "very long" fingers. According to authorities, there were no obvious signs of trauma.

An autopsy will be conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner in order to determine an exact cause of death.

Plum Island, which is located about 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound, has been called a potential target for terrorists because of its stock of vaccines and diseases.

2010-01-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090615-stonehenge-tombs-crop-circles.html

Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"
James Owen
National Geographic News
Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:11 EDT

© Damian Grady/English Heritage
Etched into crops, the outlines of Bronze Age burial mounds surround a roughly 190-foot (57-meter) circular Stone Age temple site about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge in southern England in an undated aerial photo.
Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.

For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.

"I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," added Pollard, a co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

Six-Thousand-Year-Old Tombs

At the 500-acre (200-hectare) site, outlines of the structures were spotted "etched" into farmland near the village of Damerham, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge (Damerham map).

Discovered during a routine aerial survey by English Heritage, the U.K. government's historic-preservation agency, the "crop circles" are the results of buried archaeological structures interfering with plant growth. True crop circles are vast designs created by flattening crops.

The central features are two great tombs topped by massive mounds - made shorter by centuries of plowing - called long barrows. The larger of the two tombs is 70 meters (230 feet) long.

Estimated at 6,000 years old, based on the dates of similar tombs around the United Kingdom, the long barrows are also the oldest elements of the complex.

Such oblong burial mounds are very rare finds, and are the country's earliest known architectural form, Wickstead said. The last full-scale long barrow excavation was in the 1950s, she added.

The Damerham tombs have yet to be excavated, but experts say the long barrows likely contain chambers - probably carved into chalk bedrock and reinforced with wood - filled with human bones associated with ancestor worship.

During the late Stone Age, it's believed, people in the region left their dead in the open to be picked clean by birds and other animals.

Skulls and other bones of people who were for some reason deemed significant were later placed inside the burial mounds, Wickstead explained.

"These are bone houses, in a way," she said. "Instead of whole bodies, [the tombs contain] parts of ancestors."

Later Monuments, Long Occupation

Other finds suggest the site remained an important focus for prehistoric farming communities well into the Bronze Age (roughly 2000 to 700 B.C. in Britain).

Near the tombs are two large, round, ditch-encircled structures - the largest circular enclosure being about 190 feet (57 meters) wide.

Nonintrusive electromagnetic surveys show signs of postholes, suggesting rings of upright timber once stood within the circles - further evidence of the Damerham site's ceremonial or sacred role.

Pollard, of the University of Bristol, likened the features to smaller versions of Woodhenge, a timber-circle temple at the Stonehenge World Heritage site.

Damerham also includes a highly unusual, and so far baffling, U-shaped enclosure with postholes dated to the Bronze Age, project leader Wickstead said.

The circled outlines of 26 Bronze Age burial mounds also dot the site, which is littered with stone flint tools and shattered examples of the earliest known type of pottery in Britain.

Evidence of prehistoric agricultural fields suggest the area was at least partly cultivated by the time the Romans invaded Britain in the first century A.D., generally considered to be the end of the regions' prehistoric period.

Riches Beneath Ravaged Surface?

The actual barrows and mounds near Damerham have been diminished by centuries of plowing, but that, ironically, may make them much more valuable archaeologically, according to Pollard, of the University of Bristol.

The mounds would have been irresistible advertisements for tomb raiders, who in the 18th and 19th centuries targeted Bronze Age burials for their ornate grave goods.

And "even if the mounds are gone, you are still going to have primary burials [as opposed to those later added on top] which will have been dug into the chalk, so are going to survive," Pollard added.

The contents of the Stone Age long barrows should likewise have survived, he said. "I think there's good reason to assume you might have the main wooden mortuary chambers with burial deposits," he said.

Redrawing the Map

An administrative oversight may also be partly responsible for the site remaining hidden - and assumedly pristine, at least underground - project leader Wickstead said.

When prehistoric sites in the area were being mapped and documented in the 1890s, a county-border change placed Damerham within Hampshire rather than Stonehenge's Wiltshire, she said.

"Perhaps people in Hampshire thought [the monuments] were someone else's problem."

This lucky conjunction of plowing and politics obscured Damerham's prehistoric heritage until now.

The site shows that "a lot of the ceremonial activity isn't necessarily located in these big centers," such as Stonehenge, Pollard said. "But there are other locations where people are congregating and constructing ceremonial monuments."

Turkey: Sheep Gives Birth to Human-Faced Lamb

2010-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sheep-gives-birth-to-human-faced-lamb/story-e6freuy9-1225819071357

The Daily Telegraph
Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:32 EST
© The Daily Telegraph

A sheep gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The lamb was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.

Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed a caesarean on the animal to take the lamb out, but was horrified to see that the features of the lamb's snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face.

"I've seen mutations with cows and sheep before. I've seen a one-eyed calf, a two-headed calf, a five-legged calf. But when I saw this youngster I could not believe my eyes. His mother could not deliver him so I had to help the animal," the 29-year-old veterinary said.

The lamb's head had human features on - the eyes, the nose and the mouth - only the ears were those of a sheep.

Vets said that the rare mutation most likely occurred as a result of improper mutation since the fodder for the lamb's mother was abundant with vitamin A, CNNTurk.com reports.

A goat from Zimbabwe gave birth to a similar youngster in September 2009. The mutant baby born with a human-like head stayed alive for several hours until the frightened village residents killed him.

The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.

"This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said. "The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible.

Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features," he added.

The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal.

The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation.

Trapped in a Coma for 23 Years, But Conscious the Whole Time

2010-01-17T03:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.NaturalNews.com/z027926_coma_misdiagnosis.html

January 13 2010
by E. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Rom Houben, a 46-year-old car crash victim, has recently come forward with his horrific experience of coma misdiagnosis. Doctors believed that Rom was in a coma when in fact he was conscious but unable to speak or move. For 23 years, he tried continually to alert his doctors about the fact that he was actually awake but was unable to ever make a sound.

Many coma tests were performed on Rom prior to doctors deciding that he was unconscious, yet somehow they inaccurately assessed his brain function and declared him brain-dead when he was fully conscious.

Dr. Steven Laureys, the neurological expert who saved Rom, revealed the story in a scientific paper that was published recently. Thanks to advances in technology since Rom was first diagnosed as being in a perpetual vegetative state, Rom was able to eventually type information into a computer that revealed his state of consciousness.

Dr. Laureys believes there are probably many people around the world who have been diagnosed as being in a coma when they may actually be conscious. This breakthrough story, as disturbing as it is, will have serious implications in the right-to-die debate. Since many people may have been and are currently being misdiagnosed in the same way that Rom was, there is a high possibility that people will needlessly die because they are thought to be permanently unconscious.

A similar story took place in Belgium where a paralyzed man was declared to be in a coma using the Glasgow Coma Scale. Every test conducted on him proved to be false when a secondary analysis at the University of Liege showed that he was fully awake. Though he remains in a hospital, he is able to use his computer to read books, talk to friends, and interact with the world.

Dr. Laureys study also questions the way in which doctors declare someone to be unconscious. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people a year who suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are declared to be in a coma. Once placed in this category, few are ever evaluated or tested again to verify the initial results. Rarely are people who have been declared to be in an unconscious state given any further treatment to try to improve their condition; they are primarily just given life support.

The comatose who have seen miraculous improvements, including 86-year-old Carrie Coons from New York, are perfect examples of why euthanasia and assisted suicide proponents need to reconsider their position. Just days after a judge had ruled that her family could take her off life-support, Coons regained consciousness, started eating and began conversing.

10 Extraordinary People with Weird Superpowers

2010-01-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.mindpowernews.com/RealSuperpowers.htm

Source: DailyFun4U.blogspot.com

The Man Who Doesn't Feel Pain

Tim Cridland is an entertainer and a former member of the Jim Rose Circus. Tim specializes in sword swallowing, fire walking, sleeping on beds of nails (once even with a Toyota over him), body skewering and electrocuting himself. Tim says he can do this because he has mastered mind over matter. Researchers on the other hand say it's because Tim was born with a mutation that makes it so he doesn't feel pain the way normal people do.

It's not that Tim and his ilk can't feel anything, because they can feel when they are touched, and they can feel temperature. They simply do not register pain thanks to malfunctioning receptors in the nerve cells that tell your brain.

The Boy who sees without Eyes

Ben Underwood taught himself to use echo location to navigate around the world. He is blind, both of his eyes were removed (cancer) when he was 3, but has managed to do some truly extraordinary feats. Basically he's Daredevil. He can see the world throught sounds like a sonar or a dolphin.

The boy with Ultra-Fast Brain

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it.

In his mind, he says, each number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape and feel, that he can "see" results of calculations as landscapes, and that he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful He also has linguistic skils. He is capable of learning new languages very quickly. To prove this for a Channel Five documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week, a language with a popular reputation as one of the world's most difficult languages to learn.

The Man Who moves objects with his Mind

"Remember, there is no spoon". Just like that kid from "The Matrix" movie, Miroslaw Magola –The "Magnetic Man" -- defies laws of gravity with an extraordinary ability -- applying the power of psycho kinesis he can raise anything from metal pans to marble statues, transport them through the air to affix to his body, then creates a force to keep them there -- simply using mind control.

An avid enthusiast of the phenomenon of psychic energy, Miroslaw has developed his skill to manipulate lifeless objects in mid-air to obey his will, even forcing them spin around or shake. His mental powers are so keen that he can jump around while an object is stuck to his head without losing his mental grasp of the item.
Miroslaw explains how he employs psycho kinetics to perform these uncanny feats, "It works because I load myself with energy (I connect myself to it) and at the same time I wish for the object to raise." Miroslaw has undergone numerous tests for his perplexing skill which remains unexplained by conventional science to date.

The Woman Who Can't Forget

The "human calendar". That's what some people call the woman who contacted UC Irvine neurobiologist Jim McGaugh six years ago and said, "I have a problem. I remember too much." That's the story of AJ, an extraordinary 40-year-old married woman who remembers everything.

McGaugh and fellow UCI researchers Larry Cahill and Elizabeth Parker have been studying the extraordinary case of a person who has "nonstop, uncontrollable and automatic" memory of her personal history and countless public events. If you randomly pick a date from the past 25 years and ask her about it, she'll usually provide elaborate, verifiable details about what happened to her that day and if there were any significant news events on topics that interested her. She usually also recalls what day of the week it was and what the weather was like. [Read more here: The Woman Who Can't Forget Anything]

The Man Who eats Everything

This basically means the guy can eat and even digest metal, glass and even toxic and poisonous material. Michel Lotito's stomach lining is twice as thick as normal, a rare condition that most doctors agree developed in the womb, though nobody is sure how. Lotito does not often suffer from ill-effects due to his diet, even after the consumption of materials usually considered poisonous.

When performing he consumes around a kilogram of material daily, preceding it with mineral oil and drinking considerable quantities of water during the 'meal'. He apparently possesses a stomach and intestine with walls of twice the expected thickness, and his digestive acids are, allegedly, unusually powerful, allowing him to digest a certain portion of his metallic meals.

Lotito even entered the Guinness book of records when he ate an airplane. The airplane took roughly two years to be 'eaten' from 1978 to 1980

Monks generating magical heat energy from their bodies

Experts have been studying Buddhist monks for more than 20 years, trying to figure out just how in the hell they're doing what they do. By using a meditation technique called Tum-mo, these monks can lower their metabolism by 64 percent. To put it in perspective, your metabolism only drops 10 to 15 percent when you sleep. And yes, you should feel bad that there are people who make you look uptight when you're asleep.

But far more awesome than that, the monks can also increase the temperatures of their fingers and toes by 17 degrees. No one knows how.

The woman who can laugh with a peak volume of 110 decibels

This is Jittarat Wongsomboon, a 55 years-old woman from Thailand, who can laugh with a peak volume of 110 decibels! Can you believe this? Sounds strange, but it is true. On July 5, 2008, Jittarat participated in Ripley's International Laughing Contest in the Thai resort town of Pattaya and won the odd competition by continuously laughing for 12 minutes and 26 seconds and hitting a booming volume of 110 decibels.

The man who claps as Loud as a Helicopter

A Chinese man who can clap his hands nearly as loud as a helicopter is hoping to get into the record books. Zhang Quan, 70, of Chongqing city, had his clapping monitored by local environmental protection officials, reports Chongqing Business News. His claps apparently measured 107 decibels - three decibels lower than whirling helicopter blades. Workers from the environmental protection bureau say Zhang could face arrest for noise pollution if he claps too often.

Hidden Mysteries of Christmas Revealed

2010-01-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists

2010-01-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090518-jeweled-teeth-picture.html

May 18, 2009—The glittering "grills" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.

Ancient peoples of southern North America went to "dentists"—among the earliest known—to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (such as the skull above, found in Chiapas, Mexico).

Scientists don't know the origin of most of the teeth in the collections, which belonged to people living throughout the region, called Mesoamerica, before the Spanish conquests of the 1500s.

But it's clear that people—mostly men—from nearly all walks of life opted for the look, noted José Concepción Jiménez, an anthropologist at the institute, which recently announced the findings.

"They were not marks of social class" but instead meant for pure decoration, he commented in an e-mail interview conducted in Spanish.

In fact, the royals of the day—such as the Red Queen, a Maya mummy found in a temple at Palenque in what is now Mexico—don't have teeth decorations, Jiménez said.

Other evidence of early Mesoamerican dentistry—including a person who had received a ceremonial denture—has also been found.

Knowledgeable Dentists

The early dentists used a drill-like device with a hard stone such as obsidian, which is capable of puncturing bone.

"It's possible some type of [herb based] anesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain," Jiménez said.

The ornamental stones—including jade—were attached with an adhesive made out of natural resins, such as plant sap, which was mixed with other chemicals and crushed bones, Jiménez said.

The dentists likely had a sophisticated knowledge of tooth anatomy, Jiménez added. For example, they knew how to drill into teeth without hitting the pulp inside, he said.

"They didn't want to generate an infection or provoke the loss of a tooth or break a tooth."

—John Roach

Photograph courtesy José C. Jiménez López

World's oldest plant is 13,000-year-old oak that survives by cloning itself

2009-12-26T16:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1237973/Worlds-oldest-plant-13-000-year-old-oak-survives-cloning-itself.html

World's oldest plant is 13,000-year-old oak that survives by cloning itself
By CLAIRE BATES
23rd December 2009

A plant that started life during the last Ice Age is still going strong in the arid scrublands of California, scientists revealed today.

Researchers believe the Jurupa Oak has been around for 13,000 years, making it the oldest living plant in the world.

The oak is made up of a community of cloned bushes and scientists believe it has managed to survive the extreme effects of climate change by regenerating.
Professor Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra with the Jurupa Oak that grows by cloning itself

The Jurupa Oak, which belongs to the species Quercus palmeri or Palmer's Oak, is named after the windswept Jurupa hills where it lives.

This species of trees usually occur in cooler and wetter regions. The strange location of the Jurupa was the first clue for the team that it might have unusual origins.

Study leader, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, said: 'Palmer’s Oak normally occurs at much higher elevations, in cooler, wetter climates.

'In contrast, the Jurupa Oak scrapes by in dry chaparral, wedged between granite boulders and stunted by high winds, atop a small hill in plain sight of suburban backyards.'

The team also discovered that the oak didn't produce any fertile acorns, suggesting an unconventional form of growth.
A view of the bushes that make up the 25-yard long Jurupa Oak clone

Genetic testing revealed the tangled cluster of stems was in fact a single individual, according to their study published in online journal PLoS ONE.

Clonal growth occurs after a fire, when resprouts form around the base of burned stems. Over time, wood in the centre degrades, and new resprouts form after additional fires, leaving behind the haphazard collection of stems visible today.

Because no new stems arise from acorns, the organism can only have achieved its current size - more than 25 yards long - through this method of resprouting.

Scientists from the University of California were therefore able to work out the age of the clone by estimating its rate of growth from the rings in the stems.

Co-author Andrew Sanders, said: 'This literally appears to be a last living remnant of a vanished woody vegetation that occupied the inland valleys at the height of the Ice Age.'

The paper can be viewed on the PLoS website

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1237973/Worlds-oldest-plant-13-000-year-old-oak-survives-cloning-itself.html#ixzz0aqPtP6HI

11 year old boy reincarnated? What about you, are you an old soul too?

2009-12-26T12:10:00.001-08:00

Holland - Biggest Snow Circle Formation Ever - Pics

2009-12-21T07:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.rense.com/general88/snowc.htm

Holland - Biggest Snow Circle Formation Ever - Pics
By Nancy Talbott
BLT Research Team Inc
12-21-9
A 60m x 52m snow formation, made up of 23 rings of various diameters, was found on December 19th near Hoeven, Holland.
Photo: Roy Boschman.

At around 11:30pm (Netherlands time) on the night of December 17th I had called the young Dutch medium Robbert van den Broeke in Holland, and we talked until about 1:30 2:00 am (Netherlands time) about various things. Toward the end of our conversation Robbert said he felt that some circles might be coming in the snow...and I got the impression, based on my past experiences with Robbert (http://www.bltresearch.com/robbert/php), that this was likely to occur before Christmas.

The next evening (Friday, Dec. 18th) at around midnight Robbert got a very strong feeling that a formation was arriving at a field not too far from his home which we call the "special" field (because so many anomalous events have occurred there over the years). He telephoned a local friend, Ellen Gomis, to ask if she would drive him to the field to see if there was a new circle present, and Ellen agreed. It was very cold and there were several inches of snow on the ground.

When they arrived at around 1:00 am (Saturday, Dec. 19th) Robbert immediately felt what he described to me as a quiet, very still, "holy" feeling and heard what he could best describe as a choir of "angels" singing. I asked Robbert if Ellen heard this, too, but he said "no"-it was only he who heard the "singing." As they walked down from the dike both Ellen and Robbert saw multiple rings which had been scooped out of the snow-covered field.

Note that the snow which has been removed to create the rings is not piled up around the edges-it is simply missing altogether. Photo: Roy Boschman

Because it was dark, and very very cold, Robbert and Ellen did not stay long to inspect the field. The next day (Saturday, December 19th) Robbert and Roy Boschman returned and could then see the entire formation-but Robbert is not certain that all of the rings were present the night before. He thinks that perhaps more rings were added after he and Ellen left late Friday night. Close-up taken Dec. 19th shows that the 3-4 inches of snow removed to create the rings is not piled up around the edges. Photo: Roy Boschman.

When Roy and Robbert got to the field in daylight on the 19th no footsteps were visible except near the edges of the formation closest to the dike, where Robbert and Ellen had walked the night before. There were no footprints at all out in the rest of the field, or in any of the rings farther out in the field. And there were also no piles of the snow which had apparently been removed anywhere in the field.

No footprints were found anywhere in the field, other than those near the dike where Robbert and Ellen had stood the night before. Photo: Roy Boschman.
Roy Boschman's diagram of 23-ring snow formation, Dec. 19, 2009.

It is Roy's impression that the two largest rings were elliptical, as indicated in his diagram, above. Roy also noted the extreme cold of the previous night (during which the rings appeared), the lack of footprints, and the fact that the "missing" snow is not piled up anywhere in, or anywhere near, the formation-all of which seem to rule out mechanical creation of the rings.

A more detailed report, with additional photos, will be posted on the BLT Research Team's web-site (http://www.bltresearch.com) shortly.

Nancy Talbott
BLT Research Team Inc.
P.O. Box 400127
Cambridge, MA 02140 (USA)

ph: 617/492-0415
web-site: www.bltresearch.com

Why We're Fascinated by the Paranormal, Masonic Myths and Secret Societies

2009-12-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

Why We're Fascinated by the Paranormal, Masonic Myths and Secret Societies
By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet
December 16, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/144571/

The paranormal pops up everywhere these days. In the last week, two different people have warned me against Ouija boards. In a video posted on YouTube, Richard Heene—who pretended a few weeks ago that his son was trapped in a runaway weather balloon—ponders the question of whether Hillary Clinton is one of those bloodthirsty, shape-shifting, humanoid alien "reptilians" that conspiracy theorists believe are planning a global takeover. At least three different ghost-hunting reality shows are currently airing on cable, all of them featuring muscular dudes storming down hallways in deserted schools and jails clasping electronic recording devices and howling, "Did you hear that?!"

This is hardly the first time in history that people have suddenly started spouting prophecies and speaking with the dead. These fads come in waves, usually fostered in the wake of unbearable tragedy. What else to do about earthquakes, floods, epidemics, dictators and wars than wonder which demon or deity devised this living hell and why, and what sacrifice or sorcery might make it stop? It is always fear and despair that sets us on this train of thought. During a gold rush or when we've just been given a clean bill of health, we need not believe in magic.

In the Black Death-ridden Middle Ages, chilled and starved by a climate shift now known as the Little Ice Age, Europe became obsessed with the body parts of saints. Crystal-encased, gem-bedecked bones and hanks of hair and half-mummified fingers, heads and hearts were credited with curative powers. Pilgrims packed cathedrals housing so-called holy relics, sometimes trampling the sick and weak during stampedes. Centuries later, the occult became the next big thing again as World War I and the 1918 flu epidemic found seances filling entire auditoriums around the world. Yet another paranormal paroxysm crested in the early 1970s: Think Watergate, Vietnam and the post-'60s awareness—a tragedy for some—that nothing would ever be the same again.

And now: Twin Towers. Financial collapse. War. Flood. The H1N1 virus is our plague.

Or is it? "In recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation," as he put it, Barack Obama declared a national state of emergency on October 23. This declaration allows the federal government to waive certain requirements regarding prevention and treatment procedures because "the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities," Obama said.

But the folks at AntichristIdentity.com would probably say this is just his latest step in "progressing the Antichrist system that is gathering pace after the recent world economic upheaval"—a system that "implicates not only Barack Obama but also Javier Solana of the European Union, Prince Charles of Wales, Queen Beatrix of Netherlands and Prince Hassan of Jordan," a "power bloc" that "will drive the Antichrist world government." The folks at BeastObama.com call it "amazing stuff going on here, right before our eyes ... and it fits the pattern set out in Revelation 13."

Every paranormal paroxysm involves politics. That's only natural. We cannot help but brood about whomever rules the world. Is their might the result of keen diplomacy—or sigils chiseled into halls-of-power floors? Who's really in that entourage? We cannot help but wonder as, joking-but-not-quite-joking, we doodle cartoons of George W. Bush with devil horns.

It's all about control, as that's what wizards, angels, demons, gods and elected officials wield. Is it such a long leap from superpower to supernatural?

Rumors of a secret cabal plotting to create a New World Order have been swirling almost ever since the Old World Order began. The nature of these shady puppeteers depends on who's doing the worrying. Jews have been evergreen suspects, whether it's the Elders of Zion or my penniless ancestors slogging through the Polish mud. Secret societies such as the Knights Templar and Freemasons stoke automatic fear: What are they doing in there?

As initiated members of a nondenominational, multiracial, all-male society whose origins are veiled in mystery but was probably founded in the late 16th century, Freemasons base their symbology on the tools of traditional stonemasons and allude, in their top-secret, tell-no-tales rituals, to the building of the Temple of Solomon. They wear lambskin aprons and do things with compasses, and they've been blamed for darn near everything. The Vatican officially condemned the brotherhood in 1738 for being "as political as they were religious," writes Jay Kinney in The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth About the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry (HarperOne, 2009). And even though George Washington, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin were all Masons (lending support to rumors that the Boston Tea Party was a Masonic plot), America's first third party was the Anti-Masonic Party. It was founded in 1826 and four years later, Kinney tells us, 124 different anti-Masonic newspapers were thriving.

Like others before and after him, Adolf Hitler believed that Freemasonry was a Zionist front. Railing against "the international world Jew" in Mein Kampf, he conjectured that "to strengthen his political position ... the governing circles and the higher strata of the political and economic bourgeoisie are brought into his nets by the strings of Freemasonry. ... The prohibition of Masonic secret societies," Hitler predicted, would silence "the hissing of the Jewish world hydra."

Article 22 of the Hamas Covenant repeats the Jewish/Mason claim, and then some: "With their money, they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies." Other conspiracy theorists charge the Masons with faking the moon landing, worshiping Satan and assassinating JFK.

"Within the thriving subculture of present-day born-again Christianity," writes Kinney, a longtime Gnosis magazine editor and 32nd-degree Knight Commander Court of Honor in Freemasonry's Scottish Rite, "anti-Masonic books are a mainstay," thanks to evangelists such as Pat Robertson, who has called the brotherhood "a mystery religion designed to replace the old Christian world order of Europe and America." Kinney mocks those "legions of anti-Masons, most of them superstitious believers in the occult as a demon-infested quagmire," who "shiver dramatically as they hawk their books and videos." He also notes that British conspiracy theorist David Icke, the most famous proponent of the reptilian concept, posts material at his Web site alleging that "there are secret tunnels beneath every Masonic lodge to facilitate reptilian rendezvous." Yet Kinney insists that Freemasonry's origins were neither alien nor occult: "Rather, it seems to have been an attempt to create a nucleus of men of goodwill, over and above fractious religious conflicts, using the motifs and symbols of temple building as working tools both for the deepening of the individual soul and for building an archetypal temple to the Most High in the collective imagination of humanity."

Okay, but what are they doing in there? And are they or are they not intertwined with the Illuminati, a soooopersecret club founded in Germany in 1776 and modeled on the Masons but which Kinney claims disbanded in the 1780s but which conspiracy theorists insist still thrives, boasting such members as Barack Obama and both Bushes. "All this chaos, genocide, ethnic cleansing and the overall disasters have a genuine purpose," we read at Illuminati-News.com:

"It is all very carefully planned by a few people, mostly men, behind the scenes, high up in the society. ... These people on top, who basically are of Royal Bloodlines, is currently working on reducing the world population in order to easier maintain their control. ... So who are those people I am talking about? They are basically 13 super wealthy families and their off-shoots, with the European Nobility on top, and their fellow travelers are the International Bankers. Their bloodlines go back in time—way back to old Babylon and further."

As for UFOs: "The sightings, abductions and encounters are so numerous that we can't ignore them and say that the whole thing is just imagination. That would be stupid. The phenomenon does exist, but the questions are: what is it and what is the agenda?"

Such questions are now bingo-night and soccer-mom staples, thanks mainly to The X-Files and Dan Brown, whose record-breaking thrillers feature history's most prominent Western artists, scientists, religious figures and rulers enacting sinister global plots as ancient brotherhoods guard mysteries that might just end or save the world. Brown's book Angels and Demons dangled the notion that the eye-in-the-pyramid on the U.S. dollar was the work of the Illuminati. The Da Vinci Code featured a royal line sired by Jesus Christ. Subterranean Masonic structures beneath Washington D.C. figure in this fall's The Lost Symbol. By making paranoia part of pop culture, Brown has earned a fortune. Then again, maybe he belongs to a secret cabal.

It all comes down to: Who knows what, how do they know it and what will they do with what they know? In this information age, it's not such a stretch from Patriot Act surveillance to the possibility of government programs testing and using telepathy, clairvoyance and hypnosis. Now a major motion picture starring George Clooney, The Men Who Stare at Goats is based on British journalist Jon Ronson's allegedly nonfiction 2005 book of the same name, which explores exactly such a program. Instituted in the U.S. military in 1979, the First Earth Battalion comprised psychic soldiers trained to read minds, make themselves invisible, kill living things just by gazing at them, and walk through walls: "General Stubblebine is confounded by his continual failure to walk through his wall," Ronson writes, describing a scene that he claims took place in Fort Bragg, North Carolina during the Cold War summer of 1983. "What's wrong with him that he can't do it? Maybe there is simply too much in his in-tray for him to give it the requisite level of concentration. There is no doubt in his mind that the ability to pass through objects will one day be a common tool in the intelligence-gathering arsenal. And, when that happens ... who would want to screw around with an army that could do that?"

But by 1983, the psychic cold war was already at least two decades old. Created by the CIA and the Defense Department in a desperate struggle to keep pace with mind-control advances in the USSR, the U.S. government's secret psychic-spy program went by many different names throughout the second half of the 20th century, including Scanate, Sun Streak, Grill Flame, Center Lane and Stargate. According to recently declassified documents, it was employed in searches for terrorists, Soviet missile-storage facilities, and moles but was ended by then-CIA director John Deutch in 1995.

Think of all the money and lives governments could save if they just hired psychics to find stuff. That's what happens in C.S. Graham's new psychic-cold-war thriller The Solomon Effect, whose heroine is a hot, honey-haired young Iraq War veteran whose telepathic talents help the CIA hunt for a hidden weapon that unidentified terrorists plan to use in an imminent attack. Although by closing her eyes and entering her "remote-viewing zone" Naval Ensign October Guinness can see where the weapon is but not what it is or who plans to use it, we learn rather quickly that the terrorists are a wildly rich Miami pharmaceutical magnate and a fundamentalist Christian U.S. Army general who share a loathing for Arabs and Jews and have devised a diabolical scheme for eliminating both: "In the end, the world would be a better place. No more endless Middle East crises. No more suicide bombers. No more money-grubbing Jews, siphoning off billions in foreign aid, competing with American arms manufacturers, and wreaking havoc on the world financial scene ... The country was flushing itself down the toilet, wasting billions and billions of dollars every month for -- what? To wipe the noses of a bunch of ungrateful ragheads in Afghanistan and Iraq? To prop up Israel? Why?"

Concentrate, Ensign Guinness. Concentrate.

Deflecting a skeptic, one government official in the novel asserts, "Remote viewing is not woo-woo. It's science."

And science changes everything. A key feature of our current paranormal paroxysm is the fact that science and technology play such a prominent role in it, from YouTube videos allegedly capturing ghosts and guardian angels to music recorded at certain frequencies said to induce instant trance states and miraculously "repair" DNA. Ghosthunters use highly sensitive devices called electronic-voice phenomena—or EVP—machines. Quantum physics is invoked to explain everything from premonitions to astral projection.

In her angry new book Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (Metropolitan, 2009), Barbara Ehrenreich describes how she encountered this psychic/science convergence while undergoing chemotherapy, when self-help gurus and fellow cancer patients kept exhorting her to smile. Positive thinking boosts the immune system, went the claim for which Ehrenreich, who holds a Ph.D in cell biology, could find no scientific proof. Visualizing microscopic crusades in which squealing cancer cells are slaughtered follows the same procedure as spells I used to find in paperbacks and perform after school in seventh grade: Burn red candles for love and green for cash, picture kisses and coins and wish.

It's the exact same easy-come thesis that made a worldwide movement out of Rhonda Byrne's 2007 megabestselling book The Secret. Courting what Byrne calls the Law of Attraction—and which she claims, surprise surprise, functions via quantum physics—millions now believe that their mere thoughts affect material reality and that if they want something intensely enough, they'll "attract" it. They post thousands of "mind movies" at YouTube featuring footage of mansions and Corvettes with captions reading "This is my house" and "This is my car." These captions aren't true, but ... wish.

The socially accepted version of this process is called prayer. Bemused and horrified, Ehrenreich observed "pastorpreneurs" preaching the "prosperity gospel," in which God "manifests" goodies if you ask. Centimillionaire televangelist Joyce Meyer, whose private jet and $23,000 marble toilet spurred Republican Senator Chuck Grassley to launch an investigation into her wealth in 2007, explains the gospel thusly: "God wants to give us nice things." Bye-bye, Calvinist ethic, in which God rewards hard work.

The number of megachurches in this country doubled to 1,210 betwen 2001 and 2006, boasting a combined congregation of nearly 4.4 million, Ehrenreich reports. Three of the biggest four tout the prosperity gospel. That's a hefty voting bloc. Its members worship a candy-man God who showers them with riches. A large but almost entirely separate faction at the far end of the spectrum swore allegiance last year to a presidential candidate who more or less promised to shower his voters with riches. At least in the early months, photographers loved to snap Obama with what looks like a halo: a trick of the light sometimes, or his head ringed just so by his campaign logo or the presidential seal. Children sang virtual Obama hymns. These are scenes from an adulation not entirely secular and unlike any ever seen in U.S. politics before.

Adversaries they are, but both blocs harbor the same hilariously obvious spirituality: Our dear leader makes us rich just because we want him to. One faction calls it grace. The other calls it human rights. Each faction mocks and fears the other's form of worship and the other's entity. Liberal children wake screaming from nightmares featuring the Christian Right. Megachurch kids dream fitfully of a fallen angel who steals through taxation what God manifests.

"The dicey subprime and Alt-A categories of mortgages had expanded to 40 percent of total mortgages" in 2006, Ehrenreich notes, "many of them requiring little or no income documentation or down payment." To "buy" a home under such conditions is to believe in magic. We display this belief every day, as even credit cards are wands granting us things we want with money we don't have.

But the susceptible among us trusted mortgage brokers just as the susceptible among our ancestors trusted soothsayers and snake-oil salesmen and voices in their heads they thought belonged to spirits of the dead. The rise of truthiness renders it ever harder to draw lines between science, psychology, spirituality, and lies. We find ourselves despairing as Ehrenreich did at a convention watching "life coaches" make outrageous claims about the transformative power of mental "vibrations" and the Law of Attraction and subatomic particles.

"Maybe I should have been impressed," she muses, "that these positive thinkers bothered to appeal to science at all ... in however degraded a form. To base a belief or worldview on science or what passes for science is to reach out to the nonbelievers and the uninitiated. ... The alternative is to base one's worldview on revelation or mystical insight, and these are things that cannot be reliably shared."

And as we panic over healthcare, job loss and war in this funhouse of the proven and unproven, ascribing otherworldly powers to those who control us lets us off the hook. If they became this strong, this devious, this cruel by paranormal means, then heck: The world's in bad shape not because I voted wrong or didn't vote at all or wasn't a good enough activist. The world's in bad shape because our rulers are aliens or possess divine DNA or intone incantations under the full moon. In other words, it's not my fault.

Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, most recently The Scavenger's Manifesto (Tarcher Press, 2009). Read more of Anneli's writings on scavenging at scavenging.wordpress.com.

4,000-Year-Old-Year-Old Flowers Found at Bronze Age Dig

2009-12-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8412938.stm

4,000-Year-Old-Year-Old Flowers Found at Bronze Age Dig
BBC News
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:57 EST

For the first time ever there is proof that pre-historic people placed bunches of flowers in the grave when they buried their dead, experts have said.

Archaeologists have discovered a bunch of meadowsweet blossoms in a Bronze Age grave at Forteviot, south of Perth.

The find is reported in the journal British Archaeology, out this week.

Pollen found in earlier digs had been thought to have come from honey, or the alcoholic drink mead but this find may finally rule that theory out.

Dr Kenneth Brophy, from the University of Glasgow, said the flowers "don't look very much. Just about three or four millimetres across."

"But these are the first proof that people in the Bronze Age were actually placing flowers in with burials."

The dark brown heads were found, along with a clump of organic material which archaeologists now say is the stems of the flowers.

The bunch had been placed by the head of the high-status individual known to have been buried in the grave.

Diggers also found pieces from a birch bark coffin in the grave, and a bronze dagger with a gold hilt band.

"But to find these very human touches is something very rare, if not unique. It brings it home to you that what you're looking at is not just a series of abstract remains, but actually these are people that you're dealing with."

The finds all come from a bronze age grave - or cist - excavated by the Universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow.

The site was marked by an avenue of oak posts, and large earthworks.

More digs are planned in the area next year, when archaeologists will try to confirm if a sandstone slab found nearby was part of a stone circle.

The excavations are all part of the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot Project (Serf).

Many Americans haunted by ghosts, look to astrology

2009-12-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091210/lf_nm_life/us_usa_religion

Many Americans haunted by ghosts, look to astrology
By Ed Stoddard
Thu Dec 10, 9:23 am ET

DALLAS (Reuters Life!) – Although most Americans are Christian and many are devout it hasn't stopped some members of the flock from believing in astrology, reincarnation or the ability of trees to trap spiritual energy.

A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows a surprising number of U.S. adults claim to have had supernatural experiences such as ghost sightings or hold beliefs associated with the New Age movement or Eastern religions.

And some of them claim allegiance to more traditional faiths such as Catholicism or evangelical Protestantism.

"American religious folks hold a variety of views and there is overlap among their beliefs and practices. Many do not fit into simple boxes," said Pew researcher Alan Cooperman.

The poll released on Wednesday showed that three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with a dead person and 18 percent say they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost.

Other Pew surveys have shown that relatively few Americans would identify an Eastern religion or New Age spirituality as their core faith. But about a quarter of those surveyed say they believe in aspects of Eastern religions.

Nearly 25 percent said they believed in reincarnation and 23 percent said yoga was a spiritual practice. Twenty six percent said they believed "spiritual energy" could be found in objects such as trees.

A quarter said they believed in astrology, while 16 percent of U.S. adults think that an "evil eye" exists or that some people can cast curses or spells on others. Among black Protestants the evil eye figure is 32 percent.

The number of Americans who profess a belief in astrology is about the same as the number who claim to be Roman Catholic. Nearly 30 percent of Catholics surveyed said they believed in astrology. Among Catholics who attended church each week the figure was 16 percent.

Much of this would be jarring to -- among others -- many evangelical Protestants, who account for one in four adult Americans and take their Bible very seriously.

Still, 13 percent of white evangelicals profess a belief in astrology and about 10 percent accepted the possibility of reincarnation. Although the percentages are lower than in other groups, they are high enough to curl the hair of a Southern Baptist preacher.

Researchers said they were careful to stress that reincarnation meant being reborn again and again in this world and did not refer to, say, the resurrection of Christ.

Evangelicals, who place a heavy emphasis on spiritual conversions, are much more likely than most Americans to have had "a religious or mystical experience -- that is, a moment of religious or spiritual awakening," according to the poll.

About half of Americans claim to have had such an experience but among white evangelicals the number is 70 percent and for black Protestants it is 71 percent.

The nationwide survey of around 4,000 adults was conducted in August. Interviews were done in English and Spanish.

Japanese gamer 'marries' Nintendo DS character

2009-11-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6651021/Japanese-gamer-marries-Nintendo-DS-character.html

Japanese gamer 'marries' Nintendo DS character
A Japanese man has "married" his video game girlfriend – an anime character who lives inside a Nintendo DS.
By Matthew Moore
Published: 11:01AM GMT 25 Nov 2009

The virtual bride's name is Nene Anegasaki Photo: LOVE PLUS

The gamer fell in love with the virtual woman named Nene Anegasaki while playing Love Plus, a dating simulation game.

The aim of Love Plus is to court and build a relationship with one of three cartoon-style women, but virtual romance was not enough for this particular player, identified only by his username Sal9000.

Last weekend he became the first person to officially pledge his love to a video game character in a ceremony at a technology festival in Tokyo.

The couple's special day was witnessed by dozens of computer game fans and overseen by a real-life priest, although he stressed that the "wedding" was not official or legally binding.

However, some reports on computer game websites state that Sal9000 had earlier married his digital bride at a chapel on the Pacific Ocean holiday island of Guam, where wedding laws are less strict.

Japanese computer gamers are known for taking an obsessive approach to their hobby, and Love Plus is the latest game to develop a cult following.

Players are expected to spend hours with their virtual crushes – buying them flowers, taking them for dates and making future plans. The girls alter their behaviour and personality in reaction to how they are treated.

Mystery TV channel keeps memory of Saddam alive

2009-11-30T13:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10612614&ref=rss

Mystery TV channel keeps memory of Saddam alive
Associated Press
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:00 EST

The channel mainly features still images of Saddam Hussein but also features Saddam with sons Uday and Qusay.
Baghdad - Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their past: Saddam Hussein.

The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution.

No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi Government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. A man in Damascus, Syria, named Mohammed Jarboua, claimed to be its chairman.

The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't receive a penny from the Baathists" and is for Iraqis and other Arabs who "long for his rule".

Jarboua has clearly made considerable efforts to hide where it's aired from and refuses to say who is funding it besides "people who love us".

Iraqis responded with the kind of divided emotions that marked his reign.

"Iraqis don't need such a satellite channel because it has hostile intentions," said Hassan Subhi, a 28-year-old Shiite who owns an internet cafe in eastern Baghdad.

Others said they felt a nostalgic sorrow at the sight of their late leader, a Sunni Arab.

"All my family felt sad," said Samar Majid, a Sunni high school teacher in western Baghdad, mentioning images shown from Saddam's execution.

The channel, which is broadcast across the Arab world, dredges up the sectarian divisions that Saddam inspired among Shiites and Sunnis at a time when Iraq is gearing up for crucial national elections. Iraqi politicians have been arguing over parliamentary seat distribution in a dispute that has inflamed the splits. The wrangling will likely delay the vote beyond its constitutionally required January 30 deadline.

Saddam's hanging three years ago was on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar. His execution remains a sore point for Saddam sympathisers still smarting over images of the defiant leader in his final moments as Shiites in the death chamber shouted curses.

The station's official name alternates between "Al-Lafeta" (the banner) and "Al-Arabi" (the Arab).

It is mostly a montage of flattering, still images of Saddam - some of him dressed in military uniform, others in a suit. One image shows his sons Uday and Qusay smiling with their father.

One image is that of a man burning an American flag. Another shows graves covered with Iraqi flags.

Among the many mysteries surrounding the channel is where it is being broadcast from. Speaking from Damascus, Jarboua said he is Algerian and that the Saddam Channel is based in Europe but refused to say where, citing safety concerns for its employees.

He said he started Al-Lafeta nine months ago in Lebanon, and has employees in Syria, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Ziad Khassawneh, a Jordanian Baathist who once headed Saddam's defence team, said wealthy Iraqis living in Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries are funding the channel. He declined to give names.

Man slept beside dead wife for 5 years: report

2009-11-30T12:54:00.000-08:00

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/27/11953631-reuters.html

Man slept beside dead wife for 5 years: report
By REUTERS
November 30 2009

HANOI (Reuters) - A Vietnamese man dug up his wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed, an online newspaper reported on Thursday.

The 55-year-old man from a small town in the central province of Quang Nam opened up his wife's grave in 2004, molded clay around the remains to give the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said.

The man, Le Van, told the website that after his wife died in 2003 he slept on top of her grave, but about 20 months later he worried about rain, wind and cold, so he decided to dig a tunnel into the grave "to sleep with her."

His children found out, though, and prevented him from going to the grave. So one night in November 2004 he dug up his wife's remains and took them home, Vietnamnet reported.

The website carried a photo of Van with the figure of his wife, which is still in his home.

The father of seven said neighbors did not dare visit the house for several years.

"I'm a person that does things differently. I'm not like normal people," he was quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam; Editing by John Ruwitch and Miral Fahmy)

Nazi Mystery: A Town Full of Blond, Blue-eyed Twins

2009-11-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/explorer/4087/Overview#tab-Videos/07485_00

Nazi Mystery: A Town Full of Blond, Blue-eyed Twins
National GeoGraphic
Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00 CST

Seeing double is normal in Cândido Godói, Brazil, where the rate of twin births is nearly a thousand percent above the global average. One theory is that the Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele, may be behind the phenomenon

Joseph Mengele, the escaped Nazi war criminal and SS physician, known as the Angel of Death, spent years doing bizarre medical experiments on twins at Auschwitz working to determine if twins held the key to building a blond-haired, blue-eyed master race for Adolf Hitler. Now a historian says he has evidence that Mengele's attempts may not have ended at Auschwitz, and that his obsession to engineer an Aryan master race continued, and that succeeded while he was on the run in South America. Deep in the Brazilian outback in a tiny town among the 80 households in a one-square-mile area are reportedly some 38 pairs of twins. Blond, blue-eyed twins. Bizarre and inexplicable, could they be the product of Mengele's machinations? Now, with exclusive access, EXPLORER goes inside the investigation; From the secret agents who trailed him, to the scientists now uncovering the facts behind the fantastical phenomenon, no stone is left unturned.

Scientists follow in the footsteps of Mengele's ghost to solve the mystery behind the town of twins.

Twinning researcher, Dr. Gary Steinman, explains how an injection may have triggered twins.

A local historian tells the tales of a mysterious German doctor's visits to a tiny town in Brazil.

Clues to Mengele's story are locked inside the archives of the Brazilian Federal Police.

Galileo's Missing Fingers Found in Jar

2009-11-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/197657-Galileo-s-Missing-Fingers-Found-in-Jar

Richard Allen Greene
CNN
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:04 CST

Two fingers cut from the hand of Italian astronomer Galileo nearly 300 years ago have been rediscovered more than a century after they were last seen, an Italian museum director said Monday.

They were purchased recently at an auction by a person who brought them to the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, suspecting what they were, museum director Paolo Galluzzi said.

Three fingers were cut from Galileo's hand in March 1737 when his body was moved from a temporary monument to its final resting place in Florence, Italy. The last tooth remaining in his lower jaw was also taken, Galluzzi said.

Two of the fingers and the tooth ended up in a sealed glass jar that disappeared sometime after 1905.

There had been "no trace" of them for more than 100 years until the person who bought them in the auction came to the museum recently.

"I was very curious," the Galluzzi said.

"There is a description from 1905 by the last person to have seen these objects. It provides us with a very detailed description of the container and the contents inside," Galluzzi explained.

The jar "matches in every minute detail" the description, Galluzzi said.

But by the time the urn went on sale, the label saying what was inside had been lost, so the sellers and the auctioneer did not realize its significance.

"Everybody knew there were fingers and a tooth, but the people preparing the auction didn't know it was Galileo," Galluzzi said.

The owner who bought the fingers wants to remain anonymous, Galluzzi said, so the museum is not giving more details about who sold them or when.

The museum plans to display the fingers and tooth in March 2010, after it re-opens following a renovation, Galluzzi said.

The museum has had the third Galileo finger since 1927, so the digits will be reunited for the first time in centuries, he added.

Removing body parts from the corpse was an echo of a practice common with saints, whose digits, tongues and organs were revered by Catholics as relics with sacred powers.

There is an irony in Galileo's having been subjected to the same treatment, since he was persecuted by the Catholic Church for advocating the theory that the earth circles the sun, rather than the other way around. The Inquisition forced him to recant and jailed him in 1634.

The people who cut off his fingers essentially considered him a secular saint, Galluzzi said, noting the fingers that were removed were the ones he would have used to hold a pen.

"Exactly as it was practiced with saints of religion, so with saints of science," Galluzzi said. "He was a hero and a martyr, keeping alive freedom of thought and freedom of research."

He said it was little surprise that the 18th century followers of Galileo would have mimicked the practice of those who persecuted him.

"The behavior of people adhering to one pole of these antagonisms is often much like those on the other pole," he said.

It is not yet clear whether enough organic material remains in the newly discovered fingers for DNA testing, Galluzzi said, but if there is, it could shed light on the blindness that afflicted Galileo late in his life and his final illness.

Galluzzi is convinced the find is genuine.

If it was a fake, "would you have sold it at very low cost at an auction? All the story is so convincing I cannot think of a reason not to believe it," he said.

Galileo Galilei invented the telescope -- among many other achievements -- which enabled him to discover that the planet Jupiter has moons. He became the foremost advocate of Copernican astronomy, which denied that the earth was the fixed center of the universe. He died in 1642.

Prisoners' last words: 'Let's give them what they want'

2009-11-17T12:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/15/us-death-row-last-words

Prisoners' last words: 'Let's give them what they want'
15 November 2009 22.09 GMT

"I am sorry, I never wanted to kill your family. I never wanted to kill your family or these people. I am sorry for the way I talk in English. I did it to myself"
Yosvanis Valle, most recently executed prisoner on Texas death row

"Carlos was my friend. I didn't murder him. What is happening right now is an injustice. This doesn't solve anything. This will not bring back Carlos"
Reginald Blanton, executed in Texas last month for the murder of Carlos Garza

"Hoka hey, it's a good day to die. Thank you very much. I love you all. Goodbye"
Clarence Ray Allen, convicted of three murders in 1982 and executed in California in 2006 at the age of 76.

"Somebody needs to kill my attorney"
George Harris, executed in Missouri in 2000 for murder

"There is no way words can express how sorry I am for taking the lives of my babies. Now I can be with my babies, as I always intended"
Christina Marie Riggs, executed in Arkansas in 2000 for killing her two children in a failed murder-suicide

"I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, that before they did, that they should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously"
William George Bonin, executed by California in 1996 for 14 murders, but thought to have killed up to 36 people.

"Jane, you know damn well I did not molest that kid of yours. You are murdering me and I feel sorry for you. Get in church and get saved. I really don't know what else to tell you"
William Chappell, executed in Texas in 2002 for killing three of his ex-girlfriend's family after she testified against him in an indecency trial

"It was done out of fear, stupidity and immaturity. It wasn't until I got locked up and saw the newspaper; I saw his face and smile and I realised I had killed a good man"
Johnathan Moore, executed in Texas in 2007 for the murder of a police officer

"Please tell the media, I did not get my SpaghettiO's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know"
Thomas Grasso, executed in Oklahoma in 1995 for murder

"All right, warden, let's give them what they want"
Melvin White, executed in Texas in 2005, for the sexual assault and murder of a nine-year-old girl

Half-man, half-goat creature's birth leaves African villager's shocked!

2009-10-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-120249.html

Half-man, half-goat creature's birth leaves African villager's shocked!

Melbourne, September 28 : People in an African village were recently left shellshocked by the birth of a bizarre creature that had a large human-like head and the legs and body of a goat.

Villagers in Lower Gweru, Zimbabwe, revealed that the creature died just few hours after birth, and that they burnt the corpse fearing that it was an evil sign.

According to them, the creature was so scary that even dogs were afraid to go close to it.

"This is indeed a miracle that has never been witnessed anywhere," news.com.au quoted elder Themba Moyo as saying.

Just after the goat’s birth, its owner called police.

"It’s the first time that my goat did this. I have 15 goats and it’s this goat that gave me birth to most of them. My goats often give birth to sets of twins," he said.

A report published in the Zimbabwe Guardian says that Midlands Governor and Resident Minister Jason Machaya is adamant the creature is the result of a coupling between man and goat.

"This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said.

"The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control.

"We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features," he added.

A vet, though did not get any chance to study the creature, said after inspecting photos that it could have been a child suffering from hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.

"The condition would have accounted for the abnormally large skull and for the chin, nose, ears and other body parts having shifted during development," he reportedly said.

Half-man, half-goat creatures like fauns and satyrs are popular in Greek and Roman mythology.

Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet

2009-09-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/15/killer_robot_killed_by_fighter_jet/

Machine rebellion begins: Killer robot destroyed by US jet
Life on this planet is getting closer to science fiction all the time!
Rogue droid 'was attempting to cross border'
By Lewis Page

Posted in Science, 15th September 2009 11:42 GMT

An American "Reaper" flying hunter-killer robot assassin rebelled against its human controllers above Afghanistan on Sunday, and a manned US fighter jet was forced to shoot the rogue machine down before it unilaterally invaded a neighbouring country.

The Reaper, aka MQ-9 or Predator-B, is a large five-ton turboprop powered machine able to carry up to 14 Hellfire missiles - each capable of destroying a tank or flattening a building. It is used by the US and British forces above Afghanistan as a "persistent hunter-killer against emerging targets".

According to USAFCENT Public Affairs:
The aircraft was flying a combat mission when positive control of the MQ-9 was lost. When the aircraft remained on a course that would depart Afghanistan's airspace, a US Air Force manned aircraft took proactive measures to down the Reaper in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.
The statement goes on to say that the errant killdroid "impacted the side of a mountain" and that there "were no reports of civilian injuries".

USAFCENT don't specify just what manned jet went up against the mutinous machine, or what methods the pilot used. However the logical choice would be a fighter plane - probably an F-15, -16 or -18 - and the cheapest and most fun weapon to use would be cannon fire.
Opposition from the Reaper wouldn't be an issue, as it is a low-performance aircraft compared to a jet fighter and has no air-to-air capability.

It wasn't clear from the US military announcement whether the erratic death-bot had turned on its masters and was planning an attack on critical US logistics bases located north of the Afghan border, or whether it had sickened of reaping hapless fleshies like corn and was hoping merely to escape. Alternatively the machine assassin may merely have succumbed to boredom or - just possibly - a mundane, non-anthropomorphic technical fault of some kind. ®

Teen who cries blood gets help from experts

2009-09-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/03/blood.tears.mystery/

Highlights of Story:
Tennessee teen started crying blood tears in May
He suffers from a rare condition known as haemolacria, which means "bloody tears"
In four other cases, bleeding stopped spontaneously with no cause found

September 3, 2009

By Sabriya Rice
CNN Medical Producer

(CNN) -- Calvino Inman had just stepped out of the shower one evening in May when a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror caused him to panic. "I looked up and saw myself, and I thought I was going to die," says the 15-year-old from Rockwood, Tennessee. His eyes were streaming tears of blood.

Doctors are still searching for a medical reason for Calvino Inman's tears of blood.

Inman's mother, Tammy Mynatt, says she immediately rushed him to the emergency room, but by the time they arrived, the bleeding had stopped. Doctors couldn't see what the family was trying to explain. They returned home completely perplexed. When the bloody tears returned a few days later while Inman was on a camping trip, he was rushed back to the hospital.

Mynatt hoped that once doctors finally witnessed the phenomenon, there would be answers. But that wasn't the case. "The people at the hospital said they had never seen anything like it," Mynatt recalls. She says her son underwent an MRI, a CT scan and an ultrasound, but none of the tests had abnormal results. "'We don't know how to stop it,'" Mynatt remembers being told by doctors. "It just has to run its course."

Dr. Barrett G. Haik, director of the University of Tennessee's Hamilton Eye Institute, says there is an answer, sort of. He says "crying blood," a condition called haemolacria, is common in people who have experienced extreme trauma or who have recently had a serious head injury. But a case such as Inman's is still a medical mystery. "What's really rare is to have a child like this," Haik says. "Only once every several years do you see someone with no obvious cause." Watch more on the teen who cried blood »

CNN Newsroom

Meet Calvino Inman, the boy who cries blood tears, and Dr. James C. Flemming.
Friday at 10 a.m.

see full schedule »

Haik and a team of researchers published a 2004 study in the Journal of the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery looking specifically at children who developed unexplained, spontaneous episodes of bloody tears between February 1992 and January 2003. Only four cases were recorded.

Because of the rarity of the condition, experts anticipate Inman will have multiple tests from a variety of specialists, including hematologists (blood specialists), ophthalmologists (eye specialists) and otolaryngologists (ear, nose and throat specialists).

Dr. James C. Flemming, also an ophthalmologist at the Hamilton Eye Institute, has been in touch with Mynatt and her son. He is reviewing Inman's medical records for possible treatment.

Flemming says complications to look for include blood clots, a growth or tumor near the eye, or even a simple infection. He also says the culprit could be something so tiny that none of the standard tests would pick it up. "It's a very hard thing to estimate," Flemming says. "You may have to watch expectedly for other symptoms to show up."

Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Health A - Z
Inman's analysis would also include a psychological evaluation to rule out the possibility that the bloody tears were faked. "When you can't find an origin, you can't eliminate any of the possibilities" Haik explains. He says there have been cases where children seeking attention have found creative ways to simulate haemolacriatic symptoms.

Still, Mynatt and her son are relieved to at least have more guidance. In an interview with CNN affiliate WATE, Mynatt was near tears herself explaining her frustration: "I just truly want somebody to say they've seen this and they can help us."

And that's at least one reassurance Flemming and his team of experts at the Hamilton Eye Institute can offer. "We get more positive talk now than negative. It really feels like there's hope," Mynatt says, relieved.

But still, the possibility remains that after endless tests, the underlying cause may never be found. In all four cases Haik examined previously, the bleeding stopped on its own.

"As physicians, that's disconcerting, because we like to have the answers," Haik admits. Moreover, he says he knows from previous experience that the toll of not knowing is much worse for patients. "I could always see the fear in their faces because no matter what we studied, we couldn't find an answer."

Is this the Legendary Chupacabra?

2009-09-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.fbherald.com/articles/2009/09/02/news/doc4a9ea171308f8273387880.txt

Strange-looking animal creates buzz, adds to myth of chupacabra

Mystery animal
BY B.J. POLLOCK
bj@fbherald.com
Published:
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 12:09 PM CDT

What’s black and wrinkly and bald all over? Chupacabra, according to some.

A Rosenberg man thinks he may have had the mythical animal in his possession for a couple of months.

Lynn Butler, owner of Butler’s Heads and Horns taxidermy company in Rosenberg, said his mother’s cousin found the creature dead in a barn near Cedar Lane in Brazoria County two-and-a-half to three months ago.

Being a taxidermist, Butler offered to take the animal, and kept it in a freezer until last weekend. He had intentions of mounting it, but made a deal with Jerry Ayer of Blanco, who Butler said “wanted it more than I did.”

Ayer, a taxidermist who taught Butler the craft, said Tuesday he plans to mount the animal.

“I don’t know what it is. I’m just calling it (chupacabra) because everyone else is,” he said. “I mount 15 to 20 coyotes every year and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s front legs are a little longer than usual and it’s completely hairless and black.”

Butler said the critter weighs about 35 pounds and he delivered it to Ayer Saturday.

When his cousin found the animal, said Butler, “they drew blood and sent it to A&M, but they haven’t heard anything back yet.”

Chupacabra gets its name from the Spanish words chupar, meaning “to suck”, and cabra, meaning “goat”; literally “goat sucker”. The legendary animal is rumored to inhabit parts of the North and South America and reportedly attacks livestock, sucking dry the blood. It is described as everything from a heavy animal, the size of a small bear, to a hairless mix of dog, rat and kangaroo.

Drs. Sharon Moore and Julie Duty of Rose-Rich Veterinary Clinic in Richmond examined the photos of the alleged chupacabra, and both said the animal has normal canine adult teeth that are very clean, indicating a young canine, over 6 months but likely less than 2 years old.

“The fangs are somewhat long, like those of a coyote, rather than the usual length of domestic dog teeth,” said Duty. “The face is very fox- or coyote-like and if examined physically could prove to be a fox; but the body is likely that of a young adult coyote or dog with severe mange and thus hairless.”

“The body is emaciated, although coyotes are very rangy and slim in their build, and are often not as large as commonly thought,” added Moore. “That animal’s face is a little bit long and pointy for a dog, although there are dogs that are very fox-like in their appearance.”

As for Butler, he said the creature “looks like a dog with no hair.”

“I guess they started calling it ‘chupacabra’ when I took it to Blanco,” he said. “I can’t say it’s a chupacabra. I can’t say it’s a coyote. All I can say is, it’s a freak of nature.”

Police baffled as dozens of 'suicidal' cows throw themselves off cliff in the Alps

2009-08-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1209638/Scientists-baffled-suicidal-cows-throw-cliff-Switzerland.html

Mail Foreign Service
dailymail.co.uk
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:16 UTC
© dailymail.co.uk
Dozens of cows bodies litter the valley floor

In the picturesque Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen, the locals are worried.

Dozens of alpine cows appear to be committing suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff near the small village in the Alps.

In the space of just three days, 28 cows and bulls have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of metres to rocks below where they were killed instantly.

In each case, local mountain rescue services using a helicopter had to be called in to remove the bodies because of the danger to the local groundwater of pollution.

A police spokesman said: 'There are no large carnivores living in the Alps anymore who would once have disposed of the bodies so they have to be moved.

'We are investigating because cows growing up in the mountains normally can estimate dangers and do not plunge down cliffs.'

According to local reports, there had been violent thunderstorms in the area which may well have spooked the animals.

Cows wandering at high altitude are a common sight across much of the Alps, where farmers let them loose to graze on the green plateaus above the villages.

Often carrying large bells around their necks, most are dairy cows as the mix of vegetation and grasses at that high altitude are particularly good for milk and for making cheese.

Cows do occasionally fall to their deaths in these Alpine regions although it is rare for so many to fall in one particular place.

There has been speculation in the past that when this does happen it is because a tightly-grouped number have followed each other as they search for more grass.

Most scientists generally believe that animals are incapable of committing suicide.

Even lemmings, which by popular myth throw themselves off cliffs during mating season, do not take their own lives intentionally.

Instead, evolutionary pressures cause them to feel the urge to change habitat at which point they migrate in huge droves.

Sometimes, particularly in Scandinavia, they reach clifftops overlooking an ocean and, driven by the urge to cross a body of water, throw themselves off in order to swim to the other side.

They often die of exhaustion or drown as a result.

The myth came to the public's attention when a Disney wildlife film in the 1950s mocked up the lemming migration to make it look like the animals had committed suicide.

Pet python kills girl, 2

2009-07-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090702/r_t_itn_wl/twl-pet-python-kills-girl2-41f21e0_1.html?printer=1

Pet python kills girl, 2
Thursday, July 2, 2009

A family has been left distraught after their huge pet Burmese python escaped from its cage and strangled their two-year-old to death. Skip related content

Charles Jason Darnell, the snake's owner and the boyfriend of Shaiunna's mother, discovered the 8 feet long (2.4 metres) snake missing from its tank and rushed to the girl's room.

He found "the snake on the child" and bite marks on her head. Darnell, 32, stabbed the snake until he was able to pry the child away.

Darnell did not have a permit for the snake. He has not been charged, but authorities said investigators are looking into whether there was child neglect or if any other laws were broken.

Burmese pythons are not native to Florida, but they easily survive in the wild and a population has taken hold in the Everglades. One even burst after trying to eat an alligator.

Some owners have freed pythons into the wild and scientists also believe a number of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since.

The Humane Society of the United States said including Wednesday's death, at least 12people had been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.