Archive Category: Paranormal
Trivia: Microsoft Wingding Controversy
In the Wingding Controversy, if you type out "NYC" in Microsoft’s wingding font, a skull and bones, Star
of David, and a thumbs up glyphs appear.
Some people interpret this as an approving message of killing jews in New York City. Microsoft strongly denied that this was intentional. The company did, however, intentionally arrange the glyphs of an eye, a heart, and a city skyline as the "NYC" sequence in the later-released
webding font.
The Aliens of Calgary
Did aliens just landed in western Canada? Some people have reportedly seen striking images of aliens on the wall of a Calgary home:
"I looked out and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve lost my mind,’" resident Karen Henuset said of the first time she saw the specters. "So I asked our nanny to come and take a look at this, and the hair on her arms just stood straight up."
It’s as "clear as day. You see two eyes on each of them, they both have this little thing over their head. It’s a little weird," said resident Reid Henuset.
Link - via Boing Boing
Siobhán’s Miracle
Eight years ago, Siobhán Kilfeather, who was suffering from a deadly cancer, went to Lourdes to pray to the Virgin Mary not for survival, but for more time to allow her young children to remember her.
When she returned to London, her doctors were amazed at her recovery:
Siobhán and Peter clung to each other as the radiologist continued. "Back in December we spotted a small lesion on the lungs. One month later the abnormality was the size of a walnut. By now we expected to be examining irregular cells the size of a grapefruit.
"Instead, there’s nothing to be seen. The abnormalities have disappeared."
Siobhán’s cancer returned seven years later, and this is her story as told by her mother-in-law Ellen Jameson in an upcoming book Siobhán’s Miracle:
"I finally managed: ‘How long do you think I’ve got?’He turned his face away from me and didn’t answer. My head is so full of clutter I can’t think straight.
"I should write to old friends I’ve lost touch with. Tell them I’m going to die. I can’t seem to get things into proportion. The most important considerations are obviously my children and my husband, but also my work is important to me.
"My writing, my book, my students. Should I spend the last 12 hours of my life reading Jane Austen or writing an essay or singing nursery rhymes to my children?"
The Weavers Code, a Conspiracy Theory of the Cathars
In the 11th and 12th century, a Christian sect known as the Cathars swept through France. Amongst other things, they believed that matter was intrinsically evil and that Jesus could not have been both incarnate in the (sinful) flesh and still be the son of God (they believed that he was a prophet and mortal who died on the cross).
The Catholic Church saw the Cathars as dangerously heretical and in 1209, Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade to wipe out the Cathars (in which about 1 million people were killed).
Legend has it that four Cathar priests escaped with a sacred scroll, believed to have been written by Jesus himself, and hid pieces of the scroll around the world for safekeeping. They encoded the locations of these scrolls by weaving codes into cloths (Weaving was big for the Cathars - they even called themselves The Weavers).
And now, according to conspiracy theorists, the surviving Cathars/Weavers have initiated a sinister plan that will change the future of mankind….
Here’s a short clip at History of the Cathars, which you’ll probably find quite entertaining if you like The Da Vinci Code sort of thing: Link [Flash video] - Thanks Sam Alexander!
Ghostly Voices Tell Woman of Brain Cancer: Miracle or Madness?
This one is a bit long, but really interesting. Cabinet of Wonders blog dug up an article by Danny Penman at the Daily Mail about hearing voices.
Now, normally, hearing voices is a sure symptom of mental illness (like schizophrenia) … but is it always a bad thing? Here’s a story recounted by consultant psychiatrist Dr. Ikechukwu Azuonye:
The story begins in 1984 when a married woman in her 40s was referred to him, apparently suffering from a psychiatric illness. Her ‘symptoms’ appeared when she was at home in London quietly reading a book, and a distinct voice appeared in her head.
‘Please don’t be afraid,’ the voice said in a firm but soothing tone. ‘I know it must be shocking for you to hear me speaking to you like this, but this is the easiest way I could think of. My friend and I used to work at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, and we would like to help you.’
She was understandably shocked and was initially determined to dismiss the voice as a bizarre daydream. But it refused to go away and claimed that she was physically ill and would soon need help. [...]
‘The voices told her to go in and ask to have a brain scan,’ says Dr Azuonye. ‘This was apparently for two reasons. She had a tumour in her brain and her brain stem was inflamed.
Because the voices had told her things in the past that had turned out to be true, she believed them when they said that she had a tumour. I requested a brain scan.’
It turned out the diagnosis made by the voices was correct. Interestingly, says Dr Azuonye, there were no clinical signs that would have alerted anyone — including the patient — to the tumour.
The surgeon suggested an immediate operation to remove the tumour, a decision the voices agreed with. ‘They said they would have preferred the operation to be done at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, because they specialised in neurological diseases. But because she was already at the Royal Free Hospital, they told her to have the procedure done there because it was urgent,’ Dr Azuonye says.
After the operation, and when the woman had recovered consciousness, the voices returned one last time, to bid her farewell. ‘We are pleased to have helped you,’ they said, before bidding her goodbye. ‘It is a miracle,’ says Dr Azuonye. ‘The patient regards herself as being helped by a guardian angel.’
Was it miracle or madness? Link - More over at Cabinet of Wonders
Mystery Fanged Fish in Utah
When a pond in Brigham City, Utah, froze over, over 4,000 fish turned up dead (officials surmised that either the pond was poisoned or it ran out of oxygen due to the thick ice).
Among the dead fish was this mystery fanged creature that baffled biologists:
While checking the pond, the creature was spotted. "When we first saw that fish, we thought what in the ….. is that thing?" Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources Ben Boyce said. The fish was found with carp and goldfish that had been stocked in the pond.
Biologists said they are not sure what the creature is and that it could be a type of trout whose tissue decomposed rapidly, making its teeth more prominent. Aquatic biologists said if they can’t figure it out, they’ll let the fish decompose fully and then examine the bone structure to determine the species.
Om lingalingalinalinga, kilikili: Atheist Pwns Black Magic Guru
Black magic is taken very seriously in many parts of the world. In India, for example, people believe in "tantriks" (or black magic practitioners).
So, when Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged a tantrik to kill him with black magic, it makes for an excellent television:
During the discussion, the tantrik showed a small human shape of wheat flour dough, laid a thread around it like a noose and tightened it. He claimed that he was able to kill any person he wanted within three minutes by using black magic. Sanal challenged him to try and kill him.
The tantrik tried. He chanted his mantras (magic words): “Om lingalingalinalinga, kilikili….” But his efforts did not show any impact on Sanal – not after three minutes, and not after five. The time was extended and extended again. The original discussion
program should have ended here, but the “breaking news” of the ongoing great tantra challenge was overrunning all program schedules. [...]After nearly two hours, the anchor declared the tantrik’s failure. The tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him. “No, I am an atheist,” said Sanal Edamaruku. Finally, the disgraced tantrik tried to save his face by claiming that there was a never-failing special black magic for ultimate destruction, which could, however, only been done at night. Bad luck again, he did not get away with this, but was challenged to prove his claim this very night in another “breaking news” live program.
Read the rest of the story: Link - via Pharyngula
The Stories Behind Four Exorcisms
Maybe it’s my nature as a writer, but after I have certain experiences I have to learn I possibly can about whatever it was that I experienced. After I watch a movie I rush to IMDB to check out the trivia. After I visit someplace I find particularly intriguing, I scour the Internet and check out books and watch movies.
My point is, I was watching The Exorcism of Emily Rose the other day and got all caught up in researching the real story behind the movie. This, of course, lead to other stories of real-life exorcisms. I’m shocked at how… well… not commonplace exorcisms are, but how they’re not quite as unusual as you might think. The identities of people who have been exorcised are usually kept pretty quiet, but with just one priest claiming to have performed more than 50,000 exorcisms (granted, he is the senior exorcist of the Diocese of Rome), there are more out there than you might think. We’re going to look at a few.
Anneliese Michel
Let’s start with the exorcism of Anneliese Michel, the girl Emily Rose was based on. Anneliese was a deeply religious German Catholic woman who said she was possessed by at least six demons, including Hitler, Nero and Cain. Father Ernst Alt, a local parish priest who also happened to be a specialist in exorcism, was the first to recognize that she may need an exorcism. When medication failed to control her symptoms (including contortions, multiple personalities and the use of multiple voices) the exorcism was approved by the bishop and carried out by Pastor Arnold Renz. She died on July 1, 1976 – the day that Anneliese predicted she would be freed from the demons. Those present say she was freed moments before her death, but her official cause of death was listed as malnutrition and dehydration (she weighed just 68 pounds) resulting from the treatment she was subjected to over the 11 months of exorcism rituals. Photo from RedemptionDenied.com
Robbie Doe
Then there’s that other famous exorcism movie starring Linda Blair. That was based on a real incident too, one that took place in 1949. Robbie Doe has never been identified (at least as far as I could tell) but he was supposedly possessed after using a Ouija board. He was taken to the Georgetown Hospital where he started to receive an exorcism from Father Edward Hughes. Father Hughes was five minutes into the ritual when the boy somehow dislodged a spring from the bed and stabbed him with it. The gash required 100 stitches.
The family moved to St. Louis where the boy underwent another exorcism, this one lasting six weeks. Just like the movie, the bed would shake and objects flew across the room of their own accord. Marks would appear on Robbie’s body, including the word “Evil”. Finally, the exorcism succeeded and the boy was able to live a normal life, not remembering much about what happened.
Such a view seems contrary to the findings of the physician and psychiatrist who deemed the boy physically and mentally healthy while he was experiencing these troubles in Maryland.
Earling, Iowa, woman
Earling is less than two hours away from where I live, so of course I had to write about this one. Father Theophilus Riesinger brought a 40-year-old woman from a neighboring community to the Franciscan convent in Earling to undergo an exorcism. Despite being very religious, the woman said she was unable to enter a church or pray since she was 14. She also spoke in languages she didn’t know, was abnormally strong and couldn’t stand to be around Holy Water or anything that had been blessed.
The evening the woman arrived, a nun who prepared dinner sprinkled the meal with Holy Water to bless the food. When the woman was given her plate, she freaked out and demanded an unblessed plate.
When the exorcism started the next morning and continued for the next 23 days. According to the pamphlet that details the events of the exorcism, Begone Satan!:
“Outpourings that would fill a pitcher, yes, even a pail, full of the most obnoxious stench were most unnatural. These came in quantities that were, humanly speaking, impossible to lodge in a normal being. At that the poor creature had eaten scarcely anything for weeks, so that there had been reason to fear she would not survive. At one time the emission was a bowl full of matter resembling vomited macaroni. At another time an even greater measure, having the appearance of sliced and chewed tobacco leaves, was emitted. From ten to twenty times a day this wretched creature was forced to vomit though she had taken at the most only a teaspoonful of water or milk by way of food.”
She spoke in different languages and different voices and named sins that people in the room had committed. On the 23rd day of the ordeal, Father Theophilus sensed that the demons were weakening and blessed her. The woman started howling and screaming the names of the demons inside of her; when the last name was uttered the woman opened her eyes and was reportedly able to speak the name of Jesus again for the first time in years.
Teenager at the Vatican
Pope John Paul II reportedly performed an exorcism on a 19-year-old girl at the Vatican in 2000. Father Gabriele Amorth, the official exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, had attempted to exorcise the girl the day before and failed. Her parents brought her to Pope John Paul II’s Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square in hopes that a Papal blessing would do her some good, but apparently it just incensed her even more. Italian newspapers wrote that the girl started screaming insults at the Pope in a “cavernous voice” and struggled with guards with superhuman strength. The Pope was informed about her and spent 30 minutes with her. When the Pope left, the girl said (in a voice apparently not belonging to her), “Not even the head of the church can send me away.” Photo by Stacy Conradt
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+SUThe Dyatlov Pass Accident
Photo: infodjatlov.narod.ru
In 1959, nine experienced cross country skiers, led by Igor Dyatlov, were trapped in a snowstorm and decided to set camp and sleep it out.
Later that night, something made all nine people leave their tents in such a hurry that they ripped them open from within. These people stumbled down the slope, in subzero weather, only in their underwear with no socks or shoes. All nine were discovered dead and frozen by a search party about a month later.
Here’s where it gets really creepy: three of the nine suffered massive chest and head injuries that could only be caused by forces akin to that of a car crash, but without any external wounds. There were high doses of radioactivity. And if those weren’t weird enough: one victim was missing her tongue.
Read more about the Dyatlov Pass Accident, including how mysterious "bright flying spheres" were seen nearby and why the findings of the investigation were classified as secret: Link | Photo Gallery (in Russian) | Wikipedia entry - via SF Gate and Super Punch
Five Hospitals You Don’t Want to Check Into
Avid I Met a Possum readers (Hi mom and Jennifer!) already know that a few friends and I took it upon ourselves to investigate the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Mass., last weekend. We had such a blast that we’ve decided to return to the area in the fall (preferably October) to do a whole Haunted New England kind of thing. So I was doing a little research on what is in the area and found a handy little list of paranormal locations in the States. I was pretty surprised to see how many hospitals made the list. I guess I shouldn’t be – it’s very House on Haunted Hill (the 1999 version with Geoffrey Rush, not the 1959 Vincent Price film). Obviously some terrible things were done to patients before modern medicine intervened, so it’s not too off-base to think that some tortured spirits are still lurking about.
Below are a few of the (allegedly) haunted hospitals I found most intriguing – hopefully you will too.
Fairfield State Hospital (AKA Fairfield Hills)
photo from fairfieldstatehospital.com
Despite their best efforts, the city of Newtown, Connecticut has been unable to squelch Fairfield State Hospital’s eerie reputation. Then again, they have allowed it to be used for several decidedly spooky shoots, including Sleepers and MTV’s Fear.
The asylum has been in Newtown since 1931, but most of its buildings have been standing empty for the past 13 years. At its peak period of operations, it housed almost 4,000 patients.
Fueling the scary stories is the fact that its numerous buildings are all connected by underground tunnels. Were these simply for transporting patients during bad weather, or was it an easier way to dispose of dead bodies?
Glenn Dale Hospital
photo from The Glenn Dale Hospital Mission
Glenn Dale opened in the same era as Fairfield State – the 1930s was a popular time for mental institutes, apparently. Well, actually, Glenn Dale wasn’t originally used for that purpose – it was a tuberculosis hospital with one building for adults and one for children. Eventually the tuberculosis problem died down and Glenn Dale was repurposed. It closed in 1982 due to asbestos and structural problems, but before it closed it was (supposedly) home to the criminally insane. As with Fairfield State, the buildings are connected via underground passageways, which people have been exploring since the day Glenn Dale officially closed its doors.
Exploration might not be the best idea, though, and not just because of the asbestos (although that should be an obvious deterrent). One rumor says that when the hospital closed, the remaining patients were just turned loose. Having nowhere else to go, many of them simply broke back into the abandoned buildings and lurk there even today.
Another story goes that a police officer went to check out the buildings himself after getting a call that the buildings were being vandalized by a bunch of kids. After he went in, someone in the vicinity heard gun shots and called the police. When the police arrived, they found the first officer standing in one of the rooms, staring straight ahead at nothing. He had emptied his gun firing at something that no one ever found.
Norwich State hospital
photo from creepyconnecticut.net
Connecticut is a popular spot for haunted hospitals, I guess, because Norwich State Hospital can be found in Preston and Norwich, Conn. Oh, and guess what else? More underground tunnels. The mental hospital was built in 1904 and had 151 patients the very day it opened. By the 1960s, the hospital reached a record high of 3,186 patients.
Perhaps piggybacking off of the success of MTV’s Fear, VH1 sent contestants of the Celebrity Paranormal Project here but didn’t quite represent the place accurately: they fixed old, coverless couch cushions to the walls in a small room and told the celebrities that it was an old padded cell for the truly disturbed patients when in reality such a room never existed.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
photo from ConspiracyofHappiness on Flickr
Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky, has been called the most haunted place in the U.S. Some reports put the number of deaths that occurred at this tuberculosis hospital at more than 60,000. While I had some problems digging up ghost stories from some of these allegedly haunted sites, stories from the Waverly Hills Sanatorium are plentiful.
When WHS opened in 1926, it was considered the most advanced TB hospital in the world. Still, at the time, not much was known about the disease and how to treat it, so a lot of the treatments were extremely experimental – these patients were more or less guinea pigs. Lots of them exited the hospital via the “body chute”, a tunnel that led from the hospital to railroad tracks that allowed for discreet corpse disposal.
In addition to the dying tuberculosis patients, at least two nurses committed suicide at Waverly. In 1928, the 29-year-old head nurse, pregnant and unwed, hanged herself in the nurses’ station. In 1932, another nurse who worked in the same room leapt off of the balcony to her death several stories down.
Creepy stories include a chef who still walks the kitchens (you can tell he’s present when you smell freshly baked bread), apparitions of a woman with chains around her arms and legs and blood dripping from her wrists, ghostly children wandering about and eerie red glows.
Troy Taylor, a paranormal author, visited Waverly Hills with Louisville Ghost Hunter founder Keith Age and experienced plenty of paranormal activity. In Troy’s own words,
“Keith was standing in the corner, looking at the changes on the meter scale, when an empty plastic soda bottle came seemingly out of nowhere and struck him in the back. As he turned to see what had happened, an overhead fluorescent light fixture suddenly came loose from the ceiling with a loud crack. With one end of it still anchored to the ceiling, the other end swung loose and hit Keith in the side of the head. The long burned-out bulb that remained in the fixture shattered when it collided with Keith and showered him with glass. Before he even had time to react, he heard the sound of a brick scrape across the concrete floor. The noise came from the opposite corner of the room and when he looked over, he saw the brick moving across the floor towards him. With a lurch, it shot directly at him and as he scrambled to get out of the line of fire, it hit him in the small of the back. Needless to say, he quickly retreated from the room. The other investigators had not seen where the brick or the soda bottle had come from, but they had clearly heard the brick move and had seen both objects strike Keith.”
You can read more about Keith and Troy’s experiences at PrairieGhosts.com.
Athens Lunatic Asylum
Giving Waverly a run for the “Most Haunted Abandoned Hospital in the United States” title is the Athens Lunatic Asylum in Athens, Ohio. After opening its doors in 1874, many of its first patients were Civil War veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
What has proved to be one of the most enduring stories from the Asylum occurred more than 100 years after its grand opening, however: on December 1, 1978, a patient named Margaret Schilling disappeared from one of the active wards. They found her body more than a month later in the top floor of ward N. 20, which had been abandoned for years.
The official cause of death was heart failure–probably due to her exposure to the December cold in an unheated section of the hospital. Her death isn’t the weird part, though – what’s weird is that her body left a stain that you can still see today.
photo from forgottenoh.com
One of the reasons ALA makes the Most Haunted Places in the U.S. list is because of its strange location. If you draw a line from each of the five cemeteries around Athens, the shape ends up being a pentagram with Ohio University being right in the middle, which is where ALA is located. I couldn’t actually find a map that backed this theory up, though – does anyone have one?
Like I said, there are a surprisingly large number of abandoned hospitals and asylums scattered across the country. Are there any in your town? Let’s hear your stories!
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this +digg +del.icio.us +reddit +SUGhost of a Roman Soldier?
While out walking along a footpath in Outwood, England, George Gunn shot a video clip - later, he saw something peculiar in it: a ghostly image of a Roman soldier.
Previously on Neatorama: Ghostly Gas Station Cloud | Ghostly Angel?
Miraculous Mud Ponds in Peru Left by Alien Spaceships
People are flocking to a remote desert town in Peru to wallow in three slimy mud pits with healing powers that they believe were brought by alien spaceships:
Local doctors and scientists accredit these enigmatic and inexplicable healing properties to the UFO’s which have allegedly been sighted and well documented in the area that seemingly radiate the waters.
Mayor Ruma Nueda says, “Lots of people claim to have seen UFO’s and strange lights in the night sky over Chilca. People here believe in UFO’s.”
“Locals say that space ships come to harvest an unknown material from the [ocean] area off Chilca’s beach. The UFO’s supposedly leave behind substances that leach into the ponds and give them curative powers.”
“Townspeople cite an abundance of twins in Chilca — more than 100 pairs in this town of 10,000, as proof of the power of the ‘Twin Maker’ pond.” Nueda says.
Link (Photo: Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
Perpetual Motion Machine Stumps MIT Professor
Inventor Thane Heins was a college dropout who worked on his invention so obsessively that his wife kicked him out and he lost custody of his children. If that’s not bad enough, he had difficulty getting scientists to take his idea seriously. His invention is a perpetual motion machine, which is viewed by the scientific community as squarely belonging in the realm of the batty.
Until, that is, he managed to convince Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Markus Zahn (previously on Neatorama: Zahn’s work with ferrofluid), an expert in electromagnetic and electronic systems, to take a quick look:
Heins has modified his test so the effects observed are difficult to deny. He holds a permanent magnet a few centimetres away from the driveshaft of an electric motor, and the magnetic field it creates causes the motor to accelerate. It went well.
Contacted by phone a few hours after the test, Zahn is genuinely stumped – and surprised. He said the magnet shouldn’t cause acceleration. "It’s an unusual phenomena I wouldn’t have predicted in advance. But I saw it. It’s real. Now I’m just trying to figure it out."
There’s no talk of perpetual motion. No whisper of broken scientific laws or free energy. Zahn would never go there – at least not yet. But he does see the potential for making electric motors more efficient, and this itself is no small feat.
"To my mind this is unexpected and new, and it’s worth exploring all the possible advantages once you’re convinced it’s a real effect," he added. "There are an infinite number of induction machines in people’s homes and everywhere around the world. If you could make them more efficient, cumulatively, it could make a big difference."
Link | Video clips of Thane’s invention, the Perepiteia Generator, in action - via Boing Boing and reddit
//Now, before you all scream "hoax!" and pillory the MIT professor for falling for the trick (and me for posting it), please consider that many of today’s scientific dogmas were once crazy ideas that were initially dismissed out of hand by the majority of scientists at the time.
For example: Einstein’s work on the quantization of light, theory of special relativity, and equivalence of matter and energy; Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, and (this one I’m more familiar with) Stanley Prusiner’s work on prions.
The Automotive Bermuda Triangle: Is the Empire State Building Zapping Cars?
Conspiracy theorists rejoice! There’s a new "automotive Bermuda Triangle," a five-block radius around the Empire State Building, where cars mysteriously die:
No one is sure what’s causing it, but all roads appear to lead to the looming giant in our midst - specifically, its Art Deco mast and 203-foot-long, antenna-laden spire.
“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.” [...]
Since the 9/11 attacks destroyed the twin towers, the building has regained its status as the leading transmission site for commercial broadcast outfits, with 13 TV and 19 FM stations mounting antennas on its spire.
The Empire State Building Co., which refused to provide the Daily News a list of its antennas, denied it has created any “adverse impact” on automobiles.
“If the claim were indeed true, the streets in the vicinity of the building would be constantly littered with disabled vehicles,” the building’s owner said.
According to many doormen in the area, they often are.
Link - via Fortean Times
Martian “Crop Circle” Left by Dust Devils
That little Martian humanoid we posted about before wasn’t the only thing that was strange about the Red Planet. Turns out, it also has circular "crop circles" (yes, I know, there are no crops on Mars, but you know what I mean) left behind by dust devils!
The Martian dust devil documented on March 15, 2005, was spinning across the surface of Gusev Crater just before noon on Mars. NASA’s Spirit rover took a series of images that were later assembled to a spectacular 21-frame animation with its navigation camera.
The event occurred during a period of 9 minutes and 35 seconds beginning at 11:48 a.m. local Mars time, recording the dust devil’s progress in a northeasterly direction about 1.0 kilometer (0.62 mile) away from Spirit’s perch on the slopes of the "Columbia Hills." The whirlwind was travelling at about 4.8 meters per second (16 feet per second) and covered a distance of about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile). The dust devil is about 34 meters (112 feet) in diameter.
Link | NASA’s animated footage
The Sheep Circle
Photo: Russell Bird
Photographer Russell Bird captured this mysterious structure known as the "sheep circle":
There were strange goings on at the farm today when a flock of sheep made their own version of a crop circle.
About 100 of the woolly creatures formed an orderly ring - baffling the farmer and passers-by.
But after hearing the roar of the boss’s tractor the animals scattered like a group of naughty schoolboys.
Link - via Scribal Terror
The Mysterious Sewer Blob
Photo: City of Lewiston
The City of Lewiston, Maine, got an unusual sewer problem: its main sewer line is being clogged by a mysterious 50 to 60 foot (15 to 18 m) long doughy blob!
City crews discovered the clog earlier this month after responding to complaints of blocked sewer lines downtown. Jones said crews opened a manhole at the Bates Street intersection and saw the clog - an oozing, white blob that looks like uncooked dough.
"We’ve tried punching through it, but each time we do, it just oozes back over the hole," he said. "It really looks like dough."
Link - via Boing Boing
ZOMG! Small Humanoid Found in Mars!
NASA’s Spirit rover landed on Mars on January 4, 2004 - and promptly sent this image of its welcoming party: a small humanoid.
Oh, and on its way to the Gusev Crater, the rover picked up an image of a Martian skull. NASA, of course, claimed that they were just rocks….
Astrological Magazine Closed Due to Unforseen Circumstances
What? But Jupiter is in the 3rd house and Pluto is 21 degree from ascendant and is square to Venus! How could that be? Link - via Cynical-C
How to Make a Magic Fireball
This is so cool (well, technically, it’s hot!): here’s a guide on how to make your own magic fireball. Just don’t get burned, okay… Hit play or go to Link [Metacafe] - via Gizmodo, thanks John Wiersma!
Idaho Man Cuts Off Hand, Microwaves It
In Hayden Idaho, a man in his mid 20’s whose name was withheld, who believed he bore the “mark of the beast” amputated one of his hands with a circular saw, then cooked it in the microwave then called 911.
According to sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger the man, was calm when he arrived at his northern Idaho town. “It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,” Wolfinger said. “He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn’t bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.”
Via: msnbc
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this +digg +del.icio.us +reddit +SUDoorway Found on Mars!
Alexander Novgorodov was browsing some NASA photographs of Mars, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, when he ran across something peculiar:
There is a strange door-like structure at the base of the mountain formation from a NASA image of Mars that is causing a stir. The first person to notice it wasn’t a NASA scientist, however, but rather a Russian reader of the portal R&D.Cnews, Alexander Novgorodov. Taking a closer look at an image taken by the spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, he noticed an unusual morphology, which looks strikingly like a manmade doorway.
Of course, NASA scientists quickly covered it up, saying that the doorway is simply a boring old weather erosion.
Previously on Neatorama: Martian Cave
Illustration: Exotic trophy room by Andrew Rae
By Andrew Rae. Via Ffffound.
(Happy New Year everyone.)
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this +digg +del.icio.us +reddit +SUMan’s “Holy Leg” Brutally Hacked Off
An 80-year-old man in India claimed to have a "holy leg" that could heal people of spiritual and physical problems if they touched it. But not anymore:
Police say that the self-styled ‘Godman’ - who lives in a village near the city of Tirupati - was approached a few days ago by two strangers who came to seek his advice over a medical problem.
They say that the pair returned to the old man on Tuesday ostensibly to thank him for his help.
"As the old man had the weakness of drinking, he accepted their invitation to have drinks with them," said local police Sub-Inspector Pendakanti Dastgiri.
"They took him to a deserted spot in the outskirts of the village.
"After the old man had passed out under the influence of liquor, they cut off his right leg from the knee," he said.
Mr Dastgiri said that the amputation was carried out in a very "brutal manner" and that police are still looking for the leg and the men who so cruelly took it.
He said that the assailants used a sharp hunting knife, and left the old man alone and bleeding slowly to death.
Gruesome! Link - Thanks Emperor! (No, that photo wasn’t of the guy who got his leg cut off)
Yeti’s Footprint Found?
A team of American explorers for a TV series Destination Truth found what they believed to be yeti’s footprint in the mountains of Nepal:
American television channel host Josh Gates displays what is believed to be "Yeti" footprints to the media in Kathmandu Nov. 30, 2007. The U.S.-based television channel investigating the existence of the legendary Yeti in Nepal has found footprints similar to those said to be that of the abominable snowman, the company said on Friday. A team of nine producers from Destination Truth, armed with infrared cameras, spent a week in the icy Khumbu region where Mount Everest is located and found the footprints on the bank of Manju river at a height of 2,850 meters (9,350 feet).
Link (Photo: Xinhua/Reuters) | Not everyone thought it was real: Link
T-shirt answers question, What stories do ghosts tell around the campfire?
If you’re so inclined, you can vote for (or against) this design by clicking on the voting widget:
You can see more Ghostbusters links here. And you can see more of my Threadless picks here.
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this +digg +del.icio.us +reddit +SUSeven Strange Lucky Charms
Lucky charms, amulets, and talismans have been in use since prehistoric times all over the world. Stones, coins, and amulets with symbols are the most common. Others are taken from nature, such as the rabbit’s foot (which wasn’t so lucky for the rabbit), or are considered lucky because of their rarity, such as the four-leaf clover. But a few are just a bit odd.
1. Lucky Swastika
The swastika reminds us of Nazi Germany in the first half of the 20th century, but the symbol has been used for many purposes in many parts of the world. Swastika-shaped ornaments have been found dating as far back as the Neolithic period. Hindus use the swastika as a symbol of the elephant-headed god Ganesh. Jains use it as a symbol of the seventh saint, and begin and end religious services by making the swastika sign. The symbol is supposed to bring long life, good health, and good luck. In fact, the word swastika itself is derived from the Sanskit word svastika, which mean lucky charm.
2. Vulture Heads
Vultures have such great eyesight that they are said to be able to see into the future. South African lottery players would love to have that power, and have made vulture heads into lucky charms to help them win. A poacher can make up to $1,000 on one properly-dried vulture head, leading to a depletion in the vulture population.
3. Ship’s Figureheads
Ship’s figureheads were useful for identifying a ship and intimidating its enemies, but they were mostly charms to protect sailors from harm. A ship’s spirit, or klaboutermannikin, would inhabit the figurehead, and either protect sailors, or in the event of their deaths, would escort them to the proper afterlife. They were also sentimental symbols of one’s ship, to be fought for and protected. To damage an enemy’s figurehead was the ultimate insult. Carved figureheads date from as far back as ancient Egypt, where they resembled deities. About three hundred years ago, figureheads of women became popular because of the old legend that says a woman’s bare breasts will calm the seas. Each sailing era had it own fashions and types of figureheads, but they are all important to those who sail behind them.
4. Maneki Neko
(image credit: Searobin)
Maneki Neko, or the Beckoning Cat, is a Japanese good luck charm. It was first documented in 1870, but its origins may go back much further. There is a theory that the cat became popular at the end of the Edo period, when western sensibilities caused phallic worship and prostitution to go underground. The beckoning cat became a euphemistic symbol of such activities. Businesses which displayed a Maneki Neko were quite profitable, so the symbol spread to other types of shops as a good luck charm. If the cat is raising its right paw, it will attract money. If it is raising its left paw, it will atract customers. Maneki Neko even has a fan club!
5. Bezoar
A bezoar is a “stone” retrieved from the gut of an animal. They are formed by animal secretions (as in pearls), or material consumed but not digested, such as hair, food fiber, or other material (as in hairballs). The word bezoar comes from a Persian word meaning “antidote to poison.” There is some evidence that bezoars made of hair will absorb small amounts of arsenic, but will have little effect on other poisons. Bezoars of all kinds are used for lucky charms and talismans, and for psychic healing, in addition to protection against poisons.
6. Jatukam Ramathep Amulets
Jatukam Ramathep amulets are all the rage these days. They are sold by Buddhist temples in Thailand. Earlier this year, the Thawee Kara Anant temple near Bangkok got into some hot water for making “special” Jatukam Ramathep amulets out of the cremated remains of infants who died from natural causes. Around 140,000 amulets were made from a combination of herbs and human ashes. The practice is not illegal, but the monks involved were reprimanded by religious leaders.
7. Raccoon Penis Bone
(image credit: Mordicai)
A raccoon penis bone, or baculum, is regarded as a lucky charm, especially for fertility or gambling. They are available alone or made into necklaces or earrings. These bones go by many names; one o