A mother hen has taken four ducklings under her wing… literally. The biological mother had abandoned the small duckings before birth, leaving the job to someone else.
[via ABC 4 News - video included]
A GHOST trail is the latest marketing ploy to bring tourists into South Wales.
It is hoped the ghouls of Gower and Swansea can boost the area’s important tourist trade.
Tourism Swansea, the association representing hotels, campsites, B&Bs and attractions in the city, believes Swansea’s lively ghost scene is a huge untapped resource.
[via icWales]
A shark bit an Austrian tourist on the ankle Friday as the man stood in chest-deep water in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast, authorities said. It was the third shark attack in the state in a week.
…
Two other young people have been bitten since Saturday in gulf water off Florida. The latest incident was about 280 miles (450 kilometers) from an attack Monday on a 16-year-old boy who lost his leg and about 350 miles (560 kilometers) from the spot where a 14-year-old girl was killed Saturday.
[via The Jerusalem Post]
Summer of the shark attack? My money on the cause is on some not-so-bright folks fishing on or near a pier with “live bait”.
WEST HAVEN — A feud between teenagers erupted into a riot at a church carnival Thursday night, ending with the arrests of five men, including a Latin Kings gang member, police said.
[via Connecticut Post]
A livid Mayor McKenzie was obviously not amused with the fact that the operators of the circus embarked on an advertising campaign without first soliciting an amusement licence from the KSAC. Additionally, the mayor gave the operators of the circus 48 hours to remove “their illegal signs that are defacing the city.”
[via Jamaica Gleaner]
The spooky Brockville Ghost Walks are back for the ninth consecutive season, starting Friday evening, July 8.
These popular walking tours begin at Fulford Place Museum, a National Historic Site on King Street East owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust.
The three-storey Edwardian mansion, completed in 1900, was home to Senator George T. Fulford, who made his fortune marketing Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People.
Costumed volunteers of the Friends of Fulford Place Association lead visitors through Brockville, stopping at various haunted spots to recount spooky tales of the old city.
I often wonder what ghosts will do in the future when there won’t be any more old houses to haunt. According to the evidence in my own city of Derry, it seems that every building over 100 years old is being demolished by developers while elected officials stand impotently by. We’ll soon have to place armed guards round the city’s walls. They’re too old and get in the way of traffic, you see.
Ghosts will have nowhere to go. Can you imagine telling your son in future years that your local KFC or Pizza Hut is haunted? It doesn’t work.
[via Belfast Telegraph]
The state police and state fire marshal’s office are reminding sellers and consumers that the only legal fireworks in Connecticut are sparklers.
According to state law, sparklers are non-explosive, non-aerial devices that contain less than 100 grams of pyrotechnic mixture. They can only be used by people 16 years or older.
Novelty items such as party poppers, snakes, snappers, smoke devices and anything that emits a flame are not legal for private use in the state.
It is illegal to purchase, sell or possess fireworks, which are defined by law as “any combustible or explosive composition prepared for the purpose of producing a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration or detonation.” Violation of the law could lead to a fine of up to $100 or a sentence of up to 90 days, or both.
[via The Advocate]
I’m not moving to Connecticut any time soon. I love the law in Indiana…sign a piece of paper saying you’ll take them out of state or shoot them off at certain locations with firemen present and you’re good to go. Not that many people do that or that it’s even legal in our surrounding states, but hey, it’s “on the books” that way.
LONDON (Reuters) - The British government launched a series of tough anti-cigarette adverts Friday with the message that smoking is bad for your sex life because it makes men impotent and women ugly.
[via Reuters]
SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) - Estonia reigned supreme once again in the wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, as Margo Uusorg sprinted home to win the Baltic country’s eighth straight title in the offbeat competition.
Forty couples from 10 countries gathered in the remote Finnish village of Sonkajarvi to complete a 253.5-meter-long obstacle course. A man must carry a woman, not necessarily his spouse, through a pool and across hurdles.
The few rules require a minimum weight of 49 kg (108 lb) for the “wife” and state that all contestants must have fun.
[via Reuters]
Well, by the time you read this, the mystery of Bigfoot could be solved.
You see, while perusing the wire seeking inspiration for this week’s column topic, I ran across a story headlined, “Bigfoot — Imminent capture anticipated.”
After recovering from the horror of an editor using a dash in a headline, I read on.
It seems two recent sightings from “very credible witnesses,” and a night of investigation by two Bigfoot researchers, have lead to a forecast of capture or at least of recovering undisputable evidence.
[via Sioux City Journal]
God only knows if there is life on other planets.
“War of the Worlds,” which opened in movie theaters last week, is sure to stir meta-planetary curiosities among more than just UFO spotters and “X-Files” fanatics.
Many Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders say the revelation of extraterrestrial beings would not contradict their theological beliefs. Rooted in the dogma of Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists is the existence of aliens.
And one group believes the God of Genesis was a group of space-traveling scientists.
But is the truth really out there?
[via Whittier Daily News]
Hickson and fishing partner, Calvin Parker, were near a pier at Shaupeter Shipyard in Pascagoula on the evening of Oct. 11, 1973, when they reported being abducted by robot-like aliens and taken aboard an egg-shaped, glowing spacecraft.
Their account of that night is the type stuff movies should be made of.
They spoke of floating creatures and being examined by an electronic eye, within an approximate 20-minute time frame. Hickson remained conscious but could only move his eyes. Parker fainted.
[via The Mississippi Press]
Editor:
I wish to let you and your readers know that MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) has designated July as “UFO Awareness Month.”
As all West Virginians know, the Mountain State has had its share of sightings. We are home of two major events: the Mothman and Braxton County incidents. Both have been written about extensively, the former being made into a movie.
…UFOs have been seen over our state.
They continue being sighted to this day.
[via The Charleston Gazette]
Just because you don’t see dead people doesn’t mean they don’t see you, especially if you’re in the Historic Washington County Courthouse. Whether there will ever be enough evidence to definitively prove the historic Washington County Courthouse is haunted is anybody’s guess, but Tulsa Ghost Investigators didn’t leave empty handed after their June 4 stay in the century-old building.
[via Northwest Arkansas Times]
A set of crop circles has appeared in a remote Shropshire field - and baffled farm workers say they are “keeping an open mind” over where they came from. Four circles measuring about 14m wide were discovered in a wheat field at a farm near Bridgnorth last week.
[via Shropshire Star]
There are employees who swear they’ve heard things.
“They hear voices. Some have said they’ve seen ghostly faces in the basement. Or heard a book fall, and then there’s nothing there. Other times, things do fall and there’s no reason for it,” said Aylward, although she has not experienced such phenomenon.
[via Peoria Journal Star]
BARABOO - B.C. Farr has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars turning a 141-year- old saloon into a restaurant, so he’s understandably reluctant to jeopardize his investment by sounding like a crackpot.
That’s why he says he kept quiet for years about the odd things he’s seen - dishware flying off a rack, a broom floating across the kitchen, doors opening and closing by themselves. Then there’s the walk-in cooler in the basement.
“If (the ghost) doesn’t like you, it will shut the door on you and turn the light off,” he said.
[via Wisconsin State Journal]
Athletes competing in an international triathlon are to be insured for up to ÂŁ1 million in case they fall prey to the Loch Ness monster, it emerged today.
[via u.tv]
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million, local media reported Monday.
[via Reuters]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City school teacher apologized and resigned on Friday after admitting he pursued a career as a professional wrestler when he had told his boss he was on leave to care for a sick relative.
Matthew Kaye, a social studies teacher at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens, had his mother call in sick for him last Dec. 16.
[via Reuters]
Deakin University has set up Victoria’s first “dead pig farm” as part of a new project to study body decomposition.
Pigs break down at a similar rate to humans and will be used to test new methods for investigating suspicious deaths of people.
[via Geelong Info]
They’re inviting anyone with $99 and seven hours to spare Saturday to take part in a paranormal investigation.
Using devices that some believe detect ghosts, the group says it likely will encounter Jacocks, a physician who lived in the inn for 17 years preceding his death in 1965. Said to have been a prankster in his mortal life, Jacocks is believed by some inn workers to lock guests out of room 252, his former residence.
[via The News & Observer]
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — An off-duty lifeguard swimming in the ocean at El Capitan State Beach west of Santa Barbara was recovering after being attacked by a sea lion.
[via NBC 4]
A zoo caretaker was mauled and killed by a bear yesterday when he entered the enclosure to feed the animal.
Chen Chin-tsai, 41, was attacked by an Alaskan brown bear at the Leofoo Safari Park in Hsinchu, western Taiwan.
[via The Taipei Times]
A powerful tornado swept through the Khabarovsk region of Siberia felling three square kilometers of forest and leaving dozens of birds and animals dead, a local emergency agency reported. The incident sparked fears of an extraterrestrial impact.
[via MOSNEWS.COM]
A male gorilla attacked and bit an intern keeper Tuesday morning at Lincoln Park Zoo after another apparent breakdown of safety protocols placed her in an outdoor gorilla exhibit while the animals were present.
Zoo officials blamed the gorilla attack on “human error” but said they have not determined whether the intern, a 32-year-old woman, or one or more of her colleagues was to blame.
Last September, in another incident attributed to human error, a female keeper was seriously injured when two lions mauled her in their outdoor exhibit.
[via Chicago Tribune]
WALES’ scientists searching for the secrets to the Bermuda triangle have revealed the dangers they face - such as setting off a tsunami.
It’s no small job researching a potential new power source, and the consequences of a glitch could be catastrophic. One wrong move and the deep-sea exploratory work could result in an explosion, a repeat of the Indonesian tidal wave, or even unleash a cloud of “greenhouse” gases.
But the experts involved at Cardiff University have been pleased with their success - so far.
[via icWales]
CHESTERTON | The Space Age carnival ride at Chesterton’s Fourth of July Festival broke Monday, sending one of the helicopter cars toppling to the ground, police said. The incident occurred three days after a Gary boy fell to his death during a carnival in Highland.
The fallen helicopter was then struck by the car directly behind it, but no injuries occurred because both cars were unoccupied, police said. There were children in some of the other cars, but they were gone when police arrived moments later to investigate.
[via Northwest Indiana News]
PITTSBURGH (AP) - James Henry Smith was a zealous Pittsburgh Steelers fan in life, and even death could not keep him from his favorite spot: in a recliner, in front of a TV showing his beloved team in action.
Smith, 55, of Pittsburgh, died of prostate cancer Thursday. Because his death wasn’t unexpected, his family was able to plan for an unusual viewing Tuesday night.
The Samuel E. Coston Funeral Home erected a small stage in a viewing room, and arranged furniture on it much as it was in Smith’s home on game day Sundays.
[link]
WHEN Corinne Dainton woke in the middle of the night and saw bright lights seeping through her bedroom window she thought nothing of it.
But the next day neighbours revealed they had also spotted the mystery lights - and believe Bracknell was being visited by an alien spacecraft hovering above the nearby Coppid Beech Hotel at John Nike Way.
[via icBerkshire]
Faced with a poor response to efforts to lure visitors back to Thailand after December’s tsunami, tourism authorities will launch a campaign aimed at helping Asians overcome a fear of ghosts.
Under the plan, private companies will be given grants totaling 500 million baht (HK$93.5 million) for marketing and advertising focused on luring back Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists, whose numbers have declined sharply. ”Asian tourists are scared of ghosts and what not, and these are factors that have made our tourist arrivals drop short of our goal,” said Tourism Minister Somsak Thepsuthin.
Many Asians worry that the ghosts of the disaster victims may be haunting beaches and bungalows. A popular superstition in Chinese societies holds that if bodies are not recovered and properly buried, the spirits restlessly wander the world. Some believe the lost souls try to drag living beings into their spiritual limbo land.
[via The Standard]
BEIJING, July 8 — Alcohol has been banned in two small Australian Aboriginal communities to stop young people from a nearby alcohol-free township from risking their lives by swimming across a crocodile-infested river to get a drink.
[via Xinhua]
PITTSBURGH - A woman is auctioning off a picture that she says shows the ghost of a Confederate soldier that appeared when she toured the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield last year.
[via Philly.com]
Raipur, July 11 : A 54-year-old widow was paraded naked and then clubbed to death after being branded a witch at the instance of a village panchayat in Chhattisgarh, police said Monday.
Around 35 villagers took part in the gruesome incident in Parsatolo village, 122 km from here, in Rajnandgaon district Sunday, police said. Thirty-one people, including the village head, on charges of killing her.
[via Webindia123.com]
GHOSTBUSTERS star DAN AYKROYD gets into trouble with his wife when he recalls stories about the couple’s haunted Los Angeles home - because she fears they’ll never be able to sell up.
The movie funnyman insists two 1960s ghosts haunt his home - the spirit of pop icon MAMA CASS and a man who died in his bedroom.
And the actor has had many encounters with his silent housemates, including one when his male ghost spent the night sleeping next to him.
[via contactmusic.com]
After Columbia City resident Nate Smith found what he believed to be a crop circle on Thursday, he reported the information and members of the local Mutual UFO Network were contacted to investigate the possible sighting.
Smith said he was on the property, located south of South Whitley, on Wednesday and there was nothing unusual, but when he returned to the same spot on Thursday, he noticed something peculiar.
He said he saw a circle of brown grass with grass twisted in the center, a phenomenon he said wasn’t there on Wednesday. In fact, he asked the property owner if he had moved anything that would have caused the circle. When the owner said he hadn’t, Smith observed the circle and realized it may be a crop circle.
“It’s just like you’d read about,” he said.
[via The Post & Mail]
Topeka, Kan. - infoZine - Haunted History, a new special exhibit opening September 9, 2005 at the Kansas Museum of History, highlights fun and frightening displays and explores the significance of the popular Halloween holiday. The exhibit runs through October 31. A special Haunted History event for families and adults will be held Sunday, October 30. Tricks & Treats at the Boo-seum for youngsters will be held Monday, October 31.
…
A special section includes scary objects from the museum’s collection.
The scarier items include embalming equipment used 1950-1980 at funeral homes in Olathe, Hugoton, and Argonia; bloodletting tools used by a surgeon in the Civil War; a straightjacket from the Osawatomie State Hospital; a 1902 Ouija Board used in Wichita; a plaster mask of Boris Karloff made before his death; a letter penned by Braum Stoker, author of Dracula, while he worked for Sir Henry Irving in 1898; a Tiffany reproduction “Bat” lamp; a classic Dracula movie poster featuring Bela Lugosi; and a collection of Day of the Dead figurines from Salina resident.
[via infoZine]
It wasn’t Bigfoot.
That big, hairy creature spotted by Clare County sheriff’s deputies on Harding Road north of M-115 wasn’t the mythical, frightening stalker of the North Woods.
…
“State Police, along with another sheriff’s car, arrived shortly afterward,“ Miller said. The deputies and trooper wanted to make sure the people running into the woods weren’t breaking into residences, a problem in rural Clare County.
“It was confirmed that the people running in the woods and the man dressed in the stringy outfit belonged there,“ Miller said. He said deputies explained that seeing a large, hairy creature standing by the road might prove distracting for passing drivers, and that wasn’t a good idea.
[via The Morning Sun]
ISTANBUL, Turkey — First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.
In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.
[via washingtonpost.com]
See Bella Online
NEW YORK Gallup reports today that its latest poll found that one in three Americans “believe in ghosts.” The numbers: 32% of all adults say they believe that “ghosts/spirits of dead people can come back,” while 48% do not, and 19% are unsure.
An even larger number of Americans believe that houses can be haunted, with 37% holding that position, 46% saying no, and 16% not sure.
[via E&P]
Aurora - Two or three times a month, someone in Colorado looks into the sky and sees something he cannot identify.
Often, that’s when John Schuessler’s group gets a call.
Schuessler, a retired Boeing engineer who moved to Jefferson County, is the international director of the Mutual UFO Network, a 3,000-member nonprofit group that investigates UFO sightings and promotes research on the phenomenon.
His group runs a website on which people can report their experiences and sends investigators to interview people who spy something strange.
[via The Denver Post]
Most of the earthquakes above 4.0 Richter are associated with a strange phenomenon called earthquake lights. It is similar to an aurora like Northern lights but the span of the same is dispersed and sometime very short in area of sky covered. The lights appear before and around the same time earthquakes start. Scientists had different opinions on these lights. Some even called these lights hoax or reflection or refracted light and so on. Now scientists are realizing these strange glowing lights are electromagnetic change in field density or flux that is resultant from the change in earth’s electromagnetic field intensity from the earthquake and massive tectonic force and momentum. What really happens is that the intense electromagnetic flux in the environment at that moment neutralizes the electromagnetic stealth of the Extraterrestrial UFOs in the vicinity. The UFOs have two levels of electromagnetic shields. The first layer provides security and an equivalent of impenetrable armor. The outer layer of electromagnetic shield provides the stealth. The earthquakes cause the neutralizing of the outer layer and thus expose the inner level of electromagnetic shield. That shield glows and the light is known as the earthquake lights.
[via India Daily]
AMATEUR ghost-busters have been warned by police not to illegally go in search of spirits.
The warning comes after a group of would-be ghost-busters allegedly broke into an abandoned hospital believed to be inhabited by the souls of former patients.
About 12 people allegedly broke into the former Queen Victoria Hospital in Wentworth Falls after finding references to the hospital being haunted on the internet.
Acting Inspector Russell Lloyd yesterday told The Daily Telegraph it was not uncommon for people to trespass on the abandoned hospital.
Advertisement:“You get the local rumours about ghosts being seen out there but, whether people are ghost-hunting or not, they’re still trespassing and there is no excuse,” he said.
“The bottom line is if you go into a place without permission to enter, then police will take the necessary action.”
[via News Limited]
CRYSTAL BEACH — When Lydia Paulk’s relatives came to the beach for an annual family reunion, they likely were not expecting to spend much of it at a hospital on the island instead of the beach cottage they had rented.
Still, Lydia’s aunt said not even the shark bite that put the 14-year-old in the hospital would deter them from returning next year.
“We’ve been coming to the beach for years, and this certainly will not stop us from coming back,” said Kit Marshall, an Aledo city councilwoman and a sister of Lydia’s mother.
The North Carolina girl was at a University of Texas Medical Branch hospital Wednesday evening recovering from the shark bite.
Lydia was in what officials described as waist-deep water with another aunt and a 6-year-old cousin when she felt something hit her leg.
“A couple of seconds later, she felt something grab her foot, and that was the moment she was bitten,” said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.
The shark, described as 4 to 5 feet long, was probably a black tip shark, based on witness accounts.
The legendary creature “Bigfoot” has been spotted again, this time in Canada, where nine people in the Yukon community of Teslin claim to have seen the legendary creature.
According to the CBC, the witnesses, some of whom are children, saw the hairy, human-like creature pass in front of a house window, and then later behind an abandoned car near some houses last weekend.
Those who claim to have seen Bigfoot, which is also known as a sasquatch, said they heard trees snapping and creaking despite the lack of wind at the time. They say the figure was running too quickly for them to keep up with it.
[via WorldNetDaily]
Kate Hudson inherited more than her sunny good looks from Goldie Hawn.
Hudson, 26, says she also acquired an ability to see the dead.
“I’ve seen ghosts and experienced mystical things,” Hudson said, according to MSNBC.
The actress … often swaps paranormal tales with her talented mother and once saw a gorgeous gal in her bedroom, who vanished when she woke her then-boyfriend to view the apparition.
As a youngster, Hudson recalled taking up residence in a London home that was “so crazy-haunted” that Hawn, 59, packed up the pair’s belongings and hightailed it home.
[via The Courier-Journal]
For the first time, tourists might not be so upset if an unexpected guest shows up on their vacation.
True believers, skeptics and some people just looking for a good time inhabited the Carolina Inn on Saturday, searching for evidence of an afterlife.
[see DTH Online]
With York reportedly boasting as many ghosts as it does pubs, Sarah Freeman joins a group of psychic investigators for a night in Clifford’s Tower.
[see Yorkshire Post]
“In one case, a chunk of alleged Bigfoot hair has been sent to Vancouver for DNA testing.”
[see NBC 5]
BURLINGAME, CA “The elusive creature known as Bigfoot may not be elusive for very much longer,” according to C. Thomas Biscardi, a Bigfoot explorer and founder of the Great American Bigfoot Research Organization.
In the next few days, Biscardi will begin an investigation into a cavernousarea near Happy Camp, California, in which he expects to find evidence of Bigfoot inhabitation and hopefully be able to contain and capture a live creature.
[see Mongabay]
ODESSA, Sask. — A Saskatchewan family is trying to put their lives back together after a twister destroyed their farm, carrying away 30 lambs.
[see The Winnipeg Sun]
Remember Mothra? It was huge… 15,000 tons of ticked off Lepidotpera. It leveled Tokyo, scared any little kid who saw it in a dark movie house and kicked Godzilla’s tail until Big G fried it to a crisp with its bad breath, only to have Mothra’s kids tie him down with their steel-hard strands of silk.
Mothra was one bad dude, but even it didn’t get to use the name mariposa de la muerte (moth of death).
That particular sobriquet goes to the black witch moth. It’s had that title since the time of the Aztecs. They believed that, if there was illness in a house and this moth entered, the sick person would die. Its biology had a lot to do with this superstition. Large numbers of black witches would appear in early November, just in time for the feast of the dead.
[see The Sun Herald]
Diners can sample crocodile soup, rabbit ragout, roast wild pork, eel and pinenut ravioli, chargrilled horse fillets, honey-spiced duck, and golden-braised elk. All dishes come paired with one of six Monteith’s beers: Original, Celtic Red, Golden Lager, Black, Pilsner and Radler.
[see Stuff]
Having lived right next to Vatuwaqa cemetery for more than 25 years, Sobran Lekh Ram knows all about the superstitions that people have of ghosts.
But while many in her neighbourhood have never seen or experienced such supernatural incidents, the 59-year-old grandmother has about seen it all.
And its not just ghosts she sees, its drinking parties, stealing and even people practising witchcraft.
A lot of things happen here at night. You have dogs barking and howling all night. Sometimes we see ghosts, then there is the stealing and the drunkenness.
[see Fiji Times]
A 40-year-old housewife, Jaya Majumdar, has allegedly been branded a witch and assaulted by her neighbours in Lake Gardens.
[see The Telegraph]
SETI, (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), no more funded by government, has found a new following. Now armed with a powerful telescope, it will scan a million stars in two decades.
[see Deccan Herald]
A gibbon named Kien is adjusting to life one limb short at Lincoln Park Zoo — and providing a curiosity (and zoo officials hope a lesson) for visitors.
Kien lost his right arm April 9 after he got it stuck in a screen reaching for a ChapStick a visitor had tossed near his exhibit. A report by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association released last week described how the gibbon, an ape found in Southeast Asia, had managed to “weave” his arm out and then back in through another opening before getting it stuck.
“In an apparent panic,” investigators reported, the ape tried to free its arm by pulling — a force so hard it dislocated the animal’s elbow and severely damaged its tendons. An orthopedic surgeon reattached the tendons, but three days later the arm lost its circulation, and Lincoln Park vets decided to amputate.
[see Chicago Sun-Times]
INDIANAPOLIS — A pack of stray dogs has killed all the birds in an Australian exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo, officials said. The dogs on Sunday killed two black swans, three magpie geese and three emus. It is not known how the dogs got into the zoo.
[see story]
Jason Gowin, Nick Foust, Bill Angov, Greg Newkirk and Milton Clark are a team that often works the graveyard shift - a team of ghost hunters that is. All five paranormal investigators are from the Troy area and they call themselves Ghost Hunters Inc. They have been involved in paranormal investigation for the last seven years.
[see Sayre Evening Times]
Two men dressed entirely in black leaned over a large, antique spirit board. Their hands moved in unison as the plastic pointer moved swiftly over letters and numbers on the board. They were trying to communicate with the dead.
[see North Adams Transcript]
It happened at about 5 p.m. Friday evening on the 600 block of Ocean Boulevard on Holden Beach, which is about an hour away from Wilmington.
Chris Humphrey said he was swimming to a friend on a raft in deeper water when a sand shark that measured about 5 feet long bit into his forarm.
A shark’s tooth was left in Humphrey’s arm and had to be removed by surgery. He was released from the hospital Sunday morning.
[via NBC 17]
See also:
Although some officials downplay the frequency of encounters between humans and sharks, one University of North Carolina professor said he expects the number to grow in the future.
From Texas to North Carolina, three shark attacks occurred in the last week alone.
[see NBC 17]
The Icelandic tradition of believing in elves is so strong roads have been rerouted to avoid disturbing rocks where they might live, a report said.
Polls consistently show most residents of Iceland either believe in elves, or aren’t willing to rule out their existence.
[see WebIndia123]
POLICE are investigating the mystery slaughter of a kangaroo found decapitated in a central Queensland zoo.
[see The Daily Telegraph]
PARKER CITY, Ind. — Two dogs attacked and killed six fallow deer at a private zoo on Monday.
Officials at ME’s Zoo say the same two dogs also killed two deer Saturday.
Zoo workers said they did not know where the dogs came from or how they got into the fenced fields at the facility, which takes its name from the initials of the zoo’s founders.
[see The Indianapolis Star]
Nairobi - Ghosts in the shape of cats and dogs come out at night to terrorise pupils at a girl’s school near Nairobi, a Kenyan newspaper reported on Tuesday.
More than 300 girls fled their dormitories at the Mua Girls’ secondary school in the Machaos district in the early hours of Monday morning, The Standard reported.
The children believe their school principal, Stephania Koki, is responsible for conjuring up the ghosts.
The girls claimed the ghosts waited until they were in bed, before attacking them. The children fled to the nearby Machakos village, just outside Nairobi.
[see News24]
A Carbon County man with a history of conflict with the federal government is in custody after he allegedly referred to two federal judges as “aliens” in recent court correspondence.
[see The Times-Tribune]
A US OUTFIT is offering a service that will allow bloggers to beam their online diaries into deep space.
[see The Inquirer]
TESLIN, Yukon - It was a quiet night in Teslin when the woods began to crackle and the dogs started to howl.
Melvin Harper heard it, and saw a figure flitting near a neighbour’s light post, then through a forested island next to the log houses in this Yukon town of 400.
“It was something big, about eight feet tall. It’s black, hairy, muscular. It was huge,” he said. “He was, like, teasing us, making noises in the bush, coming back and forth.
“It freaks me out that they do have stuff like that out there, that you never seen in your life before. And that big means they are breeding.”
“It was like a sasquatch,” said Tom Dickson, who also saw the creature. “Like how you see it on TV, how they advertise it — the same image. You can’t see no eyes, nothing, just black, but it was moving pretty fast.
“It was a shocking feeling, like if you see a bear.”
It’s at least the third sighting of a bush creature in Teslin in a year, leading locals to surmise that perhaps a sasquatch — or a family of them — has migrated north from more typical haunts in northern California and the interior of B.C.
[see Edmonton Journal]
POLICE in Mashonaland Central Province have warned traditional healers, mostly known as Tsikamutanda, that they risk being arrested for causing an upsurge in assault and murder cases in the province.
This comes after police received reports of several family members that were killing and assaulting each other after witch-hunting ceremonies conducted by traditional healers in the province.
[see allAfrica]
Manager Robert Tahi says the cave has a “presence”, but puts it down to the rivers and waterfalls that run through it.
“You can hear them from the different chambers, your imagination takes over and you can imagine people talking or people walking towards you.”
He dismisses claims the cave is haunted despite local stories, including an alleged incident where a black water rafting guide, who did not want to be named, said he felt like he had been asphyxiated while in the cave earlier this year.
John Ash, a geologist who has been advising Tourism Holdings on the cave’s reopening, said he was aware “quite a few people have had interesting experiences in it”.
“People talk about a cave being alive or dead. This cave is very much alive.”
[see The New Zealand Hearld]
An 18-year-old male nursing student in Bacolod City can’t sleep anymore after he personally encountered an alleged “paranormal” scene in their school involving three “ghosts” on July 13 and 14.
In an interview over Super Radyo, the student also presented the picture of the alleged ghosts captured by his Nokia 7650 cellular phone.
The first picture was of a headless “white lady” seated in a wheelchair being pushed by another white lady drenched in blood.
The second picture was of an alleged male ghost dressed in blue and it was if he was floating on air.
Based on his personal account, the student narrated that on July 13 at about 8 p.m. he and seven of his classmates were left chatting inside their classroom at the 4th floor of the Nursing building.
Later, three of them went out of the corridor and sat down on the hospital beds.
Just seconds after, he said he was shocked when he saw a wounded white lady pushing a wheel chair-bound headless white lady.
[see Sun.Star]
SECRET documents released by the Northern Territory Government reveal a mass of UFO sightings across the Top End, many of them unexplained.
[see NEWS.com.au]
A self-styled “prophet” who made news recently by allegedly summoning the appearance of UFOs in the Las Vegas area is now looking to re-create the feat in all 50 states.
[see World Net Daily]
The sale of a house claimed to be haunted has been abandoned after protests by anxious neighbours, it was revealed today.
[see u.tv]
Ghost hunters are hoping to corner the Osceola Inn apparition Sunday, capturing it with paranormal recording devices and giving it a name.
Paranormal investigative teams are arriving to wire the building for sound and temperature fluctuations, accompanied by noted ghost hunter Timothy Harte, who is intrigued by reports that the inn is haunted.
[see Cadillac News]
Stars of Ghost Hunters look into stories of hauntings
[see story on RelishNow]
Many things come with cities founded long ago — assorted history, renovations and long family lineages to name a few. One thing that might not be as clear to the naked eye, is the haunted past behind the facades. You decide: are these stories a part of the Quad-City past or simply stories made up to scare?
[see QCTimes]
For 270 years, people in South Jersey have reported seeing the beast with a horse’s head, goat’s feet, giant bat-like wings and long serpentine tail. And like the children’s telephone game, the tale has changed as it has passed through generations.
[see NorthJersey.com]
“Some people [come] expecting to see ghosts,” says storyteller Ed Okonowicz. “Others are hopeful. Others are dragged along, but end up enjoying themselves.
“My only desire is to get more people to come [to the fort], to see its historical value,” Okonowicz says.
George Contant, the fort’s historical manager, agrees. “We’re using ghost tours to illustrate the history of the fort. It’s another way to reach people who might not otherwise come to the fort.”
[see Delaware Online]
The story begins in the Rogers Theatre, a now decaying testament to a time when Shelby residents dreamed big dreams. It was the last of four theaters in uptown when it opened in 1936. With its vaudeville stage that attracted the biggest of stars and its 1,000 seats, the Rogers’ future was bright.
[see The Shelby Star]
A man falls to his death while preparing one of Kansas City’s haunted houses for the Halloween season.
Police said they received a call last night that a man had fallen down an elevator shaft at the Catacombs. It is one of several haunted houses that are located in old warehouses and industrial buildings in an area west of downtown.
When police arrived, the man was dead. A police spokesman said the man’s death has been ruled an accident. His name has not been released by authorities.
[via WIBW]
