A woman in Virginia said she’s still in shock after winning $1 million in a lottery drawing twice in the same day.
Virginia Fike, of Berryville, said she picked up the two Powerball tickets a few weeks ago at an area truck stop, and actually made a mistake in the process. Instead of buying one ticket for Powerball and MegaMillions, she purchased two Powerball tickets with the same set of numbers: 5-13-17-20-30.
“I picked numbers based on my parents’ anniversary and their ages at that time, divided by the year they were married,” Fike told lottery officials. “I just love the jackpot games, and I play when I can afford it.”
After the winning Powerball numbers were drawn on April 7, Fike said she was sitting in a hospital room, keeping her mother company when they saw news that there were two $1 million winners.

Source: RTV6 News – Indianapolis

Traffic cop clings to front of speeding bus in Vietnam – Source: ITN NEWS

This will not avoid a ticket.

Basins and buckets of boys’ urine are collected from primary school toilets. It is the key ingredient in “virgin boy eggs”, a local tradition of soaking and cooking eggs in the urine of young boys, preferably below the age of 10.

There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys’ urine, just that it has been so for centuries.

The scent of these eggs being cooked in pots of urine is unmistakable as people pass the many street vendors in Dongyang who sell it, claiming it has remarkable health properties.

Read More… Source: Reuters

This one comes from Gerber Knives.
Note: Apocalypse Survival Kits are currently on back order.
Apocalypse-Kit – Read More

· Limo service.
· A ruby engagement ring.
· A bouquet of flowers.
· A personal fireworks display.
· A professional photographer.
· A professional videographer.
· And last but not least, a Pizza Hut $10 Dinner Box, which contains “a medium one-topping rectangular pan pizza, five breadsticks with marinara sauce and 10 cinnamon sticks with a sweet icing cup in one box.”

Read more here.

Police say a man wanted for assault was driving too fast, and hit a landscaping rock, sending the vehicle flying onto a rooftop early Wednesday morning.The airborne driver broke his leg when he jumped from the house. Read More…

An Odessite dressed as the Star Wars villain visited the mayor’s office this week to claim a free land plot citing Ukrainian legislation which grants every citizen the right to own 1,000 square meters of land.

His visit followed a decision by city authorities to grant attractive land plots along the sea coast to a group of people for free, prompting public concerns about corruption, according to local media.

The mayor’s office has since said the move was a mistake but has not yet canceled it, according to local news website Dumskaya.net.

“I am Darth Vader, the right hand of Emperor Palpatine,” the man introduced himself to amused policemen, as seen in a video posted on YouTube (here) and accompanied by the Imperial March music.

Read more at: Reuters

Self-styled superhero Phoenix Jones

Video shot by a documentary crew and posted on Jones’ Facebook page showed a chaotic scene in which the self-styled superhero was being chased by a purse-wielding woman. He then shot what appeared to be pepper spray at a group of people. Fodor was the only person arrested by police.

Source CNN News…Read More

Kids Toilet Slide, Columbus IN

Yum!

Read more…

At the Tropicana Casino this April, he was allowed to play $100,000 per hand, and just 12 hours later the casino was down $5,800,000. Last December he took Caesars Atlantic City to the cleaners for $4,230,000. Between December and April he chipped away at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for $4,900,000.

He is responsible for the first time in the 25 year long history of legalized gambling in Atlantic City for putting a casino in the red for the entire month. The CEO of Tropicana Casino was subsequently fired for allowing a known shark to play at $100,000 per hand.

Read more

Read more here.

It happened in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason – the police report says 25-year-old Ryan James Stephens is charged with teasing the K-9, which was in a patrol car.

Officer Bradley Walker wrote that while he investigated a car crash at a pub early Sunday morning, he heard the police dog barking uncontrollably inside his car. Allegedly, Stephens – the “animal impersonator” – was making barking noises and hissing at the real thing.

Walker reported that when he asked the barking Mr. Stephens why he was harassing the canine, he said “the dog started it.” The officer also said Stephens appeared highly intoxicated (which is actually reassuring in this case).

He’s due in municipal court on April 21.

No word whether he’ll be in handcuffs…or on a leash.

Source: CBS News

CONCORD, N.H. – A performance artist who dressed as Bigfoot says state park rangers didn’t have the right to kick him off a mountain where he had been scaring, or at least amusing, hikers while friends videotaped him.

When Doyle returned with a small band of costumed friends to film “The Capture of Bigfoot,” they were captured themselves, sort of. Monadnock park manager Patrick Hummel interrupted the skit and barred them from filming, saying Doyle needed a permit.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/08/2709515/bigfoot-lawsuit-accuses-state.html

CONCORD, N.H. – A performance artist who dressed as Bigfoot says state park rangers didn’t have the right to kick him off a mountain where he had been scaring, or at least amusing, hikers while friends videotaped him.

When Doyle returned with a small band of costumed friends to film “The Capture of Bigfoot,” they were captured themselves, sort of. Monadnock park manager Patrick Hummel interrupted the skit and barred them from filming, saying Doyle needed a permit.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/08/2709515/bigfoot-lawsuit-accuses-state.html

Via WISH-TV:

VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) – Authorities say a reserve police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg while unloading his gun outside a northwestern Indiana church where he was picking up his son.

Valparaiso police said 29-year-old Daniel Glickauf’s femer was shattered in the shooting, but no one else was hurt.

Read story.

Via the AP…

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Maryland State Police said a drunken 47-year-old Florida man wearing a diaper was arrested for shouting profanities while trick-or-treating. Police said Joseph David DiVanna of Sarasota, Fla., was arrested about 9:15 p.m. Sunday and charged with disorderly conduct.

Police said witnesses reported DiVanna cursed at adults and children in the Fox Chapel neighborhood of West Ocean City as he tried to get them to give him candy.

Read the story

Via the AP…

STAMFORD, Conn. – It is assault charges for Spider-Man and Captain America, and breach of peace for Poison Ivy. Police in Connecticut said a man dressed as Captain America and another as Spider-Man have been arrested after getting into a fight in Stamford over the Halloween weekend.

Stamford Police Lt. Elizabeth Erickson said officers found 25-year-old Michael Sanchez, dressed as Captain America, beating the father of 21-year-old Vincent DeCarlo, sporting a Spider-Man costume, in a parking garage Sunday morning.

Read the story

Indianapolis, Indiana – Jeri Holland, 25, of the 3700 block of West 10th Street, said a man in a pick-up truck stole the basketball goal in front of her house at 6 p.m.

After backing his silver Chevrolet pick-up onto her property, the robber — about 5-feet, 10-inches tall, and 145-pounds — lifted the goal off the ground and threw it into the bed of the truck.

If I were the thieving kind I’m pretty sure that a basketball goal would be pretty far down the list of things I’d be after.  But hey, sometimes in the summertime I guess you just have to have your hoops.

LONDON — The strongest and most expensive beer ever created sold out within hours Friday, a Scottish brewery said, as they courted controversy by packaging the bottles inside the bodies of stuffed animals.

BrewDog, the self-described maverick brewery, presented the beer — which contains a record 55 percent alcohol — inside the bodies of dead squirrels and stoats.

Animal rights activists rushed to condemn the stunt.

“It’s pointless and it’s very negative to use dead animals when we should be celebrating live animals,” Advocates for Animals policy director Libby Anderson told BBC Scotland.

“This seems to be a perverse idea.”

BrewDog said the limited edition Belgian ale — made with juniper berries and dubbed “The End of History” — was also the costliest beer ever sold.

The squirrel bottles cost 700 pounds (1,000 dollars, 840 euros) each and the seven stoat bottles went for 500 pounds a pop.

All sold out within four hours of going on sale, BrewDog managing director James Watt told AFP.

Watt said the controversial drink was the last in a line of experimental brews, explaining: “For the final installment in the strong beer series, we wanted to create something epic, something monumental.”

He said there were no plans to come up with a beer to beat this record, insisting: “We’re quite happy at 55 percent.”

As for the taste, Watt described “The End of History” as a “complex” beer with a multitude of flavours including honey, mint and cinnamon.

He recommended sipping the drink “much like you would a malt whiskey”, served up in a spirit glass rather than a pint glass.

I can’t say that sounds appealing at all, but if that’s up your alley I’d love to hear about it.

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday.

Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over heads of holidaymakers sunbathing on a beach in the Cossack village of Golubitskaya in the Krasnodar region.

A regional police spokeswoman said the donkey ended up in the skies as a result of an impromptu advertising campaign by several Russian entrepreneurs to attract beachgoers to their private beach.

Instead, they attracted the attention of regional police who learned of the flying donkey earlier this week and launched a probe.

“The donkey screamed and children cried,” regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova told AFP. “No-one had the brains to call police.”

Instead, she said, people reached for their cameras and bombarded a local newspaper with phone calls.

“It was put up so high into the sky that the children on the beach cried and asked their parents: “Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?” the newspaper, Taman, said late last week.

“The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore.”

The incident is stunning even for a country where animal cruelty is widespread and came as a shock to the locals, said Taman newspaper’s editor, Elena Iovleva.

“This has never happened before,” she told AFP.

The footage of the parachuting donkey was aired on national television Tuesday.

Wow. That’s funny & not funny at the same time. I’m not sure what to say other than if I saw a parachuting donkey calling the police would not be my first reaction either…and I’m not sure I’d even be able to find my camera to document the experience. Wow.

Thanks to my sister-in-law for sharing this oddity.

HAMILTON COUNTY (WISH) – A pet monkey went berserk Wednesday morning injuring two people and prompting a family to barricade themselves in a Hamilton County home.

Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to a home in the 2900 block of East 276th Street after Eujo, the Patas monkey, got out of his cage.

Deputies called in animal control officer Tom Rogers who was finally able to wrangle the monkey.

The two injured people are said to have minor injuries.

The Patas monkey is said to be one of the fastest primates; it can reach speeds of 34 mph.

A few days ago it was Jungle Cats in Indiana. Today it’s a pet monkey. Seriously people, what are you thinking with your exotic pets?  I know what I’m thinking…I’m thinking that’s kind of funny and want to see a video.  You have fun with your monkey.  I’ll stick with my Zhu Zhu Pets.

Officials with a child advocacy group are trying to retrieve some 1,000 plastic ducks that remain on the loose following a Fort Wayne duck race last month.

Stop Child Abuse & Neglect says 17,000 ducks were placed in the St. Joseph River for the annual fundraiser duck race on June 19, but were swept away by the current and only 15,000 were retrieved the same day.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Boen says about 1,000 of the rogue ducks have been recovered and some have been spotted as far away as Ohio.

The group says it’s working with the city water department to catch the remaining ducks. Officials also are taking boats downstream to search the riverbanks for runaways.

The group’s website says it doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the beauty of the river.

I’m thinking to only be missing 1,000 out of 17,000 isn’t too bad…those are numbers I can live with.

USA Today – A cheeseburger sold as a foot-long sandwich, with three burgers and three cheese slices, is being tested at 50 Carl’s Jr. restaurants in Southern California and 50 Hardee’s units in Indiana. That’s the same chain that introduced the world to the 1,400-calorie Monster Burger and the Monster Breakfast Sandwich, with 47 grams of fat.

“We live in a society that’s fascinated with all things big,” says Scott Hume, editor of BurgerBusiness.com, an industry trade site. “It’s inherently American to push for something bigger and better than anyone else has.”

The foot-long burger idea was hatched two months ago from a product development chef at Carl’s, says Brad Haley, marketing chief. The chain is especially eager to create products that appeal to its core customers: young men ages 18 to 24. “Obviously, the foot-long sandwich has been very successful at Subway. But we decided to do it the Carl’s way.”

That means big — and controversial. The sandwich has 850 calories with 20 grams of saturated fat. It’s served on a white sub roll, sliced in half and wrapped in butcher paper.

If it’s a hit in testing, it could be sold at all Carl’s and Hardee’s — sister chains in different regions of the country — within three to six months, Haley says.

Responds Haley, “I’d rather have a charbroiled, foot-long cheeseburger than a cold, foot-long deli sandwich any day.”

Say what you will, but I love the fact that Hardee’s is up front about their food not being the most healthy option out there.  But boy, is it tasty.  I love that Indiana is a Hardee’s test market as there is always some sort of odd creation that they’re touting.  I may have to give the footlong burger a whirl…I only wish they had a Mushroom & Swiss option.

Goshen, Ind. – The Indiana Department of Natural Resources believes a hybrid of a rare tropical jungle cat is living in a vacant lot in Goshen.

DNR spokesman Phil Bloom says an Indiana conservation officer went to investigate Wednesday after a neighbor spotted an unusually large cat living there. Bloom says experts looked at photos of the cat and believe it is a hybrid of an ocelot, which are native to South America.

Bloom says there is an online market for ocelot hybrids, which is an ocelot crossed with another kind of cat.

More crazy people with exotic pets are trying to kill us all.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Metro Police are looking for a man who gave a Broad Ripple security guard a hard time while stealing several boxes of condoms from grocery store.

Officers were called around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to the Marsh supermarket located at 2350 Broad Ripple Avenue. The security guard told investigators he witnessed a man shoving several boxes of condoms down his pants.

The guard told police he initially followed the man to the prophylactic aisle because the man matched the description of the suspect in a previous condom theft at the Marsh.

Wow. Is a 45-year old man is either embarrassed to buy condoms or find himself a place that gives them away for free?

Read more: nydailynews.com.

Source: CBSNews (via YouTube)

Source: CNN Video

By making gold investing as easy as buying a candy bar from a vending machine, GOLD to go hopes to attract average buyers to the gold market.

Source: CNN Money

A fruit company in Panama has sent its first shipment of 120 square watermelons to New York. A company official says the melons are not genetically modified. Instead, they’re grown inside cube-shaped glass boxes. They’ll cost about $75.

Source: NPR News

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Source: The Guardian – UK

In partnership with an American friend and former investment banker Corie Chung, Jones spent about a year and about $1.4 million of his own money researching and developing a new product line that was more mainstream than the compression wear around and came with health benefits.

Source: Reuters

David Hrobowski makes furniture out of popsicle sticks — thousands of them, glued together one by one to construct spiraling 3-foot-tall table legs, lampshades finished in the most improbable fringe. The 56-year-old antiques dealer calls them “riffsticks” — each stick like a short melodic note repeated over and over.

Source: LA Times.

34-year-old Bryan Berg placed the final card on today in what was the second time he’s broken the Guinness World Record for the largest house of freestanding playing cards.

He built China’s Venetian Macao Resort Hotel our of 218,792 cards.

The three by ten-and-a-half meter structure took 44 days to complete, and used 4,051 decks of cards. And no adhesives of any kind were used.

Source

New Jersey health officials said the dangerous mixture had seriously damaging effects.

“What we’ve been hearing from the hospitals is that these women are presented with deep tissue infections and skin infections,” New Jersey Health Department epidemiologist Dr. Tina Tan told the New York Post. “Abscesses form in some cases.”

According to the Post report, health officials in New Jersey have warned New York authorities about the phony doctor, who could face criminal charges of practicing medicine without a license. The person reportedly “treated” women from hospitals in New Jersey.

Not only did the women suffer health setbacks in their attempt to gain shapely bottoms, the botched butt enhancements allegedly left them disfigured. A hospital source told the Post their backsides are so cratered and lumpy, they resemble “moonscapes.”

Source: AOL News

More than 5,000 people turned up at the Sydney Opera House today to get naked in the name of art.

Braving an early morning chill they shed their clothes, abandoned any embarrassment, and posed naked for renowned American nudist photographer Spencer Tunick.

People came in all shapes and sizes and one heavily pregnant woman even postponed the birth of her twins so she could take part.

Read more: Source

February 16, 2010 Source: NPR News

At a time when President Obama’s approval ratings are cratering, the billboard appeared stealthily about a month ago.

“It was put up by a group of small business owners — who want to stay anonymous –because they felt Washington wasn’t listening,” said Mary McNamara, a spokeswoman for the company that owns the billboard. “They felt like it was a good way to get their message out.”

For the past two days, images of the billboard have raged virally across the Internet, with a Google search resulting in more than 100 million hits Tuesday.

Source: StarTribune

You could blow a week’s pay on fresh lobster, a bottle of bubbly and a quiet table with a waiter named Jean-Pierre to impress your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.

Or . . . you could surprise her with your, ah, thrift and willingness to stand out from the crowd by taking her out for the Valentine’s special at your neighborhood White Castle, where, just for this occasion, they’re offering a candlelit dinner, with tableside service and flowers.

They’ve done this before. Some people even dress up and rent a limo, says Jamie Richardson, a White Castle spokesman.

Source

Howard County Sheriff’s Department deputy Matt Roberson tracked down a wanted fugitive through one of the most popular games on the Internet — World of Warcraft. And he got his man.

The sheriff’s department enlisted the aid of the U.S. Marshals this summer to track down a number of fugitives as part of Operation: Falcon, and Alfred Hightower was among those targeted. Unfortunately, authorities were unable to locate him. Roberson soon found out why. The suspect had skipped the country.

“I received information from a childhood friend, who tells me the guy is in Canada,” said Roberson. “I held onto the information in the back of my head. I spoke to the marshals and asked if we could confirm the guy’s location, would they help us get him? They indicated that they would.”

With the help of sheriff’s major Steve Rogers, Roberson began gathering information on Hightower through a number of sources. That is how they discovered that their suspect was a World of Warcraft fan.

“We received information that this guy was a regular player of an online game, which was referred to as ‘some warlock and witches’ game,” said Roberson. “None of that information was sound enough to pursue on its own, but putting everything we had together gave me enough evidence to send a subpoena to Blizzard Entertainment. I knew exactly what he was playing — World of Warcraft. I used to play it. It’s one of the largest online games in the world.”

Read more

An urban myth has been proven as real in Florida, USA, where it’s raining iguanas…

Temperatures in normally balmy Florida state are so low that freezing iguanas are falling from the trees.

The warm, humid climes are perfect for cold-blooded reptiles but a prolonged cold snap means they’re plummeting to earth.

When temperatures fall below around 5C, iguanas go into a comatose state with very little blood flowing around their bodies. As their grip loosens, the creatures fall..

While they look dead, they usually revive when temperatures rise – although they can die if it remains cold for three days or more.

Iguanas are considered pests by many Florida residents as they are not native to the area. They were introduced from South America when careless pet owners released them.

Some think this is the perfect time to severely reduce their numbers. One Florida man said: “I knew of a gentleman who was collecting them all in the street and throwing them in the back of his station wagon. “All of a sudden as he’s driving along these things are waking up, crawling on his back and almost caused a wreck.”

Source: asylum.co.uk

A 92-year-old man was at the wheel when his vehicle crashed into the busy restaurant on Nova Road.

The driver wasn’t hurt, but the cook said a customer had just left the damaged seating area.

Investigators think Charles Pierce stepped on the gas instead of hitting the brake while trying to park, but instead of panicking and amid all that debris, he calmly got out of the sedan and placed his order.

The driver asked if anyone was hurt. There was very minor injury, but once Pierce was sure all was well, he dug in to his breakfast.

He was cited for reckless driving.

Full story

NASHVILLE, Tenn.
According to Metropolitan Nashville Police, a man wearing a Santa Claus suit — including hat, beard and mustache — and dark sunglasses robbed a SunTrust Bank on Tuesday morning, demanding money from the teller at gunpoint. He also mentioned to everyone in the bank that he needed to pay his elves.

After the teller complied, the man fled in a gray midsize car.
Read more.

Full story here.

LONDON – A first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”, which had been kept in a bathroom bookcase for years, fetched 103,250 pounds ($171,000) at auction on Tuesday, around twice its pre-sale estimate.

Christie’s auctioneer offered the book at a sale held on the 150th anniversary of the evolutionary work’s original publication.

The copy was bought by the family of the current owners for “a few shillings” over 50 years ago, the auctioneer said.

The vendor’s son-in-law recently visited an exhibition on Darwin where he saw another first edition on display. He realised it was the same work as that in his father-in-law’s guest bathroom, and it was duly offered for sale.

Source: Reuters

He held the man at gunpoint until police arrived. Deputies say they found the would-be burglar on the back porch by the pool drunk and trembling — probably not how he thought it would all go down.

He got more than he bargained for when he decided to mess with this elderly man and his trusty rottweiler mix. Robert Thompson, 91, and his 5-year-old dog, Rett, tag-teamed a thug trying to break into their Lake Worth home Friday night.

“I think the guy was scared to death,” Thompson said. “He was screaming.”

Thompson jumped out of bed, totally naked, and went to go check things out with Rett by his side.

“I went in and got my cell phone and dialed 911 and got my gun,” he said.

Thompson said Pascual was coming toward him so he fired a shot. Authorities said he held the drunk intruder at gunpoint until deputies arrived, but he’s giving his best bud Rett all the credit for the happy ending. “He’s the hero.”

“If anyone violates my home they better be careful, that’s all I got to say,” said Thompson.

Source

An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday. The man, 81-year-old Eric Steward, eventually stopped and asked for directions after driving for nine hours, from the New South Wales country town of Yass to Geelong in the southern Victoria state.

Steward, who did not know where he was, eventually approached a policeman at a petrol station and asked for help late Wednesday.

“This little old man came up to me saying he was lost. He handed me his mobile and asked if I could speak to his wife,” said Victorian Police Senior Constable Clayton Smith.

Steward, who was reunited with his family on Wednesday, said he took the wrong turn and just kept on going.

“I just went out on the road to have a drive, a nice peaceful drive,” he told reporters, adding he did not need a satellite navigation device as he’d only been lost once.

Source: Reuters

A thief gets himself stuck in a tiny window while trying to break into a supermarket in Almancil, southern Portugal.

He even dropped his trousers in an effort to wriggle free.

According to police, the slim 22-year-old Romanian man had spent about 11 hours stuck in the window, including the two hours it took police and the fire brigade to get him out

Source

• King Philip secretly ordered the mass
arrest of the Knights Templar in
France on Friday, October 13, 1307.

• Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

• The goddess Frigga (for whom Friday
is named) was banished by the
Christians and labeled a witch. Every
Friday, she was believed to meet
with 11 other witches plus the devil,
for a total of 13.

• Friday was Hangman’s Day in Britain.

This superstition created of loose facts
affects many people. Some Americans
avoid their normal routines on this
day, to the tune of an estimated $800
to $900 million in lost business in the
U.S.

Source

Goloski is promoting S&W’s breast cancer awareness pistol.
Source

Eric Williamson, 29, is a commercial diver who grew up in Hawaii and rents home with several co-workers. Williamson told FOX 5′s Will Thomas his roommates were not home and he walked into the kitchen to make coffee about 5:30 a.m. Monday.

“Yes, I wasn’t wearing any clothes but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me,” Williamson said.

The complaint came from an unidentified woman who was walking with a 7-year-old boy. A Fairfax County Police spokesman said officers arrested Williamson for indecent exposure because they believe he wanted to be seen naked by the public.

Source: Fox news

Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen’s central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins.

“Legally, the question of whether the spiciness of the kebab sauce constituted ‘normal’ or grievous bodily harm must be addressed,” local police in the northern city said on Friday.

Officers broke up a scuffle that kicked off after a 23-year-old wiped his kebab-soiled hands on the stand because the salesman refused to give him a paper napkin. The seller responded by flinging a ladle of sauce in the man’s face.

The victim’s eyes became bloodshot and police are investigating why the napkin dispute broke out, a spokesman said. Both men could end up facing charges, he added.

Source: Reuters

SLIDELL, La. — Police say a naked man who appeared to be drunk or on drugs broke into a Louisiana home, cooked himself a meal and took a shower before leaving, wrapped only in a sheet.

Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Foltz says a video surveillance system at the home captured the naked man using a garden hose to shower outside the house around 1 a.m.

The in-the-buff burglar then tried knocking on the front door, police said. When there was no response, he went to the back of the house and wrapped himself in a trash bag, according to FOX 8.

The man allegedly broke several windows, entered the house and ransacked it before cooking himself a meal, having several drinks and showering again.

After all these years this sort of thing just doesn’t surprise me any more.  My hunch is that the man was drunk & high and might have some other “friends” talking to him as well.  From the outside this might seem funny, but in actuality it’s really sad and scary.  This guy is really lucky that he didn’t break into the wrong house.

PORTSMOUTH — A pizza delivery person bringing an order to a city residence on Saturday was met by a naked man for the fourth time, say police.

According to the city’s public police log, at 5:42 p.m. on Sept. 26, police were called to a Holiday Drive residence where the delivery person said “when they deliver pizza there the resident comes to the door naked.” Police Lt. Rodney McQuate said the delivery person has encountered the naked resident during four different pizza deliveries, but did not wish to press charges.

So it’s apparently 4 strikes are you’re out in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  After the first time I’d be wary of showing up again. And after the second time I’d definitely not be coming back again. But maybe that’s just me.

“I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw,” said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China.

You’ve got to go to their site to see the picture. This is a bit out there even for me.

Giving food or water to feral cats that have not been spayed or neutered is now illegal in Terre Haute.

The new ordinance also increases the city license fee for an unsterilized cat or dog to $100, up from the current $25. Licenses for pets that have been spayed or neutered will cost $5.

So let me get this right. You’re supposed to know if a feral cat has been spayed or neutered just by looking at it? And they really desire to eliminate all cats and dogs? I’m not fond of cats and dogs, but that sounds outright crazy to me.

Mullet Man

The mullet is alternately known as the Mississippi mud flap, the neck
blanket, the Kentucky waterfall, Achy Breaky hair, and the Camaro cut.

On a woman: Femmullet.

On a child: Child abuse.

Some 20 entrants, competing for a blue ribbon and an airbrushed
painting of one of cinema’s most popular mullet-wearers, Joe Dirt, had
their mullets measured by judges from the Iowa School of Beauty.

“We think it’s coming back,” school instructor Aimee Jarshaw said forebodingly.

“It always gets made fun of, but I think people secretly love the
mullet,” said John Jayne, 47, of Des Moines. “People take my picture.
Say it’s a hockey haircut.”

Source

Dean Asbury was fishing with his father Sunday night near the Harrison Bridge in Lafayette (Indiana), looking for catfish, when Asbury pulled a piranha from the fishing hole.

The 21-year-old Lafayette man said he had no idea what kind of fish it was at first.

“My dad actually stuck his thumb in its mouth, because we didn’t know what it was,” Asbury said. “It bit down on him and he said, ‘It’s got teeth.’ ”

Maybe piranha’s are attracted by the stench of the Wabash River? Or maybe it was a prank on Purdue by those pesky IU kids?

…if it’s August, it’s just about Oktoberfest over there in Germany. Isn’t this about the time they show some cute chick with those huge – watcha-call ‘ems?

They say it’s the “world’s biggest beer festival,” which I guess means they’ve never been to the Indianapolis 500.

While I’ve never been to Oktoberfest in Germany, I have been to the Indy 500 multiple times.  From Oktoberfest events here in the States I’d say that the Indy 500 (all three weeks of festivities) might be bigger, but the beer at Oktoberfest would probably be better.  There are too many folks here drinking things like Old Milwaukee & Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Flight attendants and other passengers (then) wrestled with the 300-pound man, who flailed at flight attendants and broke away, stripped naked and was lying in the plane’s aisle as it made a return trip to Oakland to remove the man. The man was taken into custody without incident.

More…

I’ve gone on the “Live with saggy naked people diet.”

It’s easy. You just live for a few weeks in a resort for “naturists,” which is what wrinkly naked people call themselves these days, and you go where they go.

Hungry? Just bike on over to the food counter and stand behind one of them while they order. Your appetite will be gone for hours.

Think you’ll just stop by the drug store for some candy? Once you see those people flipping through the magazines you will not only never eat candy again, you’ll probably never read magazines again, either!

Funny stuff.

The bus stop, in front of the Benrath Senior Centre in the western city of Düsseldorf, is an exact replica of a standard stop, with one small difference: buses never stop there.

The idea emerged after the centre was forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their homes and families but had forgotten that in many cases neither existed any longer.

Now that’s what I call thinking outside of the box. I like it!

Most parents like to pull out all the stops to make a child’s 16th birthday as memorable as possible.

But having a female stripper surprise your son in front of his teacher in class would not feature on many wish-lists.

…But – thanks to what has been put down as a booking error – a female stripper turned up in place of the gorilla-suited man the unnamed mother had apparently asked for.

The stripper, who arrived on cue halfway through the lesson, first walked the birthday boy around the classroom on all fours.

Then, gyrating to the sounds of Britney Spears, she spanked him before stripping down to her bra and knickers and insisting the “naughty” schoolboy rub cream all over her body.

At that point, the teacher – who had not been told what the surprise would entail – called an immediate end to the show.

Wow.

Fish that are supposed to clear people’s skin by eating off the dead layers bit a man’s private parts after he stepped in the water naked at a hot spring club in Dalian, Liaoning province.

The man, who had visited the spa for a “special water treatment”, sat in the water for half an hour without realizing the special fish were nibbling on his special parts instead of the dead skin.

And remind me why I’m not planning a trip to China. But to be fair, I’ve heard of this “treatment” in the States as well (without the nudity).

[My Dad] had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

It gets worse from there. Wearing the 30 year old device on his belt (“it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets”) Scott felt embarrassed at the attentions of passersby as they stared and shouted insults.

Other problems included lack of a shuffle mode (“I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly”), terrible battery life (three hours), sound quality (we’d disagree — even a tape sounds better than the average MP3), and capacity (twelve tracks in your pocket!).

Scott had some operational troubles, too: “It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape.” The ultimate insult comes at the end, though:

Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?

Ouch!



Source

drunk tractor driver

Kevin Whitesell, 31, of Terre Haute, IN was taken into custody for drunk driving. He was driving a tractor while towing his wrecked car and crashed both vehicles into a creek Friday morning.

Source and photos: Click Here.

“Neutral facial expressions” are required at departments of motor vehicles (DMVs) in Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia. That means you can’t smile, or smile very much. Other states may follow.

The serious poses are urged by DMVs that have installed high-tech software that compares a new license photo with others that have already been shot. When a new photo seems to match an existing one, the software sends alarms that someone may be trying to assume another driver’s identity.

Source: Indy Star -> Article

GARY, Ind. — Church leaders visiting a former funeral home they recently bought in a tax sale stumbled upon a gruesome discovery — four unidentified bodies that had been left behind, perhaps for years, in the vacant building.

Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick described the situation as “unbelievable.”

Leaders of the Northlake Church of Christ called authorities after finding a body bag on a table Sunday.

Pastrick and his staff investigated and found one body in the bag, another in a corrugated burial box and two in caskets.

“They are unidentifiable,” Pastrick said Tuesday of the remains.

Pastrick said the bodies may have been in the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home since 2006, when the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the business license for owner Darryl Cammack.

Read the rest of the story.

Heart attack grill

Stop on by the Heart Attack Grill. They’ll wheel you in. Yes, that’s right. More calories and lard than you can shake a stick at! The owner claims he gets 80 emails an hour from people wanting him to franchise.

Check it out the menu. Yum!
Image source: www.heartattackgrill.com

Researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly insects into zombies whose heads fall off.

Read full story.

Honda demonstrated its prototype walking assist devices for the first time in the U.S. today. Intended to support walking for the elderly or people with weakened leg muscles, the devices are currently being tested in real-world conditions to evaluate their effectiveness. The company has applied for more than 130 patents for the devices which are based on the study of human walking along with research and development of technologies conducted for Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, ASIMO.

japanese-spa-industry

Japanese spa industry, under heavy competition, is trying new features to attract health-conscious bathers on February 25, 2007. This spa has a Wine Spa, under a giant object of a wine bottle. The spa management claims it has health benefits such as relieving fatigue, moisturizing action and anti-aging. (UPI Photo/Keizo Mori)

Source: here

Workman had lived in the house for a decade before she went missing.

Authorities plan to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Source…

ironing_divers

Dozens of divers have taken part in a strange underwater challenge in the British town of Chepstow.

It involved a very dull household chore which has been transformed into a type of sport.

Source: Reuters video.

Some teenage drivers in Maryland are covering their car license plates with numbers belonging to teachers and others to fake out traffic cameras, a parent says.

The DailyTech Web site reported Monday the unidentified parent told the Montgomery County Sentinel a few young drivers in the county print authentic-looking numbers on glossy paper and tape them over their plates. They then race past the traffic cameras, which record the infraction and produce citations based on the fraudulent plate numbers.

They call the prank “pimping,” the parent told the newspaper, and teachers and fellow students are the most popular targets.

source

MONROE, Wash. – A man suspected of robbing an armored bank truck and making his getaway via inner tube on the Skykomish River is in custody.

source

Police intercepted the driver of a 12-year-old car in Sao Paulo at the spot he most frequently committed infractions, the O Globo daily said on Thursday.

For seven years he had been speeding and running red lights but was not arrested earlier because he never registered the car in his own name.

The paper said the car, worth around $6,500, would be auctioned if the driver, unnamed, did not pay the $1.8 million in fines in 90 days.

source: oddlyEnoughNews

The tower’s tilt of about four metres off the vertical has remained stable in recent years, after a big engineering project that ended in 2001 corrected its lean by about 40 centimetres from where it was in 1990 when the project began.

“Now we can say that the tower can rest easy for at least 300 years.”

So how many years does the Grand Canyon have left?

A UK man has confessed to dressing up like Darth Vader and attacking two men who founded a church based on Jedi teachings. It claims to have about 30 members locally and “thousands worldwide”.

Hughes admitted two charges of common assault.

The court heard he has a “chronic alcohol problem” and had drunk the best part of a 10 litre box of wine.

Mrs Lloyd said: “He was wearing a black bin bag and a cape and had a metal crutch in his hand.” Mrs Lloyd said he was shouting “Darth Vader”.

source

DUBAI – A group celebrating a birthday at a Dubai diner were cheered by a 25 percent discount but not necessarily the reason: “Bug on food.”

The restaurant cut the bill for seven customers at a birthday dinner after they found four insects crawling around their meals, the Gulf News reported on Tuesday.

Now seriously, would you pay for that at all?

read on if you dare

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.

Travel agency OssiUrlaub.de said it would start taking bookings from Friday for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, planned for July 5 and costing 499 euros ($735).

“It’s expensive, I know,” managing director Enrico Hess told Reuters by phone. “It’s because the plane’s very small. There’s no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other.”

The 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board, and dress before disembarking, said Hess. The crew will remain clothed throughout the flight for safety reasons.

full story

FARMINGTON, Mo. – Authorities said Scott A. Masters, 41, slipped (a) doughnut into his sweat shirt without paying, then pushed away a clerk who tried to stop him as he fled the store.

The push is being treated as minor assault, which transforms a misdemeanor shoplifting charge to a strong-armed robbery with a potential prison term of five to 15 years. Because he has a criminal history, prosecutors say they could seek 30 years.

Masters said he didn’t even get to enjoy his ill-gotten gains: He threw the doughnut away as he fled.

A few words of advice:

1. Don’t steal doughnuts.
2. Don’t steal doughnuts and assault someone while in the act.
3. Don’t steal doughnuts and assault someone while in the act, especially if you already have a criminal record.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News.

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – An Oregon man won the annual pumpkin weigh-off here, presenting a gigantic gourd that came it at 1,524 pounds. Thad Starr, of Pleasant Hill, Ore., set a contest record with the pumpkin. He’ll get $6 a pound, bringing his winnings to $9,144.

But nine grand for a pumpkin is a bit out of my price range, especially for a deformed pumpkin that doesn’t sit upright. So maybe “they” are right after all. Luckily I’ve already picked up two decent pumpkins for $2.50 each.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News.

Via the AP…

CUERO, Texas (AP) — Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

“It is one ugly creature,” Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.

Now where has Bigfoot been hiding this summer?

This joy ride was grounded from the start. A sheriff’s deputy arrested a man accused of getting into a small, private plane and doing figure-8′s on the grass. Authorities don’t believe Walker has any flying experience. Walker found the keys inside and started the plane, which eventually ended up nose-down in the grass.

I’m picturing a 3 Stooges episode taking place and only wish that there was video of this.  While the story doesn’t say, it’d be a good bet that drugs, alcohol and/or insanity played a role in this.  Luckily no one was hurt.

A crowd of 100 stunned stargazers brought a town centre to a standstill when five mysterious UFOs were spotted hovering in the sky.

Drinkers spilled out of pubs, motorists stopped to gawp and camera phones were aimed upwards as the five orbs, in a seeming formation, hovered above Stratford-Upon-Avon for half an hour.

The unidentified flying objects lit up the otherwise clear night sky above Shakespeare’s birthplace in Warwickshire on Saturday.

…need we point out the “drinkers” line?

Read the rest of the article.

The cash arrived in a box at the house in Aylsham, Norfolk, with the games console, but minus two games.

Police are holding the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act while the matter is investigated.

An eBay spokesman said the parcel’s contents were “somewhat unusual” and it would help police with their inquiries.

The boy’s parents, who are not commenting, alerted police when the parcel arrived on 20 March.

Family claim Magistrates have given Norfolk Police until September to hold on to the money before the case comes up in court again.

But, if the money remains unclaimed the family could potentially apply for it to be returned to them under the Police Property Act.

Source: BBC news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6903433.stm

Lulu is now offering printing on rolls of toilet paper.  Interesting idea, but not $90 for 4 rolls interesting.  And definitely not very cost effective unless you’re charging people to use your bathroom.

[link]

Read more here.

A customer got so steamed when a dry cleaner lost his trousers that he sued for $65 million. Two years later, he is still pressing his suit.

-AP

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/05/03/missing.pants.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us 

BUGA, Colombia — A chicken in Colombia was born with the webbed feet of a duck.

Read the story and see the photo.

swiss army knife

http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Names-Dummies-Margaret-Rose/dp/0764543407

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec 6 (Reuters Life!) – It may be one problem airline security officials never envisioned — a passenger lighting matches in flight to mask odors from her flatulence.

The woman’s actions resulted in an emergency landing on Monday in Nashville of an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas from Washington, D.C., said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for Nashville’s airport.

Other passengers reported the odor of burned matches, but the woman was not forthcoming when asked about it, Lowrance said on Wednesday.

“Of course, she was scared and embarrassed but all the passengers had to disembark, all the luggage had to be searched, a canine team was brought in, and about three hours were consumed in sorting out the situation,” she said.

The woman was not allowed back on the flight and barred from flying on American Airlines, Lowrance said.

Dr. Helmer said that wearers of the WIS could play it by simply moving one arm to pick chords and the other to strum the imaginary instrument’s strings.

Source: click here for more…

[photo credit: of all the things to ban..., originally uploaded by Malingering.]

…but they’re not.

The ordinance calls for a maximum $1000 fine and/or six months in jail for use, possession, sale or distribution of Silly String in Hollywood from 12:01 a.m. on October 31 to 12:00 p.m. on November 1.

On a typical Halloween night, up to 100,000 people come to Hollywood Boulevard in search of something to do. Given the lack of a formal event, hundreds of illegal vendors flock to the street and sell Silly String which then becomes the sole source of entertainment for the night.

I knew things were “different” in California, but come on guys! I’m just waiting for the Hollywood Halloween Toilet Paper Ban.

We’re currently seeking ghost and alien stories for the Trolley Dodgers Podcast Halloween Podcrash. So if you have one (or want to make one up) please either record it and e-mail it to us or leave a message on our voice mail.

Contact us at: trolleydodgers -= at =- gmail -=dot=- com OR (317) 215-7078 OR Skype watershedstudio

TORONTO (Reuters) – An animal rights group called Tuesday for a North American theme park operator to cancel a competition in which people will try to break the world cockroach-eating record.

Theme park operator Six Flags Inc, based in New York, is staging the contest as part of a promotion leading up to Halloween in which it is also offering customers free entry or line-jumping advantages if they eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had been flooded with calls from children, adults and even anonymous employees of Six Flags opposing the record-breaking contest and the overall promotion.

“Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous marketing gimmick,” PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters.

The competition to beat the world cockroach eating record is being held Friday at a Six Flags park in Gurnee, Illinois. Anyone who beats the record will win a season pass for four people for 2007 with VIP queue-jumping status.

Competitors will try to break the current world record, which is held by Ken Edwards of Derbyshire, England, who devoured 36 Madagascar hissing cockroaches in one minute in 2001.

However Six Flags spokesman James Taylor said the only complaints the company had received were from people who did not have the opportunity to sign up and eat a cockroach because only 12 of its 30 parks in the United States, Canada, and Mexico were participating in the promotion.

Taylor dismissed any health concerns, saying the cockroaches were raised in a sterile environment and were as safe to eat as shrimp or lobster with high nutritional value.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches are large, wingless cockroaches that can grow to between 1.5 to 3 inches.

Taylor said no one who had indulged in this rare delicacy had complained.

“It’s something that’s supposed to be scary, it’s icky, it’s gross, it’s Halloween fun and it’s just one small part of the haunted houses and thrilling rides going on.”

Animal control and law enforcement officials were on the hunt today for two alligators spotted in the White River near downtown.

Two fishermen reported seeing the alligators, one estimated at 10-12 feet and another about two feet long, south of the bridge over West Washington Street.

The Indianapolis Zoo has no report of any missing creatures.

Late this afternoon Adam Garrett, public information officer for Animal Care and Control said officers from the Department of Natural Resources, Indianapolis Police Department and Capitol Police were monitoring the larger alligator on an island in the middle of the river. But they later realized what they were monitoring was just a log.

The gators, at last report, were still at large.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German lawyer hopes to drum up more business by pursuing state compensation claims for people who believe they were abducted by aliens.

“There’s quite obviously demand for legal advice here,” Jens Lorek told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “The trouble is, people are afraid of making fools of themselves in court.”

Lorek, a lawyer based in the eastern city of Dresden who specializes in social and labor law, said he hoped to expand his client base by taking on the unusual work.

He has yet to win any abduction claims, but says there are plenty of potential clients, noting that extra-terrestrial watchdogs report scores of alien assaults every year.

“These people could appeal for therapies or cures,” he said.

Lorek, 41, is pinning his hopes for success on a German law which grants kidnap victims the right to state compensation.

Asked if he was worried he might look ridiculous by seeking justice for clients haunted by aliens, Lorek was unfazed.

“Nobody has laughed about it up until now.”

One employee even claims to have been tripped up by a mischievous spectre.

Anne Coleman told the WHT: “We thought we were going mad but we’re not on medication, I promise!”

…

And a month ago the jittery workers witnessed two separate hauntings in a day.

Anne said: “It was about 6.15am and I saw someone walking along the back of the bakery. I said ‘morning’ but there was no reply. I thought ‘how rude’. But then I looked again and there was no one there.

“I could also feel something pull at my feet as I walked around the corner in the warehouse. It’s like someone trying to trip you up.”

Just four hours later John Curry was enjoying a well-earned break when he was told the bakery was flooding.

“We came down and both the taps were on full!” he said.

“Two of the ovens were on full too. No one had been in there. There was no one around.”

…

“We’ve called in the engineers. They thought we were on happy pills or something!

“But then something happened when one of them was here. The temperature suddenly went up inexplicably on one of the ovens. He said ‘my advice is to call a priest!’”

Via The Welwyn & Hatfield Times

More than 3,700 customers lost power for half an hour this afternoon in the northwest part of Carmel when a squirrel snuck into a substation.

“There was no damage at the substation. The squirrel just made contact with the equipment, which caused the outage.”

Power was lost at 2:37 p.m. and was restored at 3:09 p.m.

In addition to homes losing power, several stoplights shut down and police officers had to direct traffic.

[via the Indianapolis Star]

A pig withstood taser shots from police officers and eluded authorities for more than an hour after wandering onto Green Bay’s major highway. The 150-pound pig was spotted by a passing driver on U.S. 41 at 6 p.m. Wednesday night, Green Bay Police Lt. Todd LePine said.

The animal reportedly went into traffic several times, creating a hazard, he said.

Officers located the pig about 7 p.m. and made two attempts to subdue it with a stun gun, he said, but it fled both times after pulling out the Taser probes.

A passerby who described himself as a former pig farmer tried to wrestle the animal, but the animal pulled away from him as well, LePine said.

Three tranquilizer darts were finally used to bring the pig under control, and it was placed in blanket and lifted into an animal control van, LePine said.

The animal was taken to the Bay Area Humane Shelter that evening. Police said a local attorney planned to claim the pig Thursday. The name of the pig’s owner was not disclosed.

[from SFGate by way of the AP]

Something is eating cats in Carmel.

In the past month, the discoveries of pets’ remains on the eastern edge of the city have prompted one family to post warnings in their neighborhood.
Police investigating the deaths say residents should take heed.

“If I was a pet owner, I certainly would not have my pet running at large,” said Carmel Police Assistant Chief Tim Green.

Since late August, Green said, at least four cats and a dachsund have been killed and their bodies found partially eaten and skinned. All of the vicims lived in an area west of Hazel Dell Road between 116th and 131st streets.

“We do know that there are coyotes in these areas of town, and we do know that a cat is game for a coyote.”

Police suspect there may have been even more attacks on pets of homeowners who realized what had happened and didn’t bother to report it.

Some of those who did notify police, such as Susan and Tim Eldon of the Brookfield subdivision, had wondered if the grisly assault on their pet was the twisted work of pranksters.

“I didn’t know if some demented kids were doing this or animals,” said Susan Eldon, whose 15-year-old feline, Bob, became a target last weekend.

Eldon and Green said investigations by police and a veterinarian revealed signs of an animal attack. Authorities are now consulting with Department of Natural Resources authorities to try and trap or destroy the culprit responsible.

[via IndyStar]

KOKOMO, Ind. — A wayward squirrel invaded a power substation and left more than 5,000 homes and businesses without electricity.

Duke Energy restored the service from the South Main Street substation near Wildcat Creek after about an hour Sunday night.

“We lost the squirrel and 5,039 customers for the space of an hour,” Duke spokesman Rob Norris said.

The outage included much of the city’s central neighborhoods west of U.S. 31.

[via the Indy Star]

OSSIAN, Ind. — A swarm of up to 100,000 angry honey bees sent 10 people to the hospital including the driver of an SUV that hit a hollow tree in northeast Indiana, disturbing a hive.

…

By the time rescuers arrived, a black cloud of buzzing insects had engulfed the car, forcing firefighters to wear full safety gear — complete with oxygen tanks and face masks — with temperatures in the 90s.

Safety workers doused the bees with water and foam while they tried to extricate Cossairt, who was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital with broken legs and multiple bee stings. She was remained at Lutheran Hospital Thursday morning.

…

“You can’t really train for that. You don’t really know. You look for downed power lines. You don’t look for a million bees.”

[read the full story on The Indianapolis Star web site]

In an effort to keep monkeys out of the Indian capital’s subways, authorities have called in one of the few animals known to scare the creatures — a fierce-looking primate called the langur.

The decision to hire a langurwallah — a man who trains and controls the langurs — came after a monkey got into a metro car in June.

The langur handler is being paid a retainer of India rupees 6,900 (US$160) a month, and “he will be called whenever there is a monkey problem,” Anuj Dayal, the spokesman for the Delhi Metro Rail Corp., was quoted as saying.

On June 9, a monkey reportedly crawled through some pipes and ended up aboard a train, scowling at passengers and jumping around a car.

Passengers had to be moved to another car while staff chased the dexterous creature, causing delays.

The langur handler was being employed to prevent such problems from happening again.

“There are too many monkeys,” Dayal was quoted as saying.

[via CNN]

A man accused of biting the head off his pet rooster was arrested Friday and faces up to a year in prison if convicted, an animal protection spokesman said.

A neighbor had complained about a dead rooster near his Manhattan apartment and agents found the body of the beheaded rooster on a fire escape, said Joe Pentangelo, spokesman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The rooster’s head was not located.

Humberto Rodriguez, 52, told agents that he bit the rooster’s head off because he blamed it for injuring a pet pigeon that he also kept in the apartment, Pentangelo said.

Rodriguez is charged with animal cruelty and could face up to a year in prison if convicted. It is also illegal to possess a live rooster in New York City, Pentangelo said.

[Via the AP]

Source…

The bear apparently entered through an open sliding glass door, broke a ceramic food container and started eating, West Vancouver police Sgt. Paul Skelton said.

“It sounds like a nursery rhyme, doesn’t it?” Skelton said. “At least we have a health-conscious bear on our hands.”

Three officers who went to the home Thursday couldn’t get the bear to budge, so they let it finish its meal.

“The bear didn’t appear to be aggressive and wasn’t destroying the house, so they just let it do what it was doing,” Skelton said. The bear finally left.

Source

Source

Massachusetts police are investigating the discovery of large quantities of drugs found inside merchandise from two Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, local police said Wednesday.

According to the Tewksbury Police Department, a contractor late last week discovered two 50 pound “bricks” of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags inside a bathroom vanity he had purchased at a Home Depot (Research) store in Tewksbury, said Chief of Detectives Lt. Dennis Peterson.

The estimated street value of the marijuana is around $145,000, Peterson said.

Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of the state. According to the Southwick Police Department, a plumber on Monday purchased a vanity in western Massachusetts in which he later found 3 kilograms of cocaine and around 40 pounds of marijuana, with a total estimated street value of $250,000.
…

Tewksbury Police and DEA officials conducted a search Tuesday of around 12 Home Depot stores statewide and found other bathroom vanities that contained drugs, Peterson said, though he would not elaborate on how many items were discovered.

In each incident being investigated by Tewksbury Police, all of the merchandise boxes originated from a Texas location and were distributed through one undisclosed Massachusetts warehouse, Peterson said.

“I’m sure the packages were being shipped to the distribution center and someone was supposed to intercept them,” Peterson said. “So that person either wasn’t on duty that day or the packages were marked wrong.”

Via CNN

But can a human subsist on a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food like puppies and monkeys do? For the good of human kind, I’m about to find out. On June 3, 2006, I began my week of eating nothing but monkey chow: “a complete and balanced diet for the nutrition of primates, including the great apes.”

The blog

A criminal on the run hijacked the helicopter Sunday to get his brother out of prison, police said. Vassilis Paleokostas, 40, who was serving a 25-year sentence for kidnapping and bank robbery, and an Albanian convict escaped.

“The guards thought it was a surprise inspection by ministry officials and did nothing,” a police official said.

The helicopter pilot, who said he was forced at gunpoint to undertake the mission, flew the inmates to a nearby cemetery and they made their escape on motorbikes. Greek police have launched a manhunt for the convicts.

Source

Officials in one Sydney district have decided to pipe the American crooner’s music over loudspeakers in an attempt to rid streets and car parks of “car hoons” whose anti-social cars and loud music annoy residents and drive customers from businesses.

Following a successful experiment where Bing Crosby music was used to drive teenage loiterers out of an Australian shopping center several years ago, Rockdale councilors believe Manilow is so uncool it might just work.

Story here

Kevin Logan, 18, went to the West Side High School prom on Friday in a slinky fuchsia gown and heels. He believes officials discriminated against him by not allowing him inside.

“I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom,” he said.

Logan, who is gay, received an $85 refund for his prom ticket Tuesday but was not satisfied.

Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said school policy bans males from wearing dresses. Excluding Logan from prom was based on “the dress code, not the student’s homosexuality. That’s his personal preference.”

more…

Each April, we remember Benjamin Franklin’s theory on the inevitability of death and taxes. But for those who believe that they can avoid paying income tax through clever loopholes, Franklin’s quote becomes just another government conspiracy.

Paul and Myrna Schuck once tried to convince an Alberta court that the postage stamps they had stuck to their clothes made them equivalent to royalty, and therefore not subject to taxation. Kent Hovind, an evangelist in a Creationist ministry, tried to avoid paying taxes by revoking his American citizenship, claiming to be “a natural sojourner” whose income belonged to God. In August, Royal LaMarr Hardy of Honolulu was sentenced to 13 years in jail for tax fraud and conspiracy. Since 1985, his so-called tax research foundation had convinced thousands of gullible people that filing taxes is
a voluntary decision.

Source

MISHAWAKA, Ind. – Northern Indiana police are investigating a woman’s claim that a razor blade in a fish sandwich she ate cut the inside of her throat.

Lisa Griffin, 35, claims she bought the sandwich Monday at Rally’s Hamburgers, brought it home, took three bites, threw up blood and found a double-edged razor in her vomit. She was in good condition Thursday at St. Joseph Medical Center in South Bend, spokesman Mike Stack said.

Police said the throat injuries appeared to be consistent with razor cuts.

Craig Banser, who operates several Rally’s in the South Bend area, said the restaurant in Mishawaka set aside food products used at the time so police could check them and called suppliers.

“We haven’t heard anything since,” he said. “We’re just waiting to hear from police to see what they’ve found out.”

[Source: AP]

DES MOINES, Iowa — Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet.

The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate.

“They told us we are not welcome there anymore,” said Dershem, a repeat customer at the Dragon House buffet. “We waste too much food. But the buffet is all you can eat. And you know kids. They won’t always eat everything and they want something else.”

Dershem said she paid her $5.95 fee but was abruptly told to leave after eating one plate of food.

“They just take one bite and throw it away,” said cashier Lin Huyen. “They take four egg rolls and crab rangoon, take one bite of egg roll and throw the whole plate. That is wasting food.”

Dershem said she was shocked by the scolding and complained to management.

Dragon House manager Kent Cao said his restaurant offers all you can eat buffet, not all you can waste. Dershem’s family took food, didn’t finish it and then piled on the same food again, he said.

“Shes done that too many times,” Cao said.

“We would welcome her back if she has respect and knows what she wants.”

[Source: AP]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Illusionist David Copperfield magically escaped getting robbed.

After his show at a West Palm Beach performing arts center Sunday, Copperfield was walking with two female assistants back to their tour bus when four teenagers pulled up in a black car, the police report said.

Two armed robbers allegedly got out of the car demanding the group’s belongings. An assistant handed over $400 from her pockets while the other gave up her purse with 200 euros, $100, her passport, plane tickets and a cellphone. Copperfield refused to empty his pockets, the report said.

Copperfield said he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“Call it reverse pic-pocketing,” Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for its Wednesday editions.

When the alleged robbers left in the car Copperfield read the license plate number to an assistant while she called 911.

Four teenagers were arrested shortly after and the assistants’ property recovered. They were charged with armed robbery and are being held without bond.

[Source: AP]

BEIJING – Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing’s heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China’s capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city’s skies on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to “alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality,” Xinhua said.

Though unusual in many parts of the world, China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, using it frequently in the drought-plagued north. Last month, another artificial rainfall was generated to clear Beijing after the city suffered some of the fiercest dust storms this decade.

[Source: AP]

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine website reported.

According to online magazine www.zsaru.hu, workers in Szeged in the south of Hungary tried to move the barrel after they had drained it, only to find it was surprisingly heavy and were shocked when the body of a naked man fell out.

The website said that the body of the man had been shipped back from Jamaica 20 years ago by his wife in the barrel of rum in order to avoid the cost and paperwork of an official return.

According to the website, workers said the rum in the 300-liter barrel had a “special taste” so they even decanted a few bottles of the liquor to take home.

The wife has since died and the man was buried in a proper grave.

Source: Reuters

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The management of a restaurant has apologized after a diner found a piece of a human finger on his hamburger soon after a worker accidentally cut himself.

A kitchen manager injured himself and no one immediately realized he had lost part of his finger while others rushed to help him, said Amy Freshwater, a spokeswoman for TGI Friday’s.

“The manager didn’t even know it happened until he got to the hospital,” she said.

A wait staff member, unaware that the worker had lost a piece of his finger, served the plate to a dinner who immediately spotted the piece of flesh Tuesday night.

The manager at the restaurant at College Mall was treated at Bloomington Hospital and lost only a small piece of his finger, according to Freshwater.

“We absolutely acknowledge the seriousness of this incident, and we are very, very sorry that this occurred,” she said.

She also said the restaurant had been in contact with the diner several times and that she did not expect him to pursue any type of legal action.

The diner called police after finding the fingertip. An officer told the customer that it was not a criminal matter, Detective Sgt. David Drake said.

[via IndyStar]

[link]

“I was walking along the sidewalk when he sprang at me. I never saw it coming, but that’s how it often is. He comes at you from behind, springs and wraps himself around your legs, biting and scratching,” she said. “The last time I had three bites and eight scratches and I ended up at the walk-in clinic.

“The Avon lady was getting out of her car when Lewis attacked her from behind,” Kettman said. “She ended up going to the hospital.”

more…

BANGKOK, Thailand — Embattled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a firm believer in astrology and the supernatural, conceded Friday that the stars have not been in his favor lately, but said his political enemies were taking it a step too far.

“They are using all kinds of means to try to destroy me, including black magic and the supernatural,” he told a meeting of civil servants at Government House, the prime minister’s offices. Without naming names, Thaksin said his critics were using photographs and voodoo-like dolls to cast spells.

“But don’t worry, I have talismans and various Buddha amulets with me to ward off their magic,” he said.

Read Story

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Corp. is suing a division of Walt Disney, Buena Vista Motion Pictures and a film production company for infringing on its trademark in the development and production of “Wild Hogs,” a comedy about middle-aged bikers.

The motorcycle club says in the suit that it never approved Walt Disney Motion Picture Group’s use of its trademark, and that the film studio has repeatedly exploited the Hell’s Angels name as well as its trademark design featuring a helmeted, horned and feathered skull while publicizing the “Wild Hogs” movie.

Read story

The incident unfolded late Thursday afternoon when a man and a woman entered the store and the man asked the clerk, “Can you microwave something for me? It’s a life-or-death situation,” according to an account the woman later gave police.

The man asked for paper towels, wrapped an object in them, and had the clerk microwave the item for 20 seconds, said McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero.

When it was finished, the clerk handed the item back to the man and saw what she thought was a severed penis, Pero said.

After news reports Friday, a woman called police to say she was with the man in the store and gave her account of what happened, Pero said.

The woman told police she was applying for a job and was required to take a drug test. She said the man had filled the device with his urine, which she planned to submit for the test, Pero said.

Read on…

More…

“Ministry” was spelled “Menistry” and the first “n” was missing from government, the newspaper said.

More…

OLDEN TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) — A man was shot and injured when his hunting partner mistook his elbow for a squirrel, authorities said.

Michigan State Police said George Arthur Sikkenga, 64, of Muskegon, Michigan was wounded Sunday morning in Golden Township, in Michigan’s west-central Lower Peninsula.

Sikkenga was wearing camouflage clothing except for an orange hat, which he had covered with a hood after sitting down behind a tree, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.

His clothed elbow was all of him that was visible when his friend, Gregory Scott Wood approached from behind the tree and fired his weapon, which the Ludington Daily News described as a .17-caliber rifle.

Sikkenga was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

Police were investigating the shooting.

See story.

Read the press release.

Gallery here…

SHERIDAN, Colorado (AP) — A couple planning to set off their own Super Bowl pyrotechnics accidentally blew up their own car while transporting a balloon filled with an explosive gas.

Norman Frey, 46, and his companion suffered busted eardrums in the explosion Sunday as they drove to a party for Super Bowl XL, according to the Arapahoe County sheriff.

The balloon had been filled with acetylene, a flammable gas used in welding, and it had rolled across the back seat, possibly causing static electricity that ignited the gas.

The explosion broke windows, bent doors outwards and pushed up the roof about a foot.

“Looking at the car closely, it’s amazing that these people weren’t killed,” Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.

Several people reported the explosion, but when a deputy arrived, Frey and the woman had abandoned the vehicle.

The license plate led them to Frey, who faces a felony charge of possession, use, or removal of explosives or incendiary devices. The woman will not be charged, authorities said.

[Via CNN]

PRINCETON, Minn., Jan. 31 (UPI) — Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape.

Sharkey is wanted in Indianapolis on the charges on which bond has been set at $100,000, the Princeton (Minn.) Union-Eagle reported.

Princeton police said their search discovered the May 2005 warrants that led to Sharkey’s arrest Monday.

…

Specifics of the Indiana charges against Sharkey were not known immediately.

[see story]

Previous Story

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – A Michigan environmental group is charging that at least part of the so-called “new car smell” is toxic, and that the interior of an automobile has dangerous levels of various chemicals.

The report, “Toxic at any speed,” comes from The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based group. It reports that PBDEs, used as fire retardants, and phthalates, used primarily to soften PVC plastics, are found in dangerous amounts in dust and windshield film samples.

It called for tougher regulations to phase out the use of the chemicals as well as voluntary moves by the auto manufacturers to stop using the products inside of new vehicles.

It also suggested that car owners take steps to reduce the release and breakdown of these chemicals by using solar reflectors, ventilating car interiors, and parking outside of sunlight whenever possible.

The group says that phthalates are partly responsible for the smell associated with new cars.

[read story]

NORTH VERNON, Ind. — Members of a southern Indiana church say they believe a wooden door there bears the image of Jesus.

People from across Indiana have come to the Reigning Light of the Healing Chapel in North Vernon to see the door. Congregation members say they can see a likeness of Jesus in the wood’s patterns.

Congregation members said the image is similar to that of the Shroud of Turin, a cloth that many throughout the world believe has a likeness of Jesus.

The church’s pastor, Charlotte Pahls, said she sees the image as a sign.

“I asked, ‘Why, Lord, a door?’ And he said, ‘I am the door. If anyone knock, I will come in and sup with them.’ “

[read story]

More than 30 manhole covers have been snatched from Marion County streets in the past week.

Authorities point to the high price of scrap metal as the incentive for thieves, but the missing covers leave caverns as much as 30 feet deep yawning in ambush for drivers and pedestrians.
A replacement can cost from $300 to $2,000, according to officials with the Department of Public Works. Crews are putting up barricades around any hole they find missing a cover and are telling area scrapyards to reject offers to buy a cover.

[read story]

Minnesota voters, who eight years ago elected a former professional wrestler as their governor, may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot for the office this year.

“Politics is a cut-throat business,” said Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor on Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

Read Story.

An Ohio man who claims that he was humiliated by two other participants in an AOL chatroom has sued the two men for causing emotional distress and the ISP for failing to stop the alleged abuse.

Read the story.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Attacks on humans by man-eating lions are on the rise in Tanzania and Mozambique, raising the stakes in the conservation game as environmentalists strive to save the big cats from extinction.

Lions in the area have developed a taste for human flesh because people have been sleeping outdoors to protect their crops from raiding bushpigs, which the cats follow onto croplands, a leading expert said.

“In Tanzania in the early 1990s there were about 40 recorded lion attacks a year. In the past couple of years they have risen to over 100 and about 70 percent are fatal,” said Craig Packer, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota.

Read Full Story

TORONTO (Reuters) – A Toronto woman, not content with having merely a dusty demise, has become the first Canadian to donate her body for public display after she dies.

The 30-year-old mutual fund worker said the “Body Worlds” exhibition at the Ontario Science Center, which displays real human bodies, would fulfill her desire to have a posthumous purpose.

“I wanted to donate my body to science, but do something a little bit different, so this was perfect,” said Stephanie Chapu.

Read Full Story

TOKYO (Reuters) – Firemen in a small Japanese town were left red-faced after a party to mark the end of a fire awareness promotional event ended in a blaze that badly damaged their station.

The two-story, wooden fire station in Shimohetsugi, southern Japan, was extensively damaged by the Sunday blaze, a spokesman for the Oita prefectural fire department said.

No one was injured in the fire, which is thought to have been started either by a gas canister used for the firemen’s barbecue or by a kerosene heater.

“It’s very embarrassing that this should happen to people whose job it is to go and put out fires,” the spokesman said.

see story

Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel LLC is a Pennsylvania company dedicated to producing renewable, cleaner burning fuel from waste grease.

Read More…

Hungry!?

Where’s the beef? It’s at a Pennsylvania pub that serves the world’s biggest burger — weighing in at NINE lip-smacking pounds! That’s no whopper — you can actually get this meat monster for $23.95, loaded with all the fixings: Two whole tomatoes, a half-head of lettuce, 12 slices of American cheese, a full cup of peppers, two entire onions, plus, a river of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard.

Pictures and full story…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — With the help of his kids and neighbors, Billy Ray Powers built more than just a snowman — they’ve dubbed his 16-plus-foot-tall creation “Snowzilla.”

After using up all the snow in the family’s yard, they turned to neighbors’ yards and carried buckets on sleds. They hand-packed the snowman like an ice-cream cone.

“It’s solid ice,” he said. “I put the arms in with my power drill.”

It took a month to complete the project. It was too big to use buttons for its eyes, so Snowzilla gazes over the neighborhood from beer bottles.

[read story at CNN]

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Forty drunken Santas rampaged through central Auckland, stealing from stores and assaulting security guards, the New Zealand Herald reported on Sunday, in a protest against the commercialization of Christmas.

Police said some of the Santas threw beer bottles, one tried to climb the mooring rope of a cruise ship and a security guard was punched during the fracas.

“They came in, said ‘Merry Christmas’ and then helped themselves,” convenience store staff member Changa Manakynda told the Herald, which reported the Santas also attacked a Christmas tree.

The event organizer, Alex Dyer, had warned the antics would only stop when someone was arrested, said the Herald, which linked the incident to “Santarchy.”

Santarchy (www.santarchy.com) and online encyclopedia wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) record protests going back around 10 years in the United States, with participants marking Christmas in anti-commercial manner involving street theater, pranks and public drunkenness.

Police said identification was a key issue as they tried to sort out which of the 40 men and women had done what.

“With a number of people dressed in the same outfit, it was difficult for any witnesses to confirm the identity of who was doing what,” Senior Sergeant Matt Rogers told Reuters.

[via Reuters]

Also, see The Rigister.

TOKYO (Reuters) – An aging Japanese thief felt the gravity of his crime when the weight of his loot tripped him up during his attempted getaway.

The 70-year-old man walked into a post office in the city of Kawagoe, just north of Tokyo, late Friday and poured liquid over the floor, saying he would set off an explosion if he wasn’t given money.

A clerk filled a paper bag the man was carrying with coins worth some 250,000 yen ($2,000) and weighing 22 pounds. As the man ran off, the bag broke under the weight and he stumbled and fell as he tried to pick up the money.

Tsugio Chigira, deputy head of the Kawagoe police station, said the man told police he needed the money to pay back debts.

“He didn’t really want to be a robber, but felt he had no choice.”

[via Reuters]

BOSTON (Reuters) – Are diamonds really forever?

An anonymous gift-giver left a $15,000 diamond engagement ring to the owner of an unlocked car in western Massachusetts with a typed note hinting at a broken heart.

“Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you,” the note said.

The three-diamond ring with a white-gold band appeared on the seat of the man’s car at a train station in Westborough, about 30 miles west of Boston, on December 7, police said. Four days later, the man reported it to police.

[via Reuters]

In episode one you’ll hear the “Karnie Christmas Classics”; Randolf the One-Armed Karnie, Carnie Wonderland, Pitchmen We Have Heard on High, 12 Karnie Days of Christmas, The Carnival is Coming to Town &Randolf (‘munk re-mix).

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German woman lost more than 5,000 euros ($6,000) after a would-be soothsayer convinced her she was possessed by evil spirits and prescribed an expensive exorcism as a remedy, authorities said Wednesday.

Police in the central town of Northeim said the 44-year-old was told she was possessed by a young woman who read her palm at a Christmas market.

The victim became agitated and agreed to an exorcism at her home the following day, for which she paid the ‘seer’ more than 5,000 euros in cash and jewelry.

The exorcist then gave her more bad news — there were other spirits that needed casting out.

“That’s when a bad feeling crept over the victim,” the police said in a statement. “She informed the police forthwith.”

Police have arrested a 17-year-old woman from former Yugoslavia. The victim’s money and jewelry have been returned.

[via Reuters]

Ever felt your prayers went unanswered? Try sending a letter to God and chances are it will end up — as many do each year — at an Israeli post office in Jerusalem, where they are read and sent on to the holy Western Wall.

The letters come from all over the world in a host of languages. The elderly ask for good health. Others seek heavenly remedies for debts, relationship assistance, or help finding jobs. Children mainly ask God to spring them from homework assignments. The trickle of requests turns into a flood around Christmas and the Jewish holidays.

One writer asked God to answer a friend’s prayers, and in a postscript gives the friend’s address, adding, “But you knew that.”

Read more

Read on…

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Spending too much of her time at work trying to rescue a squirrel led to a library worker being suspended from her job.

Cindee Goetz said she was suspended last week after she contacted a friend who owns an animal-removal business about the squirrel trapped in the ceiling of a LaPorte County Public Library branch.

…

“I don’t want that squirrel to die, either, but I can’t allow a live animal to be headquartered in that building,” (Judy) Hamilton said. “It’s a severe situation I can’t ignore. I’m not running a squirrel condominium here.”

“I don’t make a lot, and whatever I make that’s expendable goes toward helping animals,” (Goetz) said. “But I’m dedicated to doing it.”

Read full story.

Two Swiss women who spent a week at a Manhattan hotel have filed a lawsuit saying they had a lousy time trying to sleep there because they were bitten by bedbugs.

Ksenija Knezevic, of Zurich, and Marlies Barisic, of Kreuzlingen, both in their early 30s, say the bloodsucking insects began attacking the night they checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania in September.

…

“They were eaten alive,” Ebanks said Wednesday.

Read Story.

GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – A man wearing only socks was arrested along a busy street after witnesses said he fired a gun at afternoon traffic.

…

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Eddie Cox, who was driving home from the bank when he saw the naked gunman in this Memphis suburb.

Read story.

LONDON (Reuters) – Cows belching and breaking wind cause methane pollution but scientists say they have developed a diet to make pastures smell like roses — almost.

“In some experiments we get a 70 percent decrease (in methane emissions), which is quite staggering,” biochemist John Wallace told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Wallace, leader of the microbial biochemistry group at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, said the secret to sweeter-smelling cows is a food additive based on fumaric acid, a naturally occurring chemical essential to respiration of animal and vegetable tissues.

continue story…

Read story.

VERSHIRE, Vt. – A Massachusetts man was shot while using the outhouse at his family’s camp by a boy who was target shooting.

Chris Flanagan, 41, of Holliston, Mass., was standing in the outhouse on Saturday morning when he was hit in the chest by a bullet that came through the door.

Police said the shot was fired from a .22-caliber rifle used by a young relative. They declined to give the relationship between the two.

[continue story...]

MOSTAR, Bosnia (Reuters) – Bosnia’s southern town of Mostar unveiled the world’s first statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee on Saturday, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups.

The life-size 1.68 meter (5ft 7in) bronze statue is situated in Mostar’s central park, close to the former front line of Bosnia’s 1992-95 civil war. A decade after the conflict, Mostar’s Muslim and Croat inhabitants remain deeply split.

Unveiled by its initiators, Veselin Gatalo and Nino Raspudic of Mostar’s Urban Movement, the statue portrays the Chinese-American actor, who died 32 years ago, in a typical defensive fighting position.

“This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” Gatalo said. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”

[continue story...]

More than 35 tons of tomatoes took a bruising Sunday when a semi flipped on an interstate ramp, closing a Downtown (indianapolis) artery for nearly eight hours.

The accident happened about 11:30 a.m. on the ramp from northbound I-65/70 to eastbound I-70, an area known as the north split, said an Indiana State Police spokesman.

He said the truck, carrying 77,000 pounds of tomatoes, likely overturned because it was going too fast.

…

“Well, it’s juicy tomatoes,” Short said. “Just imagine 30,000 smashed tomatoes.”

[see story]

It’s the kind of rescue that can only happen around the holidays. Two people were trapped in a burning car in the western suburbs when bystanders pulled them free, one of them using a frozen turkey he just bought to smash the glass.

More…

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Sam, the tiny dog whose hairless body and crooked teeth earned him a reputation as the World’s Ugliest Dog, has died.

The pooch died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, his owner said.

“I don’t think there’ll ever be another Sam,” Susie Lockheed said, adding: “Some people would think that’s a good thing.”

[check out the story & video]

In a full-bodied blend of blasphemy and ingenuity, a Los Angeles couple is seeking to market a wine called “Jesus Juice” that bears a label showing a Michael Jackson-like figure appearing to be crucified.

Moonwalk this way to read the full story…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A young woman robbed four banks in Washington’s suburbs without ever interrupting conversations her cell phone, a sheriff’s spokesman said on Friday.

In the most recent heist, the woman, with sunglasses casually pushed up on her dark hair and a mobile phone at her ear, walked up to a bank teller in Ashburn, Virginia, on November 4 and opened her purse to show a handgun and a note demanding cash, said Loudoun County sheriff’s spokesman Kraig Troxell.

“During the entire sequence, she was on her cell phone,” Troxell said by telephone. “When we compared it with other robberies that have occurred in the area, we determined she was involved in three other robberies. … In those cases, she was also on the cell phone.”

[continue story...]

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) – A hand grenade being used instead of a ball in a game of catch exploded early on Saturday killing three youths in this Bosnian town, police and news agencies said.

Two youths aged 19 and 20, one of them from neighboring Croatia, were killed instantly while a 20-year-old woman died on her way to hospital, police said. Her sister was slightly injured but two other youths suffered serious injuries.

[continue story...]

A British tourist described last night the horrifying moment when he realised his luxury cruise line was under gun and grenade attack from pirates, 100 miles off the coast of Somalia.

“I heard what sounded like a crack from outside [the ship] at 5.50am,” said Norman Fisher, 55, a solicitor from north London, one of 20 Britons on board the Seabourn Spirit which was carrying 312 passengers and crew.

“I looked out the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it, about 20 yards away. Two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher. They were firing the rifle and then they fired the rocket launcher twice.”

Mr Fisher said that at least one rocket hit the Spirit, one of the most luxurious liners in the world. The rocket broke through the side of the liner into a passenger’s suite.

“The couple were in there at the time, so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience,” said Mr Fisher. “Fortunately they weren’t hurt, but you can just imagine what it would have been like if they had been standing up, because the cabin was very badly damaged.”

more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dozens of children at a Baltimore-area elementary school were stung by bees after stumbling upon them during a science lesson on Thursday, fire department officials said.

The entire second-grade class of about 100 students at Deep Creek Elementary School was studying trees in nearby woods when one child disturbed a nest of bees.

The distressed bees stung 47 children, two of whom suffered a mild allergic reaction.

“There was a bit of pandemonium at the school for a while, but nobody was seriously hurt,” said a fire department spokeswoman, adding that classes continued.

Seven children went home with their parents, while the other 40 were taken to the hospital as a precaution, she said.

[via Reuters]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch dentist who chopped off his finger and then faked a car crash before claiming 1.8 million euros ($2.2 million) from insurers was given a suspended sentence and fined by a court Thursday.

The man, aged 50, mutilated himself and crashed his car into a tree in Belgium in the hope of convincing insurers that the steering wheel had inflicted the injury, the court said.

However, the shape of the cut on his index finger, the level of anaesthetic in his blood and the absence of skid marks on the road suggested otherwise.

“It was not an accident but an amputation he carried out himself, or he had someone do it for him,” a court spokeswoman said.

The dentist was fined 25,000 euros and received a six-month suspended jail sentence with 240 hours community service.

[via Reuters]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Colorado man who had a panic attack when he found he was glued to a toilet seat in a Home Depot restroom has sued the home improvement giant for negligence, saying staff ignored his plight.

Retired electrical engineer Bob Dougherty, 57, said on Thursday he was stuck in the stall with his pants down for about 20 minutes and that two years after the 2003 incident he was suffering from post-traumatic stress, which has triggered diabetes and heart complications.

“I have these nightmares every night where I am locked in this dark room, with no windows, no doors, no fresh air, no route for escape. I wake up in these cold sweats,” Dougherty said.

Spokesmen for Home Depot Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

[continue story...]

PORT MORESBY (Reuters) – Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested 320 people for practicing sorcery and religious cults, the National newspaper reported Thursday.

Belief in sorcery is widespread in this jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s.

Police raided three villages Monday near the city of Lae on the north coast and arrested leaders of a “cargo cult” and their followers, the newspaper said. Those arrested were aged between 20 and 70.

Cargo cults believe that Western goods or cargo, first encountered through missionaries and explorers, are created by ancestral spirits. They have been known to build airstrips in the jungles in the belief that planes would land with cargo.

[continue story...]

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — Numerous sightings of massive fireballs in the skies over Germany this week have led to an upsurge in reports of UFOs, but scientists believe the cause could be a bizarre annual meteor blitz.

According to the Web site of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such fireballs have been reported elsewhere in the world and may also be due to the fact that the Earth is now orbiting through a swarm of space debris.

Many people in Germany have noticed the fireballs, said Werner Walter, an amateur astronomer in Mannheim who runs a Web site on unexplained astronomical phenomena and a hotline for reports on unidentified flying objects (UFO).

“The last reported sighting was yesterday at 7:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) in a corridor near the border of the Netherlands,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “This week we have had at least 15 emails and phone calls from people reporting these fireballs,” he said. “Some people said it looks like something out of a science fiction horror film.”

In addition to a possible meteor streak, Walter said amateur and professional astronomers were considering the possibility that the blitz was the result of a “falling satellite or UFOs.” “It is possible that they are UFOs, which are after all things which we cannot explain,” he said.

[continue story...]

Scientists digging in a remote Indonesian cave have uncovered a jaw bone that they say adds more evidence that a tiny prehistoric Hobbit-like species once existed.

The jaw is from the ninth individual believed to have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. The bones are in a wet cave on the on the island of Flores in the eastern limb of the Indonesian archipelago, near Australia.

More…

A struggle between a Burmese python and an American alligator has left both creatures dead in a Florida swamp.

A photo taken by wildlife researcher Michael Barron shows the hindquarters of the 2m alligator protruding from the belly of the 4m python after the snake apparently exploded as it tried to digest its victim, the Miami Herald reported.

The Burmese python population has exploded in the Florida Everglades as owners dump unwanted pets.

Scientists have documented four encounters between pythons snakes and alligators in the last three years.

More…

SALEM, Mass. — Three would-be ghost busters appeared in court in Salem Wednesday after trespassing on old hospital grounds that the men believe are haunted.

NewsCenter 5′s Jack Harper reported that Matthew Selecky, Matthew Doherty and Ron Gordon took a video camera to the old Danvers State Hospital.

“Many people have said that it was haunted, and we just wanted to check it out. We got caught for trespassing,” Selecky said.

The three men were arraigned on trespassing charges. Each admits a fascination with ghosts and believes there are spirits at the hospital.

[continue story...]

A SUNSHINE Coast university student will need to have an artificial lens fitted to his right eye after it was speared by a wild darter bird perched on a railing at Australia Zoo at Beerwah.

The freak accident happened last Thursday in the open wetlands area of the zoo, which is frequented by wild ducks, herons and other waterbirds.

Similar to a cormorant, the darter’s thin beak popped Owen Vagg’s eye cornea and lens, releasing his eye fluid.

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A woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing a friend during an exorcism ritual, police said Thursday.

Justice Claudette Singh imposed the sentence late Wednesday, saying Patricia Alvez, 42, had been convicted “of a shocking crime which claimed the life of a woman she befriended.”

A 12-member jury convicted Alvez of manslaughter last week for killing Kamille Seenauth, 34, on Feb. 15, 2002. She allegedly beat Seenauth with an iron bar in an attempt to drive evil spirits out of her.

[continue story...]

A Chatsworth policeman has been implicated in the killing of a young woman, who was whipped to death in an eight-hour exorcism ritual.

The family of 20-year-old Farhana Khan on Monday told the Daily News a policeman was one of the spiritual leaders who had conducted the exorcism. They say the policeman is based at Chatsworth.

Inspector Collin Chetty of the Bayview police confirmed that a policeman had been questioned about 20-year-old Khan’s death.

He said their detectives were also questioning witnesses and family members, but no arrests had been made.

“If we find the policeman played a part in the girl’s murder, he will be arrested,” said Chetty.

[continue story...]

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Florida A crocodile caused quite a scare in a North Miami Beach, Florida neighborhood when it was found in a resident’s garage.

Dr. Morton Zisk’s wife found the large croc Wednesday under a car in his garage.

“She came out of the carport to get the morning newspaper and saw the alligator, came back in and said to me, ‘We got a problem,’ and I said, ‘What?’ She said there’s an alligator in the carport.’ I thought she was kidding because we went though the exact same thing 15 years ago, exactly the same way,” said Zisk.

[continue story...]

After reports of an alligator in a Pike county pond, several people spent Monday searching for the animal.

City officials who work in the area everyday say an alligator could be possible, but they have seen a beaver on several occassions that could be mistaken for an alligator.

“Looking at it on the inside of the water, it looks just like an alligator. It’s probably three or three and a half feet long,” said Ricky Slone, a city employee.

“If you look up and down both ponds, you’ll see where the beavers have been hard at work,” said Pike County Fire Chief Tommy Hall.

Officials said they will continue to search the waters to make sure there are no alligators, and if anyone see anything unusual they urge citizens to report it immediately.

[source]

Did you get the e-mail with images of the big alligator purported to have been caught swimming down the street in New Orleans?

You guessed it. An urban myth (but a good one, no?).

[continue story...]

ST. BLAZEY, England: The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals warned people in St. Blazey, England, to be on the lookout for an alligator sighted in an area pond.

The society issued the warning to the Cornish town when Stacey Clayton said she spotted a 2-foot gator while she and her 7-month-old daughter fed ducks in a pond.

“I noticed this big log in the water, but as I got closer I saw its eyes,” Clayton told The London Telegraph. “I wasn’t sure whether it was alive so I threw a stone near it. It lifted its head and looked straight at me.”

While the society warned area residents to be on the lookout for the gator, it also said the creature that likely once was a pet may have already died from the cold.

[source]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities on Tuesday dismissed a claim that a wrangler had nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator named “Reggie” from a city lake, where he had been dumped several months ago and repeatedly avoided capture.

Earlier Tuesday, a man claiming to be wrangler Jay Young, who had been hired by the city, told several media outlets, including The Associated Press, that he had caught the alligator overnight.

That story was cast into doubt when the promised delivery of the alligator to the Los Angeles Zoo never happened.

“To the best of my knowledge and all the reports I have received this morning, it was a hoax,” said Ron Berkowitz, the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks superintendent, who supervises the area that includes the lake. “I called the zoo to verify and the gator is not there. I called the rangers, the city council office and my staff at the lake. There was no capture.”

[continue story...]

TWO CAPE Town men had a hair-raising encounter with a great white shark when the predator attacked the surfski of one of the paddlers at the weekend.

Three hours before Trevor Wright’s ordeal at Sunny Cove, Fish Hoek, the beach was closed because of a shark sighting.

Wright and his paddling partner Alan Weston – both aged 54 – did not know this when they went out on the water on Saturday afternoon.

Shortly after they set off near Sunny Cove station, Wright’s surfski was attacked by what was estimated to be a four-metre-long shark. He escaped unscathed.

The attack took place about 100m from where Fish Hoek resident Tyna Webb, 77, was attacked in November last year.

[see story]

The naked swimmers were in the water for 14 hours and completed one length of the loch, before high swell and low temperatures forced them to reconsider.

The relay, organised by British Naturism, was scheduled to complete three lengths between Fort Augustus and Lochend, covering 69 miles.

British Naturism president Pat Thompson said the weather was “atrocious”.

The team, which included a writer, a policeman and a housewife, had hoped to raise more than £2,000 for Cancer Research UK.

[continue story...]

The giant lizard dines on stray cats. It menaces people with its hiss, and, with each sighting, the mystery around it grows.

At least, that’s what the neighbors say.

The mini-Godzilla — a Nile monitor lizard — has been lurking around their Opal Court cul-de-sac for months, possibly years. They have enough grainy photos of the African predator to prove it.

“Interested?” one man asks from a door that he has cracked open just far enough to pop out his head.

He briefly disappears inside with a terse, “Stay right where you are.” He then returns with a fuzzy printout of his next-door neighbor’s fence. The nearly 3-foot lizard is a brown streak that blends into the fence.

The man said he has seen the monitor once. His wife has seen it twice.

“Animal control didn’t really want to talk about it,” the man says. “It was April 8.”

Kristen Hathaway remembers that day well. The 20-year-old was the first to spot the monitor while looking for her Chihuahua pup.

“I was like ‘Kiwi, come here,’ ” Hathaway said. She didn’t have her glasses on and mistook the lizard for her dog. Then she got closer.

“I was like, OK, that’s not my dog,” Hathaway said. Then she ran — for a camera.

“No one is going to believe that this thing is in my cul-de-sac, so that’s why I took pictures,” she said.

[continue story...]

VIDEO footage of bright balls of light forming a crop circle will be shown to Western Australians during a series of seminars on the connection between crop circle formation and contact with alien intelligence.

The seminars, to be delivered by two of world’s leading crop circle and alien contact researchers, Janet Ossebaard and Mary Rodwell, are the first of their kind in Australia.ºº

Ms Ossebaard, director for the Dutch Centre for Crop Circle Studies (DCCCS), author and producer of award winning documentaries on the subject, said crop circles remain an unexplained enigma.

“What we do know is that crop circles have been reported in many countries all over the world and found in mediums such as wheat, barley, canola, grass, corn/maize, trees, ice, rice paddies and linseed,” Ms Ossebaard said.

“We also know they are formed in just a few seconds as a result of light, sound and magnetism interacting with plants to form amazing geometric patterns.”

“What we don‚t know for certain is who is making them and why.”

Ms Ossebaard said contrary to common belief scientists have found people haven’t made the majority of circles.

Many are claimed each year, but only very few are actually man-made.

[continue story...]

A bright green sign along a lonely country road in southwestern Puerto Rico proudly displays a silhouette of a flying saucer and two words: “Extraterrestrial Route.”

Most Puerto Ricans laughed when a horse farmer installed the sign on his property at the request of Reynaldo Rios, a local elementary school teacher who says he’s been communicating with alien visitors to this U.S. territory since he was a child.

Rios, a 39-year-old with a goatee and a shock of dark hair, won’t be ignored. With the blessing of a local government desperate for tourist dollars, he’s dedicated himself to building the UFO landing strip.

“I can’t say exactly when they will come, but I know it will happen,” Rios said. “I want to keep believing in my dreams.”

[continue story at CNN...]

An exorcism carried out by spiritual healers last week went horribly wrong when a 20-year-old Chatsworth woman died after the procedure.

Farhana Essop’s family claims that she went through an eight-hour whipping ordeal when two spiritual healers attempted to remove “evil spirits” from her.

[continue story...]

ALFRED, Ont. (CP) – Cows do it, even the odd deer or moose, but it’s a rare sight to see a tiger lying in the middle of an Ontario road.

But that’s what a driver near the town of Wendover, east of Ottawa, reported to police.

Turns out the large cat had ambled away from its enclosure at nearby Papanack Zoo.

[continue story...]

A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

“The biggest treasure in history has been located,” said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (£5.6bn).

[see story]

A California man who claimed he was fleeing flesh-eating aliens when he caused a fatal car crash was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison Monday after a jury rejected his mental deficiency claims in July.

Scott Krause, 39, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder stemming from the January 2004 death of UPS carrier Drew Reynolds, 34, who was on duty when Krause drove a stolen vehicle into Reynolds’ service truck.

With the plea entered, a Nevada County jury was left to decide whether Krause, who was high on methamphetamine and in the midst of a day-long crime spree, was legally sane when the incident occurred.

The panel heard evidence from the defense that the father of three believed “man-eating subterranean beings” that he referred to as “hemadrones” were pursuing him when the crash occurred.

[continue story...]

In a brief statement, Northern Territory police today said that the “provisional cause of death has been given as multiple injuries consistent with a crocodile attack”.

…

Police and wildlife authorities are hunting a 13-foot crocodile suspected of the attack and plan to move it to a more remote area or shoot it.

[see story]

ESSEX — Officials at Circus Smirkus, Vermont’s premier circus organization, said Tuesday they were investigating how the organization fell into the “very precarious position” that forced a sudden shutdown of operations last week.

As Circus Smirkus evaluated its situation, a group of circus parents said it will strive to bring a new vision of circus training and performance to would-be students.

“We want very much for the community to have it,” said Ron Redmond, a member of the parent group, referring to a new circus training program. “We want to bring the magic of circus to the community so they can be bitten by the bug.”

[continue story...]

An enterprising Karoo hotelier has decided that his establishment’s ghosts must pay for their other-worldly board and lodging.

There are rumoured to be poltergeists, the ghost of a woman who hanged herself in her lonely hotel room, as well as paintings that change character at various times of the month.

Donald Lamont, manager of the Swartberg Hotel in Prince Albert, a town at the foot of the majestic Swartberg Pass, said he, himself, had not seen any manifestations, but that several staff and guests had sworn they had had ghostly experiences.

However, a receptionist at the hotel, which was built in 1886, has told of seeing a vase flying across a room, leaving behind the flowers it had contained!

There are two huge oil paintings in the hotel restaurant and staff and guests alike have sworn these have changed character – objects depicted in the art works have moved position – at certain times of the lunar month.

[continue story...]

A university has launched a degree course in the hunt for alien life, which it says is a UK first.

The University of Glamorgan said it has launched the UK’s first undergraduate course in astrobiology – the search for life beyond Earth.

New recruits signed up to the course, held at the University of Glamorgan in South Wales, this week.

[from Virgin.net]

Khao Lak – Ghosts of tsunami victims no longer haunt Thailand’s beaches, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday.

Many visitors, especially Asian tourists, have shunned beaches hit by the December 26 tsunami for fear of ghosts, which many Thais have reported hearing or seeing after the deadly waves struck.

But Thaksin, who was in the hardest-hit province of Phang Nga for a special cabinet meeting, said the spirits of the dead had already been reborn in line with Buddhist belief.

“I slept well last night,” said Thaksin.

“My daughter called and asked me to pray before going to bed and I told her that all of the spirits were already reborn. I have no amulets to ward off ghosts,” he said.

Nearly 5 400 people were killed by the tsunami in Thailand, roughly half of them believed to be foreign holidaymakers.

[via News24]

THEY have been the scene of strange sightings, unexplained noises and ghostly goings-on since they were discovered 20 years ago.

Dozens of accounts of spooky events in Edinburgh’s 17th-century underground vaults have led to them being described as one of Britain’s most haunted places.

Now two backpackers believe they have photographic proof ghosts prowl the gloomy corridors.

…continue story

Dolores Brown and Diana Jacobs of Casa Grande had an invitation to stop by and investigate the three historic buildings that make up the museum on Florence Boulevard. What they say they found was a lot of visitors, many who have stayed beyond their expiration dates.

The two women run the Southwestern version of “Ghostbusters.” The “Ghost Sweepers,” as they call themselves, are a kinder and gentler breed of spirit seekers.

They use their skill and training, combined with guidance from angels, holy water, the 23rd Psalm, prayers, crystals, their love and “expanded hearts” to help the spirits move on to a better place, they said.

…continue story

Mexico City, Aug. 30 (CNA/CWNews.com) – At the recent National Congress of Exorcists held at the headquarters of the Mexican bishops’ conference, organizers revealed that up to five exorcisms per day are taking place in the country.

The number of daily exorcisms has been climbing since the 1960s, according to researchers. In the central Federal District of Mexico alone there are eight priests authorized by the Holy See to perform exorcisms in order to expel demons in the name of Jesus according to the rites and norms of the Catholic Church.

One these priests is Father Pedro Mendoza, who noted that there is one exorcist “per vicariate (of the archdiocese) and we have four or five cases every day. We have a day of prayer for liberation with about 30 or 40 people.” He added: “It’s a special liturgy with special prayers of the Church which must be followed by the exorcist, almost like the celebration of a sacrament.”

Another priest, Father Abel Lopez, said that when a person is possessed by the devil, it becomes apparent in his way of behaving and speaking, as the person’s tone of voice tends to be more aggressive. Nevertheless, several scientific specialists are needed in order to determine if a person is possessed. “So the bishop has to send psychologists, psychiatrists, and doctors to give a diagnosis and to decide whether or not the person is possessed,” Father Lopez stated.

[see story]

Perhaps you thought Hurricanes were natural and somewhat random events that have occurred for ages untold. True, but now Hurricanes are angrier, because you won’t stop buying cars and ride public transportation. This particular Hurricane was angry at Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour for not believing in Global Warming, so it decided to attack Louisiana and kill all the people that could not leave because they didn’t own cars and depended upon public transportation.

You see, hurricanes are now clear evidence of Global Warming. And if one hits you, it’s a Republican’s fault. The harsh winter many of us had last year was also clear evidence of Global Warming. As are…

…continue story

Abdullah Hashem is still making movies, but this time the location is a little different and the subject much more serious.

A year ago Hashem wrapped up production on the movie “Apache Tears,” which used Mooresville and central Indiana for many of the scenes. Since then he has been working on a documentary about the Raelians, a religious group often called a cult, that believes the human race was started through genetic manipulation by extraterrestrials.

Hashem hopes to discredit the group and ultimately cause it to disband.

The Raelians first came to Hashem’s attention several years ago when they claimed to have cloned a baby named Eve. They have never produced the child for genetic testing to show if this is true, according to various news reports.

Hashem, a 2001 Mooresville High School graduate and IUPUI student, said it was then that he began following them in the news.

Many of their activities, which Hashem says include brainwashing members and using sex as coercion to gain access to its members’ finances, prompted him to take action.

“I’m not a religious nut, but according to my beliefs, when people wear shirts that say there is no God, I have to do something,” Hashem said.

[continue story]

Visit the film website at raelexposed.com.

Utter Oddness Cow Jumping Over The Moon Merchandise

TARENTUM, Pa. — Crocus, a 2-foot pet alligator escaped from his backyard enclosure, but was captured by a girl who used what she learned on a nature TV program.

Nicki Hilliard and several friends saw the animal swimming in the Allegheny River.

Hilliard said she learned how to catch the animals safely by watching the television show “Crocodile Hunter.” The secret is to grab the animal’s snout and hold its mouth closed.

The kids put the animal in a beverage cooler and took it to the police station, where it was locked inside a cell until owner Belinda Thomson arrived to claim it.

Thompson said neighborhood cats opened the fence in her back yard, enabling Crocus to escape.

[from the Washington Post]

NENAHNEZAD — A reported “Bigfoot” sighting more than a week ago in Nenahnezad has been dismissed by Navajo Nation Police.

According to Lt. Clarence Bilagody of the Navajo Nation Police, Shiprock District, residents said they had witnessed up to three Bigfoot-like creatures roaming a field.

“Yeah, we had that report come in to the office. Some people out there said they saw something hairy,” he said.
Contrary to rumors, the animals did not attack any livestock, according to police.

A member of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Navajo Nation Police took a cast of the footprints left by the alleged Bigfoot.

An analysis conducted by police and Navajo Nation Rangers concluded the animals seen in the field were not the elusive creatures residents thought they were.

“It’s a bear track, no such thing as Bigfoot,” said Capt. Douglas Joe of the Criminal Investigations Division.
According to William Tsosie of Shiprock, Bigfoot doesn’t exist in Navajo culture, per se, but “Yeí’tso,” is a giant, oafish creature similar to the Anglo concept of Bigfoot.

“It means really monstrous,” he said.

Wallace Charley of Shiprock, said according to Navajo legend, Yeí’tso is a “people-eating monster.” He noted the creature is also thought to assist in bringing rain to the Navajo people.

[continue story]

WINTER HAVEN — It’s had more sightings than Elvis.

They call it Yeti in Nepal, Yowie in Australia and Sasquatch in Canada. In Florida, it’s called Swamp Ape, Skunk Ape, Stink Ape or Stink Man. More plainly put, Bigfoot.

For one man, finding the creature has become like searching for the Holy Grail, and he is teaming up with other believers the first week in November for a field research class through Florida Keys Community College. He hopes to bring back proof of its existence.

“I know it’s there. I know it on several levels,” said Scott Marlowe, a founder of Pangea Institute in Winter Haven and instructor of an online class in cryptozoology, the study of creatures that may or may not exist, through Florida Keys Community College.

[see Orlando Sentinel]

The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina prompted ABC TV Thursday to pull its commercials for the new sci-fi series Invasion.

Invasion begins with aliens invading Florida during a hurricane, TV Week reported on its Web site.

So far, ABC has not said anything about changing Invasion’s Sept. 21 premiere date. But the network released a statement saying adjustments are ongoing across the board to make sure all programming is sensitive to Katrina’s victims.

First and foremost, our thoughts go out to all those affected by this tragedy, the network’s statement read. As with anything as serious as this we are taking great efforts to assess sensitivities with regard to our series. We are currently looking at all our programming and marketing efforts with this in mind. Our changes and adjustments are ongoing.

[from Web India 123. See also, JSOnline.]

If you’re tired of high gas prices, you know that the thought has crossed your mind. But remember, stealing is wrong.

Check out the merchandise.

(West Haven-AP, Aug. 17, 2005 7:30 AM) _ West Haven police say they arrested more than a dozen people who broke into an old factory looking for ghosts.

Police say the group broke into the old American Buckle Company factory on Campbell Avenue early Monday. The building is apparently on some Web site that describes the factory as one of the city’s most ghost-ridden buildings.

Police say it wasn’t getting into the spirit of things that led to the arrests. Some of the ghost hunters apparently got into some spirits, stealing liquor from a closed restaurant next to the factory.

[via WTNH]

MEADVILLE, Pa. – Colette MacLees is looking for more than dust bunnies when she sweeps through a house.

MacLees, 51, of Meadville, a housewife and mother of adult daughters, is a paranormal investigator and wants to start her own chapter of ghost chasers in northwestern Pennsylvania.

“I always felt the house I grew up in was haunted, although there are people who will disagree with that. All my life, strange things have happened to me that I couldn’t explain,” MacLees said.

But she began chasing ghosts in earnest about two years ago after a cousin was killed in a car accident.

“I woke up in the middle of the night and could smell his cologne,” MacLees said. “I got on the Internet and began checking things like that out and learning more.”

[see story]

Former Bracknell Town Mayor Jennie McCraken was harassed by the ghost for the first year of living at their former Binfield house.

She eventually turned to family friend Terry Walters – an amateur exorcist – to rid them of the spooky serpent.

And the wife of leading Bracknell Forest Borough councillor Iain McCracken added that the experience turned her into a firm believer in the paranormal.

She said: “I was open-minded about it before, having never seen a ghost, but after this experience I am definitely not sceptical any more.

[see story]

Kolkata: Steeped in superstition, a farmer in a West Bengal village resorted to exorcism to cure his ailing daughter but the black magic rituals only ended up killing her.

Ashok Bag of Ranghat village in North 24 Parganas district adjoining Kolkata beat his seven-year-old sick daughter with a broomstick believing she was possessed, police said Wednesday.

The girl was earlier taken to an exorcist and subjected to some bizarre rituals that worsened her condition. Bag then brought her back to home and carried out the act of exorcism himself.

The girl had high fever and succumbed to the collective onslaught by the exorcist and her father Tuesday.

[see story, source 2]

Television programmes such as Most Haunted have spooked potential homebuyers so much that half of them now believe in ghosts and say they would not buy a house if they thought that they were sharing it with a spirit.

A recent poll commissioned by Lloyds TSB also found that a fifth of the 2,000 homebuyers sampled would only contemplate buying a house in which things went bump in the night if an exorcism or “new-age cleansing” took place.

[see story]

SPRINGDALE – It wasn’t your usual missing person description released Monday by Springdale Police.

They are looking for little Dillion clad only in blue pants, standing just two feet tall and weighing eight pounds and prone to sleeping in trees like any other Capuchin monkey.

If you spot him don’t imitate a train whistle because that is what sent the circus monkey leaping from his owner’s shoulder early Monday at the General Electric Park near the railroad tracks that cross Ohio 747.

[story]

LOS ANGELES Police in suburban Los Angeles have arrested two men they accuse of putting an alligator into a small city lake, where it’s been for nearly two weeks.

[story]

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Was there a black cat aboard the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, placed inside a cannon by a superstitious but desperate sailor as the vessel was sinking?

Conservators had hoped to verify the legend as they worked this month to extract concretelike sediment from two cast iron, smooth-bore cannons salvaged from the ship’s turret.

[Continue reading...]

LONDON – Caged and barely clothed, eight men and women monkeyed around for the crowds Friday in an exhibit labeled “Humans” at the London Zoo.

“Warning: Humans in their Natural Environment” read the sign at the entrance to the exhibit, where the captives could be seen on a rock ledge in a bear enclosure, clad in bathing suits and pinned-on fig leaves. Some played with hula hoops, some waved.

Visitors stopped to point and laugh, and several children could be heard asking, “Why are there people in there?”

[see Yahoo!]

A cat was stomped to death in a weekend dispute between neighbors on the South Side, police said.

Chicago Police said four people — two men and two women — kicked in a door of a house in the 6500 block of South Wolcott at 9 a.m. Sunday and told two people there to turn over a PlayStation, a police spokeswoman said.

The four, carrying knives and other objects, proceeded to trash the home and stomp a black cat to death, the spokeswoman said.

[see Chicago Sun-Times]

A Table View man has found a foot at the Milnerton lagoon.

Derick van Vuuren said he had found it while out walking.

“It was just floating around in the water,” he said after making the find on Sunday.

“The cops reckon it’s a shark attack victim. But there have been no attacks on the West Coast. The last attack I remember is the one in Simon’s Town. Perhaps it was the foot that went missing from the Salt River mortuary some time ago. But that one was sawn off, apparently. This one looked like it was chewed off.”

Police spokesperson Billy Jones said the foot had been severed above the ankle. An inquest docket had been opened.

[from IOL]

Sightings of what people say are “ghosts” or “spirits” around Casa Grande are abundant. Here various residents recall their contact with the unseen or apparitions.

[see story]

YORK – Amid throngs of tourists exploring local shops and residents of York Street out for an evening stroll, a dark, hooded figure leads a curious group by the light of an old lantern.

The haunting tour guide regales the group with stories of witches, pirates, ghosts and gravestones – a unique background of our small New England town.

[see story]

Want to see haunted places in Lake and Porter counties — like Ghost Road, the haunted hotels and the site of a circus train wreck that killed 86 people?

The Northwest Indiana Chapter of the Indiana Ghost Trackers is inviting the public to come along during the fifth year of spine-chilling Ghost Tours.

[see Northwest Indiana News]

As paranormal investigators, Hall, Sharon Gallant, Michelle Carter, and Brenda Woodman track down spirits in private homes, businesses, and graveyards. The group does not charge for its services, which include the use of digital cameras, electronic voice phenomenon (EVP), pendulums, and dousing rods in an attempt to prove the spirits’ existence.

“We do it because it helps us show other people that when you die you do live on – in another dimension,” Hall said. “But you do live on – on another level of consciousness.”

[see story]

Alligator mystery solved.

Johnson County Animal Control officials say an alligator found in a White River Township retention pond was on the lam from a home in which he was being rehabilitated for transport to a Florida alligator camp.

Only the alligator decided to check out some Hoosier scenery before leaving and apparently escaped from the home sometime Sunday, said Animal Control Warden Shawn Donovan.

[see The Indianapolis Star]

Philip J. Klass, 85, an aviation journalist who investigated UFO sightings and wrote books debunking reports of visits from outer space, died Aug. 9 at a nursing facility in Cocoa, Fla. He had cancer.

[see Daily Herald]

Manila, Philippines – Lawmakers have joined the growing clamor for the House ethics committee to probe the involvement of some of their colleagues in the exorcism rite at the start of the impeachment hearings, even as they expressed belief that Fr. Robert Reyes should be censured by the Church for conducting the ceremony.

Reps. Mauricio Domogan (Lakas,Baguio City) and Douglas Cagas (NPC,Davao del Sur) said the rites implied a cleansing of the House of evil spirits, which is totally absurd and unfair for its members.

The solons said those involved in the rites have also undermined the sense of discernment of House members in acting on the impeachment complaint now being heard by the committee on justice.

Domogan and Cagas have joined Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin, who earlier urged the House ethics committee to look into House members who were involved in the exorcism rite on Tuesday for what he said was an abuse of the ancient Catholic rite. Locsin said the rite was a mockery of religious belief and “institutional honor essential to the House.” Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said the matter should be looked into by the House.

[see the full story]

A Medford man was committed to the state psychiatric hospital Thursday for stabbing, spray-painting and setting fire to his pet kitten.

…

In an attempt to exorcise a gray, 10-week-old kitten named Cosmo, McCray stabbed it multiple times with a small knife that folds into a cross-shaped pendant, said Sarita Glassburner, deputy district attorney for Jackson County. He then sprayed it with olive drab paint and lit its head on fire. McCray thought the cat contained “Indian spirits,” the prosecutor added.

[see story]

Bev took several pictures of each group at the tables. One shot she took she realised that one lady was missing, so she snapped another photo when she returned to the table.

The following Wednesday Bev had 60 photos printed from her camera. “I was astounded when sorting through the prints to find a white ghostly figure in one of the photos of a group.

[see Wellington Times]

The Society For Paranormal Research, a national group, have also visited Darley Dale station after a number of ghosts were spotted.

The ghostly figure of a soldier is said to haunt Rowsley and a fireman is believed to haunt the sheds at Darley Dale station.

Jack Phillips, vice-president of the paranormal group, which was at Rowsley last weekend, said: “It was absolutely fantastic. Suffice to say there was enough going on. We are going back again. It’s the strangest place I have ever been to in 20 years of paranormal investigation.”

[see Matlock Today]

“In Cumbria we have gone from 60 UFO sightings in 2003 to 40 in 2004 and none at all this year,” he lamented.

“It means that the number of people keeping their eyes on the skies is greatly diminished. There are only a handful of us now.

“We are a dying breed in this part of the country. I put it down to the end of the X-Files, a lack of military exercises in the area that would produce UFO sightings and a lack of strange phenomena.” Mr Parr has tried to keep the extraterrestrial flame alive. He has three camcorders and whips them out whenever he hears of sightings elsewhere in the country in the hope that the flying saucer in question takes a wrong turn up the M6. But it never does. He doesn’t exactly sell his subject, though. About 90 per cent of sightings, he says, are due to nocturnal military activity.

[see Telegraph]

WHITE RIVER TOWNSHIP, Ind. — Wildlife officials say a 4 1/2-foot-long alligator found near an upscale subdivision in Johnson County is most likely an abandoned pet.

“A lot of people just find out that an alligator is more trouble when it’s getting to be 3 or 4 feet long than it was when it was just a few inches,” said Russ Grunden, Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman, adding that his office fields about two calls a year on live alligators.

“It’s not unusual for it to happen around the state from time to time,” he said.

[see the Indianapolis Star]

BIRZAI, Lithuania — Security cameras at a Lithuanian grocery store have captured images of an alleged ghost lurking in its warehouse.

[see the video at NBC5]

The Delhi High Court passed an order Thursday instructing authorities to offer 2,000 rupees ($46) per cow — an average Indian’s monthly salary — to rid the city of the traffic menace.

With cows sacred to Hindus, who make up the bulk of India’s billion-plus population, an estimated 35,000 cows and buffalo roam free in the capital, sharing space with hordes of monkeys, camels and stray dogs.

[vie Reuters]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Fear grips residents of remote villages in the boundary of Jose Abad Santos town in Davao del Sur province and Glan town in Sarangani province after the leader of a cult allegedly involved in cannibalism managed to elude arrest.

[See inq7.net for the story]

[link]

Modena – The sprawling house John and Joanne McDonough have lived in since the late 1970s used to be a boarding house, and, as far as they’re concerned, it still is.

The house’s occupants don’t pay for their rooms. They take up no space, either. They never speak and, for the most part, they keep to themselves. Joanne McDonough will sometimes catch one of them from the corner of her eye, peeking around a corner of the sprawling, 14-room house.

She’s gotten used to it by now, though it’s taken time. And, after a four-day examination of her home by a team of paranormal investigators, historians and researchers – Joanne McDonough knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that hers is a haunted house.

Come October, you’ll be able to judge for yourself. The McDonoughs will be the subject of a new reality show, tentatively called “Haunted Houses,” on The Learning Channel. The idea is to have houses like theirs investigated by poltergeist professionals.

[see Times Herald-Record]

SHELBY, N.C.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, keep reading. The ghosts in Shelby want you to know what they have to share.

This is a story of days gone by in the City of Pleasant Living. It’s a story of dreams, life, death and hope for a future of pleasant living once again.

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.

“Lon Chaney Jr. and the Three Stooges played there,” said Mayor Ted Alexander.

[see Winston-Salem Journal]

You have to check out this article on The Daily News.

A former musician himself, Barry agreed with John Priest that the sounds of medieval music coming from inside the church may be a recreation of the funeral music played on the occasion of Edward, the Duke of York’s funeral. The grandson of Edward the Third, he was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and later buried at Fotheringhay.

Many, including a local Fotheringhay police sergeant, have heard the haunting music. “The emotions relating to this event may have been so powerful that they fixed an imprint of the music in the walls of the church, ” Barry said. This might be likened to modern methods of recording imprints of music onto tape or CD.

[see Exzibit]

Dan Scott Taylor Jr., who built a submarine that searched the bottoms of Loch Ness in Scotland searching for the enigma Nessie, has died. He was 65.

[see Myrtle Beach Online & The Beaufort Gazette]

Ghost hunters are looking for Port Townsend stories prior to the third annual Pacific Northwest Ghost Hunters Conference, Nov. 11-13 at Fort Worden State Park.

About 300 people are expected to register for the conference sponsored by the Amateur Ghost Hunters of Seattle-Tacoma (AGHOST). It’s the first time the conference has been staged outside of Seattle.

“Given the rich history, legend and beautiful Victorian buildings – elements lending themselves to stories of ghosts, haunted locations and unexplained mysteries – it comes as no surprise that the largest and most technologically advanced ghost-hunting group in the Pacific Northwest has chosen Port Townsend as the location for its third annual Ghost Hunting Conference,” said Joe Teeples, organization vice president.

[see Port Townsend Leader]

EXETER – There has been a considerable response to Tuesday’s article in the News-Letter about a recent UFO sighting. Interested local residents and skeptics joined UFO enthusiasts commenting from throughout the nation, and reaction was even received from a French “Ufologist” who recalled two similar sightings in Europe.

Yann Marchandin, the French “Ufologist” who contacted the News-Letter via e-mail, said there was a similar UFO sighting in Poland in 1997 and another in 1999. In both incidents, witnesses claimed to have seen large “military ship-sized” tubes, or cigar-shaped objects in the sky.

[see Exeter News]

Seeing, it’s been said, is believing.

Especially when it comes to “spirit energy.”

A.k.a. ghosts.

The soft summertime whirring of cicadias was the only sound as the sun sank over the horizon at the site of the former Massillon Pychiatric Hospital Saturday night. The sky glowed orange, shadows lengthened.

[see The Independent]

Run DMC rapper Reverend Run claims he was visited by the ghost of late bandmate Jam Master Jay only days after he was murdered.

The hip-hop star, whose real name is Jason Simmons, claims Jay visited him from beyond the grave to demand money shortly after he was shot dead in a New York recording studio in October 2002.

[see Virgin.net]

Warwickshire’s very own ‘ghostbuster’ died suddenly at the weekend.

Vic Tandy, aged 50, was a senior lecturer at Coventry University’s Business School but his real passion was searching out spooks.

Vic, along with his Coventry University colleague Tony Lawrence, worked on pioneering ghost theories, the most famous being ‘infrasound’.

He identified ‘infrasound’ as the low frequency noise just out of the range of human hearing, which causes a reaction in people that some interpret as a supernatural experience.

[see icCoventry]

A court has freed a monk and four nuns who are charged with killing a nun last month during an exorcism ritual, authorities in Romania said today.

The Appeals Court in Bucharest refused to extend arrest warrants against the suspects and ordered them to be freed, the court said in a statement.

The statement did not elaborate, but news television N24 reported that appeals judges cited procedural errors by a lower court. The five were freed from a Bucharest jail late yesterday. Today they were questioned by interrogators in the capital.

[see Ireland On-Line]

ASHLAND, MA, United States (UPI) — The town manager of a Boston suburb is not interested in inviting a ghost-buster to the town hall to check out stories of a 19th-century spirit.

The spook, known as George, is said to be the ghost of a man who hanged himself in a lockup that once existed in the Ashland building’s basement, back when the 150-year-old building was relatively new, the Boston Herald reported Thursday.

[see monstersandcritics.com]

Michael Jackson is building an airport – for aliens.

The eccentric singer reportedly came up with the idea after dreaming he met little green men from outer space.

…

“Michael wants to welcome extra-terrestrials to earth and to film the landing.”

[see Monsters and Critics]

Scientists and astronomers are getting early indications that the advanced alien civilizations may have left the physical universe and have shifted to the parallel universe. Scientists have located a sizeable chunk of the universe that seemed to be missing since back when the stars first formed. It’s floating in super-hot rivers of gas, invisible to the naked eye, surrounding galaxies like our own. Computer models now show some possibilities that our galaxy can be devastated by these invisible matter.

[see IndiaDaily]

A group of researchers in Russia claim they have solved the mystery of crop circles, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports. According to them, plants bend as a result of microwave emissions caused by lightning strikes.

[see MosNews]

DAYTONA BEACH — A day after a shark bit a 13-year-old girl on the hand in shallow waters off Zelda Boulevard, swimmers returned to the same waters to wade and bathe, including a man floating on his back around noon today in slightly deeper waters. “I go swimming here every day. It’s beautiful,” said Aiden Magee, a 60-year-old retired businessman, as he waded ashore. He had no intention of altering his routine because of the shark bite, he said.

The victim, identified by officials as Nicole Carlos, of Jupiter, remained hospitalized today in fair condition. She was injured only slightly “in the big picture,” said Scott Petersohn, Volusia County Beach Patrol spokesman. She and her family were unavailable for comment.

[see Orlando Sentinel & their follow-up]

A sick sea lion took a chunk out of a 13-year-old boy’s Boogie board this weekend off the northern end of Morro Strand State Beach in Cayucos.

Matthew Huff said the sea lion started chasing him around 5 p.m. Saturday as he surfed the waves.

[see The Tribune]

MORE people have contacted the Bracknell News UFO hotline after seeing mysterious objects in the sky above Bracknell Forest.

Myrtle Brain, of Murrellhill Lane, Binfield, saw a “flying saucer” in the sky above her home on Wednesday last week.

She said: “It was saucer shaped with lights on the bottom and a light on a dome. I was just mesmerised, absolutely mesmerised.”

She watched the object hovering above fields near her home for over 20 minutes at about 11pm.

She said: “It didn’t move at all. It just hovered there for ages and then it disappeared. It was just as if the lights went out.”

[see icBerkshire]

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]

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]

“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]

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]

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]

[see story on RelishNow]

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]

The sale of a house claimed to be haunted has been abandoned after protests by anxious neighbours, it was revealed today.

[see u.tv]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

A US OUTFIT is offering a service that will allow bloggers to beam their online diaries into deep space.

[see The Inquirer]

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]

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]

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]

POLICE are investigating the mystery slaughter of a kangaroo found decapitated in a central Queensland zoo.

[see The Daily Telegraph]

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]

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]

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:

Myrtle Beach Online
The News & Observer
NBC 4
NBC 17

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 40-year-old housewife, Jaya Majumdar, has allegedly been branded a witch and assaulted by her neighbours in Lake Gardens.

[see The Telegraph]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

[see NBC 5]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[via The Galveston County Daily News]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Athletes competing in an international triathlon are to be insured for up to £1 million in case they fall prey to the Loch Ness monster, it emerged today.

[via u.tv]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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 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.

[via Brockville Recorder & Times]

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]

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 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”.

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 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]

TAIPEI (Reuters) – It may take a strong stomach to eat curry or chocolate ice cream out of a toilet bowl, but a commode-themed restaurant in Taiwan does booming business serving up just that.

[via Reuters]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fishermen in northern Thailand have caught the biggest catfish on record — a 646-pound (293-kg) giant the size of a grizzly bear — and eaten it, the WWF and the National Geographic Society said on Wednesday.

[via Reuters]

The Chicago City Council has banned marijuana-flavored suckers and other candies after criticism they may tempt young children to experiment with drugs.

[via WebIndia123]

Not that it will totally stop it, but I surely can’t blame the city for their stance.

According to The Mirror, the words “Holy Ghost” will be dropped from religious lessons because they scare children, and the body and blood of Jesus Christ will not be described as Eucharist because it seems too cannibalistic.

[via NewKerala]

HAZARIBAGH: Can witches survive in India. Not if they hail from Palani village in Jharkhand. For here, those identified or suspected as witches are thrashed black and blue with the connivance of the local police.

[via newindpress.com]

Brian Hutto said contrary to some reports, neither he nor his brother had any bait in his pocket.

He said as they were walking to a sandbar, Craig felt a bump on his leg, and then the shark attacked.

Brian said he hit the shark repeatedly and tried to pull his brother away from its jaws.

The boys’ father waded into the water to help them, and together, the two managed to pull Craig away from the shark and get him to shore.

[via NewsChannel 5]

Next time I go to the beach I think I’ll be packing my diving knife.

For $10,000 and a brighter future for her son, Kari Smith on Wednesday became a real life pop-up ad for a virtual casino.

…

“I really want to do this,” she said. “To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I’m doing it for my son.”

Brouse didn’t understand it, either.

In his 24 years, he’s turned away a lot of customers who want to get tattoos that can’t be covered up with clothing. He and his staff spent nearly seven hours Wednesday trying to talk Smith out of it.

Her resolve won out. The one thing Brouse could do with inch-tall letters in the prominent spot was to make them less so by keeping them as close to her hairline for those occasions when bangs or a hat might be the more appropriate message.

[via Deseret News & The Salt Lake Tribune]

What is wrong with people? I don’t think I’d do that for a billion dollars, let alone the chump change of ten grand. But I guess she always has a future in the carnival.

FARMLAND, Ind. — Seven women who usually gather to play cards plan to strip down for a calendar as part of the fight against plans to tear down Randolph County’s 128-year-old courthouse.

The women ranging in age from their early 70s to older than 90 will pose nude — with strategically placed miniature replicas of the courthouse in front of them — in the fund raiser for the Save the Courthouse Fund.

“I don’t know how we’re going to look, but we’re going to pose,” 85-year-old Garnita Amburn told The Star Press of Muncie for a story today.

[via The Indianapolis Star]

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Sure, the weather’s been rather tropical this week, but it’s still surprising to come across alligators in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

A Pennsylvania man says he spotted one Monday night while driving in Butler County, outside of Pittsburgh.

[via WFTV]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The mourning parents of a traffic accident victim who visited their son’s grave near Antwerp Friday evening were shocked to find the local gravediggers enjoying their annual barbecue at the graveyard.

Workers at the cemetery in Merksem had music playing and their children were running around near the graves, De Morgen newspaper said Wednesday.

[via Reuters]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An animal rights group has called on one of the largest aquariums in the United States to stop serving fish to its visitors, likening the practice to grilling up “poodle burgers at a dog show.”

“It’s easy to think of fish as swimming vegetables but of all the places in the country where fish should get a fair shake it’s an aquarium,” said Karin Robertson, manager of the Fish Empathy Project for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

[via Reuters]

BERLIN (Reuters) – Hollywood actor Tom Cruise not only battles creatures from outer space in his latest film “War of the Worlds,” he also believes aliens really exist, he told a German newspaper Wednesday.

Asked in an interview with the tabloid daily Bild if he believed in aliens, Cruise said: “Yes, of course. Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?”

[via Reuters]

Inverness, Scotland (PRWEB) June 29, 2005 — A Police officer stationed in Inverness, Scotland, has contacted Nessie investigator William McDonald with knowledge about a 4-inch barbed tooth, found in a mutilated deer carcass at Loch Ness back in March by two American college students. The officer, who refused to be identified, stated that he was present in mid-March when the two students entered police headquarters on Perth Road in the early morning hours.

[via PRWeb]

THE usual cry among UFO experts is ‘look to the skies’, but you may actually help Mid Cheshire researchers more by looking at the ground.

Ufologist Eric Morris is asking the public and farmers to report any un-usual crop circles in fields.

Eric, 51, is carrying out an investigation on the phenomena with other members of the British UFO Studies Centre – the organisation he founded in Northwich 20 years ago.

Eric believes they may be close to finding the true cause of crop circles.

‘I wouldn’t say they’re caused by alien intelligence. What we’ve been researching over the years is to do with the weather,’ he explained.

The likely cause, according to Eric, is a phenomenon known as ‘fair-weather whirlwinds’.

[via icCheshireOnline]

A collection of 10 stories about Luton is being launched in an attempt to improve its image after it was voted “crap town” of the year last year.

[via BBC News]

God only knows if there’s life on other planets.

“War of the Worlds,’ which opens in theaters today, 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 San Gabriel Valley Tribune]

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio – Hollywood has taken interest in a suburban Cleveland woman paid to talk to the dead. Mary Ann Winkowski’s paranormal experiences as a ghostbuster for hire have inspired CBS to create “Ghost Whisperer,” starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, which is part of the network’s fall lineup.

Winkowski, a paid consultant to the show, doesn’t have a listing in the phone book, but is booked four months in advance chasing unwanted ghosts from people’s homes.

[via Tahlequah Daily Press]

Beijing – An 18-year old student celebrating the end of his school exams was attacked and killed by three lions in a zoological park in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province, state press said on Wednesday.

The student was one of 10 young men who climbed over the 2m fence surrounding the lion compound at the Northern Forestry Zoological Park near the provincial capital of Harbin on Tuesday, the Beijing News said.

The students, who had been drinking following their exams, illegally entered the zoo and climbed over the fence despite signs warning of the danger, the report said.

[via News24]

Two of the birds fly away from their exhibit. The Sedgwick County Zoo is hoping you’ll see them and call.

[via Wichita Eagle]

“I didn’t believe him,” animal control officer Sumyr Springfield said.
Then Springfield, who was first on the scene, saw the top of the kangaroo’s head. It was time to call for backup.

[via The Indianapolis Star]

Related…
Blimey, mate. It was a kangaroo

NEW DELHI – Women in an eastern Indian forest are stripping naked to distract police and to help a criminal gang avoid arrest while illegally chopping down trees, the Hindustan Times reported Tuesday.

[via Reuters]

Belgium plans to stop Boy Scouts from slaughtering chickens and other small animals at summer camp, despite Scout leaders’ defense of the practice as a lesson in wilderness survival.

[via Reuters]

Two recent shark attacks in the Florida Panhandle, including one that cost a 16-year-old boy his leg Monday, threaten to bring back the media frenzy of 2001, dubbed the “Summer of the Shark” by Time magazine.

The Carolinas are in the top five nationwide for shark violence. But unlike the attack that killed a teenaged girl Saturday, bites are rarely fatal.

[via Charlotte Observer]

A 16-year-old boy who lost a leg following the second shark attack in three days along the Florida Panhandle was in critical condition Tuesday and facing more surgery.

Craig Adam Hutto, of Lebanon, Tenn., was fishing in waist-deep water about 60 feet from shore with his brother and a friend Monday when the shark grabbed his right thigh, nearly severing the leg, said Capt. Bobby Plair of the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office.

[via The Sierra Times]

A Halloween committee has been established for Coles County, which will try to bring in more business to the area during the spook season.

During the last six months the committee has been working hard trying to get local business’ support with the upcoming Halloween festival, according to Scott Kelly, a committee member.

“We are trying to get as many people involved as we can,” said Kelly. “Our goal is to make Coles County the Halloween capital of Illinois. Our job as a committee is to advertise the festival to as many people as we can.

“Currently, Arcola’s Broomcorn Festival is the largest Halloween festival around here,” said Kelly.

[via The Daily Eastern News]

It’s not that I believe in ghosts. I’m just afraid of them.

So before I prepared for sleep at the Skagway Inn Bed and Breakfast, I took precautions. That white guest robe dangling

from the clothes stand had to go—it looked too much like a wraith. Filmy drapes? Must draw tightly to hide any glowing red eyes peering through the window. The bathroom door—better shut it, given the shenanigans with plumbing I’d heard about.

[via Alaska Magazine]

Eugene police officers and Lane County animal control officers responded to a report of a “small alligator” at large in northeast Eugene on Friday.

[via Oregon Daily Emerald]

When it comes to dabbling in the black arts, former U.S. President Bill Clinton has much in common with deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Saddam reportedly wore a stone around his neck to ward off evil. When he was ensconced in his Iraqi palaces, he summoned up the jinn (genies) to do his bidding.

According to historian Joel A. Ruth, a Voodoo sorcerer, supplied to Clinton by the exiled-by-coup John-Bertrand Aristide, once put a curse on incumbent President George W. Bush, “by manipulating a doll made in the president’s image.”

[via Canada Free Press]

John Fiedler, a stage and screen actor, who grew up in Wisconsin and won fame as the voice of Piglet in Walt Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh films, died from cancer, according to his brother, James Fiedler.

He was 80.

Fiedler died Saturday in New York; a day after the death of Paul Winchell, 82, who created the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh’s animated friend Tigger in the Disney films.

[via EiTB24]

It may not have the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, nor of the area called the Devil’s Sea by Japanese and Filipino seamen, also known for inexplicable disappearances.

But on a busy road in the shadow of the Pentland Hills lies the Covenanters’ Wood, an area that appears to possess the same magnetic characteristics. There have been eight road accidents in 12 months at exactly the same spot on the A720 Edinburgh bypass.

[via The Herald]

This 1999 graduate of Maryville High School and a classmate, Forest Gregg, have started their own touring show aptly named The Runaway Circus, and they have been from East Coast to West. Juggling, riding unicycles, clowning around, balancing and acrobatics — what they do best — is all part of the high-energy act.

The troupe now includes five members. Meghan Holtan, Shawn Lavoie and Eden Reinstein have joined in the antics, who fellow fun-seekers Johnson and Gregg have met on their incredible journey. The Loose Cabooses, a group of puppeteers and musicians, also travels and performs.

Have bus, will travel

[via The Daily Times]

An incident in which a man was seriously injured by an elephant at a circus in Ireland on Sunday (June 26th) has prompted animal rights campaigners to call for a ban on this type of use of animals. The employee of Circus New York, which was at Tramore in County Waterford, was trampled and gored by an elephant after it became unsettled. After undergoing emergency surgery at Waterford Regional Hospital the man’s condition was described as ‘serious’.

[via Green Consumer Guide]

Late Friday night, 19-year-old Clarence Mills was shot to death in the midway. Police on Monday said they are following some leads, but don’t have any suspects in the shooting.

…

Ironically, it was a fatal shooting that ended the Barnum Festival’s participation in the midway carnival in 1984.

[via The Connecticut Post]

University of South Florida researches say they have finally identified the source of a thumping noise that has confounded Cape Coral residents for decades.

It’s the mating call of a fish.

[via WKMG]

In Alaska, thousands of mysterious lakes are all the same shape and have grown steadily for thousands of years, the geological record shows. They are the fastest growing lakes known in the world.

Scientists have tried various ideas to explain the steady growth — the lakes expand up to 15 feet every year — and the lakes’ consistent shape and orientation, but no theory has held up.

[via MSNBC]

A woman, accused of practising witchcraft, was publicly beaten up and her face blackened following the death of a girl at the holy town of Trimbakeshwar.

[via The Hindu]

A little over 300 years ago we would have thought nothing of this in the “New World” and we all would probably be cheering them on.

Each week, the Ghost Hunt team will use a combination of technological gadgets and old fashioned bravado in their pursuit of paranormal activity. They will explore a number of spooky locations, including an abandoned psychiatric hospital, the Waitomo Caves hotel, Riccarton House in Christchurch, Vulcan Hotel in St Bathans, St James Theatre in Wellington and Kinder House in Parnell.

[via TVNZ]

Sounds like an interesting series. Hopefully it will make it to the States or someone in New Zealand is kind enough to pass some recordings my way.

Extra police officers were drafted into a Shropshire carnival after gangs of youths gathered on the streets, frightening hundreds of visitors to a street fair.

[via The Shropshire Star]

What’s up with all of the carnival crimes this past weekend?

Mr Poussaint sees nothing wrong with what he does. It is, he insists, work that has to be carried out.

“If the child is not exorcised then it will grow up to be horrible. I get results,” said the 75-year-old, who is originally from Benin in West Africa.

[via The Telegraph]

This is the first I’ve personally heard of “exorcism” outside of the Christian & Catholic realm (in this case Voodoo), but I guess that shouldn’t come as a shock since during the slave days Catholic beliefs were melded with ancient voodoo (more of a disguise…Wikipedia has more background info if you’re curious).

For several months rumors have been swirling around Loch Ness about a 4-inch barbed tooth, possibly belonging to a giant mutation of an eel species that inhabits the waterway, found in the mutilated carcass of a half-eaten deer back in March by two American college students. Now, several boat operators have come forward to speak with Nessie Investigator William McDonald, confirming the area where the deer was located is known to locals as a “kill-zone.”

[via PR Web]

Referenced site, http://www.lochnesstooth.com/.

Probably one of the most famous haunted towns in the World, Sleepy Hollow village 25 miles outside New York seems to live up to its ghostly reputation. The village dates back to the 1640s, though no one is certain of exactly when Europeans first settled in the area. The towns name was derived from the name given to it by Dutch settlers: Slapershaven (“Sleepers Haven”). For most of its existence, the town was actually part of North Tarrytown and was not actually renamed Sleepy Hollow until 1996.

[via Pressbox.co.uk]

A carnival to raise money for the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church ended in bloodshed Saturday night when a 21-year-old man was fatally stabbed in the back.

[via The Detroit Free Press]

Detectives on Sunday evaluated leads in the wake of a shooting at the midway carnival while Mayor John M. Fabrizi planned discussions that might lead to banning the annual attraction at Seaside Park.

[via The Connecticut Post]

The management of Circus New York says the 26-year-old African elephant which gored a Kerryman in Tramore, Co Waterford, yesterday will continue to perform at the circus.

It says the animal poses no threat to the public.

The injured man, who is not the elephant’s trainer, is said to be critical but stable in hospital.

[via RTE News]

Many will stake out the corner of William and Murray Sts. late into the night tonight in hopes of catching a glimpse of the legendary Griffintown prostitute, said to return every seven years to where she was murdered on June 27, 1879.

“I don’t expect to see Mary Gallagher, but there are people who claim to have seen her,” said Rev. Thomas McEntee, 81, who marks the spectre’s septennial visits with a commemorative mass near the site. “Seven years ago, when I left the scene at 10 o’clock at night, people stayed there waiting for her to appear.”

[via canada.com]