weird news

[X-Files]

OSLO (Reuters) - Many octopuses evolved from a common ancestor that lived off Antarctica more than 30 million years ago, according to a "Census of Marine Life" that is seeking to map the oceans from microbes to whales.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/environment...E4A82GL20081109

 

 

*

TZIBICHEN CENOTE, Mexico (Nov. 9) - Legend says the afterlife for ancient Mayas was a terrifying obstacle course in which the dead had to traverse rivers of blood, and chambers full of sharp knives, bats and jaguars.

Now a Mexican archaeologist using long-forgotten testimony from the Spanish Inquisition says a series of caves he has explored may be the place where the Maya actually tried to depict this highway through hell.

 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i0X_X9v...Fcp3UgD94BHVEO0

[Michael Donnelly]

Ah yes, time for the annual Ultimate Fighting Monks Brawl in Jerusalem;

 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/09/...onks/index.html

Huh, oddly enough they were fighting for the same imaginary friend this time.

[X-Files]

http://gizmodo.com/5081227/fema-firefighte...attacks-crashes

[X-Files]

A new twist in military history and wargaming.

 

Bangkok protesters adopt witchcraft to topple Thai government

Anti-government protesters in Bangkok have resorted to sorcery and black magic in their campaign to topple the elected administration.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...government.html

By Thomas Bell in Bangkok

Last Updated: 11:26AM GMT 10 Nov 2008

 

Many Thais are shocked by some highly controversial magical practices.

 

Sondhi Limthongkul, one of the leaders of the group which is illegally occupying the seat of Thai government, claimed in a recent televised speech that a wicked wizard has blocked the protective power of some of Bangkok's holiest sites.

 

Mr Sondhi and his so called People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) claim that they are protecting Thailand and its monarchy from allegedly corrupt democratic politicians.

 

The technique Mr Sonhi used to break the alleged spell sounds extreme.

 

He described how his own magicians removed six imaginary nails that had been placed around a towering royal statue in the city centre to block its power.

 

"I must thank the women of the PAD," he continued, "because after [the imaginary nails] were pulled out, to ensure they could not be replaced, they took sanitary napkins from menstruating women and placed them over the six points.

[X-Files]

WITCHCRAFT-RELATED crime in the Eastern Cape is an under- researched area of study, according to a PhD candidate at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), whose research includes issues like the police investigation of witchcraft cases.

http://www.weekendpost.co.za/main/2008/11/...14_08112008.htm

 

+

 

Pupils stone officials reinstating witchcraft-accused principal

07 Nov 2008

Sphumelele Mngoma

 

MATRICULANTS at a Newcastle school will have to write examinations at the Amajuba Education District Office hall for the remainder of their exams, to ensure that there are no further disruptions following a violent outbreak at the school on Tuesday, the Education Department has said.

 

Pupils threw stones at department officials who were there to reinstate a displaced principal accused of witchcraft. Three departmental officials were hurt and the school was shut down by department heads.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcon...%5B_id%5D=15842

 

+

Military believe judge was ‘bewitched’

Prega Govender Published:Nov 08, 2008

 

A Senior military judge has escaped prosecution for attempting suicide because some of the SA National Defence Force’s top brass allegedly believed her claim that she had been bewitched.

 

The defence force’s first black female judge, Colonel Phildah Nomoyi, 41, doused herself with petrol and set herself alight in her garage in June.

 

Now Thaba Tshwane — the military complex in Pretoria that is home to thousands of personnel from privates to generals — is buzzing with gossip about how Nomoyi escaped being booted from the force.

 

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=880386

[Ivanhoe]

All your blacks are belong to us?

 

http://www.physorg.com/news144518596.html

 

The investigators found that African-Americans in Canada were significantly less likely than Caucasians to receive a kidney transplant, either from deceased or living donors. This situation mimics that seen in the United States. However, unlike African-Americans in the United States, African-American Canadians who underwent a kidney transplant experienced no significant health differences compared with Caucasians after their procedure. Their transplanted kidneys survived just as long as kidneys transplanted into Caucasians, and African-American Canadians actually survived longer following the surgery compared with Caucasians.

 

"African-American Canadians"? Would that make Geoff, for example, an Anglo-American Canadian? Am I an Anglo-American American? Thalia would then be a Mexican-American Mexican...

[DougRichards]

All your blacks are belong to us?

 

http://www.physorg.com/news144518596.html

"African-American Canadians"? Would that make Geoff, for example, an Anglo-American Canadian? Am I an Anglo-American American? Thalia would then be a Mexican-American Mexican...

 

I have met "African-American Canadians" who now live in Australia.

 

So

 

African-American-Canadian Australians?

 

And just how many 'caucasians' have an ancestor from the Caucases?

Edited November 11, 2008 by DougRichards

[X-Files]

SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) -- Egypt's chief archeologist has announced the discovery of a 4,300-year-old pyramid in Saqqara, the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis.

 

*

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

[philgollin]

Bow down to the 75th anniversary of possibly the most important idiocy of all ;

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsi...000/7722702.stm

 

 

Nessie mystery turns 75

 

 

(pictures missed out - follow link to see them)

 

 

More than 1,000 people claim to have seen the Loch Ness monster since it was first photographed 75 years ago.

 

References to a monster in Loch Ness date back to St Columba's biography in 565 AD.

 

But the myth only took its modern form when reports of a strange object and then a series of mysterious photographs appeared in press during the 1930s.

 

Adrian Shine, from the Loch Ness and Morar Project, has led many scientific studies into the depths of Loch Ness but has not found any evidence of a monster.

 

Below are his pointers to understanding the iconic images of the Loch Ness monster.

 

THE FIRST

 

 

 

 

It was this picture, snapped by Hugh Grey on 12 November 1933, that is credited as being the first photographic evidence of the Loch Ness monster. It appeared on the front cover of the Scottish Daily Record on 8 December that year, under the headline "Monster photograph of the mysterious Loch Ness object".

 

It is the first picture and bears that distinction, but it is also the least easy to interpret.

 

It has been suggested that it is a double negative, perhaps of a Labrador dog with a stick in its mouth, but it could be anything.

 

 

 

THE NECK

 

 

 

The "surgeon's photographs," of the Loch Ness monster have come to define the image of Nessie, and for many years no conclusive proof could be found that they were fakes. The photographs were supposed to have been taken by gynaecologist Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson and were published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934.

 

This is the image in most people's minds, but it is a fake.

 

Firstly, if you look at the water texture you can tell the waves are very small, not to scale with the size of the monster.

 

Secondly, it was owned up to by Christian Spurling, one of the hoaxers, in 1994. He was asked to make a model to go on top of a toy submarine by Marmaduke Wetherell, who with a small group of collaborators planned the hoax to get back at the Daily Mail, who had fired and publicly humiliated him for a previous hoax.

 

It is such a beautiful picture and may well have found its inspiration in the Brontosaurus in King Kong. It led to the expectation that the Loch Ness monster would have a long neck.

 

 

 

THE HUMPS

 

 

 

Lachlan Stuart's photograph taken on 14 July 1951 was of a different kind of Loch Ness monster, with a long thin body arching out of the water.

 

The remnants of this hoax were witnessed by local author Richard Faire. He spoke to Lachlan Stuart the next day, who confessed that he had constructed the image from hay bails and tarpaulin. Researchers later recreated the image and found the water where the monster was seen was in reality very shallow.

 

This didn't stop people from speculating as to how the creature could contort its back in such a way.

 

 

 

THE CASTLE

 

 

 

Respectable bank manager Peter MacNab took this Nessie photograph on 29 July 1955.

 

This is a huge object. If it were an animal it would be more than 60ft (18m) long, which is colossal. If you think of the amount that would be under the water, it would be a creature of the most improbable proportions.

 

It could possibly be a portion of a boat wake and if you look behind it you may see a faint line in the water. There may have been some retouching, but the photographer never admitted to a hoax.

 

Given the improbability of an object of that size, you have to seek alternative hypotheses, but there is no definitive proof that the image is a fake.

 

 

 

THE END

 

Picture of The Loch Ness monster's flipper taken underwater in 1975

 

With the advent of colour photography and a total lack of definitive proof, classic photographs like these stopped appearing after the 1950s.

 

A rigorous 10-year project to watch the surface of the loch in the 1960s turned up no evidence whatsoever of the mysterious monster.

 

Instead, the search went underwater, with sonar sounds and submarine exploration of the loch's dark depths.

 

"In hindsight, you can see that the classic pictures are different to each other, hence unlikely to be real pictures of one animal," says Adrian Shine.

 

"You may not believe that Loch Ness is Jurassic Park, but that doesn't mean that there isn't something in Loch Ness that is yet to be explained."

[Corinthian]

Bow down to the 75th anniversary of possibly the most important idiocy of all ;

 

Hey hey, easy with the use of the word "idiocy." Our resident Nessie and her loyal servant (who happens to be an M1 TC) will not like that.

 

Her Most Royally Exalted Majestic Cuddliness, Special Agent Chief Paratrooper General Field Marshal Lord High Empress Nessie the Great Green Cute Crumpy, Leader of the Nessies, Protector of Bounciness, Traveller of the World, Friend to Little Nick, Mentor to Cuddly Tank, Patron of Cuddly Battleship (and may I add, veteran of OIF)

 

Her most loyal servant

Edited November 12, 2008 by TomasCTT

[X-Files]

One generation ago, a boomerang-shaped object as bright as a city street and as big as a football field appeared in the night skies over southern New York state, drawing such mixed reactions from some 7,200 witnesses that it never turned into the cosmic public event that it really was.

Now, 25 years after the well-documented but not necessarily well-remembered UFO phenomenon put Putnam and Westchester counties on the map as paranormal hot spots, the massive case study that has resulted is elevating the Lower Hudson Valley to the status of one of the three major UFO vortexes in the world.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/126984...m110908.article

 

I'll just need you to look at this red light for one moment...

Edited November 12, 2008 by X-Files

[Corinthian]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A church has vanished from the Russian village where it stood for almost 200 years, the local diocese said Tuesday.

 

The Church of Christ's Resurrection, in the central Russian village of Komarovo, was built in 1809 but in early October someone took it away brick by brick, Father Vitaly a spokesman for the local Russian Orthodox Church, told Reuters.

 

More like ascended into heaven....

[X-Files]

PARIS - The fire's survivors were a motley crew: A parrot, a peacock and a baboon. All of them stuffed.

Now, after the devastating blaze, the animals' home, famed Parisian taxidermy store Deyrolle, is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. An auction this week at Christie's Paris will raise funds to help restore the 177-year-old shop to its former glory.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27665885/

 

Le Pacte des Loups, anyone?

 

Meanwhile, "stolen" or sucked into a trans-dimensional vortex???

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A church has vanished from the Russian village where it stood for almost 200 years, the local diocese said Tuesday.

 

The Church of Christ's Resurrection, in the central Russian village of Komarovo, was built in 1809 but in early October someone took it away brick by brick, Father Vitaly a spokesman for the local Russian Orthodox Church, told Reuters.

 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughN...E4AA3O920081111

[Mike Steele]

Good deal for the price.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00153F5Q...ASIN=B00153F5QA

[X-Files]

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter provides insights into UFO phenomena

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Fron...1/15/02832.html

Special to The Canadian

 

During his presidential election campaign of 1976, he told reporters:

 

"It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size of the moon. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky. If I become president, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists."

 

*

A one-eyed San Francisco artist wants to replace her missing eye with a Web cam - and tech experts say it's possible.

"I'd always given thought to using cameras to restore sight to the blind," said Dr. William Danz, whose patient, Tanya Vlach, wants the groundbreaking device. "This is a little different, more like James Bond stuff."

Vlach, who lost her eye in a 2005 car accident, wears a realistic acrylic prosthesis, but she's issued a challenge to engineers on her blog: build an "eye cam" for her prosthesis that can dilate with changes of light and allow her to blink to control its zoom, focus, and on/off switch.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2...replace_lo.html

[Gregory]

A one-eyed San Francisco artist wants to replace her missing eye with a Web cam - and tech experts say it's possible.

"I'd always given thought to using cameras to restore sight to the blind," said Dr. William Danz, whose patient, Tanya Vlach, wants the groundbreaking device. "This is a little different, more like James Bond stuff."

Vlach, who lost her eye in a 2005 car accident, wears a realistic acrylic prosthesis, but she's issued a challenge to engineers on her blog: build an "eye cam" for her prosthesis that can dilate with changes of light and allow her to blink to control its zoom, focus, and on/off switch.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2...replace_lo.html

 

I'd be a little concerned with wireless power charging this close to my brain.

[Michael Donnelly]

I'd be a little concerned with wireless power charging this close to my brain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat

[Ivanhoe]

I'd be worried if I lived in the Bay Area and my name was John Connor.

[X-Files]

Experiments with insects are an easy way for teachers across the country to get students involved in hands-on science, which is the goal of sending these two spiders, and some butterflies, into orbit on the latest shuttle mission to the space station. Spider One, on view in his box with clear windows, was busy spinning a very tangled web, but Spider Two appears to be AWOL. Or is he?

 

Flight director Ginger Kerrick says they are looking for him. "The way it was explained to me is that he is a backup spider and he has his own contained space on board and he had moved out of that area. We think he came out of his bedroom and is in the living room of his house."

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=6275610&page=1

 

SPIDERS FROM MARS!

[Corinthian]

Experiments with insects are an easy way for teachers across the country to get students involved in hands-on science, which is the goal of sending these two spiders, and some butterflies, into orbit on the latest shuttle mission to the space station. Spider One, on view in his box with clear windows, was busy spinning a very tangled web, but Spider Two appears to be AWOL. Or is he?

 

Flight director Ginger Kerrick says they are looking for him. "The way it was explained to me is that he is a backup spider and he has his own contained space on board and he had moved out of that area. We think he came out of his bedroom and is in the living room of his house."

 

See Geoff? It IS true that there's a spider every 8 feet or so from you. Even in space. Where no one can hear your screams.

 

[X-Files]

I'd be worried if I lived in the Bay Area and my name was John Connor.

 

Someone looking for Sarah Connor.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24668568-1248,00.html

[Michael Donnelly]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27793459/?GT1=43001

 

Cops: Man uses sandwich to assault girlfriend

Authorities aren't saying if the weapon he wielded was a club sandwich

[X-Files]

Paula Abdul Hires Psychics To Cleanse Her Haunted House

http://www.martiniboys.com/martiniboys/art...ouse-11308.html

[DougRichards]

Weirdest thing I have read in a while;

 

Driver convicted for penis in pasta jar

 

By staff writers

NEWS.com.au

November 19, 2008 05:20pm

 

Man led police on slow car chase

 

Police thought he might have weapon

 

Found him with his "genitals in a jar"

 

A MAN caught by police with his penis inside a pasta sauce jar was still pleasuring himself while resisting arrest, a court has been told.

 

Police drew their weapons after New South Wales man Keith Roy Weatherley, 46, led them on a brief, slow-speed car chase, the Newcastle Herald reports.

 

Weatherley attracted police attention while he was parked in a no-stopping zone near Nobby's Beach on October 26, Newcastle Local Court was told yesterday.

 

Police thought he might have a weapon because they saw him doing something with his hands in his lap, the Herald said.

 

Instead, they found him partially clothed with his genitals in a jar, a police statement said.

 

That's when the pursuit began, the court was told.

 

When Weatherley was stopped, he refused to leave his car and four officers used batons and capsicum spray to get him out.

 

They found a 750mm jar around his penis and said Weatherley attempted to continue "pleasuring himself in between bouts of wrestling".

 

A search of his car uncovered pornography, a homemade sex aid, women's stockings and a Jack Russell terrier.

 

Weatherley pleaded guilty to offensive behaviour, resisting police and disobeying a police direction.

 

He was convicted and fined $600

 

====================

 

I see no mention of 'cruelty to animals.....

 

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24675808-421,00.html

[Mike Steele]

Weirdest thing I have read in a while;

 

Driver convicted for penis in pasta jar

 

...

A search of his car uncovered pornography, a homemade sex aid, women's stockings and a Jack Russell terrier.

 

..................

 

I see no mention of 'cruelty to animals.....

 

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24675808-421,00.html

That would have to be interesting :blink: