by FALAFEL MAFIA
Chalk one up for the survival of local folklore in the Gaza Strip: Residents of the town of Deir al-Balah are convinced there are genies on the lose.
Genies – or djinn in Arabic – are being blamed for a series of fires in Deir al-Balah (عربي).
The Hamas-linked Palpress news agency reports that the town’s residents are convinced that two unexplained housefires on March 29th and April 1st were set by malicious djinn.
Apparently, the rumors of paranormal causes for the fire were so widespread that Gaza police were forced to issue a statement criticizing the “abusers” and “rumormongers” who were spreading the word about the djinn, with policemen telling Deir al-Balah’s residents that the threads on local Arabic-language websites (of course) were bunk.
[Click here to read full article]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Chinese Getting Rich trading with ‘Ghost’
From: HypeSeek@AsiaParanormal
I have come across a Taoist’s method to get rich by trading with ‘ghost’. The Taoist only to be known as Tui, whom revealed this method to me is a practitioner of black hat Taoism. In simple, we may call him a practitioner of ‘Pan Meng Zhuo Dao’ in mandarin, before we proceed further; I have set up some serious disclaimers at the bottom of the posting. Please read them first before you proceed.
We are all very familiar with the urban legends from the west, like Bloody Mary, Ouija board and to a lesser extent, tying a red thread on your toe to a banana tree and etc. to connect to the unknown. Most of the mentioned methods to connect to the unknown are for the sake of curiosity. Tui’s method is a dark Taoist arcane that is practiced upon for a purpose; and that is to get rich. I would need to stress a lot here that Tui’s is not a follower of the actual Taoism; he is a Pan Meng (pseudo Taoist) so please do not associate Tui and his method with Taoism.
According to Tui, the first thing to do is to purchase some salt and provide it with packages. Separate the salt into packages of roughly 200 grams each, prepare two green joss sticks and a bell or wind chime and set off for trading after 12am midnight. The suggested location to trade is either in a cemetery, abandoned hospital or old folk home. When settled down in the designated location, start by burning the joss sticks. After the joss sticks are done, displayed your salt in a way you would have if you are selling groceries. Sit down and ring your bell, you are done setting up the stall. Now you just need to wait for your potential customers. When a spirit approaches, they will likely going to provoke you a little bit by scaring you. Ignore the spirit and wait for the spirit to goes off, then a package of salt is gone with them. The spirit will leave a possession behind in return of the salt it took; don’t expect to see cash notes, gold or platinum in front of you. The spirit will exchange the salt with a body part of theirs for the salt. The sight could be threatening as they may trade their severed head with you. If you are able to endure the ordeal till 6am in the morning. The body parts that you collect thru out the night will transform and pile up into precious stones like gold, topaz or crystal. The sizes of the gems will vary depending on how much the salt has assisted the spirits.
Disclaimers
This posting is presented for your entertainment and reading pleasure only. Do not try this, or try this at your own risk. I am not responsible for any harm or damaged that would have incurred as a result of following the stated method in this article and its related materials in contacting the unknown. I have not gone thru the ordeal myself and can’t tell you the outcome. Furthermore, Tui may have left out some steps in details or details that he never reveals and this may not be safe for practice. This posting is filed and posted under the stories section.
Related: Chinese Black Magic Sorcery
I have come across a Taoist’s method to get rich by trading with ‘ghost’. The Taoist only to be known as Tui, whom revealed this method to me is a practitioner of black hat Taoism. In simple, we may call him a practitioner of ‘Pan Meng Zhuo Dao’ in mandarin, before we proceed further; I have set up some serious disclaimers at the bottom of the posting. Please read them first before you proceed.
We are all very familiar with the urban legends from the west, like Bloody Mary, Ouija board and to a lesser extent, tying a red thread on your toe to a banana tree and etc. to connect to the unknown. Most of the mentioned methods to connect to the unknown are for the sake of curiosity. Tui’s method is a dark Taoist arcane that is practiced upon for a purpose; and that is to get rich. I would need to stress a lot here that Tui’s is not a follower of the actual Taoism; he is a Pan Meng (pseudo Taoist) so please do not associate Tui and his method with Taoism.
According to Tui, the first thing to do is to purchase some salt and provide it with packages. Separate the salt into packages of roughly 200 grams each, prepare two green joss sticks and a bell or wind chime and set off for trading after 12am midnight. The suggested location to trade is either in a cemetery, abandoned hospital or old folk home. When settled down in the designated location, start by burning the joss sticks. After the joss sticks are done, displayed your salt in a way you would have if you are selling groceries. Sit down and ring your bell, you are done setting up the stall. Now you just need to wait for your potential customers. When a spirit approaches, they will likely going to provoke you a little bit by scaring you. Ignore the spirit and wait for the spirit to goes off, then a package of salt is gone with them. The spirit will leave a possession behind in return of the salt it took; don’t expect to see cash notes, gold or platinum in front of you. The spirit will exchange the salt with a body part of theirs for the salt. The sight could be threatening as they may trade their severed head with you. If you are able to endure the ordeal till 6am in the morning. The body parts that you collect thru out the night will transform and pile up into precious stones like gold, topaz or crystal. The sizes of the gems will vary depending on how much the salt has assisted the spirits.
Disclaimers
This posting is presented for your entertainment and reading pleasure only. Do not try this, or try this at your own risk. I am not responsible for any harm or damaged that would have incurred as a result of following the stated method in this article and its related materials in contacting the unknown. I have not gone thru the ordeal myself and can’t tell you the outcome. Furthermore, Tui may have left out some steps in details or details that he never reveals and this may not be safe for practice. This posting is filed and posted under the stories section.
Related: Chinese Black Magic Sorcery
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Ourang Medan death ship
by Matt Forde
The straits of Malacca near Sumatra have long borne witness to the passage of trading ships. Ivory, fabrics, perfumes, glassware and precious stones have passed through the strait’s Pacific waters, stowed in countless cargo holds, eventually to settle in far flung places around the globe.
Over the centuries, most of these merchantmen reached their destinations safely. However, the quiet peace was broken one day in June 1947 when a forbidding SOS message drifted across the airwaves: “All officers including captain are dead lying in chartroom and bridge.” read the message. “Possibly whole crew dead." This was followed by some indecipherable Morse code chatter, probably more SOS signals, and then one final grisly message... "I die." And then, silence.
The macabre distress call was picked up by numerous ships and Dutch and British listening posts who, through triangulation, identified the vessel as the Dutch freighter SS Ourang Medan and located its approximate position within the straits of Malacca. Of the two American merchant ships that heard the Ourang Medan’s grim message, the 6,507tn Silver Star was the nearest and she raced to the aid of the stricken vessel.
Within a few hours, The Silver Star arrived upon a hushed sight. The calm sea gently lapped at the Ourang Medan’s stationary hull and the crew were nowhere to be seen above decks. The American ship hailed the Dutch vessel with whistles, calls and hand signals but there was no response. Nothing on board the strange craft moved. A boarding party was quickly assembled and what they discovered was such an alarming sight that it has made the Ourang Medan one of the strangest and disquieting nautical mysteries of all time, eclipsing even the Marie Celeste in macabre detail if not in infamy.
[Click here to read full article]
The straits of Malacca near Sumatra have long borne witness to the passage of trading ships. Ivory, fabrics, perfumes, glassware and precious stones have passed through the strait’s Pacific waters, stowed in countless cargo holds, eventually to settle in far flung places around the globe.
Over the centuries, most of these merchantmen reached their destinations safely. However, the quiet peace was broken one day in June 1947 when a forbidding SOS message drifted across the airwaves: “All officers including captain are dead lying in chartroom and bridge.” read the message. “Possibly whole crew dead." This was followed by some indecipherable Morse code chatter, probably more SOS signals, and then one final grisly message... "I die." And then, silence.
The macabre distress call was picked up by numerous ships and Dutch and British listening posts who, through triangulation, identified the vessel as the Dutch freighter SS Ourang Medan and located its approximate position within the straits of Malacca. Of the two American merchant ships that heard the Ourang Medan’s grim message, the 6,507tn Silver Star was the nearest and she raced to the aid of the stricken vessel.
Within a few hours, The Silver Star arrived upon a hushed sight. The calm sea gently lapped at the Ourang Medan’s stationary hull and the crew were nowhere to be seen above decks. The American ship hailed the Dutch vessel with whistles, calls and hand signals but there was no response. Nothing on board the strange craft moved. A boarding party was quickly assembled and what they discovered was such an alarming sight that it has made the Ourang Medan one of the strangest and disquieting nautical mysteries of all time, eclipsing even the Marie Celeste in macabre detail if not in infamy.
[Click here to read full article]
Man films eerie UFO as it zooms past his home in China
by Michael Cohen
The video below comes, once again, from China. A Mr Lau noticed this classically shaped flying saucer zooming past his house and managed to pull out his mobile telephone camera and record it. It is believed that this UFO footage is no more than a week old. Nothing more is known regarding this footage.
In other UFO news from China, a big event that occurred in the skies above the city of Nanjing has been widely reported by mainstream media in that country. Thousands of locals saw a luminous, red UFO pass across the sky at around 6pm in the evening on Tuesday the 9th of March.
The scientists from purple Mountain Astronomical Observatory (where it was famously announced last year that a UFO was recorded during an eclipse) were called in for their expert opinion and it was declared that this sighting was not of a UFO but rather the exhaust of plane reflecting the evening sun.
The video below comes, once again, from China. A Mr Lau noticed this classically shaped flying saucer zooming past his house and managed to pull out his mobile telephone camera and record it. It is believed that this UFO footage is no more than a week old. Nothing more is known regarding this footage.
In other UFO news from China, a big event that occurred in the skies above the city of Nanjing has been widely reported by mainstream media in that country. Thousands of locals saw a luminous, red UFO pass across the sky at around 6pm in the evening on Tuesday the 9th of March.
The scientists from purple Mountain Astronomical Observatory (where it was famously announced last year that a UFO was recorded during an eclipse) were called in for their expert opinion and it was declared that this sighting was not of a UFO but rather the exhaust of plane reflecting the evening sun.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Roopkund The Mysterious Skeleton Lake
by Travelet
Roopkund is one of the most enticing and fascinating places of the world. Situated in the isolated corners of the greatest mountains of Himalayas at a height of about 5029 meters equalizing at about 16500 feet, it is a creation that nature has brought about in quite an interesting manner. People tend to locate it in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Roopkund has an inscrutability and vagueness that has decepted multiple generations of fortune tellers.
Roopkund is better off known as “The skeleton lake” due to the presence of an enormous grave that holds about 300 to 600 skeletons. This discovery has revolutionized the world of ancient history ever since 1942, when a park ranger came across this mass deposition of bones.
It probably is an in-accessible frozen lake that requires about four day travel to reach from the nearest locality. Recently, it has become an important spot for the visitors as they learn and conjecture this advent of science.
[Click here to read full article]
Roopkund is one of the most enticing and fascinating places of the world. Situated in the isolated corners of the greatest mountains of Himalayas at a height of about 5029 meters equalizing at about 16500 feet, it is a creation that nature has brought about in quite an interesting manner. People tend to locate it in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Roopkund has an inscrutability and vagueness that has decepted multiple generations of fortune tellers.
Roopkund is better off known as “The skeleton lake” due to the presence of an enormous grave that holds about 300 to 600 skeletons. This discovery has revolutionized the world of ancient history ever since 1942, when a park ranger came across this mass deposition of bones.
It probably is an in-accessible frozen lake that requires about four day travel to reach from the nearest locality. Recently, it has become an important spot for the visitors as they learn and conjecture this advent of science.
[Click here to read full article]
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Evil in the office
by Spooky Corner
It was just after lunch when our office assistant started going berserk. Most were not back from lunch yet as my office has quite a flexible lunch hour and at that time, those that were in the office had already gone back to their respective places.
My colleague, Anna, first heard screams when she was passing by the reception area. Surprised, she went to investigate if there were any problems. Anna was shocked when she saw the assistant throwing things and acting out of control as if she was throwing a big tantrum.
Immediately sensing something was wrong, Anna called on some of the guy colleagues to help out. At that moment, there were already many people gathering, curious of what was happening. Some guys took her hands and tried to hold her down but she just keep on struggling and pushing and tossing that even the bigger guys could not hold her down.
Many people didn’t know what to do nor had any idea what was happening but after some time, it had dawned to some people that perhaps she was possessed. The assistant screamed so loud that the exit door nearby started to tremble under her scream.
Some of my colleagues saw that and thought that devil was there because this exit door was long deem unusable and was barricaded with potted plants to avoid anyone from using it. It was impossible that people from the other side of the exit tried to come in by using that door. The assistant even started talking in words that none could understand and in a voice of a man.
At that point of time, some had already gone back to their places, afraid that it would influence them. Some immediately checked to call a holy man to try exorcise the assistant. After some hours passed, the assistant calmed down, but she was still breathing hard with a stare of anger at each and everyone that was in the room at that time.
One of my colleagues, Jane, suggested calling her husband and family and as soon as Jane mentioned the word “husband”, the assistant started going all crazy again. This time, she started hitting Jane. Jane was stunned and immediately tried running away and in the process, tripped. But everything happened in the matter of seconds and the assistant was already on top of Jane hitting her hard. Some tried to hold back Jane while Nancy assisted Jane to get up and immediately ran away after Jane got a hold of herself.
After all the trashing and beating, the family of the assistant arrived but the weird part was as soon as she saw her husband, the assistant calmed back down, acting in a very mild manner. There was no more crazy behavior coming from her and everyone was pretty surprised at that moment. It seemed as though she was afraid of her husband.
After they brought her back, her family admitted that this was not her first case of what they call it as “hysteria”. Apparently it all started a few weeks back and although they were unsure what exactly had happened but it seemed every time her husband approached her, she would calm down or shy away.
Footnote : Until today, no one actually knew what had happened to her as she did not report to work after this incident. Some say she just had a case of “wanting attention”, some said she just it was a sign of post pregnancy syndrome and some said she was jinxed with black magic. However, no one knew the truth of what had happened on that fateful day
It was just after lunch when our office assistant started going berserk. Most were not back from lunch yet as my office has quite a flexible lunch hour and at that time, those that were in the office had already gone back to their respective places.
My colleague, Anna, first heard screams when she was passing by the reception area. Surprised, she went to investigate if there were any problems. Anna was shocked when she saw the assistant throwing things and acting out of control as if she was throwing a big tantrum.
Immediately sensing something was wrong, Anna called on some of the guy colleagues to help out. At that moment, there were already many people gathering, curious of what was happening. Some guys took her hands and tried to hold her down but she just keep on struggling and pushing and tossing that even the bigger guys could not hold her down.
Many people didn’t know what to do nor had any idea what was happening but after some time, it had dawned to some people that perhaps she was possessed. The assistant screamed so loud that the exit door nearby started to tremble under her scream.
Some of my colleagues saw that and thought that devil was there because this exit door was long deem unusable and was barricaded with potted plants to avoid anyone from using it. It was impossible that people from the other side of the exit tried to come in by using that door. The assistant even started talking in words that none could understand and in a voice of a man.
At that point of time, some had already gone back to their places, afraid that it would influence them. Some immediately checked to call a holy man to try exorcise the assistant. After some hours passed, the assistant calmed down, but she was still breathing hard with a stare of anger at each and everyone that was in the room at that time.
One of my colleagues, Jane, suggested calling her husband and family and as soon as Jane mentioned the word “husband”, the assistant started going all crazy again. This time, she started hitting Jane. Jane was stunned and immediately tried running away and in the process, tripped. But everything happened in the matter of seconds and the assistant was already on top of Jane hitting her hard. Some tried to hold back Jane while Nancy assisted Jane to get up and immediately ran away after Jane got a hold of herself.
After all the trashing and beating, the family of the assistant arrived but the weird part was as soon as she saw her husband, the assistant calmed back down, acting in a very mild manner. There was no more crazy behavior coming from her and everyone was pretty surprised at that moment. It seemed as though she was afraid of her husband.
After they brought her back, her family admitted that this was not her first case of what they call it as “hysteria”. Apparently it all started a few weeks back and although they were unsure what exactly had happened but it seemed every time her husband approached her, she would calm down or shy away.
Footnote : Until today, no one actually knew what had happened to her as she did not report to work after this incident. Some say she just had a case of “wanting attention”, some said she just it was a sign of post pregnancy syndrome and some said she was jinxed with black magic. However, no one knew the truth of what had happened on that fateful day
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Weird Noises from Empty Apartment
by Spooky Corner
During weekdays, Reene usually stays with her parents whereas on weekends, she would stay with her husband. Her husband, on the other hand, would be living with his parents during weekdays as this arrangement was due to the convenience of both parities working nearby their parent’s house.
As usual on Saturdays, Reene and her husband would go to their house and clean up. Recently late last year, Reene and her husband as usual were cleaning up the house when the doorbell suddenly rang. Reene’s husband, Max answered the door and got a surprise when the person introduced himself as their neighbor who was staying directly at the unit just below them, Mr A.
Mr A apologized profusely for disturbing them and requested if some of his requests could be obeyed. Curious, Max asked if there was anything that he could help Mr A. Mr A then told him that they had recently just moved in after their marriage and told Max that his wife was having trouble sleeping.
Mr A explained that his wife was disturbed with noises coming from Reene’s unit and requested Max if they could tone down or stop moving furniture in the middle of the night. Max, puzzled, replied Mr A that they do not do such things and offered an explanation that the noises were perhaps coming from the pipes in their bedroom bathroom.
Mr A then asked, “What about the dumb bells? Perhaps you could put the dumb bells down gently instead because it quite disturbing as well,” but again Max rejected telling Mr A that he did not own any dumb bell. Mr A then apologized again for disturbing that perhaps it was some misunderstanding and left.
Reene who was quiet all the time asked her husband if she mentioned to Mr A that they do not even stay there for the most of the time but her husband told her he prefer not to mention it for not wanting to scare Mr A any further. So what was that noises coming from?
During weekdays, Reene usually stays with her parents whereas on weekends, she would stay with her husband. Her husband, on the other hand, would be living with his parents during weekdays as this arrangement was due to the convenience of both parities working nearby their parent’s house.
As usual on Saturdays, Reene and her husband would go to their house and clean up. Recently late last year, Reene and her husband as usual were cleaning up the house when the doorbell suddenly rang. Reene’s husband, Max answered the door and got a surprise when the person introduced himself as their neighbor who was staying directly at the unit just below them, Mr A.
Mr A apologized profusely for disturbing them and requested if some of his requests could be obeyed. Curious, Max asked if there was anything that he could help Mr A. Mr A then told him that they had recently just moved in after their marriage and told Max that his wife was having trouble sleeping.
Mr A explained that his wife was disturbed with noises coming from Reene’s unit and requested Max if they could tone down or stop moving furniture in the middle of the night. Max, puzzled, replied Mr A that they do not do such things and offered an explanation that the noises were perhaps coming from the pipes in their bedroom bathroom.
Mr A then asked, “What about the dumb bells? Perhaps you could put the dumb bells down gently instead because it quite disturbing as well,” but again Max rejected telling Mr A that he did not own any dumb bell. Mr A then apologized again for disturbing that perhaps it was some misunderstanding and left.
Reene who was quiet all the time asked her husband if she mentioned to Mr A that they do not even stay there for the most of the time but her husband told her he prefer not to mention it for not wanting to scare Mr A any further. So what was that noises coming from?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Pulau Redang Flower Girl
by Gong Tao Siao
This happen to a colleague of mine that went to Pulau Redang about 2 years ago. Do you know the beach along the popular Laguna Resort ? Well, this incident happened along that beach. My friend went there with a group of friends for holiday. One night during the stay at the holiday (I’m not too sure what time it was), he and his group of friends sat down on the beach and formed a circle. Having a bit of adventurous feeling, they decided to tell ghost stories. Not a very wise thing to do, I might say very wise.
So they started telling each other stories after stories, each one sharing their own personal experiences. Out of a sudden, my friend realized that he could smell a very nice fragrant. A flower of some sort. It was a really pleasant smell. Just as he was thinking, he suddenly saw a girl, wet with very messy hair dressed in white seated across him in the circle. Thinking that it was probably one of his friend’s fried, he did not bother much and continued listening to the others.
After a few moments have passed, he noticed the fragrant smell was actually coming from the girl. Feeling a little strange, he asked his friend beside him if they knew the girl. All of them told him that they did not know her and some even replied “What girl?!”. Then it dawned to him that some of his friends could not see her. Everyone started feeling scared and decided to call it the night. Keeping their calm, they slowly disbanded the circle and walked off quick. Some that saw the girl, turned back but the girl had already disappeared.
After walking back to the resort of some time, they decided to ask about the girl to a lifeguard stationed nearby. To no one’s surprise, the lifeguard told them that a girl drowned in that beach, in that exact area they sat on few years back.
This happen to a colleague of mine that went to Pulau Redang about 2 years ago. Do you know the beach along the popular Laguna Resort ? Well, this incident happened along that beach. My friend went there with a group of friends for holiday. One night during the stay at the holiday (I’m not too sure what time it was), he and his group of friends sat down on the beach and formed a circle. Having a bit of adventurous feeling, they decided to tell ghost stories. Not a very wise thing to do, I might say very wise.
So they started telling each other stories after stories, each one sharing their own personal experiences. Out of a sudden, my friend realized that he could smell a very nice fragrant. A flower of some sort. It was a really pleasant smell. Just as he was thinking, he suddenly saw a girl, wet with very messy hair dressed in white seated across him in the circle. Thinking that it was probably one of his friend’s fried, he did not bother much and continued listening to the others.
After a few moments have passed, he noticed the fragrant smell was actually coming from the girl. Feeling a little strange, he asked his friend beside him if they knew the girl. All of them told him that they did not know her and some even replied “What girl?!”. Then it dawned to him that some of his friends could not see her. Everyone started feeling scared and decided to call it the night. Keeping their calm, they slowly disbanded the circle and walked off quick. Some that saw the girl, turned back but the girl had already disappeared.
After walking back to the resort of some time, they decided to ask about the girl to a lifeguard stationed nearby. To no one’s surprise, the lifeguard told them that a girl drowned in that beach, in that exact area they sat on few years back.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Ten Phenomena That the Scientific Community Can't Explain
by Secret China, The Epoch Times
1. The Placebo Effect
The placebo effect has been a medical enigma that has touched upon the mind’s influence on physical health and healing. It was found that patients believing to have been given an effective medicine could be healed even if they were only given sugar pills. This finding has led to research employing double-blind trials to avoid having the expectations of both experimenters and participants affect the results.
Unfortunately, over the years, the effectiveness and measurability of the placebo effect has been deemed by science as not reliable. This may be due to the limitations of the scientific method. Nevertheless, there are many cases of humans’ self-healing, which sometimes even surpass medical means available for healing the physical body.
2. The Sixth Sense
The five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell help us explore our physical world. There is also a sixth sense, an inner power of perception known as intuition. The word intuition is from the Latin word “intueri,” which means ‘to look within.” Intuition is the ability to know and understand without the use of logical reasoning or analysis, and it is common to all people in varying degrees of acuity.
Intuition is popularly referred to as a “hunch” or “gut feeling,” an inner knowing about something or some situation without prior knowledge. According to the 2006 PRWeek/Burson-Marsteller CEO Survey, 62 percent of CEOs are more likely to make business decisions based on their intuition than on data analysis.
A 2007 study published in Current Biology also found that participants, when given no time to look and having to rely on intuition, are more accurate in picking out an odd symbol among over 650 identical ones than when given 1.5 seconds to look at the symbols.
Ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi once said, “The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.” Albert Einstein also said, “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
But where does intuition come from? Studies of the human brain point to the pineal gland as a possible answer to this mystery. René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, called the pineal gland the “seat of the soul.” Ancient Eastern thought considers intuition to be in the region of the pineal gland and believes it can receive illumination from the soul in the form of knowledge and ideas.
3. Near Death Experience
There have been many reports of various strange experiences that come to people close to death, such as passing through a tunnel into a bright light, meeting up with beloved ones, and having a calm, serene feeling.
The most notable was the experience of Dr. George Rodonaia, whose “clinical near death experience” in 1976 was the most extensive case ever recorded. The experience transformed Rodonaia, who was an atheist before his experience and thereafter became an ordained priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church. His experience hints to us that there is another world beyond this human physical world.
Although people have truly gone through these experiences, science has not been able to provide an explanation for the near death experience phenomenon. Some scientists try to suggest that these near death experiences can be explained as a result of hallucinations from an injured brain. But brain injury is not always the case, so no concrete scientific theory is able to offer either explanations or reasons for why people have had these experiences and why they are often life-changing.
4. Unidentified Flying Objects
Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) is a term coined by the United States Air Force in 1952 to classify objects that could not be identified by experts after investigation. In popular culture, the concept of UFO is usually taken to mean a spaceship flown by aliens.
UFOs have been sighted and recorded as early as the Song dynasty in China. In the 11th century, scholar and military general Shen Kuo (1031–1095) wrote in his book “Dream Pool Essays” (1088) about a flying pearl-shaped object with a blinding interior light that could move at incredible speed.
Kenneth Arnold, an American businessman, reported seeing nine objects with brilliant light flying near Mount Rainier in Washington state in 1947. Arnold described the objects as “flat like a pie pan” saucer-shaped disks. His account received significant media attention and drew great public interest.
Since then, UFO sightings have increased exponentially. The UFO phenomenon has been studied by both government and independent investigators worldwide. Dr. Josef Allen Hynek (1910–1986) worked for the United States Air force to investigate UFO sightings. At first, Hynek was highly critical, but after examining hundreds of UFO reports over three decades, his opinion changed.
In the later years of his career, Hynek became vocal in expressing his disappointment at the simple manner in which most scientists considered UFOs—unwilling and unyielding to admit the unexplainable.
5. Déjà Vu
Déjà vu, French for “already seen,” is the eerily familiar sensation of having been at a certain place or event before, as it is being encountered for the first time. People may have very strange feelings of familiarity about a vision in front of them as if it has happened before, but they know that it is the first time they have faced such things. Neurophysiology research has tried to explain such experiences as anomalies of memory, or brain pathology, or as side effects of drugs.
A 2008 study by psychologist Anne Cleary explored that déjà vu may have to do with recognition memory. Alternative explanations associate déjà vu with prophecy, past life memories, clairvoyance, or a mystic signpost indicating fulfillment of a predetermined condition on the journey of life. Whatever the explanation, déjà vu is certainly a phenomenon that is universal to the human condition, and its fundamental cause is still a mystery.
6. Ghosts
References to ghosts in classic literature by authors such as Homer and Dante hint that human experience with paranormal phenomena is longstanding and common. Today, haunted places such as the Whaley House in San Diego are listed as tourist attractions, and claims of ghost sightings are not unusual.
Popular culture is laden with movies about ghosts, yet conventional science steers clear from explaining such phenomena. Only investigators placed on the fringe of the scientific community make efforts to measure the validity of such occurrences.
The existence of ghosts has profound implications regarding dimensions beyond our physical world and the continuance of the human soul after death. Investigators working on this subject hope that one day this mystery will be solved.
7. Unexplained Disappearances
There are numerous strange cases in which people have disappeared without a trace.
For example, in 1937, pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan disappeared with the Lockheed aircraft they were flying. They were approaching Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean when the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca received their message that they were running low on fuel. But further communication was difficult, and the Itasca was unable to determine where the Lockheed was.
Soon after Earhart and Noonan sent the message that they only had half an hour’s fuel and couldn’t see land, communication was lost. They could only have landed on the water, but after years of searching, neither the fliers nor the Lockheed have been found in the ocean.
In cases like this, despite the great efforts of various investigative bodies using the best of their modern scientific techniques, we have failed to find concrete answers as to what happened to people who have mysteriously disappeared.
8. Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle—the area of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where ships and planes continue to disappear—is one of the great modern mysteries of our planet.
Survivors tell stories of time displacement, navigational instruments going awry, balls of light coming from the sky, sudden and violent changes in weather, and inexplicable walls of fog appearing such as described by Frank Flynn in 1956. He described the fog as an “unknown mass” that drained the engine power after his ship penetrated it.
Bruce Gernon Jr. encountered a type of fog in 1970 that enveloped his plane and mutated into something otherworldly. Over the years, scientists have worked to debunk the Bermuda Triangle mystery by saying there is no mystery. But those who have directly experienced the strange occurrences and lived to tell about it state emphatically that there are things that happened over the seas and skies of the Bermuda Triangle that are beyond logical comprehension.
9. Bigfoot
Bigfoot is one of the most legendary creatures in the study of cryptozoology. Bigfoot, or Sasquatch as it is called in North America’s Pacific Northwest, is also known as the Yeti or Abominable Snowman in the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet, and as the Yowie in Australia.
In 1951, mountaineer Eric Shipton photographed a giant footprint in the Himalayas. The photo startled the world and made the story of Bigfoot popular. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin shot footage of what they claimed to be Bigfoot. Their world-famous footage has been subject to many attempts to authenticate as well as debunk it.
Anthropologist Grover Krantz examined the Patterson-Gimlin film and concluded that it was genuine footage of an unknown bipedal creature that is very large. Due to the lack of hard physical evidence of Bigfoot, however, conventional science does not accept the claim of its existence. Yet the myth persists as sightings are reported worldwide.
10. The Hum
The phenomenon of a persistent low-frequency humming noise has been reported in numerous places worldwide, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe. The sound, not audible to all humans, is known simply as “The Hum” or with the name of the locality where it is heard, such as the Taos Hum (New Mexico), the Kokomo Hum (Indiana), the Bristol Hum (England), and the Largs Hum (Canada).
For those who can perceive it, the sound is often described as the rumbling of a distant diesel engine. It has caused some people extreme distress, with detrimental physical side effects disruptive to normal living.
Governmental bodies worldwide have investigated the source of The Hum. In the United States, the earliest investigations began in the 1960s. In 2003, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the United Kingdom published a report analyzing these low-frequency hums and the impact on complainants. However, conclusive results pinpointing the source of The Hum have been evasive, and the phenomenon of The Hum remains a mystery.
1. The Placebo Effect
The placebo effect has been a medical enigma that has touched upon the mind’s influence on physical health and healing. It was found that patients believing to have been given an effective medicine could be healed even if they were only given sugar pills. This finding has led to research employing double-blind trials to avoid having the expectations of both experimenters and participants affect the results.
Unfortunately, over the years, the effectiveness and measurability of the placebo effect has been deemed by science as not reliable. This may be due to the limitations of the scientific method. Nevertheless, there are many cases of humans’ self-healing, which sometimes even surpass medical means available for healing the physical body.
2. The Sixth Sense
The five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell help us explore our physical world. There is also a sixth sense, an inner power of perception known as intuition. The word intuition is from the Latin word “intueri,” which means ‘to look within.” Intuition is the ability to know and understand without the use of logical reasoning or analysis, and it is common to all people in varying degrees of acuity.
Intuition is popularly referred to as a “hunch” or “gut feeling,” an inner knowing about something or some situation without prior knowledge. According to the 2006 PRWeek/Burson-Marsteller CEO Survey, 62 percent of CEOs are more likely to make business decisions based on their intuition than on data analysis.
A 2007 study published in Current Biology also found that participants, when given no time to look and having to rely on intuition, are more accurate in picking out an odd symbol among over 650 identical ones than when given 1.5 seconds to look at the symbols.
Ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi once said, “The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.” Albert Einstein also said, “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
But where does intuition come from? Studies of the human brain point to the pineal gland as a possible answer to this mystery. René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, called the pineal gland the “seat of the soul.” Ancient Eastern thought considers intuition to be in the region of the pineal gland and believes it can receive illumination from the soul in the form of knowledge and ideas.
3. Near Death Experience
There have been many reports of various strange experiences that come to people close to death, such as passing through a tunnel into a bright light, meeting up with beloved ones, and having a calm, serene feeling.
The most notable was the experience of Dr. George Rodonaia, whose “clinical near death experience” in 1976 was the most extensive case ever recorded. The experience transformed Rodonaia, who was an atheist before his experience and thereafter became an ordained priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church. His experience hints to us that there is another world beyond this human physical world.
Although people have truly gone through these experiences, science has not been able to provide an explanation for the near death experience phenomenon. Some scientists try to suggest that these near death experiences can be explained as a result of hallucinations from an injured brain. But brain injury is not always the case, so no concrete scientific theory is able to offer either explanations or reasons for why people have had these experiences and why they are often life-changing.
4. Unidentified Flying Objects
Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) is a term coined by the United States Air Force in 1952 to classify objects that could not be identified by experts after investigation. In popular culture, the concept of UFO is usually taken to mean a spaceship flown by aliens.
UFOs have been sighted and recorded as early as the Song dynasty in China. In the 11th century, scholar and military general Shen Kuo (1031–1095) wrote in his book “Dream Pool Essays” (1088) about a flying pearl-shaped object with a blinding interior light that could move at incredible speed.
Kenneth Arnold, an American businessman, reported seeing nine objects with brilliant light flying near Mount Rainier in Washington state in 1947. Arnold described the objects as “flat like a pie pan” saucer-shaped disks. His account received significant media attention and drew great public interest.
Since then, UFO sightings have increased exponentially. The UFO phenomenon has been studied by both government and independent investigators worldwide. Dr. Josef Allen Hynek (1910–1986) worked for the United States Air force to investigate UFO sightings. At first, Hynek was highly critical, but after examining hundreds of UFO reports over three decades, his opinion changed.
In the later years of his career, Hynek became vocal in expressing his disappointment at the simple manner in which most scientists considered UFOs—unwilling and unyielding to admit the unexplainable.
5. Déjà Vu
Déjà vu, French for “already seen,” is the eerily familiar sensation of having been at a certain place or event before, as it is being encountered for the first time. People may have very strange feelings of familiarity about a vision in front of them as if it has happened before, but they know that it is the first time they have faced such things. Neurophysiology research has tried to explain such experiences as anomalies of memory, or brain pathology, or as side effects of drugs.
A 2008 study by psychologist Anne Cleary explored that déjà vu may have to do with recognition memory. Alternative explanations associate déjà vu with prophecy, past life memories, clairvoyance, or a mystic signpost indicating fulfillment of a predetermined condition on the journey of life. Whatever the explanation, déjà vu is certainly a phenomenon that is universal to the human condition, and its fundamental cause is still a mystery.
6. Ghosts
References to ghosts in classic literature by authors such as Homer and Dante hint that human experience with paranormal phenomena is longstanding and common. Today, haunted places such as the Whaley House in San Diego are listed as tourist attractions, and claims of ghost sightings are not unusual.
Popular culture is laden with movies about ghosts, yet conventional science steers clear from explaining such phenomena. Only investigators placed on the fringe of the scientific community make efforts to measure the validity of such occurrences.
The existence of ghosts has profound implications regarding dimensions beyond our physical world and the continuance of the human soul after death. Investigators working on this subject hope that one day this mystery will be solved.
7. Unexplained Disappearances
There are numerous strange cases in which people have disappeared without a trace.
For example, in 1937, pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan disappeared with the Lockheed aircraft they were flying. They were approaching Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean when the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca received their message that they were running low on fuel. But further communication was difficult, and the Itasca was unable to determine where the Lockheed was.
Soon after Earhart and Noonan sent the message that they only had half an hour’s fuel and couldn’t see land, communication was lost. They could only have landed on the water, but after years of searching, neither the fliers nor the Lockheed have been found in the ocean.
In cases like this, despite the great efforts of various investigative bodies using the best of their modern scientific techniques, we have failed to find concrete answers as to what happened to people who have mysteriously disappeared.
8. Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle—the area of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where ships and planes continue to disappear—is one of the great modern mysteries of our planet.
Survivors tell stories of time displacement, navigational instruments going awry, balls of light coming from the sky, sudden and violent changes in weather, and inexplicable walls of fog appearing such as described by Frank Flynn in 1956. He described the fog as an “unknown mass” that drained the engine power after his ship penetrated it.
Bruce Gernon Jr. encountered a type of fog in 1970 that enveloped his plane and mutated into something otherworldly. Over the years, scientists have worked to debunk the Bermuda Triangle mystery by saying there is no mystery. But those who have directly experienced the strange occurrences and lived to tell about it state emphatically that there are things that happened over the seas and skies of the Bermuda Triangle that are beyond logical comprehension.
9. Bigfoot
Bigfoot is one of the most legendary creatures in the study of cryptozoology. Bigfoot, or Sasquatch as it is called in North America’s Pacific Northwest, is also known as the Yeti or Abominable Snowman in the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet, and as the Yowie in Australia.
In 1951, mountaineer Eric Shipton photographed a giant footprint in the Himalayas. The photo startled the world and made the story of Bigfoot popular. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin shot footage of what they claimed to be Bigfoot. Their world-famous footage has been subject to many attempts to authenticate as well as debunk it.
Anthropologist Grover Krantz examined the Patterson-Gimlin film and concluded that it was genuine footage of an unknown bipedal creature that is very large. Due to the lack of hard physical evidence of Bigfoot, however, conventional science does not accept the claim of its existence. Yet the myth persists as sightings are reported worldwide.
10. The Hum
The phenomenon of a persistent low-frequency humming noise has been reported in numerous places worldwide, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe. The sound, not audible to all humans, is known simply as “The Hum” or with the name of the locality where it is heard, such as the Taos Hum (New Mexico), the Kokomo Hum (Indiana), the Bristol Hum (England), and the Largs Hum (Canada).
For those who can perceive it, the sound is often described as the rumbling of a distant diesel engine. It has caused some people extreme distress, with detrimental physical side effects disruptive to normal living.
Governmental bodies worldwide have investigated the source of The Hum. In the United States, the earliest investigations began in the 1960s. In 2003, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the United Kingdom published a report analyzing these low-frequency hums and the impact on complainants. However, conclusive results pinpointing the source of The Hum have been evasive, and the phenomenon of The Hum remains a mystery.
Mayor sends in troops after alien April Fool panic
by Daily Mail
A local newspaper's April Fool chronicling a late-night visit by 10ft aliens sparked panic in a town in Jordan.
The Al Ghad newspaper published a front-page article claiming a UFO landing near the desert town of Jafr.
The report said the aliens lit up the whole town, interrupted communications and sent fearful residents streaming into the streets.
Jafr's mayor, Mohammed Mleihan, was fooled by the paper's prank and sent security authorities in search of the aliens.
"Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents," he said. "People were scared that aliens would attack them."
[Click here to read full article]
A local newspaper's April Fool chronicling a late-night visit by 10ft aliens sparked panic in a town in Jordan.
The Al Ghad newspaper published a front-page article claiming a UFO landing near the desert town of Jafr.
The report said the aliens lit up the whole town, interrupted communications and sent fearful residents streaming into the streets.
Jafr's mayor, Mohammed Mleihan, was fooled by the paper's prank and sent security authorities in search of the aliens.
"Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents," he said. "People were scared that aliens would attack them."
[Click here to read full article]
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Clear UFO seen above Chinese University
A very clear video of a typical saucer-shaped UFO over Ningbo in China is currently doing the rounds on the web.
The footage shows a number of students in the grounds of Wan Li University piling out of the building to catch a glimpse of the object that hangs rotating in the sky for a few seconds before disappearing.
The footage shows a number of students in the grounds of Wan Li University piling out of the building to catch a glimpse of the object that hangs rotating in the sky for a few seconds before disappearing.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Dragon-sized lizard eluded science, until now
by Charles Q. Choi
Spectacularly colored new species of monitor lizard found in the Philippines.
Picture is (C) copyright to Reuters
A giant, spectacularly colored new species of monitor lizard has just been revealed to scientists in the Philippines.
The reptile, which is roughly 6 feet long (1.8 meters), is kin to Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards. Named Varanus bitatawa, this newly discovered species, decorated in stripes of gold flecks and armed with huge, curved claws for climbing trees, is one of only three fruit-eating monitor species in the world.
As humans continue to explore the last uncharted regions of the planet, discoveries of previously unknown species of large vertebrates have become rare. It remains doubly surprising this reptile managed to escape the attention of the many biologists that work on the heavily populated island of Luzon.
"I am most impressed that such a large, conspicuous, brightly colored species of monitor lizard escaped the notice of biologists for the past 150 years," said researcher Rafe Brown, a field herpetologist at the University of Kansas.
Still, remarkably few surveys have explored the reptile diversity of the island's northern forests. The reptile also seems highly secretive and dislikes traversing open areas.
[Click here to read full article]
Spectacularly colored new species of monitor lizard found in the Philippines.
Picture is (C) copyright to Reuters
A giant, spectacularly colored new species of monitor lizard has just been revealed to scientists in the Philippines.
The reptile, which is roughly 6 feet long (1.8 meters), is kin to Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards. Named Varanus bitatawa, this newly discovered species, decorated in stripes of gold flecks and armed with huge, curved claws for climbing trees, is one of only three fruit-eating monitor species in the world.
As humans continue to explore the last uncharted regions of the planet, discoveries of previously unknown species of large vertebrates have become rare. It remains doubly surprising this reptile managed to escape the attention of the many biologists that work on the heavily populated island of Luzon.
"I am most impressed that such a large, conspicuous, brightly colored species of monitor lizard escaped the notice of biologists for the past 150 years," said researcher Rafe Brown, a field herpetologist at the University of Kansas.
Still, remarkably few surveys have explored the reptile diversity of the island's northern forests. The reptile also seems highly secretive and dislikes traversing open areas.
[Click here to read full article]
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Grieving relatives discover 'dead' man's heart still beating
by Sina
CHENGDU: Medics at a hospital in Neijiang, Sichuan province, have come under fire after declaring the victim of a traffic accident dead and sending the man's body to a funeral home when his heart was still beating.
However, Zhang Houming, a construction worker, died about an hour after relatives discovered the error at the funeral home last Friday. He was 46.
Zhang was pronounced dead the first time after his motorcycle collided with a bus as he returned home with his 23-year-old son Zhang Haibo, at about 2:30 pm that day. The son, who worked with his father at the same construction site in Lingjia town, was knocked unconscious in the collision.
An ambulance arrived at the scene about two hours later, and its driver blamed traffic for the delay.
Zhang's colleague surnamed You said it took him less than an hour to get to the work site from his house, which is located in the city center, and using his electric bike.
[Click here to read full article]
CHENGDU: Medics at a hospital in Neijiang, Sichuan province, have come under fire after declaring the victim of a traffic accident dead and sending the man's body to a funeral home when his heart was still beating.
However, Zhang Houming, a construction worker, died about an hour after relatives discovered the error at the funeral home last Friday. He was 46.
Zhang was pronounced dead the first time after his motorcycle collided with a bus as he returned home with his 23-year-old son Zhang Haibo, at about 2:30 pm that day. The son, who worked with his father at the same construction site in Lingjia town, was knocked unconscious in the collision.
An ambulance arrived at the scene about two hours later, and its driver blamed traffic for the delay.
Zhang's colleague surnamed You said it took him less than an hour to get to the work site from his house, which is located in the city center, and using his electric bike.
[Click here to read full article]
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Feng Shui Tomb
by Spooky Corner
Author’s Note : I got this story from this TV talk show program shown in Taiwan called “Unbelievable World” (direct translation) which features people from all walks of life to discuss about their experiences with this mysterious world. Here’s one story about a Feng Shui Master
Feng Shui Master’s mum recently passed away. At that time, Feng Shui Master was still at his early days of his career going through a rough patch. Because he was always too busy to arrange for his mother’s funeral, he requested his student, to pick the most auspicious date and location to bury his mother’s remains. It is said to believe that an ancestor’s burial spot is most important because it would affect the future generations.
Feng Shui Student was eager to please his teacher so he took a lot of care in choosing the auspicious date and location. After a few weeks of calculation and analysis, Feng Shui Student presented to his teacher his chosen preference. The student explained to his teacher that if indeed the day he had chosen is auspicious, then his teacher would see two signs, one, a green man riding a horse and two, a green turtle. All this seemed a little too unbelievable but the Feng Shui master decided to have a little faith in his student and proceeded with the chosen date and location.
You see, the date the Feng Shui student had chosen was pretty unconventional because apart of the auspicious date, the most suitable time for the burial to start was during the night time. Usually, people in this line of business do not bury people during the night for fear that unexpected and unfavorable events might appear. The master had a tough time convincing people to carry his mother’s coffin and even had to pay double to get them to do the task but when that fateful day arrived, yet, only half the people turned up. Fortunately, the Feng Shui master had a lot of relatives and most of them were willing enough to help out.
Upon reaching the location, the place was quiet and filled with fog. In the midst of driving up the slope in a heavy fog, the master suddenly saw a ray of light coming from the opposite direction. Slowly, the master could finally see where the light was coming from as the fog slowly shifted away. The image slowly appeared and what the Feng Shui master saw was a man wearing a green color t-shirt was riding a motorcycle.
Enough said, his student immediately pointed out that this was the “green man” that they had been waiting for. The student told his teacher that the man in the green t-shirt riding a motorcycle was indeed our modern version of a man riding horse (motorcycle in Chinese is also know as a metal horse). Cautious, the Feng Shui master told his student not to get too excited as there was still a green turtle yet to be seen.
After the burial ceremony, the master proceeded back home. As soon as everyone was in the car, the Feng Shui master turned on his engine and shifted gears. Suddenly, his uncle shouted at him to halt. Surprised, the master asked his uncle what had happened. The uncle explained to him that he had seen a very nice green turtle by the roadside and wanted to get down the car and carry it home with him as a pet. True enough, the Feng Shui master saw a green turtle by the roadside.
After that day, the Feng Shui master had windfalls after windfalls in his business, reputation and wealth.
Author’s Note : I got this story from this TV talk show program shown in Taiwan called “Unbelievable World” (direct translation) which features people from all walks of life to discuss about their experiences with this mysterious world. Here’s one story about a Feng Shui Master
Feng Shui Master’s mum recently passed away. At that time, Feng Shui Master was still at his early days of his career going through a rough patch. Because he was always too busy to arrange for his mother’s funeral, he requested his student, to pick the most auspicious date and location to bury his mother’s remains. It is said to believe that an ancestor’s burial spot is most important because it would affect the future generations.
Feng Shui Student was eager to please his teacher so he took a lot of care in choosing the auspicious date and location. After a few weeks of calculation and analysis, Feng Shui Student presented to his teacher his chosen preference. The student explained to his teacher that if indeed the day he had chosen is auspicious, then his teacher would see two signs, one, a green man riding a horse and two, a green turtle. All this seemed a little too unbelievable but the Feng Shui master decided to have a little faith in his student and proceeded with the chosen date and location.
You see, the date the Feng Shui student had chosen was pretty unconventional because apart of the auspicious date, the most suitable time for the burial to start was during the night time. Usually, people in this line of business do not bury people during the night for fear that unexpected and unfavorable events might appear. The master had a tough time convincing people to carry his mother’s coffin and even had to pay double to get them to do the task but when that fateful day arrived, yet, only half the people turned up. Fortunately, the Feng Shui master had a lot of relatives and most of them were willing enough to help out.
Upon reaching the location, the place was quiet and filled with fog. In the midst of driving up the slope in a heavy fog, the master suddenly saw a ray of light coming from the opposite direction. Slowly, the master could finally see where the light was coming from as the fog slowly shifted away. The image slowly appeared and what the Feng Shui master saw was a man wearing a green color t-shirt was riding a motorcycle.
Enough said, his student immediately pointed out that this was the “green man” that they had been waiting for. The student told his teacher that the man in the green t-shirt riding a motorcycle was indeed our modern version of a man riding horse (motorcycle in Chinese is also know as a metal horse). Cautious, the Feng Shui master told his student not to get too excited as there was still a green turtle yet to be seen.
After the burial ceremony, the master proceeded back home. As soon as everyone was in the car, the Feng Shui master turned on his engine and shifted gears. Suddenly, his uncle shouted at him to halt. Surprised, the master asked his uncle what had happened. The uncle explained to him that he had seen a very nice green turtle by the roadside and wanted to get down the car and carry it home with him as a pet. True enough, the Feng Shui master saw a green turtle by the roadside.
After that day, the Feng Shui master had windfalls after windfalls in his business, reputation and wealth.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Man threatens to down Qantas jet with mind power
by ABC news
Singapore police are questioning a man who threatened to bring down a Qantas flight from Sydney to Singapore.
The man was restrained by flight stewards after he made threats to disrupt QF31 using mind power.
According to ABC reporter Nick Luchinelli, who was onboard the flight, it seemed the middle-aged man was either under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both.
He was suffering some sort of delusion and people sitting close to him said he was threatening to use the power of his mind to bring the flight down.
[Click here to read full article]
Singapore police are questioning a man who threatened to bring down a Qantas flight from Sydney to Singapore.
The man was restrained by flight stewards after he made threats to disrupt QF31 using mind power.
According to ABC reporter Nick Luchinelli, who was onboard the flight, it seemed the middle-aged man was either under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both.
He was suffering some sort of delusion and people sitting close to him said he was threatening to use the power of his mind to bring the flight down.
[Click here to read full article]
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Medivial Torture (Part 4) - Guillotine
By Yona Williams
Responsible for decapitating a victim, the guillotine was a tall, upright frame that had a blade attached to a rope. The blade is raised up by the rope and then let go, so that the head became separated from the body.
Despite the origin of its name, the concept of the guillotine is much older than the common belief that it was an invention of the French people. In fact, the Scots were the first to use a smaller guillotine as a means of executing their nobles.
When the French learned of its existence, they felt it would become a suitable way to not only punish their nobles, but anyone else that required discipline. As for its introduction into French culture, it was a medical professor by the name of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin that gets the credit.
When the device first arrived in the country, the French used dead bodies from the hospital as a way to test it out. In Paris, it debuted on April 4, 1792, and on the 25th day of that month, the first official execution took place. Between 1792 and 1794, the guillotine was used quite often – taking the heads off of royalty in clean strokes. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI lost his head, which gave way to the name of "Le Louison" until in 1800, the term "guillotine" was born.
The Role of the French Revolution
The people were growing unhappy with the breaking wheel and as a result, Louis XVI banned its use. In 1791, the French Revolution encouraged the National Assembly to research a new method of execution that could be used on all people in the country without discriminating against class. They were starting to shift from the thought that capital punishment should simply end life and not inflict pain on the condemned. A committee was organized, which included Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. The guillotine was actually fashioned after other earlier devices, such as the Scottish Maiden and the Halifax Gibbet.
The Last Guillotine Execution
The guillotine quickly found a place as an effective means of execution in The Papal States, France, Scotland, and throughout the rest of Europe. The last time the guillotine was used in France was in 1977 and by 1981, it was no longer the official method of execution when the country abolished the death penalty under Mitterrand.
Throughout time, some of the most notable people to have died by the guillotine include:
Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier (1792) – officially the first executed by guillotine
Marie Antoinette (1793) – a queen
George Danton (1794) – revolutionary leader
Maximilian Robespierre (1794) – revolutionary leader
Eugene Weidmann (1939) – murdered six people
Responsible for decapitating a victim, the guillotine was a tall, upright frame that had a blade attached to a rope. The blade is raised up by the rope and then let go, so that the head became separated from the body.
Despite the origin of its name, the concept of the guillotine is much older than the common belief that it was an invention of the French people. In fact, the Scots were the first to use a smaller guillotine as a means of executing their nobles.
When the French learned of its existence, they felt it would become a suitable way to not only punish their nobles, but anyone else that required discipline. As for its introduction into French culture, it was a medical professor by the name of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin that gets the credit.
When the device first arrived in the country, the French used dead bodies from the hospital as a way to test it out. In Paris, it debuted on April 4, 1792, and on the 25th day of that month, the first official execution took place. Between 1792 and 1794, the guillotine was used quite often – taking the heads off of royalty in clean strokes. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI lost his head, which gave way to the name of "Le Louison" until in 1800, the term "guillotine" was born.
The Role of the French Revolution
The people were growing unhappy with the breaking wheel and as a result, Louis XVI banned its use. In 1791, the French Revolution encouraged the National Assembly to research a new method of execution that could be used on all people in the country without discriminating against class. They were starting to shift from the thought that capital punishment should simply end life and not inflict pain on the condemned. A committee was organized, which included Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. The guillotine was actually fashioned after other earlier devices, such as the Scottish Maiden and the Halifax Gibbet.
The Last Guillotine Execution
The guillotine quickly found a place as an effective means of execution in The Papal States, France, Scotland, and throughout the rest of Europe. The last time the guillotine was used in France was in 1977 and by 1981, it was no longer the official method of execution when the country abolished the death penalty under Mitterrand.
Throughout time, some of the most notable people to have died by the guillotine include:
Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier (1792) – officially the first executed by guillotine
Marie Antoinette (1793) – a queen
George Danton (1794) – revolutionary leader
Maximilian Robespierre (1794) – revolutionary leader
Eugene Weidmann (1939) – murdered six people
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Filipinos whipped and nailed to crosses in terrifyingly realistic re-enactment of the Crucifixion
By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
Devout Filipinos have been nailed to crosses and whipped in an annual ritual to mark Good Friday.
Dozens of people were crucified in villages across the Roman Catholic country, in one of the world's most bizarre practices to mark the day when Christians believe Jesus Christ was put to death.
The event drew more than 10,000 Filipino and foreign spectators.
Among the devotees was Ruben Enaje, a 49-year-old sign painter who was nailed to a cross for the 24th time as his way of thanking God for his survival after falling from a building.
Mary Jane Mamangon, a 34-year-old rice cake vendor, was the lone female devotee to be nailed to a cross this year in San Juan village. It was her 14th time.
[Click here to read full article]
Devout Filipinos have been nailed to crosses and whipped in an annual ritual to mark Good Friday.
Dozens of people were crucified in villages across the Roman Catholic country, in one of the world's most bizarre practices to mark the day when Christians believe Jesus Christ was put to death.
The event drew more than 10,000 Filipino and foreign spectators.
Among the devotees was Ruben Enaje, a 49-year-old sign painter who was nailed to a cross for the 24th time as his way of thanking God for his survival after falling from a building.
Mary Jane Mamangon, a 34-year-old rice cake vendor, was the lone female devotee to be nailed to a cross this year in San Juan village. It was her 14th time.
[Click here to read full article]
Medivial Torture (Part 3) - Instruments
By Yona Williams
The Wheel
The wheel was a device comprised of a large piece of circular wood with spokes attached. Limbs were tied to the spokes and the wheel was slowly turned. Openings between the spokes allowed a torturer to hit the victim with an iron hammer to break bones. With broken bones, the victim was left to die on the wheel. If a victim was sentenced to die an extremely painful death, they were placed on a tall pole so that birds could finish off the body.
For small offenses, the victim was able to survive their torture, and would live to describe what they believed was the most painful torture device ever conceived. It was a torture method of choice to punish traitors, those against religion, homosexuals and spies.
Sometimes the wheel was used in conjunction with horses pulling the victim, which was pretty common. With feet tied with a rope, they were connected to a wild horse in a cage. Sometimes, the hands would be fastened to a wall. In some cases, using nails to imitate Jesus Christ created a religious meaning behind the torture. When the torturer was ready to begin, the horse would be ordered to ride at full speed. The victim's bones would eventually break. If the victim was a large sized man or very strong, it was not uncommon to see two or three horses used during the torture.
It's hard to believe, but the human body and skin could be very resistant to breakage. When the horses were ordered to run, they would move with all of their might and a victim could have their arms separated from the rest of their body.
Other victims were stretched on the wheel, as a torturer would turn a handle that caused their body to be increasingly pulled. In some cases, fire and nails attached to the floor were added to the torture equation.
The Rack
During medieval times in Britain, the rack was used between 1154 and 1485. It was a torture device that was rectangular in shape and usually comprised of a wooden frame, a roller, and a fixed bar. A victim had their legs fastened to the bar and their hands were tied to the movable bar. A torturer turned the handle, which caused the ropes to pull at the arms of the victim. In time, the victim's bones became dislocated with a loud crack, which caused the cartilage, ligaments, and bones to snap. If the contraption was turned even more, the limbs were completely ripped off in the end.
This form of torture was used to get confessions out of a person. If a victim refused to confess, the torturer would continue to stretch out the body. It was also a way to strike fear into the hearts of other victims, as they made them watch someone else going through the process. A group of people known in history to undergo this form of torture was many of the knights belonging to the Knights Templar – whose mission was to protect Pilgrims.
The Thumbscrew
During the Middle Ages, the Inquisition was notorious in torturing people using the thumbscrew method. It was their way of getting the intimate details out of an individual that they deemed important. A victim's hands were placed in a device and the torturer would slowly crush their fingers, which weren’t the only parts of the body subjected to pain. The device was also placed on toes and crushed in the same manner. Larger devices were also created to crush arms, knees, and even heads.
The Iron Maiden
Resembling a sarcophagus, the Iron Maiden was outfitted with tips inside the front door. When people were placed into the device, they died because the door was shut slowly to allow the tips to crush the person to death. A tube at the bottom enhanced the cruelty of the device as victims actually saw their own blood depart their body. You'd think that death would have come quickly, but in fact – it could take more than two days for them to succumb to the torture. With a history linked to Germany, it was thought that the device was strictly related to the Middle Ages, but it actually was invented a couple of centuries beforehand.
The Stocks
One of the most recognized methods of punishment (or torture) is the stocks – typically pictured in history books and seen in movies depicting the Middle Ages. The stocks were usually situated in a part of a town where the public easily had access to the sufferer. It was used as a humiliation tactic, where it was not uncommon for townsfolk to throw objects at an individual, such as rotten produce or rocks.
Victims placed their hands and feet into the open device, which is then closed onto the body. The number of days that a victim stayed in the stocks was determined by the severity of their crime. This could be days to weeks. The device was also used as a form of the death penalty, where a victim was left in the stocks until the sun and animals contributed to their end. The punishment was a sight to see and if anyone wanted to help the accused, they were also tortured by the same method.
Victims also had to deal with the people in town, who could be very cruel. A mild offense usually saw sentenced people endure hits to the face or urine being tossed at them. A more severe case led to harsher ridicule and bodily harm. Stoning was very common, which led to the death of some, while others were left with severe injuries. Cutting was another approach. Some villagers would take off body parts, such as a hand, in the most severe cases.
The Wheel
The wheel was a device comprised of a large piece of circular wood with spokes attached. Limbs were tied to the spokes and the wheel was slowly turned. Openings between the spokes allowed a torturer to hit the victim with an iron hammer to break bones. With broken bones, the victim was left to die on the wheel. If a victim was sentenced to die an extremely painful death, they were placed on a tall pole so that birds could finish off the body.
For small offenses, the victim was able to survive their torture, and would live to describe what they believed was the most painful torture device ever conceived. It was a torture method of choice to punish traitors, those against religion, homosexuals and spies.
Sometimes the wheel was used in conjunction with horses pulling the victim, which was pretty common. With feet tied with a rope, they were connected to a wild horse in a cage. Sometimes, the hands would be fastened to a wall. In some cases, using nails to imitate Jesus Christ created a religious meaning behind the torture. When the torturer was ready to begin, the horse would be ordered to ride at full speed. The victim's bones would eventually break. If the victim was a large sized man or very strong, it was not uncommon to see two or three horses used during the torture.
It's hard to believe, but the human body and skin could be very resistant to breakage. When the horses were ordered to run, they would move with all of their might and a victim could have their arms separated from the rest of their body.
Other victims were stretched on the wheel, as a torturer would turn a handle that caused their body to be increasingly pulled. In some cases, fire and nails attached to the floor were added to the torture equation.
The Rack
During medieval times in Britain, the rack was used between 1154 and 1485. It was a torture device that was rectangular in shape and usually comprised of a wooden frame, a roller, and a fixed bar. A victim had their legs fastened to the bar and their hands were tied to the movable bar. A torturer turned the handle, which caused the ropes to pull at the arms of the victim. In time, the victim's bones became dislocated with a loud crack, which caused the cartilage, ligaments, and bones to snap. If the contraption was turned even more, the limbs were completely ripped off in the end.
This form of torture was used to get confessions out of a person. If a victim refused to confess, the torturer would continue to stretch out the body. It was also a way to strike fear into the hearts of other victims, as they made them watch someone else going through the process. A group of people known in history to undergo this form of torture was many of the knights belonging to the Knights Templar – whose mission was to protect Pilgrims.
The Thumbscrew
During the Middle Ages, the Inquisition was notorious in torturing people using the thumbscrew method. It was their way of getting the intimate details out of an individual that they deemed important. A victim's hands were placed in a device and the torturer would slowly crush their fingers, which weren’t the only parts of the body subjected to pain. The device was also placed on toes and crushed in the same manner. Larger devices were also created to crush arms, knees, and even heads.
The Iron Maiden
Resembling a sarcophagus, the Iron Maiden was outfitted with tips inside the front door. When people were placed into the device, they died because the door was shut slowly to allow the tips to crush the person to death. A tube at the bottom enhanced the cruelty of the device as victims actually saw their own blood depart their body. You'd think that death would have come quickly, but in fact – it could take more than two days for them to succumb to the torture. With a history linked to Germany, it was thought that the device was strictly related to the Middle Ages, but it actually was invented a couple of centuries beforehand.
The Stocks
One of the most recognized methods of punishment (or torture) is the stocks – typically pictured in history books and seen in movies depicting the Middle Ages. The stocks were usually situated in a part of a town where the public easily had access to the sufferer. It was used as a humiliation tactic, where it was not uncommon for townsfolk to throw objects at an individual, such as rotten produce or rocks.
Victims placed their hands and feet into the open device, which is then closed onto the body. The number of days that a victim stayed in the stocks was determined by the severity of their crime. This could be days to weeks. The device was also used as a form of the death penalty, where a victim was left in the stocks until the sun and animals contributed to their end. The punishment was a sight to see and if anyone wanted to help the accused, they were also tortured by the same method.
Victims also had to deal with the people in town, who could be very cruel. A mild offense usually saw sentenced people endure hits to the face or urine being tossed at them. A more severe case led to harsher ridicule and bodily harm. Stoning was very common, which led to the death of some, while others were left with severe injuries. Cutting was another approach. Some villagers would take off body parts, such as a hand, in the most severe cases.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Killer icicles terrorise Russians
by Telegraph UK
"Every day, I go out into the street as if I was entering a war zone," complained resident Boris Ilinsky, 28.
"I've got to keep my eyes on the ground to avoid slipping and I'm also looking up to avoid falling lumps of ice," he added.
The high toll has prompted residents and relatives of victims to demand action against those responsible for what they believe to be careless clearing of ice from rooftops.
Milana Kashtanova, 21, is the latest victim, and has been in a coma since February, when she was hit by the ice which was being cleared from a rooftop.
"Milana was just walking past a building in the city centre... There was no warning tape, nothing to alert people that people were working on the roof," said Miss Kashtanova's boyfriend, Irinei Kalachev.
[Click here to read full article]
"Every day, I go out into the street as if I was entering a war zone," complained resident Boris Ilinsky, 28.
"I've got to keep my eyes on the ground to avoid slipping and I'm also looking up to avoid falling lumps of ice," he added.
The high toll has prompted residents and relatives of victims to demand action against those responsible for what they believe to be careless clearing of ice from rooftops.
Milana Kashtanova, 21, is the latest victim, and has been in a coma since February, when she was hit by the ice which was being cleared from a rooftop.
"Milana was just walking past a building in the city centre... There was no warning tape, nothing to alert people that people were working on the roof," said Miss Kashtanova's boyfriend, Irinei Kalachev.
[Click here to read full article]
Medivial Torture (Part 2) - Stoning & More
By Yona Williams
Stoning
Used as a form of punishment and death penalty, stoning involved more than just throwing rocks at a criminal. For instance, women were subjected to stoning mainly as humiliation. If a female was accused of being a whore or involved in witchery, she was tied to the end of a horse and groped.
If the community hated the victim, stones and other sharp (and sometimes hot) materials were placed on the floor so that the woman would suffer extra pain as they were paraded around town. If she were sentenced to the death penalty, death would come within more than an hour as villagers were allowed to scream at and yell insults at the accused. Some grabbed stones to throw at the woman, which often painfully sped up the time it took for her to die.
The Keep Torture
Blending pain and embarrassment, the Keep Torture (also known as 'the Keep') involved being placed into a cage with iron nails and enclosed until they suffered a painful, slow death. Small openings in the cage allowed birds to feed off of the victim, who was unable to fight away predators as their arms were tied with rope.
This form of torture was fit for anyone – it didn’t matter if you were a peasant or a noble. The Keep also humiliated anyone who was placed inside, as the cage was positioned on the main square or even on a church. The entire town could witness the punishment of the victim. After many days of pain and agony, the victim would finally pass out, but it was not uncommon to be awakened by the townsfolk who would throw stones and other objects at the cage.
The torture process of the Keep had varying levels of punishments. In the worst cases, the victim was let down and after a week or so had passed – they were placed in it again. Sometimes, the punishment could last three or four rounds until they were sent to endure another form of torture or they had finally succumbed to the heat of the sun or from being picked at by birds.
The Pear of Anguish
During medieval times, the Pear of Anguish was indeed shaped like a pear, which was used to torture witches, homosexuals, and females accused of inducing a miscarriage. With the turn of a handle, lobes in the shape of spoons would open, causing a victim to endure a great deal of pain.
While the Pear was mostly used to inflict oral pain, it was used in other areas of the body. For instance, women had the device attached to their vagina. If used in the mouth, the victim suffered a destruction of their teeth, which caused blood to pour out of the mouth and in many cases. This part of the torture would lead to their death. When used in genital areas, the Pear caused infection, as it was rarely washed. If infection was not the cause of death, then diseases brought on by severe damage of the intestines caused fatal ruin.
Stoning
Used as a form of punishment and death penalty, stoning involved more than just throwing rocks at a criminal. For instance, women were subjected to stoning mainly as humiliation. If a female was accused of being a whore or involved in witchery, she was tied to the end of a horse and groped.
If the community hated the victim, stones and other sharp (and sometimes hot) materials were placed on the floor so that the woman would suffer extra pain as they were paraded around town. If she were sentenced to the death penalty, death would come within more than an hour as villagers were allowed to scream at and yell insults at the accused. Some grabbed stones to throw at the woman, which often painfully sped up the time it took for her to die.
The Keep Torture
Blending pain and embarrassment, the Keep Torture (also known as 'the Keep') involved being placed into a cage with iron nails and enclosed until they suffered a painful, slow death. Small openings in the cage allowed birds to feed off of the victim, who was unable to fight away predators as their arms were tied with rope.
This form of torture was fit for anyone – it didn’t matter if you were a peasant or a noble. The Keep also humiliated anyone who was placed inside, as the cage was positioned on the main square or even on a church. The entire town could witness the punishment of the victim. After many days of pain and agony, the victim would finally pass out, but it was not uncommon to be awakened by the townsfolk who would throw stones and other objects at the cage.
The torture process of the Keep had varying levels of punishments. In the worst cases, the victim was let down and after a week or so had passed – they were placed in it again. Sometimes, the punishment could last three or four rounds until they were sent to endure another form of torture or they had finally succumbed to the heat of the sun or from being picked at by birds.
The Pear of Anguish
During medieval times, the Pear of Anguish was indeed shaped like a pear, which was used to torture witches, homosexuals, and females accused of inducing a miscarriage. With the turn of a handle, lobes in the shape of spoons would open, causing a victim to endure a great deal of pain.
While the Pear was mostly used to inflict oral pain, it was used in other areas of the body. For instance, women had the device attached to their vagina. If used in the mouth, the victim suffered a destruction of their teeth, which caused blood to pour out of the mouth and in many cases. This part of the torture would lead to their death. When used in genital areas, the Pear caused infection, as it was rarely washed. If infection was not the cause of death, then diseases brought on by severe damage of the intestines caused fatal ruin.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Medivial Torture (Part 1) - Methods
by Yona Williams
From Roman Emperor Hadrian to the ancient Greeks, heat played an important role in their methods of torture. In this article, you will not only learn about Heat Torture, but you'll also learn of two other ways that people in the past would punish their criminals and suspects.
Exposure
When it comes to slow and painful deaths of the past, exposure is certainly at the top of the list. A popular form of torture during early medieval times, heretics and witches were fastened to the ground with iron nails. Their clothes were removed so that they remained naked while their legs and arms were spread out.
The sun would then beat down on their body, causing strong sunburns on the skin. However, this was not the only component of the torture, as wild animals also played a role. They would eat the victim while they were still alive, which caused varying levels of pain. A large animal meant that their death was quicker, while smaller animals only made the torture last longer.
Breast Ripper
In the past, women who were caught sleeping with another man could face the 'Breast Ripper,' which was designed to rip open the breasts, which often caused infections and eventually death within a couple of months. Women who were lucky to survive the torture were never quite the same. Popular during the Dark Ages, this form of torture was mainly used in the Inquisition.
Heat Torture
In what is now known as Greece, people living in ancient Turkey were subjected to a highly painful (as well as humiliating) form of punishment called Heat Torture – sometimes referred to as the Brazen Bull. Once an individual was convicted of a crime (and many times they were innocent), he or she was locked inside of a brass coffin, yet the feet were still fixed to the ground. At times, they were held in place with ropes, while other times, nails were used.
If you think this is the only part of the torture – it gets worse. The coffin was then placed vertically on top of a fire where it was left for hours until the brass became red with hotness.
This form of torture was most popular during ancient Greece, and was mentioned in writings of historians such as Herodotus. As time passed, Heat Torture became increasingly painful and started to be seen as amusement for onlookers. Torturers even outfitted the coffin with tubes to create different sounds from the screams of the victim. One of the sounds resembled that of an angry ox. The Brazen Bull became a favorite for certain rulers, including the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who would burn entire families using the device.
Impaling
Vlad the Impaler is responsible for impaling thousands of people. Since Vlad was known as a hero and decent ruler, the intensity of his punishments created an infamous persona that all feared. For instance, if a thief was accused of stealing bread – he was impaled even if the crime seemed simple. To strike fear into his opponents, he would impale thousands of soldiers that had been captured – just to make a point.
Impaling involved a stick that was positioned into the ground. With hands tied to prevent escape, the victim was placed upon the stick without their feet being able to touch the ground. Hours would pass and in some cases, days, before the strength and weight of the victim would cause the stick to pierce a major organ.
This method of torture was considered one of the worst and was quite common during the Dark Ages. Most commonly, impalement involved the anus, but many other variations were employed. Vlad preferred using the chest, legs, arms, and the skulls. He was known to take pleasure in the decorative qualities of impalement by choosing different body parts.
To add insult to injury, Vlad imposed extremely cruel ways of punishing his victims. For instance, he impaled children in front of their mothers and forced them to eat their remains. Sometimes, he would enjoy his own feast while watching victims being impaled as entertainment. Impalement certainly added to the practice of calling Vlad – Dracula – a bloodthirsty man.
Whippings
In the majority of ancient cultures, the whip was a torture device feared for many centuries – used by the likes of Egyptians to the French. A lot of civilizations have used the whip to strike fear into the hearts of slaves, but in some countries, such as the Netherlands – they used it on different specific groups. In their case, it was children who received this kind of punishment. It was said that the practice would create better executioners in the future. This is one form of punishment that has survived over the years and can still be seen used in foreign countries to this day.
Dunk Stool
You'll never look at a stool the same after hearing about the dunk stool method of torture. When the fear of witches began to spread, people needed to find new and inventive ways to make the accused confess their heresy and evil ways. The dunk stool was a simple chair that was tied to a tree or a stick. On and off, the victim was submerged in a pond or river. In the beginning of the punishment, they would stay under the water for less than a minute. However, if they had nothing to reveal or kept denying their charges, they were meant to stay in the water for longer periods of time – up to two minutes or more. Eventually, the victim would drown.
[Click here to read full article]
From Roman Emperor Hadrian to the ancient Greeks, heat played an important role in their methods of torture. In this article, you will not only learn about Heat Torture, but you'll also learn of two other ways that people in the past would punish their criminals and suspects.
Exposure
When it comes to slow and painful deaths of the past, exposure is certainly at the top of the list. A popular form of torture during early medieval times, heretics and witches were fastened to the ground with iron nails. Their clothes were removed so that they remained naked while their legs and arms were spread out.
The sun would then beat down on their body, causing strong sunburns on the skin. However, this was not the only component of the torture, as wild animals also played a role. They would eat the victim while they were still alive, which caused varying levels of pain. A large animal meant that their death was quicker, while smaller animals only made the torture last longer.
Breast Ripper
In the past, women who were caught sleeping with another man could face the 'Breast Ripper,' which was designed to rip open the breasts, which often caused infections and eventually death within a couple of months. Women who were lucky to survive the torture were never quite the same. Popular during the Dark Ages, this form of torture was mainly used in the Inquisition.
Heat Torture
In what is now known as Greece, people living in ancient Turkey were subjected to a highly painful (as well as humiliating) form of punishment called Heat Torture – sometimes referred to as the Brazen Bull. Once an individual was convicted of a crime (and many times they were innocent), he or she was locked inside of a brass coffin, yet the feet were still fixed to the ground. At times, they were held in place with ropes, while other times, nails were used.
If you think this is the only part of the torture – it gets worse. The coffin was then placed vertically on top of a fire where it was left for hours until the brass became red with hotness.
This form of torture was most popular during ancient Greece, and was mentioned in writings of historians such as Herodotus. As time passed, Heat Torture became increasingly painful and started to be seen as amusement for onlookers. Torturers even outfitted the coffin with tubes to create different sounds from the screams of the victim. One of the sounds resembled that of an angry ox. The Brazen Bull became a favorite for certain rulers, including the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who would burn entire families using the device.
Impaling
Vlad the Impaler is responsible for impaling thousands of people. Since Vlad was known as a hero and decent ruler, the intensity of his punishments created an infamous persona that all feared. For instance, if a thief was accused of stealing bread – he was impaled even if the crime seemed simple. To strike fear into his opponents, he would impale thousands of soldiers that had been captured – just to make a point.
Impaling involved a stick that was positioned into the ground. With hands tied to prevent escape, the victim was placed upon the stick without their feet being able to touch the ground. Hours would pass and in some cases, days, before the strength and weight of the victim would cause the stick to pierce a major organ.
This method of torture was considered one of the worst and was quite common during the Dark Ages. Most commonly, impalement involved the anus, but many other variations were employed. Vlad preferred using the chest, legs, arms, and the skulls. He was known to take pleasure in the decorative qualities of impalement by choosing different body parts.
To add insult to injury, Vlad imposed extremely cruel ways of punishing his victims. For instance, he impaled children in front of their mothers and forced them to eat their remains. Sometimes, he would enjoy his own feast while watching victims being impaled as entertainment. Impalement certainly added to the practice of calling Vlad – Dracula – a bloodthirsty man.
Whippings
In the majority of ancient cultures, the whip was a torture device feared for many centuries – used by the likes of Egyptians to the French. A lot of civilizations have used the whip to strike fear into the hearts of slaves, but in some countries, such as the Netherlands – they used it on different specific groups. In their case, it was children who received this kind of punishment. It was said that the practice would create better executioners in the future. This is one form of punishment that has survived over the years and can still be seen used in foreign countries to this day.
Dunk Stool
You'll never look at a stool the same after hearing about the dunk stool method of torture. When the fear of witches began to spread, people needed to find new and inventive ways to make the accused confess their heresy and evil ways. The dunk stool was a simple chair that was tied to a tree or a stick. On and off, the victim was submerged in a pond or river. In the beginning of the punishment, they would stay under the water for less than a minute. However, if they had nothing to reveal or kept denying their charges, they were meant to stay in the water for longer periods of time – up to two minutes or more. Eventually, the victim would drown.
[Click here to read full article]
Mystery beast caught in Sichuan
by Go Cheng Doo
Villagers in Suining, Sichuan, have caught two creatures that the People's Daily has labeled "the Chinese Chupacabra."
"In all my 90 years, I've never seen such a creature. I have no idea what it is," Liu Chang said, shaking his head, as he peered unflichingly into a cage housing the small animal. "Badgers, bobcats, I've seen them all, but I've never seen this."
Picture is (C) copyright to SNXW
On March 24, villagers in Suining's Jinyuan Town, Daying County flocked to Ke Suying's residence to see what the fuss was about: this never-before-seen creature was the talk of the town.
At around 3 a.m. on March 23, Ke Suying was awakened by the calling of a rooster. She listened carefully: The sound was coming from her own chicken coop, leading her to believe a thief had entered her property. She immediately woke up her daughter-in-law, and, flashlight in hand, they went down to the coop.
[Click here to read full article]
Villagers in Suining, Sichuan, have caught two creatures that the People's Daily has labeled "the Chinese Chupacabra."
"In all my 90 years, I've never seen such a creature. I have no idea what it is," Liu Chang said, shaking his head, as he peered unflichingly into a cage housing the small animal. "Badgers, bobcats, I've seen them all, but I've never seen this."
Picture is (C) copyright to SNXW
On March 24, villagers in Suining's Jinyuan Town, Daying County flocked to Ke Suying's residence to see what the fuss was about: this never-before-seen creature was the talk of the town.
At around 3 a.m. on March 23, Ke Suying was awakened by the calling of a rooster. She listened carefully: The sound was coming from her own chicken coop, leading her to believe a thief had entered her property. She immediately woke up her daughter-in-law, and, flashlight in hand, they went down to the coop.
[Click here to read full article]
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tourists flock to 'Jesus's tomb' in Kashmir
By Sam Miller
A belief that Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent his remaining years in Kashmir has led to a run-down shrine in Srinagar making it firmly onto the must-visit-in India tourist trail.
Jesus is reputed to be buried in this run-down shrine in the Kashmir capital
In the backstreets of downtown Srinagar is an old building known as the Rozabal shrine.
It's in a part of the city where the Indian security forces are on regular patrol, or peering out from behind check-posts made of sandbags.
There are still occasional clashes with militants or stone-throwing children, but the security situation has improved in recent times and the tourists are returning.
When I first searched for Rozabal two years ago, the taxi circled around a minor Muslim tomb in a city of many mosques and mausoleums, the driver asking directions several times before we found it.
[Click here to read full article]
A belief that Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent his remaining years in Kashmir has led to a run-down shrine in Srinagar making it firmly onto the must-visit-in India tourist trail.
Jesus is reputed to be buried in this run-down shrine in the Kashmir capital
In the backstreets of downtown Srinagar is an old building known as the Rozabal shrine.
It's in a part of the city where the Indian security forces are on regular patrol, or peering out from behind check-posts made of sandbags.
There are still occasional clashes with militants or stone-throwing children, but the security situation has improved in recent times and the tourists are returning.
When I first searched for Rozabal two years ago, the taxi circled around a minor Muslim tomb in a city of many mosques and mausoleums, the driver asking directions several times before we found it.
[Click here to read full article]
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Living dinosaur that appeared in the Kansai Valley
by Richard Freeman
Most cryptozoologists are aware of the highly dubious story of a living dinosaur that appeared in the Rhodesia Herald in 1932. Swedish plantation owner JC Johnson claimed to have encountered a 43-foot Tyrannosaurus rex devouring a rhino in the swamps of the Kasai valley in the Congo. The story was accompanied by an unconvincing photo of what looked like a lizard, badly super-imposed onto a dead rhino.
Picture is (C) copyright to Rhodesia Herald
It showed a second purported Kasai photograph and this one showed not a lizard but a Tyrannosaurus rex. I know nothing about where the picture came from or how old it is but my guess is a modern fake in the style of the petranodon ‘thunderbird’ photo hoax of a few years back.
Picture is (C) copyright to Rhodesia Herald
The Tyrannosaur looks like it’s from some stop motion film. It could be Willis O’Brien’s 1918 movie The Ghost of Slumber Mountain in which a Tyrannosaurus kills and eats a Triceratops, or his 1925 offering The Lost World, which has both Allosaurus and a sequence with a Tyrannosaurs killing a triceratops and a Pteranodon. For my money, though, the creature in the photo looks most like the Tyrannosaur in Irving Yeaworth’s 1960 film Dinosaurus! where a living T-rex terrorises a Caribbean island.
If anyone can identify where the monster in the photo comes from it will be me old mate Alan Frizwell, a true dino-movie freak. Over to you, Alan.
Most cryptozoologists are aware of the highly dubious story of a living dinosaur that appeared in the Rhodesia Herald in 1932. Swedish plantation owner JC Johnson claimed to have encountered a 43-foot Tyrannosaurus rex devouring a rhino in the swamps of the Kasai valley in the Congo. The story was accompanied by an unconvincing photo of what looked like a lizard, badly super-imposed onto a dead rhino.
Picture is (C) copyright to Rhodesia Herald
It showed a second purported Kasai photograph and this one showed not a lizard but a Tyrannosaurus rex. I know nothing about where the picture came from or how old it is but my guess is a modern fake in the style of the petranodon ‘thunderbird’ photo hoax of a few years back.
Picture is (C) copyright to Rhodesia Herald
The Tyrannosaur looks like it’s from some stop motion film. It could be Willis O’Brien’s 1918 movie The Ghost of Slumber Mountain in which a Tyrannosaurus kills and eats a Triceratops, or his 1925 offering The Lost World, which has both Allosaurus and a sequence with a Tyrannosaurs killing a triceratops and a Pteranodon. For my money, though, the creature in the photo looks most like the Tyrannosaur in Irving Yeaworth’s 1960 film Dinosaurus! where a living T-rex terrorises a Caribbean island.
If anyone can identify where the monster in the photo comes from it will be me old mate Alan Frizwell, a true dino-movie freak. Over to you, Alan.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Woman tricked by "Magic Potion" from Bomoh
by Asiaone
Harian Metro reported that a woman in Sungai Petani asked her husband for a divorce after she was given a bottle of 'magic potion' by a bomoh to improve her business.
Aini, who is in her 40s, said she was given the water, over which the bomoh had recited some prayers, and told to return for more.
The woman said she kept returning to the bomoh's house as if she 'missed' him, and would even consent to having him massage her nude body.
She claimed that she was so 'hooked' onto the potion that she began to neglect her responsibilities.
[Click here to read full article]
Harian Metro reported that a woman in Sungai Petani asked her husband for a divorce after she was given a bottle of 'magic potion' by a bomoh to improve her business.
Aini, who is in her 40s, said she was given the water, over which the bomoh had recited some prayers, and told to return for more.
The woman said she kept returning to the bomoh's house as if she 'missed' him, and would even consent to having him massage her nude body.
She claimed that she was so 'hooked' onto the potion that she began to neglect her responsibilities.
[Click here to read full article]
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Priest Sacrifices 3 Daughters
Source: Times of India
Mar 24 2010
ISLAMABAD: A Hindu priest committed suicide after killing his three minor daughters, all under 6-year-old, to please Hindu goddess Kali Mata in Bhemomal area of Sind province on Tuesday.
Hindu God Kali Mata
Picture is (C) copyright to ibibo.com
According to police and eyewitnesses, religious rituals were regularly performed at the Kali Mata Temple established on the first floor of a house owned by Tekam Das Meghwar in Bhemomal. Reports say that Tekam Das Meghwar first slaughtered his three daughters, Parwati, 6-year-old, Reena, 4, and Aarti, 1, with a sharp knife and then slit his own throat to make Kali Mata happy.
[Click here to read full article]
Mar 24 2010
ISLAMABAD: A Hindu priest committed suicide after killing his three minor daughters, all under 6-year-old, to please Hindu goddess Kali Mata in Bhemomal area of Sind province on Tuesday.
Hindu God Kali Mata
Picture is (C) copyright to ibibo.com
According to police and eyewitnesses, religious rituals were regularly performed at the Kali Mata Temple established on the first floor of a house owned by Tekam Das Meghwar in Bhemomal. Reports say that Tekam Das Meghwar first slaughtered his three daughters, Parwati, 6-year-old, Reena, 4, and Aarti, 1, with a sharp knife and then slit his own throat to make Kali Mata happy.
[Click here to read full article]
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Qinghai's Alien Ruins
Picture is (C) copyright to Global Times Online
The possibility of life on other planets is one that people have been puzzling over for centuries. In Delingha, the third largest city in Northwest China's Qinghai Province there is an area called "Alien Ruins" that attracts many explorers in search of extra-terrestrial signs of life, on Earth.
Alien Ruins is located near Tuosu Lake, a salty body of water that is part of the twin "sweetheart lakes" on Bayinnuowa Mountain, about 40 kilometers from the center of Delingha. On the south bank of the lake stands several pyramid-like mountains at the edge of the Gobi desert, each 50 to 60 meters high with yellow-gray sides. There is a grotto in the shape of a triangle on the side of one of the pyramid-mountains that is the Alien Ruins.
Bai Yu, an archeologist from Qinghai, said that he was astonished by what he saw when he first visited the area in 1996. "There are no signs of life at all in the wide lake and the sharp mountains are also lifeless, as if they have experienced a massive fire. It seems that the scenery here did not originate from Earth, but from other planets in outer space.
According to a local guide, the most mysterious thing is a pipe-like object with a diameter of 40 centimeters slanting up from the bottom of the grotto. It appears that the pipe was inserted into the rock directly and there are 10 more pipes of different shapes penetrating the mountain with some extending all the way into the lake. All of the pipes are rust-brown red in color.
When a local laboratory tested the iron-like pipes, it found that they contained a large amount of ferric oxide, silicon dioxide and calcium oxide. Even more unusual, 8 percent of the elements found in the sample were unknown and could not be located on the periodic table of elements.
[Click here to read full article]
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Haunting Detention Cell in Bang Kok
This story was first reported by The NationMultimedia Thailand on July 14, 2007.
Detainees in the lock cell of Crime Suppression Division(CSD) Bang Kok complained they could not sleep after having seen a ghost several nights running.
Six detainees complained to guards that a man detained on credit-card-fraud charges had been possessed on Thursday night. He began "moaning painfully" about being released.
The man, Phiphat Nabnian, later regained consciousness and explained that he had seen a "mysterious man" in a red tank top squatting on a cardboard box in the cell and staring at him for two nights in a row. This statement coincided with an account by cellmate Phitsanu Narkkhon. He said he had seen the same man a couple of nights before.
Phiphat said he had seen the mysterious man on his first night in the cell. The apparition came to him in a dream, and the man was running towards him intent on harming him, he said.
"So I lashed out in my dream, and my fist landed on a cellmate, and then I passed out. I came to when the others shook me," he said.
According to police records, there had never been paranormal incidents in this cell until a man charged with raping his niece, Chalard Senarat, hanged himself on July 1. The incident was reported in several newspapers.
According to these reports, Chalard tore up a long-sleeved shirt to make a rope. Police records do not indicate if Chalard wore a red tank top.
Acting division commander Colonel Phongphat Chayaphan ordered the exorcism for the peace of mind of inmates and officers on duty.
Detainees in the lock cell of Crime Suppression Division(CSD) Bang Kok complained they could not sleep after having seen a ghost several nights running.
Six detainees complained to guards that a man detained on credit-card-fraud charges had been possessed on Thursday night. He began "moaning painfully" about being released.
The man, Phiphat Nabnian, later regained consciousness and explained that he had seen a "mysterious man" in a red tank top squatting on a cardboard box in the cell and staring at him for two nights in a row. This statement coincided with an account by cellmate Phitsanu Narkkhon. He said he had seen the same man a couple of nights before.
Phiphat said he had seen the mysterious man on his first night in the cell. The apparition came to him in a dream, and the man was running towards him intent on harming him, he said.
"So I lashed out in my dream, and my fist landed on a cellmate, and then I passed out. I came to when the others shook me," he said.
According to police records, there had never been paranormal incidents in this cell until a man charged with raping his niece, Chalard Senarat, hanged himself on July 1. The incident was reported in several newspapers.
According to these reports, Chalard tore up a long-sleeved shirt to make a rope. Police records do not indicate if Chalard wore a red tank top.
Acting division commander Colonel Phongphat Chayaphan ordered the exorcism for the peace of mind of inmates and officers on duty.
Haunting of of Penang Outdoor War Museum
THE fort lay lost in the jungle for some 57 years. Few locals dared to visit the site as it was reputed to be haunted, in fact they called it Bukit Hantu ("Ghost Hill"). Then along came Johari Shafie. This enterprising man Johari from Kedah rediscovered the site and transformed it into a living war museum.
The fortress was designed by Royal British Engineers, and built by convicts who had a death warrant; they were shipped here from overseas, from places such as Gibraltar and India.
When the Japanese invaded in August 1941 the site became a prisoner of war camp. From here the prisoners were sent to Kanchanaburi or Singapore, according to their fitness and skills. The fortress became a torture centre. The Japanese tortured many of the local Chinese people, as the latter supported the Chinese who were massacred by the Japanese during the invasion of Nanking in 1937.
The famous executioner Suzuki beheaded people without a blindfold. He would drip blood from the knife into a bottle of brandy and drink it. This was to scare the locals against the Japanese. The locals then ran away to the jungle. Some bodies were dumped, others were taken to the British or Japanese cemetery. Some men had to dig their own grave. You can see the guillotine site as well as the gallows. When the site was cleared a grave was found, and the area was burnt to settle the spirits.
The area was exorcised to remove the spirits and they returned the buildings to their original state.
[Click here to read full article]
The fortress was designed by Royal British Engineers, and built by convicts who had a death warrant; they were shipped here from overseas, from places such as Gibraltar and India.
When the Japanese invaded in August 1941 the site became a prisoner of war camp. From here the prisoners were sent to Kanchanaburi or Singapore, according to their fitness and skills. The fortress became a torture centre. The Japanese tortured many of the local Chinese people, as the latter supported the Chinese who were massacred by the Japanese during the invasion of Nanking in 1937.
The famous executioner Suzuki beheaded people without a blindfold. He would drip blood from the knife into a bottle of brandy and drink it. This was to scare the locals against the Japanese. The locals then ran away to the jungle. Some bodies were dumped, others were taken to the British or Japanese cemetery. Some men had to dig their own grave. You can see the guillotine site as well as the gallows. When the site was cleared a grave was found, and the area was burnt to settle the spirits.
The area was exorcised to remove the spirits and they returned the buildings to their original state.
[Click here to read full article]
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Woman with 5 meter-long hair
VietNamNet Bridge – Around 500 people visit Hue Phuoc pagoda in Ben Tre province daily to see the elderly woman whose hair is over 5 meters long.
VietNamNet reporters arrived at the pagoda around 9am on a hot day in late March 2010.
When they came, several dozens of visitors had already entered to burn incense and pray. They also hoped to see an old woman named Miss Tu, famous for her long hair.
Residents explained that while this pagoda is new, it attracts a lot of visitors even from the northern and central region because of Miss Tu.
Miss Tu is a 73-year-old woman who always sits on a camp-bed, with her hair splayed out for visitors to see, but she doesn’t allow anyone to take her photo or to film her.
[Click here to read full article]
VietNamNet reporters arrived at the pagoda around 9am on a hot day in late March 2010.
When they came, several dozens of visitors had already entered to burn incense and pray. They also hoped to see an old woman named Miss Tu, famous for her long hair.
Residents explained that while this pagoda is new, it attracts a lot of visitors even from the northern and central region because of Miss Tu.
Miss Tu is a 73-year-old woman who always sits on a camp-bed, with her hair splayed out for visitors to see, but she doesn’t allow anyone to take her photo or to film her.
[Click here to read full article]
UFO Spotted in Klang Malaysia
Source: My Sin Chew Daily
2010-03-25
KLANG, SELANGOR: A rumour said an unidentified flying object (UFO) was spotted in Sri Andalas for three nights continuously.
Picture is (C) copyright to SinChew Daily
As a result, some residents waited for the UFO Tuesday (16 March) and claimed that they saw an unidentified object that night.
According to the witnesses, they saw an UFO with blue lights circling around the sky for quite a long time.
The Li family from Taman Wira was the first who spotted the UFO. Subsequently, others claimed to have spotted the flying object on the following three nights.
When the news was spread, about 20 residents, equipped with telescopes and cameras, waited for it on Tuesday night.
An unidentified object was spotted in the sky around 8pm. However, it was too far away. Although the residents were able to see it, they failed to captured its image with their cameras.
[Click here to read full article]
2010-03-25
KLANG, SELANGOR: A rumour said an unidentified flying object (UFO) was spotted in Sri Andalas for three nights continuously.
Picture is (C) copyright to SinChew Daily
As a result, some residents waited for the UFO Tuesday (16 March) and claimed that they saw an unidentified object that night.
According to the witnesses, they saw an UFO with blue lights circling around the sky for quite a long time.
The Li family from Taman Wira was the first who spotted the UFO. Subsequently, others claimed to have spotted the flying object on the following three nights.
When the news was spread, about 20 residents, equipped with telescopes and cameras, waited for it on Tuesday night.
An unidentified object was spotted in the sky around 8pm. However, it was too far away. Although the residents were able to see it, they failed to captured its image with their cameras.
[Click here to read full article]
The Mysteries of Kellie's Castle in Malaysia
Source: The Brunei Times November 1, 2008
IT'S hard to believe that there is a Scottish man's castle in the heart of the Malaysian countryside. Although it has been abandoned since 1926 the place is still shrouded in mystery and there are rumours that the place is haunted.
Kellie's Castle was built by William Kellie Smith, a successful planter in the Ipoh area of Perak. Smith caught pneumonia and died in Lisbon in December 1926.
His wife sold her interest in the Kellas Estate and the Smith family never returned to Malaya. The son was killed in World War II. Since the estate was abandoned in 1926 not much of the first home is left today, apart from the covered walkway, an open courtyard and part of a crumbling wall from the old wing.
Legends were born, one said that ghost of Smith still wanders through the ruins. Other legends were of secret underground tunnels. But apart from two known tunnels, none were ever found.
The Museum of Antiquities refurbished parts of the castle, mostly in the old wing by replastering the walls and laying floor tiles. An interesting discovery was made in June 2003.
During the course of widening the Gopeng - Batu Gajah road at the 6th kilometre stretch, workers unearthed a section of a tunnel. This 1.5m high by one-metre wide passageway is believed to lead from the castle to the Hindu temple nearby.
Now the castle has been turned into a tourist attraction. The grounds have been restored and visitors can now explore the empty wine cellar, the cool and shady rooms of the castle, and the ruins of the family's old home beside it.
Today the Sri Maha Mariamman temple is still used by the local Indian community. If you look closely at the statues of the deities on the temple roof, you will see a figurine of a colonial-looking man dressed in a white topee, green jacket and khaki coloured pants. This is William Kellie Smith. It is thought the workers put it there to honour Smith for building the temple for them.
Smith still stands with the deities watching over his estate. And there are still mysteries and folklore associated with Kellie's Castle and the Sahib of the Kinta Estate.
[Click here to read full article]
IT'S hard to believe that there is a Scottish man's castle in the heart of the Malaysian countryside. Although it has been abandoned since 1926 the place is still shrouded in mystery and there are rumours that the place is haunted.
Kellie's Castle was built by William Kellie Smith, a successful planter in the Ipoh area of Perak. Smith caught pneumonia and died in Lisbon in December 1926.
His wife sold her interest in the Kellas Estate and the Smith family never returned to Malaya. The son was killed in World War II. Since the estate was abandoned in 1926 not much of the first home is left today, apart from the covered walkway, an open courtyard and part of a crumbling wall from the old wing.
Legends were born, one said that ghost of Smith still wanders through the ruins. Other legends were of secret underground tunnels. But apart from two known tunnels, none were ever found.
The Museum of Antiquities refurbished parts of the castle, mostly in the old wing by replastering the walls and laying floor tiles. An interesting discovery was made in June 2003.
During the course of widening the Gopeng - Batu Gajah road at the 6th kilometre stretch, workers unearthed a section of a tunnel. This 1.5m high by one-metre wide passageway is believed to lead from the castle to the Hindu temple nearby.
Now the castle has been turned into a tourist attraction. The grounds have been restored and visitors can now explore the empty wine cellar, the cool and shady rooms of the castle, and the ruins of the family's old home beside it.
Today the Sri Maha Mariamman temple is still used by the local Indian community. If you look closely at the statues of the deities on the temple roof, you will see a figurine of a colonial-looking man dressed in a white topee, green jacket and khaki coloured pants. This is William Kellie Smith. It is thought the workers put it there to honour Smith for building the temple for them.
Smith still stands with the deities watching over his estate. And there are still mysteries and folklore associated with Kellie's Castle and the Sahib of the Kinta Estate.
[Click here to read full article]