May 2006 Archives

Engadget has decided to turn off their comment feature. This is very easy to understand. I've been through this, it's a nightmare. An onslaught of comment spam robots bombarding you blog with unwanted junk comments. A tip to them and anyone else with this problem, rebuild/rework, the way that comments work on your site. There are some helps and howtos on the net, if you look. Just make sure your solution is fairly custom, and that you don't share how you did it, anywhere on the net.

I've gone through this myself. When my comment spam reached somewhere around 98 to 99 percent of my comments I decided it was time for a change. It's worth it. People can still leave comments, and the junk has slowed tremendously. I had reached a point where I was completely going to do away with comment because of these offensive machines, first though I decided to look for a solution, and I found one. I'm so glad I looked and then enacted one.

By Becky Hotchin,
pembrokeshiretv.com

THE UFO sightings which earned Pembrokeshire the nickname of the Welsh Triangle have been debunked this week.

A cluster of sightings took place around the Broad Haven area in the 1970s including repeated alien sightings by a couple living in a remote farmhouse near the village and an entire primary school class claiming to have seen a UFO landing.

The sightings provoked UFO mania in the county, with dozens of others revealing their own close encounters and tall silver men becoming one of Pembrokeshire’s tourist attractions.

Despite publicly decrying the sightings as hoaxes, the reports led the MoD to carry out a secret investigation in 1977 research by UFO expert Dr David Clarke revealed last year.

Now an ex-US navy man has debunked the Pembrokeshire's UFO myths in a letter to paranormal magazine, the Fortean Times.

This strange stuff keeps happening to me, well over 25 years now. I'm not even 30 yet, close though. Now, you know why I would run such a site as I do.

This happened to me many years ago. Perhaps as long ago as a decade. I get a phone call from a woman/girl who is just totally freaked out. Not very far into it, I'm getting pretty freaked out myself. This girl, who I did not know, plays her answering machine for me. OK, here is where it starts to get odd. First off the message she is playing for me, is the main message, the one where you have to be at the machine to record, the one that everyone hears when they call and the machine picks up. In other words the message that tells you to wait for the beep.

The message is me! It's my voice, saying that you have reached my phone number, and to leave a message or something like that. OK, here goes, I had never met the woman, I have no idea who she is. The only way she was able to call me was because my number was on the machine. I had never had an answering machine on that phone number. Then to top it off, the type of message on the machine, was of a type that I have NEVER used, ever!

As far as I can tell, it's truly unexplainable. I don't see how it could possibly be a prank. I even called the number later on. The message was still on there! This is a jump, but the closest I can come to an answer would be that it was either, my doppelganger, or a bleed in from an alternate Universe.

NST.COM.MY

YES, the Johor Government wants to get to the bottom of the Bigfoot mystery. Bigfoot has managed to evade capture and has instead captured headlines. So far, all evidence of Bigfoot’s existence has been unpersuasive.

The Bigfoot mania is not new. Humanoid ape-like creatures have been sighted for centuries in many parts of the world. In the forests of North America, there have been sightings of Skunk Ape, Momo, Grassman and Woods Devil.

One of the earliest sightings of the footprints was in 1811 by a Canadian trader in Alberta. By the 1950s, the sightings were said to be almost regular. There are also similar tales of mythical giant apes in the oral traditions of Europe.

In Asia, there is the Abominable Snowman, or the Yeti, in the Himalayas; and Australia, the Yowie Man. Could Bigfoot or Hantu Jarang Gigi (snaggle toothed ghost) be the Malaysian version?

While the National Geographic (Oct 23, 2003) reported that thousands of people claim to have seen the hairy hominoid, the evidence of its existence remains fuzzy.

A 22-year veteran of prospecting and mining on Earth has some no-nonsense advice for lunar explorers.

Long before David Beaty became associate Chief Scientist for NASA's Mars Program, he was a prospector. Beaty spent 10 years surveying remote parts of Earth for precious metals and another 12 years hunting for oil.

And this qualifies him to work for NASA? Precisely.

Beaty has the kind of experience NASA needs as the agency prepares to implement the Vision for Space Exploration. "Mining and prospecting are going to be key skills for settlers on the Moon and Mars," he explains. "We can send them air and water and fuel from Earth, but eventually, they'll have to learn to live off the land, using local resources to meet their needs."

Above: Lunar mining, an artist's concept.

ISS012-E-19194 (5 March 2006) --- Astronaut William S. (Bill) McArthur (left), Expedition 12 commander and NASA space station science officer, and cosmonaut Valery I. Tokarev, flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, pose with a U.S. Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit (left) and Russian Orlan spacesuit in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA

Image above: Cleveland Volcano erupts on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Credit: NASA

The 65th spacewalk in support of station assembly and the 18th from the Pirs docking compartment begins June 1 at 6:40 p.m. EDT. It will be Commander Pavel Vinogradov’s sixth spacewalk and Flight Engineer Jeffrey Williams' second. On May 30, NASA Television will broadcast a Mission Status Briefing at 2 p.m. previewing the first spacewalk of Expedition 13. At 5:30 p.m. on June 1, NASA TV will begin spacewalk coverage.

+ Watch NASA TV

As the International Space Station orbited the Earth, Williams photographed Cleveland Volcano erupting on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

+ View an image of Cleveland Volcano erupting

On April 28th I posted an alien abduction story a commenter had sent in, located here.

A couple weeks ago I had sent her an email requesting any new info that may have happened since then. Well, the email bounced almost instantly. Let's hope that the men in black have not got her.

India Daily Technology Team

Using XMM-Newton data, a team of European astronomers have observed rotating hot spots on three isolated neutron stars that are well-known X-ray and gamma-ray emitters. The three observed neutron stars are ‘PSR B0656-14’, ‘PSR B1055-52’, and ‘Geminga’, respectively at about 800, 2000 and 500 light-years away from us.

In 2005 XMM-Newton spacecraft of the European Space Agency allowed astronomers to observe for the first time rotating ‘hot spots’ on the surfaces of three nearby neutron stars.

Recently scientist have analyzed the data in other countries and have got the first clue that these may be extraterrestrial UFO bases from where type III and above UFOs can project themselves in higher dimensions into the earth other planets.

They've made a slight change to the sign for the UFO Museum. Can you spot it?

I was taking some photos Thursday night. When I was looking through them today on my computer, I noticed lots of orbs. What I have done it zoomed in on the area where I saw an orb, captured that area then enlarged it. No other changes have been made. The new 5.1 mega pixel camera really helps with how far I can zoom in without nearly as many blocks in the picture as the old one would have done, on the same photo.

I caught this guy sneaking around my house the other day. It seemed really large to me. I have no idea what type of lizard it is. Feel free to suggest what type it may be. I have some more photos of it on the sister site Amazing UFO.

I've been seeing these over my house lately, or something very much like them. They were so high in the sky that a dime would more than cover each one, the sound seems to follow far behind them. I would guess they have been traveling faster than they speed of sound. Even though they were so high up, you could still see them bank. If I can manage to get pictures of them, I'll post them.

This artist's concept depicts the pulsar planet system discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992. Wolszczan used the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to find three planets - the first of any kind ever found outside our solar system - circling a pulsar named PSR B1257+12. Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars, which are the collapsed cores of exploded massive stars. They spin and pulse with radiation, much like a lighthouse beacon. Here, the pulsar's twisted magnetic fields are highlighted by the blue glow.

All three pulsar planets are shown in this picture; the farthest two from the pulsar (closest in this view) are about the size of Earth. Radiation from charged pulsar particles would probably rain down on the planets, causing their night skies to light up with auroras similar to our Northern Lights. One such aurora is illustrated on the planet at the bottom of the picture.

Since this landmark discovery, more than 160 extrasolar planets have been observed around stars that are burning nuclear fuel. The planets spotted by Wolszczan are still the only ones around a dead star. They also might be part of a second generation of planets, the first having been destroyed when their star blew up. The Spitzer Space Telescope's discovery of a dusty disk around a pulsar might represent the beginnings of a similarly "reborn" planetary system.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A visitor sent this in:

I saw that you had bowler high school as a haunted place and I am pretty close to there. Four others and I went up there around 10:15 with a video camera, some holy water, and a couple of large sticks.It was locked of course, and the place seemed pretty normal. We were posotive the place was empty becouse it was friday night and there were no cars in any of the lots but some of the hall lights were on. That could be passed off as nothing but we also heard doors slamming from the inside and some strange noises. The weirdest was probably looking into a slightly lit classroom with no light sources on in the room and it definately was not moonlight.

As the Apollo 10 crew walks along a corridor on the way to Launch Complex 39B, mission commander Thomas P. Stafford pats the nose of Snoopy, the mission's mascot, held by Jamye Flowers, astronaut Gordon Coopers' secretary.

The Apollo 10 crew nicknamed the Lunar Module (LM) "Snoopy" and the Command/Service Module (CSM) "Charlie Brown" after characters in the Charles Schulz comic strip "Peanuts."

Launched on May 18, 1969, the Apollo 10 mission was a 'dress rehearsal' for the lunar landing that occurred later that year.

The mission successfully completed the first manned CSM and LM docking and undocking operations in a lunar environment. Apollo 10 orbited the moon 31 times during its eight-day mission and took the LM to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface, simulating a lunar landing.

After all these historic 'firsts,' the crew also sent the first live color television from space.

Image Credit: NASA

In this stunning vista recorded with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral galaxy Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. The cosmic tadpole is a mere 420 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation Draco. Its eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand light-years long and features massive, bright blue star clusters.

Scientists believe that a more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of Arp 188 - from left to right in this view - and was slung around behind the Tadpole via gravitational attraction. During the close encounter, tidal forces drew out the galaxy’s stars, gas, and dust forming the spectacular tail. The intruder galaxy itself, estimated to lie about 300 thousand light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the upper left. Like its terrestrial namesake, the Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose it tail as it grows older, the tail's star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy.

Image Credit: NASA

Since the spring of 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Volcano Observatory has detected increasing volcanic unrest at Augustine Volcano in Cook Inlet, Alaska, near Anchorage. Based on all available monitoring data, an eruption similar to 1976 and 1986 is the most probable outcome. During January 2006, activity has been episodic, and characterized by emission of steam and ash plumes, rising to altitudes in excess of 30,000 feet, and posing hazards to aircraft in the vicinity.

This image was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on Jan. 12, 2006, during an eruptive phase of Augustine. The perspective rendition shows the eruption plume derived from the ASTER image data. ASTER's stereo viewing capability was used to calculate the 3-dimensional topography of the eruption cloud as it was blown to the south by prevailing winds. From a maximum height of 9,950 feet, the plume cooled and its top descended to 6,175 feet.

The topographic relief has been increased 1.5 times for this illustration. Comparison of the ASTER plume topography data with ash dispersal models and weather radar data will allow the National Weather Service to validate and improve such models. These models are used to forecast volcanic ash plume trajectories and provide hazard alerts and warnings to aircraft in the Alaska region.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

The Crab Nebula is the shattered remnant of a massive star that ended its life in a supernova explosion. Nearly a thousand years old, the supernova was noted in the constellation of Taurus by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054 AD.

This view of the supernova remnant obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope shows an infrared view of this complex object. The blue-white region traces the cloud of energetic electrons trapped within the star's magnetic field, emitting so-called "synchrotron" radiation. The red features follow the well-known filamentary structures that permeate this nebula. Though they are known to contain hot gasses, their exact nature is still a mystery that astronomers are examining.

The energetic cloud of electrons is driven by a rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, at its core. The nebula is about 6,500 light-years away from the Earth, and is 5 light-years across.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Gehrz (University of Minnesota)

Skylab 4 commander Gerald Carr jokingly demonstrates weight training in zero gravity as he balances fellow astronaut William Pogue, the mission's pilot, upside down on his finger.

Skylab was America's first space station and orbital science and engineering laboratory. The station was launched into Earth orbit by a Saturn V rocket on May 14, 1973, as a follow up to the Apollo program. Three crews visited the station, with their missions lasting 28, 59 and 84 days, respectively.

Image Credit: NASA

There is no permanent human base on South Georgia Island, a British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean that lies about 800 miles east of the Falkland Islands. The crew of the International Space Station captured the rugged and isolated landscape of the northern shore of the island in this August 2005 photo.

South Georgia Island is notable on several fronts. The first recorded explorer to land on the island was Captain James Cook aboard the HMS Resolution in 1775. He mapped part of the coastline, but was discouraged by the thick ice cover, lack of vegetation, and steep mountains. Mt. Paget, the highest peak, rises to 9,625 feet above sea level, and the island supports 161 glaciers. Cook named the southernmost point of the island “Cape Disappointment” when he realized he had not reached Antarctica.

The high mountains protect the north and eastern coast of the island from the prevailing gales coming from Antarctica and the west. The steep topography also makes deep bays along the coast, which provide habitat for wildlife and anchorages for whaling ships. The island supports major rookeries of penguins and albatrosses, and large seal populations. This view centers on Mt. Paget and Cumberland Bay. The former whaling station Grytviken is located within the bay. Today, the encampment supports the scientific base for the British Antarctic Survey and Bird Island Research Station.

Image Credit: NASA

St. Thomas, St. John, Tortola and Virgin Gorda are the four main islands (front to back) of this east-looking view of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, along the northeast perimeter of the Caribbean Sea. For this view, a nearly cloud-free Landsat image was draped over elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and shading derived from the SRTM data was added to enhance the topographic expression.

Elevation is shown with 1.5x scaled vertical exaggeration. Coral reefs fringe the islands in many locations and appear as very light shades of blue. Tropical vegetation appears green, and developed areas appear in shades of brown and white.

As in much of the world, topography is the primary factor in the pattern of land use development in the Virgin Islands. Topography across most of the islands is quite rugged, and although the steep slopes create a scenic setting, they crowd most development into the small areas of low relief terrain, generally along the shoreline. The topographic pattern also affects water supply, wastewater disposal, landfill locations, road construction, and most other features of the development infrastructure. Additionally, topography defines the natural drainage pattern, which is the major consideration in anticipating tropical storm water runoff dangers, as well as the dangers of heightened sediment impacts upon the adjacent coral reefs.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/NIMA/SRTM Team

Big stars usually aren't shy about anything, not even death. At the end of their lives, they throw explosive tantrums, called supernovae, flinging abundant amounts of hot gas and radiation into space. Remnants of this cosmic fury can last for several thousand years and be easily detected by most telescopes used by professional astronomers.

iol.co.za

New York - A burglar who got stuck in a chimney on Sunday morning was rescued after a woman who lives in the building next door heard a voice coming from within the walls and called for help, police said.

City emergency officials, who heard the whimpering, broke through the brick chimney of the residential building on the West Side of Manhattan and used ropes to pull out the man, who was arrested, police said.

The man, about 1.6m tall and weighing 50kg, was covered in soot and grime. He was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Police said he would be charged with burglary.

They didn't say if he was going in or coming out of the chimney or how he became stuck.

Phil Hammond

Brisbane's history comes alive as the sun goes down, writes Philip Hammond.

Hearse owner and self proclaimed horror historian Jack Sim was dressed in black.

Standing among the weathered tombstones of the South Brisbane cemetery, this powerfully built man in trilby and trenchcoat was difficult to see in the darkness.

Sim's attire, he explains, reflects his admiration for celebrated 1930s English ghost hunter, Harry Price.

As we descend the quiet terraces of the South Brisbane cemetery at Dutton Park, on Brisbane's inner southside, the evening's chill intensifies and Sim imparts a few anecdotes to set the mood.

"Back in the 1970s and '80s, a couple of grave diggers suggested they'd heard the sound of chains or manacles. It's a little known fact that prisoners from Boggo Road jail once dug the graves here," he says.

wtvm.com

By Jon Kalahar

Sometimes in this world there are certain things we just can't explain.

Ghost sightings, the loch ness monster, and what about big foot? Well, bigfoot, that's one we may be able to help you with. Did you know there have been over fifty bigfoot sightings in Georgia?

In Coweta County, the site of the most recent sightings in Georgia, we spoke with locals as well as a bigfoot researcher to find out if bigfoot really is living among us.

This video put bigfoot on the map. The 1967 video filmed by Roger Patterson in California brought the mythical beast to life. Believe it or not, just one year ago something similar was seen here...on Happy Valley Circle near Newnan, Georgia.

"We ran an article in the newspaper, saying man sees something do you know what it is." said Alex McRae, Times-Herald reporter.

Alex McRae is a columnist for the Newnan Times-Herald. He's written three stories about these sightings...a large hairy person walking upright. He doesn't doubt the eyewitness reports.

"These are reliable people. They're hard working, honest people with no reason to make these things up ad these incidents we're talking about happening months apart so it's not like someone said I just heard this let's get in on the action. " said McRae.

Eddie Ball now runs coweta county Emergency Management. He says it's been almost thirty years since he first heard about big foot. But it wasn't called bigfoot when worked as a deputy sheriff in the early seventies.

"They were interviewing me there at the sheriff's office and wanted to know about it and I said I don't know what it is. I had never personally seen it but I'm getting tired of chasing boogers on Belt Road all the time. Somehow it became the name of the thing the Belt Road Booger" said Ball.

I managed to grab this still from a video I shot of the storm last night.

Quentin Reade

A previously "Secret - UK Eyes Only" MoD report into Unidentified Flying Objects is published online today.

The report examines UFO sightings collected over a 30 year period, to ascertain whether there is any evidence of a threat to the UK and to identify any potential military technologies of interest.

The MoD said study was not conducted to substantiate the existence of extraterrestrial life-forms but that it can confirm that no such evidence was found.

As for 'UFOs', or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the report concluded that while people reporting sightings are often genuine, rational explanations such as aircraft lights or natural phenomena including meteors forming "buoyant plasmas" can explain them.

The report concludes that none of the UFO reports the MoD received had any Defence Intelligence value and led to the decision in December 2000 that the Defence Intelligence Staff no longer had any need to receive UFO sighting reports.

Under Secretary of State for Defence, Tom Watson said:

"I am delighted that the Freedom of Information Act has meant that this once Secret report has been declassified and made public.

"In a department where lives are literally on the line and we can't release every document we have, this is yet more evidence of the MoD's commitment to openness."

According to the MoD “there is a real and enduring interest in Unidentified Flying Objects”. It said that by far the most popular topics of FOI requests has been UFOs, followed by recruitment enquiries; enquiries from staff; and historical events such as World War Two, the Falklands conflict and the Balkans.

http://tinyurl.com/kqll2

http://www.mod.uk

D. Robert Carter

Not long after the Mormon pioneers settled in Utah, Ute Indians informed the new colonists that Pawapicts or Water Babies, inhabited the waters of the Great Basin. The new residents were slow to acknowledge the presence of these supernatural beings until 1868 when Joseph C. Rich, a correspondent contributing to the Deseret News, told of a type of serpent that settlers had spotted in Bear Lake.

Some Utah residents expressed belief in these unusual monsters, while others pronounced them to be a scam. New accounts of monster sightings surfaced from Bear Lake, the Great Salt Lake, Sevier Lake, Fish Lake and Utah Lake. Some of these stories were blatantly false, while others appear to have been told by people who actually believed they had seen strange aquatic animals in Utah's waters.

After the first wave of stories flooded Utah's press, interest in the creatures briefly waned. Then in September 1870, commercial fishermen from Springville brought the monsters back into everyday conversation. While plying their trade on the shores of Utah Lake, the Dallin family found the upper left portion of the skull of some large animal. The teeth were missing, but the empty sockets showed they had been as large as those of an ox. The skull's most remarkable feature was the five-inch-long tusk that projected from the rear section of the jaw.

This strange find was judged by some of those who had examined it to be a remnant of the Utah Lake Monster. Springville correspondent for the News, Charles D. Evans, had the skull in his possession and invited the newspaper's readers to view it at any time.

That next spring another man who was likely to be taken seriously spotted the monster. On a clear, calm day, Goshen Bishop William Price was traveling south on the road west of Utah Lake when he, C.G. Webb, and another man glimpsed the Utah Lake Monster. The creature was about one mile from shore and traveling in the same direction as the men.

Many nations are developing alternative energy sources to reduce dependence on oil using technologies such as hydrogen, but some Asian countries are turning to plant life

MICHAEL CASEY

Indians know better than to eat the plum-sized fruit of the wild jatropha bush. It's poisonous enough to kill.

But with oil prices surging, the lowly jatropha is experiencing a renaissance of sorts - as a potential source for fuel for trucks and power stations. The Indian government has identified more than 39 million hectares of land where jatropha can be grown, hoping it will replace 20 per cent of diesel consumption in five years.

"We have found that we can produce biodiesel from it. If we can keep the price down, the future looks bright," said R.K. Malhotra, who oversees the Indian Oil Corp.'s research centre that is running tests on the oil.

India isn't alone. All across Asia, governments are searching for crops that can help them offset a dependence on imported oil that can only skyrocket as their economies soar. Palm oil and sugar cane are the dominant crops in the region, but everything from coconuts to castor oil to cow dung is being tested for fossil-fuel alternatives such as ethanol and biodiesel.

By ANN PARKER
Sentinel correspondent

When the owners of the White Cockade Pub in the mountains above Boulder Creek say they have some unusual spirits, they don't mean their Monty Python Holy Grail Ale or the Black Prince Porter.

They mean spirits.

Last summer, when Nancy Palajac and John Johnsen were renovating the 1930 brewpub with Johnsen's father, they began to notice odd things. Someone kept turning the stove burners on — and flicking lights on and off. They heard footsteps and a glimpse of someone in the kitchen revealed an empty room.

Palajac said she felt sure someone was trying to communicate with them after the ivy garland she had tacked up in the back room was found strewn about the floor — with the tacks neatly stacked on a chair.

After the pub reopened, Johnsen noticed that troublesome patrons often had unusual experiences, such as a barstool suddenly slipping from beneath an annoying customer. And a pale female image appeared twice in the ladies' bathroom.

"One woman screamed and ran out and hasn't come back," said John.

In January, Palajac and Johnsen decided they needed informed advice about their spirited pub and traveled to the famously haunted Moss Beach Distillery near Half Moon Bay. The restaurant owners directed them to two parapsychology experts, Lloyd Auerbach and Annette Martin, who visited the little mountain pub in March, accompanied by cameras and assistants.

World's Largest UFO Festival Celebrates 1947 Incident

ROSWELL, N.M., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Is it true a UFO with aliens on board crashed and was recovered by the United States military? No one knows for sure what happened in 1947. The answer to the "Roswell Incident" may be uncovered at the 12th Annual Roswell International UFO Festival to be held June 30 - July 3, 2006. Thousands of people from all over the world will travel to Roswell, N.M. to seek "The Truth" from UFO researchers while enjoying live entertainment, food, unique souvenirs and more.

Opening ceremonies begin in Roswell on Friday, June 30. Other activities taking place include a Galactic Costume Contest, the Lights in the Night parade, guest lectures and workshops by noted scientists and UFO experts, activities and vendors on civic plaza and more. For a complete schedule of events and details including prices, visit www.roswell2006.com

By ANN PARKER
SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT

I was eager to see what form of paranormality a Santa Cruz Mountains ghost might demonstrate in a haunted pub.

According to John Johnsen and Nancy Palajac, the White Cockade's owners, from 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday is the optimum time to witness old Ben a long-departed logger fool with the room lights near the pub's dartboard. Their other live-in spirit, Barbara, supposedly hangs around the back room and ladies' bathroom, but at variable times.

3:45 P.m. on Sunday — My friend Dennis and I arrive at the charmingly authentic pub with its rough floors and ample Brit-kitsch. I resist ordering a pint of real English ale in the interest of scientific objectivism, settling at a table where I can keep an eye on both the back room and the dartboard area. Dennis sits at the cozy bar.

4:15 — Celtic musicians arrive and begin to play. Still watching both spirit sites intently, I'm feeling a bit resentful that everyone else in the pub is laughing and drinking good beer.

4:30 — I move to the bar, the better to observe the dartboard surreptitiously and not discourage Ben's electrical antics. John rolls his eyes toward the steadfastly unflickering lights, saying, "Ben's stubborn."

The picture doesn't do justice. The moon was nice looking last night, so I snapped a shot. This is a zoomed in version of the larger picture.

Sacred teachings not secret anymore
Boston Herald/March 4, 1998
By Joseph Mallia
Scientology teaches that humans first came to the earth from outer space 75 million years ago, sent into exile here by an evil warlord named Xenu, according to church documents.

The church also teaches its members to communicate with plants and zoo animals - and with inanimate objects such as ashtrays, former members say.

But these esoteric secrets have only recently been revealed publicly, because the Church of Scientology for decades used copyright lawsuits and other measures to keep them under wraps.

"When people hear the secret teachings of Scientology, they think, 'How could anyone believe such nonsense?"' said cult expert Steve Hassan.

"The fact is that the vast number of Scientologists don't know those teachings. Scientologists are told that they will become ill and die if they hear them before they're ready," Hassan said.

MIT student Carlos Covarrubias told the Herald that while he studied Scientology at its Beacon Street church, he was instructed to tell ashtrays to "Stand up," and "Sit down" - ending each command with a polite "Thank you."

The same ashtray techniques were documented by a BBC reporter's hidden camera at a Church of Scientology chapter in Britain.

Covarrubias - who left the church and now considers it a cult - spent about $2,000 to reach a particular level of church teachings. But longterm members must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to entirely cross what Scientology calls the "Bridge to Total Freedom."

edmontonsun.com

MEDICINE HAT -- A woman accused of helping two murder suspects hide evidence after a family was slain in southern Alberta last month was granted bail yesterday.

Kacy Lancaster, 19, is charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact. She was released on a $25,000 surety on her mother's home and under the strict condition she can only leave the house for medical or legal reasons.

She is also to have no contact with a large list of witnesses.

Jeremy Allan Steinke, 23, and a 12-year-old girl each face three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of the girl's family. She cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The bodies of her 42-year-old father, 48-year-old mother and eight-year-old brother were found in their Medicine Hat home April 23.

Justice W. V. Hembroff said letters from Lancaster's mother and others in Medicine Hat led him to believe the young woman has enough connections to the community to prevent her from leaving.

Both Steinke and the 12-year-old appeared in court earlier this month. Steinke was sent for a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial. The girl was sent to the Calgary Young Offender Centre so she can take school courses and attend other programs.

Outside court, Crown prosecutor Bruce Ainscoff said he was satisfied with the conditions. "This is one of the tightest kind of releases I have dealt with," he said.

kfmb.com

A San Diego man says he has photographic evidence of UFOs flying over the East County. He shot a photo showing 10 objects in the sky while on a hike near Santa Isabel. The man claims his picture... Is the best UFO photo ever taken.

It was in the hills above Santa Isabel In July of 1990 that Mike Orrell snapped a photograph that changed his life forever.

"The sun was setting to the west, at about 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon," he explained.

Mike was hiking near the Inaja Memorial Picnic Grounds.

"It was on this block that I set my Canon camera -- I put it on maximum zoom lens," he said.

R. Sittamparam and Chong Chee Seong

MUAR: Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman wants to get to the bottom of the Bigfoot mystery. The Government, he said, would like to verify the Bigfoot tales.

He said the State Government’s Bigfoot Steering Committee was collating media reports, eyewitness accounts and evidence of their existence.

"Although the committee was set up in February, the State Government will only launch a search expedition when we have concrete evidence of the existence of Bigfoot," Ghani said after opening the RM2.6 million new building of Sekolah Menengah Pei Hwa, Sungai Mati yesterday.

He said he was aware that Bigfoot had aroused global interest and this made it necessary to do a careful, comprehensive and orderly scientific study of the phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Russian hominologists have turned their attention to Malaysia, hoping for a breakthrough in unravelling the mystery.

Dmitri Bayanov of the International Centre of Hominology in Moscow in an Internet posting, congratulated Malaysian Bigfoot researchers, saying: "The priority for researchers should be to obtain photographic evidence and describe in writing their observations and experiences.

PodCastingNews.com

Imagine an iPod that could play for 100 millennia without repeating a single song. Science fiction? Not exactly.

Dr. Jonathan Spanier from Drexel University and his research colleagues and the University of Pennsylvania are predicting that nanotechnology will allow computer memory so dense that a cubic centimeter contains 12.8 million gigabytes (GB) of information.

Spanier and his colleagues have proposed a new and unusual mechanism stabilizing the ferroelectricity in nano-scaled materials: surrounding the charged material with fragments of water.

Spanier and his team found that molecules such as hydroxyl(OH) ions, which make up water, and organic molecules, such as carboxyl (COOH), work even better than metal electrodes at stabilizing ferroelectricity in nano-scaled materials, proving that sometimes water and electricity do mix.

"It is astonishing to see that molecules enable a wire having a diameter equivalent to fewer than ten atoms to act as a stable and switchable dipole memory element," said Spanier, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Drexel.

The extreme capacity offered by such a device could easily put a room full of hard-drives and servers into a jacket pocket, but this idea can be applied to other computer components, such as ferroelectric RAM.

RAM is necessary in a computer because it stores information for programs that are currently running. As this news release was written, RAM stored the words in a file. Because RAM can transfer files faster than a hard-drive, it is used to handle running programs. However most RAM is volatile, and if the computer loses power all the information in RAM is lost. This is not the case with ferroelectric memory.

Matt Mauro
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

A picture of Wichita’s past still shines today: The Broadview Hotel.

“It was built in 1922 and it's the oldest hotel in Wichita,” says Front Desk Manager Trisha Harding. “And it's very much known a tradition of Wichita.”

That tradition goes back through a web of time, when coal kept the guests warm and booze they smuggled in kept them cool.

Today, Trisha keeps The Broadview glowing with the ambiance of the olden days. It’s full of chandeliers, marble floors and crown molding. Does The Broadview have something else to it, something you can't see?

“There's a common thing we say on the front desk,” Trisha says. “If something unusual happens, we say well Clarence is up to his pranks again today.”

Good old' Clarence; his story goes, he stayed in one of these rooms many, many years ago. Then heard his wife was having an affair. “He couldn't take it anymore and he threw himself off a balcony on the 8th floor,” Trisha says. “And apparently his spirit still lingers on here in the hotel.”

Khaleejtimes.com

TAIPEI - A Taiwanese court has sentenced a man to 15 years in jail for killing his girl friend in a retrial said to have been prompted by the victim’s ghost, Taiwanese television reported on Saturday.

Issuing its verdict Friday, the Taichung District Court found Wang Chi-cheng, 25, guilty of pushing his girlfriend Chen Chi-hsuan, 22, over a bridge and killing her.

Chen, a kindergarten teacher in Taichung county, central Taiwan, and Wang had known each other since high school and had been dating for several years.

But in 2004, Chen told Wang that she wanted to break up with Wang. He however wanted to continue the relationship.

Chen is reported to have left her home about 1.00 am on December 7, 2004 to meet Wang to discuss their breakup. Wang told police that he and Chen were quarrelling on a bridge and that Chen jumped to her death.

But Chen’s parents claimed their daughter had no reason to commit suicide, and that her ghost kept visiting them to tell them she had been murdered.

Wang was initially cleared of murder, but the trial was re-opened last year at Chen’s parents’ request.

“Although justice is delayed, it shows there is justice in the world,” Yeh Ya-shan, the mother of the victim, told cable television channels TVBS.

By Ekram Ali, Maholi (Muzzafarnagar): Despite many awareness campaigns by rationalists in various parts of the country, the fear of ghosts haunt many rural areas. Uttar Pradesh's Maholi village is one such place.

Omveer and his family members in Muzaffarnagar district are facing a tough time these days. They are fearful of a ghost that has made their life a living hell.

According to the family, some 'supernatural power' is destroying their clothes and books of the children. But Omveer alleges that all this has taken place because of the black magic done by one of his acquaintances.

Omveer family was stunned when they found burnt clothes in iron cupboards and torn books in school bags.

According to Pooja, the daughter of Omveer, a neighbourhood woman gave sweets to her brother and sister. She thinks all the strange incidents began only after that.

"My brother and sister ate a piece of sweets given by our aunt. But I didn't take it. It was soon after eating that sweets the health condition of my brother and sister started worsening. Our clothes caught fire on its own. We found torn books in our bags," said Pooja.

wmcstations.com

Some say Ernestine and Hazel's bar on South Main Street serves up two kinds of spirits. The kind that come from a bottle, and the kind that come from beyond.

Bar owner Russell George says, "Its just a walk back in history you can feel the vibes I felt them upstairs when I lived there."

But what local paranormal investigators identify as a ghostly figure has never been documented as vividly as the one seen on this video tape. Owner Russell George and his girlfriend Hope say the jukebox plays on its own....and the song titles are always relevant to conversations i the bar.

George continues, "They said you've got some kind of control back there I said girl we don't have proper electricity to run this place much less a control."

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Governor Edward G. Rendell announced Pennsylvania will create jobs in the alternative energy industry and provide affordable, reliable energy for Commonwealth businesses and residents by investing $10 million in new clean energy projects.

"Pennsylvania is changing the way clean energy is produced and distributed," Governor Rendell said. "This $10 million investment will continue the Commonwealth's leadership in one of the most important issues of our time: energy security."

Governor Rendell made $5 million in grants available for the third round of Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority (PEDA) funding. PEDA has awarded $15 million in grants and loans for 41 clean energy projects that will leverage another $200 million in private investment. The projects will create 1,558 permanent and construction jobs. Research projects could net more than 300 full-time jobs.

The Governor also announced $5 million in available grants for the fourth round of funding under the Pennsylvania Energy Harvest Grant Program. Since 2003, this program has awarded $15.9 million and leveraged another $43.7 million in private funds for more than 100 clean energy projects.

DailyRecord.co.uk
GHOST trackers claim to have captured spirit voices at one of Scotland's most haunted sites.

Recordings made at Mary King's Close in Edinburgh are said to have picked up a conversation and a man shouting "get out".

The street was closed off from 1644 to 1646 due to the plague.

Newswales.co.uk

A ghost called the White Lady is being turned into a tourist attraction at a local resort.

It is hoped she will be one of the stars of this year's Prestatyn
Walking Festival from May 19-21.

The apparition, thought to be a nun, is one of the spooky characters to be featured in a Ghost Walk, researched and developed by historian Harry Thomas.

This year the festival is benefiting from marketing and promotional expertise provided by Tourism Partnership North Wales.

It will last three days and features a total of 16 walks, ranging from a leisurely 45 minute stroll to a 20-mile marathon along the Offa's Dyke long-distance path from Moel Famau to Prestatyn.

And Harry is hoping that some uninvited guests will join the throng during the 90-minute walk, called "Dead Time Stories", on the evening of May 19.

by Britt Peterson

Astrobiologists hunting for life in outer space may be looking for the wrong clues. While conventional wisdom suggests that evidence of water is the most important sign of past or present extraterrestrial life, an article published in last week's issue of Science suggests that organic nitrogen may actually be a better indicator.

"Water just provides the context for life as we know it," said Douglas Capone, an environmental biologist at USC and a co-author of the opinion piece, along with Earth scientist Kenneth Nealson. "If we wanted to look for really solid evidence that life had ever existed, organic nitrogen deposits would be good things to look for."

Because of its ability to dissolve and recombine elementary material, water has long been considered the starting point for determining the feasibility of life on a certain planet. Research indicates underground water once existed on Mars and might still be there. Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus may both hide oceans under a frozen surface. Each of these discoveries has provoked excitement and speculation about the possibility of finding water-borne life.