Weekly Weird News – Page 79 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Steve Busti

WORLD’S MOST PIERCED WOMAN GETS MARRIED

When you have almost 7,000 rings already, what’s one more?

Deemed as the “world’s most pierced woman,” Elaine Davidson married Douglas Watson, a conservatively-dressed, piercing-free civil servant, at a low-key wedding ceremony in Scotland, theTelegraph is reporting. The Brazilian-born Davidson, 46, opted for a flowing white dress and floral tiara, but offset the traditional look by painting her face — already studded with 192 piercings — green, blue and yellow.

At a recent count, Davidson, who lives and works in Edinburgh, had 6,925 piercings, included 1,500 that are “internal,” according to the Daily Mail. Despite his bride’s unconventional look and lifestyle, Watson, 60, couldn’t help but gush after the 35-minute ceremony. “Elaine looked astonishing,” he said. “People see the piercings, but I see the amazing personality underneath. We have known each other for a long time.”

Davidson was reportedly first certified as a Guinness World Record holder in 2000, when she had only 462 piercings. According to her website, Davidson never removes the rings and studs, which she estimates weigh a total of three kilos, and insists she is able to sleep soundly with all of her piercings in place as there is no pain involved.

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Steve Busti

Tonight on THE SHADOW HOUR: Open Lines

10:00 PM CST, TONIGHT: Have you ever had a psychic event? Been a witness to a UFO encounter, or maybe even been abducted? Ever seen a strange creature you couldn’t explain? Do you have a ghost story you’d like to share?

Tonight, join host Chris Walden of the weekly live radio program “The Shadow Hour” for a special open-line call-in show. Chris will review this week’s “Shadow News” while callers share their stories. That call in number is (347) 826-9662 or call toll-free at (877) 867-0829.

Now you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight (Wednesday, June 8th) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. See you in the shadows…

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Steve Busti

TITANIC II SINKS ON MAIDEN VOYAGE

MOTW-060711-Titanic_II — Mark Wilkinson with his Titanic II sinking at West Bay in Dorset

When Mark Wilkinson took ownership of a cabin cruiser called Titanic II, perhaps he should have realised the omens were not good.

When he took his new 16ft boat out for its maiden voyage, it lived up to its namesake, and sank.

Mr Wilkinson was left floundering as the vessel sprang a leak and began taking on water before disappearing beneath the waves.

Holidaymakers looked on while Mr Wilkinson, from Birmingham, was pulled out of the sea by the local harbour master.

Titanic II was was later towed out of West Bay harbour in Dorset.

Mr Wilkinson, aged in his 40s, said afterwards: “If it wasn’t for the harbour master I would have gone down with the Titanic.

“It’s all a bit embarrassing and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg.”

He had recently taken ownership of the second hand boat and towed it from his home to the south coast for its first outing.

He enjoyed a successful fishing trip in Lyme Bay but as the boat entered the harbour a large hole opened up in the fibre-glass hull.

He tried to pump the water out but was forced to abandoned ship when the boat sunk stern first.

Margaret O’Callaghan, 63, was one of dozens of tourists on the quayside who witnessed the sinking.

She said: “The guy was in a small cruiser on his own. Someone said to me, ‘that boat is sinking.’

“There was a big guy desperately holding on to the wheel and the back of the boat was going down.

“I shouted at him to jump as the back of the boat went right down and the bow was sticking out of the water.

“He clung on to the nose and the tide took the boat in. Someone threw a rope and tied it up to the side.

“The harbourmaster came out in a RIB and managed to secure it and get it on to the slipway.

“The funny thing about it was that the name of the boat was Titanic II.

“The guy seemed fine. He got out and was standing on the side dripping wet.”

One eye-witness said: “It wasn’t a very big boat – I think an ice-cube could have sunk it!”

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Steve Busti

SCIENTISTS FIND ‘WEREWOLF’ GENE

MOTW-060611-Werewolf_Gene — Supatra "Nat" Sasuphan, the world's hairiest child.

Scientists have discovered a genetic mutation responsible for a disorder that causes people to sprout thick hair on their faces and bodies.

Hypertrichosis, sometimes called “werewolf syndrome” is a very rare condition, with fewer than 100 cases documented worldwide. But researchers knew the disorder runs in families, and in 1995 they traced the approximate location of the mutation to a section of the X chromosome (one of the two sex chromosomes) in a Mexican family affected by hypertrichosis.

Men with the syndrome have hair covering their faces and eyelids, while women grow thick patches on their bodies. In March, a Thai girl with the condition got into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s hairiest child.

A man in China with congenital hypertrichosis helped researchers break the case. Xue Zhang, a professor of medical genetics at the Peking Union Medical College, tested the man and his family and found an extra chunk of genes on the X chromosome. The researchers then returned to the Mexican family and also found an extra gene chunk (which was different from that of the Chinese man) in the same location of their X chromosomes. [Top 10 Worst Hereditary Conditions]

The extra DNA may switch on a hair-growth gene nearby, resulting in runaway furriness. The best bet for a culprit, wrote study researcher Pragna Patel of the University of Southern California, is a gene called SOX3, which is known to play a role in hair growth.

“If in fact the inserted sequences turn on a gene that can trigger hair growth, it may hold promise for treating baldness or hirsutism [excessive hair growth] in the future, especially if we could engineer ways to achieve this with drugs or other means,” Patel said in a statement.

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Steve Busti

MYSTERIOUS STRUCTURE DISCOVERED ON MARS

An American ‘armchair astronomer’ claims he has discovered a strange structure on the surface of Mars while browsing Google.

David Martines was scanning Google Mars when he discovered the long white edifice and has even listed the coordinates (49’19.73″N 29 33’06.53″W) so others can see it for themselves.

Mr Martines posted a video of the ‘station’ on YouTube which has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

On the video, he talks through the discovery he has named “Bio-Station Alpha”. “It’s very unusual in that it’s quite large, it’s over 700 feet (210m) long and 150 feet (45m) wide. It looks like it’s a cylinder or made up of cylinders,” he says.

“It could be a power station or it could be a biological containment or it could be a glorified garage — hope it’s not a weapon.

“I don’t know if NASA even knows about this.”

NASA and Google have yet to respond to media inquiries.

Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/8257609/mysterious-structure-discovered-on-mars

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Doc Ravencraft

These times they are a-changin

Steve has asked me to introduce myself before I tell you what I have to say. I’m Saul Ravencraft, but most friends call me “Doc.” I’ve been helping the Museum of the Weird behind the scenes for a while now as what you might call a practitioner of the esoteric arts. I am not a paranormal investigator who bumps around in the dark with a collection of gadgetry, hoping for “evidence” that I can show my buddies in the cubical on Monday. I get my hands dirty, sometimes damned dirty, as I walk with the things that many people just don’t want to believe. It’s probably better for them. They can spend their time watching reality TV and sports on seven different screens and stay out of the way of the rest of us. But you, my friend, are not going to be so lucky. Your eyes are already at least partly opened or you wouldn’t even know that the Museum of the Weird existed.

You have probably noticed, as I have, that there has been an increase in weird news. Sightings of strange animals like Bigfoot have become more common, and more commonly reported. UFO activity has gone off the charts. Suddenly, even the TV is filled with programs about ghosts and the paranormal. You think this is a coincidence? Ha! There are no coincidences.

Is it the end of the world? Not hardly – at least not “The World.” It’s going to be the end of some people’s world as they are finally going to have to face up to the fact that some of the strange things that they have been ignoring and explaining away will not be ignored. They are going to have to deal with the fact that some of the people around them are going to wake up and tune into these things and they won’t know what to do about it.

You may remember the song – or you’re probably to damned young to know about it – “The Age of Aquarius.” (The full lyrics are available on this web page.) Yes, this song is full of the time it was written, (you wait until your grandkids laugh at some of your favorite music) but they’ve essentially got it right. We are moving into a new age, from that ruled by Pisces, the fish, to Aquarius, the water-bearer.

The age before Pisces was Aries, characterized by war and fire (and ironically use of the battering “ram”.) This was a time of conquest and adventure. The age of iron. In the age of Pisces we saw the rise in Christianity – complete with a symbol of a fish – among other similar paths which called upon all people to be more spiritual in nature. You could argue that this age has been as warlike as any of them, but now it’s been for a nobler, more spiritual purpose!

The Aquarian age is going to be filled with new freedoms as everyone is empowered to move beyond our work-horse existence into something more personally fulfilling. It’s already happening. The same technology that is giving you up-to-the-minute reports on UFO sightings, complete with maps and video, are also providing access to old information, as occult and other older writings are being made available through the Internet. People who thought that they were the only one’s who had ever had a paranormal experience are now finding others, so they can finally discuss what happened and what it really means. People who had never dared to experiment with contacting spirits, working with the powers of their mind, or trying their hand at magic are becoming curious again.

Yes, yes, science will continue to progress and we will have wonderful things from it all… but how we partake of those things will change, for the better. It won’t all change immediately for everyone. We’re at the very beginning of this age, but it is changing. I know that you can feel it.

If your mind is open and you’ve always wanted to explore the weird, that’s natural. We’re being called to that. Those who take up the call are going to make some amazing discoveries, that will be dwarfed by the people after us. Those who block it out are going to be confused and angry. (You know some of them!) Stay tuned here and I’ll try to do something for those of you that are ready.

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Steve Busti

Tonight on THE SHADOW HOUR:

Posted by Chris Walden

10:00 PM CST, TONIGHT: Once again, it is that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

Our favorite horror film host, Joseph Fotinos (a.k.a. Professor Griffin) comes back for our periodic discussion of horror movies and lore. We’ll talk about what’s coming out this summer, what’s sitting on the DVD shelves and the classics.

As always, the lines will be open and we encourage you to call in with your questions. The call in number for tonight’s show is (347) 826-9662 or call toll-free at (877) 867-0829.

Listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget in the sidebar. You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in every Wednesday at 10pm Central for the live broadcast.

See you in the shadows, if you dare…

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Steve Busti — 1 Comment

8000 YR OLD CIVILIZATION FOUND OFF INDIA COAST?

Did the coastline of the Konkan, from Shrivardhan in Raigad to Vengurla in Sindhudurg, have human habitation around 8,000 years ago? Did that population have well-developed engineering skills? Was there a unique Konkan culture in existence in 6,000BC? The latest discovery in the field of archaeology, below the sea waters of Konkan coast, could answer these questions with a big resounding‘Yes!’

In what could turn out to be a major discovery,researchers have found a wall-like structure, which is 24km long, 2.7m in height, and around 2.5m in width. The structure shows uniformity in construction. “The structure is not continuous from Shrivardhan to Raigad, but it is uniform. It has been found 3m below the present sea level. Considering the uniformity of the structure, it is obvious that the structure is man-made,” said Dr Ashok Marathe, department of archaeology, Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, Pune.

This joint expedition carried out by Deccan College, Pune and Department of Science and Technology, Central Government, has been in progress since 2005. “We were actually studying the impacts of tsunami and earthquake on western coast when we first found this structure in Valneshwar,” said Marathe.

However, the age of the structure was decided on the basis of sea level mapping. “There have been exhaustive studies about the sea water coming inside the land. Based on the calculations, experts from the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) pegged the age of the wall at around 6,000 BC,” Marathe informed.

The discovery has raised a number of questions, such as how these huge stones were brought to the shore? What was the purpose behind building this wall? If the date of the wall is accurate, then is it the same age as the Indus civilisation? Why have none of the researchers till date, found or made any mention of this civilisation? Marathe, who will be retiring in July 2011, has asked more people to try to find answers to these questions.

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Steve Busti

NAZIS TRIED TO TEACH DOGS HOW TO TALK, READ, AND WRITE

Adolf Hitler and a German Shepherd, near the Berghof.

Adolf Hitler loved his dogs so much he had Nazi scientists train them to read and write.

Such bizarre experiments are detailed in a new book, “Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities,” by a lecturer at Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales.

“In the 1920s, Germany had numerous ‘new animal psychologists’ who believed dogs were nearly as intelligent as humans, and capable of abstract thinking and communication,” Dr. Jan Bondeson told The Times of London.

“Part of the Nazi philosophy was that there was a strong bond between humans and nature — they believed a good Nazi should be an animal friend,” he said.

Several clever canines even managed to learn a few new tricks, Bondeson writes.

One dog, an Airdale terrier named Rolf, was able to tap out the alphabet with his paws and shared thoughts on religion. Another pooch, Don, spoke German and could bark, “Hungry! Give me cakes.”

Bondeson also writes that a dog was said to bark “Mein Fuhrer” when he heard the name Adolf Hitler.

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Steve Busti

MYSTERY SEA CREATURE BAFFLES MARINE BIOLOGISTS

A MYSTERY sea creature spotted in the Mersey has experts baffled.

The “monster” was snapped off Seacombe Ferry at 9am yesterday by photographer Mark Harrison.

Paul Renolds, from the Blue Planet Aquarium, who studied the photos, said: “It is virtually impossible to actually identify, but this is the time of year when large numbers of basking sharks, the second largest shark species in the world after whale sharks, head towards waters off the Isle of Man.”