UFOs spotted over Apalachicola - Apalachicola Times

UFOs spotted over Apalachicola Apalachicola Times The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) published a reported UFO sighting submitted by a witness who listed Apalachicola as his or her location. The following report submitted the same evening as the sighting allegedly occurred,. “(I) was in my backyard with my ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

Pamela Haag: Valentine's Day: Its Gory, Unromantic Secret History

The origin of Valentine's Day has nothing to do with love and everything to do with "torturous martyrdom." On second thought, perhaps the origin of Valentine's Day has a great deal to do with love*

Originally, the feast day of St. Valentine honored two third century martyrs by the name of Valentine who were elevated to sainthood in the early middle ages. Both Valentines -- one the Bishop of Terni and the other a priest in Rome -- were allegedly decapitated by their persecutors on February 14.

Incidentally, St. Valentine (as the two Valentines seem to have merged into one figure by the 9th century) is the patron saint of epileptics, not lovers.

Medieval miracle plays based on the Bishop of Terni Valentine show him brutally beaten, bloodied, and decapitated before angels transport him to heaven. It really puts you in a mood for love.

According to author Leigh E. Schmidt, several locales in Europe claimed Terni's relics, as they were widely dispersed. Several different shrines claimed possession of his skull.

There was no link between St. Valentine's Day and love until the 14th century. At that time, some scholars claim that Chaucer associated Valentine's Day with lovers by describing it as the day on which birds select their mates.

More plausibly, writes Elizabeth White Nelson, the tradition of expressing love on Valentine's Day comes from the Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility rite held on February 15. Typically, the medieval church would try to combine saints' feast days with pagan festivals, to boost Church loyalty and participation.

Whatever the reasons, by the 1500s the link between Valentine's Day, courtship, and love was established. The religious meanings of the day faded; its amorous meanings grew.

Rituals emerged in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s to divine future spouses on Valentine's Day. Some young people went to churchyards at midnight to await an omen, but drawing lots was the most common practice of divination. Clergyman Henry Bourne explained in 1725,

It is a ceremony, ... to draw Lots, which they term Valentines... The names of a select number of one Sex, are by an equal Number of the other put into some Vessel; and, after that, every one draws a Name, which for the present is called their Valentine, and is also look'd upon as good Omen of their Man and Wife afterwards.

The "drawing lots" ceremony could get ugly, and vicious. In France this celebration of the lottery of love became fractious. In France, explains Elizabeth White Nelson, once the valentines had been chosen, the woman prepared a meal for the man, and they attended a public dance. If the man was displeased, he would leave her, and she would remain in seclusion for eight days.

But, at the end of this time, "all the women who had been spurned gathered in the town square and burned their valentines in effigy."

This carnival of romantic revenge often escalated into riots, such that in 1776 the French parliament outlawed the ritual, and it had practically disappeared by ...read more
Source: Weird News Blog

Mexican 'Ape Woman' Buried After 150 Years

SINALOA DE LEYVA, Mexico -- An indigenous Mexican woman put on display in Victorian-era Europe because of a rare genetic condition that covered her face in thick hair has been buried in her home state in a ceremony that ends one of the best-known episodes from an era when live human beings were treated as collectible specimens.

With her hairy face and body, jutting jaw and other deformities, Julia Pastrana became known as "ape woman" after she was taken to the U.S. by showman Theodore Lent in 1854, when she was 20. She died in childbirth in 1860 and her body ended up at the University of Oslo, Norway.

After government and private requests to return her body, the university shipped her remains to the state of Sinaloa, where they were laid to rest Tuesday afternoon.

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

PHOTO: Were Those UFOs in the Sky Over Des Moines Sunday Night? - The Waterland Blog (blog)

PHOTO: Were Those UFOs in the Sky Over Des Moines Sunday Night? The Waterland Blog (blog) PHOTO: Were Those UFOs in the Sky Over Des Moines Sunday Night? 1 Comment ? Print This Post. On Monday, Feb. 11, Deb Reed posted this photo and question on The Waterland Blog's Facebook Page (click image to see larger version): DMUFO021113 ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

WATCH: UFOs Light Up The Melbourne Sky

UFOs are reported all over the world, and over the weekend, they made an appearance in the skies above Melbourne, Australia.

Three very bright objects were videotaped maneuvering in a variety of ways, as well as turning their lights on and off as part of the show, reports the International Business Times.

At approximately 1:52 of the video -- posted to YouTube by FindingUFO -- one of the odd lights suddenly shoots away, seemingly from ground level, at incredibly fast speed.

Watch these Melbourne, Australia UFOs maneuver around in the sky in early February:

While the individual who took the videotape doesn't provide any personal information, commenters to the video suggest they, too, have seen similar light shows in the sky.

According to onlyMelbourne.com, "We receive UFO sighting reports in Melbourne at the rate of one a week. The vast majority are lights at night, and a few with a video evidence."

And then there's Lou20764, who (Warning! Warning!) has posted several UFO videos on his YouTube channel, like the one below, where he writes: "One of the most amazing sights I have ever recorded. Objects not visible to naked eye. 'Invasion' may be the wrong title, but that's what I felt. I hope they are benevolent."



In the UFO world, people who are known as "repeaters" are almost always immediately considered suspect. The more times you claim to photograph something unusual, the less credibility you seem to have.

Since we at Huffington Post don't tend to pass judgment, we leave it to you to decide if Lou20764's following UFO armada video, from Melbourne in November, is legit or not.

UFO videographer Lou20764 uses an infrared camera to allegedly shoot many unexplained aerial objects.

"When I first started, I used to get a few captures per week, then every day," he writes in the comments section of his video. "Whatever 'they' are, there are lots of them -- all over the world."

UFOs have many explanations. Try some of these on for size:

 

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Party People Celebrating Chinese New Year See Lights In Sky! Not UFO's, But ... - Student Operated Press

Party People Celebrating Chinese New Year See Lights In Sky! Not UFO's, But ... Student Operated Press The lights weren`t UFO`s or meteorites, the prosaic explanation is almost always the right one. Why did newspapers report the musings of a bunch of boozy people anyway? If one of Michelle`s pals had been waving a glow stick, she would have told the ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

Postcard Arrives Almost A Half Century Late

Bert Jacobson was just 13 when he took a trip with his father and cousins to the East Coast and wrote his mother a postcard to describe the fun he was having. At that time, in 1967, Lyndon B. Johnson was president, the Beatles were groovy and postage home cost 4 cents.

That postcard never reached Jacobson's mother -- not until this week, that is, when the letter, dirtied and tattered, arrived at his family's concrete business P.O. Box.

"It was an awesome trip," Jacobson recalled, according to local outlet News9 in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Marilyn Hubbard, Bert's sister, told the station that their mother "wasn't surprised that Bert had written her a card, but she was very surprised to took 46 years to get here."

Letters delivered decades late are often received with joy rather than frustration.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported in April 2012 that a postcard mailed in 1958 had finally reached its intended addressee, 71-year-old Scott McMurry. The postcard, originally sent by Scott McMurry's mother, found its way to him with help from social media.

And in November, the New York Daily News reported that a card mailed July 4, 1943, had at last made its way to the (former) home of sisters Pauline and Theresa Leisenring of Elmira, N.Y. Postal official Karen Mazurkiewicz told the Daily News, “Generally, if old mail pieces are uncovered in a postal facility, they are put in the mail with information about where the items are found.”

The Postal Service has been in dire straits lately, as it continues its search for ways to trim budget costs. In August, the USPS moved to cut hours at more than 13,000 rural post offices, according to USA Today. On Feb. 6, the USPS said it plans to cut Saturday deliveries (with the exception of packages) by August.

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Ghost hunt: Strange events in White Oaks - Ruidoso News

By Mike Curran

I have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pauses to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, apparitions, strange phenomena, and of the obscure world to which they belong. I find most do not, for they, like me, are caught up in the conscious world of getting through the waking hours and making some sane sense of life. The easy way out is just to dismiss such metaphysical occurrences if they were to happen before your very eyes. Tuck them away in some dark hallway of your mind along with the other sealed and unmentionable happenings in your life. Don't speak to anyone of these things unless you would invite ridicule, mocking laughter or - even worse - seeing to it that your integrity becomes a casualty.

My name is Michael Curran and I am a writer of everyday, conscious-world events - a journalist, if you will. It is the only quasi-ability I seem to possess. Although my name is known to some of the readership of my newspaper, I am able for the most part, to move about the community in near anonymity. This suits me and is what I aspire to.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to write about paranormal activities in southern New Mexico and welcomed it as a respite from my usual assignments. I told the general manager of the Ruidoso News, Ross Barrett, "I will report the truth, as it is told to me, and not what I want to believe or think I see."

"That's what I want you to do," he replied.

Now, I will reveal to you that I have never seen a ghost, apparition, orb, UFO, or any other strange phenomena, which can be construed as otherworldly or inter-dimensional. However, I am open to the prospect in any case and try not to refute given beliefs unless I can definitely prove them incorrect. After all, wasn't it a scientist (Henri PoincarŽ, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, 1854-1912) who once said (in the 19th century) "Need I remind you that it is so that all important discoveries have been made."
The first article was to be on the mysterious reports and anecdotal stories of strange sightings pertaining to the isolated, played-out hamlet of White Oaks. Barrett, and his wife Beth, took care of the arrangements and scheduled a meeting at the No Scum Allowed Saloon, now owned by Marlon and Teresa Coffman.

On a typical late January, late Saturday afternoon, I made the trek from Ruidoso on Rt. 380 to Carrizozo. A right turn onto Rt. 54 and then a few non-eventful miles up the road to the right-turn onto State Road 349 put me on the byway towards White Oaks. This proved to be a lonely, desolate, two-lane, paved pathway to the intended meeting place. Now I was traveling in the lowlands between mountains - a sort of "bowl" to my eyes. Nothing passed me either way, save for the occasional, forlorn tumbleweeds, which periodically moved across the front of my vehicle on their solitary journey to who knows where?

I kept my mind on the conscious world and the writing assignment that was at hand. I believe now, in the end, and to my detriment, that was a too-narrow view.

Shortly before one arrives in White Oaks, going the paved way, the traveler will pass by the Cedarvale cemetery on the right-hand side of the highway. Resting peacefully (?) here are such luminaries as New Mexico's first governor (1911-15), William C. McDonald (died April 11, 1918), Susan McSween (Barber), of the Lincoln County Wars fame and Deputy Bell, who Billy the Kid killed during his Lincoln jailbreak. A walk through the cemetery proves the once-hard environment of the area. Many of the headstones are of people who died in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

Local resident and historian, Don Ward, who has studied the area in depth says, "White Oaks was discovered in 1879 (August) by Anglos. In the beginning, it was a tent city for about five years. About 1895, 1,200 people lived here mining gold. There was also a coalmine 1 1/2 miles away. In 1900 the town died out when the railroad chose not to come here but went to Carrizozo instead. In 1912, the town got a rebirth when a power plant was built here. It supplied power to Carrizozo, Nogal and up over into Parsons. But the plant burned down sometime in the 1930s.

According to Marlon Coffman, the dwelling first became a bar in the 1970s and its owner was Bud Crenshaw. At one point it was named the Cheyenne Social Club during that period.

Right before I pulled in to the No Scum Allowed Saloon, the Barrett's did likewise. They brought with them some of the latest paranormal-testing technology - a Zoom, for shooting high-definition video and possessing an EVP recorder (electronic voice phenomena). "This is a key pie___ce of equipment for this type of investigation," Beth Barrett explained. A K-II meter, which picks up EMF (electronic magnetic fields) signals, was included in the mix. "There are two theories to the K-II meter," Barrett said. "Dwellings with high EMF signals can cause nausea and hallucinations. Secondly, spirits are thought to feed off energy fluctuations. If possible, you should try to turn off all unnecessary electricity so you can establish a good baseline. A third technical piece of equipment - an IR camera - was with them, too. The infrared device has night-vision capabilities for obvious duties. A Ghost Box, which sweeps through AM and FM radio frequencies and attempts to pick up any abnormal or strange voices, was also included in the forthcoming investigations. Those were some, but not all, of the technologies used that night.

Before entering the well-known landmark, a cursory glance of the front of the building revealed its longevity. According to Marlon Coffman, the structure has been in White Oaks since 1898. First it was an attorney's office and then an assay office for the gold, silver and copper, which was being mined in the area and for which a tent city grew to a thriving town during its heyday.

I opened the old-time screen door, then the solid wood main door and entered. About eight or nine patrons sat talking in the bar area. I felt an air of history about the place. A smallish, well-used potbelly stove heated that area.

A narrow doorway opened out into a fairly large back room where a few more customers were seated along with six individuals from the Lincoln County Paranormal Society who were there doing technology-backed investigations, too.

I went about my task and began my interviews.

Marlon Coffman, the fifth owner of the saloon, proved to be hospitable and affable.

"There have been multiple strange sightings by some locals around here," he said. "Two visitors stepped out back of the saloon and saw orbs or lights floating down the ravine between the saloon and the old school house some 200-plus yards away. A few minutes later, when they came back into the saloon they reported what they saw in a matter-of-fact manner."

Visitors from Capitan and Lincoln have claimed to Coffman that they had seen the lights from where they lived through the mountains.

Coffman also reported, "Recently, the owner of the "Brown Building," a stone's throw to the west (towards Carrizozo), passed away. Before doing so he had been doing remodeling and repair work on the structure. Workers in the building told the owner of objects being 'mysteriously moved' without explanation.

"A previous team of paranormal investigators caught a woman's voice on a recorder in the rustic back room. It said, 'This is my bedroom.' I heard the recording."

Coffman's wife, Teresa, then subsequently added to the mystery with other reports.

"Betty, the wife of former owner Grady Stewart, was cleaning up the bar one night with another bartender and closing up," Teresa Coffman recounted. "They were the only two beings in the building - but not for long. They saw something move past the window. The door came open and they saw a man in a short-brimmed hat and overcoat standing there. Betty said to the figure, 'Can I help you?' Her co-worker said, 'Don't talk.'

The presence walked in front of the potbellied stove and stopped. He looked over at them and disintegrated before their very eyes."

Lest you might believe Teresa is given to flights of fancy, it is my belief she does not suffer from that affliction. Look into her eyes sometime, and tell me what you see. She claims to have seen a strange, unexplained light in the Cedarvale cemetery herself.

One evening, about four months ago, while in the bar area, by the stove, Teresa was having a conversation with a patron when she suddenly felt a firm tap on her left shoulder. She thought it was her husband and as she turned she said, "Marlon, don't interrupt me!"

By the time she had turned completely around she found there was nothing there. The customer she had been talking to - Mark Curtis Payne - said to her, "Well, you just had your first encounter."

Teresa believes that people really believe what they claim to have seen.

"They were genuine and adamant," she explained.

Reportedly, an apparition of a blonde-headed little girl has been seen inside and outside the white Victorian house, behind and to the right of the old school house, which was built in the 1890s by Benjamin Gumm, who owned lumber mills.

As for the schoolhouse, well, lights have claimed to have been seen moving across the row of five windows on the second floor. But that's nearly impossible as walls inside the building separate the rooms.

I finished my interviews by 7:30 p.m. and, feeling drained, decided to drive back to my home in Ruidoso. As I reversed my original path there, I was guided by the full moon of that evening, which made the journey even more memorable. Upon my arrival I felt drained and took - almost immediately - to my bed for the night.

And now, I must recount to you what then happened - realizing full well that by doing so I could jeopardize my current position and create a natural doubt as to the authenticity of my attempted, honest narrative.

During the night, I suffered the two-worst nightmares I have realized while living in New Mexico. They were vivid and horror-filled. I awoke three times to seek sanity. Decades ago I was afflicted with dark intrusions into my unconscious mind from real-life events. After a fitful period of time they subsided and I felt they were behind me - far behind.

When the morning thankfully came, I arose and went to the living room to have tea and hopefully regain my composure. I had a pounding headache and a case of irregular anxiety. Neither is normal for me.

I felt the necessity to reach out to someone who would understand and so I called a valued friend in the Northeast who is learned in these matters and quite well known in certain circles. I told him an abridged story of what happened the night before. Not knowing much about the specifics he told me immediately, "You were too focused on your interviews and, naturally, did not pick up on what was going on around you. And you didn't do what I suggested you do before you began, did you?"

"No, I'm sorry, I forgot," I sheepishly answered.

"Well, what happened, I feel Michael, is that there were four beings there, most likely flesh and blood, that invite negative energy. Some of that permeated to you and it was brought home with you. Next time, please do as I originally suggested. It should prove useful."

My friend then advised me how to rid myself of the malaise of melancholy I was experiencing. Sunday night I slept well.

So, was it as my friend implied, rather, was I affected by the full moon or was it coincidence and an isolated incident? I leave that to you.

Days later it was reported to me by Ross and Beth Barrett that they had picked up some interesting audio bits. I went to their house to actually hear them. The Zoom instrument picked up what could sound like a mine tool - a pick for instance - striking rock? The EVP, at about 1 a.m. recorded a feint voice, which Beth thinks, could sound like the word "demonic." Being a good investigator though, she can't be sure if someone nearby was whispering or was it really a residual sound from the past from a being not actually trying to communicate - a loop in time? She can't be sure - this time.

"We couldn't really conduct a fully professional investigation because of human distractions," she said. "A scientifically controlled environment is needed to prove or disprove a haunting. We picked up readings on two instruments but it is not considered ideal unless three-such devices record something in the same period of time. And so we can't say the area is truly haunted. But there are many stories to that effect here. Additionally - from the death records I have seen - there were killings by shooting, stabbing and poisoning. One person was crushed to death by a rock, as well as deaths caused by tonsillitis, indigestion and brain fever. Many infant deaths under the age of 1-year-old are listed. The causes of their passing were not listed."

And for now, the White Oaks area must remain as eerily spooky but not yet proven to be inhabited by ghosts or spirits. But one thing I fully believe - mystery attracts mystery.

Do you have something unusual going on in your home or business?

http://www.ruidosonews.com/ruidoso-entertainment/ci_22567682/ghost-hunt-strange-events-white-oaks

A fleet of 'bird-like' UFOs in Mexico - Open Minds UFO News

A fleet of 'bird-like' UFOs in Mexico Open Minds UFO News Eight strange UFOs were captured on video over Mexico on January 26. A handful of media outlets published stories about these UFOs, describing them as “bird-like.” The International Business Times describes that the eight objects seen in the video are ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

Real-Life 'Vampire' Is Addicted To Drinking Blood

By: Megan Gannon, News Editor
Published: 02/08/2013 03:46 PM EST on LiveScience

In a chilling case report, doctors in Turkey have described what they claim to be a real-life vampire with multiple personalities and an addiction to drinking blood.

The 23-year-old married man apparently started out slicing his own arms, chest and belly with razor blades, letting the blood drip into a cup so he could drink it. But when he experienced compulsions to drink blood "as urgent as breathing," he started turning to other sources, the doctors said.

The man, whose name and hometown were not revealed in the report, was arrested several times after stabbing and biting others to collect and drink their blood. He apparently even got his father to get him bags of the ghastly drink from blood banks, according to the report released today (Feb. 8) by the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The case study was published last fall.

The doctors said they found traumatic events in the man's life leading up to his two-year bloodsucking phase. His 4-month-old daughter became ill and died; he witnessed the murder of his uncle; and he saw another violent killing in which "one of his friends cut off the victim's head and penis," the researchers write in the journal article. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

The man had been seen talking to himself, and he claimed to be tormented by an "imaginary companion" who forced him to carry out violent acts and attempt suicide. He also had memory gaps in his daily life and reported instances of being in a new place without any idea of how he got there.

"Possibly due to 'switching' to another personality state, he was losing track during the 'bloody' events, did not care who the victim was anymore, and remained amnesic to this part of his act," the report said.

The doctors, led by Direnc Sakarya, of Denizli Military Hospital in southwestern Turkey, ultimately diagnosed the man with dissociative identity disorder (DID), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic depression and alcohol abuse. To their knowledge, the man is the first patient with "vampirism" and DID.

Dissociative identity disorder was made famous by the story of Shirley Mason, or Sybil, who was diagnosed as having 16 separate personalities as a result of physical and sexual abuse by her mother. The authors of the vampire case study note that DID is often linked to childhood abuse and neglect. The blood addict's mother apparently had "freak out" episodes during his adolescence in which she attacked him, but the man also claimed to have no memory of his childhood between the ages of 5 and 11.

In a follow-up six weeks after he was treated, the doctors said the man's blood-drinking behavior was in remission, but his dissociative symptoms persisted. He also apparently insisted that his "drugs were merely sleeping pills, they would not cure him."

It's not clear whether the man suffered ...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Confederate Flag Mistakenly Raised Over Mississippi Supreme Court Building

The Confederate flag was mistakenly raised for a few hours over the Mississippi Supreme Court in Jackson on Friday.

A replacement was needed a Mississippi state flag that was tattered and torn, Kym Wiggins, public information officer for the state Department of Fiance and Administration told the Clarion-Ledger.

Calling the incident, "highly unusual," Wiggins explained to the paper that a local vendor was tasked with the job of purchasing new state flags to replace the one that was torn. Wiggins claims they were given two boxes labeled "Mississippi State Flag," but the boxes actually contained Confederate battle flags. After a maintenance worker raised the flag, the mistake went unnoticed for a couple of hours.

Part of the problem may have been that Mississippi state flag features the old Confederate flag's saltire along with three horizontal stripes in red, white and blue.

"Without the wind blowing, you know, it's about a 10-by-15-foot flag," Wiggins explained to MSNBC's Maddow Blog. "You don't hook it on and lay it out flat first. The bars and stars do show in the upper left corner."

According to The Associated Press, Mississippi is the last state with a flag that includes the Confederate battle emblem -- a symbol that has been on the state flag since 1894 -- and it's a symbol Mississippi voters fought to keep. In a 2001 statewide election, voters decided nearly 2-to-1 to keep the emblem.

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

EXO-VATICANA: UFOs AND THE DAYS OF NOAH - NewsWithViews.com

EXO-VATICANA: UFOs AND THE DAYS OF NOAH NewsWithViews.com Picking up from my last post which provided a biblical basis for why we think an extraterrestrial revelation uniquely explains the comprehensive scope of the predicted end time deception, this post will offer discussion of the UFO phenomenon. Jesus ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

Tony Phillips: The Brazilian Spider Issue

SANTO ANTONIO da PLATINA, Brazil - Welcome to Brazil. Here's your amulet and electrified umbrella.

Those of you planning a getaway to someplace not beset by the winter's discontent might want to scratch Brazil off your list of destinations. It seems that while Nature dumps her frozen fury on our nation's northeast, Hell hath another torment wrought on our Brazilian brethren. Trust me on this, it's true.

It's raining spiders in Brazil.

Ok. Not actually. There are not little arachnid droplets falling from clouds. There are, however, veritable hordes of cooperative spiders, a million-legged menace dangling from electrical lines and all manner of overhang, forming what spider-behaviorist-types call "sheet webs." At least one Brazilian town currently teems with Anelosimus eximius, a species well known to science and, one presumes, to Satan.

I don't give much credence to End-of-Times nutjobs, the kind of guys who encourage you to stock up on canned fruit, heavy artillery and duct tape. I don't believe in Mayan prophecies, global conflagrations or horsemen of the apocalypse. I do believe that spiders are icky. I believe, moreover, that spiders by the gazillions building communal webs to trap everything that moves are ickier still. Ickiest of all is the fact that A. eximius cooperate like octopedal Borg in the construction of said webs and the consumption of prey vastly larger than themselves.

I've always wanted to visit Brazil. My wife and I have discussed attending either the 2014 World Cup or the 2016 Olympics in that country. We have even considered wintering their when she finds a million dollars in drug money stashed beneath a seat on the trolley.

Those plans might never come to pass. I don't care if David Beckham in his underwear is bending corner kicks around Django Reinhardt's re-animated corpse, something I'd otherwise pay to watch -- I'm just never going to a place bewebbed by cooperative spiders.

Note to Brazil: The world is coming. You need to deal with that whole spider thing.

...read more
Source: Weird News Blog

12-Year-Old Used Replica Gun To Rob 11-Year-Old Classmate

Police say a 12-year-old boy robbed an 11-year-old classmate in a bathroom inside a Chicago elementary school using a replica of a handgun on Friday afternoon.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the boy was in police custody Friday in the robbery, which took place around 2:40 p.m. at Palmer Elementary School, 5051 N. Kenneth Ave.

Police learned of the incident after the 11-year-old who was reportedly robbed confronted the suspect to get his $5 back, a scuffle during which ammunition fell from the suspect's backpack, CBS Chicago reports.

According to the Tribune, the BB gun was plastic, but also had a magazine and slide that could take live ammunition.

Nobody was hurt in the incident and, as of Saturday morning, no charges were filed against the suspect, according to ABC Chicago.

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

LOOK: Amazing Photo Taken In B.C.

A B.C. photographer is behind an amazing photo of what looks like a splash of fire coming out of the Pacific Ocean, and it's capturing people's attention around the world.

Rob Leslie's image was featured as National Geographic's Photo Of The Day on Friday. The incredible photo depicts the moment a rock was thrown into the water against a winter sunset in White Rock.

Leslie, who is owns a multimedia production company, explained that he was "simply throwing rocks into the ocean" using a two-second shutter delay and a "cheap little tripod in the dirt."

"Totally encourage people around the world to try this out as it is a lot of fun," he added in the National Geographic's comments section, in response to people's questions as to how the photo was taken.

Leslie said he actually dropped his digital SLR camera in the water while attempting to take the shot.

The sunshot splash, which was taken in 2011, has become one of the National Geographic's "most liked" photos of the day.

"This is the greatest day in my photography career and only the beginning of what I will create," commented Leslie. "Been a fairly rough couple of years trying to get my photography and video business going in Vancouver, BC, Canada and this is a real breath of fresh air after so much hard work."

And if you cynics out there were questioning the photo's authenticity, here are some of Leslie's outtakes in a YouTube video:

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Gini Graham Scott: Forget Your Wallet, Go to Jail

When I read the story about the Italian tourist who was arrested and spent the night in jail after forgetting his wallet at a trendy, New York Steakhouse, I could really relate.

Ironically, earlier that day I had been crossing a $5 toll bridge from Hayward to go to San Francisco, when I discovered I didn't have the $5 bill I thought was in my wallet. I had only a little over $4 in change, but experienced very different results. The two stories got me thinking about what we should be doing as a society when such things happen.

The story about the Italian tourist has been all over the news, and probably at this point the Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse is regretting that it called the police on the hapless tourist, since the negative publicity could well cost it far more in lost business than the $208.77 bill, which the tourist offered to pay for in various ways. There is even a debate started on a Zagat blog about what a restaurant should do if someone forgets their cash. Ironically, the Italian tourist, Graziano Graziussi, is a lawyer from Naples, so if anyone is in a position to sue over what happened, he probably could easily do so.

Basically, what happened is that Grziussi had gone to the steakhouse on 3rd Avenue near 49th in central Manhattan for a traditional meal. But after racking up a $208.77 bill, he discovered he had forgotten his wallet. So he couldn't pay the bill, and he offered to pay it by retrieving his wallet at his hotel. He even offered to leave his iPhone worth about $500 and vital to his business or go back to his hotel with a busboy, but the restaurant decided no dice and called the police. When the police arrived, Graziussi even asked for an escort to his hotel. But after telling him, "We're not a taxi service," the police officer took him to jail, where he spent the night, though a judge dismissed the case the next day after Graziussi promised to return to court to pay the bill the following week.

Needless to say, the case seems an example of poor customer service in the extreme, and the blogosphere seems to have come down strongly on the side of the hapless tourist. As one user Laurkir commented at the end of the ABC News Article by Kevin Dolak, "Seriously? Everyone forgets something once in a while. The restaurant was totally out of line here as were the police for detaining the man." Brian P. had this to say: "Dude was willing to leave his $600 phone behind to ensure he was coming back to pay the bill... Leave it to New York to be rude and inconsiderate." And Yourallguilty observed: "My bet is that any staff who accompanied the tourist back to the hotel would not only have solved the problem, but would have ended up with ...read more
Source: Weird News Blog

WATCH: It's 'Raining' Spiders In Brazil?

Arachnophobes would be wise to steer clear of Santo Antônio da Platina in Brazil.

According to a video uploaded to YouTube on Feb. 7, spiders appear have taken to dangling from the city's electric lines and other surfaces.

These seem to be fairly large critters, too, plainly visible when the camera is zoomed all the way out, with a rough approximation of size given by nearby transformers on the electric poles.

It isn't immediately clear why these spiders are congregating in such a manner, but it's worth noting several species of arachnid cooperate in colonies and weave (ahem) fairly extensive social networks.

Leticia Avilés, an arachnid expert at the University of British Columbia in Canada, previously told New Scientist that of the estimated 39,000 known species of spider, only 20 or so have been documented to cooperate.

Anelosimus Eximius, one such species of "communal" spider, inhabits tropical environments throughout South America. Scientists have determined that social spiders work in teams to catch much larger prey than otherwise possible.

(h/t Reddit)

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Science Groups Push Obama For Climate Change Summit - Huffington Post

Science Groups Push Obama For Climate Change Summit Huffington Post Look into geoengineering, haarp and chemtrails. widano: Do you know why the climate is changing, or do. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/widano/science-groups-push-obama_n_2647657_228618530.html. History | Permalink | Share it ? photo ... and more

...read more
Source: Chemtrails Feed

'Buckwild': Tyler Has To Eat Raw Deer Meat

The kids of "Buckwild" continued their tradition of presenting things that just aren't seen by most people in everyday life. This week, it was Tyler's Sissonville initiation, and like any initiation into an elite group, there was a difficult challenge to face.

For Tyler, his challenge was to eat raw deer meat. And he was all for it. "Give me a little taste!" he shouted.

Without chewing -- as he was advised not to -- Tyler swallowed the raw meat. Sure, it was disgusting, but he successfully passed the initiation, and that makes it all worth it!

The show is proving a worthy replacement for "Jersey Shore" on MTV, too. The network recently announced that they'd picked up the series for a second season.

For now, continue enjoying Season 1 of "Buckwild" every Thursday at 10 p.m. EST on MTV.

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

“UFO's are REAL!” could be the focus of Disney's upcoming Tomorrowland? - Behind The Thrills (blog)

“UFO's are REAL!” could be the focus of Disney's upcoming Tomorrowland? Behind The Thrills (blog) That was going to be the name of the series, and in it the government would use Disney to tell us about these UFO's. Okay, take a minute to digest all of that. The military, and government of these United States knows that UFO's are real, and are going ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

Andrew J. Lederer: Monopoly: Cat Got Your Iron?

Okay, so now there's a cat instead of an iron. This isn't the first time they've changed the game pieces, though doing so flies in the face of the benefits of a monopoly.

On Monopoly. One of the foundation board games of human experience.

Seems desperate to me, though, this public, "We're changing something and you can help." Must be a function of declining western birth rates. Clearly, we're not increasing the population enough to sell the many games required to keep continued printing viable. But -- as remastered CD packages do -- an altered Monopoly will move bushels of new units to those who already have the hopelessly archaic, now-outmoded versions. How I weep for the familial traditions that prevailed when I was a kid.

Our kaboodle had -- before finally upgrading of necessity -- a passed-down '30s or '40s version of Monopoly, in a small box with a larger board on the outside and wooden houses and etcetera and all that. Which we thought was cool. If we wanted something new, we could get a more modern game, like the futuristic Trouble, where board movement was determined entirely within a domed control city, essentially a brain in a globe, portending what will one day become of us all.

The best of the old and the best of the new, each redolent of its geological epoch. The science-doubting, business first radicals of today simply won't allow it.

But who will be hungry if not hippos?

...read more
Source: Weird News Blog

Most Extreme Celebrity Tour Riders

Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey may be bitter enemies right now, but they can definitely bond over one thing: their crazy tour riders.

Both divas, but certainly not them solely, have bizarre demands whenever they go on tour or are chosen to perform somewhere. Like what? Oh, like 20 white kittens and 100 doves, for example (Ms. Mariah), or buckets of spicy fried chicken -- no thighs, lot of wings (Ms. Minaj).

In light of the recently discovered tour rider of Lady Gaga, which includes one mannequin with puffy pink pubic hair, we decided to go back and check: what are the world's biggest stars' most outrageous demands?

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Flight Attendant Fired For Giving The Middle Finger Is Rehired

The Russian flight attendant who was fired after posting a photo of her flipping the middle finger at a plane full of passengers has been rehired.

Tatiana Kozlenko, a flight attendant for Russia's Aeroflot, has been rehired after her middle-finger photo went viral, a spokesperson for the airline tells The Huffington Post.

"Earlier this week after having examined her multiple requests for re-hiring, our Director General Mr. Vitaly Saveliev decided to take her back," Head of International Relations Alexander Lukashin told HuffPost in an email on Thursday. "We hope our passengers will understand this. Tatiana Kozlenko pleaded guilty and understood that such things are not allowed."

Kozlenko voluntarily resigned from her position as an airline hostess, Lukashin said. Her reinstatement includes a six-month probation period.

"This girl was just in love with the sky," Andrew Sogrin, head of Aeroflot Public Relations, told Russian news agency RIA. She reportedly requested her job back in a letter sent to one of the airline's managers.

Facebook posts have been known to get employees in trouble in the workplace, and one former flight attendant says that Kozlenko should have known better. Photos like the one of Kozlenko flipping the middle finger could damage the reputation of the entire airline.

“Airlines are very strict about their image. It's why most of us don't post photographs of ourselves in uniform on our own personal Facebook pages,” Heather Poole, a veteran flight attendant and author, told NBC News. “One false move and we're gone. Buh-bye. Adios. Sayonara. No one is willing to give up their flight privileges for a few laughs.”

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Scientists Say ETs May Be Much Closer To Us Than We Ever Before Thought

If ET phones home today, his long distance charge might not be as much as people believed when Steven Spielberg's classic film came out three decades ago.

That's because recent data from NASA's Kepler space telescope suggests that billions of Earth-like planets are much closer than ever before imagined.

"The information we presented today will excite the general public because we now know that the nearest potentially Earth-like world is likely within 13 light years of the sun," astronomer aCourtney Dressing said.

While we don't know if intelligent life exists on any of these planets, it raises the chances of that possibility.

"Astronomically speaking, 13 light years is practically next door."

Watch this video about the red dwarf suns and Earth-like planets:

The scientific team studied the huge number of red dwarf stars in our galaxy -- stars that are smaller and have a longer life span than our own sun.

Just doing the math, the odds of Earth-like planets in our galaxy are, well, astronomical.

Scientists estimate 6 percent of the 75 billion red dwarf stars may have Earth-size planets orbiting them at a possible habitable distance. That works out to approximately 4.5 billion Earths out there.

"Before today, it could have been that Earth-like planets did not exist, or that they were so rare that the closest one would be beyond the reach of any telescope we might construct. Thus we would never know whether or not we were truly alone," astronomer David Charbonneau told HuffPost in an email.

Charbonneau, co-author of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics study, acknowledges the intense interest the public has in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

"I would say that the single greatest question in all of science is 'Are we alone?' The announcement today moves the ball downfield significantly toward answering this question.

"In my conversations with people around the world, I have found that this great question provides enormous perspective on our lives, in much the same way that knowing the physical size of the Universe has humbled our view of our place in the cosmos," Charbonneau said.

But even if a planet like Earth is only a stone's throw away, at 13 light years from us, how could we even see it with our current technology?

"Future missions, such as the NASA James Webb Space Telescope (the successor to Hubble) and proposed extremely large ground-based telescopes, like the Giant Magellan Telescope, will be able to probe the atmospheres of nearby habitable planets," Dressing said.

"Those missions will be able to search for biosignatures, like oxygen, and possibly lead to the first announcement of life on another world."

The results of Dressing's and Charbonneau's study will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

...read more
Source: Weird News Feed

Population With Alzheimer's Disease Will Triple by 2050 - Yahoo! News (blog)

Population With Alzheimer's Disease Will Triple by 2050 Yahoo! News (blog) Fred Klinger • 3 mins 20 secs ago. curious how the date 2050 is the target date for the illumaniti to have killed off 80% of the worlds population thru chem-trails, food additives, civil unrest & many more extremes. More. Post a comment ... and more

...read more
Source: Chemtrails Feed

Pondering UFOs and Easter bunnies - Amherst Bulletin

Pondering UFOs and Easter bunnies Amherst Bulletin I was driving with my daughter the other night when I saw something curious fly right over the road near the Amherst landfill on the outskirts of town. “That is one weird plane,” I said, referring to the cargo planes that we see all the time flying ...

...read more
Source: UFO Feed

AlaskaDispatch.com: For Sale: 1970s-Era Igloo Hotel, 200 Miles From Nowhere, Alaska

In a well-traversed but often overlooked corner of the Alaska Highway system sits an irregular structure. As the years cross over its craggy skull, bringing the unrelenting malice of winter weather, the gawking of confused onlookers and the cruelty of vandals and thieves, the melancholy white dome known to many as "Igloo City" persists -- unabated, but with little faith.

Abandoned and neglected, this dilapidated four-story shell sits 180 miles north of Anchorage along the George Parks Highway on the quiet drive to the Interior Alaska city of Fairbanks. The Igloo's nearest neighbor, Cantwell (population 222), has witnessed the Arctic bungalow and its accompanying gas station thrive, dive and slowly age under the elements and the shuttering lenses of passing motorists, during its 40-plus years in existence.

In its infancy, the Igloo was someone's "dream," but due to some missteps in original construction, economic hardship and the rapid increase in fuel prices this Alaskan oddity never realized its original potential.

Brad Fisher, of Fisher's Fuel Inc. in Big Lake, is the current owner of the Igloo, the gas station and the 38 acres they sit on. Unlink most of the Internet's musing on the structure and its "string of owners" Fisher reports that his family is really only the second set of hands the Igloo has passed through.

The End of an Igloo

The Fishers acquired the property from the Smiths, the original owners. To be fair, the Smith patriarch, Leon, had sold the structure three times before, but in all instances he had been forced to reclaim it because the new owners were not making their payments.

According to Fisher, toward the end of Smith's life, as his health was fading and his concern for the security of his wife growing, he came to Fisher and simply told him that he needed to "get rid" of the Igloo.

"He said 'give me an offer,' but we didn't really want to buy it, so I gave him a low price and, after about 20 minutes out in his car, he agreed," Fisher recalled. "I didn't have a use for a property and I remember thinking 'Oh no, that's not really what I wanted to happen!'" Fisher laughed, "But we bought it and put a few generators up there and put in a sewer system. Our plan was just to keep the traffic going for now and make the updates as we went along."

Following the purchase, Fisher employed families to run the gas station and the cabins behind the property and act as Igloo caretakers while he made plans to renovate the building and turn it into a working hotel.

"Basically," Fisher said, "The windows in that place are too small. They weren't put in according to the blue prints, I don't know why ...

Read the complete story only at Alaska Dispatch.

...read more
Source: Weird News Blog

Political Parties and Post Partisan Politics - Good Times

Political Parties and Post Partisan Politics Good Times ... shaking your head that it is only the other side that acts that way needs to bring your head back into the delightfully warm sunlight (while dodging the chemtrails) and realize that your side—whatever it may be—engages in this counterproductive ...

...read more
Source: Chemtrails Feed

Michael Lutin: 2013: The Year of the Black Snake

Anarchy: a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority. A state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority OR utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom... absence of government absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.

The year of the black water snake means there is going to be fire in the water. Geologically, watch and see what happens.

Both in global politics and your personal life, you are likely to see the growing force of anarchy. Everything could be hunkey-dunkey, just as long as you are hip enough to make an effort to understand what true anarchy suggests. Then you will see why the black water snake is an apt image.

By and large, snakes mind their own business and don't usually go looking for trouble. They're pretty in their own zone, unless and until their personal space is invaded or they or their own are threatened.

While snakes protect the environment and help keep the balance of nature, they still give so many people the total creeps with their slithery, slimy, yukky, scaly and totally alien-like bodies and their weird eyes and wicked tongue. Once a long time ago, though, I saw Steve Irwin lie down in front of what he said was the most dangerous serpent in the entire world. It came out of its lair and approached him, virtually nose to nose. When he whispered something like "Hello Beautiful, my you're a pretty one, aren't you?" it crawled back into its hole. And I thought, probably to call up its girlfriend and say, "You will never in a million years guess who almost kissed me!

And so it is in 2013.

Live and let live.

Until a perceived danger of attack. And then watch out.

People everywhere are striving to survive on their own path. Yes, they can be predatory at times, but apart from just going out to "kill what they can eat", they prefer to conduct a live-and-let-live existence.

They (you, me, everyone), are searching for a utopian existence, especially with Uranus squaring Pluto now. It's a life free and apart from any external or intervention. When perceived as a threat to their way of life, even cloaked as protection, people will strike out, liberal and conservative alike. This is obviously playing out in the world as protests and insurrections in every corner of the Earth.

In your personal life, your private personal space is treasured above all things. Any invasion or unwanted or uninvited intervention of any kind can be met with a violent reaction.

The message is this! The year of the black water snake begins with the entrance of Mars into Pisces on Neptune and Chiron.

There is fire in the water.

Unimaginable beauty lies there, juxtaposed to potentially lethal poison. Geologically, the will play out literally.

In your life... what is pure in the water is tainted with contaminants. The trick is to change the water from poison to a healthy potable substance. If you know Frank Herbert's great work, Dune, then
Source: Weird News Blog

Take Home This Human-Faced Dog

It's just one of those things that are like, "Whoa, dude."

Gawker pointed out that Tonik, a poodle-Shih Tzu mix available for adoption from an Indiana animal welfare agency, actually has an "eerily humanoid" face.

Petfinder notes that the dog came to the Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group from a kill shelter in Kentucky. The personable photos were taken by Renny Mills, a professional pet photographer.

In an email to The Huffington Post, Jen Schwartz, the owner of Homeward Bound, said the shelter had recently taken in dogs that required dental work and had illnesses that required expensive treatments.

It's totally horrible that any animals -- whether they have human faces or not -- have to die because nobody wants them. Here's hoping that Tonik finds an awesome home.

For more information about adopting a pet, visit the ASPCA website.

LOOK:

Source: Weird News Feed

UFOs Over Cape Coral, Fla. Are Still Looking For An Explanation - Huffington Post

UFOs Over Cape Coral, Fla. Are Still Looking For An Explanation Huffington Post Theories on what the unusual lights might be range from water reflections in the sky to aliens to another more probable explanation, and one very often mistaken for UFOs: sky lanterns. "We reached out to the MUFON organization, the Mutual UFO Network, ...

Source: UFO Feed

Alexander Spit - A Breathtaking Trip To That Otherside - CMJ

Alexander Spit - A Breathtaking Trip To That Otherside CMJ Over a trembling bass tone, a spaghetti-western horn and the wailing sample of a siren-like singer, Spit shows off the elasticity of his mind on the the album's opening track, “Black Magic On Blue Magic,” when he connects chem-trails, drones and ...

Source: Chemtrails Feed

UFOs Over Florida? - KSEE

UFOs Over Florida? KSEE The Mutual UFO network, which tracks suspicious sightings, says many recent reports could be explained by sky lanterns. The increasingly popular contraption uses hot air to float high into the sky. At Fort Myers' American Discount Firework, store owner ...

Source: UFO Feed

Are Crop Circles More Than Just Modern Pranks? - TIME

Are Crop Circles More Than Just Modern Pranks? TIME A Tasmanian historian used Google Earth images to argue that crop circles, which are often dismissed as jokes taken too far, are not simply a modern hoax, according to the Huffington Post. Many were persuaded that the intriguing circles were nothing ...

Source: Crop Circle Feed

Couple Wins The Lottery - Twice!

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas couple who set out for a day of fishing came home with quite the fish story: Two winning lottery tickets, including a $1 million prize.

The Arkansas Lottery Commission says Stephen and Terri Weaver were on a fishing trip when they stopped to buy the first ticket at T-Ricks convenience store in Pangburn, about 60 miles northeast of Little Rock. They stopped at the same store on their way home and bought another ticket.

That first ticket turned out to be a $1 million winner. And the second one netted the couple another $50,000.

The lottery commission says the Weavers claimed their cash Monday and that they plan to pay bills and invest in their retirement.

Source: Weird News Feed

Art Bell Coming Back? Art Announces a Possible New Show

Ken Layne | January 31st, 2013

In its 1990s prime, the late-night radio show "Coast To Coast AM" was an unscripted audio mix of "Twin Peaks" and "The X-Files." It was corny, uncomfortable, laughable, utterly paranoid, completely of its time, and occasionally terrifying. Because it was broadcast in the middle of the night, if you listened it was generally because you were alone: driving a deserted highway, fighting insomnia, cramming for a test, finishing some code, working a graveyard shift.

A parade of crazies appeared every night, people with no apparent sense of humor, explaining the most obscure and ridiculous theories and conspiracies. And then, because this was also the golden age of weird crap on the early World Wide Web, you could look up these dingbats and discover… oh good god, so "Major Ed Dames" is a real retired military officer who really did "remote viewing" for a secret government project called "Stargate," that's a real thing? This was always the terrifying part about the show: Some of it, maybe all of it, was true.

Behind it all was exactly the kind of person you would avoid in real life: Art Bell, a chain-smoking hermit and deejay with a creepy knowing laugh who worked from a mobile home compound in the high desert near Area 51, which still doesn't officially exist, although the federal government eventually conceded there was something related to defense and/or intelligence at the (dry) Groom Lake section of the Nevada nuclear test site north of Las Vegas. And now, a dozen years since he left the weeknight show for good and made a series of increasingly perplexing retirements/comebacks on the little-heard weekend version of the program, Art Bell has announced (on Facebook) that he's in talks to begin a new radio show, apparently free of the "Coast to Coast AM" corporate overlords at Premiere Radio Networks in Los Angeles. Are the weird times coming back?



It is always vague and mysterious with Art Bell. The man could make anything, including where his cats were hiding in his home studio on any given night, sound like the space monsters had arrived. "Emotional roller coaster" is an overused and hopefully outdated phrase, but it exactly describes the plunge from "Oh for chrissakes, listen to this idiot" to "Lock the doors and turn on all the lights!" that always awaited the Art Bell listener. The transition from voyeuristic hilarity to terror was that quick, and of course that was the reason to keep listening.

Art Bell is tragic proof that fame and fortune certainly don't guarantee a pleasurable life. He first quit the radio show at the height of its popularity, in 1998, reportedly because some local psychopath had sexually assaulted Bell's young son with the stated goal of infecting the child with HIV. In 2006, Bell's third wife died in the couple's RV parked outside a trashy casino-motel in Laughlin, Nevada, the kind of place where you can still find penny slots and half the clientele drag along portable oxygen canisters. He apparently sat around his Mojave desert compound for a while after the death of Ramona Bell, and then decided to move to the Philippines and marry a girl he met over the Internet. He finally came back to Pahrump, Nevada, but immigration problems kept his fourth wife out of the United States for many years. Bell had a full compliment of health problems when he was still in his 40s, including back injuries from falling off a telephone pole, and his lifetime of chain smoking can't be making him feel much better.

And yet, for all of his very public foibles and misfortunes, Bell had the best voice on radio and a master's touch with the callers, guests and soundboard. The show was about suspense, about that one unexpected-yet-expected moment that would scare the listener into another two hours of insomnia, hearing every sound of the house settling as an invasion of sinister entities. To listen during an actual, unfolding freakout was the peak "Coast to Coast with Art Bell" experience: during the 1997 Phoenix Lights incident, for example, as people in Nevada and Arizona called in with eyewitness descriptions of the gigantic black craft moving silently over highways and exurbs, or as a Texan calling from a small plane claims he's flying into Area 51, or the convincingly frantic "former employee" from the fabled Dreamland base with its subterranean halls of escaped interdimensional beings.

The nightly show continues without Bell, and is apparently more popular than ever. In the 21st Century version you can hear tonight, the host is a genial radio veteran named George Noory. Because he's relatively normal sounding on the air, he brings in guest crazies like Alex Jones to yell staged hysterics for a few minutes now and then. I gave up on the show nearly a decade ago—by that point, I only skimmed the podcast while walking the dog in the daytime; sunlight disinfects even the best "Coast to Coast AM" show of its required nocturnal creepiness. When I've tuned in on the occasional late-night drive in recent years, the biggest surprise is how much dumber the callers seem, speaking in stereotypically crypto-racist redneck grammar crashes, regardless of their national point of origin.

If the show still attracts a few stoned college kids, open-minded scientists or sleepy newspaper reporters on the night desk, they aren't being chosen for the open lines. ("East of the Rockies, West of the Rockies," there were special toll-free numbers for everyone, including pop-up numbers for specific classes of paranormal incident, or highway patrol officers who had witnessed a certain type of unidentified flying object.) On the Reddit post dedicated to news of Bell's latest return, the comments are mostly along the lines of "Noory phones it in from the land of mediocrity."

While the Art Bell show followed a compelling mythological arc that nearly corresponded to the fictional (?) "mytharc" of "The X-Files," Noory's show is a grab bag that reflects the growing idiocy of both America's working class and the aural clown assault of talk radio in general. The 1990s program was amazingly apolitical—of course they were up to no good, or making treaties with the aliens, or whatever sinister plot. But they included Republicans and Democrats, Reagan and Clinton, the U.N. and the Nazis, the reptilian aliens and the gray aliens. We weren't quite to the point where every American awake after midnight on a weekday was an absolute psychopath with a hundred guns under their bed. Art Bell routinely made climate change and global warming the topic of his nightly show, in a time before the fossil fuel industry had created the "climate hoax" meme that may be the final cosmic joke on humanity. Despite Noory's calm demeanor and attempts to steer his guests and listeners away from the mouth-breathing constants of daytime AM, the show suffers both from Noory's sleepy acquiescence to the least entertaining claims and the general lack of imagination and wingnuttery of the other participants.

Art Bell already sounded old-fashioned in the 1990s, with his delightfully square bumper music—"Dancing Queen" by ABBA was a perennial fade-in from the ABC news on the hour and advertorial spots featuring Bell praising a sponsor's brand of tabletop radio. It's tough to imagine how he'd sound any more current in the second decade of the 21st Century. Radio itself has changed to the point that the only likely listeners are people with no other options: no iPhone, no Pandora or Spotify, no choice but to work a loading dock or security booth until dawn, no one to love or sleep next to, in the sad American night.

The cultural attraction of a return to Art Bell's inimitable live radio broadcast is the chance for a revival of the medium itself. Since he vanished from the nightly airwaves, a whole generation has grown up and become pointlessly addicted to Twitter and Snapchat and Vine and whatever approximation of live radio currently occupies people and their iOS devices. If they've come across AM radio at all, they know it as the home of hysterical low-income whites obsessed with a fantasy socialism that might make their lives less of a constant struggle, if it was a little bit more real. Art Bell was the standard-issue late-night soundtrack for young hackers of the 1990s, as this remembrance of Aaron Swartz makes clear. People hungry for "Weird Twitter" could do worse than to sit in their car at 2 a.m. listening to the now-67-year-old Art Bell scare the living crap out of them.

This story was originally posted at http://www.theawl.com Go check them out!