The night after I learned my father was missing, my 4-year-old son, Jake, had a nightmare. I didn't know yet that my father had been robbed and stabbed, left to die on the banks of the Hudson by a couple of teenagers. It would be almost three days before his body was found in the rain, curled onto its side, covered in dirt and blood. People say that children are intuitive and that they know when something's up, and I'm sure they're right. But we were careful and we didn't let on. We kept the truth from our kids because we didn't know what the truth would turn out to be. I may have been snappish and tense, but I never hinted it had anything to do with their grandfather...
It may hit Earth...but don't worry, we've got a plan
A £150 MILLION space mission should be launched to deflect an asteroid which is set to pass dangerously close to Earth, experts warned yesterday. The call for action to protect the world from Apophis - named after the Egyptian god of destruction - came from a coalition of astronauts, engineers and scientists with close links to US space agency NASA. Scientists have estimated the asteroid has a one-in-45,000 chance of striking Earth on 13 April, 2036. Travelling at 28,000mph it could release 80,000 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb...
Ghost hunt chance at museum
Following the blockbuster film Night at the Museum, Portsmouth Museums and Records office is opening its doors in the dead of night. Starting with scary tours for families around the museum from 7pm, a few people will get the chance to spend an entire night inside the building on a ghost hunt. Small groups will be taken around by the night watchman to lock up various exhibits around the museum...
Priest jailed for exorcism death
A Romanian priest has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils. Irina Cornici, 23, died after being starved and chained to a cross at a secluded convent in the north-east. The ritual in 2005 was led by Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 31, the priest at the Holy Trinity convent in Tanacu village...
(Also read: "The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel")
Have you heard about B flat?
For reasons that remain mostly mysterious, the note we call B flat does the oddest things. Here are a few of them...
http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2059359&SectionID=455
Cryptids at Mardi Gras
The Krewe of Proteus paraded last night (Lundi Gras) here in New Orleans with the theme "Legends and Lore of the Deep." Most of the floats were about ancient or at least centuries-old legends or myths. But a few more recent legends were represented from the realm of cryptozoology. I'm also putting in some of the niftier non-cryptid images...
Tiny frog in amber may be 25M years old
A miner in the state of Chiapas found a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for 25 million years, a researcher said. If authenticated, the preserved frog would be the first of its kind found in Mexico, according to David Grimaldi, a biologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the find...
Dead for a year
Southampton police responding to burst water pipes in a Hampton Bays home found the mummified body of the owner - dead for more than a year - sitting in a chair in front of a television, officials said Friday. The television was still on...
The mysterious case of Columbus's silver ore
Silver-bearing ore found at the settlement founded by Christopher Columbus's second expedition was not mined in the Americas, new research reveals. The ore that researchers excavated from the settlement, La Isabela, came from Spain, said Alyson Thibodeau, who analyzed the ores...
My seven spirit guides
"How I came to know my spirit guides is a long story. But before I relate it here, let us first understand and define the words we are using. What, in the first place, are spirit guides? How do they differ from angels, or are they the same? The way I understand it, an angel is a pure spirit that has never been human. According to Christian teaching, there are several types and hierarchies of angels and they are called by different names..."
(Also read: "Do You Have a Guardian Angel?")
