Tuesday, November 30, 2010

An experiment in dog telepathy, circa 1920 

With doggone awesome pic.

posted by Prof. Hex at 3:44 PM

Barcelona Spain's Giant Winged Cryptid 

The twentieth anniversary of an unusual and highly original case within Spanish cryptozoology took place a few months ago. In June 1990, a giant bird decided to frighten—with its imposing presence and unpleasant crowing—a sizeable number of Barcelona’s residents.

posted by Prof. Hex at 3:12 PM

Sharing the woods with creatures that go bump in the night 

ChrisChris was my backyard neighbor when I was growing up in Burlington.

Actually, he didn’t live in my backyard, but somewhere in the woods that stretched beyond my neighborhood out to Haw River. ChrisChris was Alamance County’s version of BigFoot.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:52 PM

Weird Roadside Attractions 

Giant dinosaurs, houses filled with dolls and puppets, museums of the weird: America's most interesting roadside attractions are often overlooked, occasionally maligned, and usually hidden away from more heavily traveled areas.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:48 PM

Awesome or Off-Putting: The Green Clawed Beast 

Every now and then, though, stories of a lizard man encounter creep up and make us swear off murky-water swims for the rest of our lives. Such is the case of the Green Clawed Beast.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:46 PM

Monday, November 29, 2010

CIA implanted electrodes in brains of unsuspecting soldiers, suit alleges 

A group of military veterans are suing to get the CIA to come clean about allegedly implanting remote control devices in their brains.

posted by Prof. Hex at 12:08 PM

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Putting a Hex on Hitler, 1941 

"On the wet windy evening of January 22, a youthful band of idealists went to a lonely cabin in the Maryland woods." Thus begins one of the odder stories LIFE magazine ever published -- a straightforward, tongue-nowhere-near-cheek account of a 1941 "hex party" convened with one aim in mind: "to kill Adolf Hitler by voodoo incantation."

posted by Prof. Hex at 12:34 AM

Friday, November 26, 2010

How trees that glow like fireflies could one day replace our streetlights 

A team of researchers are experimenting with genes to allow the trait that causes fireflies to glow -bioluminescence - to be implanted into a variety of different organisms.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:03 PM

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Pulp Primer, Pt. 2 

In the second of historian Jess Nevins' series on science fiction pulps, he takes us through the Golden Age of science fiction, from the late 1930s through the "last efflorescence of the pulps" in the mid-1950s.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:59 PM

Why is Cthulhu on this 300-year-old gravestone? 

The Reverend Ichabod Wiswall (1637-1700) is a historical footnote. When he's remembered, it's for giving the first funeral sermon in America, in Duxbury, Massachusetts. So why is there a Lovecraftian cephalopod on his gravestone?

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:58 PM

Reasonable doubt in the Chandra Levy case 

How reliable is the conviction of Ingmar Guandique for the 2001 murder, when the key evidence is a disputed prison confession?

posted by Prof. Hex at 5:50 PM

Thursday, November 25, 2010

African-American workers were key to Atlantic City's success, new book argues 

A little something for you Boardwalk Empire fans.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:29 AM

Do-it-yourself Tasers are a real shocker 

Home-made stun guns crudely built from disposable cameras using instructions from the internet have hit the streets of Sydney.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:25 AM

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Stonehenge builders familiar with ball bearing technology 

The same technique that allows vehicles and machinery to run smoothly today could have been used to transport the monument's massive standing stones more than 4,000 years ago, says a new theory.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:07 AM

Local people think hair of unidentified creature could be from "Wild Man" 

The Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province has examined a strand of hair which it has not managed to identify, prompting local people to speculate that it may belong to the "Wild Man" – China's own Bigfoot.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:05 AM

Secret chamber in National Library 

National Library has always been reputed to haunted. Now, here is a really eerie secret. A mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old building a room that no one knew about and no one can enter because it seems to have no opening of kind, not even trapdoors.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:53 AM

New Sutton Hoo photographs unearthed 

Inside these unprepossessing packages were a photographic treasure trove which sheds new light on the discovery and the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:13 AM

When Truth Is Scarier Than Fiction 

It sounds like a crazy conspiracy -- too extreme to be true. Flaming tap water, dead animals, secret chemical formulas, mysterious illnesses afflicting whole communities, and people afraid to speak up.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:11 AM

Cyberthieves use human money mules for risky work 

Sitting at a computer somewhere overseas in January 2009, computer hackers went phishing.

Within minutes of casting their electronic bait they caught what they were looking for: A small Michigan company where an employee unwittingly clicked on an official-looking e-mail that secretly gave cyberthieves the keys to the firm's bank account.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:32 AM

Spirited Welcome For Conan Doyle 

In 1923, a veteran Montreal journalist and his wife were apparently plagued by an evil spirit. They claimed to be a victim of a poltergeist, a mischievous ghost that played with an old set of child's blocks and left strange messages on random pieces of paper in their house.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:24 AM

1,700 year mystery into death of Egyptian child mummy is re-opened 

Historians are probing a 1,700-year-old mystery after scans revealed that an ancient Egyptian mummy could have been murdered.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:11 AM

Amateur Cryptographers Go Gaga Over New Kryptos Clue: B-E-R-L-I-N 

To mark the 20th anniversary of his “Kryptos” sculpture, and its lingering mystery, sculptor Jim Sandborn has released a clue to deciphering the message engraved on the statue.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:10 AM

Friday, November 19, 2010

Grandma's Superhero Therapy 

A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn't stop smiling.


Awesome. Via Fark.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:25 AM

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Our Valued Customers 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work at a comic book store? Well, wonder no more!

Very funny.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:51 AM

Hitler's secret flying saucer: Did Fuhrer plan UFO attack on London and NY? 

As Hitler's armies began to crumble on fronts as far apart as Stalingrad and North Africa, he turned in increasing desperation to his scientists to create a war-winning super-weapon.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:23 AM

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Who is the 'Merchant of Death?' 

He's known as the "Merchant of Death" and the "Lord of War," -- an alleged international arms dealer straight out of a cloak-and-dagger spy novel who eluded authorities for years and inspired Hollywood villains.


Understatement of the week: At one point, the State and Treasury departments were going after Bout while the Department of Defense continued to pay him. "It was one of those contradictory situations," Farah said.

posted by Prof. Hex at 11:21 PM

DNA shows nurse was mom of mummified infants in LA 

The work began last August when two women cleaning the basement of the apartment building near downtown found the long-discarded trunk and what initially appeared to be its treasure trove of 1930s-era memorabilia.

There were books, antiques, an iron, girdle, nurse's uniform, letters and postcards - and the bodies of the two babies.

posted by Prof. Hex at 10:40 PM

Mystery surrounds Trinidad school 'devil attack' 

Mystery still surrounded an alleged demonic attack at a Trinidad high school today after students fell ill and began rolling on the ground, blabbering in a strange tongue.

posted by Prof. Hex at 10:14 PM

Not sci-fi anymore: experts find way to hold antimatter 

Antimatter fuelled the Starship Enterprise to go where no man had gone before, but in reality it remained strictly in the realm of science fiction.

Until now.

posted by Prof. Hex at 9:44 PM

Six Of The Most Widely-Believed Alien Conspiracy Theories 

Want an alien conspiracy with some meat on its bones (or exoskeleton, as the case may be)? Here are six of the greatest real-life alien conspiracy theories.

posted by Prof. Hex at 9:40 PM

Fort Myers murder mystery: 8 skeletal remains, who killed them? 

The largest excavation of human remains in Florida history happened in the brush off Arcadia Street in Fort Myers three years ago.

posted by Prof. Hex at 9:36 PM

The truth is out there: UFO hunter Werner Walter 

'Help, I've just seen a UFO!'

posted by Prof. Hex at 9:33 PM

Ronni Chasen’s Killing a Mystery 

Left with more questions than answers a day after a well-known movie publicist was shot to death on a winding side street here, a stunned Hollywood started scripting possible scenarios of its own.

posted by Prof. Hex at 9:24 PM

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Drug expert told police Iraq whistleblower David Kelly was ‘murdered’ 

The death of Dr. David Kelly, a former weapons inspector in Iraq, was "murder" and not suicide, according to a drug expert who spoke with British authorities during the ensuing investigation.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:19 PM

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Mystery 'missile' launch near L.A. no threat to national security, government officials say 

Move along, citizen.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:20 PM

Bhootbilli, India’s Ghost Cat, Strikes Again 

A “weird, scary creature” has been giving residents of Sanjay Park area sleepless nights.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:19 PM

Monday, November 08, 2010

Creatures of the Woods 

Holland would later explain that the creature looked like a strange combination of ape, dog, lion and rhinoceros.

What lurks in Rendlesham Forest?

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:36 PM

Weird, Wicked Weird: The occult. Witchcraft. Demonlogy. Library books that grow legs 

If Professor Hex was a library book it would have been stolen a long time ago.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:22 PM

1572 parish church found 

What they found was solid evidence of a church dating from 1572 -- evidence of the location of the first parish church of St. Augustine.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:14 PM

Researchers look for China's Roman links 

Researchers from China and abroad are once again teaming up in an effort to solve a decades-old mystery over whether hundreds of blue-eyed residents from a village in Northwest China's Gansu Province could be the descendants of Roman soldiers.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:12 PM

Three Crosses at Czech-German Borders 

There is an area in the Czech Republic called Trojmezi, meaning "Three Borders", which is an ideal place for mystery seekers.

posted by Prof. Hex at 8:09 PM

Skeleton discovered in ghost town, reappears in Kemmerer 

“This man wasn’t buried,” Richins said. “He was found in an old underground structure that had been used to hold ice in the ice cream parlor in the ghost town of Sublette.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:29 PM

Mysterious booms rock N.C. coast 

The skyquakes are back.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:05 PM

Mystery, debate still surround sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald 

The Edmund Fitzgerald's wreckage sits 530 feet below Lake Superior's surface. There are two large, intact sections at either end, but the middle was broken into pieces. The ship sank during a storm about 17 miles from Whitefish Point.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:05 PM

Trew: Did lost colony in the Okla. Panhandle exist? 

Maybe.

posted by Prof. Hex at 5:45 PM

The Case of the Vanishing Blonde 

After a woman living in a hotel in Florida was raped, viciously beaten, and left for dead near the Everglades in 2005, the police investigation quickly went cold. But when the victim sued the Airport Regency, the hotel’s private detective, Ken Brennan, became obsessed with the case: how had the 21-year-old blonde disappeared from her room, unseen by security cameras?

posted by Prof. Hex at 5:44 PM

Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, British Museum, review 

A new show at the British Museum brings us face to face with our darkest imaginings.

posted by Prof. Hex at 5:12 PM

UFO in the sky over Isle of Arran Scotland? 

With pics.

posted by Prof. Hex at 5:09 PM

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Is Death the End? Experiments Suggest You Create Time 

We watch our loved ones age and die, and we assume that an external entity called time is responsible for the crime. But experiments increasingly cast doubt on the existence of time as we know it.

posted by Prof. Hex at 6:25 PM

Friday, November 05, 2010

'I solved the Bermuda Triangle mystery' 

Whether it’s magnetic anomalies, downed spaceships or the remnants of intense energy crystals from a forgotten underwater city, the legendary theories behind the Bermuda triangle have rarely held much water.

posted by Prof. Hex at 4:17 PM

In Hawaii, searching for the secrets of the temple 

From a distance, the heiau ("hey ow") looks like not much more than a black wall about five stories high. But up close, I can see the details of how it was constructed centuries ago, the large, porous lava stones meticulously fitted together without mortar, like a giant 3-D puzzle.

With good slideshow.

posted by Prof. Hex at 4:07 PM

New theories surface on decades-old Indiana Dunes cold case 

Three young women disappeared off an Indiana Dunes Beach into Lake Michigan on a Fourth of July weekend more than 40 years ago.

With video.

posted by Prof. Hex at 4:03 PM

He might have a tiger by the pelt 

Man thinks he has a skin of extinct Tasmanian tiger.

posted by Prof. Hex at 3:06 PM

Chupacabra Monster May Be Mitey-er Than First Imagined 

Some researchers now believe the mysterious four-legged killer and livestock blood sucker may, in fact, be coyotes infected by tiny, eight-legged parasites, or mites.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:48 PM

Owls in danger due to superstitions, illegal trade: Report 

Owls are in serious danger in India due to rampant illegal trade in living specimens and their body parts that are falsely considered to have medicinal and occult healing properties, according to a recent wildlife report.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:46 PM

'The Book of English Magic' Reveals the Real Middle Earth 

Philip Carr-Gomm, a leader in The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, joins Sir Richard Heygate, a documentarian and author who studies “alternative worlds”, to offer this accessible history, guidebook, and how-to compendium.

Looks worthwhile.

posted by Prof. Hex at 2:46 PM

The curious case of shrinking genitalia 

Mass panic at labour camp in Goregaon as twenty five men suffer from 'retracting' genitalia.

posted by Prof. Hex at 1:25 PM

Amanda Knox Marks Third Anniversary of Her Imprisonment 

Amanda Knox marks a grim milestone today, the third full year of living in a prison cell.

posted by Prof. Hex at 1:24 PM

Mystery surrounds silver coin struck by Roman forger 

A Roman coin discovered by a cleaner from Brighton was struck at the time of Christ by a "Del Boy" forger who could not spell and did not know one emperor from another, it has been claimed.

posted by Prof. Hex at 1:35 AM

Photographic Evidence Proves That Squid Can Fly 

Once, while boating off the coast of Jamaica in 2001, marine biologist Silvia Maciá and her husband caught a glimpse of an oddly familiar creature leaping from the waves, soaring with ease over the surface of the ocean.

posted by Prof. Hex at 1:15 AM

Where did science fiction come from? A primer on the pulps. 

Pulp historian Jess Nevins, author of Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, takes you deep into the weird history of the scifi pulps, 1900-1950. Get ready for amazing science and astounding adventure!

posted by Prof. Hex at 12:26 AM

West Memphis 3 granted a rare new evidence hearing 

The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a lower court yesterday to consider new evidence in the case of the the West Memphis 3 as the men are often called, to determine whether three men should receive a new trial, the Arkansas Times reported.

posted by Prof. Hex at 12:08 AM

Exclusive: Man in disguise boards international flight 

With freaky pic.

posted by Prof. Hex at 12:02 AM

Vatican warns of 'wayward' Opus Angelorum sect 

The Vatican has warned Catholic bishops around the world to monitor carefully a secretive traditionalist sect which prays to angels to combat demons.

posted by Prof. Hex at 12:01 AM

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Rediscovered walls protected Sphinx from winds, sand 

"In the king's dream the Sphinx asked the king to move the sand away from his body because it choked him."

posted by Prof. Hex at 10:37 PM

Artificial mound protected Britain for thousands of years 

Whatever the original intentions of its Neolithic builders, the Anglo-Saxons were able to make great use of it in the Medieval period, around the year 1,000. Leary says there's clear evidence of modifications from this relatively recent period that turned Silbury Hill into a defensive structure, most likely in response to Viking invasions that could make use of a nearby Roman road.

posted by Prof. Hex at 10:29 PM

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Missing 16-Year-Old's Parents Fear Girl In Vampire Cult 

In an unusual story about three missing kids, CBS Atlanta has learned three Cobb County students all disappeared within a few days of each other.

posted by Prof. Hex at 7:42 AM