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Post by Joanna on Apr 1, 2015 23:24:24 GMT -5
Durst Suspected in 1971 Disappearance of Vermont Girl In the wake of Robert Durst’s March 14 arrest for the murder of Susan Berman in 2000, several law enforcement agencies have taken a closer look at the 71-year-old millionaire, including the one in Middlebury, Vermont. The 1971 disappearance of college student Lynne Schulze (above) has mystified authorities in the small town of Middlebury for more than four decades. On December 10, 1971, Schulze, 18, vanished without a trace. In the hours before she disappeared, she bought dried prunes at All Good Things, a local health store. The 5-foot-3, 115-pound brunette was last seen across the street from the shop.
Then, in 2012, a source called police with a fascinating tip: Durst had owned All Good Things at the time Schulze vanished. (The store shares the name of the 2010 fictionalized movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristen Durst, based on the disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen.)
Still, evidence in the 43-year-old mystery is hard to come by. “We know that Lynne shopped at the store that was owned by Robert Durst on the day she disappeared,” Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said in a press conference. “He is a person who had some proximate connection with someone who is missing. We can assume at this point there was some wrongdoing involved, potentially a homicide.”
Friends of Schulze don’t know what to think. Source: Steve Helling, People, April 1, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 31, 2015 21:49:01 GMT -5
Thousand-Year-Old Salve Kills Antibiotic-Resistant BacteriaA 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon “eye salve” made from onion, garlic, wine and oxgall (bile from bovine gallbladder) has been demonstrated to wipe out 90 percent of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA. And it works better modern antibiotics in both lab and mouse models.
The 9th Century “eye salve” recipe was originally found in Bald’s Leechbook – an old English manuscript held by the British Library. It was translated from ancient Anglo-Saxon by researchers at the University of Nottingham in the hopes of finding new solutions to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance – which a recent report has predicted will kill 300 million people by 2050. But the team wasn't expecting to find anything so potent. "We did not see this coming at all," said microbiologist Freya Harrison, the lead researcher, in the press video below. "We thought that Bald’s eye salve might show a small amount of antibiotic activity. ... But we were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was," she added in a press release.
To find out whether the ancient eye salve worked, the researchers made the recipe as faithfully as possible – even using wine from a vineyard that existed back in the 9th Century – and then tested it against large MRSA cultures in the lab. Each individual ingredient was also tested on its own against the superbugs, as well as a control solution. Incredibly, the eye salve killed up to 90 percent of MRSA bacteria, but only when all the ingredients were used together.
The team then went on to test the salve on biofilms of MRSA – sticky colonies of bacteria that are notoriously difficult for antibiotics to penetrate, and which pose a particular problem with hospital equipment. The results were the same.
The next step was to ship the eye salve off to the United States where it was tested on in vivo mouse wounds as a topical treatment. Again, it wiped out most of the MRSA cells after just 24 hours and was more efficient than modern antibiotics. "I still can't quite believe how well this 1,000-year-old antibiotic actually seems to be working," said Harrison in the release. "We tested it in difficult conditions too."
The team presented their findings at the Annual Conference of the Society for General Microbiology, in Birmingham (England) Monday. However they're still not sure exactly how the remedy works and finding that out will be the next step.
Keen to try the Bald’s eye salve? You can make your own topical treatment by following the recipe, kindly translated by the BBC, below:
• Equal amounts of garlic and another allium (onion or leek), finely chopped and crushed in a mortar for two minutes.
• Add 87 oz. of English wine – in this case taken from a historic vineyard near Glastonbury.
• Dissolve bovine salts in distilled water, add and then keep chilled for nine days at 39° F. before straining through a cloth to remove particulates.Source: Fiona MacDonald, ScienceAlert, March 31, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 31, 2015 21:36:49 GMT -5
Vampires in New OrleansVampires walk among us. But these people aren’t the stuff of nightmares – far from it actually. Just sit down for a drink with one of them and ask for yourself. That’s if you can find one. They aren’t necessarily looking to be found.
I’ve spent five years conducting ethnographic studies of the real vampires in New Orleans and Buffalo. They are not easy to find, but when you do track them down, they can be quite friendly. “Real vampires” is the collective term by which these people are known. They’re not “real” in the sense they turn into bats and live forever, but many do sport fangs and just as many live a primarily nocturnal existence. These are just some of the cultural markers real vampires adopt to express a shared (and, according to them, biological) essence – they need blood (human or animal) or psychic energy from donors in order to feel healthy. Their self-described nature begins to manifest around, or just after, puberty. It derives, according to the “vampires,” from the lack of subtle energies their bodies produce – energies other people take for granted. That’s the general consensus anyway. It’s a condition they claim to be incapable of changing. So, they embrace it.
The real vampire community, like the legendary figure it emulates, knows few national boundaries, from Russia and South Africa to England and the United States. Particularly in the Internet age, vampires are often well-attuned to community issues. This is true for some more than others though. I found the vampires of Buffalo keen to keep up to date with the global community, while those in New Orleans were often more interested in the activities of their local vampire houses (an affiliated group of vampires usually led by a vampire elder who helps his or her house members acclimate to their vampiric natures). Some houses, and, indeed, entire vampire communities – as in the case of New Orleans – will combine their efforts to organize charity events, like feeding (not feeding on) the homeless. However, despite their humanitarian efforts, real vampires don’t go around advertising who they are for fear of discrimination by people who simply don’t understand them.
Some semblance of the real vampire community has existed since at least the early to mid-1970s, but my own dealings with real vampires began in 2009 when I entered the New Orleans community clinging to my digital voice recorder. I eventually met around 35 real vampires there, but the total number in New Orleans is easily double that. They ranged in age from 18 to 50 and represented both genders equally. They practiced sanguinarian (blood) and psychic feeding – taking energy – using, for example, the mind or hands.
Blood is generally described by my study participants as tasting metallic, or “coppery” but can also be influenced by the donor’s physiology, or even how well he or she is hydrated. Some psychic vampires use tantric feeding, i.e., through erotic or sexual encounters, while others use what could be described as astral feeding, or feeding on another from afar. Others feed through emotion. Afterwards, blood-drinking and psychic vampires feel energized, or at least better than they would have had they sustained themselves on regular food alone such as fruits, fish and vegetables (which they also eat). These vampires described themselves as atheistic, monotheistic or polytheistic and identified themselves as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual. Some were married, some were divorced and some were parents.
Unquestionably, I found the vampires I met to be competent and generally outwardly “normal” citizens. They performed blood-letting rituals safely and with willing donors only and participated regularly in medical exams that scarcely (if ever) indicated complications as a result of their feeding practices.
Tales of the unexpected. What was perhaps most surprising about the vampires I met though was their marked lack of knowledge about vampires in popular culture. They seemed to know much less than one might expect – at least for vampires – about how their kind are depicted in books and films. By this I mean the people I met and interviewed had not turned to drinking blood or taking psychic energy simply because they had read too many Anne Rice novels. In fact, the real vampire community in general seems to have appropriated very few of the trappings mainstream culture attaches to creatures of the night. Many do dress in gothic attire, but certainly not all the time, and very, very few sleep in coffins. In fact, those vampires who dress a certain way or wear fangs do so long after realizing their desire to take blood. This is what might be called a “defiant culture.” Real vampires embrace their instinctual need to feed on blood or energy and use what mainstream culture sees as a negative, deviant figure such as the vampire to achieve a sense of self-empowerment. They identify others with a similar need and have produced a community based on that need.
But real vampires can also help us understand, and perhaps even shed, some of the ideological baggage each of us carries. They show us how repressive and oppressive categories can lead to marginalization. Through them, we see the dark side of ourselves. More generally, this community demonstrates that being different doesn’t necessarily force a person into the margins of society. Real vampires can and do exist in both “normal” society and their own communities, and that’s okay.Source: John Edgar Browning, The Conversation, Georgie Institute of Technology, March 25, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 30, 2015 1:15:19 GMT -5
The Haunted House Restaurant to Be Auctioned April 16OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Tucked inside the register, Marian Thibault keeps a handwritten list of the famous people who have dined at The Haunted House restaurant over the 51 years she has run the place. “Bob Hope, Liberace, ‘Hoss’ from Bonanza, Sarah Ferguson, Lauren Bacall,” Thibault reads in a German-accented deadpan from the list, scribbled in faded ballpoint pen. “And the Bee Gees, whoever they are. ... Foreigner, I guess that’s a rock and roll band or something.”
At 89-years-old, Thibault’s health is failing, and she’s ready to leave her perch not far from the bar, but she would like to see the restaurant continue to serve customers. Thibault hopes to sell The Haunted House to a new proprietor at auction April 16, 2015, at Dakil Auctioneers Inc., 200 N.W. 114th Street. “I hope to sell it to someone who loves the restaurant business,” Thibault said. “This place has been my life for more than 50 years.”
Thibault and her late husband, Arthur Thibault, opened The Haunted House restaurant in 1964, which then sat not far off the old Route 66 highway. There were no credit cards when the restaurant debuted and for decades, the Thibaults mailed bills to many patrons. “It was a restaurant that really catered to the legislators at the Capitol,” said Thibault’s son, Pete Holcomb. “It was all charge accounts and they would just send out statements to people every month.”
Pete and his sister, Karen Holcomb, began working in the back of the restaurant when they were still children and still help their mother run the place. “I remember all of the people who would come and it was like they were visiting our house,” Karen related. “It was a fun place, and work should be fun.”
The Thibaults almost never advertised the restaurant, relying mostly on word of mouth and repeat customers for their business, Pete added. “It’s one of the best unknown landmarks in Oklahoma City – if you ask 10 people, most have never heard of it.”
The Haunted House, which specializes in steak, sits at the end of a narrow road on 2.45-acres of wooded land at 7101 Miramar, near N.E. 63rd Street and N. Eastern. Tacked to a tree on a sharp curve in the road, a piece of metal no bigger than an envelope is the only directional signage.
The gabled, flagstone restaurant, built in 1935 by automobile dealer Martin Carriker, featured flashy amenities for its time that included a wet bar in the basement, gas fireplace and three-car garage. On June 1, 1963, 74-year-old Carriker was shot in the head, allegedly by his stepdaughter and two handymen. Before his stepdaughter was tried for the murder, her mother died and then she, after her acquittal, died of an apparent drug overdose in January 1964.
The restaurant has always celebrated its spooky atmosphere. A stack of pamphlets at the register tells the story of the Carriker deaths. And yet Thibault does not believe in ghosts. “If there are spirits here, they are happy because there’s a big bar,” Thibault said.Source: Brianna Bailey, NewsOK, March 28, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 28, 2015 1:56:21 GMT -5
Judge Discusses Robert Durst - (Audio)Mystery and a series of mysterious deaths seem to surround real estate heir Robert Durst. Seventy-one year old Durst was arrested March 14, 2015, in New Orleans and now faces capital murder charges related to the 2000 execution-style killing of longtime friend Susan Berman, filed by authorities in Los Angeles.
Judge Jeanine Pirro opened an investigation in 2000, while holding the post of Westchester County (New York) District Attorney, into the disappearance of Robert Durst’s first wife, Kathleen – who had gone missing in 1982. Berman was killed – just as Pirro was seeking to interview her in regards to the disappearance of Kathleen.
But this isn’t the first time that prosecutors have charged Durst with Murder. In 2001, Durst’s former neighbor in Galveston, Texas, – Morris Black was shot to death – Black’s dismembered body found headless floating in Galveston Bay. Durst was tried and acquitted in that case – after admitting cutting Black into pieces and disposing of the body – claiming self-defense while the two were fighting over a gun.
In the final scene of the HBO docu-series about his life The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, Durst was heard making the off-camera statements, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
Durst denies involvement in the disappearance of his first wife and Berman’s murder.
Judge Pirro sits down to spend a few moments with FOX News Radio’s Eben Brown to talk about the case. Listen to the interview here:radio.foxnews.com/2015/03/27/afmw-judge-jeanine-pirro-the-mystery-of-robert-durst/
Source: FOX News, March 27, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 28, 2015 1:42:46 GMT -5
Woe Be to Those Who Disrespect Robert the DollKEY WEST, Fla. – The large handmade doll sits in a locked plexiglass case at the Fort East Martello Museum. But is the secured case a protection for the one-of-a-kind doll? Or is it for the safety of visitors to this Key West attraction? After all, this unusual figure dressed in a sailor suit is not an ordinary toy. Known as "Robert the Doll," the century-old figure is said to be haunted and able to cast spells on those who cross his path. "There are people who are afraid of Robert," said Cori Convertito, museum curator. "We don't make our staff go around him if they don't want to."
Not to offend him, but I had never heard of Robert before I visited Key West. It was a strange window of time when I arrived at the Key West International Airport almost two hours before my flight, noted the easy security line and saw the museum alongside the airport. I love museums and thought I would take a quick look inside. Despite its somewhat crumbling exterior, the museum is an unexpected gem. "We have a lot of visitors who walk over from the airport when their flight is delayed or they have extra time," Convertito said. "They are often surprised at what they find at the museum." Built in 1862, Fort East Martello was constructed during the Civil. but it never experienced a hostile assault," Convertito said. Once the war was over, Fort East Martello was abandoned. In 1950, the Key West Art & Historical Society saw the potential for the unfinished fort to become a museum.
Haunting tale. While the museum has interesting exhibits on Key West military history, art and local industries, it is Robert the Doll who initially draws most visitors. So popular is he that Robert even has his own Facebook page. "We get letters almost every day addressed to Robert. We get emails for Robert from people as well, especially from overseas and from younger kids," Convertito said. Robert's exhibit space was crammed with letters when I visited. Most of the letters were asking for forgiveness, imploring Robert to remove the curse he must have placed on the unhappy letter writer.
So, to start at the beginning. Robert was "born" October 25, 1904, as a fourth birthday gift for Robert Eugene Otto. Stuffed with wood wool with shoe button eyes, the 40-inch doll was said to have been created by a Bahamian servant skilled in black magic and voodoo. The birthday boy loved his little buddy, proclaiming that henceforth, the doll's name would be Robert and he himself would now go by the name Gene. The two became inseparable. Gene's parents would hear boy and doll talking and swore the other voice in the conversation was definitely not that of their son. Sometimes, they said, the doll would emit a terrifying giggle. Neighbors said they saw the doll move from window to window in the house when the family was out. Whenever anything was broken or mischief was afoot, Gene always proclaimed, "Robert did it!"
So it went throughout Gene's childhood. But little boys, unlike dolls, grow up. Gene went off to school to develop his budding artistic talents while Robert was relegated to the attic. In Paris, Gene met his wife Annette Parker and the two married May 3, 1930, and moved to New York. All went well until Gene's mother became ill and he and Annette returned to Key West. Annette didn't like the isolation of Key West and was upset when Gene dragged out his childhood doll. Annette hated Robert and thought her husband's personality change was related to the spooky toy. When Gene died in 1974, his widow stuffed the doll into a trunk and banished him back to the attic. There he remained – or did he? – until he was donated to the Fort East Martello Museum in 1994.
Sitting on a doll-size wooden chair in his display case, Robert is holding a wide-eyed stuffed lion named “Leo” on his lap. Supposedly, Leo joined Robert during a bizarre adventure when the lion mysteriously moved from a nearby display to Robert's lap. Was Robert lonely and seeking a pet of his own? Museum keepers didn't know, but they let Robert keep the lion
According to legend, Robert does not like to have his photograph taken without first being asked and woe to those who do. "You have to ask Robert permission to take a photo," Carlitto said. "And if you don't, you will have bad luck." It has been said that Robert often exacts his vengeance by breaking cell phones and cameras. Photos have disappeared from digital cameras and there are letters attached to his plexiglass case attesting to this and many other things that have happened because people failed to extend Robert the courtesy he believes himself due.
"I ask that you please extinguish your grip on my life so that I may find some peace ... I feel now that there are forces in this world not to be laughed at," wrote May from Kentucky. "I was never superstitious until now," wrote Alyssa from Wisconsin. (The surnames of May, Alyssa and others are included in their letters and free for all who visit the museum to read.) "I have found out the hard way that it is very much true ... Please accept my apology," writes another.
For Karen Simpson of Chicago, the sight of Robert and all the letters was enough to convince her to put away her camera. "I don't even want to take a chance," she said, sliding her cell phone out of view as well. "There are many strange things in the world and no sense pushing my luck." Source: Jackie Sheckler, The Kankakee (Ill.) Daily Journal, March 20, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 25, 2015 17:03:08 GMT -5
Woman gets 20 years for dragging boyfriend behind truckDETROIT LAKES, Minn. – An Ogema woman who murdered her boyfriend August 15, 2014, by strapping him behind his own pickup and dragging him down the road was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison and 10 years supervised probation. Jessica Kilde, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder of Richard Baity, 41, of rural Ogema – the man she says she loved and had planned to marry.
Around 10:30 on the night of August 15, 2014, sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call and possible fatality. They discovered Richard Baity’s lifeless body on East 370th Street in Maple Grove Township. Evidence at the scene suggested the man had been dragged behind the vehicle. Kilde, who, according to her Facebook page, at one time worked as a personal care assistant, had been engaged to Baity and the two planned to marry in less than three weeks. But that night, Kilde said they had a disagreement, although “nothing serious.” But after a day of drinking and smoking meth, it was enough for her to tie her fiancé behind his truck and drag him to his death.
"I don't know why I did what I did," cried Kilde, as she stood before Judge Joe Evans at her sentencing. "He was a great man." Kilde apologized to Baity's family and her own for all the pain she caused them.
The 20 years she will sit in prison pales in comparison to what Baity's mother, Marie Goble, said was their family's sentence. "Ours is a lifetime sentence," said Goble, who wore a T-shirt with her son's name on it, the day he was born, and the day he died. Several members of his family that lived nearby found his body on the road. "I was at the scene – I saw him lying on the road in a puddle of blood," said Goble, who says she sees her son on that road every time she drives past it, in her dreams and in her thoughts during the day. "I never got to tell him goodbye and that I loved him."
Becker County Attorney Gretchen Thilmony and Assistant Attorney General Robert Plesha asked for the maximum amount of time that could be given Kilde under the sentencing guidelines because of the aggravating factors of the case that included the cruel, gratuitous infliction of pain. "She drug him 160 feet down a gravel driveway and onto the road, leaving visible drag and acceleration marks," said Plesha. "Perhaps by the time she stopped, Richard Baity was already dead from strangulation, but we have no way of knowing that, and she didn't either."
Public safety is one of the reasons Judge Evans cited for giving Kilde the maximum sentence. "She said her and Mr. Baity were in love and if she would do something like this to somebody she loves, it makes me wonder what she could do to somebody she doesn't," said Evans. "It was calculated, it was brutal."
Kilde's defense attorneys, Nathan Welte and Stephen Farrazzano, presented three things for the court to take into consideration before sentencing. The first was that Farrazzano said Kilde was taking responsibility for what she did. The second was that Kilde had a "zero criminal history score," meaning she had not committed a crime of this magnitude in the past. (She does have a lengthy criminal record of charges/convictions such as vehicle theft, domestic assaults, check forgery and more.) The third aspect of Kilde's defense was the fact she was purportedly on meth, alcohol and struggling with prescription drug addiction and mental illness at the time of the incident. Her childhood in and out of foster care and group homes was also cited "None of these are excuses," Farrazzano said, "but it does explain a little bit about Jessica."
Kilde, who turned to her family before sentencing to mouth "I love you," did not have family members speak for her, but Mel Manning of The Refuge (ministries) did. He said for the past six years, both Kilde and Baity had been coming in to The Refuge to help out. "I've spent a lot of time talking and praying with both of them," said Manning, who said he has always known that Kilde wasn't perfect, "but the years with her were great," he claimed. "At The Refuge, we work with people who struggle with drugs and alcohol and I see what that junk does."
Kilde, who changed her story at least twice during the investigation, claims she has very little recollection of the incident.
Family members, who described Richard Baity as a "kind-hearted man who would help anybody," took turns reading victim impact statements about how his death has changed their lives. Baity's 12-year-old niece, Destiny, who saw her uncle's body on the road, was among them. "My life has never been the same; I still hear the screams over and over," she said. "Blood makes me sick because I think of my uncle on the road. I don't trust anyone because I'm scared of what they might do."
"What was so bad that she had to murder him? She could have just walked away," Baity's brother, Daniel Goble, added. "When she took away his life, she took away his hopes and his dreams – there's no coming back from that." Sources: Paula Quam, The Wadena Pioneer Journal, March 20, 2015, Becker County Clerk of Court.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 24, 2015 23:22:33 GMT -5
Bob Crane's Son Writes Book about Father's Unsolved Murder Bob Crane and the Valley are inexorably linked. In 1978, the likable Hogan's Heroes wise guy was found bludgeoned to death in an apartment on Chaparral Road in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was in town performing at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. The case was never solved. Police suspected that a friend, John Carpenter, killed him, but lacked evidence. The case earned additional notoriety when Crane's appetite for pornography came to light.
Writer Robert Crane, the actor's oldest child, has written (with Christopher Fryer) a book detailing his life with his father and the shocking murder. Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder paints a picture of the star as a generous father whose life was changed by fame. He also looks at his own life and his father’s impact on it.
Crane, who will visit Phoenix on March 27 to discuss the book, offers his takes on ...
How the book came to be: This is our third book together. We've written books on Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern, and we had just finished the Dern book. With each book, we got better, we dug deeper, we pushed for answers. Chris and I were talking about doing another project together, and it was that old thing of writing about what you know.
The feelings of writing about his father: The emotions have always been there. It's never gone away. I really dislike the word "closure." It's a media word to tie up things into a little package. There is no closure. You live with this forever, but you have to decide whether you're going to get on with your life or not. I hate these stories on the nightly news where the wife receives the US flag neatly folded placed on her lap (and the announcer says) now there's closure. No, there's not. She still just lost her husband.
His family's reaction to the crime: We're the kind of family that never talks about things like that. We've never had a sit-down where we actually discussed what happened. That's never happened, and that never will. We're like this humble, un-Hollywood family from Stamford, Connecticut. You don't talk about stuff like this.
The media's portrayal of his father's proclivities: It's rough, because my sisters and I know the other side of him: that he was a big kid and he loved to have fun. We had years of great times with him. When you're seated across from Joy (Behar) and Bill (O'Reilly) and all they know is what they've read or what their people researched that was out there in the Enquirer and those kind of publications. ... That doesn't take them through 20 years of growing up with him.
His family's take on his book: No one's seen it. My stepdad, Chuck, who is throughout the book, is reading it, but my mom and one of my sisters will probably not read it. I think my other sister may read it. It's just not us. You know when you're watching the Olympics and the family from South Dakota is there to root on little Tammy in her category? We are not that family.
Being named Robert Crane: My wife is shocked at the rude behavior, especially in Los Angeles. Wouldn't you think that if a person is named Robert Crane, there might be a possibility he is connected to the late actor? And yet I've had a waiter at a restaurant do a whole five-minute routine on "Bob Crane! Didn't you get bludgeoned to death?" Our jaws dropped and one of our friends informed him, "That's his son." He went crawling off into the night. Are people really that idiotic?
His feelings toward Arizona: Actually, I love Arizona. It's a beautiful state. One of my best friends lives here and we visit him and his family. I love the mountains, Phoenix and Scottsdale. I'm going to be in Tucson (at Barnes & Noble on March 29) for the first time in my life. I do love it; it just happens my dad was working here at the time of his murder.Source: Randy Cordova, The Republic, March 21, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 24, 2015 22:47:17 GMT -5
Florida Toddler Suffers from 'Vampire' DiseaseST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A family is tangling with a rare disease that makes sunlight a severe threat to their toddler – a problem much more appropriate to vampires than adorable 2-year-olds. Little Oliver Stanek is suffering from congenital erythropoietic porphyria, which means he must stay out of the sun to avoid burning his highly sensitive skin and undergo blood transfusions every seven to 10 days.
Dealing with the disease has taken a toll on Oliver and his family, but the child deserves the same designation as his Batman and Robin action figures, his mother Nichole Zimmardo told WTSP TV. "We like to call him a superhero: superhero Oliver," Zimmardo said.
And his parents are fighting to help the brave boy battle the disease – of which there are only several hundred reported cases – by raising funds to help Oliver participate in a clinical trial that would be his second bone marrow transplant and hopefully cure him of the condition for good. The fund has already gotten $14,000 in donations from 184 donors.
Zimmardo posted an appreciative message to the family’s supporters following the TV report, noting the family expects to temporarily relocate to Seattle for the procedure in May, if all goes according to plan. “No way did I think Oliver's story would reach as far as it did,” Zimmardo wrote. “The response has been crazy and people are donating from all over the country. I seriously cannot express my gratitude enough or even well enough for that matter.”Source: Tobias Salinger, The New York Daily News, March 3, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 24, 2015 22:35:28 GMT -5
Star Trek Shimmery UFO Spotted in PennsylvaniaPALMYRA, Penn. – In a MUFON report, a witness in Palmyra (a borough of less than 8,000 in Lebanon County), reported watching a large, black V-shaped UFO that appeared “shimmery” in the night sky. The person who saw the object was outside and searching the sky for satellites using a phone app when the object was first seen at 8:22 p.m., March 18, 2015. According to the witness:
“After finding and watching three satellites and not finding the fourth, I heard and saw one of our UH-60s flying past Hershey Park on their way back to Fort Indiantown Gap. While watching the helicopter and noticing that several other airplanes and commuter jets were in the air on such a clear chilly night, I detected movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and there was a giant black V flying from the southeast to northwest. It had to my best recall, six red lights that I could see on the lower left wing, one under the nose and one I could make out under the right wing in the furthermost aft position.
“With my arm fully extended and the right hand thumb and index finger fully extended – that was the size from nose tip to trailing edge of a wing. It was completely silent. It traveled a heading of about 320-330 degrees. It passed over and just behind the Blackhawk I was watching. All other air traffic was unaffected. Looking directly at it was harder than using off center viewing which is best for night time. Looking at it directly, the red lights were very dim and the craft was shimmery almost like Star Trek cloaking. With off center viewing you could see the red lights better and the outline of the craft.
“It wasn’t like it was flying. It was like it was sliding on a solid surface. It was so smooth, fast and silent. Whole exposure time was about 5 seconds. To the average person that may not sound like much, but to a aircrew member, five seconds can be an eternity when the adrenaline and training kicks in. I tried to get a picture with my cell phone, but once you took your eyes off the craft it was hard to re-acquire the target. Then a tree was in the way and then I snapped a picture in the area it would have been in, but it was inside the satellite app of my iPhone.
“Doing my own research, it mostly resembled the V from Phoenix. My educated guess on altitude and airspeed would be 5,000 feet and 1,000 mph. with zero sound. Heading 320-330 degrees and size estimate 300-350 feet long nose to tail/end of wing.
“Twenty-four years military service; still active National Guard. Enlisted for 15 years and now a Warrant Officer since 2006, I spent my whole career in aviation and most of it flying and crewing CH-47 Chinooks. Now a course writer and platform instructor. I know aviation well and I am trained to react and work under pressure and unusual environments. After the sighting, I finished with the measurements.”Source: Roger Marsh, OpenMinds, March 24, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 22, 2015 20:19:47 GMT -5
Durst is a despicable person and I hope he's convicted of killing the woman in California, but, like Jason, I'm not sure about the other murders. Anytime someone is suspected of being a serial killer, police departments try to tie every unsolved murder that they can to that person, whether there's any real evidence or not.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 22, 2015 20:16:06 GMT -5
I used to know a woman who knew Rhea and Ash Robinson after they moved to Pensacola and Rhea told her that it was John Hill who pursued Joan after he met her and that Joan picked up the tab every time they went out to restaurants, etc. Rhea told her that neither she nor Ash liked John Hill from the beginning and that Ash considered him to be something of a namby-pamby. I don't doubt that Joan was interested in him and eventually wanted to marry him, but I think that he set out to marry her and he really did have a master plan.
Thanks for sharing that, Pat. I agree. They didn't have anything in common and I think that his wife was nothing more than a cash-cow in his eyes and once he didn't need her help anymore, he got rid of her.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 22, 2015 20:08:32 GMT -5
Benefits of American Ginseng American ginseng (panax quinquefolius) is a slow-growing perennial herb native to North America. Panax is from the Greek word panacea meaning “all healing.” Known as redberry, five-fingers and five-leafed ginseng, the plant is most prolific in deep, moist soil. The root – the useful part of the plant – is spindle-shaped, off-white in color and about 4 inches in length. American Indians used the root as a sacred healing herb. While they were collecting pelts, trappers and fur traders, including Daniel Boone, often collected ginseng to sell for extra money. In China, ginseng is known as a cooling herb and is often called the “king of he herbs.”
American ginseng contains many ginsenosides, a class of triterpene saponins and steroidal glycosides that are found exclusively in ginseng. These ginsenosides are believed to be what gives this herb its healing properties.
American ginseng is used by grinding the root and making tea or by boiling the root in water and creating a decoction. It may also be extracted in alcohol creating a tincture. The ground root is often pulverized and taken in capsules. A liquid extract can also be created from ginseng.
American ginseng is considered a stress reducer, energizer and normalizer and has been used traditionally to negate the effects of fatigue and stress. It is often used as a general health tonic to enhance a person’s mental and physical performance. Ginseng is a powerful “adaptogen,” a substance that reduces the effects of all sorts of stress, be it physical or mental. Roots must be at least four years old to be beneficial – the older the root, the more potent the ginseng. Though wild ginseng is best, it has been over-harvested and is now very rare. Commercially sold American ginseng is grown under artificial shade such as canvas tents.
American ginseng contains zinc, vitamins A, B6 and C and polysaccharide glycans and is often taken in the hot summer months because of its cooling effect. The “warm” Korean ginseng is best taken in the cold, winter season. The American variety is well-known for it’s ability to fight physical and mental fatigue and many athletes take it during training to boost their strength and stamina. Students also take ginseng while cramming for tests as because it helps them maintain a high level of mental alertness and improves memory.
A study in 2005 published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal claims American ginseng may help prevent and treat the common cold. Participants in the study who were given American ginseng got fewer colds than those receiving a placebo. Although some of those taking ginseng did get colds, their symptoms were less severe and their colds did not last along as people in the control group. American ginseng contains potent antioxidants that help boost the immune system and it is believed those who take it come down with fewer communicable illnesses.
American ginseng also helps regulate blood sugar levels and may be beneficial to diabetics. People taking American ginseng before meals have reported post-meal blood sugar levels in the normal range. The herb also has a beneficial effect on the adrenal glands and other organs of the body such as the kidneys. The adrenal glands secrete hormones important to the reduction of physical and emotional stress. Additionally, those suffering from depression and anxiety have benefitted from taking ginseng.
But, like all good things, American ginseng has side effects and those taking it may experience, diarrhea, itching, insomnia, headache and nervousness. Some taking the herb have experienced rapid pulse, increased or decreased blood pressure, tenderness in the breast and vaginal bleeding. Accordingly, people with high or low blood pressure, or women who are pregnant or nursing should consult with their physician before taking ginseng. It should also be avoided tho those taking blood-thinning drugs.Sources: Medicinal Plants and Herbs and WebMD.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 22, 2015 3:02:40 GMT -5
Remains of Cooking Show Contestant Found in StoveASHEVILLE, N.C. – Human remains were found inside a wood stove at the North Carolina home of a man charged with killing a contestant from the TV show Food Network Star, her husband and their unborn child, a sheriff said Friday. Cristie Schoen Codd, and her husband, Joseph "J. T." Codd, were likely killed three days before they were reported missing, Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said at a news conference. He said investigators aren't ready to discuss a motive for the crime. The sheriff also released search warrants that showed deputies took 11 knives and a saw blade as well as "debris from wood stove" and "debris from yard" from two of Robert Jason Owens' homes near Asheville. Owens is being held without bail on first-degree murder charges.
Investigators said Owens did odd jobs for the couple and Joseph Codd texted Owens several times the day before they were last heard from. Owens was arrested after deputies saw him throwing away some of Joseph Codd's belongings the day the couple was reported missing. Search warrants state that Owens told his wife he killed the couple.
Owens' court-appointed lawyer, M. Victoria Jayne, has not responded to telephone messages seeking comment.
Deputies said Owens, 36, also is a prime suspect in the disappearance of college student Zebb Quinn, whose body was never found after he disappeared 15 years ago.
Cristie Codd was originally from Biloxi, Mississippi, and had worked as a movie-set caterer. She was a contestant and finalist on "Food Network Star" during its eighth season.Source: KATV News, March 21, 2015.
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Post by Joanna on Mar 16, 2015 20:49:27 GMT -5
Bigfoot Attack Reported in TexasBigfoot didn’t like it when explorers in the Sam Houston National Forest drew too near him last week and in his fury, he hurled giant logs at the curious humans. This is according to Wes Germer, host of the Sasquatch Chronicle podcast, whose team ventured into the East Texas Piney Woods guided by Bob Garrett and sons, a Conroe family of self-declared “cryptozoologists,” who have tracked legendary creatures through the woods north of Houston for years and document their findings in various bigfoot blogs.
The expedition didn’t photograph the monsters – it seems the Sasquatch is bashful in front of cameras – but this doesn’t mean the researchers didn’t get close to their mysterious subjects. “My heart was just pounding in my throat,” said Germer on his Sunday podcast as he recounted his chilling brush with the mysterious giant.
In the early night, the forest was tame as Germer and Garrett sat chatting in their camp while the crew was out exploring with flashlights and night vision goggles. Then the noise came. “We hear this thing crash through the brush. And then we hear this thing start crashing, just crash! Crash! Crash! Crash," Germer insisted. “And you can hear it walking and you can hear it breaking branches as it’s going.”
At first he said he was upset that one of his team members was making such a racket and thought it strange that someone would attempt to navigate without a light. Then he noticed the faint glow of lights far away and all his team gathered in the distance. Garrett knew this forest creature wasn’t one of them.
Then the giant bolted away, plowing fiercely through the dense brush with astonishing speed. “This thing moved so fast, it probably covered 100, 150 yards like nothing,” Germer related.
The commotion settled and Germer estimated the creature was just 30 or 40 feet beyond the tree line of the campsite, but the thicket obscured it entirely. Garrett, a seasoned East Texas tracker, loaded his gun and ducked into the brush to catch a glimpse of the creature. Germer followed, but that glimpse would never come because as the two men neared the spot where they heard the beast lurking, they heard a noise like the beating of helicopter blades coming straight for them. “And I knew what it was. It was a log coming and it was a big log, and you could hear it being thrown,” Germer said. “And I ducked down because I thought for sure it was going to hit one of us in the head. But it hit a tree right in front of us, and I just [couldn’t] believe that [was] happening. I knew what just threw that log at us. I knew what just paced us in,” he said.
The two men were lucky to escape with their lives and Garrett declared the beast had issued them a warning. But it wasn’t the only time a Sasquatch threw logs at the unwelcome intruders. Germer recounted a time in the very same area when a log crashed down into the spot where his girlfriend had sat just moments before. He also reported multiple instances of Bigfoot log-throwing in the Piney Woods on his blog, “Sasquatch Mountain.” According to one post, he and his son once took shelter in their truck as it was bombarded by multiple beasts in an abandoned campsite which was ransacked by the creatures, “We could hear them run back and forth and the tree limbs and broken trees flew in to camp, nonstop,” he wrote in 2014.
In the end, Germer’s Texas trip was lush with close encounters. One of his team members and podcast co-hosts, Shannon Legro, reported the incredible sound she described as an owl that “went into a monkey.” She said: “We heard an owl go off, and we were like ‘yea, ok that’s an owl.’ Well whatever decided to go off after that, it sounded more like you were in a primate house, and it just sounded like a monkey trying to be an owl, and then it sounded more like and owl after that. It was incredible. It was awesome,” she said.
Germer also heard the strange sound, but reflected on his experience to determine that it didn’t have the ring of a Sasquatch and in fact he doesn’t believe it was one. So what could it be? “A freakin’ werewolf!” he suggested.Source: Dylan Baddour, The Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2015.
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