Shape shifting monster plagues South Africa town

A typical Karoo farm labourer’s cottage stands on the red earth.

Steytlerville, a small Karoo town, is being plagued by rumours of a shape-shifting monster, Eastern Cape police said on Thursday.

“The community says that the monster changes shape while you are looking at it,” Warrant Officer Zandisile Nelani said.

He said one man had reported it changed from a man wearing a suit into a pig and then into a bat. The creature had been sighted on a number of occasions near a church and only appeared at night, Nelani said.

Local residents met with police last week to discuss the strange phenomenon.

Nelani said he had asked people to take a photograph of the alleged monster. Although some locals were frightened of it, it had not harmed any people or livestock.

via ‘Monster’ plagues Karoo town: News24: South Africa: News.

Let me know if you find any more details on this story. Could be the work of a magician prankster. With some prep, and the right location, I could do it.  Get a pig and a bat and a bulky costume. You make a plaster casts of the transition between your face and the pig’s face. Then you show your self the the mark, you twist around in the costume, show the morphing faces (probably only need two), then you jump into the trap door or behind the bush and release the real pig. If the pig is wearing clothes, you could use balloons to blow up the clothes for a minute and hide the pig and then release the bat.

Happiest places have highest suicide rates

Countries and U.S. states that rank near the top in happiness also rank near the top in suicides rates, U.S. and British researchers suggest.

Professor Andrew Oswald if the University of Warwick England, Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in New York, and Mary C. Daly and Daniel Wilson, both from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, say they used U.S. and international data that included comparisons of a random sample of 1.3 million U.S. adults and another on suicide decisions among about 1 million Americans.

Canada, the United States, Iceland, Ireland and Switzerland each indicate relatively high levels of happiness levels, but also high suicide rates. Nevertheless, the researchers note that because of variation in cultures and suicide-reporting conventions, the findings are only suggestive.

Comparing happiness and suicide rates across U.S. states presents an advantage because cultural background, national institutions, language and religion are relatively constant nationwide.

States with people who report they are generally more satisfied with their lives tend to have higher suicide rates. For example, Utah is ranked first in life-satisfaction but has the ninth-highest suicide rate, while New York is ranked 45th in life satisfaction but has the lowest suicide rate in the country. …

via Happiest places have highest suicide rates – UPI.com.

Good catch: Florida balcony fall baby saved by British tourist

A toddler who fell from the top floor of a four-storey Florida hotel has escaped injury after being caught by a British woman on holiday.

Jah-Nea Myles, 16 months, apparently slipped through the balcony railing and fell into the arms of Helen Beard.

Ms Beard, of Worksop, was at the pool at Orlando’s Econo Lodge hotel when she saw the baby hanging from the railing and ran underneath, she said.

She held the child until emergency medical workers arrived.

‘Not a scratch’

The baby was taken to hospital, where medical staff said they saw no bruises or scratches and deemed her in good health.

An investigator with the Orange County sheriff’s office described her as “playful” and said she was not crying.

Helena Myles, Jah-Nea’s 20-year-old mother, told police her friend Dominique Holt had been watching the baby in the adjacent hotel room.

Ms Holt, 21, said she went to the bathroom about 2100 local time (0100 GMT), then heard screaming and saw the balcony door ajar.

She ran out onto the balcony and saw the baby in the arms of Ms Beard, from Nottinghamshire.

Ms Myles told Reuters: “She’s perfectly fine. Not a scratch on her body.

“I’m thanking the Lord above right now for saving my child’s life. I’m also thanking that lady because she was an angel sent from heaven.”

Police said no criminal charges were pending.

Orlando is a popular destination for holidaymakers, with Walt Disney World and other tourist attractions.

via BBC News – Florida balcony fall baby saved by British tourist.

Teen fakes pregnancy as school project

Gaby Rodriguez would worry whenever anyone asked to touch her baby bump.

It wasn’t because she felt shy or embarrassed. It was because the bulge – fashioned from wire mesh and cotton quilt batting – didn’t actually contain a baby.

For the past 6 1/2 months – the bulk of her senior year at Toppenish High School – the 17-year-old A-student faked her own pregnancy.

Only a handful of people – her mother, boyfriend and principal among them – knew Gaby was pretending to be pregnant for her senior project, a culminating assignment required for graduation.

Her teachers and fellow students, except for her best friend, didn’t realize they were part of a social experiment.

Neither did six of her seven siblings, including four older brothers, her boyfriend’s parents, and his five younger brothers and sisters.

“At times, I just wanted to take it off and be done,” she says. “I didn’t want to go through this anymore.”

But Gaby didn’t give up the charade until Wednesday morning, when she revealed her secret during an emotional, all-school assembly.

The topic of her presentation: “Stereotypes, rumors and statistics.”

“Teenagers tend to live in the shadows of these elements,” she says.

Before taking off her fake baby belly in front of the entire student body, Gaby told her audience, “Many things were said about me. Many things traveled all the way back to me.”

Then, she asked several students and teachers to read statements from 3×5 cards, quotes people actually said about her during the course of her experiment.

Her best friend, Saida Cortes, a 17-year-old senior who was sitting in the front row, read card No. 3: “Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it.”

It grew quiet in the gym as more and more quotes were read aloud. Then Gaby dropped her bomb: “I’m fighting against those stereotypes and rumors because the reality is I’m not pregnant.” …

Gaby began wearing her homemade, basketball-sized, prosthetic belly to school after spring break. Before that, she wore baggy sweaters and sweatshirts to conceal her faux pregnancy.

Her supposed due date was July 27, not quite two months after graduation. …

Wednesday, Gaby apologized to teachers and students for misleading them.

When she took off her baby belly, there were a few nervous giggles, and a loud, “Whaaaaat?!” from the audience.

Then, there was applause. And, at the end of the assembly, following a Q&A session, there was a standing ovation, the first one Greene says he remembers during his three-year tenure at Toppenish High School.

“She really fooled me. I never would’ve guessed it,” says 17-year-old senior Vicente Villanueva. “I’m really surprised.”

So was 19-year-old Angel Jalomo, a 2010 Davis High School graduate and Gaby’s niece: “I didn’t know what to say. I just started crying.”

Gaby will present her research to a board of community members in May. It will include photos and video from Wednesday’s assembly. And Gaby still needs to finish writing her report. But by revealing the project to students Wednesday, she can go on her English class trip to Ashland, Ore., on Friday without her baby belly.

Plus, she didn’t want to be pregnant for prom. She already has her dress, a teal form-fitting mermaid gown with spaghetti straps.

Gaby plans to attend Columbia Basin College to study social work or sociology in the fall. And, she says, “I’m not planning to have a child until after I graduate.” …

via Local News | Toppenish teen fakes pregnancy as school project | Seattle Times Newspaper.

University Prof Bill Wickersham Calls for Congressional UFO Hearing

Congress has a full plate of hearings coming up. Everything from medical liability reform, creating and promoting jobs and investigating Internet child pornography to assessing China’s behavior and making immigration work for American minorities.

Do you think the House or Senate will have any extra time to discuss UFOs? While it sometimes might seem as though our lawmakers are from outer space, this hasn’t stopped one college professor from urging Congress to take a serious look at unidentified flying objects.

Citing findings from a 12-year-old groundbreaking French UFO study, University of Missouri-Columbia psychologist and adjunct professor of peace studies Bill Wickersham has issued a call for congressional leaders to boldly go where their predecessors wouldn’t.In 1999, a special 13-member committee in France, made up of retired generals, scientists and space experts, created the COMETA Report, a study of 500 worldwide UFO sightings. The investigation narrowed down the reports to those that included radar and visual cases and previously undisclosed accounts from commercial and military pilots.

In a letter written in the Columbia Missourian, a news organization staffed by the Missouri School of Journalism, Wickersham cited the fact that the COMETA Report considered some UFO cases as possibly having an otherworldly source.

Even 12 years after that report, Wickersham, co-author of “Confronting Nuclear War: The Role of Education, Religion and the Community” (CreateSpace), feels it’s important enough to warrant Congress’ opening new, secrecy-free hearings into UFOs. …

… does Wickersham think there’s a real chance that a new congressional hearing on UFOs might actually come to pass in the current political climate?

“Not right now,” he said. “And what’s more, look at what happened to [2008 Ohio Democratic presidential candidate] Dennis Kucinich. The giggle factor, the ridicule, the ignorance, the apathy, denial — all these things that surround this issue. It takes a lot of guts for a politician [to speak out on UFOs]. Most politicians run from it.” …

via University Prof Bill Wickersham Calls for Congressional UFO Hearing.

Ozone hole has dried Australia, scientists find

The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia’s recent series of droughts, scientists say.

Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics.

Their climate models suggest the effect has been notably strong over Australia.

Many parts of the country have seen drought in recent years, with cities forced to invest in technologies such as desalination, and farms closing.

The scientists behind the new study – led from Columbia University in New York – added the ozone hole into standard climate models to investigate how it might have affected winds and rains.

“The ozone hole results in a southward shift of the high-latitude circulation – and the whole tropical circulation shifts southwards too,” explained Columbia’s Sarah Kang.

Of particular interest was the southward migration of the Southern Hemisphere jet stream.

These high-altitude winds are key to determining weather patterns, in both hemispheres. Much of the cold weather felt in the UK over the last couple of winters, for example, was caused by blocking of the Northern Hemisphere stream.

The Columbia team found that overall, the ozone hole has resulted in rainfall moving south along with the winds.

But there are regional differences, particularly concerning Australia.

“In terms of the average for that zone, [the ozone hole drives] about a 10% change – but for Australia, it’s about 35%,” Dr Kang told BBC News.

Their modelling indicated that global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions was also a factor…

via BBC News – Ozone hole has dried Australia, scientists find.

Bullet lodged in man’s brain for 23 years

Doctors have finally discovered why Wang Tianqing has been suffering from epilepsy for more than two decades.

A two-centimetre rusted bullet, embedded in the head of a farmer for 23 years, has been removed at a local hospital.

In 1988 Wang Tianqing, who lives in Zhangjiakouin city in northern China’s Hebei province, was knocked unconscious on his way home by a blow to the head.

“I thought I’d been hit by a slingshot,” said Wang. “I saw a man standing on a hill and thought he’d hit me.”

He woke up in a hospital bed, was given anti-inflammatory drugs by the doctors and sent home.

Shortly afterwards he started having epileptic seizures which grew progressively worse over the next two decades.

On a return trip to the hospital for treatment for his convulsions, the bullet was spotted on his CAT scan.

Wang Zhiming, an attending surgeon from Neurosurgical Oncology department, said that the survival rate for being shot in the head would usually be one out of several thousand, but the bullet missed his brain’s main veins and not injured his brainstem.

via Video: Bullet lodged in man’s brain for 23 years – Telegraph.

Why gold could hit $5,000

With turmoil overseas and energy prices on the rise, investors are worried. They’re worried about geopolitical risk. They’re worried about a falling dollar. And they’re worried about inflation becoming entrenched as the Federal Reserve continues to administer its cheap-money medicine despite signs of inflation.

As a result, gold is on the move again. For much of last year, gold moved higher over worries about Europe’s debt crisis and a “double dip” recession in the United States. Prices fell into a funk in the fall, though.

Now, a new set of concerns has gripped the hearts and minds of investors. Fear has returned.

And the yellow metal again set new highs this week, closing on April 21 at $1,503.80 an ounce.

So how high can it go?

Believe it or not, some analysts are calling for prices to move close to $5,000 — not immediately, but sooner than you may think. …

This is because, according to the folks at Standard Chartered Bank, gold is moving into a new “super-cycle” as a number of structural factors — including consumer demand from Asia and tepid growth in supply — combine to push prices higher. The team, led by Dan Smith, is looking for prices of $2,107 an ounce in 2014 as its base forecast.

The team’s members see the potential for much more. In their words, “statistical modeling suggests a possible ‘super-bull’ scenario of gold prices rallying up to $4,869 in nominal terms by 2020.” …

via Why gold could hit $5,000 – 1 – precious metals – MSN Money.

I’m interested in people who are using actual gold coins as payment for personal transactions. How do you verify that the coin is genuine? If it was verified, would you trade a $2,000 used car today for a 1 oz gold coin if you didn’t need the money right away?