Monday, December 14, 2009

Phantoms and Monsters

Phantoms and Monsters

The Haunted Mansions of Hayward, CA

Posted: 13 Dec 2009 11:40 AM PST

The old McConaghy House...then and now

insidebayarea - Word is there's something dwelling in that 1886 Victorian next to Kennedy Park, and it doesn't like company.

Paranormal researchers and the curious public agreed after last weekend's investigation — whatever it is that's lurking in the old McConaghy House does not want you there, and it's not too timid to let you know.

"I was skeptical going in, trying to debunk everything," said Eric Borghesani, a 39-year-old San Francisco police officer. "But now I believe that there is definitely something in that house. It freaked me out."

Borghesani, his wife and daughter to went to the paranormal event, a dead-of-night affair that had 25 people tagging along with the American Paranormal Research Association at two of the Hayward area's most prominent historical homes — the Meek Mansion and McConaghy House.

The event started with the association's presentation of previous findings, both at the homes and during prior investigations — sort of a "best of" compilation of photos, videos and recorded Electronic Voice Phenomenons.

The EVPs are a staple of paranormal research. It's easy — take any voice recorder and stake out a suspected haunt.

Turn it on and ask away, as they did at the Meek and McConaghy — in the attic, in the bedroom, in the basement.

"What's your name?"

"What year is it?"

"Can you make a noise to let us know you're here?"

That last request is one that's rarely granted — EVPs aren't heard by the ear, but are picked up by the device. And even then, what's heard is subject to interpretation.

"Step ... back!"

"Get ... out!"

"Just let them know ... dad!"

Such are the voices of the McConaghy House, described as "darker" than the apparently aptly named Meek Mansion, where the best clip sounded like "You act like Molly" or "You act like Mommy" or "I want my mommy."

Then there are the photos.

Borghesani clicked one after another with an infrared camera, and as he did so, something caught his eye.

"There was movement," he said. "I couldn't see it with my eyes, but I saw it in the viewfinder."

The image was captured — two frames, taken seconds apart, show a doorway and little more, then a little more than that. A disembodied dress-shape hovers in the right side of the photo.

"We definitely felt like there was something in the room," Borghesani said. "Then I opened the closet door and there were three white dresses in there. I said, 'Holy crap!' "

The Meek Estate

The Hayward Area Historical Society, which hosted the event at a price of $75 per ghost-hunter, said the two evenings were both great successes.

"We've been getting a lot of people asking us when we're going to do it again," said Heather Farquhar, collections manager for the historical society. "I think we probably will, but we'll wait until the weather is warmer."

The historical society was approached by the Bakersfield-based paranormal investigators, who have hosted similar events with other historical groups around the country. They don't charge for their services — the goal is to gain access to potential paranormal hot spots and document their findings.

Brandon Alvis, 22, founded the group four years ago. He said he became interested in the paranormal after losing two brothers, one to cancer and the other to suicide.

He said the McConaghy evidence rated an 8 on a scale of 1-to-10. That's a high ranking, but not quite as compelling as the little girl's voice he heard in the first-class swimming pool of the Queen Mary, or the multiple shrieks recorded at the Villisca Axe Murder House.

But Alvis said he remains a skeptic. Despite all his unexplainable findings through countless hours of reviewing data, Alvis maintains he can't vouch for the existence of spirits at the Meek, McConaghy or anywhere else.

"I'm not saying it's a ghost," he said. "But things did happen that cannot be explained. What it is, we just don't know."


Click for EVP audio player

'Paper Battery' Technology is the Future of Power Storage

Posted: 13 Dec 2009 10:03 AM PST

NOTE: I realize that this is a bit off our normal subject matter...but the endless possibilities that this technology can provide is fascinating...Lon

reuters - Scientists at Stanford University in California reported on Monday they have successfully turned paper coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a "paper battery" that holds promise for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.

The same feature that helps ink adhere to paper allows it to hold onto the single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowire films. Earlier research found that silicon nanowires could be used to make batteries 10 times as powerful as lithium-ion batteries now used to power devices such as laplop computers.

"Taking advantage of the mature paper technology, low cost, light and high-performance energy-storage are realized by using conductive paper as current collectors and electrodes," the scientists said in research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This type of battery could be useful in powering electric or hybrid vehicles, would make electronics lighter weight and longer lasting, and might even lead someday to paper electronics, the scientists said. Battery weight and life have been an obstacle to commercial viability of electric-powered cars and trucks.

"Society really needs a low-cost, high-performance energy storage device, such as batteries and simple supercapacitors," Stanford assistant professor of materials science and engineering and paper co-author Yi Cui said.

Cui said in an e-mail that in addition to being useful for portable electronics and wearable electronics, "Our paper supercapacitors can be used for all kinds of applications that require instant high power."

"Since our paper batteries and supercapacitors can be very low cost, they are also good for grid-connected energy storage," he said.

Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley, said the technology could be commercialized within a short time.

Wiccan Practitioner Sues Former Employer Over Termination

Posted: 13 Dec 2009 08:07 AM PST

bostonherald - A Connecticut Bath & Body Works staffer who practices witchcraft claims her boss put a hex on her career for using vacation time to attend Salem's annual Halloween celebration.

Gina Uberti charges in a federal lawsuit that Bath & Body Works fired her after she took a week off around Halloween 2008 to mark the Wiccan holiday of Samhain.

"Any and all excuses offered by (Bath & Body Works) for the plaintiff's termination are a pretext for the true reason - religious discrimination," the East Haven, Conn., woman's lawyer wrote in court papers.

Neither Uberti, her attorney or Bath & Body Works returned calls seeking comment on the case.

But in court filings, Uberti alleged that the chain canned her after eight years because she took time off for the holiday, also called "Witches' New Year."

Uberti, a Bath & Body Works district sales manager, claims she'd taken vacation around Samhain for years, but said her new supervisor flipped out when learning why.

During a Nov. 4, 2008, phone call about her absence, Uberti's boss allegedly said: "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard," adding, "Well, you will need a new career in your new year. . . . I will be damned if I have a devil worshipper on my team."

Two weeks later, Uberti claims, Bath & Body Works fired her.

Now, the witch wants a judge to order Bath & Body Works to take her back - and to award back pay and any damages the court deems justified.

Local Wiccan practitioners say they don't know Uberti, but say they often face a witch's brew of discrimination.

Wiccan reverend Rick Watson said he's been spit on and had crosses left on his lawn because critics believe - erroneously - that witches worship Satan rather than the natural world.

And "Tala," a Wiccan high priestess who works as an occupational therapist, said she doesn't publicly identify as a witch because she doesn't want Christian patients to "freak out."

"Even though Wicca is considered a legal religion, there is still a lot of persecution about it, so witches have to be careful," she said.

Did McKinnon Uncover Black-Budget U.S. Space Program?

Posted: 13 Dec 2009 07:18 AM PST

NOTE: the following commentary does not necessarily mirror my personal opinion on all of these specific matters but I feel it was interesting enough to present here for your interpretation...Lon

wariscrime - With the sudden announcement on Friday Dec. 4, 2009 of the closing after 50 years by the U.K. Ministry of Defence of its UFO Affairs desk on the implausible grounds that its annual $73,000 budget is now being devoted to President Barack Obama's surge in the Afghan war, speculation of imminent disclosure of the extraterrestrial presence by the Obama administration has faltered.

The U.K. decision, taken in apparent reaction to secret disclosure maneuvering, authoritative citizen-driven ET disclosures and an impeding citizen ET ballot initiative in Denver, Colorado, has had the function of making transparent the underlying reactionary nature of "official" disclosure strategies that are camouflaged components of expansionist military strategies.

There is evidence that the U.K. and the U.S. governments are co-participants not only in a global expansionist military policy as in Afghanistan, but also in interplanetary military expansionist policies involving secret solar system and galactic anti-gravity fleets. Evidence of these fleets was uncovered by UFO researcher Gary McKinnon, whom the U.S. government is prosecuting and whose extradition the U.K. government is facilitating in contravention of international humanitarian law.

Disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence, and of secret human-ET liaison programs will most plausibly, as they have been in the past, be done by citizen groups or whistleblowers. With the approval of a Denver Ballot Initiative, disclosure may now also be a matter for the voting public to decide. The extraterrestrials themselves, of course may continue their driving role in ET disclosure, at least for the immediate future.

In hindsight of the U.K. decision, there are multiple reasons why the Obama administration would not now disclose ongoing secret human-ET liaison programs of the U.S. government, some of which have been ongoing since at least the early 1970s.

For one, the U.S. government is actively prosecuting UFO researcher Gary McKinnon in order to maintain the secrecy of a black-budget funded anti-gravity space ship fleet.

Secondly, ET disclosure by the Obama administration would risk disclosure of top-secret forward U.S. military bases on Mars, serviced by teleportation corridors. The reality of these has now been revealed by independent whistleblowers. The Obama administration's function is to rationalize a covert U.S. government strategy to colonize the solar system militarily.

Thirdly, a leading agency of the Obama administration — NASA — is actively seeking to suppress knowledge of the extraterrestrial presence on Mars and other celestial bodies.

Fourth, unlike President Jimmy Carter, Obama never promised to disclosure during his campaign and has undertaken no good faith effort to disclose the ET presence. Efforts by this reporter to reach the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for confirmation of some good faith disclosure agenda have been rebuffed.

Finally, independent sources now confirm that Barack Obama is a life-long U.S. intelligence asset, who began his training in the early 1980s at Columbia University as part of an elite unit training him as a future U.S. president, under Zbigniew Brzezinski, founder of the Trilaterist Group under David Rockefeller.

Trilateralist-controlled groups and defense and resource industries have benefited from the decades of the privatization of extraterrestrial liaison programs. There is no reason to believe that a Rockefeller-dominated complex would engage in public interest disclosure not connected with military dominance and a permanent war economy.

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