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- Unknown 'Force' Grabs NASA Pioneer 10 Probe
- Fortean / Oddball News - 9/19/2010
- Trail Cam Strangeness
- The Last Sin-Eater
| Unknown 'Force' Grabs NASA Pioneer 10 Probe Posted: 19 Sep 2010 02:09 PM PDT  telegraph - Researchers say Pioneer 10, which took the first close-up pictures of Jupiter before leaving our solar system in 1983, is being pulled back to the sun by an unknown force. The effect shows no sign of getting weaker as the spacecraft travels deeper into space, and scientists are considering the possibility that the probe has revealed a new force of nature. Dr Philip Laing, a member of the research team tracking the craft, said: "We have examined every mechanism and theory we can think of and so far nothing works. "If the effect is real, it will have a big impact on cosmology and spacecraft navigation," said Dr Laing, of the Aerospace Corporation of California. Pioneer 10 was launched by Nasa on March 2 1972, and with Pioneer 11, its twin, revolutionised astronomy with detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn. In June 1983, Pioneer 10 passed Pluto, the most distant planet in our solar system. Both probes are now travelling at 27,000mph towards stars that they will encounter several million years from now. Scientists are continuing to monitor signals from Pioneer 10, which is more than seven billion miles from Earth. Research to be published shortly in The Physical Review, a leading physics journal, will show that the speed of the two probes is being changed by about 6 mph per century - a barely-perceptible effect about 10 billion times weaker than gravity. Scientists initially suspected that gas escaping from tiny rocket motors aboard the probes, or heat leaking from their nuclear power plants might be responsible. Both have now been ruled out. The team says no current theories explain why the force stays constant: all the most plausible forces, from gravity to the effect of solar radiation, decrease rapidly with distance. The bizarre behaviour has also eliminated the possibility that the two probes are being affected by the gravitational pull of unknown planets beyond the solar system. Assertions by some scientists that the force is due to a quirk in the Pioneer probes have also been discounted by the discovery that the effect seems to be affecting Galileo and Ulysses, two other space probes still in the solar system. Data from these two probes suggests the force is of the same strength as that found for the Pioneers. Dr Duncan Steel, a space scientist at Salford University, says even such a weak force could have huge effects on a cosmic scale. "It might alter the number of comets that come towards us over millions of years, which would have consequences for life on Earth. It also raises the question of whether we know enough about the law of gravity." Until 1988, Pioneer 10 was the most remote object made by man - a distinction now held by Voyager 1. Should Pioneer 10 make contact with alien life, it carries a gold-plated aluminium plaque on which the figures of a man and woman are shown to scale, along with a map showing its origin that Nasa calls "the cosmic equivalent of a message in a bottle". Unknown 'Force' Grabs NASA Pioneer 10 Probe  |
| Fortean / Oddball News - 9/19/2010 Posted: 19 Sep 2010 01:40 PM PDT  Astronauts' Fingernails Falling Off Due to Glove DesignNatGeo - You know how you always wanted to be an astronaut, because you really wanted to have an EVA jaunt in the great empty of space? Well, good luck with that: it'll make your fingernails fall off. Some astronauts actually pull their own fingernails off before heading into space to get it over with. It turns out that wide-handed astronauts are at the highest risk of "fingernail delamination." NASA's Astronaut Glove Challenge has been running for several years, but still the nails fall off. In several cases, sustained pressure on the fingertips during EVAs caused intense pain and led to the astronauts' nails detaching from their nailbeds, a condition called fingernail delamination. While this condition doesn't prevent astronauts from getting their work done, it can become a nuisance if the loose nails gets snagged inside the glove. Also, moisture inside the glove can lead to secondary bacterial or yeast infections in the exposed nailbeds, the study authors say. If the nail falls off completely, it will eventually grow back, although it might be deformed. **********  Bearded Lady Reunites With Long-Lost Son aolnews - Every adopted child wonders who his biological mother is. Movie star? Rock star? Maybe a big-shot CEO? For Richard Lorenc, she turned out to be the last thing he ever imagined: a sideshow bearded lady. The 33-year-old Kansas man had always been curious about his birth parents, but with a wife and two young daughters, he was busy making a life of his own. After a recent back injury led to multiple medical exams and many questions about his family medical history, he decided it was time to start digging. His search began this past spring, when he filed a request with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to find his biological parents. After 33 years, Richard Lorenc is reunited with his biological mother, a bearded woman named Vivian Wheeler, in Bakersfield, Calif. Six weeks later he received a letter from the department saying it had the identity of his mother: Vivian Wheeler, now 62. It also informed him that both his mother and his maternal grandmother had hypertrichosis, known as werewolf syndrome. Each had facial hair, even as children. The letter further stated that his mother was born a hermaphrodite, with both male and female reproductive organs. Wheeler's facial fuzz had appeared at birth with an inch and a half of light hair covering her cheeks and chin. She says her mother wanted a daughter, and doctors were instructed to remove the male parts. Wheeler claimed her father was humiliated by his bearded little girl, but it didn't prevent him from capitalizing on her condition. She began working in sideshows at an early age, earning money to send home to her family. Between tours, she would return home and reach for a razor. "My dad said to shave because people wouldn't understand why I had facial hair, saying, 'This is what you'll have to do to fit into society,'" Wheeler told AOL News. As she grew older, she would shave sometimes to placate the men she dated, "because of their low self-esteem. It didn't bother me." Wheeler stopped shaving her beard entirely in 1990 shortly after the death of her mother. "I let it grow back to be myself," she said. "Without my beard, I'm not me. I'm pretending to be someone I'm not." Since then, her beard has grown to 11 inches in length, leading to appearances in Ripley's Believe It or Not! and in the Guinness World Records book. According to Wheeler, doctors examining her for Guinness said she has a male bone structure, with half her hormones being male. Doctors thought it would be impossible for her to give birth, but she became pregnant, and baby Richard was delivered by cesarean section in 1977. For Wheeler, a Seventh-Day Adventist, it was a miracle. But she says the father, a carnival ride operator she had met in Nebraska, took the baby away from her soon after the birth. Lorenc didn't learn all this until later. After learning his birth mother's name, he set out to find her. He started by looking her up on the Internet. "I knew it was her as soon as I saw the picture online," he said. "We have a resemblance." He still didn't have an address for her, but his online search revealed his mother had a sideshow background. Lorenc then turned to me and some other members of the sideshow community for help in tracking her down. I featured Wheeler in my book "American Sideshow," and I've been in touch with her on and off for the past seven years. I gave Lorenc the phone numbers I had for her, including one for a friend of hers where I often reached her in the past, but none of the numbers was still in use. I even contacted others who had worked with Wheeler, but they had lost touch with her. Fortunately, Lorenc had luck on his side. He had also reached out to George "The Giant" McArthur, who at 7 feet 3 inches is the world's tallest sword swallower. McArthur lives in Bakersfield, Calif., where as far as I knew Wheeler also resided. Several weeks after we began the search, Wheeler just happened to turn up at the same local park where McArthur was performing fire manipulation for a music video shoot. For Wheeler, it was a spiritual moment. "The Holy Spirit told me to go. He told me George had something to tell me that was very important," she explained. "I hollered at him from behind, and he turned around and told me my son was looking for me." With Wheeler located and contact information in hand, it was time for Lorenc to introduce himself. Of course, after 33 years, that's no easy task. So he enlisted the help of his wife, Jessica, who made the first call and put Wheeler on a speakerphone. "She said she might be married to my son, Richard William Chambers Jr. -- that was the name on his birth certificate," Wheeler said. "He wanted to find out if I was his mother. I told her I had a son named Richard William Chambers Jr." She considered the chance meeting with McArthur and the sudden connection with her son another miracle. "I told God I wanted to know if I had grandchildren and if my son was alive. Then, like snapping your fingers, his wife called me," Wheeler said. Encouraged, Lorenc called her himself the next day. Each wanted to verify the relationship. "Once that connection was made, we had a good idea we were in fact mother and son," he said. "There are still tests that people want to do, like a DNA test and such, which I'm fine with." A DNA test would prove that Lorenc is in fact the Richard William Chambers Jr. born in Nebraska in 1977 -- the same Richard William Chambers Jr. who was taken away by Richard Sr. shortly after Wheeler gave birth. "We got into an argument, like people do, and he took my son and vanished with him," Wheeler said. Wheeler says she spent years searching for her son but never contacted the authorities about the disappearance. "I wanted to believe he was with his father," she said. Yet she desperately wanted her son back. The mental toll it took on her caused her to collapse onstage during one of her sideshow performances. After the nervous breakdown, she says doctors recommended she stop thinking about her son or "I'd lose my mind completely." But Wheeler's hope that her son was living happily with his father was far from the case. "I was found in a motel in Atlanta, that's all I knew of my life," Lorenc said. "I think I was maybe 3." He moved into an orphanage before his father regained custody of him and headed to Kansas. Teachers noticed abuse marks on his body, and young Richard was placed in foster care. At 7, he was adopted and became Richard Kevin Ryan. When he married, he took his wife's surname, Lorenc. At the end of June, Lorenc flew out alone to Bakersfield for two days to finally meet his mother. He found her living in the industrial part of town at an old motel converted into Section 8 housing for people drawing Social Security or Supplemental Security Income. Wheeler meets with counselors, takes classes at the complex and stays active in the community with her church. Rather than have their long-awaited reunion in her small room, they met on the other side of town at the apartment of one of Wheeler's friends. There, they began the long process of becoming acquainted and discussing the past. "A lot of my questions were answered," Lorenc said. "I think one of her biggest wishes was fulfilled that day." Now he hopes his newfound mom will move closer to his family in Kansas. Wheeler suffers from osteoporosis, doesn't have a primary physician and needs better living conditions. "She was not given opportunities we take for granted," Lorenc said. "She wasn't given an education or a healthy environment, and it shows. I feel for her, and I want her to know that there's a place for her here near us where we can give her the things she was never given." Wheeler is apprehensive about disrupting his family life, but she is considering moving to Oklahoma, right near the Kansas border, where her maternal grandparents were born. There, she hopes to learn more about her own past. Since their meeting, Lorenc and Wheeler have spoken every few weeks and plan to see each other again soon. Wheeler hopes their next meeting will be on "Maury." She hopes host Maury Povich will help her obtain a DNA test to prove Lorenc is her son. "I want to share the story, and I want to know for sure if it's my son," she said. "Even if not, I still love him." As for Lorenc, he's accepting the entire situation and looking forward to developing a stronger bond. "My whole life growing up, I thought my mom was Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, but that was just my fantasy. This is kind of better," he said. "Whatever happens, I want to be there with her. It's a great adventure. It's an unbelievable story, and I just want to be there for the ride with her and spend time with her." **********  Guinness Picks Worlds Biggest Nose This nose knows no bounds. According to Guinness World Records officials, Mehmet Ozyurek has the world's largest nose. Measuring 3.46 inches from bridge to tip, the Turkish national's schnoz has earned its spot in the hot-off-the-presses 2011 edition of the record book. ********** Big Alcohol Donates Money To Fight Legalization Of Pot businessinsider - One group that really doesn't want the legalization of marijuana is big alcohol. California Beer and Beverage Distributors, a group which includes Anheuser-Busch InBev, donated $10,000 last week to the campaign against Prop. 19 (via HuffPo). Would marijuana legalization really cut into alcohol consumption? Probably so. The interest group also includes Heineken, which knows from Amsterdam how legalization affects the market. The real question is why haven't pizza vendors and Netflix donated in support of Prop. 19. ********** Texas Man Survives 1200+ Bee Stings nineman - A Texas man has been lucky to survive a bee attack that saw him stung more than 1200 times. Lamar LaCaze, 65, was mowing his lawn last month when the unexpected bee attack took place, covering his body with stingers, the San Marcos Daily Record reported yesterday. Mr LaCaze managed to call his son Trey six times to ask for help but received no answer. When his son called him back, Mr LaCaze managed to tell him that he was "in bees". When Mr LaCaze was found by his son, he was slumped over a fence and covered by the swarming bees. "His head was black, solid bees," he said. "It looked like a bee hive on his head." Hospital staff managed to pull more than 1200 stingers from his body, as well as whole bees from his ears, nose, mouth and throat. He will be released from hospital in the next few days though his body will take longer to process all the bee venom. Fortean / Oddball News - 9/19/2010  |
| Posted: 19 Sep 2010 09:22 AM PDT    MUFON CMS - 9/19/2010 - Maryland - (unedited): These pictures were taken with a stationary deer cam. Notice the distance of the light from a duration of about a minute. The camera is installed about 6 ft off the ground. The other picture is the background during the daylight. I do not know what it is. I do not suspect that any person was there because of the wild animals. NOTE: I have posted other strange trail cam images from the past few years...Lon ********** Another strange anomaly is caught on a game trail camera in Missouri. We have posted one of these images. Please use the link to see the other images and read this interesting report.   **********     These trailcam pics were submitted by a reader, Mohunter. Here is some of the commentary: The new pic I just captured this past deer season. It has three deer in it, all looking at the camera at the same time, which is unusual. Deer don't usually all look in the same direction at the same time, some will have their heads down, or turned to one side or the other. Above the deer's heads in the middle, top, right of the pic you can see two red lights glowing. That's right, they are glowing, meaning that they are illuminated and reflecting a red glow on the leaves around them. You can see it when you zoom in on the pic. So, it's not a reflection off the inside of the camera lens. There aren't any roads, trails, atv or otherwise, anywhere near where these pics were taken. I've already ruled that out. It's in the middle of the woods on our property, and there isn't any way possible for it to be an airplane or anything like that. Too many trees. It's just one of those pics that keeps you wondering, and realizing that there are things that we just can't explain. If only deer could talk? I bet they could tell us alot. ********** Anomaly is caught on 6 different images taken on a game trail camera in Illinois. We have posted one of these images. Please use the link to see the other images and read this interesting report.  Deer appearing to look at the strange object. What is odd is that the deer is in a state of alarm, meaning its tail is up. A white tail deer uses their tail up as a signal. Their tail can tell many different stories in communication with other animals. But in this image, the deer's eyes and ears are focused toward the object and its tail is up in the alarm position  Image cropped to show the alarmed deer, object's detail and "rays" above and below strange object Trail Cam Strangeness  |
| Posted: 19 Sep 2010 08:30 AM PDT  BBC - The restored grave of the last known "sin-eater" in England will be at the centre of a special service in a Shropshire village churchyard later.Campaigners raised £1,000 to restore the grave of Richard Munslow, who was buried in Ratlinghope in 1906. Sin-eaters were generally poor people paid to eat bread and drink beer or wine over a corpse, in the belief they would take on the sins of the deceased. Frowned upon by the church, the custom mainly died out in the 19th Century. It was prevalent in the Marches, the land around the England-Wales border, and in north Wales, but was rarely carried out anywhere else. Believers thought the sin-eater taking on the sins of a person who died suddenly without confessing their sins would allow the deceased's soul to go to heaven in peace. While most of the sin-eaters were poor people or beggars, Mr Munslow was a well-established farmer in the area. The Reverend Norman Morris, the vicar of Ratlinghope, a village of about 100 residents on the Long Mynd near Church Stretton, will lead the "God's Acre" service at St Margaret's Church. Mr Morris said: "It was a very odd practice and would not have been approved of by the church but I suspect the vicar often turned a blind eye to the practice." Locals began the collection to restore the grave, which had fallen into disrepair in recent years, believing it would be good to highlight the custom and Mr Munslow's place in religious history. It took a few months to raise the £1,000 needed to pay for the work, carried out by local stonemason Charles Shaw. Mr Morris said: "This grave at Ratlinghope is now in an excellent state of repair but I have no desire to reinstate the ritual that went with it." ********** THE SIN-EATERS  Sin eaters and the custom of sin eating seem to come from Wales. Early descriptions of the ritual all mention the bread eaten over the corpse, as well as the payment of sixpence to the person assuming the sins of the dead. Below are two 19th century accounts of sin eaters."In the county of Hereford was an old custom at funerals to hire poor people, who were to take upon them all the sins of the party deceased, and were called sin-eaters. One of them, I remember, lived in a cottage on Ross high-way. The manner was thus: when the corpse was brought out of the house, and laid on the bier, a loaf of bread was delivered to the sin-eater over the corpse, as also a mazar-bowl (a gossip's bowl of maple) full of beer, which he was to drink up, and sixpence in money; in consequence whereof, he took upon him, ipso facto, all the sins of the defunct, and freed him or her from walking after they were dead. In North Wales, the sin-eaters are frequently made use of; but there, instead of a bowl of beer, they have a bowl of milk. This custom was by some people observed, even in the strictest time of the Presbyterian government. And at Dyndar, volens nolens the parson of the parish, the relations of a woman deceased there had this ceremony punctually performed according to her will. The like was done in the city of Hereford in those times, where a woman kept many years before her death, a mazar bowl for the sin-eater, and in other places in this county, as also at Brecon, at Llangore, where Mr. Gwin, the minister, about 1640, could not hinder this superstition." -- Aubrey of Gentilisme, MS. quoted in Kennett's Par. Ant. vol. 2, p. 276. In some part of Wales a very extraordinary rite was observed. "When a person died, the friends sent for the sin-eater of the district, who on his arrival places a piece of salt on the breast of the defunct, and upon the salt a piece of bread. He then muttered an incantation over the bread, which he finally ate; thereby eating up all the sins of the deceased. This done, he received the fee of two shillings and sixpence, and vanished as quickly as possible from the general gaze; for as it was believed that he really appropriated to his own use and behoof the sins of all those over whom he performed the above ceremony, he was utterly detested in the neighbourhood -- regarded as a mere Pariah -- as one irremediably lost." Sin-eating was not a Bardic idea, it seems to have been a perverted and perverse tradition, probably reaching Wales by an oriental channel, in which the Jewish scape-goat and Christian Eucharistic Sacrifice are blended in disguise and distortion. "The popular notion in Pembrokeshire, with reference to the placing of salt on the bodies of the dead, was that it kept away the evil spirit." -- From Welsh sketches, by Ernest Silvanus Appleyard Sin eaters and sin eating - Freeing the dead from their sins Click for video - Theatrical trailer for the 2008 film 'The Last Sin Eater" Click for video - The 2003 film 'The Order' with Heath Ledger also dealt with the sin-eaters The Last Sin-Eater Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  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