God Answers Praying Woman

Worried about the safety of her family during a stormy Memorial Day trip to the beach, Clara Jean Brown stood in her kitchen and prayed for their safe return as a strong thunderstorm rumbled through Baldwin County, Alabama. But while she prayed, lightning suddenly exploded, blowing through the linoleum and leaving a blackened area on the concrete. Brown wound up on the floor, dazed and disoriented by the blast but otherwise uninjured. She said 'Amen' and the room was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. The 65-year-old Brown said she is blessed to be alive. Firefighters said its likely she was hit by a bolt of lightning that apparently struck outside and traveled into the house yesterday afternoon. She was found lying on the floor by her 14-year-old granddaughter.Fire officials think the lightning likely struck across the street from the couple's home and traveled into the house through a water line. The lightning continued into the couple's backyard and ripped open a small trench. A family member said he will no longer assume it is safe to be indoors during a lightning strike. Dime-sized hail and wind gusts of up to 45 miles-per-hour moved across coastal Baldwin County. As much as three inches of rain fell in some areas in three hours.

The Ghost Of Suri

The "ghost" of Suri has been put to rest. After scaring people in several villages in Suri, the Birbhum district headquarters, the police managed to catch hold of the "ghost" a pigeon with a plastic skull hanging from its neck and red bulbs around the eye-sockets. In the last one month, five people were reportedly attacked by the "ghost", leaving scratch marks. Police officers said the bird was probably being used to create panic but there are no answers as to why anyone would do so. "This shows how birds and animals can be used for creating panic.But we don't know who did this and why," DSP Amitabha Maity said. The bird was caught from Kaita village after locals informed the police. "A battery powered miniature circuit was used for lighting the bulbs. The glowing red light and the skull seen during the night created panic," said Maity. The "ghost" was first seen a month ago by a man in Kalipur village, who had scratches all over his face after being attacked. He was admitted to the Suri hospital. Some days later, a boy in a Dubrajpur village was attacked in a similar manner. Three more people were similarly attacked. With irate locals blocking roads after the police's apparent failure to nab the "ghost", night patrols had been increased. Several people had described the "ghost" as a man and at times as a monkey. A special team was formed and the police also got in touch with the forest department. They had also roped in village panchayat pradhans to capture the "ghost".

Growing Glowing Nanowires To Light Up The Nanoworld

The nano world is getting brighter. Nanowires made of semiconductor materials are being used to make prototype lasers and light-emitting diodes with emission apertures roughly 100 nm in diameter--about 50 times narrower than conventional counterparts. Nanolight sources may have many applications, including "lab on a chip" devices for identifying chemicals and biological agents, scanning-probe microscope tips for imaging objects smaller than is currently possible, or ultra-precise tools for laser surgery and electronics manufacturing. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are growing nanowires made of gallium nitride alloys and making prototype devices and nanometrology tools. The wires are grown under high vacuum by depositing atoms layer by layer on a silicon crystal.NIST "grows" semiconductor nanowires that emit ultraviolet light as part of a project to make prototype nano-lasers and other devices and the measurement tools needed to characterize them. Electron micrograph shows the gallium nitride wires growing on a silicon substrate (color added for contrast.)NIST is one of few laboratories capable of growing such semiconductor nanowires without using metal catalysts, an approach believed to enhance luminescence and flexibility in crystal design. The wires are generally between 30 and 500 nanometers (nm) in diameter and up to 12 micrometers long. When excited with a laser or electric current, the wires emit an intense glow in the ultraviolet or visible parts of the spectrum, depending on the alloy composition. A paper in the May 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters reports that individual nanowires grown at NIST produce sufficiently intense light to enable reliable room-temperature measurements of their important characteristics. For example, the peak wavelength of light emitted with electric field parallel to the long axis of a nanowire is shifted with respect to the peak wavelength emitted with electric field perpendicular to the wire. Such differences in emission are used to characterize the nanowire materials and also may be exploited to make sensors and other devices. NIST has grown a variety of nanowires and extensively characterized their structural and optical properties, finding few defects, strains or impurities, which results in high light output compared to the bulk material. The wires also can be transferred from the silicon crystal to other substrates, such as sapphire, and arranged using electric fields. The NIST team has used the nanowires to make a number of prototype devices, including light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, and nanowire "bridge" structures that may be useful in sensors and nanoscale mechanical resonators.

Duck's X-Rayed Gut Has UFO (Unidentified Facial Object)

At first glance it appeared to be a straightforward case of a broken wing. Members of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia knew just what to do. They would X-ray the bird and determine the best course of treatment. What happened next, however, left them all a little daffy. When Marie Travers, assistant manager of the center, radiographed the duck, she was stunned to see a very clear image of what appeared to be the face, or head, of an extraterrestrial alien in the bird's stomach. ``Marie looked at it and all she could say was `unbelievable,''' said Karen Benzel, public affairs director for the rescue center, which has been rescuing sick and injured birds for more than three decades.Having never seen such an image in an X-ray before, the staff nervously began to joke about alien invasions, said Benzel. After all, wasn't nearby Fairfield the subject of much media attention from crop circles just a little while ago? Unfortunately, the duck died quickly and quietly of its injuries. Initial reports from the center were that the cause of the alien face was never determined, but Benzel said late Thursday that she was still awaiting results of a necropsy on the bird. Either way, the center has come up with a way to turn their alien encounter into a fund-raiser for the center. They will auction off the X-ray on eBay. The one-of-a-kind image, which measures 17-by-14 inches, will be sold along with a certificate of authenticity.All of the proceeds will go toward funding IBRRC's rehabilitation programs. Jay Holcomb, director of the rescue center said he's hopeful the image will garner significant interest and funds for the center, much like images of the Madonna on cheese toast. The auction is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday. Established in 1971, the rescue center is the world's leading first responder bird rescue organization and has saved countless birds from the devastating effects of hundreds of oil spills, including the Exxon Valdez, Apex Houston and MV Treasure disasters.

Mystery Of Market Ghost

Ghostly goings-on have brought a new dimension to shopping at Mablethorpe's Red Doors Market, on Victoria Road. Who is the mysterious pixie-featured man who makes the occasional appearance? And what knocks CDs off their racks, but leaves their cases neatly in place? These are questions market owner, Sheila Gooding, and traders who use the market would like to know – although they believe their spirited visitor may be a former hotel worker who lived in the town over 100 years ago. Sheila told the Leader: "We call him Tom. But we don't know why he keeps appearing, and this has been going on for many years." Sheila has owned the Red Doors Market for 38 years and knows it was once the old Road Car garage. About 100 years ago the building connected with the Book In Hand hotel via a door, now boarded over. The market's resident clairvoyant, Laura-Sue, is one of the few who have actually seen Tom. She describes him as under five feet tall, of slim build and with dark hair, and with the features of an Irish pixie. It is believed Tom was in charge of the Book In Hand garage, when the pub was a thriving hotel.Haunted: Stall holders Rae Ironside, Peter Sweeney and clairvoyant Laura-SueStall-holder, Peter Sweeny, has also seen Tom, and one of his customers may have been closer to him than they realised. Sheila said: "A couple with a dog went to Peter's stall and the dog just froze. They had to carry it out. Another stall-holder came to open up and found CDs scattered everywhere, but the empty cases were still neatly on the shelf." Sheila has also witnessed shoe boxes being knocked off a shelf. She said: "It was as if someone had taken their arm straight across the shelf. Sometimes he goes at night and swaps over all the price tickets." Another eerie thing happened when Sheila told a health and safety official about the ghost. "She rang me later to say his name wasn't Tom, but Tommy! She had been relating the story to her husband when the name Tommy appeared on the table," said Sheila.

Castle Dracula To Be Returned To Owner

More than 60 years after it was seized by communists, the Romanian government is to hand back one of the country's most popular tourist sites, the fabled Castle Dracula, to its former owner, the culture minister said. The hand-over ceremony will take place Friday noon in the 14th century castle's museum deep within the fortress in Transylvania, said minister Adrian Iorgulescu at a news conference. The castle, worth an estimated US$25 million, was owned by the late Queen Marie and bequeathed to her daughter Princess Ileana in 1938. It was confiscated by communists in 1948 and fell into disrepair.It was inherited by Dominic van Hapsburg, a New York architect who will be at the ceremony on Friday, said Iorgulescu. The Hapsburgs ruled Romania for a period starting in the late 17th century. Under the agreement, the owner will not be allowed to make any changes to the castle for the next three years, Iorgulescu said. Restoration work began in the late 1980s and was partially completed in 1993. It is now one of Romania's top tourist destinations. While known and marketed as "Dracula's Castle," the Bran Castle never belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's Count Dracula character, but the prince is thought to have visited the medieval fortress.The Gothic fortress, perched on a rock, has appeared in numerous Dracula movies.
Vlad the Impaler At the gates of Bran Castle, peasants sell Dracula sweaters hand-knitted from the thick wool of local sheep, cheesecloth blouses, and Vampire wine. Bran Castle is the most famous of 15 citadels and fortresses in the area, which were built by peasants to keep out marauding armies of Turks and Tartars and cruel local medieval lords. Another former royal property, the Peles Castle, built in the late 19th century in the mountain town of Sinaia, will be returned to former King Michael, who owned it before it was confiscated by the communist regime in 1948. Romania passed legislation earlier this year to return property to its former owners and establish a "property fund" to pay damages for assets that cannot be returned. The fund includes stock in state-owned companies that are being privatized, such as utility companies, the Romanian postal service, and the Savings Bank.

'UFO' Crashes Off KwaZulu-Natal Coast

Port Shepstone rescuers are monitoring a mysterious situation in which "numerous" eye-witnesses reported an unidentified object crashing into the sea, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said. Eddie Noyons, NSRI Shelley Beach Station Commander, said eye-witnesses reported that an Unidentified Flying Object, possibly an aircraft, had crashed into the sea behind the breaker line off-shore of the Port Shepstone High School. Police, rescue craft and a fixed wing aircraft were alerted to the scene to investigate. "Following a full-scale search of the area covering 12 square nautical miles nothing has been found.""There are no reports of activity in the area that may be related to this incident and there are no aircraft reported to be overdue or missing," said Noyons. He said numerous eye-witnesses — including teachers and pupils attending a sports event at the highschool, and other by-standers including local fishermen — were convinced they had seen an aircraft go into the water, including seeing smoke and water exploding. Interviews with the witnesses revealed that some also reported seeing flames. "Some reported seeing something, an unidentified object, splash into the sea causing a ripple effect of waves, " Noyons said. Due to the number of eye-witnesses with similar reports, it was presumed that weather activity in the area at the time might have given the impression of something falling into the sea. "We will continue to monitor the situation which remains a mystery," he said.

Light's Most Exotic Trick Yet: So Fast It Goes ... Backwards?

In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers at the University of Rochester have published a paper today in Science on how they've gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. As if to defy common sense, the backward-moving pulse of light travels faster than light. Confused? You're not alone. "I've had some of the world's experts scratching their heads over this one," says Robert Boyd, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics at the University of Rochester. "Theory predicted that we could send light backwards, but nobody knew if the theory would hold up or even if it could be observed in laboratory conditions." Boyd recently showed how he can slow down a pulse of light to slower than an airplane, or speed it up faster than its breakneck pace, using exotic techniques and materials. But he's now taken what was once just a mathematical oddity—negative speed—and shown it working in the real world.Robert Boyd, Professor of Optics "It's weird stuff," says Boyd. "We sent a pulse through an optical fiber, and before its peak even entered the fiber, it was exiting the other end. Through experiments we were able to see that the pulse inside the fiber was actually moving backward, linking the input and output pulses." So, wouldn't Einstein shake a finger at all these strange goings-on? After all, this seems to violate Einstein's sacred tenet that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. "Einstein said information can't travel faster than light, and in this case, as with all fast-light experiments, no information is truly moving faster than light," says Boyd. "The pulse of light is shaped like a hump with a peak and long leading and trailing edges. The leading edge carries with it all the information about the pulse and enters the fiber first. By the time the peak enters the fiber, the leading edge is already well ahead, exiting. From the information in that leading edge, the fiber essentially 'reconstructs' the pulse at the far end, sending one version out the fiber, and another backward toward the beginning of the fiber." Boyd is already working on ways to see what will happen if he can design a pulse without a leading edge. Einstein says the entire faster-than-light and reverse-light phenomena will disappear. Boyd is eager to put Einstein to the test.So How Does Light Go Backwards? Boyd, along with Rochester graduate students George M. Gehring and Aaron Schweinsberg, and undergraduates Christopher Barsi of Manhattan College and Natalie Kostinski of the University of Michigan, sent a burst of laser light through an optical fiber that had been laced with the element erbium. As the pulse exited the laser, it was split into two. One pulse went into the erbium fiber and the second traveled along undisturbed as a reference. The peak of the pulse emerged from the other end of the fiber before the peak entered the front of the fiber, and well ahead of the peak of the reference pulse. But to find out if the pulse was truly traveling backward within the fiber, Boyd and his students had to cut back the fiber every few inches and re-measure the pulse peaks when they exited each pared-back section of the fiber. By arranging that data and playing it back in a time sequence, Boyd was able to depict, for the first time, that the pulse of light was moving backward within the fiber. To understand how light's speed can be manipulated, think of a funhouse mirror that makes you look fatter. As you first walk by the mirror, you look normal, but as you pass the curved portion in the center, your reflection stretches, with the far edge seeming to leap ahead of you (the reference walker) for a moment. In the same way, a pulse of light fired through special materials moves at normal speed until it hits the substance, where it is stretched out to reach and exit the material's other side [See "fast light" animation]. Conversely, if the funhouse mirror were the kind that made you look skinny, your reflection would appear to suddenly squish together, with the leading edge of your reflection slowing as you passed the curved section. Similarly, a light pulse can be made to contract and slow inside a material, exiting the other side much later than it naturally would [See "slow light" animation]. To visualize Boyd's reverse-traveling light pulse, replace the mirror with a big-screen TV and video camera. As you may have noticed when passing such a display in an electronics store window, as you walk past the camera, your on-screen image appears on the far side of the TV. It walks toward you, passes you in the middle, and continues moving in the opposite direction until it exits the other side of the screen. A negative-speed pulse of light acts much the same way. As the pulse enters the material, a second pulse appears on the far end of the fiber and flows backward. The reversed pulse not only propagates backward, but it releases a forward pulse out the far end of the fiber. In this way, the pulse that enters the front of the fiber appears out the end almost instantly, apparently traveling faster than the regular speed of light. To use the TV analogy again—it's as if you walked by the shop window, saw your image stepping toward you from the opposite edge of the TV screen, and that TV image of you created a clone at that far edge, walking in the same direction as you, several paces ahead [See "backward light" animation]. "I know this all sounds weird, but this is the way the world works," says Boyd.

Exorcist Jailed For Molesting A Woman With A Lemon

A bogus exorcist who molested a Singapore woman with a lemon has been sentenced to nine months in jail and three strokes of the cane, court documents obtained Tuesday said. Indian national Singarahalli Chinnaswamy Manjaiah was in Singapore on a social visit pass when he approached a 33-year-old housewife outside a shopping centre on March 2, a statement of facts filed by the prosecution said. Manjaiah, 30, convinced her that he was a fortune teller and that she was possessed by a "kutty-satan", or little demon.He told her she would die soon or become a prostitute if the kutty-satan was not removed by his prayer ritual at a cost of 263 Singapore dollars (166 US), the statement said. Believing she was possessed, the woman met Manjaiah two days later and he took her to a quiet spot at a public housing complex to perform the ritual, it said. Insisting that to cure her he must rub a lemon all over her body, "the accused inserted his right hand into the complainant's sari and rubbed the lemon on the complainant's breasts, stomach, navel and genitals," the prosecution stated. Manjaiah sobbed loudly when the subordinate court passed sentence.

Scientists Find 'Living Fossil'

French scientists who explored the Coral Sea said Friday they discovered a new species of crustacean that was thought to have become extinct 60 million years ago. The “living fossil,” 12-centimetre female that the scientists baptized Neoglyphea Neocaledonica, was discovered at a depth of 400 metres during an expedition in the Chesterfield Islands, northwest of New Caledonia, the National Museum of Natural History and the Research Institute for Development said in a statement. Another so-called living fossil from the Neoglyphea group was discovered in 1908 in the Philippines by the USS Albatross, a U.S. Navy research vessel. It remained unidentified until 1975 when two French scientists from the natural history museum identified and named it Neoglyphea inopinata. More of the creatures were then found in expeditions to the Philippines between 1976 and 1984.Neoglyphea NeocaledonicaIn October, marine biologist Philippe Bouchet and Bertrand Richer De Forges found the new species of the same living fossil group while trolling an undersea plateau in a remote area between Australia and New Caledonia. Mr. Bouchet, in a telephone interview with Associated Press, described the creature as “halfway between a shrimp and a mud lobster.” Its huge eyes, reddish spots and thick-set body distinguished it from the 1908 crustacean. The huge eyes suggest that light plays a role in the behaviour of the creature, which could actively hunt prey, Mr. Bouchet said. With the Coral Sea discovery, “the group is less completely extinct than was thought,” he said. Beyond the intrinsic value of the discovery, the marine biologist said he had been working in the region for two decades before coming across the elusive creature, underscoring that “there are places on this planet incredibly remote and little explored.” The discovery “conveys a message that, in the first years of the 21st century, the exploration of planet Earth is not over,” Mr. Bouchet said.

DNA Hints At Jill The Ripper

Jack the Ripper could well be a Jill. In a bid to crack the identity of one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time, technology developed in Australia has tested 118-year-old DNA the notorious serial killer may have left behind and built a partial female profile. Scientist Ian Findlay today said the partial profile had been created from saliva possibly from the Ripper on the back of stamps on the envelopes of letters sent to London police. Most of the 600 or so letters claiming to have come from the Ripper – who butchered at least five prostitutes in London's East End in 1888 – have been dismissed as hoaxes but a few are thought to be genuine. Brisbane-based Professor Findlay said he used his method, called Cell Track-ID, capable of extracting and compiling a DNA fingerprint from a single cell or strand of hair up to 160 years old.It can amplify information from a single cell and is hundreds of times more powerful than DNA profiling techniques used by crime fighting bodies such as the FBI that require at least 200 human cells. "It's possible the Ripper could be female but the results are inconclusive," said Prof Findlay, who is the chief scientific officer at the Gribbles Molecular Science forensic lab. He said because the samples were so old, very small and poorly preserved, only a partial profile was built that "didn't reach forensic standards" nor identified an individual. "It shows the technology works ... the FBI lab in Virginia got no profiles ... but the samples were just too difficult," Prof Findlay said. The partial profile was built from what is known as the Openshaw letter. "The Dear Boss letter, said to have blood stains from (victim number five) Mary Kelly had a male profile so it wasn't the blood of Mary Kelly," he also said. Prof Findlay tested hair and debunked the belief it was from another mutilated victim, Catherine Eddowes. The detective in charge of the case, Frederick Abberline, suggested the Ripper was a woman following claims Ms Kelly was seen hours after she was killed. Abberline believed this was the killer escaping in Kelly's clothes. Mary Pearcey was the only female suspect and was convicted and hanged for killing her lover's wife shortly after the Ripper murders – and reportedly used the same modus operandi.

Early Humans Had Sex With Chimps

Our early ancestors interbred with chimpanzees after the two species drew apart millions of years ago, a new paper suggests. The provocative idea is sketched by US genome experts, who have discovered that hominids and chimps diverged far more recently, and over a much longer timescale, than anyone had thought. During this time, the authors theorise, the two primates were rather more than kissing cousins: they had sex, swapping genes before making a final separation. "The ... analysis revealed big surprises, with major implications for human evolution," says Professor Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and co-author of the paper in today's issue of the journal Nature. Until now, the belief was that humans and chimpanzees shared a common ancestor but went their separate ways around 6.5-7.4 million years ago. The basis for this is a carbon-dated fossil called Toumai, whose supporters say is the oldest known human. Its critics, though, dismiss Toumai as an ape.The estimate is also backed by the molecular clock, a method of calculating evolution on the basis of the speed at which genes mutate. Previous molecular-clock studies have focused on the average genetic difference between human and chimp. But the new paper takes a different approach. Exploiting the mountain of data that has come from the human and chimpanzee genome projects, the researchers compared the genetic codes of the two species as they are today. They then estimated the various age of key sequences, rather than the overall average. They believe that the two species made their split no later than 6.3 million years ago and probably less than 5.4 million years ago. In other words, around 1 to 2 million years earlier than the Toumai estimate. Moreover, speciation of chimp and hominid, the process by which they emerged as separate species, took an extraordinary long time: around four million years in all. The youngest chromosome in the human genome is the X, which helps determine gender. On average, X is around 1.2 million years more recent than the 22 non-sex chromosomes, the scientists found. Lander describes X's tender age as "an evolutionary 'smoking gun'". Previous studies suggest that sex chromosomes are among the most vulnerable of chromosomes when it comes to interbreeding. This is because co-mingling places its genes under swift selective pressure.Thus something unusual must have happened on the way to speciation: an initial split between human and chimp, followed by interbreeding, whose results show up in progressive younger genes, and then a final separation. Lead author Dr Nick Patterson, also at the Broad Institute, says that Toumai's claimed status as humans' ancestor has been somewhat clouded. "It is possible that the Toumai fossil is more recent than previously thought. But if the dating is correct, [it] would precede the human-chimp split," he says. "The fact that it has human-like features suggest that human-chimp speciation may have occurred over a long period with episodes of hybridisation [inter-breeding] between the emerging species." A gradual divergence of species through hybridisation, rather than a quick break, may be far more common than we suspect. "That such evolutionary events have not been seen more often in animal species may simply be due to the fact that we have not been looking for them," says the team's senior author, Assistant Professor David Reich, also of the Broad Institute.

80-year-old Woman Eats Stones For 70 Years

There is a mystical old woman living in a small village in Guofu town, Qijiang county, Chong Qing city, China. The woman is nearly 80 years old. For the last 70 years, she has eaten smallstones every day and appears to be healthier than other villagers her age. According to the "Approaches to Science" TV program, Darong is a typical village in that area. However, because the strange old woman by the name of Luo Kairong lives there, this secluded village has become famous. A villager said, "She is very healthy. We have never seen her unwell. She is competent at several things. She can carry things in the fields in winter and cut firewood in her bare feet."We understand that Luo has eaten small stones for more than 70 years and even once ate half a wall. From her appearance, she looks like any other elderly peasant. There is nothing overtly different. Granny Luo said that she is particular about the stones she eats. She never eats "soft" stones; her favorites are the very hard green sandstones gathered from the mountains. To her, the harder stones are tastier. She eats stones just like ordinary people munch on peanuts. Looking at the doubtful expressions in our eyes, she brings a red cloth bag from her house and stuffs her mouth with a handful of gravel. Granny Luo eats these stones nonstop and chews with great gusto. Seeing is believing. It is hard to believe that an 80-year-old woman could consume so many small stones. Granny Luo told us that her teeth have been worn down from eating the stones. She has had to replace her dentures three times. Then, why can an elderly person swallow a stone that is seemingly tasteless and hard to swallow without being choked or falling sick? Experts say this could possibly be related to the fact that Granny Luo has eaten soil since childhood. According to Granny Luo, she was born into a very poor family. She had many brothers and sisters in her family and her family's financial situation was poor. She could not yet walk when she was two or three years old; therefore, she moved about by crawling. Because of the lack of food, Luo begun to eat soil. After she was married in Qijiang, she changed to eating stones because she did not like the taste of the soil there. Since then she has eaten stones daily for 50 years. During this period, Granny Luo tried to break the habit but she was not successful. Granny Luo said that she cannot stop eating stones because she is accustomed to it. She will be uncomfortable if she doesn't eat some every day.

Da Vinci Code Pisses Off Albinos

The notion of Christ as a family man is not the only raw nerve "The Da Vinci Code" has touched. Albinos are bothered that one of their own has yet again been depicted as a villain. Dan Brown's best seller begins its worldwide debut Wednesday with Tom Hanks as the cryptologist pursuing a 2,000-year-old mystery that could reveal Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that the Vatican covered it up. Among his co-stars is Paul Bettany, the British actor playing monk- assassin Silas, an albino with red eyes who carries out a series of bloody murders to secure the secret of the Holy Grail, a trove of lost Christian documents that could prove Jesus had wed. Critics cite a long list of albinos cast as heavies by Hollywood: The dreadlocked twins in "The Matrix Reloaded," a powder-haired hit man in the Chevy Chase-Goldie Hawn crime romp "Foul Play," the pasty zombies in "The Omega Man," a sadistic killer in "Cold Mountain," even the wicked executioner in the fairy-tale comedy "The Princess Bride."Michael McGowan, an albino who heads the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, said "The Da Vinci Code" will be the 68th movie since 1960 to feature an evil albino. "Silas is just the latest in a long string," McGowan said. "The problem is there has been no balance. There are no realistic, sympathetic or heroic characters with albinism that you can find in movies or popular culture." People with albinism have little or no pigmentation in their skin, eyes and hair. McGowan said his group asked "Da Vinci Code" director Ron Howard's production outfit, Imagine Entertainment, not to bleach Silas' hair or make his eyes red, but "that fell on deaf ears." When offered the role, Bettany initially thought mainly of the makeup challenge, saying past attempts to lighten non-albino actors' pigmentation had not looked realistic. Bettany said he looked at Silas not as an evil albino but as a man damaged by his harsh upbringing. In the book, Silas was an abused child who wound up on the streets, was scorned as an outcast, turned to violence and landed in prison. "I thought, this man's a psychopath, and he's not a psychopath because he's an albino," Bettany said. "He's an amalgamation of everything that sort of happened to him in his life. How his father treated him and the things he saw his father do to his mother, and he happens to be preternaturally gifted at hurting people. ... "I think it's no more a comment on albinos than it is on monks, and no more a comment on monks than it is on people who wear sandals," Bettany said. Many readers found Silas a tragic character despite his misdeeds, viewing him more as a lost sheep than a villain. McGowan said his group plans no boycotts or picketing. Instead, the group aims to use the movie's popularity to raise awareness about the realities of albinism. He said he enjoyed most of the book and plans to see the movie. "We understand that millions read it and when they go to the movie, they're going to want to see the albino monk-assassin," McGowan said. "It's the cumulative effect of having one evil albino character after another that was disturbing to me."

New Origin-Of-Life Theory

U.S. scientists have found a previously unknown biochemical process suggesting a new theory concerning the origin of life on Earth. Proponents say the new, "thermodynamic" theory of evolution improves on current theories of the origin of life by proposing a central role for energy conservation during early evolution, based on a simple three-step biochemical mechanism. The research also provides insights into the evolution of the microbial production of methane, a detailed understanding of methane biosynthesis could lay the foundation for a new alternative energy source, by raising the possibility of cost-efficient conversion of renewable biomass into clean fuel.Penn State professors James Ferry and Christopher House plan to announce their new theory in the June issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. "We've taken a new approach to thinking about the evolution of life from a thermodynamic perspective," Ferry said. "It reshapes the two previous theories of life's origin, it shows how they overlap, and it extends both of them significantly." The U.S. Department of Energy and NASA's Astrobiology Institute sponsored the research.

Bears Eat Monkey At Zoo In Front Of Visitors

Bears killed and ate a monkey in a Dutch zoo in front of horrified visitors, witnesses and the zoo said. In the incident at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, several Sloth bears chased the Barbary macaque into an electric fence, where it was stunned. It recovered and fled onto a wooden structure, where one bear pursued and mauled it to death. The park confirmed the killing in a statement, saying: "In an area where Sloth bears, great apes and Barbary macaques have coexisted peacefully for a long time, the harmony was temporarily disturbed last week-end." "Of course the habitats here in the safari park are arranged in such a way that one animal almost never kills another, but they are and remain wild animals," it said.Witness Marco Berelds posted a detailed report on the incident, including photos, on a Dutch Web site. He said one Sloth bear tried unsuccessfully to shake the monkey loose after it took refuge on the structure, built of crossing horizontal and vertical poles. Ignoring attempts by keepers to distract it, the bear climbed onto a horizontal pole, and, standing stretched on two legs, "used its sharp canines to pull the macaque, which was shrieking and resisting, from its perch." The bear then brought the animal to a concrete den, where three bears ate it. The zoo said it "usually wasn't possible" for keepers to intervene when an animal killed another. The park plans now to move the Barbary macaques _ which are large monkeys but often inaccurately called "Barbary Apes" _ to another part of the park, it said.

British Airspace UFO Free For 30 Years

None of the numerous UFOs reported over Britain in the last 30 years was a flying saucer, the government said as it released previously secret defence files probing mysterious aerial sightings. The declassified study -- "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in the UK Air Defence Region" -- concluded that such UAP do exist and are "usually described as coloured lights and sometimes as shapes". "Very occasionally they are reported with sound and even with smell," it added. But it noted that "reports occur because they comprise unfamiliar and unexpected lights, shapes and patterns, in the context in which the observer sees them. The phenomena occur on a daily, worldwide basis". Man-made objects, such as airplanes, are also often mis-seen or are actually meteors re-entering the Earth's atmosphere causing "bouyant plasmas".Rare weather, atmospheric conditions or other "barely understood" natural events could also be causes. "There is no evidence that any UAP seen in the UKADR are incursions by objects of any intelligent (extra-terrestrial or foreign) origin, or that they represent any hostile intent," the unnamed author of the report said. "There is no evidence that 'solid' objects exist which could cause a collision hazard." The study, which aimed to assess whether Britain was threatened by UAPs and "should the opportunity arise, to identify any potential military technologies of interest", concluded there was "nothing of defence intelligence value". But it warned Royal Air Force pilots, who are most likely to encounter such phenomena, not to try to intercept UAPs because of the threat of collision. The report, marked "Secret. For UK Eyes Only", was made public following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Strange Creatures Found Beneath The Bermuda Triangle

The quantity and diversity of tiny creatures found in a deep-sea survey in the Bermuda Triangle region of the Atlantic Ocean is amazing scientists. During a 20-day cruise last month, researchers used trawling nets and scuba divers to explore down to 3 miles beneath the ocean surface. Previous studies of small ocean creatures focused only on the top half-mile or so. Several of the animals — tiny zooplankton, shrimp-like things, little squid, bizarre worms and pulsing jellyfish — are featured in a new image gallery. Among more than 1,000 different organisms collected, the project found "what appear to be several undescribed species that may well prove new to science," said the cruise's scientific leader, Peter Wiebe of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The expedition has provided a new understanding of the diversity of gelatinous zooplankton, which the researchers describe as "the gooiest, stickiest, and most transparently fragile animals of the sea." They are rarely captured without being destroyed.Researchers want to know what's down there and what the various species are like. This will help them better understand the food chain and also gauge ocean health with similar surveys in the future. Hundreds of the captured critters were analyzed onboard the research ship using DNA barcode technology, which reveals differences in species. The cruise was part of a larger project to make a global inventory of zooplankton by 2010.It's called the Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ). "We are just starting to realize how little we know about species variety," said Ann Bucklin, a University of Connecticut marine scientist who leads CMarZ. "We used to think we knew many species well, but the advent of DNA barcoding has radically altered that perception. Genetically distinctive species of zooplankton are being found with increasing frequency."Zooplankton serve a vital role in combating global warming. They spend their days in the deep and then commute more than a third of a mile to the surface each night to feed on carbon-absorbing plants called phytoplankton. The zooplankton then carry the carbon from the surface to the depths, effectively sequestering it from the atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas. The tiny creatures also help feed humans. Here's a rough idea of how researchers think the food chain works: Some 10,000 pounds of phytoplankton is consumed by 1,000 pounds of zooplankton, which in turn support 100 pounds of larger zooplankton, which become meals for 10 pounds of small fish species like herring or anchovies, which support 1 pound of a larger fish species that might end up on your dinner table.Some birds and whales eat zooplankton, too. "By 2010, the research conducted by this project will provide a baseline against which future generations can measure changes to the zooplankton and their provinces, caused by pollution, over-fishing, climate change and other shifting environmental conditions," Bucklin said.

Mysterious Cat Creature

Several Central Ohio drivers claimed they saw a strange animal. The question is whether the creature is a big cat. A previous sighting of a large cat-like creature was reported in Pataskala. The recent sighting was in Millersport. "It was sleek, quick and the color was gray and black," John Kaminsky, a witness, told reporters. Kaminsky said he was driving on Millersport Road at about 7 a.m. when something raced through a farm field and across the road. "It was different. I've seen fox. I've seen coyote. I've seen every kind of animal. I'm nearly 70 (years old). I've been around, but I've never seen an animal look like that," he said. Kaminsky said the animal ran across a field and disappeared into a group of trees. The farmer who owns the land said he's seen a lot of deer and a few coyotes, but Kaminsky said the animal's tail was too long to be a coyote.

Grizzly-Polar Bear Hybrid

A DNA test has confirmed what zoologists, hunters and aboriginal trackers in the far northern reaches of Canada have dreamed of for years: the first documented case of a grizzly-polar bear in the wild. Roger Kuptana, an Inuit tracker from the Northwest Territories, suspected the American hunter he was guiding had shot a hybrid bear after noticing its white fur was spotted brown and it had the long claws and slightly humped back of a grizzly. Territorial officials seized the bear's body and a DNA test from Wildlife Genetics International, a lab in British Columbia, confirmed the hybrid was born of a polar bear mother and grizzly father. It's something we've all known was theoretically possible because their habitats overlap a little bit and their breeding seasons overlap a little bit," said Ian Stirling, a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton, Alberta. "It's the first time it's known to have happened in the wild."He said the first person to realize something was different about the bear _ shot and killed last month on the southern end of Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea _ was Kuptana, the guide. "These guides know their animals and they recognized that there were a number of things that didn't look quite right for a polar bear," Stirling told The Associated Press. The bear's eyes were ringed with black, its face was slightly indented, it had a mild hump to its back and long claws. Stirling said polar bears and grizzlies have been successfully paired in zoos and that their offspring are fertile, but there had been no documented case in the wild. Kuptana, a guide from Sachs Harbour in the Northwest Territories, was tracking with Idaho big-game hunter Jim Martell, who paid $45,450 for a license to hunt polar bears. The DNA results were good news for the 65-year-old hunter, who was facing a possible $909 fine and up to a year in jail for shooting a grizzly. The Northwest Territories Environment and Natural Resources Department now intends to return the bear to Martell. "It will be quite a trophy," Martell told the National Post last week, even before the DNA results were in. He returned to Yellowknife for another hunt, this time for a grizzly bear. He told the newspaper he has dubbed the creature "polargrizz." Stirling said his colleagues have come up with a few names of their own for the hybrid: a "pizzly" or a "grolar bear." One colleague suggested calling it "nanulak," combining the Inuit names for polar bear _ "nanuk" _ and grizzly bear, which is "aklak." "He has a remarkable trophy from his perspective and from the perspective of this whole fraternity of people who like to go big-game hunting for trophies," said Stirling.When asked how he felt about the rare beast being killed, the biologist would only say that Canada's polar bear hunt which runs from December through the end of May is done on a sustainable basis. Colin Adjun, a wildlife officer in Kugluktuk on the northern mainland in western Nunavut, said he's heard stories about an oddly colored bear cavorting with polars. "It was a light chocolate color along with a couple of polar bears," Adjun said. Though people have talked about the possibility of a mix, "it hasn't happened in our area," he said. Three years ago, a research team spotted a grizzly on uninhabited Melville Island, 215 miles north of where Martell bagged his crossbreed. Polar bear and grizzly territories also overlap in the Western Arctic around the Beaufort Sea, where the occasional grizzly is known to head onto the sea ice looking for food after emerging from hibernation. Some grizzly bears make it over the ice all the way to Banks Island and Victoria Island, where they have been spotted and shot. That might explain how a grizzly got to the region, but few can explain how it managed to get along with a polar bear long enough to mate.

Controversial Disease Doctors Refuse To Treat

Imagine being so sick you’re unable to work, but can’t find a doctor who will help you. Reporters discovered that is exactly what is happening to a growing number of people in Texas, Florida and California. Morgellons disease is an illness first documented more than 300 years ago, yet it is still considered a mystery. Cheryall Spiller moves slower than she once did around her Rosharon farm. The 59-year-old suffers from what she believes is a mystery disease. “Small white worms that come out of my ears, you can feel them itching in there. You can get a Q-tip and dig them out,” she explained. Spiller is not alone. “The sores come up and these fuzzy things come out,” said Stephanie Bailey, Austin resident. “It’s almost like spores or something like that.” Lesions and scars cover Stephanie Bailey’s arms and legs. Travis Wilson is a victim too. “Feeling like bugs are crawling all over you. You can’t sleep. It’s freaky. So he’d go days without sleep,” said Lisa Wilson, patient’s mother.According to nurse practitioner Ginger Savely, all three may have an emerging sickness called Morgellons disease. “it just looks you know like somebody picked at something and it got a little infected,” Savely said. When magnified 60 times the sores take on a different look. “So you focus a little more you can see the black fibers the white fibers,” Savely said. Savely admitted the idea of creatures living inside our bodies seems more like science fiction than science. “I don’t think a person can believe it until they see it with their own eyes,” she said. “The problem is people aren’t looking hard enough, most practitioners are not looking because they are not taking them seriously.” Mainstream medical professionals don’t believe Morgellons is real. “I think if we look at what is truly evidence-based medicine, what has been proven based on scientific fact we know we don’t have a means to substantiate her observations,” said Dr. Adelaide Hebert, U.T. Health Science Center Houston. Dr. Adelaide Hebert said Morgellons exists only in the patient’s mind. “Many of these patients do have delusion of parasitosis,” Dr. Hebert said. “It is actually not uncommon to have patients come in and describe the sensation that something is crawling on their skin.”News Investigators could not locate any Houston doctor who believes in or treats Morgellons. At Oklahoma State University research is underway on a volunteer basis. Ginger Savely has documented 100 cases and treats her patients with oral and topical antibiotics. “They can’t get anybody to help them in the medical profession. It’s just a nightmare, a living nightmare. I can’t imagine any worse disease,” she said. Lisa Wilson’s son became so distraught about his condition he took his own life two weeks ago. “He would tell me he’d rather have cancer because then he’d know what he was up against,” Lisa Wilson said. “They’re worried about the bird flu coming, you’ve got something here right now that’s spreadable and it’s being hush-hushed,” Spiller said. “They told me I was doing it to myself and that I was nuts,” Bailey explained. “I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up.” The scars are more than skin deep.

Alleged Vampire Victims Speak Out

Two high school students from Queens who claim a fellow student bit them like a vampire are speaking out about the alleged attacks. Hillcrest sophomores Cynthia LaFortune and Michelle Melendez told their stories for the first time publicly. They both say a 15-year-old girl bit them repeatedly, in separate incidents, and tried to suck their blood. Photos of one of the girls show marks left on the skin. The girls say they have no idea why they were targeted."First she started stabbing me with a metal comb, then she started biting me everywhere until she got a hold of my left cheek," LaFortune said. "She bit me below my neck." A lawsuit has been filed against the school over the attacks. The suspect has been arrested and charged with assault. A total of three girls claim they were attacked.Hillcrest sophomores Cynthia LaFortune and Michelle Melendez told their stories for the first time publicly

Girl Sucked Into Whirlwind

Swirling wind swept a trampoline into the air and over a fence as a 4-year-old girl was jumping on it, knocking her unconscious and breaking her arm and pelvis, witnesses told police. Grace Hove was hospitalized after Sunday's freak accident with the broken bones as well as a dislocated jaw and bruises to a lung and kidney, her mother said. "She's expected to make a full recovery," Rae Hove said Monday. "Thank God. It could have been worse."Witnesses, including two adults, reported the trampoline was lifted as high as 25 feet, Sheriff's Capt. Bob Stancel said. "One man saw the whirlwind, then he saw the trampoline fly up into his view," Stancel said. "He said it was as high as the trees." The trampoline landed partly on a highway with the girl pinned underneath, he said. The swirling wind might have been a "dust devil," a localized, spinning pocket of air, said Jim Assid, a National Weather Service technician. Such meteorological oddities can occur when air heated by the ground rises rapidly through the cool air above it, Assid said. Dust devils as large as 10 feet wide and 13 miles tall have been documented, he said.

Aliens Not To Blame For UFOs

Hopes or fears that the earth has been visited by alien life forms have been dismissed in an official report by British Defence specialists. The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a secret study completed in December 2000 found no evidence that 'flying saucers' or unidentified flying objects were anything other than natural phenomena. The 400-page report, released under Freedom of Information laws to an academic from the northern city of Sheffield, concluded that meteors and unusual atmospheric conditions could explain UFO sightings such as bright lights in the sky. "No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces," the report said, according to extracts quoted by reporters."Evidence suggests that meteors and their well-known effects, and possibly some other less-known effects, are responsible for some unidentified aerial phenomena.
"Considerable evidence exists to support the thesis that the events are almost certainly attributable to physical, electrical and magnetic phenomena in the atmosphere, mesosphere and ionosphere." A Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesman says the full report, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region, will be published on its website on May 15. The ministry publishes annual lists of UFO sightings on its website, which rank among its most viewed pages. In 2005 the ministry was asked under freedom of information laws for details of its plans for "dealing with the arrival of extra-terrestrials". "While we remain open-minded, to date the MOD knows of no evidence which substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena and therefore has no plans for dealing with such a situation," an unnamed Defence official said.

UFOs Over Penang

Could the object in the picture be an Unidentified Flying Object? These are among the questions raised after the object was captured on film by a guest at the Paradise Sandy Beach Resort in Tanjung Bungah. The Australian tourist was photographing the sunrise around 8am from the balcony of his hotel room when he caught the object on film. The tourist, who wished to remain anonymous, only realised the presence of the object a day later, when he was checking out.Hotel public relations officer Virginia Scully said the tourist left a copy of the photograph with the hotel before leaving for Australia. "He asked if we had seen such sightings from the hotel," Scully said at the hotel yesterday.

Dunes Of Titan

International space scientists reported that dark patches on Titan, the largest of Saturn's 47 moons, earlier thought to be seas, may actually be largely made up of dunes of ice crystals, sand or some other unknown material. Ralph Lorenz of the University of Arizona, who worked on the study revealed that the images of Titan beamed back to earth from the joint U.S.-European Cassini mission “look just like radar images of Namibia or Arabia.”Sand dunes in the Namib desert (top) look a lot like those on Saturn's moon Titan (bottom).The latest radar images show the dunes are up to 500 feet high and hundreds of miles long. The researchers find the presence of the dunes "comforting", as they can study the processes that lead to their formation on Earth. The European Space Agency also released new movies of the descent of its Huygens probe to Titan's surface. The probe is piggybacked onto the Cassini spacecraft.

Michigan Bigfoot Expert Has Compelling Evidence Of A Connection Between Bigfoot and UFOs

Michigan Bigfoot expert and certified Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) field investigator Lisa Shiel will be the featured speaker at the May 7, 2006, meeting of the Michigan MUFON chapter at Walli's East Restaurant in Burton, Michigan. During her presentation of “Bigfoot and UFOs,” she will present the results of years of personal research into both phenomena and clearly explain the usually overlooked connections between them.Lisa ShielShiel is a recognized expert on Bigfoot, having been interviewed in newspapers and on radio and TV. She recently founded the Michigan Upper Peninsula Bigfoot Organization (MUPBO) to probe sightings in the region and provide UP residents a source for information. Shiel earned her certification as a MUFON field investigator in January and is the only certified UFO investigator in Michigan’s UP. Shiel developed her research skills through earning a master’s degree in library science and certification as a professional librarian.Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC published the first two books in her Human Origins Series of novels over the past two years. These novels wrap intriguing mysteries and nonstop adventure around her alternative theories of human evolution and her explanations of scientific close-mindedness in the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Her latest book, the nonfiction “Backyard Bigfoot: The True Story of Stick Signs, UFOs, and the Sasquatch” released in March by Slipdown Mountain, expands on her theories and offers rigorous and thoroughly documented evidence to support them. Following her presentation to Michigan MUFON, Shiel will offer copies of her books for sale and autographing.

Weeping Madonna Mystifies Germans

A devout Catholic woman in the southern German town of Traunstein has reported blood emerging from a 30 centimeter figurine of a praying Virgin Mary standing in her apartment. The town's newspaper has dispatched its newshounds and the local church is deeply skeptical. The inhabitants of the Bavarian town of Traunstein have been perplexed by reports that tears of blood have been trickling from the eyes and limbs of a little statue of the Madonna standing in the apartment of a pensioner. It has bled almost every day since Good Friday, the woman named only as Renate D. told the local press. "Somehow it's like a miracle but I can't explain it," she said.She described herself as "pious but not fanatical" and said she wouldn't dream of making the story up or manipulating the figurine she bought 15 years ago for the equivalent of €40 during a visit to Catholic Poland. She also claimed to have witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary, who instructed her to talk about the suffering in the world. The local priest has visited the woman and came away saying it appeared to be an "individual religious experience" by a single person. The chair of the diocese has said it will launch an investigation if further checks warrant it. Reporters from the local newspaper, the Traunsteiner Tagblatt, visited the flat and said the face, hands, feet and robe of the 30 centimeter white gipsum figure appeared to be smeared with blood. The newspaper conducted forensic tests on the blood and found it to be human. Now the reporters claim to have solved the mystery but won't say who they think is behind it. They first want to compare the Madonna blood smears with blood from the people they suspect. The only problem is that their suspects are refusing to submit to blood tests. The mystery continues.

Ghost Blamed For Courthouse Disturbances

Some of the people who work in Flemington’s Hunter County Courthouse say that the ghost of Bruno Hauptmann, the man who in 1935 was convicted there of kidnapping and killing the toddler son of Charles Lindbergh, is flipping on the courthouse’s lights every night. They say that the strange happenings began a month ago when renovations started to make the courthouse look as it did in 1935. "It’s Hauptmann’s ghost," county administrator Cindy Yard says.Bruno Hauptmann However, county architect Frank Bell says the courthouse’s new electricity system is the most probable cause. The renovation included sensors that shut off the lights when no one is present in certain areas of the building. Bell says the system is very sensitive and reacts when air currents shift from a heating or cooling system starting up.

Time Travel Swirl

Ronald Mallett, a University of Connecticut physics professor, thinks time travel is possible—and he's designed an experiment that could do it. Basically, he wants to "swirl" empty space the way you'd swirl coffee in a cup, using a laser as the stirrer. Because space and time are more or less the same, swirling empty space could also swirl time. Mallett would then drop subatomic particles into his roiling cup of space-time and see if they're hurtled a few nanoseconds into the future.The idea sounds esoteric, but it's based in solid theory: Einstein's, in fact. "It's anchored in the general and special theories of relativity, and that's why people take it seriously," Mallett says. But not everyone. Robert Ehrlich, a physicist at George Mason University, says the idea of time travel is "not disreputable" —scientists have been suggesting time-travel mechanisms for decades—but that Mallett's plan has a major flaw: his device is small enough to sit on a desktop. While it may very well work, says Ehrlich, the effect would be "so small that it would be impossible to measure." Mallett's going ahead either way; he's just written his first book, "Time Traveler," a memoir. But unless he builds a time machine soon, you'll have to wait until November to read it.