Man's Skin Turns Dark Blue

It's not makeup or paint that makes Paul Karason's skin a deep purple color. The 57-year-old started making the transition from fair skin and freckles to what he looks like today 14 years ago.

"The change was so gradual that I didn't perceive it and for people around me, likewise," Karason said. "It was just so gradual that no one really noticed. It wasn't until a friend that I hadn't seen in several months came by my parents' place to see me and he asked me 'what did you do?'"

What Karason did was use a substance called colloidal silver, which is made by extracting silver from metal. It goes into water with an electrical current and then you drink it. Colloidal silver is billed as something that will cure just about everything that ails you and Karason swears by it.

Karason does not believe drinking the potion is what caused his discoloration. He believes it happened because he rubbed it on his face to treat a skin problem. A medical condition called Argyria has been linked to such discoloration since the days when silver solutions were used as antibiotics.

See a video about this story here: http://spluch.blogspot.com/2007/12/mans-skin-turns-dark-blue.html

Real-life Superheroes: 10 People with Incredible Abilities

Taken from: http://www.oddee.com/item_91848.aspx

Published on 11/27/2007

With so many superhero movies around, such as Spiderman or Hulk, we are used to see people with special abilities in fiction. But people with amazing abilities actually do exist in real life; here's a list of 10 of the most amazing of these people!

The Incredible Brain (Daniel Tammet)

Daniel Paul Tammet is a British high-functioning autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematical calculations, sequence memory, and natural language learning. He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy. Experiencing numbers as colors or sensations is a well-documented form of synesthesia, but the detail and specificity of Tammet's mental imagery of numbers is unique. In his mind, he says, each number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape and feel, that he can "see" results of calculations as landscapes, and that he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful. Tammet not only verbally describes these visions, but also creates artwork, particularly watercolor paintings, such as his painting of Pi.

Tammet holds the European record for memorising and recounting pi to 22,514 digits in just over five hours. He also speaks a variety of languages including English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic, Welsh and Esperanto. He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels. Tammet is creating a new language called Mänti. Tammet is capable of learning new languages very quickly. To prove this for the Channel Five documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic, with his Icelandic language instructor saying it was "not human."

The Boy with Sonar Vision (Ben Underwood)

Ben Underwoodtaught is blind, both of his eyes were removed (cancer) when he was 3. Yet, he plays basketball, rides on a bicycle, and lives a quite normal life. He taught himself to use echo location to navigate around the world. With no guide-dogs, he doesn't even need hands: he uses sound. Ben makes a short click sound that bounces back from objects. Amazingly, his ears pick up the ecos to let him know where the objects are. He's the only person in the world who sees using nothing but eco location, like a sonar or a dolphin.

The Rubberboy (Daniel Browning Smith)

Five time Guiness Record holder, The Rubberboy is the most flexible man alive and the most famous contortionist. He has been in many professional basketball or baseball games and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ESPN's Sports Center, Oprah Winfrey, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Cirque du Soleil, Best Damn Sports Show Period, The Discovery Channel, Men in Black 2, HBO's Carnivale, and CSI: NY and American got a talent. He dislocates his arms to crawl through an unstrung tennis racquet. He performs contortion handstands and unique acrobatics.

Mister Eat-it-All (Michel Lotito)

Michel Lotito (born 1950) is a French entertainer, famous as the consumer of undigestables, and is known as Monsieur Mangetout (Mister Eat-it-all). Lotito's performances are the consumption of metal, glass, rubber and so on in items such as bicycles, televisions, a Cessna 150, and smaller items which are disassembled, cut-up and swallowed. The aircraft took roughly two years to be 'eaten' from 1978 to 1980. He began eating unusual material while a child and has been performing publicly since 1966. Lotito does not often suffer from ill-effects due to his diet, even after the consumption of materials usually considered poisonous. When performing he consumes around a kilogram of material daily, preceding it with mineral oil and drinking considerable quantities of water during the 'meal'. He apparently possesses a stomach and intestine with walls of twice the expected thickness, and his digestive acids are, allegedly, unusually powerful, allowing him to digest a certain portion of his metallic meals. Watch the Video at YouTube.


Go here to see all the other superheroes.

Blog Watch: Play Pong on a Canon Calculator

ed: This is a hoax. Sorry folks. Tried it on two canon calculators but no go.

You'll just have to pull out your Colecovision. This is the one I used to have. I was always disappointed that I couldn't watch a show while playing. That didn't seem like too much to ask.



Play Pong On Calculators! - video powered by Metacafe

The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century.

The following is reprinted from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader: World of Odd.

Here’s the story of how scientists unlocked the secrets of the worst natural disaster in the history of the West African nation of Cameroon… and what they’re doing to try and stop it from happening again.

THE DISCOVERY

On the morning of August 22, 1986, a man hopped onto his bicycle and began riding from Wum, a village in Cameroon, towards the village of Nyos. On the way he noticed an antelope lying dead next to the road. Why let it go to waste? The man tied the antelope onto his bicycle and continued on. A short distance later he noticed two dead rats, and further on, a dead dog and other dead animals. He wondered if they’d all been killed by a lightening lightning strike – when lightening lightning hits the ground it’s not unusual for animals nearby to be killed by the shock.

Soon the man came upon a group of huts. He decided to see if anyone there knew what had happened to the animals. But as he walked up to the huts he was stunned to see dead bodies strewn everywhere. He didn’t find a single person still alive—everyone in the huts was dead. The man threw down his bicycle and ran all the way back to Wum.

SOMETHING BIG

Nyos village, where nearly 2,000 people were killed (Image Credit: Jack Lockwood)

By the time the man got back to the village, the first survivors of whatever it was that had struck Nyos and other nearby villages were already stumbling into Wum. Many told tales of hearing an explosion or rumbling noise in the distance, then smelling strange smells and passing out for as long as 36 hours before waking up to discover that everyone around them was dead.

Wum is in a remote part of Cameroon, so it took two days for a medical team to arrive in the area after local officials called the governor to report the strange occurrence. The doctors found a catastrophe far greater than they could have imagined: Overnight, something had killed nearly 1,800 people. Plus more than 3,000 cattle and countless wild animals, birds and insects—in short every living creature for miles around.

The official death toll was recorded as 1,746 people, but that was only an estimate, because the survivors had already begun to bury victims in mass graves, and many terrified survivors had fled corpse-filled villages and were hiding in the forest. Whatever it was that killed so many people seemed to have disappeared without a trace just as quickly as it had come.

Read the full story on Neatorama

Hackers leave graffiti on Mars

This is probably a hoax but a compelling one. ed

Pasadena, California, 14 August 1997, 3:00 pm PDT

NASA scientists revealed today that they had been unable to contact the Pathfinder lander and the Sojourner rover for a period of over seven hours last week. During that time, the computers that are responsible for maintaining contact with Pathfinder were apparently under the control of hackers who had broken into the site through a modem dialup connection ordinarily used for system maintenance. Pictures revealed by NASA today showed that the hackers had reprogrammed the Sojourner rover to scrawl graffiti on the rock known as "Yogi". The grafitti appears to resemble the logo of a nefarious criminal hacker site known as "DigiCrime". Authorities have been questioning the chief members of DigiCrime, who deny any involvement in the incident. DigiCrime representatives were unavailable for comment.

The Sojourner rover appears to have suffered no significant damage other than losing precious time. NASA officials believe that the graffiti was created by spraying a lubricant from one of the Sojourner's robotic arms. The lubricant container in that arm is now empty, but the rover can function normally with the lubricant from the other arm.

According to NASA spokesman Carl Harmon, NASA officials quickly noticed that the breakin had occurred, and eliminated the connection from the modem. Unfortunately, by the time they realized there was a problem, the hackers had left behind a modified version of the inetd program on one of the control machines that continued to feed commands to the lander. Each time that NASA scientists tried to regain control by sending commands to the lander, they were rejected because the authentication keys in the lander had been replaced. The problem was finally fixed by reinstalling the operating system on the main control computer, breaking the new keys in the lander, and reinstalling new keys known only to NASA.

"If we had been able to use strong cryptography, this would not have happened", said Harmon. "Unfortunately, the combination of US export controls and NASA's joint space program with Russia resulted in an engineering design decision to use 40 bit keys," continued Harmon. The hackers were apparently able to break these keys with ease, and it took NASA some time to break the replacement keys again and regain control.

Former astronaut and now Senator John Glenn (R-Ohio) called for an immediate investigation into the apparent inability of the US to secure their civilian information systems. "If this is what NASA could do with all of their millions, we should probably worry about smaller organizations like the Air Traffic Control System", said Glenn.

NASA officials appeared to be more embarrassed than upset, but are still keeping a tight lid on information surrounding the incident. It is rumored that NASA officials are frantically investigating whether the same problem could arise with the Space Shuttle program. Officials from the Russian space program observed that Russia does not have such controls on cryptography, and the MIR space station is unaffected by the weakness.

Blog Watch: The No. 1 Most Disgusting Video on the Internet! Bar None!!!

I have truly been to the lowest levels of the Internet lately. Innocently dragged there by StumbleUpon.
I'm truly in a moral dilema about what I'm going to share with you in this post. I will not go into graphic detail. Actually I won't even send you directly to it, but instead will let you have the introduction I had to it - through another video showing the reactions of three college-aged girls watching what must only be a really, really, really disgusting video. Even better, there is now a whole site now dedicated to videos of people watching the video. http://www.fucd.com/index.php?link=4954

Here's another version of reactions to the same video.


In fact, I won't even go into detail about what this video is about. You have to find that out for yourself. Just be prepared that, unless you are a very small, small percentage of humans (and i stress humans because what you will see if you dare go there is actually pretty common in other species, but definitely taboo in our own) who like that kind of thing, this will absolutely repulse you. I'm totally serious. I was almost sick.
For your own sanity, just keep in mind that with a minor colour-change technique, chocolate ice cream can be made to look like anything.
It's still pretty horiffic. My stomach turned.
I don't know who's worse, the people who made this piece of fresh Hell, or me, for passing it on to you.

So go here if you dare. Don't say I didn't warn you. I tried.

http://www.fucd.com/index.php?link=4954

Jesse James a Western Robin Hood?

Jesse James once sought shelter at a lonely farmhouse. The widow there apologized for her poor hospitality. She said she had very little money and despaired of paying the debt collector, who was coming imminently to demand $1,400.

James gave her $1,400 and told her to get a receipt. Then he hid outside and watched the road.

The debt collector arrived, looking grim, and entered the house. A few minutes later he emerged, looking pleased.

James accosted him, took back the $1,400, and rode off.

ed: This is a story off the internet, so who knows. I'd like to think it's true.

World's Craziest Skin Condition

Sasquatch Tracks in British Columbia?

Posted by: John Kirk on March 6th, 2007 on Cryptomundo.com

Possible new sasquatch tracks have been found and photographed in southwest British Columbia. The location is a mere 45 minute drive from downtown Vancouver.

Things in British Columbia are beginning to heat up with the pre-spring thaw currently taking place. It is distinctly possible that the sasquatch population is moving closer to human habitation in search of food.

The photos and story behind them can be seen at the Westcoast Sasquatch website forum. The site was created by Ken Kristian and Gerry Matthews and is a repository of the activities of British Columbia groups such as Westcoast Sasquatch, the BCSCC and independent investigators such as Tom Steenburg and John Green.

Click here to read the story and see the photos. Post your comments here for all to share.

UFO science key to halting climate change: former Canadian defense minister

Wed Feb 28, 2:45 PM

OTTAWA (AFP) - A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.

Alien spacecrafts would have traveled vast distances to reach Earth, and so must be equipped with advanced propulsion systems or used exceptional fuels, he told the newspaper.

Such alien technologies could offer humanity alternatives to fossil fuels, he said, pointing to the enigmatic 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico -- which has become a shrine for UFO believers -- as an example of alien contact.

"We need to persuade governments to come clean on what they know. Some of us suspect they know quite a lot, and it might be enough to save our planet if applied quickly enough," he said.

Hellyer became defense minister in former prime minister Lester Pearson's cabinet in 1963, and oversaw the controversial integration and unification of Canada's army, air force and navy into the Canadian Forces.

He shocked Canadians in September 2005 by announcing he once saw a UFO.

Famous People born on February 7

1102 - Empress Matilda, Princess of England and wife of Henry V of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1169)




1693 - Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)




1812 - Charles Dickens, English novelist (d. 1870)




1867 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)




1906 - Puyi, Emperor of China (d. 1967)




1962 - David Bryan, American musician (Bon Jovi)

Bigs Bunny!

Source: New York Post
Date: 6 February 2006

HEY! IT'S BIGS BUNNY

German Giant, one of the biggest bunnies on the face of the planet, tips the scales at 17 pounds — almost seven pounds more than the average rabbit of his breed.

And he’s still growing, according to German breeder Hans Wagner (above), whose hair-raising angora hare was the highlight of a recent rabbit fair in Berlin.

On all paws, German Giant, named for the world’s largest rabbit breed, stands 17 inches tall. And standing on his hind feet, he’s more than three feet tall.

To find out how unusual Wagner’s wabbit is, The Post contacted Six Bells Rabbitry in Arvada, Colo.

“That’s a huge animal. That’s amazing,” said breeder Michelle Jones. “In the States, it’s hard to get them past 12 to 15 pounds.”

How did German Giant get so big?

“I don’t feed him an unusual diet,” said Wagner. “He goes through more than his brothers and sisters, but he eats the same food mix. His favorite food is actually lettuce. He can never get enough of it.”

Herr Hare is unusual in another way, he noted. “Unlike some other rabbits I’ve had, he’s really a gentle character — a gentle giant.”

Wendigo Stories

Found this interesting tidbit on the Supernatural fan site http://www.supernaturalfans.com/wendigos.php

Jack Fiddler

Many
Wendigo murder trials took place in Canada at the beginning of the 20
th century. Probably one of the most famous murder trials was that of
Jack Fiddler. Fiddler was a Cree Indian who claimed that he killed 14
wendigoes during his lifetime. In October 1907, both Fiddler and his
son Joseph were tried for murdering a Cree Woman, whom they claimed was
possessed by the spirit and was on the verge of transforming into a
wendigo. Both men were found guilty and were imprisoned. Fiddler died
at the age of 87.

The Dreaded D Box!!!

Okay so hopefully this will be the last entry about this. Frankly it's starting to creep me out a little.
I sent an email to Benjamin Grundy, host of the Mysterious Universe podcast, thinking he might be interested in the events of the last couple of days, especially my own little computer problems.

I received this reply:

Oh no! Not that damn box again.

Thanks for the email Steven. Ever since doing that show I've been flooded with emails from listeners complaining about the "bad luck" they've received since listening.

I still get at least 1 per week.

Let us never speak of it again ;)

Thanks for listening.

All the best,

Ben Grundy

I agree, Ben. Let's not!

Ogopogo Witness Critically Ill in Indian Hospital

I found this interesting bit of news about a BC guy who seems attract weirdness.

It comes from this great blog http://www.cryptomundo.com/

A witness to a famous Ogopogo sighting in 2004 is lying critically ill in hospital in India after a freak accident aboard a local train.

Josh Casorso, his father John and other members of his family were aboard a houseboat on Okanagan Lake on August 9, 2004 when at about 7:30 in the morning they were suddenly awakened by a collision between an unknown object and their houseboat. The Casorso family were jolted awake by the impact and they promptly rushed above decks to see what could have struck their vessel.

The Casorsos spotted a long sinuous creature displaying a series of humps swimming away from their boat. John Casorso whipped out his digital camera and began recording the creature. I have seen about 30 seconds of the footage, but I would not say that it definitely shows Ogopogo, but it does show something very unusual in the water that COULD be Ogopogo.

Read the whole story here: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptid-universe/casorso/

Dibbuk Box - the story continues...

Kevin, the original box owner, got back to me with the following reply:

Steve,

I found your blog after one of the many people who watch the net for "Dibbuk Box" stuff sent me your address. It looks like you are from the Northwest which caught my eye. It also looked like you were honestly curious about the matter, as opposed to someone with an agenda or a pre-conceived idea of what it was all about. It has been a fascinating story and a wild experience. Let's hope that this arms length correspondence is as "personal" as it ever gets for you. I don't know how to explain the things have happened around the box. I know what happened when I had it, and I have been contacted by the current owner and he has told me of his experiences which are bizarre to say the least. Then, beyond myself, the guy I sold the box to, and the current owner, there are literally hundreds of accounts that I have received from people all over the world, as has the current owner, who claim that they have had freaky and oddly similar experiences while researching or following the story. There have been numerous accounts of people, who are totally unrelated, having their computers spontaneously combust. Just as common are the numbers of individuals whose eyesight is affected. I have no explanation, but it does continue to intrigue me and pique my curiosity.

Consider me a new friend in the N.W.

There is a somewhat humorous salutation that has become popular among those who follow the story...

Don't mock the Box,

Kevin

By the way, last night i had problems with the display on my laptop.
I also had an odd error message show up when i tried to view this post after I first published it. Neither have ever happened before!

Now It Gets Even Stranger - Dibbuk Box (cont.)

Okay, this is weird. My last entry was about the Dibbuk Box.
Well, this morning, I checked my email and there was this message:

Hey Steve,

I was the original owner of the Dibbuk Box. I was the one who posted it on eBay. Everything I put in that listing was real and can be substantiated with documentation and public records. If you ever have any questions, feel free to write me at _______-________

I just thought you'd like to know,

Kevin

Now I'm still trying to figure out how this came about.
I have only had this blog up and running since about the 8th of the month and i have talked about this blog to nearly no one.
I am assuming that Kevin is using a RSS tool like Google Alerts to keep track of the box and stories about it. Considering the posting had only been up one day, I'm pretty impressed.
It was cool that he wrote me back personally.

His name, by the way, is Kevin Mannis. After a bit of Googling, his name did come up as the original owner.

The Truth is out there!

The Dibbuk Box - Yikes!!

I have recently subscribed to a podcast Mysterious Universe. Their halloween show has a really spooky story about the Dibbuk Box - an apparently cursed artifact. It is very Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff.

Is it true or an elaborate hoax designed to spread virally through suckers like me? Read and listen if you dare!!

Mysterious Universe is a weekly program dedicated to bringing you the latest news from beyond the mainstream. From future science, ancient history, and the paranormal to the UFO phenomenon, join us in taking an alternative look into the Universe around us.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/mysteriousuniverse

There is going to be a movie on the subject.

I love this stuff.

TV on the Internet

I've been spending a lot of time at this site:

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/

It has a huge range of programs including shows on tv now like Weeds and Heroes. It basically has 3 categories: TV shows, Cartoons (my favorites are The Venture Bros. and Robot Chicken) and Anime.
I'm 3/4 of the way through the whole run of the X Files. Oddly, Season Four is missing! Perhaps it's time to call in Mulder and Scully...
For Vancouverites like me, it's fun to see people I know, like Jacques Lalonde, Claire Riley and Lorena Gale. Even saw Morris Panych in one episode. He's pretty sinister as a body-burning doctor.
Of course, the locations are fun to revisit, too.
In the same vein, check out the old episodes of the Twilight Zone. A true classic.

Another site worth spending time at is this one: http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/#free_movies
which features one of my favorite NFB animated short, The Man Who Planted Trees, a truly poetic and inspiring story narrated by Christopher Plummer.

All these play with Google video or some similar player so most people (PC users anyway) won't need to install any new software.

The best part?
NO COMMERCIALS!!!

Welcome to my first personal blog!

So who am I?

Up until 4 years ago I was working full time in the healthcare field as a group home worker. A stress-related work injury gave me an opportunity to career jump after 13 years, and so, after finding out about the Arts and Entertainment Management program at Capilano College, jump I did.

It was an emotional and frightening move for me, but a lifesaving one, nonetheless. The only thing I miss is the paycheque, and while important, is unsubstantial when I think about how much more fulfilling and interesting my life is these days.

My business card now calls me producer, publisher, talent agent, graphic designer, poet. Add to that teacher, publicist, and corporate sponsorship development officer and you begin to get an idea. Primarily, I think of myself as a writer. I’ve probably been doing that the longest and it is something that I still dedicate a lot of time to everyday, whether I’m blogging, creating press releases and marketing articles, or just journaling. I work part-time in the marketing department of the Vancouver Civic Theatres. Although my job isn’t very glamorous (website updating and number crunching) I do get to see some great shows from time to time.

I’m basically self-employed, working from home, running a business teaching marketing and corporate fundraising to artists and non-profits. I also run a small talent agency dealing with corporate events and bringing entertainers into schools.

On occasion I do get to be an artist myself and was most recently was involved as director of a multi-disciplinary show called ANU, which took place at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

I am also proudly president of Vancouver Celtic Festival Society and am it’s spoken word co-ordinator for the festival (March 14-18, 2007).

You can hear me every week on Co-op Radio’s Wax Poetic (Wednesdays at 2pm PST) where I co-host a show with Vancouver Poetry House president Randy Jacobs a.k.a. R.C. Weslowski. Tune us in at 102.7 on your fm dial or go to http://www.coopradio.org/listen/index.html.

I live in East Vancouver’s vibrant Commercial Drive neighbourhood, which is known for its food and it’s live entertainment. Living in a multi-culturally diverse, working class neighbourhood with lots of old houses, artists and coffee shops, I feel very fortunate to be able to walk out my door any time of the day or night, and within 5 minutes, be able to experience some of the best food and music found anywhere in the city.

Why a blog like this?

I’ve always harboured the fantasy of having an opinion column. When I created my first blog, The Creative Spin, for artists looking to learn more about making a living from art, I immediately saw the blog’s potential and wanted to explore the technology further.

I’ve been journaling for several years but, aside from a few pointed poems, I’ve kept my opinions to myself.

I guess that if I were to open a library, like the US presidents do, this blog would be it -an unabridged collection of things that are somehow important to me; my own little curiosity shop!

It will be a musing almanac. I’ll even throw on some poetry. Why not? I’ll include links I find interesting, news items, events I go to, stories I hear, whatever.

It won’t necessarily be a daily post, because my crazy self-employed life won’t allow me that luxury (lucky for my subscribers!) but I hope to keep it fresh. If you like what you read here, I encourage you to check out my other blog and my corporate site www.srduncan.com and comment on them if you wish.

I’ve also started an online Vancouver events calendar which is open to anyone who wants to add their own events. It’s a great resource for you out of town folk, who want to find some fun to do when you’re here. Let your friends know about it, too!

I hope you enjoy this blog. Feel free to comment! I’d love to hear from you.

Charles Hatfield: One More Reason To Not Trust The Government

Back near this day in 1916, rainmaker Charles Mallory Hatfield, who claimed to successfully produce rain 500 times, was approached by the drought-plagued San Diego city council to fill the Morena Dam reservoir.

Hatfield offered to produce rain for free, then charge $1,000 per inch ($393.7 per centimetre) for between forty to fifty inches (1.02 to 1.27 m) and free again over fifty inches (1.27 m). The council voted four to one for a $10,000 fee, payable when the reservoir was filled.

The rain did come. Too much rain!

By January 27, 3 dams had overflowed, killing at least 20 people and causing an estimated 4.3 million dollars in damage.

The San Diego city council refused to pay, stating that the rain was an “act of god”, not the result of Hatfield’s chemical formula. There was no written contract in place.

Hatfield’s fame continued to grow, despite this legal fiasco.

Finally, the Great Depression did the great rainmaker in. Lack of rain forced Charles Hatfield back to his old job as a sewing machine salesman.

Find out more about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hatfield