Ghost Scares Couple Out Of Home!
A man and wife spent years restoring an old mansion, only to flee in terror because of the murderous acts of a demented ghost!
George and Clara Swanson, of Birmingham, Alabama, have always made a good living buying, repairing and selling houses.
"We only lived in a place long enough to fix it up," George explains. "Then in 2006, we got this house at a bargain price and decided to make it a showplace that we would keep."
Unfortunately, the malevolent spirit of a previous owner had other ideas.
"We were halfway through the renovation when the trouble started," Clara recalls. "One morning as I walked up the spiral staircase, a figure covered head-to-toe in a shroud suddenly popped up on the landing."
"The shock of seeing the ghost sent me crashing down the stairs, and I was lucky I didn't break my neck."
George admits he was skeptical about Clara's account of the bizarre incident at first.
"It seemed a bit farfetched to me until late one night, the ghost woke us up shrieking and throwing objects around the bedroom," says the 57-year-old carpenter.
"I was so freaked out it took a minute for me to react, and when I lunged for him, he disappeared in a puff of smoke."
The terrified couple never got back to sleep that night, and in the following weeks, the frightening assaults continued to escalate.
"It got so I couldn't go down to the basement because I never knew when stuff would start flying off the shelves," recalls Clara, 54.
"Sometimes, he'd make this terrible banging sound that shook the very foundation and nearly burst my eardrums."
The final blow came soon after the installation of a magnificent chandelier in the front hall of the mansion.
"I had a crew of workmen secure it to the ceiling, and even took extra precautions to assure it was firmly fastened to a beam," George explains.
"But all that work meant nothing. An hour later, the whole massive piece came crashing down, nearly crushing Clara, who was standing below it!"
"That did it for us. We packed up and left before nightfall, and we won't be going back. No house is worth dying for."
Hula Hoopage
Video
Half a century after the original Hula Hoop took America by storm, the nation's favorite plastic circle is back!
This time, it's adults who've picked up the hip-swaying sensation, swapping videos and organizing Hula Hoop parties over the Internet.
The "hoopers," as they call themselves, even organized a World Hoop Day on August 8, giving away Hula Hoops in cities around the globe.
California toymaker Wham-O sold the first Hula Hoops in 1958, launching America's first toy fad. But today's hoopers are just as likely to make their own.
some attend weekly hoop classes, where students are taught how to do figure-eights, how to spin a hoop on their arms or legs and how to swap a spinning hoop between left and right hands.
Explains Max Reid, of Washington, D.C.: "There certainly are people who are literally living the hoop life!"
Todd Bentley Religious Revival
Video
A burly, tattooed ex-convict is bringing the Holy Spirit to flocks of pilgrims who travel across the country to experience his unique, no-nonsense words of hope and healing.
Todd Bentley isn't the kind of person you'd expect to find leading a religious revival in the small southern town of Lakeland, Florida.
The Canadian-born preacher was raised by a mom on welfare and a dad whose version of fatherly love included dropping by to get drunk and do drugs with his underage son.
"Alcoholism, drugs, drinking at 11 - I got involved in all kinds of criminal activity," he recalls. "I ended up in prison before I was 15."
He served a sentence for sexually abusing a younger boy, and continued his downward spiral when he got out.
"I'd break into vehicles, I'd steal, and as I got older, I'd take your drugs," he explains. "I got involved with people who were affiliated with gangs and bikers."
He listened to satanic music and OD'ed on drugs three times. But then something miraculous happened.
At 18, Bentley says he heard God talking to him - and he turned his life around.
Today, the 32-year-old born-again Christian attracts faithful followers from more than 130 nations, including dozens who say they've been healed by Bentley's prayers.
His revival has attracted several skeptics, who say none of his healing powers have been independently verified.
One woman whose ulterine tumor shrank away after seeing Bentley was undergoing medical treatment at the same time.
Brian Burgee, a minister from Florida's Tampa Bay area, had been deaf in his right ear for 34 years. But after Bentley prayed over his head, his hearing mysteriously returned.
Bentley answers critics by pointing out that he doesn't make an extra cent from his healing services. He lives modestly on a salary from his nonprofit ministry.
"Miracles and healings are evidence - they are signs of the Kingdom," Bentley explains. "If we don't have signs, then all we have is a bunch of theology."
The Quest For Bigfoot
Video
Meet the bigfoot hunter - a seasoned outdoorsman, veteran and spy-equipment expert who has dedicated his life to capturing proof of the huge, hairy humanoid.
William Dranginis first saw Bigfoot in 1995 while on a lonely logging road in the woods near Culpeper, Virginia. He designs surveillance equipment for a living, and was testing a metal detector with two FBI agents.
One agent noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye.
He turned to look - and found himself staring into the eyes of something half-human, half-ape.
Both agents drew their guns, and Dranginis saw the huge humanoid hide behind a tree, then run deeper into the forest.
"I could see its shoulders going back and forth like a football player wearing padding," Dranginis recalls. "The thing was sailing through the woods."
The next day, Dranginis and one of the agents returned to make a plaster cast of the creature's footprint, and heard a pair of creatures rustling in the underbrush and whistling to each other.
"I'm never coming back, and neither should you," the agent told him.
But Dranginis doesn't give up so easily.
Since then, he's set up motion detector cameras in the woods. He's used night-vision scopes and thermal sensors. He's designed special DNA-collecting tranquilizer darts.
He's even invented a new surveillance system, the Eye Gotcha, with a wireless camera transmitting pictures to an armored-plated underground computer.
He's traveled around the country in a customized, 24-foot van.
And he's collected a surprising amount of tangible proof - including hair, footprint casts and photos of a 9-foot-tall creature racing through the trees.
Dranginis has even shared his findings with anthropologist Jane Goodall, the renowned ape expert, who discussed the hooting, gorilla-like cries Bigfoot is said to make.
"I've talked to so many Native Americans who've all described the same sounds - two who've seen them," Goodall declares.
Other researchers believe the mysterious humanoid isn't an undiscovered species of ape but an intelligent alien. Bigfoot sightings often increase in areas where UFOs are frequently spotted.
Whatever its origin, Dranginis has sworn to discover the truth.
"Bigfoot is the last great mystery on Earth," he explains.
Got Breast Milk?
Picture
Baby clothes featuring a parody of the advertising slogan, "Got Milk?" has landed an artist in hot water.
Barbara Holmes, of Talkeetna, Alaska, makes T-shirts and one-piece underclothes for infants with a hand-lettered blurb across the front that reads "Got breast milk?"
Holmes says it's a fun way to promote breastfeeding, while making a couple bucks selling the clothes at community fairs. But it wasn't so funny when she got a threatening letter from an attorney representing the California Milk Processors Board.
"The phrases 'Got breast milk' and 'Got milk?' are similar except for the addition of the word 'breast,'" the lawyer wrote. "This difference is not enough to eliminate the likelihood that consumers will be confused about the origin of the products."
Holmes, who's only sold six of the little outfits, has hired an attorney and thinks the dairymen are going a bit overboard in protecting their advertisement.
"How can you get confused between a breast and a bottle of milk from the store?" she asks. "It's silly, but scary at the same time."
"Because they're big, they could go after me if they want to. But I don't feel that they have a case."
Cheating Billboard
Video
This billboard in downtown Manhattan, with a vengeful message from a furious wife to her cheating husband, was a big hit with morning commuters and tourists alike.
Pictures of the letter, signed "Emily," quickly started appearing on various Internet Web sites, and it wasn't long before amateur online detectives discovered the Dear John letter was a ruse by truTV to promote its reality show, Parco P.I.
But the advertising hoax seems to have achieved exactly what the cable show executives hoped - higher ratings.
"Emily is a symbol of all of us who have been cheated on," explains Marc Juris, general manager of programming and marketing for truTV. "Clearly, this really resonated with people."
Knight Templars Fight Again!
Video
The Vatican is defending itself against an attack by a band of holy warriors supposedly stamped out 700 years ago.
Instead of seeking vengeance on the battlefield, they're using a far more formidable weapon - lawyers!
The Knights Templar was once the most powerful military force in Christianity. These fearless professional soldiers took the same vows as monks - to dedicate their lives to Christ, to absolutely obey their superiors and to keep no personal wealth.
As a result, their disciplined legions seized the Holy Land from the Saracens and the order amassed more treasure than the Church itself. They were even said to possess the Holy Grail, the mystical cup used by Christ at the Last Supper.
But after two centuries in power, the Templars were brutally suppressed by the pope and the King of France in 1307.
Those knights who escaped being burned at the stake went into hiding. Rumors flew for centuries that the Templars had secretly regrouped into societies like the York Rite Freemasons and other less-known organizations.
Now, they've come out of the shadows and are demanding justice.
The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ - as the Templars are officially known - has filed a lawsuit in a spanish court demanding that the Vatican return the land and financial assets seized unlawfully from the order in 1312.
They estimate the current value of the aeized property to be worth $100 billion.
"We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the the magnitude of the plot against our order," reads a statement released by the Templar group.
They also say they're suing to have the good name of the order restored.
Supporting their case is a document recently discovered in the Vatican archives.
The Chinon Parchment, a record of the trial of the Templars, shows that Pope Clement V officially dismissed the charges of heresy shortly before disbanding them.
Based on this historical record, the Catholic Church declared that the persecution of the Templars was unjust and there was nothing inherently wrong with the order's organization or practices.
Instead, the pope was bending under pressure from jealous and powerful King Philip IV of France.
Other Templar offshoots have recently stepped into the public eye. The Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani - or Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem - has been officially recognized by the United Nations.
And The Grand Priory of Knights Templar in England and Wales has published a Web site touting their humanitarian and charity work.
"This is like the dawning of a new age," declares historian Phillippe Marconne, a renowned Templar scholar."The Church is wiping clean a stain that has blackened the faith for hundreds of years."
"The ideas on which the Templars were founded - strength, virtue, compassion and discipline - are every bit as powerful today as they were in the Crusades."
"A reborn Templar order could well change today's world forever."
Mastiff Mistake
Picture
A massive mastiff learned how not to get ahead after getting his noggin wedged in a cat door for two hours!
Moses Chan, a 190-pound, 14-month-old Dogue de Bordeaux, was trying to follow his four feline friends inside and didn't realize they could go places he couldn't.
The breed, from France, has the largest head in dogdom - as big around as the length from their toes to their shoulders.
Moses, who stands 5 feet tall on his hind legs, got stuck after owner Lisa Saberi left him outside while she went grocery shopping.
"He seems to think he's a cat," explains Saberi, of Welwyn Garden City, England. "He's always trying to play with them."
Firefighters spent 45 minutes drilling through the door, and Moses was treated for a grazed neck.
"He's much better now," Saberi says. "I've taken the cat flap out and will board up the hole so it doesn't happen again!"
Contractor's Crazy Cat Caper
Video
It takes a one-of-a-kind cat lover to go to the loony bin for the sake of a feline in trouble.
Contractor Chris Muth, of Brooklyn, New York, couldn't convince officials he wasn't off his rocker when he smashed down walls in three apartments trying to find a missing cat.
He'd been watching a rascally kitten named Rumi for a friend, and brought the precious puss to a building renovation project. But when Rumi vanished near an open elevator shaft, Muth panicked.
Building superintendent Doug Steiner gave Muth permission to make a small hole in one ground-floor apartment wall.
When that wasn't enough to find Rumi, he started making the hole bigger... and bigger... and bigger!
"He opened up all the walls," Steiner recalls. "I said, 'What the hell are you doing? The owner's going to flip out!'"
After Muth began breaking into neighboring apartments to knock holes in their walls, Steiner called the police. And when Muth told them about a cat only he knew was there, the cops shipped him off to a psych ward!
As Muth struggled to convince doctors he wasn't delusional, Rumi scampered through the building's basement for 15 days before allowing professional rescuers to coax hum out.
"After 60 hours stuck down there, I thought the cat was going to die - otherwise I wouldn't have panicked," Muth explains. "I can fix holes, but I can't bring a cat back to life."
1,800-Year-Old Elvis Statue
Picture
Elvis truly was the King - even 2,000 years ago!
Art lovers and historians are going wild over an 1,800-year-old marble statuette that's the spitting image of Elvis Presley, complete with '50s pompadour 'do and pouty lips.
The ancient Roman artifact is part of a collection of ancient works being sold by Australian art collector Graham Geddes.
No one is sure who the original model might have been - maybe Elvis' double was a superstar in ancient Rome.
But experts say the mysterious icon should fetch between $50,000 and $60,000 on the auction block.
"Fans, seeing this face from the distant past, will be forgiven for thinking their idol may well have lived a previous life in Rome," says Julian Roup, a spokesman for Bonhams auction house.
UFO Cover-Up Is Real Says Apollo Astronaut
Video
One of the first men on the moon has declared that aliens have contacted Earth - and that governments have covered up the encounters for 60 years!
Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who piloted the lunar module for the Apollo 14 mission, announced that he had knowledge of many UFO visits that were quickly covered up by authorities.
"We've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Mitchell revealed in a recent radio interview. "It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been briefed on some of it."
The 77-year-old NASA scientist described aliens as "little people who look strange to us."
Their technology is so advanced, he added, "Had they been hostile, we would have been gone by now."
Mitchell's revelations came on the heels of new disclosures from high-level analysts for Project Black Book, the top-secret government probe into the UFO phenomenon.
"Over the past three years, we've tracked numerous UFOs flying near sensitive government facilities," says an insider. "Three unknown objects flew past military bases in Maryland and Virginia at a high rate of speed, on a course that would take them to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
"On four separate occasions, cigar-shaped craft blinked in and out of the sky over southern Nevada, near Area 51. And no less than 23 incidents were recorded at other bases.
"If alien visitors were holding clandestine meetings with military agencies, this is exactly what it would look like."
100 Year Old Mothers In 2038!
Video
Imagine 100-year-old moms giving birth to designer babies. That's the future scientists predict for the year 2038.
The experts' amazing forecasts were made in celebration of the 30th birthday of Louise Brown - the world's first test-tube baby.
Fertility specialists believe sperm and eggs combined with stem cells taken from a person's skin will create embryos at any time of a life a woman wants to start a family.
This brave new technology will replace in vitro fertilization, while offering prospective parents the ability to select their child's hair color, height, intelligence and disease-free genes.
"The goals will remain the same in that we'll try to give children to those who can't have them," says biologist Davor Solter.
"It also means every woman regardless of age will be able to have children - even at the age of 100!"
Adds New York City reproductive expert Zev Rosenwaks: "I see the eventual eradication of infertility altogether."
Dog Gets Wheels!
Video
An adorable puppy born without front legs has conquered her affliction with the help of a specially-designed device that has her zipping around on wheels!
The tiny Maltese called Hope only has small nubs where her front limbs should be. But the energetic pup, who lives at Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue in Chattanooga, Tennessee, tried to ignore the problem by hopping to get around.
When experts said the jarring movement would eventually damage Hope's bones and spine, orthopedic wiz David Turnbill came to the rescue. The customized contraption he created has two prosthetic legs that end in wheels from a model airplane. The legs attach to a plastic form that fits around Hope's chest, allowing her to push her body forward with her hind legs.
Each of the spring-loaded front limbs also moves independently, so the pooch can easily turn, pivot, lie down or sit.
But learning to use the fancy rig wasn't easy. Poor Hope struggled through hours of practice before she finally mastered the device.
"She never knew anything other than hopping," Turnbill explains. "So the hardest thing was teaching her a new way to get around that's actually better for her."
And now that she's got the hang of it, workers at the shelter say Hope races around the place at breakneck speed!
Crawford Texas UFO
Video
A vast, silent UFO has been spotted flying over President Bush's Texas ranch.
Dozens of eyewitnesses in the area around the town of Crawford spotted a huge, brightly lit object flying low and fast over central Texas.
And UFO researchers have obtained FAA radar records that confirm an unidentified craft flew at up to 2,100 mph.
"This shows ample evidence of UFO activity," explains Kenneth Cherry, Texas director of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network.
"They were turning at angles not possible by military aircraft."
MUFON investigators filed document requests under the Freedom of Information Act for records from the FAA and military bases covering the night of January 8, 2008.
Numerous eyewitnesses, including a pilot, a former air traffic controller and a county constable, reported seeing a giant UFO.
The object was between 524 and 1,000 feet long, and was picked up on radar several times.
In one instance, the UFO was seen accelerating to 532 mph in 30 seconds, then decelerating to 49 mph in 10 seconds.
At 8 p.m., it came within 10 miles of the president's ranch before zooming away.
MUFON only received information until 8 p.m., so the craft may have returned later that evening.
"It is clear that the unknown object was real and not imaginary," the MUFON report states.
Researchers investigated more than 300 UFO sightings in the area. Many could be dismissed as planets or cloud formations - but that left more than enough solid eyewitness testimony to prove that something strange was in the skies.
The president wasn't in Crawford when the UFO breezed through, so there are no Secret Service records describing the object.
"The case raises a lot of questions," explains ufologist Spencer Signer, of Albuquerque. "Was this an example of aliens trying to contact our leader directly?"
"Or is it just a coincidence that this craft happened to appear over Crawford?"
Doomsday Vault Key Lost?
Video
The vault holding millions of seeds meant to repopulate Earth's plants in case of a nuclear holocaust faces a disaster more powerful than any megabomb - someone may have locked the keys inside!
The Doomsday Seed Vault was built on the icy Norwegian island of Svalbard to safeguard 4.5 million samples of crops from around the world. The location is absolutely secure - buried 425 feet beneath a mountain, at the end of a long, steel tunnel behind a vast, metal door.
The naturally cold environment should keep the seeds perfectly preserved, so that humanity could rebuild our food supply even after a world-shattering disaster.
That is, if we can get to them.
A memo leaked from the top levels of Norway's government reads, in part, "We don't have the key. We've checked everywhere. I remember putting them down in the vault. Does anyone remember picking them up?"
Baby Saved By Ball
Video
A 14-month-old tot who plunged from an open window of her fourth-story apartment was saved from smashing into the pavement by a rubber ball.
Cindy Riveros was playing with a 4-year-old cousin in her Queens, New York, bedroom when she climbed on a chair and toppled out the window.
"My niece came into the living room shouting, 'She fell, she fell!'" says Cindy's father, Juan. "I ran into the room and looked out the window and Cindy was face up in the stairwell, screaming and screaming, and there was a lot of blood."
Juan believes he knows what broke her fall.
"She was lying there with the two rubber balls beside her." he recalls. "I can only think she fell on top of one of them."
Mom Mariana Caseres raced downstairs, gathered her injured daughter in her arms and flagged down a passing car.
"A man I don't even know was my angel," declares the 26-year-old mother. "He stopped and put us in his car and drove us to the hospital."
Doctors at Cornell Medical Center performed emergency surgery to repair Cindy's fractured skull and told her parents the resilient toddler would be OK.
"We are just so lucky that she's going to be all right," Juan says.
Adds Mariana: "It's a miracle. That ball saved her life!"
Inmate Escapes Jail Through A/C Vent
Picture
An inmate charged with murder intentionally lost weight so he could slip out of jail through an air conditioner vent.
Sheriff Randy Smith, of Waller County, Texas, says the skinny 6-foot suspect easily wiggled through an opening less than a foot wide!
The 26-year-old man was being held in connection with a murder committed during a convenience store robbery.
"We just found out he's been slimming down a lot recently," Smith admits.
The escapee was considered extremely dangerous, and Texas Rangers joined in the manhunt.
Poll Results
Golem Attacks
Video
The Golem - zombie-like monsters of medieval Jewish lore - have come back to life and are stalking Eastern Europe's cities like avenging angels of death.
Police reports describe superhumanly strong assailants who batter their victims to death and leave no evidence behind. And every victim has been suspected of hate crimes or assaults against Jews!
In the shady world of the Russian mafia, rumors have been flying that the attackers are legendary creatures called the Golem.
"The attacks certainly fit the ancient Jewish legends," explains historian Jacob Kunst. "Just as researchers recently found the Caribbean zombie legend is based on real, mind-destroying drugs, there could be a scientific explanation behind the attacks of the Golem."
Tradition says a Golem could only be created by a Bible scholar who had mastered the secrets of a magical Hebrew word called a 'shem.'
"Each Hebrew letter has its own sacred meaning," Kunst explains. "Linking these letters in the correct order creates a powerful combination of energies - the same mystical forces God used to create life."
In the late 1500s, the Rabbi Juda Loew ben Bezalel, of Prague, created a clay giant to guard his community. He wrote a shem on a scrap of parchment and placed it in the creature's mouth."
For no known reason, one Sabbath the inhumanly strong creature came to life and ran amok, destroying its home and terrorizing the whole Jewish ghetto.
Panicked residents raced to the synagogue, where the rabbi broke off his prayers to pull the shem from his Golem's mouth.
The next day, he locked the creature's body in the synagogue's attic. The room, accessible only with a 40-foot ladder, remained sealed for 400 years.
Recently, researchers led by Ivan Mackerle were permitted to sweep the room with radar scanners. They found it was empty, as if an unknown intruder had smuggled out its contents - or the rabbi's Golem had escaped!
"It could be that the shem parchment was lced with drugs, or the word had a hypnotic power, granting superhuman strength while removing a person's free will," Kunst explains.
"But until we can locate the remains of the Golem of Prague - or can capture a living Golem - we have no way to find out for sure."
Cash Facts
Everyone love money - but how current are you on currency facts?
Here, from ThePapNews fan Darren Stanson, are some financial facts you might find surprising:
- The only woman to appear on an American bill is Martha Washington, who was on the face of the $1 silver certificate in 1886 and the back of the $1 silver certificate in 1891.
- Only dead people can appear on American currency, thanks to a law passed in 1866... after L.M. Clark, the chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, put his own face on a 5-cent bill!
- The motto "In God We Trust" didn't appear on paper money until 1957. In fact, Theodore Roosevelt opposed putting "God" on money because he thought it was sacrilegious. Today, two federal laws require putting the motto on coins and bills.
- The dollar sign probably evolved from the Spanish "P," for "pesos" or "pieces of eight." Over time, the "S" came to be written over the "P."
- Parker Brothers, the company that makes the game Monopoly, prints more play money every year than the U.S. government releases real currency.
- Paper money was invented by the Chinese as long ago as 119 B.C.!
- In 550 B.C., King Croesus of Lydia issued the first coins with fixed values. A 0.3-ounce gold coin imprinted with a lion and bull was worth 10 silver coins.
- In the 1600s, American settlers used seashell beads from Native American wampum belts as money - five purple beads to an Englush penny.
What Is That In The Road?
Photo
It looks like a pickup truck delivering three colorful playground blocks for a daycare center lost its load.
But that's not what it is.
Those wooden triangles could be jumps used by skateboarders who are just crazy enough to show off their talents in the middle of traffic.
Or maybe they're pieces of an abstract "masterpiece" created by a sidewalk artist with a vivid imagination and a box of chalk.
The truth is, none of those guesses are right. So what the devil are those things?
These sheets of blue, white and orange plastic designed to look like a 3-D pyramids are actually a fake speed bump. The optical illusion, which had drivers tapping their brakes, was an experiment in Philadelphia to see if the obstacles discouraged speeding while reducing pedestrian accidents.
George Washington's Childhood Home
Video
Archaeologists have discovered the foundations of George Washington's childhood home, and scholars believe the historic site will reveal surprising clues about his early life.
"When you look at the biographies of Washington, they start when he's 23," explains David Muraca, who led the excavation at Ferry Farm in Virginia.
"This piece of the story is very difficult for historians to get their hands around. This dig will let us start our stories much earlier."
The clapboard house that once housed George, his parents and his siblings was the setting for the handful of tales about his youth that were passed down through the generations - the most famous being his confession to his dad that he chopped down a cherry tree.
The excavation of the home's cellars has revealed a variety of artifacts, including wig curlers, a tobacco pipe, pottery shards, fish bones, more than 1,000 straight pins and a red quartz gem.
Washington became a Freemason around 1752 and experts believe the wooden pipe, which is decorated with a carved compass in a square and other Masonic symbols, definitely belonged to America's first president.
"You never know what the discovery of an artifact might lead to," says Washington biographer John Ferling. "If they find anything that tells us more about Washington's youth, it would be extremely important."