Strange Times At The White House
Photo Of The Book
The White House is the home of America's first family - and a central site for supernatural events!
The paranormal history of America's presidential dwelling is the stunning subject of the new blockbuster book, Oval Office Occult: True Stories of White House Weirdness (Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC).
"Ghosts, conpiracies, secret societies, even a vampire have all been linked to the inhabitants of the White House," explains author and historian Brian M. Thomsen.
His collection of eerie presidential tales include:
- President Lincoln experienced several visions of his own death.
Before his inauguration, America's 16th president saw a pale, double reflection in his bedroom mirror - an omen his wife believed meant that he would be elected to a second term, but die before it was over.
Later, Lincoln dreamed he saw his body lying in state, guarded by soldiers and surrounded by mourners.
And on the last day of his life, Lincoln told his Cabinet about the previous night's dream, in which he saw himself "in a singular and indescribable vessel - moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore."
- Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, was the first president impeached by Congress - and the first to be linked to a vampire!
In 1867, Johnson officially commuted the death sentence of a convicted mudered named James Brown to life doing hard labor. But more than 20 years later, journalists discovered the eerie details of Brown's crimes.
He'd been a sailor on a New England fishing boat and was discovered sucking the blood from the body of one of his shipmates. The bloodless body of a second crewman was found nearby.
When the story became public, Brown applied for a full pardon to leave the country, but was forced to serve out his life sentence.
- Calvin Coolidge, known as "Silent Cal," has made his presence felt after death, say guests of the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.
The Washington, D.C., landmark has hosted every inaugural ball since Coolidge's in 1924 , but Silent Cal didn't even attend. He was still mourning the sudden death of his 16-year-old son, Cal Jr.
But every January 20 since Coolidge's death, the Mayflower's lights flicker and dim at 10:00 p.m., and one elevator mysteriously stops at the eighth floor until 10:15 - as if waiting for the president and his wife to step inside and descend to the ballroom.
Happy Marriages = Good Health
Don't take my wife - please! - she's helping me live longer!
Scientists have confirmed what happily married couples have long known to be true, that a good marriage can bring you a long, healthy life.
Married couples in a good relationship lived up to five years longer than their unmarried cohorts, suffered fewer colds and infections, had lower blood pressure and lower levels of cancer, flu, Alzheimer's and depression.
Researchers at Ohio State University recently discovered that even wounds heal as much as 40 percent quicker if you're happily married.
There is one downside to domestic bliss. A Department of Health and Human Services survey found that marriage tends to increase your waist size to the tune of around 5 pounds!
The Powers Pf The Prickly Pear
A Video Of A Prickly Pear Being A Prick
Many gardeners regard the prickly pear cactus as a painful, long-spined pest, but food scientists are now hailing it as a miracle plant!
The prickly pear has long been a part of traditional healers' medicine kits south of the border. Once the spines are removed, the fleshy pads can be cut into strips and cooked in vegetable dishes, much like okra or asparagus.
"As a food prickly pear is loaded with magnesium and taurine, nutrients that are vital for brain and heart health," explains nutritionist Tricia Graham, of Newark, New Jersey. "The nectar from the flowers boosts levels of vitamins and other nutrients in the body."
"But the most dramatic have shown prickly pear pads effectively lower levels of blood glucose in diabetes patients.
The juice and vegetable pulp of the plant helps cure infections and accelerate wound healing.
And a study at Tulane University in New Orleans, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that prickly pear is an ideal cure for a throbbing hangover.
Scientists surveyed more than 60 men and women by inviting them to party. Half were given capsules containing cactus skin extract, while half received a placebo.
Each participant downed between five and 10 alcoholic drinks before being driven home by staffers.
Researchers evaluated the volunteers the next morning measuring their levels of nausea, body aches, dry mouth, weakness, trembling, dizziness, headache, diarrhea and loss of appetite (oh my).
Those who took the prickly pear capsules were cushioned against all nine hangover symptoms.
Prickly pear pads are sold in many grocery stores under their Mexican name, "nopales," and the sweet nectar is available at health food stores.
Elephants Can Add!
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Elephants never forget - and they've got a good head for figures, too!
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have discovered that Asian elephants can add small numbers together and tell which of two differing sums is larger.
Scientist Naoko Irie-Sugimoto demonstrates with an elephant named Ashya by setting out two buckets. She drops three apples into the first, then one in the second, then four more in the first, then five in the second -and Ashya correctly picks the first bucket as containing more delicious apples to crunch on.
Ashya and her herdmates are successful at picking the correct bucket 74 percent of the time, no matter how close the two totals are to each other.
Chimps and other counting animals tend to make more mistakes when sums have similar results.
"Even I get confused when I'm dropping the bait," admits Irie-Sugimoto.
Zombies!!!!!!!!!!
Picture Of The Book
Do the dead really rise from their graves and walk?
That's the bone-chilling question answered by historian Dr. Bob Curran in his eye-opening new book Zombies: A Field Guide To The Walking Dead (New Page Books).
"I seek to unravel the fact, folklore and traditions surrounding the walking dead," Curran explains.
Throughout history and in every corner of the globe, people have described encounters with reanimated bodies that rise from their graves.
The name "zombie" comes from the Haitian religion of Voudoun - better known as Voodoo - and refers to a person who has been brought back to life by a powerful bokor, or sorcerer, to work as a slave.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah and Elisha bring dead children back to life and Ezekiel resurrects an entire valley filled with dead bones.
Ancient Romanians spoke of the moroii, dead relatives who returned to bring luck to a household, and strigoii, who spread evil and inspired legends of vampires.
Vikings reported encounters with draugr, black-skinned warriors who refused to "lie still" in their graves and spread mayhem by night.
In the Mount Gassan region of Japan, Buddhist monks mastered a technique of transforming themselves into "living mummies," who would offer advice to pilgrims years after their flesh had dried and turned to dust.
But Curran's eeriest tales of encounters with walking corpes take place near his home in Northern Ireland.
"In 1993, my wife and I interviewed an old man living in Wheathill," Curran recalls. "He was a well-respected figure in his community and a leader in the local church, but despite these things, he told a strange story."
The man remembered a night shortly after his grandfather died when his elderly relative returned, silently sat down by the fire, lit his pipe and helped himself to a glass of whiskey. The man even climbed on his grandfather's cold, dead knee!
"As the evening drew to a close, the family retired to bed, leaving him sitting by the fire, smoking his pipe contentedly," Curran says. "When they came down the following morning, he had gone back to the tomb."
"Later, I spoke to the old man's sister who, without any prompting, described the event just as he had."
Cow Compass
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If you're ever lost in a pasture, just follow the cows home!
Scientists have discovered that cattle have built-in compasses aligning them with the Earth's magnetic field.
Any time you see a group of cows in a field, the majority of them are likely to be lined up in a north-south direction.
Researchers led by Dr. Sabine Begall, of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, looked at thousands of aerial and satellite photos of cows on the internet mapping service Google Earth, and compared cattle in Britain, Ireland, India and the USA with a herd of 3,000 deer in the Czech Republic.
Experts had noticed the deer tended to face north when resting or grazing, and the images of the cows showed the same behavior.
"It didn't matter if it was sunny or overcast, or which way the wind was blowing," explains veterinary researcher Heidi Gutinger. "The animals always lined their bodies up in a north-south direction."
"It's a remarkable finding, especially since we've been domesticating cows for 2,000 years and hadn't noticed it until now."
Begall's team believes the behavior descends from modern cattle's earliest ancestor, the wild aurochs, who needed an innate sense of direction to migrate across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Cows aren't the only creatures with built-in compasses.
Homing pigeons, migratory turtles, salmon and termites are all believed to have tiny crystals of magnetite inside their bodies, allowing them to sense the Earth's magnetic field.
Dr. God?
The majority of Americans believe God can miraculously pull a victim back from the jaws of death when medical treatment has failed.
In a survey of 1,000 adults, 57 percent said divine intervention can - and does - save people whom doctors have given up on. Amazingly, more than 20 percent of physicians and other health care workers agree.
Missy Delaporte, a 33-year-old mother of three, knows from agonizing firsthand experience that the survey speaks God's truth. Her son, Matt, sustained catastrophic head injuries when he was struck by a speeding car in 2005.
"Matt's heart stopped twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital," she says. "In the emergency room, they did every kind of test and the doctors told us there was no hope he'd ever recover."
"I had no other options, so I prayed."
Two days later, Matt, 4, woke up from his coma and went on to make a complete recovery.
"If that wasn't a miracle, I don't know what it is," says Dr. Marlon Sangster, who treated the little boy in Minneapolis. "Matt is alive today because God intervened to save him."
Jim Denevan's Large Art
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There's art, and then there's art!
Jim Denevan, who makes massive sand paintings, created the world's largest freehand drawing on a dry lakebed in Nevada. And boy, is it big - three miles across.
One astronomer thinks the enormous creation, which consists of an intricate series of circles, is so large that it'll be visible to space aliens and might prompt them to send a message of appreciation.
"I sincerely believe there are advanced races of extraterrestrials watching us," says Dr. Anthony Falco. "It is my hope that they will interpret Mr. Denevan's creation as an attempt to make contact with them and will respond."
"It will be our first contact with intelligent life from somewhere else in the universe."
Denevan laboriously traced the design with a tree branch, walking more than 100 miles to pull off the feat.
But if any aliens were watching, they had a small window of opportunity to see the monumental work of art - it was wiped out by a rainstorm a week after Denevan completed it!
The Art Of Levi Van Veluw
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An innovative artist has put a new twist on landscape painting by using his own head and shoulders as a canvas - and the eye-popping result is a human Chia Pet come to life!
In a series of four living "paintings," Levi van Veluw took bits of cheap carpet, pebble stones and wood flooring to transform himself into a lush wonderland of vegetation, country roads, snowy fields and rich farmland.
The fantastic photographic sequence represents the four seasons. And no detail is too minute to be included!
Besides grass, trees and babbling brooks springing from his flesh, van Veluw used whimsical touches of tiny plastic sheep, cows, cars, fences, lamposts - even a tractor - to complete his pastoral theme.
The Dutch artist, whose works are available for preview on his web site www.levivanveluw.com, is based at the RONMANDOS Gallery in Amsterdam. But he's quickly won praise across America and Europe, where he's successfully showcased his art. Van Veluw's achievements have recently won him the award for Photographer of the Year in Fine Arts from the prestigious International Photo Awards ceremony in New York City.
Geoffrey Chaucer's Prophecy
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Medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote the famous Canterbury Tales, predicted the collapse of American power in the 21st century - and recent events strongly suggest his dire warning is coming to pass.
The sobering vision of our future is contained in an eight-line poem entitled the Prophecy of Merlin.
Translated into modern english, it reads: "When the government thumbs its nose at established laws, And when religious leaders preach false doctrines, And when sexual debauchery becomes common, And people's lives are sorely oppressed; And when Christ and the grace of God are all but forgotten, And the president exceeds his powers, Then is the land of America Bound for a Mighty fall."
Astounding! Earth-shattering! Monumental!
Those are the adjectives Chaucer scholar Dr. Timothy Basket uses to describe the prophecy encapsulated in the poet's verse.
"Chaucer wrote this poem sometimes around the year 1372, more than a century before the New World was even discovered," he says. "Yet he names America and accurately describes the situation we're in.
"George W. Bush and Barack Obama's administrations both blatantly ignore the constitution in allowing warrentless wiretaps of American citizens. In doing so, they clearly exceeded their powers, as Chaucer's poem clearly states.
"In pulpits around the country, preachers are spewing an unchristian message of hate and revenge. Sexual morality is at an all-time low and people are groaning under the burden of high gasoline prices, soaring food costs and the subprime mortgage crisis."
"Very few people - even those who profess to be religious - take seriously Christ's message of salvation."
"In Chaucer's prophetic vision, all these factors have set us up for a national calamity. The only question is: When will the ax fall on us?"
The Microchip Implants
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A breakthrough meant to help speechless stroke victims communicate has enormous potential for abuse, civil liberties activists fear.
The device is a microchip implanted in the brain that translates nerve signals - generated when your brain cells form a thought - into computer code that can be read by anyone with a receiver.
"This is the ultimate invasion of privacy," says attorney Susan Beltman, who has fought and won many civil rights cases in federal court.
"It gives the government the ability to invade your mind and come after you for what you're thinking."
"Never before has our freedom been in such danger."
Pastor Fears Real ID Act???
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While no one was looking, Congress passed the Real ID Act - a law that many fear will require every American to wear the dreaded Mark of the Beast or be exiled to the margins of society, an outraged evangelical pastor claims.
The law demands that all states issue driver's licenses or ID cards to every resident. Without such a card, you will be prohibited from opening a bank account, entering a federal building, traveling on an airplane or even holding a job, some critics predict.
The legislation also insists that each card have a magnetic strip containing a unique number and your most personal information in digital form that can be read by special government computers. In addition, it requires that states share all the data they have on you with each other and federal agencies.
As they have done with many other laws curbing personal freedom, lawmakers claim the ID cards are necessary for national security in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
But Reverend William Makepeace is certain more sinister forces are at work.
"Two thousand years ago, the Bible prophesied that we would all have to bear a number called the Mark of the Beast in order to make our dailey bread," he thunders. "This move, the Good Book teaches, is the work of Satan and the Antichrist."
"The U.S. Congress passed a law that will make the Mark of the Beast a part of our daily lives. Draw your own conclusion."
"It is the god-appointed duty of every American to oppose this demonic piece of legislation to take back control of our country from the agents of Satan, who have infilrated our government from the lowest to the highest levels."
"Just like sainted Senator Joe McCarthy drove the communists out of Washington in the 1950s, we need a leader who will - with fire and brimstone - spare us from a far greater evil."
Getting High Online?
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Brace yourself for a new Internet peril - sounds that mimic the effects of marijuana, LSD and even heroin are becoming increasingly popular among youngsters. And there's frightening evidence that large numbers of kids will soon be getting hooked on these "digital drugs."
The souns, called binaural beats, stimulate brain waves to vibrate to the same frequency as they would if real drugs were involved.
In order for the effects to work, binaural beats - referred to as "idozers" by people in the know - must be heard through headphones because different sounds are transmitted to each ear.
Public health officials are concerned that once kids get used to the digital high, they'll move on to the real thing.
Air Powered Cars
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Just around the corner now, sticker shock at the gas pump will be a thing of the past. Soon, this year, the first car to run on air will hit the U.S. - and, even better, it'll cost just $18,000.
The six-seater is the ultimate fuel-efficient car. Its engine is powered primarily by compressed air, with a little gasoline thrown in. It will be able to get 106 miles per gallon - more than twice as much as the reigning champ, the Toyota Prius.
Don't think you have to poke along like a snail to take advantage of the car's technology. It will zip along at 90 miles an hour and you can go for 800 miles before you have to replenish its tiny gas tank.
The car will run totally on air up to 35 miles per hour. After that, a small international combustion engine will kick in to give it an extra boost.
The vehicle will be produced by Zero Pollution Motors, of New York.
Killer Red Lionfish Are Coming!!!!
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Just as a plague of locusts devours the praire, a tidal wave of venomous red lionfish is ravaging the Florida coast.
And experts fear the entire eastern seaboard could be at risk!
A native of the Indian and Pacific oceans, the lionfish was introduced into the Atlantic in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew shattered a Miami aquarium containing six of them.
That small group has since multiplied into an enormous population that poses a danger to people who swim, dive or work off Florida's Atlantic coast.
The poisonous tips on its fins are filled with a deadly poison that can send victims to the hospital or even kill them! And there's no antivenin available for treatment.
"This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history," declares Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecologist. "There's probably no way to stop the invasion completely."
"These are pretty scary fish and they aren't timid. They'll swim right up to a diver, never showing any fear."
"They eat many other species and they seem to eat constantly."
In one study, a large lionfish sucked down 20 smaller fish in less than 30 minutes! That's why experts believe an invasion of them could eventually devastate fisheries and recreational diving along the entire east coast.
"They're also a very bold fish, especially in this new Atlantic range, where it appears they have few, if any, predators," says Lad Akins, Executive Director of Reef Environmental Education Foundation.
The only known enemy capable of devouring the lionfish is the large grouper found in the Pacific Ocean. But fish native to the Atlantic don't recognize them or realize the danger until it's too late.
In fact, the only thing that eats a lionfish in its new environment is another lionfish, since they are also cannibals!
"There appears to be no natural controls on them," Hixon explains. "And we've observed that they feed in a way that no Atlantic Ocean fish has ever encountered. Native fish literally don't know what hit them."
H.P. Lovecraft's Ghost
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Back in 1927, horror writer H.P. Lovecraft penned an eerie story set in his Brooklyn apartment. He described the place as enveloped in a sinister aura of evil.
That depiction gets no argument from new tenant Nelie Kurtzman, who has been plagued by strange noises, disturbing dreams, flying pictures and disappearing objects since she took up residence in April.
Lovecraft, who died in 1937, wrote that the apartment on Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights was inhabited by "something unwholesome, something furtive, something lying subterraneanly in obnoxious slumber."
Kurtzman, a book marketer familiar with Lovecraft's terrifying stories, believes the writer turned the huge, ground-floor apartment into a magnet for ghosts.
Seances conducted by her friends summoned up the spirits of dead acquaintances. After one session, a participant took a brick as a souvenir.
At the next seance, a Ouija board spelled out the word "brick."
Once, Kurtzman hung a picture on a wall. The minute her back was turned, it flew into the air and crashed to the floor. The hammer she used to hang it vanished and she's never seen it again.
She began to have disturbing, recurring dreams about the man who'd given her the picture - a former boss she hadn't thought about in years.
A credit card dematerialized from her wallet, only to rematerialize moments after she called the credit card company to cancel it.
Despite his literary genius, Lovecraft was a nasty, unfriendly man - and a racist. Kurtzman believes her Jewishness may have roused him from his deathly slumber and caused him to launch a ghostly campaign to drive her away.
"I feel like H.P. Lovecraft is associated with creepiness," she says. "Everything I know about him is creepy, so every indication he's around is creepy."
Jasmine The Dog
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Jasmine has been waiting for a good home her whole life - and she's had her fill of troubles in the meantime.
One family she lived with wanted her to run away, so they often left the back gate wide open intentionally. After she'd been picked up for the 16th time in only six months - for which her owners were cited with 16 counts of neglect - they signed her over to the county.
Jasmine has been bouncing in and out of shelters and rescues ever since, but all that ends now. She just moved to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, where she'll have a place to stay - and lots of TLC - until some lucky family gives her a "forever" home.
For more information, please visit www.bestfriends.org.
Astronomical Secrets Of Ancient Egypt
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The real purpose of the pyramids has been revealed by a star-gazing researcher who found that the monuments of ancient Egypt create a sacred map of the stars!
Egyptian-born construction engineer Robert Bauval first discovered that the three Great Pyramids of Giza were laid out near the Nile River in the same configuration as the three stars of Orion's belt near the Milky Way.
His new book, The Egypt Code (Disinformation), reveals scores of other correspondences between mysterious temple sites and the stars worshiped by the priests of ancient Egypt.
Egyptians believed in a concept called "Maat," which stated that the heavens and the Earth should be in perfect harmony.
They tried to create this harmony by carefully erecting monuments on the ground to correspond with the stars in the sky.
"There existed a sort of 'cosmic Egypt' ghosted in the geography of the Nile Valley that was once administered by astronomer-priests headed by a sun-king," Bauval explains.
Bauval research begins in the temple in Saqqara, which features a seated statue of King Djoser, builder of Egypt's very first pyramid in 2700 B.C., who gazes up through peepholes in the walls.
"I had stood here many times before, but, for reasons only the gods can explain, I had never asked myself why was the statue made to look into the northern sky?" Bauval recalls.
By following the statue's eyes, Bauval found the pharaoh was staring at Ursa Major, the constellation that circled around the North Star, appearing to "Regulate" all other stars in the sky.
Bauval points out that the ancient Egyptians named the pyramids after the stars, aligned their bases to the movement of the stars, and pointed so-called "air shafts" inside directly at important constellations like Orion, Sirius and Ursa Major.
Inner chambers were decorated with star paintings and writings that described the Egyptians' star-based religion, especially the destiny of Egyptian kings as rulers in a starry afterlife - and, thanks to their advanced astronomical wisdom, as ideal rulers here on Earth as well!
The Alaskan Polar Bear
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Brave scientists are risking life and limb to draw attention to the deadly plight of Alaska's polar bears.
A research group headed by Dr. Steven Amstrup is gathering data on the 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears to prove their numbers are dwindling because global warming is destroying their habitat.
Renowned wildlife photographer Daniel J. Cox, who is affiliated with Polar Bears International, captured all the action as the science team performed their dangerous field work. And he's posted a gallery of pictures from the Alaskan adventure on his website: www.naturalexposures.com.
The first step in corraling the polar bear was for a member of the task force to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart.
Once it's unconscious, the scientists lay it out in a spread-eagle position and take measurements. Males average 8 to 10 feet in length while the females are a shorter 6 to 8 feet.
Weighing the males is especially difficult. Researchers use a block-and-tackle to hoist the animal, which weighs 1,540 pounds on average.
Next, a number is tattooed inside the bear's mouth for future identification, and the short, stocky claws of the paws are examined.
Finally, temporary paint is used to draw a number on the bear's back to keep it from being counted twice.
Then comes the most critical part of the research as the scientists dash to safety before their gigantic subject wakes up!
Amstrup says tracking the endangered animals is vital to their survival, and he hopes pictures of the majestic creatures will make Americans realize this species must be saved.
One Bad Burglar
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A bungling burglary suspect was left hanging out to dry when his foot caught in the smashed window of a house he was trying to rob, say cops.
Cops say the suspect was attempting to haul himself through the opening when the shoelace of his tennis shoe caught on the jagged glass.
Owner Paul Ives came home from work to find him stuck in the window, begging for help.
"The man must be the world's dumbest thief!" Ives exclaims. "His body was inside the house and he was stuck in the window."
"The more he struggled, the more he got jammed. He still had the hammer in his hand that he'd used to smash the bay window."
The suspect tried in vain to convince Ives and a group of onlookers that he was a good guy.
'He kept saying: 'I haven't done anything. I was stopping the burglars.'" says Ives, of Dartford, England.
Police and paramedics untangled the doofus and hauled him off to jail, where the 32-year-old alleged thief admitted to burglarly with intent to steal.
"Afterward, we had a good laugh about it," says Ives' girl-friend Angela Gloyn.
Mexico's Bandit Saint - Jesus Malverde
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Hundreds of grateful pilgrims are thanking Mexico's Robin Hood - the so-called Patron Saint of Narco Traffickers - for miraculous healings and divine help in times of desperate need.
Law students, cops, drug runners and impoverished farmers alike are flocking to the mom-and-pop store run by Maria Pulida Sanchez in Mexico City's rough Doctores neighborhood.
After her teenage son recovered against all odds from a life-threatening traffic accident, Pulida Sanchez erected a life-sized statue of the man whom she believes smuggled her prayers directly to God - the legendary outlaw Jesus Malverde.
People come from miles around to offer prayers to the unofficial bandit saint. His statue stands in a glass-encased shrine, wearing a simple woolen jackets, his trademark black neckerchief and a gold chain and large belt buckle adorned with pistol ornaments.
His pockets are stuffed with dollar bills, cigarettes and candy left by pilgrims eager for Malverde to come to their aid.
"He was a thief, but at the same time, he was a thief who helped his community," Pulida Sanchez explains. "He would steal from the rich and give to the poor."
In the early 1900s, Malverde left his job as a construction worker and turned to a life of crime. His supporters say he generously shared his ill-gotten gains with the less fortunate - but despite his good intentions, Malverde was hanged in Culiacan in 1909.
That northern city now serves as home base for Mexico's drug trafficking families, whose wealthy and powerful leaders have long held the local folk hero in high regard.
"I know that whatever shady business he may have been involved with, Jesus Malverde could only have been doing God's will," explains housewife Silvia Oliveras, 54. "I know this because he saved my husband's leg when no doctors said it was possible and no other saints had answered my prayers."
Oliveras' husband, a truck driver from the city of Durango, Mexico, faced amputation after a shipping container landed on his right leg.
But a week after she prayed to Jesus Malverde, her husband's shattered bone began knitting itself together.
Ramon Perez, a 24-year-old legal secretary, credits Malverde with saving his life after a near-fatal brain aneurysm that left him comatose for five days.
"I felt my body rising up from the bed and saw a blinding white light looming toward me," Perez recalls. "I knew I was dying."
"Then a deep, booming voice called to me: 'I am Jesus Malverde. It is not your time. Come back to me... now.'"
"The next thing I remember, I was in a hospital bed, surrounded by my family."
Sister Maria Rosario Dominguez, 78, a nun who retired from public life, thanks the outlaw saint for restoring her vision.
"I know that God works in many ways, so when I was diagnosed with mascular degenration, friends of mine took me to the shrine to pray for my eyes," Rosario Domingues explains. "I felt a wave of warm, peaceful energy flow through me as I prayed among the people visiting Jesus Malverde, as if I was being filled with a warm, orange light."
"The next morning, the vision had returned to my right eye, and doctors tell me the condition has frozen in place - my eyesight is no longer fading away."
"I believe it is only a matter of time before Jesus Malverde is recognized as on official saint, because his power is certainly genuine."
The Roman Catholic Church has yet to begin the official process of canonizing Malverde as a saint, but that hasn't stopped believers from flocking to his shrine and sharing miraculous stories of his heavenly influence.
"We make saints with the power of our belief," explains Pulida Sanchez.
"We can believe in anyone who fulfills our petitions."
Clouds And The End Of The World?!?!
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The sudden materialization of bizarre, bubble-like clouds is being hailed by theologians as a sign of God's judgement on mankind.
The strange weather phenomenon darkened skies over London, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem throughout the month of August, leaving meteorologists flummoxed and religious scholars filled with a sense of foreboding.
"The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that the earliest signs of the End Times will appear in the skies," explains Dr. Joshua Spender, a Bible scholar from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"Matthew 24:30 tells us, 'They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory.' And in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, the prophet says, 'Behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven.'"
"Now, with this biblical warning in mind, think of this: These roiling, unusual clouds have appeared almost at the same time over major cities all over the world - including the holy city of the Jerusalem!"
Spender and other experts point out that even leaving aside the warnings of scripture, the clouds physically appear to be reaching down to the ground from on high.
"This kind of cloud formation is formally known as mamatus," explains meteorologist Reginald Pendle, of St. Albans, England. "It's typically only seen hanging off the underside of heavy, cumulus rain clouds, and only when small currents of cold, moist air fall downward inside a cloud."
"These clouds are typically formed by updrafts of warm, moist air, so the downdrafts are actually a reverse of the typical cloud-building process, which is why this kind of formation is so terribly rare."
Pendle adds that the rapidly shifting air pressure and humidity can affect people directly under the cloud formation.
"Witnesses often report feeling lightheaded, dizzy and short of breath, with a sense of heaviness on their bodies, as if a great weight is pushing down," he explains.
"Some even report migraine headaches and buzzing in their ears caused by the fluctuations in atmospheric pressure."
Meteorologists have been unable to explain why the clouds have suddenly started appearing around the world.
"Something is definitely changing, although whether it's global warming or something even more significant is something we simply can't answe," Pendle explains.
Elvis' $300,000 Peacock Jumpsuit
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A peacock jumpsuit has gone where no Elvis memorabilia has gone before, sold at auction for the record-breaking price of $300,000.
The previous record price for an Elvis memento was $295,000 - and that bought his classic 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II. The most expensive stage costume was the "aloha cape", which earned $105,250.
Both items traded hands at a 1999 auction at Graceland.
But the white, hand-embroidered outfit became the most expensive Elvis collectible at a late-night auction held by New York City auctioneer Gotta Have It!
The buyer was identified only as "a big Elvis collector."
Elvis wore the jumpsuit, said to be his favorite performance costume, at the Forum in LA on May 11, 1974, and on the cover of his Promised Land album.
The King's Church
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It's a home fit for the king of kings - and the king of rock'n'roll!
Elvis fans are gathering at the newly restored Assembly of God Church of East Tupelo, Mississippi, where he worshiped as a boy.
In 1959, the building was converted to a private home, and for the past 42 years, Lawrence and Martha Stanford have enjoyed living there.
When they bought the place in 1966, they had no idea of the role it had played in music history.
But a steady stream of curious visitors came knocking on their front door through the years, and eventually they learned why.
"We probably were living there 10 years before I knew this was Elvis' church," Lawrence recalls. "But somehow, other people found out and began to come by and knock on our door to see the house."
"We got used to it, though."
Earlier 2008, the Stanfords happily sold their home to the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation, which transported the building to the Elvis Presley Birthplace museum.
The restored church was unveiled on August 16th, 2008, as part of Tupelo's 31st annual Fan Appreciation Day.
"We lived in that house for 42 years and raised two boys there, so it's odd to see it turned back into a church," Lawrence says. 'I'm happy that people will get to enjoy it now."
"We've had a good life in that house - but it belongs to the world."
"This is everyone's church now. It can be enjoyed for years to come and that makes me feel good."
Some of Elvis' first musical memories came from the gospel songs he heard in the Assembly of God Church.
"Brother Frank Smith gave Elvis his first guitar lesson in that church," explains Guy Harris, a Presley family friend who worshiped with Elvis. "This was a big part of his life and I'm glad to see it up."
One Playful Eagle
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She won't roll over - and don't ask her to beg - but boy, can this eagle fetch!
Evie, a 4-year-old white-tailed sea eagle, loves nothing more than retrieving a worn, soggy tennis ball thrown by her owner, falconer George Hedges.
One day, he was taking her out for a flight when she suddenly narrowed her eyes, tucked in her 8-foot-wide wings and plunged toward the ground. In a flash, she soared back into the air gripping a tennis ball in her beak.
"I gave her some food and threw the ball, and she chased it again," recalls Hedges, of Dartmoor, England. "Then I wondered if I threw it in the pond whether she would fetch it, and she did."
"Ever since, it's been her ball. This is very, very unusual."
White-tailed sea eagles nearly went extinct in the early 1900s, but they're slowly making a comeback.