Odd News - Gold Coins: The Mystery of the Double Eagle

From yahoo news fnance

How did a Philadelphia family get hold of $40 million in gold coins, and why has the Secret Service been chasing them for 70 years? Provided by Bloomberg Buisnessweek

U.S. Mint/AP Photo

This coin is worth $7.6 million

The most valuable coin in the world sits in the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in lower Manhattan. It's Exhibit 18E, secured in a bulletproof glass case with an alarm system and an armed guard nearby. The 1933 Double Eagle, considered one of the rarest and most beautiful coins in America, has a face value of $20—and a market value of $7.6 million. It was among the last batch of gold coins ever minted by the U.S. government. The coins were never issued; most of the nearly 500,000 cast were melted down to bullion in 1937.


Most, but not all. Some of the coins slipped out of the Philadelphia Mint before then. No one knows for sure exactly how they got out or even how many got out. The U.S. Secret Service, responsible for protecting the nation's currency, has been pursuing them for nearly 70 years, through 13 Administrations and 12 different directors. The investigation has spanned three continents and involved some of the most famous coin collectors in the world, a confidential informant, a playboy king, and a sting operation at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. It has inspired two novels, two nonfiction books, and a television documentary. And much of it has centered around a coin dealer, dead since 1990, whose shop is still open in South Philadelphia, run by his 82-year-old daughter.

"The 1933 Double Eagle is one of the most intriguing coins of all time," says Jay Brahin, an investment adviser who has been collecting coins since he was a kid in Philadelphia. "It's a freak. The coins shouldn't have been minted, but they were. They weren't meant to circulate, but some did. And why has the government pursued them so arduously? That's one of the mysteries."

The story begins just after the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt on Mar. 4, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. Thousands of banks had already gone under as people panicked and withdrew their gold and other deposits. As the gold supply—much of it kept at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—dwindled, the country faced possible insolvency. On Apr. 5, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, which prohibited the hoarding of gold and required citizens to exchange their gold coins for paper currency.

It was Roosevelt's distant cousin, Theodore, who had commissioned the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to design a high-relief $20 gold coin in the early 1900s. Teddy Roosevelt wanted an American coin that matched the beauty of the ancient Greek ones, and Saint-Gaudens completed the work just before his death from cancer in 1907. On one side is an image of Liberty, a figure reminiscent of a Greek goddess, hair flowing, olive branch in her left hand, torch in her right. On the other is an eagle in midflight, the sun rising behind it.

The Mint had produced the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles almost every year since 1907, and 1933 was no different. By May, as the gold recall was under way, the Mint finished pressing 445,500 of the coins. None were issued. Instead the coins, weighing nearly 15 tons, were put into 1,780 canvas bags and sealed behind three steel doors in Philadelphia Mint Vault F-Cage 1. Only two were thought to have been saved, and they were sent to the Smithsonian.

In January 1934, Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act, which allowed the President to nationalize, in effect, the gold held by the Federal Reserve and increase the price of an ounce. This in turn devalued the dollar, which was supposed to stimulate the troubled economy. The director of the Mint then ordered all the nation's gold coins to be melted into bars. The bars would be kept in the newly constructed Fort Knox. The task was enormous: It wasn't until early 1937 that the Philadelphia Mint sent its $50 million worth of coins, including the 1933 Double Eagles, to the furnace.

Around this time, a 41-year-old Philadelphia jeweler named Israel Switt offered several 1933 Double Eagles to some of the most prominent coin dealers and collectors of the day, according to Secret Service documents since made public. Switt sold one, now Exhibit 18E, to a Texas dealer who then sold it to King Farouk of Egypt for $1,575. A royal representative in the U.S. requested an export license for the coin and, unbeknownst to the Secret Service, the Secretary of the Treasury issued one on Feb. 29, 1944.

That same month, Stack's, the rare coin dealer in New York, announced an auction for another Double Eagle. It wasn't until early March, though, that the Secret Service heard about the sale and realized that some of the coins had been taken out of the Mint. King Farouk's Double Eagle had already been delivered to him in Cairo by diplomatic pouch. Agents confiscated the second coin before Stack's could sell it and launched the investigation that continues today. "The government has been fanatical about seizing and destroying these coins," says Robert W. Hoge, curator of North American coins and currency at the American Numismatic Society. "They're famous because the government has been seizing them since the 1940s."

The first phase of the Secret Service investigation would trace 10 1933 Double Eagles to Switt, a reclusive jeweler and coin dealer who, like so many in this story, believed the coins possessed talismanic powers. His only child, Joan Langbord, who worked with him until his death in 1990 at age 95, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her father "could be obnoxious or irascible. If he didn't like you, he'd throw you out." His business philosophy, she said, was that "the customer was never right; he was always right."

"You must understand the Philadelphia thing," says Brahin. "I'm from there, so I can say this: The dealers were crafty, they would do anything to get an edge. If you don't know that, you don't have the right amount of cynicism to analyze the story."

In Switt's statement to the agents, his only official pronouncement about the coins, he said that he didn't have any records of where, when, or how he had obtained the Double Eagles. But he claimed that he did not buy them from any employees of the Mint.

Nonetheless, after a 10-month investigation, the Secret Service concluded that it was more likely than not that Switt was the fence for a corrupt Mint cashier. In 1945, the Justice Dept. wanted to press charges, but by then the statute of limitations had run out.

Seven years later, in 1952, King Farouk was deposed and sent into exile in Monaco. The generals leading the new Republic of Egypt decided to auction off his belongings, including his renowned gold coin collection. It contained 8,500 pieces; one was the 1933 Double Eagle. Sotheby's won the right to hold the auction in Cairo in February 1954. As soon as U.S. Treasury officials saw the catalog for the Palace Collection of Egypt, as it was called, they asked the Egyptians to pull the coin from the auction and return it to Washington. At the last minute, the Double Eagle in Lot 185 was withdrawn. Then it disappeared.

For more on this story, please see page 2 at this link: Double Eagle Gold Coins Mystery Businessweek

Thanks. -Rob

UFO over New York as hurricane Irene arrives

Bubble cloud over Beijing

Odd News August 23, 2011: Daytona Beach Patrol Runs Over Sunbathers Head, Baseball player's Earmoth and 5.9 Earthquake Strikes Washington D.C!

Daytona Beach patrol truck runs over sunbather's head


Daytona Beach officials will consider removing big patrol trucks from the city's famous sands after a lifeguard ran over and injured a Kansas sunbather Sunday morning, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.Erin Joynt, 33, of Wichita was listed in stable condition today after the right front wheel of a beach patrol pickup truck struck her in the "head area" while making a U-turn, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Her husband was with her but not injured.

The 21-year-old lifeguard, Thomas Moderie, told police he didn't see her. He has been a seasonal, part-time employee for five years and has a "spotless record," Volusia County officials said. The accident is under investigation.

It was the third accident in about a year involving a beach patrol vehicle and a sunbather, and the sixth since 2003, the News-Journal said.



County spokesman Dave Byron said officials will again discuss removing big vehicles from patrolling the beaches because of drivers' visibility problems

Note: I predict a lawsit coming soon... -Rob  

From: USA Today

Baseball Player's Earmoth?

Of all the various afflictions that have sidelined big league ballplayers this season, there isn't
one that will leave  you more squeamish than what happened to Matt Holliday(notes) on
Monday night.

Watch Holliday's exit

The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder was just minding his own business in Busch Stadium's left field when a moth flew into his right ear and refused to come back out. The inner-ear invasion left Holliday in pain and he immediately left the field under the care of a trainer.

Say, where's Fredbird when you really need him?

From the AP:

Holliday was taken into a dark room and a light was put to his ear, trying to lure the moth out, Cardinals spokesman Brian Bartow said. When that didn't work, an instrument was used to pry the live moth out of Holliday's ear.

Holliday was not available for comment but appeared to be OK, Bartow said.

"He had a moth fly into his ear, deep into his ear. I don't even know what happened to it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

So what was more embarrassing for Holliday? That he had to leave the game on account of a moth? Or that the rest of us can make jokes about there being enough room between his ears for that little sucker to make himself at home for a spell?

No matter the answer, the fact that Holliday elected to save the moth for posterity is more than amusing. Anyone know if Cooperstown keeps an entomologist on staff?

UPDATE: We've just obtained a proposal of the Cardinals' plans to prevent anything like this from happening in the future. Not bad, though we wish old Busch Stadium was still around so it could be converted into a giant citronella candle.

 

Note: Lol Rob ;)

From Yahoo Sports

5.9 quake hits East Coast; Pentagon, Capitol buildings evacuated

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the East Coast from Virginia to at least Boston on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The earthquake was centered in Mineral, Virginia, which is 92 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was initially reported at 5.8 magnitude.

The quake had a very shallow depth of 0.6 miles.

The Pentagon and Capitol Building in Washington were evacuated, as were courthouses in New York City. The earthquake sent Washington office workers scurrying into the streets.

A Reuters witness said the quake was felt as far away as Toronto, Canada.

Note: I hope that everyone is ok esp. all my freinds in those areas and New York
as well. Maybe the Rapture is not to far away... Rob

From Yahoo News

Stray cat 'army' battles west China plague of rodents

BEIJING (AP) — Stray cats rounded up in a remote west China city are being used to catch rodents that have infested surrounding pasture lands.

Some 150 strays — dubbed by Chinese media as the "cat army" — were turned loose on the range lands outside Bole city in May to fight what the government calls a plague of rats. The state-run Xinhua News Agency says that the cats were brought in, along with tons of poisonous rat pellets.

The Bole government said in late June that rat holes had decreased by more than half. The Xinhua report on Friday quoted a Bole official as saying the cats were proving valuable.

Rodents and other pests have grown more troublesome on the vast grasslands as a result of overgrazing and killing off traditional predators like foxes.

-From Yahoo News and The AP

BFRO Report # 28525 (Class B) - Possible Bigfoot Vocalizations in Bachelors Grove Cemetery

Report # 28525 (Class B)


Submitted by witness on Thursday, November 18, 2010.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possible vocalizations and stick structures found in Bachelors Grove Cemetery

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YEAR: 2010

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 2

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Cook County

LOCATION DETAILS: Bachelors Grove Cemetery which is near the intersection of 143rd Street and Ridgeland Avenue.

NEAREST TOWN: Midlothian

NEAREST ROAD: 143rd Street

OBSERVED: The following on-site interview was conducted by Stan Courtney on the 2nd of Nov 2010. The first name of the witness has been changed.

Stan - How long have you been coming out here?

Mark - I've been coming out here longer than I want to say, it's like early 1970's.

Stan - And then how long have you been coming out here as a researcher?

[ Bachelors Grove Cemetery in Cook County Forest Preserve ]

Mark - I've been here, on and off, for ages. But the last three or four years I've been out here a lot. I'll spend an entire day just walking through the woods. That is when I started noticing things and I never realized what it may have been.

Stan - The area we are standing next to right now, I don't know whether you would call it a structure but it is a group of about ten or fifteen trees that have all been pushed as a big teepee-like structure.

Mark - They have been bent, they aren't all dead either.

Stan - Has this structure always been here?

Mark - I can't remember. Back in the 1980's I never really came back here that much, but it has been here the last ten years or so. And at one point there was much more of a structure. Somebody or something has taken some of it apart.

Stan - Other than this particular structure have you found other things that you found interesting?

Mark - Yes, there are unusual bent trees through-out the woods. I've never understood what goes around pulling full-grown trees over. If a tree breaks in a storm they usually snap or they de-root, these are just broken like at a four, five or six foot level like they have been yanked, fibers are still all connected, it just appears to be pulled over, there are dozens of them throughout the woods. In the area we are standing in now, there are all these broken logs all over the place.

Stan - Have you been out here at night?

Mark - Yeah, but not for ages, when I was a kid we did. But there are weird noises here. I have heard numerous stories of weird howls and growling.

Stan - What have you heard yourself?

Mark - I have heard deep growling before, just a couple times and I don't know what it is. It wasn't wind, there was definitely some real deep gruffy kind of moaning, growling sounds.

Stan - What about footsteps? Have you ever heard footsteps?

Mark - Oh yeah, you hear those out here a lot, but there are deer out here and everything, but sometimes when you walk down the path, that path is quite aways through the middle of the woods to get out here, and you're being followed sometimes. I come out here myself when there is no one else around and I'll swear I'm being followed sometimes.

Stan - Earlier today there were sirens going off and we did hear what I thought was a howl. It was about 200 yards distant. So we heard something this morning that I don't think was a siren.

Mark - I actually did at first but after I started listening it was a different noise than the siren.

Stan - What about smells?

Mark - Others report weird smells, real like freaky dead smells, that will come all of a sudden all over you.

Stan - And you've smelled that?

Mark - Yeah, I don't know how to describe it, we just call it death, kind of a weird freaky smell.

Stan - This is an interesting area and of particular interest to me is that it is in Cook County. We're not talking about a so-called wilderness. Tell me about this woods and does this connect to other woods.

Mark - This is actually the biggest section of woods in all of Cook County, it's massive, it runs from one side of the county to the other. If you look on a map it's huge, you might have to cross a street but once you cross you're in another massive forest preserve. Something could hide here anywhere it wanted. The woods go into Will County, it is a gigantic forest preserve.

Stan - Does it connect up to any rivers or major streams?

Mark - Yes, you can get to that side too, this actually goes all the way to IL 45. On the west side of IL 45 this runs all the way up to 55, the Interstate, this is just a massive area. All you have to do is just cross the street.

Stan - In other words, nothing would have to be permanent in here.

Mark - No, something in here could be cross town in the next day with no problem, and basically we are on the fringes where there are still rural areas. The woods are so interconnected that technically something could walk from here to the Joliet area if it wanted to, going at night it could just cross the fields.

Stan - Do you ever get that watched feeling in the daytime?

Mark - I actually got it today, I was going to ask you. There are days when I come out here I know I am being watched, just don't know from where. Sometime you come out here it's like being in the park, it's a nice beautiful forest reserve, and other times you come out it is just so creepy, you just feel like there are eyes everywhere.

Stan - And did you say that you had stuff thrown at you before?

Mark - Numerous things we've had things thrown at us, not acorns but those bigger nuts. They've actually smacked us before. I was out here with a friend where we had a log, six inch thick by six foot long physically fly out of the trees and land within about three feet of us. Then we actually left, looked up and said "We can take a hint" and then we walked out of here. Its just logs don't fall out of the sky very often.

Stan - Have you ever experienced a bluff charge?

Mark - No. There are deer out here too, but you will also hear something crunching because this is thick woods and then all of a sudden you hear nothing.

Stan - Have you ever heard woodknocks?

Mark - You know, to be honest, I probably haven't paid attention, I might have, I never looked at it from this point of view. We have a huge deer population, we have water right there. These are such thick woods, we're talking fall now, you should see this place in the summer, you can't see in here at all.

Stan - It's a beautiful forest preserve.

Mark - Yes, it is a neat forest and it is exciting to find out that what we have been seeing and hearing is indicative of possible sasquatch activity.

ALSO NOTICED: There are also several trees that have been twisted at about the five foot level.

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, two

OTHER STORIES: Numerous stories of footsteps, howls, growls, objects being thrown at hikers.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Cool and clear.

ENVIRONMENT: Heavily wooded.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

While accompanying Mark and his friend to the cemetery and through the adjoining woods we started hearing sirens.

After several minutes we noticed one of the sounds was different. With all the human activity in the area, including a four-lane highway, obtaining a decent recording is very difficult. We heard the howl a total of three times, it was approximately 300 yards north of our location.

Upon reviewing the audio recording the following segment was isolated.

About BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

Stan Courtney has a special interest in wildlife audio recording. He has attended numerous BFRO Expeditions and travels throughout Illinois giving presentations on "Bigfoot In Illinois". See Stan's blog StanCourtney.com for recordings he has collected over the years.

Stan Courtney can be reached at illinois@bfro.net

Note: I've been to Bachelors Grove Cemetery
back in the summer of 2000 and after having
read many reports about it on the internet
and paranormal books. I do believe that
it may be one of the most haunted
cemetery's and burial grounds in
the world and that, in addition
to the paranormal aspect of it
there may be a cryptozoological
one involving Bigfoot's after
reading this report from
the BFRO.

Thanks goes to Stan Courtney
fo reporting and for cmknight
for posting this link on the
BFRO's Blue Forum.

For more pics and sounds
from this report please go here:

BFRO Report #28525

Bachelors Grove Cemetery

is located in Midlotian, IL
in Cook County in the U.S.
Rob

Colo. fugitive sister: 'I deserved to get shot' - Bonnie and Clydes Caught

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — A woman caught with her two brothers after a nationwide manhunt told Colorado authorities she "deserved to get shot" after pointing a gun at a police chief at the end of the siblings' run from the law, according to a court document.

Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, and Ryan Edward Dougherty, 21, are being held in Pueblo County, Colo., on bonds of $1.25 million each. The three made their first court appearance Thursday by video from jail, and none made any statement during the brief hearing.

They face charges of attempted murder of a peace officer and assault on a peace officer. The charges stem from allegations that they shot rounds from an AK-47 at four patrol cars during a chase Wednesday on Interstate 25 in Colorado. The chase ended when troopers deployed spike strips to puncture the tires of the trio's Subaru, and the vehicle rolled and crashed into a guardrail.

According to an arrest affidavit, Lee Dougherty ran from the crash and was shot in the leg by Walsenburg Police Chief James Chamblerlain after she pointed a "machine pistol" at him. The document says she later told police, "I deserved to get shot."

Investigators said that when they asked her about gunfire during the chase, Lee Dougherty said she thought authorities were firing at them. Authorities said they didn't fire at the fugitives' car and believe she might have mistaken the sound of the spike strips for gunshots.

"We weren't trying to hurt anyone; we just wanted them to get back. They were way back and we could barely see them," she said, according to the affidavit. Separate affidavits for the three don't include statements from the brothers.

The trio's mother, Barbara Bell of East Palatka, Fla., spoke briefly Thursday to The Associated Press but declined to discuss their ordeal, saying she didn't think it would help them in the long run.

"Thank God they're not tried by the media," she said. "They're tried in a court of law and their story will come out at that time."

Bell hung up the phone shortly after a reporter called, saying she needed to keep the line open for concerned family members to reach her.

"I'm devastated and I'm trying to be strong for other family members," Bell said. "Throughout all of this, I think everybody just wanted it to stop. And now it's over."

The public defender appointed to represent the siblings, William Martinez, didn't immediately return a phone message.

The siblings also have no-bond warrants in Georgia and Florida on charges they robbed a bank in Georgia and shot at a police officer in Florida on Aug. 2.

"These three have a big legal mess in front of them, and at some point they'll face charges in all those jurisdictions," FBI Special Agent Phil Niedringhaus said.

Dylan Stanley and Ryan Dougherty are from Lacoochee, Fla. Lee Dougherty had been living with a boyfriend in Orlando, Fla., according to the Pasco County Sheriff's office.

Although another court hearing has been scheduled for the siblings in Pueblo on Monday, it's not clear whether they will ultimately be tried in court in Colorado, another state or federal court.

"State and federal agents and prosecutors continue to coordinate to determine what the appropriate next step is," said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for Colorado's U.S. attorney, John Walsh.

Pueblo County District Attorney Bill Thiebaut won't file charges until he can review reports from five state and local agencies involved in the Colorado chase. He said he hasn't been in contact with prosecutors from other states.

"My inclination is that if we can ethically charge these people with a serious crime here out of our office in Pueblo, it's likely we will be doing that," he said. "If we have probable cause, we will do that."

Attempted murder, the more serious of the preliminary Colorado charges, carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison, but that could be increased to 48 years if it's found to be a crime of violence under Colorado law, he said.

The hunt for the siblings moved to Colorado on Tuesday after a sighting in Colorado Springs, where they reportedly bought camping gear. After images of the trio were broadcast on television, someone tipped Colorado state troopers and the Pueblo County sheriff Wednesday that the suspects might be at a campground in the remote San Isabel National Forest in southern Colorado.

A Pueblo County sheriff's detective spotted the car near an interstate highway that day and followed it discreetly until state troopers joined him. Then the chase was on.

Jenny Neal, a clerk who was working when the siblings went to the Sinclair gas station in Colorado City, said she had not been paying attention to the news so she didn't know who they were. After a detective came to the store to review video footage, Neal learned it was Dylan Stanley who went into the store by himself and bought vitamin water, sunflower seeds and gas.

"He was perfectly polite and friendly and, you know, completely calm and courteous, and I really didn't think anything about it," said Neal, 38.
"It's probably better that I didn't know anything, you know. I mean, it could've been different had I recognized them and been nervous or anything. It's a scary thought," she said.

Thanks goes to yahoo news and the AP for this report.

On a side note I'm glad these fugitives were finally caught
without anyone getting killed or seriously injured, but these
rednecks could have been caught sooner if America's Most
Wanted with host John Walsh was on FOX like it used
to be. Just a thought. -Rob

Thanks goes to yahoo news and the AP for reporting this story. -Rob

yahoo news

Experts Say Belief in Paranormal Common in US

Experts Say Belief in Paranormal Common in US

Surveys show that more than two thirds of Americans accept the existence of ghosts, visitors from outer space, astrology and other paranormal phenomena. While the more sophisticated might think of these people as crazy, social scientists take a different view.

A horse-drawn carriage takes tourists through the streets of historic Jefferson, Texas as the sun begins to set. Many tourists come here to take part in ghosts walks in which guides tell the stories about various buildings and houses thought to be haunted.

A visitor from the nearby city of Shreveport, Louisiana named Jamie says ghosts could provide evidence of an afterlife she believes in. “I have always believed that there is something after, I do not know if we are stuck here on earth or if there is something more, but I do know there is something," she said.

Some people might regard belief in ghosts as loony. But it is not, according to psychologist Brian Cronk at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. “This is not abnormal in any way, shape or form," he said.

Cronk, who has guided students doing research on people who profess belief in the paranormal, says humans are driven to seek answers to profound questions. “One of the things the human brain does that, as far as we know, other animals do not do, is we are always trying to predict the future and explain why the past has happened and that leads us to always trying to come up with reasons for things," he said.

Another researcher taking a scientific look at paranormal belief is Sociology Professor Carson Mencken, at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He and his colleagues have found that those who believe in these phenomena are usually ordinary, solid citizens. “They hold normal jobs, they have families, they pay bills. They are otherwise upstanding people who have what we consider to be a deviant or odd hobby," he said.

Mencken and two colleagues at Baylor published a book last year called “Paranormal America” that examines data about people with various paranormal beliefs.

They found, for example, that men tend to believe in space aliens more than women do, but that women are more inclined to believe in fortune telling and spiritual encounters.

They found that those who dropped out of high school are more likely to believe in ghosts and psychics, but they also found that people with higher education levels were involved in other paranormal pursuits.

Mencken says those drawn to the paranormal are sometimes seeking discovery, such as evidence that UFOs or ghosts exist, but he says many others simply seek enlightenment. “They are looking for some revelation, a deeper understanding about how the universe works, about what happens to you after you die," he said.

Religion provides the answer to those questions for many people. Among churchgoers, Mencken says liberal, mainstream religions are more likely to tolerate members with paranormal beliefs than are Protestant evangelicals and others with a stricter interpretation of the Bible.

“They are likely to see the paranormal as one of two things, one is yes, it exists, but it is part of an evil plot by Satan or, you know, it is heresy," said Mencken.

Mencken says today, belief in the paranormal is fed by the many movies and television programs about ghosts and UFOs. “Look at how many paranormal shows there are. There are paranormal reality shows. There are television networks devoted only to the paranormal now, so it has become an interesting part of our culture," he said.

Mencken says the United States has drawn on other nations and cultures for much of its paranormal beliefs and that immigrants from Latin America, Asia and elsewhere are contributing their ghosts and spirits to the mix. - VOA

Thanks to http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/ for reporting this story as well.

David Letterman - Obama Birthday Top Ten

Van Halen - Jump (HQ music video)

I'm Back!!!

Yes ladies and gentleman I'm back online!

I was off for more then a month for the 3rd time in a year
or less dueto my desktop pc's hd crashing again and having
to have it replaced,

Luckily my friend Darren lent me a laptop pc
so I will be using this (it's a compaq btw!)
until I get a new hd for my desktop pc.

Anyway I will update the blog
a few times a week at least and
focus moreon the paranormal,
unexplained, cryptozoology,
ufo's and odd news as well as
urban legends and more.

Great to be back online and
I just turned 27 years old on
the 26th of July btw! ;)

Stay tuned... the best is yet to come!

-Rob