Loch Ness Mystery Noise ‘Unsolved’
October 8, 2008 / 788
Residents on the shores of Loch Ness are having their sleep disturbed by a mystery humming noise similar to that which sparked a spate of calls to a council in Suffolk.
Mikko Takala, who lives in a cottage overlooking the loch near Drumnadrochit where he runs a webcam site tracking the elusive Loch Ness Monster, has been having sleepless nights for weeks.
His mother, who lives with him, and a near neighbour have also been woken in the wee sma’ hours by the same strange humming noise, which one blue blooded Suffolk resident, Lord Philips of Sudbury, said could be mistaken for a spacecraft landing. Read more …
Ripper ‘Claimed Earlier Victims’
October 7, 2008 / 624
Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Jack the Ripper may have killed his first victim 25 years earlier than previously thought, a retired murder detective has claimed in a new book.
It is thought that Jack the Ripper killed and mutilated at least five prostitutes in the East End between August and November 1888. But Trevor Marriott says he may have struck in 1863 and 1872.
Mr Marriott will be presenting his findings at the Docklands Museum which is hosting an exhibition on the killer.
Bodies unattended: The body of 28-year-old prostitute Emma Jackson was found in a brothel in St Giles, central London, in April 1863.
She had five wounds to the throat and had not been robbed. The case was never solved.
Mr Marriott also uncovered a second case he believes may have been committed by the Ripper. Nine years after the Jackson murder, on Christmas Day 1872, Harriet Buswell was found with her throat slit at her lodgings in nearby Great Coram Street, after returning home the previous evening with a male guest. Both cases remain unsolved. Read more …
Ness ‘Hum’ Saga is a Global Issue
October 6, 2008 / 1138
The loch ness humming noise mystery has gone global. After our story last week on the unexplained phenomenon, the Highland News website was inundated with hits.
And an American scientist has revealed he has been carrying out international research into the strange noise after similar reports from around the world.
Our story triggered an immediate response from Kevin Barber in Mount Vernon, Washington, who endures the same problem highlighted by Loch Ness webcam master Mikko Takala. He now claims there is another Loch Ness mystery to solve.Mr Barber told the Highland News:
“I see these types of articles getting more attention these days, as they should. I am also a hum sufferer here in the USA. Read more …
Lost Mozart score found in France
October 5, 2008 / 953
Rediscovered Mozart score: The score was authenticated last year
A previously unknown piece of music by Mozart has been discovered at a library in western France.
Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Austria, said the single sheet of music was “really important”.
“His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable,” he added. “There’s no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart.”
The sheet was found among the archives by staff at a library in Nantes.
Mr Leisinger said the municipal Mediatheque library contacted his foundation to ask for help authenticating the work.
It’s a melody sketch so what’s missing is the harmony and the instrumentation, but you can make sense out of it
Ulrich Leisinger
The score appears to be for a “Credo in D major”.
There is a second piece which looked like a “first draft, in parts illegible,” said a library official.
It was part of the collection of Pierre-Antoine Laboucheroe, a 19th-century collector who donated his legacy to the city. Read more …
Mystery Lard Lumps Wash up on Kapiti Coast
October 4, 2008 / 171
More mysterious lard-like lumps have washed up on lower North Island shores, proving a beacon to dogs and fortune hunters.
Waikanae Beach resident and shopkeeper Sue Wilkie discovered a large, white, barnacle-covered object at the water’s edge while walking her dog yesterday morning. “It really stood out. At first I thought it was an old float covered in barnacles. “When I got up to it I thought it was concrete, but when I looked around the other side it was greasy and crumbly, just like the lump found at Breaker Bay. Read more …
The REAL Monsters of Halloween: Witches
October 3, 2008 / 1085
WITCHES
What would Halloween be without witches? Witches and witchcraft date back to at least ancient Greek and Roman times. Even then there was a distinction made between “white” witchcraft (benevolent) and “black” witchcraft (evil), the former of which was tolerated by the government of ancient Rome.
With the spread of Christianity in the 4th century, witchcraft was more and more associated with devil worship, an association it never truly had. But because witchcraft - or Wicca - was practiced by pagans who worshiped pagan deities, the Church demonized the religion and those who followed it. The association stuck and resulted in hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women being tortured and killed as witches over hundreds of years, including during the well-known witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.
The association with evil created the Halloween caricature of the witch as an ugly, wart-studded hag with an evil, toothless grin.
The REAL Monsters of Halloween: The Werewolf
October 3, 2008 / 795
THE WEREWOLF
The lore and tradition of the werewolf are ancient and complex. A werewolf is a human shapeshifter who, traditionally under a full moon, turns into a wolf. From the popular Wolfman movies of the ’50s to the more special-effects laden films like An American Werewolf in London, the werewolf has been a standard character in horror culture and Halloween costumes. But the werewolf legend goes back thousands of years.
“In European folklore,” says the Encyclopedia Britannica, “a man who turns into a wolf at night and devours animals, people or corpses, but returns to human form by day. Some werewolves change shape at will; others, in whom the condition is hereditary or acquired by having been bitten by a werewolf, change shape involuntarily, under the influence of a full moon. If he is wounded in wolf form, the wounds will show in his human form and may lead to his detection. Belief in werewolves is found throughout the world. The psychiatric condition in which a person believes he is a wolf is called lycanthropy.”
How does one become a werewolf? According to “Werewolf Facts,” you can become infected if you:
* Eat the brain of a werewolf.
* Drink from a place where werewolves have drank from.
* Wear or smell the plant wolfbane.
* Are bitten by a Werewolf.
* Were born on Christmas Eve.
