The city of Roswell NM is looking at building an alien theme park.  Is Roswell going to be the alien and fun mecca?

Link: http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/61916.html

UJI, Kyoto — Eleven junior high school students suffered hyperventilation and were rushed to hospital after talking about ghosts on a bus during a school trip Saturday afternoon, school officials said.

They are fully conscious and their conditions are not serious. Doctors said they suspect that the students suffered hyperventilation as a result of anxiety caused by the tales about ghosts.

At around 12:20 p.m., the Yakult Honsha Co. Kyoto factory in Uji made an emergency call to a local fire station saying some students on an inspection tour fell ill and asking for an ambulance.

Eleven of the 77 students from Sakai Municipal Mikunigaoka Junior High School who were visiting the factory were rushed to hospital in ambulances. The 77 were among 214 second-year students on a two-day school trip, and were to go back to the school later in the day. (Mainichi)

Link: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070526p2a00m0na016000c.html

PROFESSIONAL ghost hunters have conducted a seance and collected video footage during an overnight search of the Old Treasury building in Spring Street. The members of Ghost Hunters of Australia have been investigating claims by employees, including a former curator, that the place is haunted.

The claims go back 80 years and are part of Melbourne folklore. Today they endure as a weird form of office gossip.

After “freaking out” one night — he ran down the stairs and out of the building, the ghost following — former catering official Eric Lely decided to raise the issue at a staff meeting.

“At first no one wanted to talk about it. It was like I opened a can of worms because everyone felt the same way,” Mr Lely told The Sunday Age.

A couple of his workmates were “big tall men like rugby players” and they also told of “shooting down” the stairs because they felt someone coming after them.

Others told of the feeling that somebody was looking over their shoulder, somebody flitting past the open doorway.

Cleaners talk about their mops and buckets being moved about. Strange noises, tappings on shoulders, whistling in the stairwell, heavy footsteps — everything but the rattling of chains and floating white sheets.

The word is, women have a friendlier experience. Former curator Helen Stuckey, now with ACMI, describes the ghost as “gentle; he was very kind to women and a nice presence to have in the building”.

Often alone in the building at night, Ms Stuckey “would have a sense of him passing her door,” and the lift would often arrive at her level before she had pressed the button.

The written testimony of Mr Lely and Ms Stuckey will appear in an exhibition, Spooks: Haunted Stories of Melbourne, at the City Museum at Old Treasury.

Curator Simon Gregg says the exhibition is “believed to be the first of its kind in the world”, featuring documentary evidence that bona fide ghosts prowl the Princess Theatre, Como House, the Old Melbourne Gaol, Werribee Park Mansion, Parliament House, State Library, MCG and the National Gallery of Victoria.

And what did the professional ghost hunters capture on their video cameras? Mr Gregg, who hasn’t had a personal experience of the Old Treasury ghost, as yet, said the “surprising findings” will be revealed at the exhibition, running from July 4 until August 26.

Link: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ghost-busters-on-trail-of-footsteps-and-a-whistle/2007/05/26/1179601737359.html

The sun was beginning to set over downtown as we arrived in the ‘Bell Town’ area of Seattle. We were scheduled to meet the Ghost Hunters across the street from our very first haunted location. Since the anticipation was to much for me to handle, my Producer and I decided to get there a little earlier than planned.

We circled the block a few times and finally found a parking space on the street. After a short walk we came upon the location. It was an older ominous looking building on the corner of the block. Impressed by the feel from the building I snapped a quick picture.

One by one the team started showing up. Some members I recognized from our previous meeting, others I got to meet for the first time. But, my previous realization about Paranormal Investigators still rang true. So far, they have all been normal, everyday people.

Once the entire team was assembled we made our way inside of the building. We were greeted by the Building Manager and after a quick round of introductions he led us to the back stairwell, down the stairs, and in to the basement. We walked through a door and down a short hallway finally emerging in the boiler room.

If I could have chosen the location for the first shoot, this would have been it. It was dark and dusty, with old machinery humming away. It looked straight out of a horror movie. So I decided to use this room to conduct the interview with the building manager.

According to him in the early 1900’s the boiler was run by coal. One afternoon there was a group of children playing in the basement as a woman kept watch over them. Without warning the boiler exploded. The explosion was heard throughout the building which alerted the brother of the woman and he ran down to the basement. Ignoring his own safety he rushed in to the boiler room and tried to save the kids and his sister. But it was to late, they were gone. Wounded badly by the fire, the man made his way back to his second floor apartment where he passed away from his injuries.

Ever since this incident there have been multiple reports of paranormal activity in the basement as well as on the second floor. It seems that the children are still in the basement playing as the woman watches over them. It is also believed that the man still roams the second floor looking for his lost sister.

The team began their investigation shortly after the interview concluded. Using their vast selection of equipment they attempted to detect and make contact with the spirits. The entire building was searched from top to bottom and we had a few ‘interesting’ experiences along the way.

I’m going to refrain from using to much detail about this investigation as it appears in the film. But overall it made for a very good introduction in to ghost hunting. I’m beginning to understand the mentality behind chasing ghosts. It wasn’t until a following investigation that I became a true believer.

But we’ll talk about that at a later date.

May 22, 2007 — The Gettysburg borough public safety committee discussed an ordinance Monday that would cap the number of participants in walking-tour groups, and some tour operators aren’t happy about it.The borough has been considering changes to the voluntary guidelines since last year, when Baltimore Street residents complained about noise, littering and property damage because of the growing number of ghost tours in the borough. At least 13 companies conducted tours last year.

Code Enforcement Officer Bea Savage said she discovered an ordinance in another town that required tours to keep a certain distance from each other and limited groups to 15 people.

“I think this would do the trick,” Savage said, calling the ordinance a “good middle line” between current voluntary guidelines and much stricter rules in other areas.

But Cindy Codori-Schultz, owner of Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours, doesn’t believe larger tours are unmanageable.

Codori-Schultz said she has been giving tours for 11 years, and her company can manage as many as 45 people in a tour.

She also called a 15-person cap unfair because ghost tours are a seasonal business and susceptible to financial losses from changes in the weather.

“It kind of angers me that they’re thinking about putting limits on numbers,” Codori-Schultz said.

She said she keeps her customers off people’s porches and out of their flower beds, blaming the problem on a small number of companies that act irresponsibly. She said she has seen tour groups with as many as 70 participants.

“It is a problem, and I see (the borough’s) point,” Codori-Schultz said.

Ray Davis, manager and storyteller for the Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours, said he can see the merit in regulating tours, but not as strictly as the committee discussed.

He said the borough should not simply adopt a law written by another municipality because “to use their exact formula doesn’t make sense for Gettysburg.”

“We’re talking thousands of people on a given weekend going on these tours,” Davis said. He said a cap of 30 people per tour would make sense. He already limits his tours to around that number.

Davis also said he could understand a set distance to maintain between tour groups, but it would depend on how much distance.

Strasburg borough, in Lancaster County, requires walking tours to maintain 500 feet between each other.

At that rate, Davis said, he would need to stretch out the groups of 250 people he sometimes gets by more than a mile.

“Fifty feet would make sense,” Davis said.

Link: http://www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_5959413

PARANORMAL experts have been called to a pub in Warminster after weeks of unexplained phenomena have left its new management terrified.

Jackie Mansell, 45, is seeking professional advice after weeks of mysterious incidents, including being grabbed while in the shower, since she took over tenancy of the Masons Arms in East Street, in March.

Other bizarre occurrences include a series of slashes down a newly refurbished wall, music coming from no apparent source, cold patches, curious smells, and doors unlocking on their own.

Warminster’s own supernatural investigators, UK5 Paranormal will be holding a séance at the pub in July to determine any supernatural causes.

Miss Mansell, whose 16-year-old daughter, Kirsty, also lives with her in the pub, said: “The worst thing that happened was when I felt as though I had been grabbed on the back on the neck while in the shower. That freaked me right out. I jumped out of the shower covered in bubbles and ran up the stairs. I’d had a horrible feeling that someone had been watching me before it happened.

“Also, one night, at about 1am, I heard a tambourine playing, but I couldn’t find out where it was coming from. I was with an old friend in the bar and it just wouldn’t stop. My friend went home petrified.”

Other peculiar events include crisp boxes flying off the shelves, orbs of light seen around the bar and doors found unlocked and lights on after they had been switched off and locked before the family had gone to bed.

Miss Mansell said: “We had the bathroom wall plastered and left it to dry overnight a while ago. When we went back the next morning it was like there was three thin blade marks like someone had dragged a Stanley knife down the wall. It is quite high up and no one had been in that room. I can’t explain it.

“I am very sceptical about things like this but it really has frightened the life out of me. I didn’t believe in all of this stuff before I came to the pub but now I just don’t know what to think.”

The executive founder of UK5, Ray Jorden, of Ferris Mead, Warminster, said: “When a place gets redone or renovated you will find that it can disturb the natural flow and fabric of the building and this can at times cause any kind of phenomena to make itself aware to others who live in the building.

“There are many areas of this location that we feel excited about investigating and will be setting up many experiments such as a triggerometery, motion sensors, live web-cams, locked off cameras in active rooms, temperature sensors and much more.”

For more details on the UK5 Paranormal go online to www.uk5paranormal.com

4:28pm Wednesday 23rd May 2007

By Victoria Ashford
Link: http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/
display.var.1420796.0.pub_calls_in_ghosthunters.php

Just saw this little teaser on the Scifi.com website:

Become a ghost hunter!
Taps is recruiting a new member, and you could be it!

Check back on June 6 for details.

Link: http://www.scifi.com/ghosthunters/

–[end]———

Would you be interested in joing their team?  Post a comment with your answer and why.

The coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-kanth) was believed to be extinct for 65 million years until one was found in 1938 off Africa’s coast, igniting worldwide interest. Several other specimens have since been discovered, including another off Sulawesi island in 1998….

I normally skip the articles about the ‘known’ world, but these are of interest to me and I hope, you.  As the statement above states, we thought the coelacanth had been extinct for millions of years. What other creatures, or their cousins, are still roaming the earth in present day? 

The article’s headline:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - An Indonesian fisherman hooked a rare coelacanth, a species once thought as extinct as dinosaurs, and briefly kept the “living fossil” alive in a quarantined pool.

I am not going to post the full article as it is about a know creature, but I’ll post the link to the full article if you wish to read it.  As always, looking for your comments on this story.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070520/ap_on_re_au_an/indonesia_living_fossil

AURORA — The popular “Ghosthunting 101″ course may be looking for spirits elsewhere, if the city-owned Margaret Harmon house is no longer available for use.

The Aurora Landmark Commission recently recommended that ghosthunting investigations not be conducted at the historic Harmon house on Page Road.

Commission chairman Tom Dreher mentioned to the members that several people have spoken to him about the use of the Margaret Harmon house.

He referred to a recent newspaper article which explained that the facility is being used for paranormal activity.

Since 2005, the ghosthunting class has been offered by the city’s community education program.

Dreher asked the commission to review the article and give their thoughts on it to Jim Kraus, the parks and recreation director. He asked them to decide if they think that the landmark commission should take up the issue formally.

The commission passed a measure that advises the Aurora Parks and Recreation Committee to not allow ghost hunting activities at the city’s landmarked properties.

Mayor Lynn McGill said the use of the cemetery for a similar program, “Gravestones, Lanterns and Legends,” also was “improper.”

The ghost hunting class is led by instructor Sherri Brake-Recco, owner and tour guide/researcher for Haunted Heartland Tours and Haunted History Walks of Canal Fulton.

She instructs classes on paranormal subjects such as ghost hunting, dowsing and spirit photography and electronic voice phenomena or EVP.

As a paranormal investigator, Brake-Recco also is the instructor of ghost hunting classes at the West Virginia Penitentiary and has led ghost tours since 2003.

In Aurora, nearly 200 participants have taken the ghost hunting courses.

The class includes two hours of classroom work, a slide show presentation, hands-on use of ghost hunting equipment and a two-hour investigation of the century-old Harmon home.

Link: http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/2026271

Ghost Research or Re$search?

First off, let me say that I am 100% for free enterprise.  With that said, is there room for requiring payments for ghost research and/or investigations?

With the popularity of ghost hunting, there are new groups popping up latterly daily.  While most of these groups are like minded people just looking in to the paranormal, there are others that believe that can make a profit. 
What I do not get is this, ghosts have not yet been scientifically proven to exist, how can you charge for your ‘services’?  Moreover, how can one justify paying someone to look entities in their home? 

Does charging for your services make you more qualified in the public eye?  I hope not! If you are a ‘researcher’ that charges for your services, please do not!  If someone offers to help pay your costs (fuel, etc.), great that’s what it is all about.

Charging people for your services just makes you and the paranormal community appear greedy. If you do charge, please comment here and let us know what you offer that is worth paying for!