Man nails Claus to cross to protest commercialism of Christmas
BREMERTON, Wash. - Art Conrad has an issue with the commercialism of Christmas, and his protest has gone way beyond just shunning the malls or turning off his television.
The Bremerton resident nailed Santa Claus to a 15-foot crucifix in front of his house.
"Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be," Conrad said. "Now he's the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff."
A photo of the crucified Santa adorns Conrad's Christmas cards, with the message "Santa died for your MasterCard."
The display is also Conrad's way of poking fun at political correctness. He believes people do not express their feelings because they are afraid of what other people might think.
His neighbors found the will to express their feelings this past week. Some were offended but many were just curious.
Jake Tally walked by on Friday and chuckled, but did not pretend to understand the message.
"I don't really know what to think. I know it's about God but Santa has nothing to do with it," he told the Kitsap Sun newspaper. - source
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Santa's Chopper Shot Over Rio Slum
Drug traffickers target chopper, apparently mistaking it for police
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Not even Santa Claus is safe as the violent Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro celebrates the Christmas season.
Drug traffickers in a Rio slum opened fire on a helicopter carrying a Santa to a children's party, apparently mistaking it for a police helicopter, police said on Tuesday.
"They thought it was a police operation and started shooting. Luckily, nobody was hurt," a police official said.
The helicopter had to return to its base after the attack.
Two bullet holes were found in its fuselage.
Police said the pilot, contracted to take an actor dressed as Santa to the party in the Nova Mare slum, was flying over the neighboring Vila Joao shantytown when it was fired upon on Sunday.
Santa later returned to Nova Mare by car to distribute Christmas presents.
Most of Rio's 700-plus slums are controlled by drug traffickers and are not regularly patrolled by police, who instead go into the slums in military-style raids, often using helicopters and armored vehicles. - source
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Not even Santa Claus is safe as the violent Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro celebrates the Christmas season.
Drug traffickers in a Rio slum opened fire on a helicopter carrying a Santa to a children's party, apparently mistaking it for a police helicopter, police said on Tuesday.
"They thought it was a police operation and started shooting. Luckily, nobody was hurt," a police official said.
The helicopter had to return to its base after the attack.
Two bullet holes were found in its fuselage.
Police said the pilot, contracted to take an actor dressed as Santa to the party in the Nova Mare slum, was flying over the neighboring Vila Joao shantytown when it was fired upon on Sunday.
Santa later returned to Nova Mare by car to distribute Christmas presents.
Most of Rio's 700-plus slums are controlled by drug traffickers and are not regularly patrolled by police, who instead go into the slums in military-style raids, often using helicopters and armored vehicles. - source
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Squirrels cause power outages for hundreds
Twice on the same day, unlucky animals sabotage wires in 2 Midwest cities
ASHLAND, Wis. - It was an unlucky day for two squirrels and hundreds of Midwestern power customers.
Brian Elwood, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, said a squirrel came in contact with an overhead transformer and knocked out service to 177 customers Monday. Power was fully restored in just under an hour, and repair crews found the remains of the "unfortunate squirrel," he said.
By coincidence, another squirrel got into a substation 40 miles away in Ironwood, Mich., Monday morning and caused a temporary outage that affected about 1,400 customers in Ironwood and two nearby communities, Elwood said.
The utility takes many preventive steps to keep the curious animals away from lines, he said, but they are one of the leading causes of outages, trailing only severe weather.
"We kind of liken it to anyone who's had a bird feeder and tried to keep the squirrels out," he said. "They find a way."
Rodney Johnson was stuck on an elevator at the city's Enterprise Center, where he works, when the power went out.
"For a couple of minutes there, I wasn't sure if I'd make it to Thanksgiving," said Johnson, who said he is somewhat claustrophobic. "They kept talking to me while they were trying to open it up, though, so that helped."
Once a firefighter opened the door, Johnson wasted no time in getting out.
"I'm surprised I didn't knock him down," he said. - source
ASHLAND, Wis. - It was an unlucky day for two squirrels and hundreds of Midwestern power customers.
Brian Elwood, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, said a squirrel came in contact with an overhead transformer and knocked out service to 177 customers Monday. Power was fully restored in just under an hour, and repair crews found the remains of the "unfortunate squirrel," he said.
By coincidence, another squirrel got into a substation 40 miles away in Ironwood, Mich., Monday morning and caused a temporary outage that affected about 1,400 customers in Ironwood and two nearby communities, Elwood said.
The utility takes many preventive steps to keep the curious animals away from lines, he said, but they are one of the leading causes of outages, trailing only severe weather.
"We kind of liken it to anyone who's had a bird feeder and tried to keep the squirrels out," he said. "They find a way."
Rodney Johnson was stuck on an elevator at the city's Enterprise Center, where he works, when the power went out.
"For a couple of minutes there, I wasn't sure if I'd make it to Thanksgiving," said Johnson, who said he is somewhat claustrophobic. "They kept talking to me while they were trying to open it up, though, so that helped."
Once a firefighter opened the door, Johnson wasted no time in getting out.
"I'm surprised I didn't knock him down," he said. - source
Monday, November 19, 2007
Parents of MySpace hoax victim seek justice
I've been saying it for years now: MySpace will be the downfall of civilization. But not because MySpace is the devil, but because it gives people better access to eachother. And people are stupid.
Here is the article:
The parents of a 13-year-old Missouri girl who hanged herself after a failed MySpace romance — later uncovered as a hoax — say they have yet to receive an apology from the family they blame for their daughter’s death.
“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”
Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.
“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”
The Meiers’ daughter, Megan, hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006.
The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.
After the two girls had a falling out, the mother invented a 16-year-old boy, “Josh Evans,” created a MySpace account for him, and made Megan believe he was new in town and thought she was cool.
‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand’
Megan, a girl who had battled attention deficit disorder, depression and a weight problem for much of her young life, believed him, despite her mother’s warnings to be cautious.
“That was always the talk,” Tina Meier told Lauer, repeating the conversations she had with her daughter: “‘Megan, c’mon, we don’t even know this person. Let’s not get too excited.’ She’d say, ‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand.’ So I did talk to her daily about that. But children at this age, they don’t think that.”
And then the boy turned on Megan, leading a campaign of vilification and online name-calling that ended when Megan took her own life.
For a year, the Meiers kept quiet at the request of both the FBI and local law enforcement officials while they investigated the incident.
Ultimately, investigators told the Meiers that while the hoax was cruel, it was not criminal.
‘Continue to monitor your children’
The case remains open, though, and the Meiers continue to hope that criminal charges can be filed under a federal law passed in January 2006 that prohibits online harassment.
“We are still continuing on with the fight on the criminal and the civil side,” said Ron Meier.
The family’s story is, Tina Meier told Lauer, a cautionary tale about the trouble that lies in wait for kids on the Internet, a tale made more painful because they had monitored their daughter’s Internet use closely and had talked to her about “Josh” and the events that ended so tragically.
“It was monitored highly,” Tina Meier said of her daughter’s MySpace account. “We had the password. She couldn’t sign on without us. We had to be in the room” when she was online.
They have not filed a civil suit against the people who invented Josh, but are not ruling that out.
And they also want to warn other parents and children to beware of people online who claim to be their friends.
“Continue to monitor your children,” Tina Meier told Lauer. “Take an extra step. Ask the question. Look at their computers, know what they’re doing. To kids, don’t trust anybody online that you do not know is your true friend.”
Tina Meier has said that she doesn’t think anyone involved intended for her daughter to kill herself.
‘Absolutely vile’
”But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile,” she told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.
Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law. But sheriff’s officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.
Megan Meier was described as a “bubbly, goofy” girl who loved spending time with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad.
Megan had been on medication, but had been upbeat before her death, her mother said, after striking up a relationship on MySpace with Josh Evans about six weeks before her death.
Josh told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O’Fallon. He said he was home-schooled, and didn’t yet have a phone number in the area to give her.
Megan’s parents said she received a message from him on Oct. 15 of last year, essentially saying he didn’t want to be her friend anymore, that he had heard she wasn’t nice to her friends.
Megan seemed upset
The next day, as Megan’s mother headed out the door to take another daughter to the orthodontist, she knew Megan was upset about Internet messages. She asked Megan to log off. Users on MySpace must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she opened her account. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.
Someone using Josh’s account was sending cruel messages. Then, Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.”
Megan’s mother, who monitored her daughter’s online communications, returned home and said she was shocked at the vulgar language her own daughter was sending. She told her daughter how upset she was about it.
Megan ran upstairs, and her father, Ron, tried to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, she was found in her bedroom. She died the next day.
Her father said he found a message the next day from Josh, which he said law enforcement authorities have not been able to retrieve. It told the girl she was a bad person and the world would be better without her, he has said.
Another parent, who learned of the MySpace account from her own daughter, who had access to the Josh profile, told Megan’s parents about the hoax in a counselor’s office about six weeks after Megan died. That’s when they learned Josh was imaginary, they said.
Creator of fake account not charged
The woman who created the fake profile has not been charged with a crime. She allegedly told the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department she created Josh’s profile because she wanted to gain Megan’s confidence to learn what Megan was saying about her own child online.
The mother from down the street told police that she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.
A person who answered the door at the family’s house told an Associated Press reporter on Friday afternoon that they had been advised not to comment.
Megan’s parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan’s death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors’ driveway and encouraging them to move away.
Megan’s parents are now separated and plan to divorce.
Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, a community of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. It could come before city leaders on Wednesday.
“Is this enough?” Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. “No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s something, and you have to start somewhere.” - source
Here is the article:
The parents of a 13-year-old Missouri girl who hanged herself after a failed MySpace romance — later uncovered as a hoax — say they have yet to receive an apology from the family they blame for their daughter’s death.
“They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”
Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.
“She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”
The Meiers’ daughter, Megan, hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006.
The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.
After the two girls had a falling out, the mother invented a 16-year-old boy, “Josh Evans,” created a MySpace account for him, and made Megan believe he was new in town and thought she was cool.
‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand’
Megan, a girl who had battled attention deficit disorder, depression and a weight problem for much of her young life, believed him, despite her mother’s warnings to be cautious.
“That was always the talk,” Tina Meier told Lauer, repeating the conversations she had with her daughter: “‘Megan, c’mon, we don’t even know this person. Let’s not get too excited.’ She’d say, ‘Oh, Mom, you don’t understand.’ So I did talk to her daily about that. But children at this age, they don’t think that.”
And then the boy turned on Megan, leading a campaign of vilification and online name-calling that ended when Megan took her own life.
For a year, the Meiers kept quiet at the request of both the FBI and local law enforcement officials while they investigated the incident.
Ultimately, investigators told the Meiers that while the hoax was cruel, it was not criminal.
‘Continue to monitor your children’
The case remains open, though, and the Meiers continue to hope that criminal charges can be filed under a federal law passed in January 2006 that prohibits online harassment.
“We are still continuing on with the fight on the criminal and the civil side,” said Ron Meier.
The family’s story is, Tina Meier told Lauer, a cautionary tale about the trouble that lies in wait for kids on the Internet, a tale made more painful because they had monitored their daughter’s Internet use closely and had talked to her about “Josh” and the events that ended so tragically.
“It was monitored highly,” Tina Meier said of her daughter’s MySpace account. “We had the password. She couldn’t sign on without us. We had to be in the room” when she was online.
They have not filed a civil suit against the people who invented Josh, but are not ruling that out.
And they also want to warn other parents and children to beware of people online who claim to be their friends.
“Continue to monitor your children,” Tina Meier told Lauer. “Take an extra step. Ask the question. Look at their computers, know what they’re doing. To kids, don’t trust anybody online that you do not know is your true friend.”
Tina Meier has said that she doesn’t think anyone involved intended for her daughter to kill herself.
‘Absolutely vile’
”But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile,” she told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.
Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law. But sheriff’s officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.
Megan Meier was described as a “bubbly, goofy” girl who loved spending time with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad.
Megan had been on medication, but had been upbeat before her death, her mother said, after striking up a relationship on MySpace with Josh Evans about six weeks before her death.
Josh told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O’Fallon. He said he was home-schooled, and didn’t yet have a phone number in the area to give her.
Megan’s parents said she received a message from him on Oct. 15 of last year, essentially saying he didn’t want to be her friend anymore, that he had heard she wasn’t nice to her friends.
Megan seemed upset
The next day, as Megan’s mother headed out the door to take another daughter to the orthodontist, she knew Megan was upset about Internet messages. She asked Megan to log off. Users on MySpace must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she opened her account. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.
Someone using Josh’s account was sending cruel messages. Then, Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.”
Megan’s mother, who monitored her daughter’s online communications, returned home and said she was shocked at the vulgar language her own daughter was sending. She told her daughter how upset she was about it.
Megan ran upstairs, and her father, Ron, tried to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, she was found in her bedroom. She died the next day.
Her father said he found a message the next day from Josh, which he said law enforcement authorities have not been able to retrieve. It told the girl she was a bad person and the world would be better without her, he has said.
Another parent, who learned of the MySpace account from her own daughter, who had access to the Josh profile, told Megan’s parents about the hoax in a counselor’s office about six weeks after Megan died. That’s when they learned Josh was imaginary, they said.
Creator of fake account not charged
The woman who created the fake profile has not been charged with a crime. She allegedly told the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department she created Josh’s profile because she wanted to gain Megan’s confidence to learn what Megan was saying about her own child online.
The mother from down the street told police that she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.
A person who answered the door at the family’s house told an Associated Press reporter on Friday afternoon that they had been advised not to comment.
Megan’s parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan’s death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors’ driveway and encouraging them to move away.
Megan’s parents are now separated and plan to divorce.
Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, a community of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. It could come before city leaders on Wednesday.
“Is this enough?” Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. “No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s something, and you have to start somewhere.” - source
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Mental Shed Christmas Classics
Since 2003 I've been using Christmas as my outlet for the release of pent up stupidity.
This happens in the form of ridiculously horrendous Christmas cartoons. The concepts are good, I suppose, but the follow-through is terrible. I blame this mostly on laziness.
I hope to one day find a good animator to work with, but until then I'll be fiddling around on my own, ruining good ideas with the need for instant gratification.
Anyway, I just finished the new site.
This happens in the form of ridiculously horrendous Christmas cartoons. The concepts are good, I suppose, but the follow-through is terrible. I blame this mostly on laziness.
I hope to one day find a good animator to work with, but until then I'll be fiddling around on my own, ruining good ideas with the need for instant gratification.
Anyway, I just finished the new site.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Half Man, Half Tree
Tree man 'who grew roots' may be cured
An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A.
Dede, now 35, baffled medical experts when warty "roots" began growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident.
The welts spread across his body unchecked and soon he was left unable to carry out everyday household tasks.
Sacked from his job and deserted by his wife, Dede has been raising his two children - now in their late teens - in poverty, resigned to the fact that local doctors had no cure for his condition.
To make ends meet he even joined a local "freak show", parading in front of a paying audience alongside victims of other peculiar diseases.
Although supported by his extended family, he was often a target of abuse and ridicule in his rural fishing village.
But now an American dermatology expert who flew out to Dede's home village south of the capital Jakarta claims to have identified his condition, and proposed a treatment that could transform his life.
After testing samples of the lesions and Dede's blood, Dr Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland concluded that his affliction is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers.
Dede's problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system, meaning his body is unable to contain the warts.
The virus was therefore able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet.
Dede's counts of a key type of white blood cell are so low that Dr Gaspari initially suspected he may have the Aids virus.
But tests showed he did not, and it became clear that Dede's immune condition was something far rarer and more mysterious.
Warts aside, he had enjoyed remarkable good health throughout his life - which would not be expected of someone with a suppressed immune system - and neither his parents nor his siblings have shown signs of developing lesions.
"The likelihood of having his deficiency is less than one in a million," Dr Gaspari told the Telegraph.
Dr Gaspari, who became involved in the case through a Discovery Channel documentary, believes that Dede's condition can be largely cleared up by a daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A, which has been shown to arrest the growth of warts in severe cases of HPV.
"He won't have a perfectly normal body but the warts should reduce in size to the point where he could use his hands," Dr Gaspari said.
"Over the course of three to six months the warts should be come smaller and fewer in number. He will be living a more normal life."
The most resilient warts could then be frozen off and the growths on his hands and feet surgically removed.
Dr Gaspari hopes to get the necessary drugs free of charge from pharmaceutical firms. They would then be administered by Indonesian doctors under his supervision.
Still intrigued by the origins of Dede's peculiar immune condition, the doctor would like to fly him to the United States for further examination, but fears the financial and bureaucratic barriers would prove too difficult to overcome.
"I would like to bring him to the US to run tests on where his immune condition has come from, but I would need funding and to get him a visa as well as someone to cover the costs of the tests," he said.
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire career." - source (w/ videos)
An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A.
Dede, now 35, baffled medical experts when warty "roots" began growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident.
The welts spread across his body unchecked and soon he was left unable to carry out everyday household tasks.
Sacked from his job and deserted by his wife, Dede has been raising his two children - now in their late teens - in poverty, resigned to the fact that local doctors had no cure for his condition.
To make ends meet he even joined a local "freak show", parading in front of a paying audience alongside victims of other peculiar diseases.
Although supported by his extended family, he was often a target of abuse and ridicule in his rural fishing village.
But now an American dermatology expert who flew out to Dede's home village south of the capital Jakarta claims to have identified his condition, and proposed a treatment that could transform his life.
After testing samples of the lesions and Dede's blood, Dr Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland concluded that his affliction is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers.
Dede's problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system, meaning his body is unable to contain the warts.
The virus was therefore able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet.
Dede's counts of a key type of white blood cell are so low that Dr Gaspari initially suspected he may have the Aids virus.
But tests showed he did not, and it became clear that Dede's immune condition was something far rarer and more mysterious.
Warts aside, he had enjoyed remarkable good health throughout his life - which would not be expected of someone with a suppressed immune system - and neither his parents nor his siblings have shown signs of developing lesions.
"The likelihood of having his deficiency is less than one in a million," Dr Gaspari told the Telegraph.
Dr Gaspari, who became involved in the case through a Discovery Channel documentary, believes that Dede's condition can be largely cleared up by a daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A, which has been shown to arrest the growth of warts in severe cases of HPV.
"He won't have a perfectly normal body but the warts should reduce in size to the point where he could use his hands," Dr Gaspari said.
"Over the course of three to six months the warts should be come smaller and fewer in number. He will be living a more normal life."
The most resilient warts could then be frozen off and the growths on his hands and feet surgically removed.
Dr Gaspari hopes to get the necessary drugs free of charge from pharmaceutical firms. They would then be administered by Indonesian doctors under his supervision.
Still intrigued by the origins of Dede's peculiar immune condition, the doctor would like to fly him to the United States for further examination, but fears the financial and bureaucratic barriers would prove too difficult to overcome.
"I would like to bring him to the US to run tests on where his immune condition has come from, but I would need funding and to get him a visa as well as someone to cover the costs of the tests," he said.
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire career." - source (w/ videos)
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Crazy Rulers of the World
To quote the video, "people are basicly nutty."
Documentary about the bizarre beliefs and experiments of the government, such as the U.S. Military experiment to kill things by staring at them. This video contains excerpts from episode one of "Crazy Rulers of the World", by Jon Ronson. Based on his book, "The Men who Stare at Goats".
Three years in the making, Jon Ronson’s Crazy Rulers of the World explores the apparent madness at the heart of US military intelligence.
With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Jon Ronson examines the extraordinary - and plain bizarre - national secrets at the core of George W Bush's war on terror.
Crazy Rulers of the World
Here is the full version:
Crazy Rulers of the World Episode 1 of 3
Want more? Go here: Revolution of Truth
Documentary about the bizarre beliefs and experiments of the government, such as the U.S. Military experiment to kill things by staring at them. This video contains excerpts from episode one of "Crazy Rulers of the World", by Jon Ronson. Based on his book, "The Men who Stare at Goats".
Three years in the making, Jon Ronson’s Crazy Rulers of the World explores the apparent madness at the heart of US military intelligence.
With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Jon Ronson examines the extraordinary - and plain bizarre - national secrets at the core of George W Bush's war on terror.
Here is the full version:
Want more? Go here: Revolution of Truth
Spawn of the Jersey Devil Found
Just in time for Halloween, we present to you The Thing That Came from the Attic.
The unholy demon creature was pulled out of the Crowleytown Schoolhouse in Mullica Township by Doug Laubert, who hasn't the slightest idea of what it is.
"The general consensus is that maybe it's a deformed flying squirrel," Laubert said of the freakish mummy-thing. "Maybe it's a salamander - but it has hair! Maybe it's a chipmunk - but it has a fish tail! When I first saw it, I thought it was a mudskipper - but it has teeth!"
All he knows is that mysterious crypto-creature was found in an area where no one has set foot for at least 30 years. He had punched a hole in a panel to run some TV cable through it, and there it was in all of its glory.
He and his family have thought up some names for the ungodly fish-being, among them "The Spawn of the Jersey Devil" and his nephew's suggestion, "Herman the Vermin."
Press nature columnist Kevin Post chimed in that "Herman" could be a dried up mudpuppy, until he saw the hair and teeth. Other suggestions thrown around included some kind of bat, a rodent, or the Fiji Mermaid.
Whatever it is, Laubert - who, incidentally, is on the ballot next week for a spot as a Mullica committeeman - plans to preserve the tiny gremlin-corpse forever. It will take its place of honor in his collection, he said, next to a dead cat with a glass eye named "Sammy."
So if you see something like this in your own home, whether it's slowly crawling along your floor or simply creeping unseen into your bed in the middle of the night, just try not to look directly into its eyes.
If it starts talking to you, run. - source
The unholy demon creature was pulled out of the Crowleytown Schoolhouse in Mullica Township by Doug Laubert, who hasn't the slightest idea of what it is.
"The general consensus is that maybe it's a deformed flying squirrel," Laubert said of the freakish mummy-thing. "Maybe it's a salamander - but it has hair! Maybe it's a chipmunk - but it has a fish tail! When I first saw it, I thought it was a mudskipper - but it has teeth!"
All he knows is that mysterious crypto-creature was found in an area where no one has set foot for at least 30 years. He had punched a hole in a panel to run some TV cable through it, and there it was in all of its glory.
He and his family have thought up some names for the ungodly fish-being, among them "The Spawn of the Jersey Devil" and his nephew's suggestion, "Herman the Vermin."
Press nature columnist Kevin Post chimed in that "Herman" could be a dried up mudpuppy, until he saw the hair and teeth. Other suggestions thrown around included some kind of bat, a rodent, or the Fiji Mermaid.
Whatever it is, Laubert - who, incidentally, is on the ballot next week for a spot as a Mullica committeeman - plans to preserve the tiny gremlin-corpse forever. It will take its place of honor in his collection, he said, next to a dead cat with a glass eye named "Sammy."
So if you see something like this in your own home, whether it's slowly crawling along your floor or simply creeping unseen into your bed in the middle of the night, just try not to look directly into its eyes.
If it starts talking to you, run. - source
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Cannibal Kills And Eats His Girlfriend
A man has been arrested in Mexico on suspicion of murdering and dismembering his girlfriend and eating parts of her.
Police sent to the home of Jose Luis Calva say they discovered a woman's torso in a cupboard, leg in the fridge and bones in a cereal carton.
They are also reported to have discovered the draft of an unfinished novel, titled Cannibal Instincts.
Mr Calva is now also being investigated in connection with the disappearances of an ex-girlfriend and a prostitute.
Police were called to Mr Calva's apartment in central Mexico City on Monday after neighbours reported a bad smell.
There they discovered the remains of his girlfriend, Alejandro Galeano, a 30-year-old pharmacy worker and mother of two. She had been reported missing by her family on Friday.
Police are said to be investigating whether chunks of meat found in a frying pan in the apartment are human.
Mr Calva was injured as he tried to escape and is now in hospital.
He has told police he is an aspiring horror writer and poet.
In initial interrogations he also confessed to being an admirer of the British actor Anthony Hopkins, who plays a cannibal in the film Silence of the Lambs, reported the news agency Efe.
Police say they are now investigating the possibility of links with previous murders. The mutilated body of a former girlfriend, Veronica Consuelo Martinez, was discovered in 2004, and body parts of a prostitute were found in plastic bags on a street in the north of Mexico City earlier this year. - source
Police sent to the home of Jose Luis Calva say they discovered a woman's torso in a cupboard, leg in the fridge and bones in a cereal carton.
They are also reported to have discovered the draft of an unfinished novel, titled Cannibal Instincts.
Mr Calva is now also being investigated in connection with the disappearances of an ex-girlfriend and a prostitute.
Police were called to Mr Calva's apartment in central Mexico City on Monday after neighbours reported a bad smell.
There they discovered the remains of his girlfriend, Alejandro Galeano, a 30-year-old pharmacy worker and mother of two. She had been reported missing by her family on Friday.
Police are said to be investigating whether chunks of meat found in a frying pan in the apartment are human.
Mr Calva was injured as he tried to escape and is now in hospital.
He has told police he is an aspiring horror writer and poet.
In initial interrogations he also confessed to being an admirer of the British actor Anthony Hopkins, who plays a cannibal in the film Silence of the Lambs, reported the news agency Efe.
Police say they are now investigating the possibility of links with previous murders. The mutilated body of a former girlfriend, Veronica Consuelo Martinez, was discovered in 2004, and body parts of a prostitute were found in plastic bags on a street in the north of Mexico City earlier this year. - source
Elephants Electrocuted In Drunken Rampage
GAUHATI, India - Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote northeast, a wildlife official said Tuesday.
Nearly 40 elephants came to a village on Friday looking for food. Some found beer, which farmers ferment and keep in plastic and tin drums in their huts, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official.
They got drunk, uprooted a utility pole carrying power lines and were electrocuted in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 150 miles west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, Kumar said.
"There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away," said Dipu Mark, a local conservationist.
The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India's northeast. Four wild elephants died in similar circumstances in the region three years ago.
India's northeast accounts for the world's largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants with the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone estimated to have 7,000 of them.
"It's great to have such a huge number of elephants, but the increasing man-elephant conflict following the shrinkage in their habitat due to the growing human population is giving us nightmares," said Pradyut Bordoloi, a former forest and environment minister for Assam. - source
Nearly 40 elephants came to a village on Friday looking for food. Some found beer, which farmers ferment and keep in plastic and tin drums in their huts, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official.
They got drunk, uprooted a utility pole carrying power lines and were electrocuted in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 150 miles west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, Kumar said.
"There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away," said Dipu Mark, a local conservationist.
The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India's northeast. Four wild elephants died in similar circumstances in the region three years ago.
India's northeast accounts for the world's largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants with the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone estimated to have 7,000 of them.
"It's great to have such a huge number of elephants, but the increasing man-elephant conflict following the shrinkage in their habitat due to the growing human population is giving us nightmares," said Pradyut Bordoloi, a former forest and environment minister for Assam. - source
Monday, October 22, 2007
Ugly Assholes In Philadelphia
Attention people of Philadelphia: In case you weren't aware, you are apparently the countries ugliest jackasses.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Man In The Lower-Left Hand Corner Of The Photograph
Another strange and moving stopmotion short by Robert Morgan:
The Man In The Lower-Left Hand Corner Of The Photograph
Part 1
Part 2
Part 1
Part 2
Separation by Robert Morgan
A sad and strange stopmotion short about conjoined twins by Robert Morgan:
Separation
Quote of the Day
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon
The Most Horrific EVP Ever Recorded
IN JANUARY, 2007, the Central New York Ghost Hunters (CNYGH), based in Syracuse, New York, were invited to investigate an old hotel in upstate New York. (The owners of the hotel have asked to keep its location confidential.) The investigation proved to be one of the most intensely active the group has ever encountered, and produced an EVP – an electronic voice phenomena recording – that is remarkable not only for its length, but also for its terrifying content.
It may well be the most intense, frightening EVP ever recorded.
THE INVESTIGATION
On that weekend in January, CNYGH founder Stacey Jones and several members of the group went to the hotel on an overnight stay for what they thought would be a routine investigation. They had no idea what they were in for.
Originally built in the late 1800s, the building was in its colorful history the site of some nefarious activity, a fact that might be key to what is heard in the EVP.
On Friday night, Stacey and her group set up their equipment – audio recorders, video recorders and other electronics – and settled in, hoping to document some evidence for the haunting the owners had claimed. Most investigations are relatively quiet, but this night was filled with paranormal activity, including muffled voices of unknown origin, footsteps from unseen bodies and more. Members of the group I spoke with confirmed that it was the most active haunting they had personally experienced.
The real shocker came the next day. On Saturday afternoon at about 3 p.m., two female CNYGH investigators and a member of the owner's family (also a female) sat on the staircase of the hotel with a digital voice recorder, intending to capture some EVP. They chose the stairway because they had heard soft conversations and footsteps on the floor above, although no one was up there.
When they later played the recording back, however, what they heard were not soft voices and footsteps, but something totally unexpected and completely terrifying.
THE EVP: WHAT YOU'LL HEAR
Stacey Jones describes what you'll hear on the recording:
"You can [faintly] hear the three females talking throughout the recording. You will hear a female – the family member – say, 'Hello, baby,' and another long conversation. Those are all human voices. But what sounds like a struggle or attack is going on as well.
"The male [voice] you hear was not present at the hotel. You will hear a cuckoo clock (which was not present) a ticking of a hall clock (which was there); you will hear what sounds like the microphone being moved (which was not touched) and then the sound becomes clearer.
"You will hear a creaking door and slamming of the door, which is real. Then you will hear a [unknown] woman say, 'Get off me,' and what sounds like the woman being attacked. The struggle continues for awhile, and during the EVP you can hear some of my investigators' conversations. After interviewing my investigators, they said they went and sat on the stairs of this hotel, because they heard from an above floor, what sounded like footsteps and conversations, not what you hear on this recording. When the noises stop, you hear the investigators participate in a lulled conversation. They stated that they started to talk when the noises stopped. In their conversation, you will hear a male voice say, 'Help me' several times."
Download and listen to the EVP
Caution: the recording is violent and may be too intense for some listeners.
It's a large file, so the download may take awhile. If you're having trouble downloading the file, try right-clicking the link above and choose "Save Target As..." in Internet Explorer or "Save Link As..." in Firefox to save the file to your computer's hard drive, then play it from there.
If you still have trouble, try listening to it from YouTube:
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Calf Born With Two Functioning Noses
Lucy was born with two noses in Lincoln County, Wis. The second, smaller nose sits on top of the first. Breeder Scott Grund said Lucy's noses seem to be working fine.
Article here.
Article here.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Recent News of the Strange and Disturbing
Including television interruptions by God, UFO's, and Hebrew Men In Black - read it here.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Quote of the Day
Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality.
Michael Ellner
Also:
- Psychedelic Alchemy
Maps show how climate change will turn rare disasters into regular events
The real Frankensteins
The 1918 killer flu virus killed by pushing immune systems into overdrive
Who's controlling our weather?
Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers
US doctors are planning the first womb transplant
- Geostationary Banana Over Texas
Napoleon's mysterious death umnasked
Looking for consciousness in a cockroach
Little jesus monkey
The Priory of Sion and their secrets exposed in the new documentary Bloodline
- “John 23” and the enigma of Bérenger Saunière
Casual sex is a con
Tesla's Fuelless Generator
Parasitic infections could stop the immune system from self-attack
We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
Robert Wilensky
www.mentalshed.com
Michael Ellner
Also:
- Psychedelic Alchemy
Maps show how climate change will turn rare disasters into regular events
The real Frankensteins
The 1918 killer flu virus killed by pushing immune systems into overdrive
Who's controlling our weather?
Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers
US doctors are planning the first womb transplant
- Geostationary Banana Over Texas
Napoleon's mysterious death umnasked
Looking for consciousness in a cockroach
Little jesus monkey
The Priory of Sion and their secrets exposed in the new documentary Bloodline
- “John 23” and the enigma of Bérenger Saunière
Casual sex is a con
Tesla's Fuelless Generator
Parasitic infections could stop the immune system from self-attack
We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
Robert Wilensky
www.mentalshed.com
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Spectacularly Wrong
Four years ago Sylvia Browne and James Van Praagh said Shawn Hornbeck was dead. They were wrong.
World's first test tube baby gives birth - the old fashioned way
Amazonian mummies frozen in terror
The curiously literal mind
9/11: The Video
World's first test tube baby gives birth - the old fashioned way
Amazonian mummies frozen in terror
The curiously literal mind
9/11: The Video
Friday, January 12, 2007
And 2007 is well on it's way to topping the bizarre news of last year...
'Dracula Castle' put up forsale
Mystery as thousands of birds fall dead from the sky
Scientists recreate Dante's face from 1920 skull measurements
Another Hogzilla, bigger than the last, has been caught near Atlanta
We are living in strange days
DMT and extraterrestrial communication
Russian archeologists discover the body of a 2,000-year-old warrior preserved intact in the permafrost
The Priory of Sion has resorted to recruitment by spam
A research thesis on procrastination is finally finished...after 10 years
Hitachi has developed a system that reads people's minds by their blood flow
Scientists make molecular rings in the shape of King Solomon's Knot
9/11 + 11/22 = Conspiracy Squared
Jordan Maxwell - Hidden Symbols and Inner World of the Occult
'Dracula Castle' put up forsale
Mystery as thousands of birds fall dead from the sky
Scientists recreate Dante's face from 1920 skull measurements
Another Hogzilla, bigger than the last, has been caught near Atlanta
We are living in strange days
DMT and extraterrestrial communication
Russian archeologists discover the body of a 2,000-year-old warrior preserved intact in the permafrost
The Priory of Sion has resorted to recruitment by spam
A research thesis on procrastination is finally finished...after 10 years
Hitachi has developed a system that reads people's minds by their blood flow
Scientists make molecular rings in the shape of King Solomon's Knot
9/11 + 11/22 = Conspiracy Squared
Jordan Maxwell - Hidden Symbols and Inner World of the Occult
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Calf Born With Two Faces
A calf with two faces is photographed Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, at Kirk Heldreth's dairy farm in Rural Retreat, Va. The calf, which was born Dec. 27, 2006, breathes out of two noses and has two tongues, which move independently, according to Heldreth. There appears to be a single socket containing two eyes where the heads split.
Article here.
Also:
"Space junk" bursts into flames entering the atmosphere on live TV
A metal object crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home
Reviving an old artform: Cabinets of curiosity
- Some interesting modern cabinets of curiosity made by photographer Wicked Swank right here.
Buried feces offer clues about the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Archaeologist finds traces of "humanity's first war" in Syria
A UFO crashed in South Africa
The Mottram frog gets a tribute plaque:
Iraqi's in Bagdad are seeing Saddam's ghost
Article here.
Also:
"Space junk" bursts into flames entering the atmosphere on live TV
A metal object crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home
Reviving an old artform: Cabinets of curiosity
- Some interesting modern cabinets of curiosity made by photographer Wicked Swank right here.
Buried feces offer clues about the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Archaeologist finds traces of "humanity's first war" in Syria
A UFO crashed in South Africa
The Mottram frog gets a tribute plaque:
Iraqi's in Bagdad are seeing Saddam's ghost
Friday, January 05, 2007
Mass Killings In The U.S. In 2007
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson cited communications with God in predicting Tuesday that horrific terrorism aimed at the United States will result in "mass killing" during the second half of 2007.
"The Lord didn't say nuclear, but I do believe it'll be something like that - that'll be a mass killing, possibly millions of people, major cities injured," Robertson said.
"There will be some very serious terrorist attacks," he said. "The evil people will come after this country, and there's a possibility - not a possibility, a definite certainty - that chaos is going to rule." Robertson did not say where the attacks would occur.
Robertson made his predictions during "The 700 Club" television show, which he hosts from the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach.
Predicting events for the coming year is a tradition for Robertson, who customarily spends the last days of each year in prayer.
The prayer retreats yield "what I feel, or I feel the Lord is saying, is going to happen," he said Tuesday. "I put these things out with humility."
"God said he's going to restrain the evil but he isn't necessarily going to restrain it in the beginning," Robertson said. "A lot of these things can be reversed - we just need to do a lot of praying."
Robertson said the actions of Israel's government also weighed heavily on God's heart and his.
"The word was that the Olmert policies were toxic" for Israel, said Robertson, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Robertson, who did not cite specific policies, said the United States was "feigning friendship" toward Israel while espousing policies that were "pushing them toward national suicide."
Robertson drew heavy criticism last January when he suggested in a broadcast that God punished then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.
His accuracy in predictions has been mixed, though Robertson on Tuesday claimed a "relatively good track record."
Robertson said in May that, "If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed" by "vicious hurricanes." He predicted that "there well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."
No hurricanes struck the U.S. coast in 2006. Three tropical storms hit the country.
No tsunami occurred in the Pacific Northwest, though parts of Washington state saw record-setting rains, floods or drought during 2006, said Josiah Mault, the assistant state climatologist.
In January 2004, Robertson said, "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout" re-election for President Bush.
Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
In 2005, Robertson predicted that "Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph." Robertson said Bush's Social Security overhaul proposals would be approved and "he'll have conservative judges on the courts."
Senators confirmed Bush's 2005 nominations of John Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, making it more conservative in the view of many observers.
But the president's Social Security initiative stalled, and Republicans lost control of Congress in the latest election amid voters' unhappiness with Bush's Iraq policy. - source
"The Lord didn't say nuclear, but I do believe it'll be something like that - that'll be a mass killing, possibly millions of people, major cities injured," Robertson said.
"There will be some very serious terrorist attacks," he said. "The evil people will come after this country, and there's a possibility - not a possibility, a definite certainty - that chaos is going to rule." Robertson did not say where the attacks would occur.
Robertson made his predictions during "The 700 Club" television show, which he hosts from the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach.
Predicting events for the coming year is a tradition for Robertson, who customarily spends the last days of each year in prayer.
The prayer retreats yield "what I feel, or I feel the Lord is saying, is going to happen," he said Tuesday. "I put these things out with humility."
"God said he's going to restrain the evil but he isn't necessarily going to restrain it in the beginning," Robertson said. "A lot of these things can be reversed - we just need to do a lot of praying."
Robertson said the actions of Israel's government also weighed heavily on God's heart and his.
"The word was that the Olmert policies were toxic" for Israel, said Robertson, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Robertson, who did not cite specific policies, said the United States was "feigning friendship" toward Israel while espousing policies that were "pushing them toward national suicide."
Robertson drew heavy criticism last January when he suggested in a broadcast that God punished then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.
His accuracy in predictions has been mixed, though Robertson on Tuesday claimed a "relatively good track record."
Robertson said in May that, "If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed" by "vicious hurricanes." He predicted that "there well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."
No hurricanes struck the U.S. coast in 2006. Three tropical storms hit the country.
No tsunami occurred in the Pacific Northwest, though parts of Washington state saw record-setting rains, floods or drought during 2006, said Josiah Mault, the assistant state climatologist.
In January 2004, Robertson said, "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout" re-election for President Bush.
Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
In 2005, Robertson predicted that "Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph." Robertson said Bush's Social Security overhaul proposals would be approved and "he'll have conservative judges on the courts."
Senators confirmed Bush's 2005 nominations of John Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, making it more conservative in the view of many observers.
But the president's Social Security initiative stalled, and Republicans lost control of Congress in the latest election amid voters' unhappiness with Bush's Iraq policy. - source
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Transgenic Pigs Glow Green
Clever researchers at Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin in China announced that they had successfully managed to breed three transgenic pigs by injecting fluorescent green protein from jellyfish into embryonic pigs.
More: China heralds year of fluorescent green pig
More: China heralds year of fluorescent green pig
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Kopi Luwak
Just when you thought people couldn't be any more disgusting...
Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee cherries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The animals gorge on the ripe berries, and excrete partially-digested beans in their feces, which are then harvested for sale. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid), in the country of Vietnam, and the coffee estates of south India.
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling up to $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and United States, but it is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited.
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is a local name of the Palm Civet. The raw, red coffee berries are part of its normal diet, along with insects, small mammals, and other fruit. The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but it is believed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. The beans are excreted still covered in some inner layers of the cherry, and locals then gather them and sell them to dealers. The beans are washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process. One small cafe in the hills outside Townsville in Northern Australia has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 per cup. The locals line up for it, and it has gained nationwide press. This, however, is the only place it is available in Australia.
A 2004 SARS scare led to thousands of Chinese civets being exterminated, but the demand for the coffee was not affected.
Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called Weasel Coffee which also comes from the droppings of weasels after they eat the coffee cherries. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the common palm civet. Some sources erroneously claim that the beans are regurgitated instead of defecated. A synthetic process intended to simulate the weasel's digestive system is used to meet demand.
An alternate theory to justify this coffee's reputation proposes that the beans are of superior quality before they're even ingested; though this isn't to say that the digestive enzymes play no role. At any given point during a harvest, some coffee berries are not quite- or over-ripe, while others are just right. It's assumed that the civet has evolved as a frugivore of this fruit for hundreds of thousands of years, and is by now adapted to forage on - and later excrete - only the cream of the crop. When the fruit is at its peak the seeds (or beans) within are equally so, with the expectation that this will come through in the taste of a freshly-brewed cup.
source
Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee cherries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The animals gorge on the ripe berries, and excrete partially-digested beans in their feces, which are then harvested for sale. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid), in the country of Vietnam, and the coffee estates of south India.
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling up to $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and United States, but it is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited.
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is a local name of the Palm Civet. The raw, red coffee berries are part of its normal diet, along with insects, small mammals, and other fruit. The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but it is believed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. The beans are excreted still covered in some inner layers of the cherry, and locals then gather them and sell them to dealers. The beans are washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process. One small cafe in the hills outside Townsville in Northern Australia has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 per cup. The locals line up for it, and it has gained nationwide press. This, however, is the only place it is available in Australia.
A 2004 SARS scare led to thousands of Chinese civets being exterminated, but the demand for the coffee was not affected.
Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called Weasel Coffee which also comes from the droppings of weasels after they eat the coffee cherries. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the common palm civet. Some sources erroneously claim that the beans are regurgitated instead of defecated. A synthetic process intended to simulate the weasel's digestive system is used to meet demand.
An alternate theory to justify this coffee's reputation proposes that the beans are of superior quality before they're even ingested; though this isn't to say that the digestive enzymes play no role. At any given point during a harvest, some coffee berries are not quite- or over-ripe, while others are just right. It's assumed that the civet has evolved as a frugivore of this fruit for hundreds of thousands of years, and is by now adapted to forage on - and later excrete - only the cream of the crop. When the fruit is at its peak the seeds (or beans) within are equally so, with the expectation that this will come through in the taste of a freshly-brewed cup.
source
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