Amityville Horror home goes up for sale

Amityville Horror House

Six members of the DeFeo family were shot and killed in the house in 1974

The house made famous by the 1970s Amityville Horror film has gone on sale in Long Island, New York, with a price tag of $1.15m.

The five-bedroom house at 108 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, gained notoriety through the film based on the story of the Lutz family, who moved in in 1975.

The Lutzes say they soon discovered that the house was haunted.

Several months earlier, six members of another family had been shot and killed as they slept in the house.

The family’s eldest son, Ronald DeFeo Jr, was convicted of the 1974 murders.

A book and a series of films based on the events described by the Lutzes followed.

The high asking price of the house – a Dutch Colonial style home overlooking a canal – is based on renovation work, reports say.

It has had several owners since the 1970s. The address has been changed from the original 112 Ocean Avenue in a effort to keep onlookers away.

Otto Bock Healthcare testing mind controlled arm

Credit: Otto Bock Healthcare

If you’ve watched The Men Who Stare at Goats, you’d know it’s all about covert efforts by the military to develop mind control. Well, good luck to them. However, it may be a bit premature to write off mind control as so much paranormal X-File-ish diddle dee doo, considering that Europe-based Otto Bock Healthcare has just done the impossible with a mind-controlled robotic arm.

The limb in question is attached to 21-year-old Christian Kandlbauer, who lost both his arms four years ago after being electrocuted by a whopping 20,000 volts. The prosthetic, which took an equal number of years to develop, works in tandem with transplanted nerves that prompt electrical impulses from the brain to reach the muscles in the chest. This then gets interpreted by a micro-computer into actual movement.

The result is nothing short of amazing since this means prosthetic limbs in future will be able to respond in real time to whatever you’re thinking, just like the real deal. As proof of its capabilities, Kandlbauer has been field-testing this by driving around in a car with his mind-controlled left “arm” (his right is fitted with a conventional prosthetic). The feat makes him possibly the world’s first person in such a unique situation. The good news is, the technology is more than ready to leave the labs for commercial use. But the bad news is, such a procedure will cost a pretty penny. Then again, what price independence when it’s your limb on the line?

BBC News

Montauk Chronicles

It has been referred to as “Area 51 east.” Montauk is a remote U.S. town located on the very eastern tip of Long Island, New York…

High on a hill above the rocky waters of the Atlantic Ocean looms a giant rusted radar tower. It’s a ghost relic of the past that local fishermen use as a marker to help guide their ships safely to shore. The old military tower is also a landmark for what once was an active Camp Hero Air Force Base.

The base has a recorded history that dates back to the revolutionary war. During world World War II Camp Hero was used as a defense station and was equipped with giant mark seven cannons that were loaded and ready in the event of a Nazi attack. There are those who say that in the 1970’s the base was used for a much different purpose.

Montauk Chronicles is the story of three men who claim they were brainwashed and forced against their will by a clandestine organization to take part in secret experiments. Evil atrocities are said to have occurred deep beneath the surface of the Camp Hero Air Force base.

Alfred Bielek, Stewart Swerdlow, And Preston Nichols all tell tales of experiments that were conducted on nearly one hundred thousand people over the course of about ten years. Kidnappings, murder, torture, time travel, mind control, and extra terrestrial contact are all said to have occurred at Camp Hero.

Montauk Chronicles is the very first and honest (cinematic) examination of the Camp Hero Legends. It raises many questions of our place in the universe and what the future may hold for humanity. It’s an entertaining journey into the unknown and a study of fear, lies, paranoia and the truth.

Check out more at their website here
http://www.mtkchronicles.com

PEOPLE will be given pills to live healthily beyond 100 within TWO YEARS, a top professor revealed yesterday.

The drugs – a spin-off from research into age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s – are already being developed.

Professor Nir Barzilai, one of the world’s leading experts on ageing, said as he joined fellow scientists at a London conference: “Pharmaceutical companies are developing these drugs now.

“They will probably be available for testing from 2012.”

The astonishing breakthrough follows intensive research into what makes cells die – and why some people dodge major illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and dementia to live beyond 100 still fit as a fiddle.

The New York professor’s own team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine has pinpointed genetic variants that let people live to a “ripe old age”.

Those blessed with anti-ageing genes tend not to get seriously ill towards the end of their lives – but die suddenly. Professor Barzilai, among experts at a Royal Society summit on ageing, said: “I’m seeing 100-year-olds who are not only 100 years old but in great shape.

“People who die between 70 and 80 are sick in the last few years of their life. Centenarians are dying healthy.”

He said people could begin taking a once-a-day longevity pill in their 40s or 50s.

Voyager 2 Problems…Aliens?

NASA’s Voyager 2, which is touring the outer reaches of our galaxy, suddenly began to send back messages to Earth that scientists cannot interpret. A German researcher believes those sounds may come from aliens.

Launched in 1977, the Voyager 2 was propelled into “… the solar system’s final frontier, a vast, turbulent expanse where the Sun’s influence ends and the solar wind crashes into the thin gas between stars,” said NASA. It was May 24, 2005 and NASA was excited about the capacity it had through Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to explore space. Project scientist Dr. Edward Stone, who helped build the Voyager crowed,

“Voyager has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space, as it begins exploring the solar system’s final frontier.”

Both Voyagers 1 and 2 are identical, but each is allowing scientists to learn more about different parts of our solar system. Both also carry what NASA calls a Golden Record on board. The record is

“… a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.”

Since its launch, Voyager 2 has been sending streams of data back to Earth for study by scientists, but on April 22, 2010, that stream of information suddenly changed. NASA said diagnostics appear to show a problem with the flight data system, and engineers are optimistic that a software patch will solve the glitch. Dr. Stone said

“Voyager 2′s initial mission was a four-year journey to Saturn, but it is still returning data 33 years later. It has already given us remarkable views of Uranus and Neptune, planets we had never seen close-up before. We will know soon what it will take for it to continue its epic journey of discovery.”

During its 33 years of service, NASA said the Voyager 2

“… has visited more planets than any other spacecraft, swinging by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune … With a somewhat lower speed than Voyager 1, it is about eighty percent as far from the Sun.”

In an effort to fix what NASA calls a “glitch,” Voyager 2 has been given instructions to transmit only information about the status of the spacecraft while scientists continue to analyze the problem. All NASA has said of the glitch is that Voyager 2 suddenly began transmitting data in a completely different format, according to Spaceflight Now, who interviewed Dr. Stone. The spacecraft is said to be completely fine, and the on-board computer also is thought to be functioning properly, aside from the glitch in the transmission of data.

However, the glitch has prompted speculation. German researcher Hartwig Hausdorf has chalked up the problem to aliens. To be specific, he posits that the Voyager 2 was hijacked by aliens. According to Bild.com, Hausdorf said

“It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth…”

Bild writer Attila Albert speculated that the Golden Record might have attracted the aliens. NASA is not confirming that there is anything special about the transmission it received on April 22. Hausdorf is a prolific writer who specializes in extraterrestrials.

Lawrence Community Theatre

The Lawrence Community Theatre "ghost" photo taken in 1987

Even the most hardened of cynics, when roaming the halls of the purportedly haunted Lawrence Community Theatre in the dead of night with all of the lights turned off, will be forced to admit that it can be really creepy. Creaks, groans and weird props lurk around every corner of this large and drafty theater.

Whether this half-century-old building is actually infested with ghosts, however, is still up for debate. As far as the theater staff is concerned, that debate is good publicity for their upcoming production of the supernatural comedy “Blithe Spirit.” As one of those hardened cynics who wants to see whether there’s anything to this metaphysical mumbo jumbo, I’m happy to oblige in that publicity.

The ominous-looking structure at 1501 N.H. began its life in the ’50s as a church for Full Gospel Christian Assembly, only adding to the spiritual reputation of the site. LCT purchased the building in 1984 when the church dissolved after a rift in the assembly.

In 1987, during a dress rehearsal for the spy drama “Pack of Lies,” a photo was snapped that would cement the theater as one of Lawrence’s premier spectral hot spots. The photo clearly shows the translucent figure of a woman standing between two actors, a woman not fitting the description of anyone in the venue at the time. The photographer, Jack Riegle, insists that the image has not been intentionally altered, pointing out it was taken well before the era of Photoshop.

That incident seemed to kick off a series of unexplainable encounters over the next 23 years at LCT. Casts and crews have reported everything from feeling cold spots to sensing a vague presence in the room with them. One actress even claims to have been shoved down a flight of stairs by someone who wasn’t physically there. All of this has made the theater a target for ghost hunters and a frequent entry for online haunted house registries.

“We occasionally get college students who heard about the ‘ghost,’” says Mary Doveton, LCT’s executive director. “I understand that the theater is on at least half a dozen sites, including Dark Kansas and Shadowlands. We had nothing to do with it being placed on these sites. In fact, I didn’t know about most of them until we started doing some research to get ready for ‘Blithe Spirit.’”

One such entity interested the theater’s past is the Wichita Paranormal Research Society. This group of amateur-apparition sleuths has been investigating the Midwest’s most haunted locales for nearly five years. They’ve repeatedly requested a chance to monitor LCT over those five years but have been politely rejected until “Blithe Spirit” (which opens April 15) offered Doveton an opportunity to capitalize on the offer. I decided to tag along with Wichita researchers during their recent investigation.

Photo by Richard Daley

Shane Elliott, founder of the Wichita Paranormal Research Society, wearing a WPRS T-shirt, stands outside the theater.

Enter sleuths

Rather than wild-eyed crackpots or reality television-style media hounds, the group was surprisingly skeptical and upfront about its chances of finding an honest-to-goodness spook.

“Only in about 10-15 percent of our investigations do we find something that we cannot explain,” says Shane Elliott, worker in the Wichita aircraft industry by day, team captain of Wichita Paranormal Research Society by night and weekend.

Elliott became interested in the paranormal after an incident five years ago involving a strange humming sound on his son’s baby monitor and what may or may not have been an encounter with his deceased grandmother.

“I think we all started out looking for answers to our own personal experiences, but that really only gets you so far,” says Elliott, who fully admits that most so-called supernatural incidents have very natural explanations, such as electromagnetic field (EMF) interference with electronics and the habit of the human mind to see patterns and familiarity where there is none (the team calls this “matrixing”).

Photo by Richard Daley

The WPRS’s tools of the trade.

Photo by Richard Daley

The WPRS’s heat sensing device.

“It’s when you get a chance to help a family either by finding normal causes for what they believe could be paranormal, or being able to hand them a copy of possible paranormal claims that backs up what they have been witnessing for years. Those cases really make it all worth it. And seeing some really fascinating historical sites doesn’t hurt either.”

Elliott and his four co-horts unloaded an impressive array of equipment into LCT that dark and stormy night (no, seriously it was overcast and pretty eerie).

“We are a nonprofit organization,” Elliott says. “We don’t charge a dime, and all of the equipment has been purchased and collected over the years. Our first investigation, we had an audio recorder and a hand-held camera. Today we have 10 to 15 audio recorders, 12 infrared and full-spectrum cameras that see in total darkness, thermal-imaging cameras, electromagnetic field detectors, several hand-held cameras, and each investigator has at least one digital photographic camera.”

A monitor displays the feeds from various cameras that the WPRS has wired up throughout the Lawrence Community Theatre.

The investigation

Once the cameras and monitors were set up in each of the theater’s “hot spots,” where activity of some sort has been reported in the past, all of the lights in the building were turned off, and the group split off into two-person teams. Then the waiting around in the dark began. The routine would generally go something like this for an hour in each hot spot: The two investigators would sit in silence, ask a question into the dark (along the lines of “Is anybody there?” or “Would you like to say something?” or “Would you like to tell us about the afterlife?”), sit in silence some more, get excited about a spike in one of the EMF detectors, realize it was probably someone’s cell phone setting it off, repeat.

It all felt like a high school slumber party when someone whips out the Ouija board and you’re all trying to freak each other out. Even though nothing should logically frighten you, there’s an almost willing suspension of disbelief. It was fun to get the hackles raised on the back of your neck. Same principle as a horror movie or an amusement park ride, even though most of it was sitting in silence and snacking on a platter of sandwiches.

This went on for about five hours. Despite a random EMF spike that couldn’t be explained and some whispering voices which couldn’t immediately be dismissed as echoes through the air ducts, the team didn’t come up with anything concrete that night. That’s typical, they tell me. It usually takes upward of two weeks to comb through all of the video and audio they recorded during an investigation. The devil, so to speak, is in the hours and hours of data they compile. Maybe a sourceless orb of light will appear in a few frames of video or a voice directly answering a question will be unscrambled from audio white noise.

In the meantime, while we wait for proof (or the lack thereof) from the Wichita Paranormal Research Society, the proprietors of LCT want everyone to know that the play is the thing, and the supposed “ghost” is but a player.

Doveton says, “I certainly don’t think the theater is home to anything scary, but I do like to think that every theater retains the memories and energies of performers and audience members who have sung and danced and laughed and listened and shared something special together.”

Studies on the supernatural

Due to the lack of concrete evidence, skeptics tend to put down accounts of hauntings to the workings of an overactive imagination.

But what if one chose to look into these claims based on logical reasoning?

Welcome to the field of parapsychology, where so-called paranormal phenomena is investigated by using scientific methods.

While it is worth noting that these researchers are a far cry from the “ghost-hunters” seen on television, parapsychology has routinely come under criticism for being a pseudo-science.

A senior lecturer at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU) at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Dr Caroline Watt feels that her fellow scientists should not be so quick to judge.

“Parapsychologists are studying the subject and testing hypotheses in a carefully controlled and scientific manner,” she says in an e-mail interview.

“I think those who have bothered to take the time to read the research literature in parapsychology are pleasantly surprised to find that the methodology is quite sophisticated.”

However, she admits that one of the area’s weaknesses is that it lacks a well-established theory to help guide research questions.

“In that sense, then, I would say that parapsychology is a ‘proto-science’, still exploring basic questions and methods,” adds Dr Watt.

The KPU’s research areas include testing claims of psychic ability as well as the explanations of people’s paranormal beliefs; paranormal enthusiasts may want to take note that the unit even runs an online course on parapsychology.

One particularly interesting line of study is that of ghostly experiences at allegedly haunted locations, and Dr Watt explains that these may be caused by psychological and environmental factors.

“There is some evidence that electromagnetic activity and infra-sound, both subtle physical signals, can cause people to feel uneasy,” she says.

“Also, I have found that physical features such as lighting levels and the size of a room can correlate with reports of ghostly experiences.” She adds that some individuals may be more susceptible to such environmental cues.

Despite the existence of more mundane interpretations of hauntings, why do people still turn to other-worldly explanations?

“Often, the plausible answers are not the most obvious to the person experiencing such phenomena,” says Dr Watt.

“Also, people may have a psychological need to believe. Even though the world is largely uncontrollable, superstitious behaviors and beliefs can be comforting to them.”

Source: The Star Online

Report the paranormal from your iPhone

Report Paranormal Sightings from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Upload your sightings and see paranormal activity in your area via the Sightings Map. Watch 1000’s of Paranormal videos. Meet and share your sightings with other people interested in paranormal activity.

I’ve tried numerous apps out for my iPhone such as ghost radar, ghost recorder, etc.

There’s some pretty cool information listed as well as famous landmarks and sightings, such as Roswell and Area 51.

Fox News: UFO over Lake Erie

Let me first start off with an apology for taking a few days off and then share a story that is a few months old but happened right around my backyard.

Lake Erie, Ohio – Resident Eugene Erlikh snapped a half a dozen photos of something unusual floating in the sky — and believes it shows evidence of UFOs. Eugene said the unexplained lights appeared outside his house in Euclid over five nights. “It was such a brilliant beam of different lights, it was going red, yellow, green, blue. It was never the same color it was always, like it was pulsating.”

“Once you see it with your own eyes,” said Erlikh. “You’re gonna say ‘Wow, what’s going on here’ and why do they keep coming back in the same spot?”

It’s not the first time someone said they saw something over the skies of Cleveland. In 2007, a group of people downtown said they saw what they thought was a UFO over Key Tower. And according to the National UFO Reporting Center, many additional sightings in Cleveland have been made in the past.

Erlikh told Fox8.com that the objects emitted “brilliant” colors and were flying solo, and occasionally in group formations. The objects appeared to be “making line formations and triangles in the sky.”

Erlikh, an EMT and paramedic student, also recorded video footage of what he says are “astonishing captures.”

Here is the footage from Fox News.