Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Stunning UFO footage captured near Pensacola, Florida

Ben Hansen shows stunning UFO footage captured in Florida

Recently a video of strange lights captured near Pensacola, Florida turned into a very productive investigation for one group. During an interview on the web series Spacing Out!, former FBI agent Ben Hansen, who is the lead investigator on the SyFy television series Fact or Faked, revealed that his team captured their own video of an unidentified object in the same location.

NOTE: David Eckhart lives near Pensacola as well. The area (Gulf Breeze included) has a notorious UFO / extraterrestrial legacy. BTW, Ben Hanson will be joining Eric and I on 'Beyond The Edge Radio' this September. He has been presenting some of David Eckhart's alien encounters at several conferences including the most recent 'Open Minds Conference'...Lon

War of the Words: The True but Strange Story of the Gulf Breeze UFO

Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier

Chronicles of the Strange and Uncanny in Florida

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Naked witches who say they flew on magical basket ordered to have psychiatric tests

A Chinhoyi magistrate has ruled that two self-confessed witches who claim to have flown on a winnowing basket (rusero) must undergo medical and psychiatric examinations.

Prosecutors said Thursday that Rosemary Kamanga, 48, and Esnath Maodza, 56, who were arrested earlier this month after they were found naked in the yard of a home in the town of Chinhoyi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Harare, have been charged under witchcraft laws carrying the penalty of a fine.

They also face indecent exposure charges.

In local belief, the flat, traditional hand-held winnowing basket is equivalent to a witch's broomstick in Western fable.

The magistrate said the court would reconvene on July 11 to hear evidence from the medical report and the testimony of traditional leaders.

The women claimed the threshing basket - which witches are said to use for transport - "ditched" them in the yard after a naked night ritual nearby.

They were discovered by Eneresi Mufunga, 55, who told how she woke up at 4AM after “a voice” told her that “something was amiss”.

The devout Christian, who keeps “holy water” in her home, said she began sprinkling her house with the liquid and noticed the naked frame of a woman crawling out of the door of her bedroom on all fours. The woman later stood up and "appeared tongue-tied”.

Mufunga said she then heard screams metres away, coming from a grass and pole bathroom. She investigated and found a second woman, also stark naked.

At the time of their arrest, a police spokesman said the two women confessed to being witches. - newzimbabwe

Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande

A Guide to Serving the Seven African Powers (Planet Voodoo's Applied Magick)

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'Smoking vaccine' blocks nicotine

Smokers could one day be immunised against nicotine so they gain no pleasure from the habit, according to researchers in the US.

They have devised a vaccine that floods the body with an antibody to assault nicotine entering the body.

A study in mice, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed levels of the chemical in the brain were reduced by 85% after vaccination.

Years of research are still needed before it could be tested on people.

However, lead researcher Prof Ronald Crystal is convinced there will be benefits.

"As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pacman-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect."

Other "smoking vaccines" have been developed that train the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to nicotine - it is the same method used to vaccinate against diseases. The challenge has been to produce enough antibodies to stop the drug entering the brain and delivering its pleasurable hit.

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have used a completely different approach, a gene-therapy vaccine, which they say is more promising.

If they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit”

A genetically modified virus containing the instructions for making nicotine antibodies is used to infect the liver. This turns the organ into a factory producing the antibodies.

The research team compared the amount of nicotine in the brains of normal mice with those that had been immunised. After being injected with nicotine, the vaccinated mice had nicotine levels 85% lower.

It is not known if this could be repeated in humans or if this level of reduction would be enough to help people quit.

Prof Crystal said that if such a vaccine could be developed then people "will know if they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit".

He added: "We are very hopeful that this kind of vaccine strategy can finally help the millions of smokers who have tried to stop, exhausting all the methods on the market today, but find their nicotine addiction to be strong enough to overcome these current approaches."

There are also issues around the safety of gene therapy in humans that will need to be answered.

Professor of genetics at the University of Kent, Darren Griffin, said the findings were "impressive and intriguing with great potential" but cautioned there were still many issues which needed addressing.

He said the main issue "is whether the observed biochemical effects in lab mice genuinely translate to a reduced addiction in humans given that such addictions can be both physical and psychological".

Dr Simon Waddington, from University College London, said: "The technology underpinning gene therapy is improving all the time and it is encouraging to see these preliminary results that indicate it could be used to address nicotine addiction, which is damaging to the nation's health and a drain on the health service economy."

If such a vaccine was developed it could also raise ethical questions about vaccinating people, possibly in childhood, before they even started smoking. - BBC

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Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss Jr.'s Teeth Stolen?

Have the teeth of two famed 19th-century composers been stolen from their graves? Austrian prosecutors are trying to find out.

Thomas Vecsey of the Vienna state prosecutor's office says authorities are considering filing charges against a man suspected of breaking into the graves of Austrian waltz king Johann Strauss Jr. and German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms and taking their teeth. Both are buried in Vienna.

Vecsey said Friday that suspicions first arose in 2008 but investigators determined that any crime fell under Austria's statute of limitations. New evidence other graves might have been disturbed has led to the probe's reopening.

The Austria Press Agency said prosecutors consider a Slovak man a person of interest. Prosecutors did not name the suspect nor suggest any potential motivation for the alleged thefts. - THP

Johannes Brahms: A Biography

Johann Strauss - Father And Son - A Century Of Light Music

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