Ghost hunters find actual corpse in abandoned hospital

Probably their most terrifying discovery to date
A group of amateur ghost hunters recently stumbled across the actual body of a deceased woman in Mississippi. The ghost hunters were investigating the abandoned Kuhn Memorial State Hospital in Vicksburg when they came across the remains of Sharon Wilson, a 69 year old woman who had been reported missing earlier that day.
 
Police have ruled Wilson's death a homicide. Earlier that day they had picked up two men who were pulled over in a traffic stop, and found driving around in Wilson's car with a gun. 
 
Kuhn Memorial State Hospital is a popular location for local ghost hunters, despite its many risks, including black mold, asbestos, and open elevator shafts. The hospital was built in 1832 during a huge smallpox outbreak, and treated many Civil War soldiers. A Yellow Fever outbreak killed many in the hospital, and a fire destroyed the annex in 1918. The hospital was closed in 1989 due to lack of state funding.
 
Paranormal researchers and intrepid adventurers have recorded strange EMF readings, and disembodied voices saying "Please leave" and "Oh my god," a little girl's voice saying "Want to come play with me?" A local camera crew set up a tic-tac-toe board and invited the spirits to play with them. When they returned to the room, the tic-tac-toe board was untouched, but someone had written "help" backwards in the dust beside it.

It's healthier to leave the bed unmade

Leave those covers kicked aside!
Tired of making the bed every morning? Rejoice: turns out it's healthier not to! A new study reveals that leaving the bed unmade helps air out the sheets and mattress. This in turn lets out humidity, which helps to dry out and kill dust mites.
 
Dust mites can only take in water from the atmosphere through special glands in their sides. If it's not damp enough, the dust mites die. Also, few things are better at sterilization than sunlight - so if your bed happens to get sun, letting it pour in on those nasty dust mites will also help do them in.
 
If you must make your bed (must you?) leave it unmade all day to air out, then make it when you get home from work at night. That way, the dust mites have the maximum amount of time to shrivel up and die while you are gone.
 
On the other hand, some recent research showed that, while only 27 percent of people make their beds, they are far more likely to rate themselves as "happy," and to have a job and a car, exercise regularly, and own their own homes. Experts put it down to an overall feeling of organization in your environment, which can impact your mental state.

The MH370 wing flap that maybe isn't?

So much weirdly conflicting information!
When a wing flap from a Boeing 777 washed up on the shore of La Reunion, the mystery of missing flight MH370 had apparently been solved. There are very few Boeing 777s in existence, and only one of them was missing, so this had to be from that flight, right?
 
 
The first problem is that an ID plate, which should have provided positive confirmation with the serial numbers of the part, was missing. 
 
Furthermore, the wing part (a "flaperon") does not match the maintenance records that were kept by Malaysia Airlines. And yes, mistakes can be made, but in general, airplane maintenance records are meticulously kept. Especially by a big, professional airline like Malaysia Airlines. If it says there are four screw holes, then there are four - and if you find a fifth screw hole in that line, you're looking at the wrong plane.
 
And finally, we have the mystery of the goose barnacles. According to an anonymous source, there is strong evidence that the part had spent several months floating a few meters below the surface of the ocean. Which is odd, because in general, objects either float or sink - they don't just hover there 10 feet below the surface.
 
All in all, there has been plenty of fuel for conspiracy theorists. And it does rather look like this piece might have been planted in the area. It's such a clear mental picture: the wing piece is chained to the ocean floor for a few months, bobbing at the top of its tether but below the surface. Then it is cut loose, whereupon it floats to the surface and washes up on a nearby beach.
 

Alien abduction caught on security camera

Chilling!
I have watched a lot of alien abduction videos, but this is the one that sticks with me. Partly because it's so simple. 
 
The video shows feeds from four different security cameras in what seems to be some kind of warehouse. At 11:16 P.M., a man is seen approaching a chain link gate. He walks through the gate, then there is a flash of light, and he's gone. All four video cameras show electrical glitches and disturbances during this time.
 
About two hours later, at 1:06 A.M., the victim reappears in another flash of light (accompanied by electrical disturbances in the other three cameras). He drops to his knees and vomits. Then he gets to his feet, wavers back and forth, then staggers off the way he was originally headed.
 
It's a perfect miniature three-act play. I'm certain it's fake, but it is so very effective.
 
The first problem is the tape's provenance. It hails from The Paranormal Borderline, a short-lived television show (it only ran 9 episodes) hosted by William Frakes in the mid-90s. The tape was purportedly sent to the show along with an anonymous note. The man in the tape, and/or the person responsible for mailing the tape, have never come forward. 
 
The Paranormal Borderline had means, motive, and opportunity to create this tape. And that is the most likely explanation for it, frankly. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most effective bits of alien abduction video I've seen so far.

Canadian hitchhiking robot dismembered in Philadelphia

Why, Philadelphia? Why?
The hitchhiking Canadian robot's story has come to an untimely end, as its owners have found it dead and dismembered, lying in the gutter in Philadelphia. 
 
HitchBot was on a friendly mission to hitchhike across America, and had even been programmed to hold limited conversations. It was intended to be a social experiment, as well as a testimony to the human spirit of generosity and altruism, as well as being utterly charming. 
 
And it was. Until it tried to hitch a ride through the City of Brotherly Love.
 
Although the robot's team refused to release pictures of the remains on the grounds that it might be upsetting to children, the local NBC affiliate jumped right on that bandwagon and published them anyway (see above). 
 
HitchBot had successfully traveled across Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands before meeting its demise. R.I.P., HitchBot.

"Fukushima daisies" are perfectly natural

Nothing to be afraid of (probably)
Recently there has been a photo circulating of mutant daisies which were supposedly photographed near the site of the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster which happened four years ago. 
 
The picture was actually taken some 70 miles away from the reactor, where radiation levels are actually fairly low. But the truth is, it could have been snapped anywhere.
 
The daisies in question are exhibiting a relatively common flower deformity called "fasciation," known colloquially among gardeners as "cresting." Fasciation happens when something causes some of the cells of the flower to grow too fast.
 
In a typical flower, the cells grow out from the central point of the flower. Fasciation causes this point to elongate into an oval. It can be caused by hormonal imbalances, fungal infection, bacterial infection, or a random genetic mutation. 
 
The Fukushima disaster was truly a disaster, and one with long-range consequences. But in the case of these particular daisies? Probably not.
 

New UFO evidence from retired Air Force Colonel

1980 Bentwaters sighting reaffirmed
One of the best and most significant cases in UFO history was the 1980 sighting on the Bentwaters Air Force base in the UK. At the time, the base was being leased to the United States Air Force, and over the course of two nights, Air Force personnel had lengthy, elaborate, and bizarre sightings.
 
Col. Charles Halt (Ret.) was the deputy base commander on those nights, and saw the UFOs in Rendlesham Forest himself. He describes one as looking something like an eye - elliptical, with a dark center - which drifted slowly through the forest, dripping what looked like molten metal from its base. 
 
Multiple craft were seen those two nights, both hovering near the ground and zipping around in the sky. And Halt has finally obtained sworn affidavits from the air traffic controllers who were on duty that night, in which they confirm that the sightings were visible on their radar.
 
Previously the air traffic controllers had denied seeing anything. They have since explained that they kept quiet because they were afraid of losing their jobs. But now that they have retired, the men have nothing to lose.
 
The entire story is fascinating, and you can read the details - plus video clips from a 2007 documentary - here. And bravo to the air traffic controllers for finally breaking their years of silence.

Lab confirms KFC "fried rat" is just a weird piece of chicken

Are you really that surprised?
Last week, a KFC customer got a gruesome surprise in his bucket of chicken: a weirdly-shaped chunk of meat which looked, to many people's eyes, like a deep-fried rat. Devorise Dixon bit into the meat and thought it felt weirdly rubbery. When he brought it to the attention of the store manager, he was allegedly told that it was a rat.
 
Lab results are back and, just as KFC repeatedly explained, it was just a chunk of chicken in a weird, and oddly suggestive, shape. Dixon ought to have been able to tell this, because if he had actually bitten into a rat, he would have gotten a mouthful of skull and organs, not a smooth (if rubbery) chunk of meat.
 
Furthermore, the meat doesn't look like a rat, it looks specifically like a cartoon rat. I mean, don't get me wrong, it definitely looks like a cartoon rat. Pareidolia rules the day again!
 
This of course is one of the classic urban legends, the deep-fried rat. It's said by some to be the reason why Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to KFC. The rumor is that it's because they can't legally claim that their meat is chicken, so they had to take the word "chicken" out of their name. The truth is as boring as it is obvious: marketing. They wanted to drop the word "fried," because it sounded greasy and unhealthy to consumers, and just calling themselves "KFC" sounded a lot zippier.
 

Family flees house after receiving creepy letter from "The Watcher"

Are suing house's previous owner
Many people experience regret after buying a new home, even fear that they made the wrong decision. But a Westfield, New Jersey family took that terror to a whole new level when they bought a new six bedroom house for $1.3 million, then started receiving ultra-creepy letters from someone who refers to himself only as "The Watcher."
 
The first letter showed up just a few days after the family moved into their new home. In it, The Watcher informed the family that their house has been under surveillance by his family for decades, and that he has been "put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming."
 
In subsequent letters, The Watcher went on to discuss his request for "young blood," asked which child's bedroom was at the front of the house so that he could "plan better," and more.
 
The cops were unable to establish the letter-writer's identity, so the family has since moved out - and sued the previous residents for not informing them of this little quirk of the house. Apparently the former owners had tried to sell the house, but buyers backed out when they heard about the weird letters that the house received. So the former owners decided to just keep quiet about the letters and hope for the best. 

Witches upset that Etsy has banned spells

Popular seller's platform is cutting them off
When eBay banned the selling of spells and potions in 2012, it hit the magickal community hard. A lot of witches had been making a decent side income selling spells, potions, talismans, and other such things. Many of them switched to Etsy to continue their sales, but Etsy has just followed suit, and the witches are ticked.
 
 
Under Etsy's previous rules, people could sell spells and hexes so long as the seller did not promise results, and as long as they came with an actual item. So for example, you could sell a tarot reading as long as you provided a digital download along with the reading. Or you could sell a spell, as long as it came with a candle.
 
The former rules seem reasonable enough, but it follows in the wake of a recent FDA crackdown on Etsy sellers who were marketing soap and body oils using unproven health claims, which is illegal under United States law. These new laws seem designed to help conform to those FDA restrictions. In other words, it sounds like Etsy got a spanking from the FDA in the soap aisle, and decided to tighten things up in the spells aisle proactively.
 
Hopefully witches will continue to be able to sell their services, as long as they adjust the wording of their listings to suit the new rules. 

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