Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Magic Wand

Mysterious Wis. Wonder Spot soon to go

LAKE DELTON, Wis. - In a wooded ravine tucked away from the water parks, restaurants and mega-resorts that dominate this tourist town, a piece of history is quietly dying.

After more than half a century of wowing tourists (and causing probably more than a few cases of nausea), the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more.

Heart

Mia Farrow: "I don't know what stability is"

And then there were 15. Mia Farrow is standing in the middle of the dining room of Frog Hollow, her cottage in Connecticut, describing how she recently acquired a new member of her family. About 30 of her brood - many of her 14 children, several in-laws and a burgeoning generation of grandchildren - were crammed in around the dining table at one of their regular get-togethers.

They had had a "family talk", as Farrow puts it, about a woman in her late 20s who had recently become a friend and who had no real home of her own. "You know, we are the kind of family that is not united by anything as paltry as blood lines," Farrow says with an intense expression. "We are united by something so much more important: our mutual commitment and love. So we can decide who's in our family, and we all said we wanted her included, and we asked her, would you like to join us? And she said yes and every person in the family welcomed her."

Heart

Shipwrecked and abandoned: the story of the slave Crusoes

In 1776, 57 years after Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, eight people were rescued from a tiny, treeless island in the Indian Ocean. Seven of them, all women, had survived on the island for 15 years. The eighth, a baby boy, was born there.

The women were the remnants of a group of 60 people who were shipwrecked and then marooned on the scrap of coral and sand in 1761. They were abandoned, and then forgotten, 300 miles from the nearest land, for a simple, brutal reason. They were slaves.

Magic Wand

Norman Mailer: 'I believe in reincarnation'

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Norman Mailer, whose brilliant book The Naked and the Dead (1948) made him world-famous, has revealed his belief in life after death, karma and reincarnation.

He gives his reasons in an interview with Los Angeles Times staff writer Josh Getlin (4 February 2007) which coincides with publication of his latest novel, The Castle in the Forest, about Hitler's childhood.

Heart

Life's looking merrier for an earless terrier



©Daily Mail
Weasel, the Earless Terrier

Bomb

Rage Against The Machine Give Bush A Bashing

Rage Against The Machine have spoken for the first time about their reasons for reuniting for a one-off performance at this years Coachella Festival.

Besides admitting that the festival has been trying to get the band to appear "for as many years as they've had the festival," the group's guitarist, Tom Morello told MTV that the reason they've reformed was "to deliver a knockout blow to the Bush administration."

Bomb

Bill Gates stuns the world with 'Cardigan 2007'

The computer world was thrilled and amazed this week when Bill Gates finally unveiled the long-awaited 'Cardigan 2007'. It was the Microsoft C.O.O.'s first new knitwear in over eight years and is being heralded as the most advanced cardigan the softwear giant has ever developed.

Magic Wand

Diet guru's experiences convince her of afterlife

UNITED KINGDOM. Like many before her, the controversial British nutritionist Gillian McKeith was sceptical about the paranormal - until she experienced it for herself. Now McKeith, whose television series shows her turning overweight people, including celebrities, into thinner, healthier individuals, says she is a firm believer in the afterlife.

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Teen Girls Arrested, Accused Of Simulating Crime

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It wasn't a real kidnapping and shooting. But police in Scottsdale, Ariz., said what they were doing is a crime.

Three 15-year-old high school students were charged with disorderly conduct in connection with simulating a shooting and a kidnapping. A neighbor saw what was happening and called 911.

It turns out the girls were working on a video project for a criminology class.

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Death by Sea Serpent 2?

In response to my "Sea Serpent Snatching?" blog, cryptozoologist Matt Bille, author of 2006's Shadows of Existence, sent along a comment. He mentioned that there has been only one known case of the possible killing of humans by a Sea Serpent. I asked Matt to expand on this, and submit a guest blog on the account. He agreed and you will find his welcome overview of the incident below.