News & Weird Goings-on....

From Physorg.com:

Now it is possible to see a movie of an electron. The movie shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom. This is the first time an electron has ever been filmed, and the results are presented in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.

As important as the electron is, and this is the first time it's appeared on film? Something wrong about that. How is it that an electron is just getting on the screen and Pauley Show has already made all those movies?

Meanwhile, the story of Mavis Price:

The 60-year-old grandmother seems to have a freakishly high level of static electricity coursing through her body.

She estimates she has destroyed 15 kettles in the last few years. Housework has also become a problem, with 20 irons and ten vacuum cleaners biting the dust after falling foul of her apparently supercharged touch.

And her friends and family are often left with their hair standing on end after touching her.

Mrs Price says her bizarre condition also means she cannot keep a computer in her house because they go berserk at the brush of her hand.

I hope this woman is never allowed to wear corduroy pants. She could blow up half of England.

And let's keep this statically charged grandmother out of Arizona, which is close to becoming the "Persian Gulf of Solar Energy" according to CNN.

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- A Spanish company is planning to take 3 square miles of desert southwest of Phoenix and turn them into one of the largest solar power plants in the world.

Abengoa Solar, which has plants in Spain, northern Africa and other parts of the U.S., could begin construction as early as next year on the 280-megawatt plant in Gila Bend -- a small, dusty town 50 miles southeast of Phoenix.

The company said Thursday it could be producing solar energy by 2011.

Abengoa would build, own and operate the $1 billion plant, named the Solana Generating Station.

The "Persian Gulf of Solar Energy" right here in the United States. Good thing that President Bush is leaving office or we might have ended up invading ourselves.

Speaking of Phoenix:

A 600-page guide may lend credibility to UFO believers.

The Fire Officer's Guide To Disaster Control can apparently be found in firehouses across the United States.

It covers everything from fire and flood response to aviation disasters.

Chapter 13 of the book has an unusual twist. Titled "Enemy Attack And UFO Potential", it outlines what could happen in the event of a UFO crash.

The authors of the book, retired firefighters William M. Kramer and Charles W. Bahme write in part:

It would be remiss to not give some part to the role fire departments might play in the even of the unexpected arrival of UFO's in their communities...In a less optimistic scenario, you may have engine trouble upon approaching the scene, and radio contact could be lost with your dispatcher. If at night, your headlights could go out, the city could be blacked out, and your portable generators may malfunction when you attempt to use them for fans and portable lights

For the sake of the first responders, I hope that Chapter 14 of this manuel is "How not to get vaporized by their alien death rays."

As far as I'm concerned the weirdest news story of the week is the reports that the Secret Service waived their protection of Barack Obama in Dallas. Did you hear this update?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Secret Service Friday denied reports that security measures at a recent Barack Obama rally in Texas were relaxed or deviated from established plans.

Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said there was no order from the Secret Service to stop screening people going to the Obama rally Wednesday at Dallas' Reunion Arena. He said that the event's security plans didn't involve having each participant pass through a magnetometer, as may be the case at other events.

The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported that some police at the event expressed concern about people not passing through metal detectors.

"Any allegations to the fact that we had suspended screening or deviated from the original security plan would be entirely inaccurate," Zahren said.

How familiar is that sounding? The Secret Service denies telling the Dallas Police to stand down? I'm glad they say that it didn't happen but . . .

No wonder some folks are worried that if he were elected, Barack Obama would never live to see a second term.

Questions remain about the deadly poison, ricin, found in that Las Vegas extended stay hotel room but we now know more about the guy who was living in that room. Channel 8 in Vegas is doing some great reporting on this, as is the Journal-Review.

The Review-Journal states that he is Roger Von Bergendorff, a man who had been admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 with breathing problems consistent with exposure to ricin. Von Bergendorff is now in critical condition and police sources say he has slipped into a coma.

Police say they had been to the man's room on February 26 after apartment management called them to remove some firearms. The managers were going forward with eviction proceedings when they found guns and an anarchist-type textbook

I swear this already was an episode of CSI: Las Vegas. In the TV episode I saw of the anarchist who dies of his own poison, it wasn’t terrorism the guy was after but in the end, but money. Kind of D.B. Cooper like story except, of course, it wasn’t.

There is nothing at all quite like the D.B. Cooper story, the man we were talking about in my first post here on Blogspot.

BISHOPVILLE, SC (WIS) - After a nasty surprise Thursday morning for one Bishopville resident, she's wondering if the "Lizard Man" is back.

Dixie Rawson of Bishopville sent WIS News 10 an e-mail about a big surprise she got at her home Thursday morning. "The whole front half of our van is chewed up. There are bite marks right through the front grill. Both sides of the van above the wheel wells were bitten and the metal is bent like a piece of paper."

It reminded Dixie of the local legend of the "Lizard Man" that stretches back for decades. Now some are wondering if the Lizard Man is back.

Meanwhile, overseas....

Romanian cops have closed a vandalism investigation that left local houses in ruins by concluding ghosts were to blame.

Families living in Lilieci reported windows broken, bicycles flying through the air, objects moving on tables and candles blown out when there is no wind.

When they complained they were being hounded by evil spirits to police they were laughed at.

But after officers saw the evidence with their own eyes they filed a report saying that ghosts were to blame.

A police spokesman said: "There were bottles and things flying around. I did not know what to dodge first. We can find nothing to suggest it was anything other than what the people claim."

Always nice to have photos to back up your claims when you can. Sometimes, some people have proof before they even know they have a claim to make.

From the Sun:

A STUDENT was left shocked when she checked her tourist snaps of the London skyline - and spotted what looks like a flying saucer.

University Of Exeter academic Karolina-Slavka Mueller was in London for the weekend, when she took some shots with her camera phone of the sights.

But when she looked back at the January 19 night time pictures of Tower Bridge and the London Eye, she was shocked to see an apparent UFO.

And experts claim it is the real thing.

Karolina said in an email: "What's very strange about this is the fact that we didn't actually see this object in the sky while I was taking the photos.

"I only discovered it once I loaded the photos onto my computer as I didn't even look at the photos until then."

A bleeding fisherman swam 12 hours through shark-infested waters to raise the alarm after his trawler overturned off Australia.

Michael Williams left two colleagues clinging to debris in the ocean as he embarked on his epic journey.

One fellow crewman was rescued after spending 30 hours at sea while the skipper is still missing.

Meanwhile, Down Under . . .

Interesting profile of a New Zealand Water Diviner on Stuff.com. The link is on the website at coasttocoastam.com but it’s pretty amazing. Using just his own supernatural ability, he found a water source for a town in trouble. And on top of that, he was so confident in his water divination technique that after he put his finger on the map and said “here.” he put up his own money to help fund the well drilling. Now, he gets a royalty for the water the town is getting out of it.

Maybe the Governor of Georgia should hire that guy. As Herman Wang with the Free-Press in Nooga wrote last week, the Georgia water wars are beginning to boil, a video story I ran back in March here.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said today he has no plans to discuss Georgia’s proposed land grab — or border correction, depending on who’s talking.

“I think it’s a silly issue that’s more of a publicity stunt,” said Gov. Bredesen, “my position is pretty clear. We’re certainly not going to move our borders to share our water.”

Gov. Perdue has been supportive of efforts by the Georgia General Assembly to have the state line redrawn to the 35th parallel, where it was intended before an 1818 survey placed it in its current location 1.1 miles south.

“He has been telling people to look at (maps on) Google Earth to find the 35th parallel to see where the line should be,” spokesman Bert Brantley said. “He might encourage Governor Bredesen to do that, as well.

The Georgia House and Senate separate resolutions that would create a commission with Tennessee and North Carolina officials to resurvey and redraw the border at the 35th parallel. Water-thirsty Georgia, hit hard by a drought this past year, has long had its eye on Tennessee River water, tantalizingly out of reach across the state line.

Moving the border would cede to Georgia a portion of the Tennessee River at Nickajack Lake in Marion County, while also putting in Georgia parts of Chattanooga and East Ridge in Hamilton County and a portion of Bradley County.

“Everybody’s in agreement that (the border) was marked wrong back years ago,” Mr. Brantley said. “The real question is, is there something to be done that could make sense?”

Yeah, maybe, but as a former long-time resident of both Tennessee and Georgia, take my word for it. When it comes to give up some of its sovereignty to Georgia is one thing on which Tennessee won’t be volunteers.

Walter