Category Archives: Strange/Unusual

Strange/Unusual

Full moon on Friday the 13th

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Tomorrow, June 13, 2014 marks one of the most extraordinary days in recent history. No, there’s no special events involving celebrities, no holidays or breakthrough in technology. June 13, 2014 (officially at 12:11 a.m. tonight!) will place two of the most unpopular days of our calender on the same day. It’ll be a full moon on Friday the 13th.

The two events alone are notorious for having bad events happen on that day, but Friday will be the first time in several years that the two have fallen on the same day.

Just looking at calenderFriday 13 - Full moon happenstance, every year we get 12 full moons and two or three days where the 13th falls on a Friday, so it’s bound to happen at some point. It’s not so rare that we’d only see it every millennium, when actually over the past one hundred years we’ve seen it seven times before. The last being in 2000 but we won’t see it again until 2049.

There really is no proof or any special statistics that support any negative connotation associated with either day, either a full moon or Friday the 13th, but each has seen its share of unfortunate stigma in fiction as well as in real life.

Friday the 13th is quite famous for being the title of a movie franchise that most people have heard of, if not seen. But the filmmakers didn’t just randomly pull the name out of nowhere.

Friday the 13 has been considered an unlucky day long before 1980. The debate is open as to when though. A lot of people point toward a 1907 book by popular novelist Thomas Lawson titled “Friday, the Thirteenth” where a stock broker decided to use that day to create a panic on Wall Street. Other people say it comes from both the number 13 and the day Friday as being unlucky.

The number 12 is considered divine to many as its reflected in 12 Apostles of Jesus, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 gods of Olympus. More focus is put on 12 being special with 12 months of year, 12 hours of the day, 12 Zodiac signs and the list goes on. Evidently, 12 is a hard act to follow. Unfortunately for 13 though, it unsuccessfully tries to do just that.

Friday’s on the other hand, were labeled unlucky in the 14th century’s The Cantebury Tales. As an added bonus, Christians worldwide relate Friday as the day Jesus was crucified, on Good Friday, just before Easter.

The night of a full moon, isn’t really considered unlucky, but probably superstitious. The lunar effect causes a stir in biology and geology that’s really both science and science fiction.

We’ve seen the moon give meaning to the odd report of a rise in dog bites, and also termed “lunatic” as a way to describe at least behavior due to the moon.

Phases of the moon have given possible explanation to various experiences that occur to the human body.  Some say it has effects reproduction, aggressive behavior, and sleep. We do know that the moon does impact our world, particularly the influence with large bodies of water with the tidal cycle. Some scientist even believe that most of the biggest earthquakes in the past century happened within days of a full moon.

Combing both biology and geology, having a moon our size with water on our planet, could be the reason why we have life on Earth altogether.

But the one thing that the full moon is famous for is bringing out the mythical phenomena of werewolves. The werewolf fiction is usually binded with the belief in witches, ghost and vampires, where when that all started back in the Middle Ages there was a lack of people with sense. A 19th century eastern European mythology states that a person could turn into a werewolf if they, on a certain Wednesday or Friday, slept outside on a summer night with the full moon shining directly on his or her face. Hmmm…a Friday in the summer night with a full moon.

Not for nothin’ but I doubt we’re gonna see any werewolves or hockey-masked murderers this Friday, but I’m not gonna be out and about to find out.

Full moon…people will party in its light. Children will run in fear of its sight. Dogs who never will start to bite. Murderers will murder this very night. 

Got a bad feeling all of that will ring true somewhere. 

 

 

Strange/Unusual

Steve Seagal taking on terrorist…in real life

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steven seagalSteven Seagal is facilitating a meeting between U.S. delegates and Russian nationals to help investigate the bombing at a national sporting event in Boston. No, that isn’t a tagline from the actor’s most recent movie, but a real-life headline. The famed martial artist and action movie star is said to have “opened doors” to set up meetings for a visiting U.S. delegation in Russia.

The congressional delegation was a group of lawmakers there to investigate the Boston marathon bombing. One of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, spent several months last year in a southern region of Russia. During the week-long visit the congressional delegation were able to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin, a meeting that may not have happened if Seagal never had reached out.

Apparently Russians are huge fans of Seagal, as they are also looking at him to head up an international marketing campaign for weapon sales. But this most recent trip had Seagal in Moscow with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) to discuss the United States and Russia’s counterterrorism efforts.

In fact, Rohrabacher says he and Seagal often have talks about “thwarting radical Islamic terrorism” and now having Seagal using his contacts to help pave the way for a sit down with Russian officials is part of that effort.

Rohrabacher came out of the meeting saying there was “nothing specific” that could have helped prevent the marathon bombings in Boston, but pressed for better relations between the U.S. and Russia to keep people in both countries safe.

Steven Seagal has starred in over 40 movies since the late 1980s. He started out with a string of successful films with Above the Law, Hard  to Kill, Marked for Death and Out for Justice. Most after that were direct to video.

As a 7th degree black belt in Aikido, he first gained international status as an instructor, opening up a dojo in Japan. Seagal’s fighting skills were so sought after, he’s even given credit to help train UFC Middlewight Champion Anderson Silva, who is constantly among the talk as pound-for-pound, the best fighter in the world. In the past couple of years though, we’ve seen him on the small screen, starring in his own reality show, Steven Seagal: Lawman. Believe it or not, but he is actually a deputized law enforcement officer in Louisiana.

Not for nothin’ but if terrorist weren’t scared before, we now have “Casey Fucking Ryback” on our team. Corrupt politicians, drug dealers, murders, and criminals of all types have all met their end in his fictional world. Now the non-fiction version will have a crack at them. If anything, at least the U.S. congressional delegation that met with Russian politicians and security officials felt a much more safer considering their travel companion. The war on terror will be a slam dunk from here on out.

Strange/Unusual

The Mysterious Thong Cape Scooter Man

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thong cape scooter manRoaming the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, evil-doers beware. There’s a mysterious caped crusader lurking in broad daylight. Scum need not to be shaking in their boots, for the only people who this beacon of goodness instills fear into are the completely normal, sane and apparently little school children.

Last week, just as a group of children were walking to the bus after school, the “Thong Cape Scooter Man”, as he’s colloquially known, rode pass on a patrol. Naturally upon seeing the sight of a middle-aged, near senior citizen, not just riding a scooter, not just in a cape, but also wearing just a thong, would seem wrong to any everyday person, much less little kids.

So as the cruiser, who is wearing next to nothing, rides just feet from children at school, one has to think that he’s either A) Not all there, B) Has serious issues, or C) Out to get little kids. Well, two out of three isn’t bad.

Teachers were alarmed to see the sight, as they should have been, and called the cops. The Thong Cape Scooter Man was picked up by the local police. After questioning him and the law, there was nothing the authorities could do because apparently, the Thong Cape Scooter Man was not doing anything wrong.

“He said he exercised poor judgement by going by the school at the time of day, it was unintentional and he just happened to be traveling through the area,” police spokesman Joel DeSpain said. “The sergeant told the school staff Thong Cape Scooter Man was free to ride on.”

So here we are in the day and age where children across the world are kidnapped daily, forced into sex slavery, pornography, and exposed to the type of abuse that would harm the naive mind of many adults.

It’s painful to see children go through this, where they could very rightfully be so afraid to go out and play on any bright sunny day of the week. Why? Because there are some very sick, criminal and evil people in this world, who by some sick and twisted thought processes find if they victimize the innocent and weak it feeds some backwards, insane desire that they feel.

These sickos seem like everyday people, hell, they could be your neighbor. You’d never know as they dress, talk and act just like you and me. How on earth could you ever point these people out? Well if you were pointing at a grown-ass man in a thong, riding a scooter, you’d need to keep looking.

Not for nothin’, but is a charge of “being off your meds” out of the question? The police and the city attorney came to the conclusion that the Thong Cape Scooter man was not doing anything wrong. But if they asked the opinion of common decency, it’s not hard to figure out he’s just not right (in the mind). Harmless, local celebrity, or out for a brisk ride on a sunny day, all seems like good excuses. But we know damn well those teachers and students had every right to be concerned.

Strange/Unusual

Colonial Cannibals

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Reconstructed face of Jamestown settler
Reconstructed face of Jamestown settler

It was proven and confirmed on Wednesday that the early settlers of Colonial America resulted to cannibalism as a way to help their survival. Forensic evidence found from an excavation site at Jamestown, Virginia, where human remains were found in a trash deposit, proves what was only talked about in a few written accounts.

Just a couple of years after first arriving at the “new world” colonist were ill-prepared for what they were to face over the next few years. Native Americans, poor farming and mother nature all helped decimate the colony to a very bare existence. With little to no food, they had to ensure their survival somehow. It could be hard to hear for some, even harder to believe for others, but without being in the same position 400 years ago who knows what lengths people would go to live.

The revelation, released by the Smithsonian Institute, Colonial Williamsburg and Preservation Virginia, found a partial human skull and tibia during an excavation. The remains were dated to the year 1609, specifically in the winter months where a period called the “starving time” saw hundreds of colonist meet their demise from various causes of death.

The chief archaeologist of the Jamestown Rediscovery Project thought the finding of the bones were unusual because of where they were found, the damage to the skull and marks on the bones. There were chops to the forehead, signs to indicate butchering, knife cuts to the jaw and cheek indicating removal of flesh and even evidence that the head was pried open.

The remains look to be of a 14-year-old European girl, who is being called “Jane”. She was one of the few women and children that populated the Jamestown settlement that reached anywhere from a couple of dozen to as many as 500 throughout its first few years as a settlement.

After first landing and establishing in May 1607, the settlers found out quickly that the site picked for the settlement wasn’t immediately good for long-term sustainability. Close to two hundred died from disease, bad water and starvation.

Two supply missions over the next two years would come from England, but they brought more settlers than supplies. After loosing their fearless leader John Smith to injury back to England, their main connection to the goodwill of the local natives fell apart. Skirmishes ensued which further proved to be detrimental to their health. A third supply mission failed to make it there after a shipwreck. After the harsh winter in 1610, Jamestown numbers were down from 500 to just 61. Many met absolutely horrid deaths. We now know their remains were eaten along with horses and dogs.

Not for nothin’ but this proves the saying, desperate times call for desperate measures. Cannibalism is thought to be immoral behavior at best. It is condemn and only remains in the rarest of primitive cultures. Many see it as barbaric in nature. But realize, the real barbarism would be the murder and then consumption of the flesh. Waiting until the death of someone, then eating them, only after its found that there’s no other viable option for sustenance, could be warranted. Again, you have to be faced with survival mode to know what would be done in that situation. What would be your point of last resort?

Strange/Unusual

Not So United States of America

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The United States of America
The United States of America

Here, in the later part of the year in 2012, the United States of America is again fielding the topic of mass states’ secession. People all across the country have signed petitions to have nearly 40 states secede from the Union. The petitions have been officially filed with the United States government and some have gotten large enough to garner a response from the White House. The petitions recently popped up days after President Obama was reelected, but petitioners are saying it wasn’t the reelection or the president that sparked it, but the policies and the federal government itself. The idea of seceding from the nation or for any state or governing body is not a new concept to the United States, as everyone knows we’ve seen it before, 150 years ago when southern states felt it was in their best interest. Secession didn’t work out well then, and any effort since has hardly been considered credible, but now are we supposed to take the concerns of well over 100,000 people serious?

Last year, the White House created a section on their website, whitehouse.gov, where people could petition the current administration’s policy experts. All one has to do is go to the website and register a free account in the “We the People” petitioning section. If the petition gets a certain amount of attention and receives 25,000 signatures within 30 days the administration will issue an official response. An official response is a far cry from action being taken, but hearing something from your government on something you’re passionate about is a step in the right direction. Whether this whole secession movement as a whole is a step in the right direction is another story.

The most serious secession movement that the United States faced was defeated in the American Civil War. Eleven states angry over slavery rights attempted to secede and caused a war with the rest of the country. Over the past century several different states and counties have talked about secession from other localities. We often hear about it with Texas or even with Alaska. Some counties try to secede from their states to other states or to their own sovereignty. In either case, some of the disputes are met with genuine political discussion, while others are just for pride and fun. This situation where states like Texas with close to 77,000 signatures, Louisiana with nearly 30,000, and other states like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee who all have over 20,000 signatures, are concerned with the government spending and policies that are made for every state to follow. It’s not just limited to southern states as you may think. New York and California are also on the petition website with a growing list of petitioners. All with the common GOP gripe of big national government complaints.

Not for nothin’ but who needs to leave the country, when you can leave the country. We often hear the threat of people saying they want to leave the country if their certain political preference does not get elected, but this is a new twist on it. I mentioned before that we’re seeing states other than the traditional “red” states mentioned, but just as people vote differently in those states seeing such petitions should come as no surprise from anyone who does not support the current administration. In all of the case of each state we have seen little to no support from the state government or legislature. Even Republican governor of Texas Rick Perry backed away from it. But crazier things have happened. It caused a war before. Also another super-power, the Soviet Union, has also split into several different nations. But in this case, secession is just as likely as a Romney presidency in 2012.