"With its aggressive behaviour and appetite for young chicks, the magpie doesn't have a particularly good image when it comes to compassion. But according to some experts, the predator may have a tender side, feeling grief and routinely holding 'funerals' for fallen friends. Dr Marc Bekoff claims the rituals - which involve birds laying 'wreaths' of grass alongside roadside corpses - are proof animals feel complex emotions.

The claims are likely to reignite the debate about whether emotions are a uniquely human trait - or whether they are found across the whole animal kingdom. Other studies have shown evidence of mourning in gorillas, empathy in rats, and friendship in cats.

Animal behaviour expert Dr Bekoff, of the University of Colorado had an encounter with four magpies alongside a magpie corpse as proof that animals have a 'moral intelligence'. 'One approached the corpse, gently pecked at it, just as an elephant would nose the carcass of another elephant, and stepped back,' he said. 'Another magpie did the same thing. Next, one of the magpies flew off, brought back some grass and laid it by the corpse. Another magpie did the same. Then all four stood vigil for a few seconds and one by one flew off.'

After publishing an account of the funeral he received emails from people who had seen the same ritual in magpies, ravens and crows. 'We can't know what they were actually thinking or feeling, but reading their action there's no reason not to believe these birds were saying a magpie farewell to their friend,' he writes in the journal Emotion, Space and Society.

He also claims to have seen emotions in elephants. While watching a herd in Kenya he noticed a crippled cow elephant who was only able to walk slowly.

'Despite her disability the rest of the herd walked for a while, stopped to look round and then waited for her to catch up. The only obvious conclusion we could see is the other elephants cared and so they adjusted their behaviour,' said Dr Bekoff.

Critics have argued that those who see emotions in animals are guilty of anthropomorphism - the attribution of human characteristics to animals. But Dr Bekoff said emotions evolved in humans and animals because they improve the chances of survival.

'It's bad biology to argue against the existence of animal emotions,' he said."

via dailymail.co.uk

'Critics have argued that those who see emotions in animals are guilty of anthropomorphism'?

I would argue that those who do not see emotions in animals are guilty of anthrocentricity -- or worse.

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"A police officer contacted British UFO experts after seeing three aliens examining a freshly made crop circle near Avebury, Wiltshire. The sergeant, who has not been named, was off-duty when he saw the figures standing in a field near Silbury Hill, and stopped his car to investigate. However, as he approached the 'men' – all over 6ft tall with blond hair – he heard "the sound of static electricity" and the trio ran away ''faster than any man he had ever seen''.

The officer returned to his home in Marlborough, Wiltshire, and contacted paranormal experts and told them he had spotted a UFO. Wiltshire Police has refused to comment on the incident, saying it is a ''personal matter'' for the officer involved.

Crop circle researcher Andrew Russell, who is investigating the bizarre sighting on behalf of the officer, described the moment his sighting was made. He said: ''At first he thought they were forensic officers as they were dressed in white coveralls. He stopped his car and approached the field. The figures were all over 6ft and had blond hair. They seemed to be inspecting the crop. When he got to the edge of the field he heard what he believed to be a sound not dissimilar to static electricity. This crackling noise seemed to be running through the field and the crop was moving gently, close to where the noise was. He shouted to the figures who, at first, ignored him, not glancing at him. When he tried to enter the field they looked up and began running. He said; 'They ran faster than any man I have ever seen. I'm no slouch but they were moving so fast. I looked away for a second and when I looked back they were gone. I then got scared. The noise was still around but I got an uneasy feeling and headed for the car. For the rest of the day I had a pounding headache I couldn't shift.''

The bizarre incident occurred on the morning of July 6 this year as the police officer was driving. The officer claims the three figures were examining a crop circle, which had appeared several days earlier, when he stopped his car and began walking towards them ..."

Full story via telegraph.co.uk

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"According to the sisters of Phi Sigma Sigma, who currently live at 351/353 Lightstreet Road, there have been several acts of unexplained phenomena since their sorority moved into the house two years ago.

The girls recall stories of shadows that lurk the halls late at night when nobody else is home, beds shaking uncontrollably, and each sister has an eerie feeling like they are being watched. According to junior Lauren Foster, popular sites for ghost activity in the house are the downstairs foyer, where a dark shadow is often seen roaming, and the stairs, where a few girls claim to be pushed down.

Foster was not sure of any deaths in the home, but since the house was built in the early 1900s, it is likely that there have been at least one death in the house. According to what senior Rachel Kochinsky heard, somebody died in the upper bedroom of the house.

While the paranormal activity continued, questions remained unanswered. It wasn’t until senior Ashley Ferrentino pledged in fall of 2007 that some of the answers began to unfold. After hearing rumors of the haunting, Ferrentino, who has been interested in the paranormal since her aunt began practicing Wicca (witchcraft) several years ago, decided to do some investigating of her own.

“After I found out all the information about the Phi Sig house being haunted, I immediately grabbed my Ouija,” said Ferrentino. “After a few minutes of asking questions about our house, I got random bits of information: the name Maggie and the year 1934.”

After the Ouija board incident, Ferrentino went onto the Internet to do some research. What she found was alarming; an obituary of a woman named Maggie who died in Bloomsburg in 1934. From what she can remember from the obituary, which is no longer available online, Maggie was an older woman who died of natural causes. Maggie also had a daughter who died several years before.

Since then, Ferrentino has had a few run-ins with Maggie. One incident occurred when she and one other sister was in the house. As they were getting ready to leave the house, they heard laughter of a little girl coming from the kitchen. The sound could not be explained by anything else, as nobody was home and no televisions or radios were left on. Another night, when Ferrentino was laying in bed, she heard strange sounds coming from the inside of her wall, almost as if something were trying to come out of the wall. The sound went on for a few minutes before it stopped.

Incidents like this have been occurring in the house long before Phi Sig members moved in. Two years ago, the house belonged to Delta Phi Epsilon, and Delta Alumni Katie McGuire said a lot of weird things happened at the house when she pledged in spring of 2006. It started out with little things, like items disappearing or lights going out, recalls McGuire, but before long, the spirit began showing its presence in a less subtle way.

As McGuire recalls, one night the sisters who lived in the house were all getting ready for bed. The sister who lived on the first floor had locked the front and back door. “Right as we were about to turn off our light, the smoke detectors started going off all over the house,” said McGuire. “We were on the third floor so we went running downstairs to see what was going on. When we got to the kitchen, the faucet in the sink was running and the sink had overflowed and flooded onto the floor.” Nobody could explain what happened that night.

Some of McGuire’s pledge-sisters have had other experiences with the spirit, who they knew as Colleen. A few of the sisters have been pushed down the stairs. Another sister woke up in the middle of the night feeling as if she were pinned to the bed, being choked. Sisters have also complained about extreme drafts of coldness and one sister has even seen a shadowy figure standing near her radiator ..."

Full story via bloomutoday.com

Maybe some former Bloomsburg students loved their school so much that they came back to stay after they 'graduated' from earthly life.

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"A young man awakens to find an apparition in his bed. A teenage girl feels a presence in her uterus and senses the outline of a baby over her left shoulder. Are these people seeing spirits?

Michael Persinger, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, suspects not. Persinger has demonstrated that a sensitive temporal lobe-the area that is responsible for regulation of emotions and motivated behaviors-together with naturally occurring magnetic fields, can trigger a ghostly encounter. Indeed, the couple in question had sensitive lobes and an electronically stocked house, with magnetic activity that peaked nightly just when their apparition materialized. The girl who thought she was pregnant had suffered a brain injury as a child. In addition, her bed was surrounded by a pulsed magnetic field, the result of a clock just a few inches from her pillow.

"Individuals prone to paranormal experiences are sensitive to weak electromagnetic fields and to man-made electrical fields, which are becoming more prominent in the communication age," explains Persinger, who has studied the link between magnetic fields and paranormal experience for 15 years.

Initial experiments exposed the right hemisphere of subjects' brains to magnetic fields, prompting subjects to posit a presence interacting with their thoughts and moving in space as they focused on it. So paranormal experiences during or just following stimulation of the right hemisphere may be no more than the right half of the brain becoming aware of the left ..."

Full story via psychology today.com

IMO, a great many paranormal experiences can be 'debunked' ... and many cannot. In any given case, I'm equally comfortable with either outcome.

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"Whether your pet prefers squeaky rubber squirrels, stiff rawhide bones or fuzzy mice, he or she undoubtedly loves to play with toys. But is the source of your dog's or cat’s merriment safe? Many common household products—including toys for children and pets—may contain trace amounts of lead and other toxins. In most cases, however, the levels of these ingredients in toys don’t pose a significant threat to your furry friend.

The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) reviewed 200,000 cases from the past two years and produced no examples of lead poisoning from pet toys. According to Dr. Sharon Gwaltney-Brant, ASPCA Vice President and Medical Director of the APCC, younger dogs, just like children, are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, but most studies reveal only tiny amounts of lead in pet toys—not a grave risk for acute or chronic lead poisoning in dogs.

“Just because it's 'detectable' doesn't necessarily make it hazardous,” says Dr. Gwaltney-Brant. “Even oxygen is toxic at the right concentration.”

And what about other types of treats such as rawhide bones? Like pet toys, rawhide chews can include trace amounts of pesky chemicals. Dr. Safdar Khan, Director of Toxicology at the ASPCA, believes many dog lovers would be surprised if they learned the true contents of their pets’ treats. But he also adds that pet parents would likely be surprised if they knew the complete ingredients of what they eat and drink, too. The reality is that a dog is much more likely to suffer obstruction from a rawhide bone than poisoning from a hidden toxin. In general, the smaller the dog, the fewer rawhide treats he should receive, and only give your pet rawhides under a watchful eye. Remember, it’s always wise to supervise!

And lest you think we’re leaving out our feline fans, here are a few safety tips to keep in mind when shopping for kitty’s favorite play things:

~ The wand toy, often adorned with feathers, string or small stuffed toys, is ubiquitous. But take care with it, and watch for pieces of string or other components that might fall from the toy and get swallowed by your cat.
~ Another popular treat for the kitty set is catnip. Word to the wise—some cats become very excited when smelling or eating it, so be careful about petting your cat until you know how she will respond.
~ Please don’t let your cat play with rubber bands, paper clips or plastic bags. All can prove dangerous and a choking risk to our feline friends.

For more information about playing it safe with your pet, please visit APCC online."

via aspca.org

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"Pokaini forest is located not far from Riga, Latvia. In 1996 Ivar Viks, a scientist from Riga, told journalists about strange meteorological anomalies and mysterious features of local rocks. This information brought up multiple discussions. It turned out that there were many other mysterious things happening there that could only be explained by supernatural.

Soon after Vicks’s conversation with the journalists, he passed away from an unknown disease. Yevgeny Sidorov, another Latvian scientist, continued the research. He found out that Pokaini forest was a place of pilgrimage for many tourists attracted by rumors about healing power of this place.

The place is indeed, mysterious. The terrain is hilly, there are exactly 30 hills. Oaks have foliage on one side only. The rocks, however, are the main mystery. No one can tell where they came from. The most popular legend says that the rocks were brought by pilgrims who used to come from all over Europe as a symbol of liberation from sins.

In old times Pokainski forest was considered an unusual, sacred place. Many legends are connected with it. They say that it was a meeting place of thirty druids, where each druid controlled the weather from his own hill. Local residents say that the weather here is always beautiful. Even if it rains or snows in the vicinity, the forest is always sunny. The researchers confirm this observation.

Another legend says that some strange object is hidden under one of the rocks. Some say it is a radioactive meteorite; some are convinced it is an ancient tomb. The rocks on the hill called Zikkurat face the four parts of the world. It looks like the rocks used to serve as a compass.

Archeologists who conducted excavations have not found any burials. Yanis Graudonis, a local historian, believes the theory about sacredness of the forest to be utter nonsense, and that the rocks were brought by peasants who removed them from their fields. Another theory says that the rocks were brought to Pokaini for construction of a castle that was never built. However, there is no evidence to these theories.

The “sacred” theory, however, has plenty of evidence. The first one is a temperature anomaly. Many rocks are warm to touch and have healing abilities. Some rocks cure joint diseases, some cure osteochondrosis, and other cure gynecological diseases. There are also “dangerous” rocks that cause negative consequences if touched. Sometimes tourists would take a rock with them and later regret as they would become victims of diseases or even accidents.

Another anomaly is on a meadow, under an old pine tree. The temperature at this spot is always higher than that of the environment. The warmth spreads all over the body from under the ground heating people even in the coldest weather ..."

Full story via pravda.ru

To me, Pokaini forest looks like an enchanted place conjured by
Arthur Rackham's imagination.
I'd so much love to go there.

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"There is a spiritual realm that is available to all who find its many entrances."
__James Melvin Washington

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