The last time I read about Ripley Museums they were dealing with a shortage of Shrunken Heads.When you think of all the things to be found there it seems likely that some hauntings may happen,This appeared in AOL News.(A few highlights.Click the link at the end for the full account.Info about a TAPS tour also.)

"...you might want to head down to St. Augustine, Fla., the oldest city in the United States and home to the first -- and oldest -- Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, Castle Warden.

Both the city and the museum are reputed to be haunted.

In fact, The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS -- the real-life ghost busters of the Syfy Network's popular "Ghost Hunters International" series – have been to Castle Warden and other eerie spots around St. Augustine, searching for signs of a real haunting.

Castle Warden is a historic mansion, built in 1887 by millionaire William Warden. The building, which resembles a medieval fortress, became a hotel in the 1940s, where Robert Ripley was a frequent visitor.

The building was acquired by Ripley's heirs after his death in 1949, and in December 1950, it opened as the original Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, housing many artifacts from Ripley's personal collection of amazing oddities and curiosities from around the world.

There's everything from an Abraham Lincoln life mask to a vampire slaying kit to the erector set Ferris wheel that's two stories high that took a guy 17 years to make -- it's pure insanity at every turn."
On the truly freaky level, Ingwersen adds that visitors to Castle Warden often report hearing mysterious voices or catching glimpses of apparitions in the labyrinthine, four-story, 25-room building. He said that some claim to smell smoke from a fire in the 1940s that killed two women who were in the building when it was a hotel.

Now we get into the paranormal, where sensitives and psychics consistently come into these rooms and they keep getting these same premonitions and feelings that something terrible happened in that building. So that's one of the reasons why we think it's haunted."

Those are among many cases of ghostly occurrences that have been reported at Castle Warden, according to Ingwersen.
"We've had various people that have called the police because right up there on the third floor, they'll see a woman at a window, screaming. That window's been boarded up since 1950, but they see her screaming..."
http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/syfy-network-ghost-hunter-dustin-pari-targets-ripleys-oldest-museum/19619042

A recent discussion on Coast To Coast AM left me with some shivers..
"Hypnotherapist and abduction researcher Yvonne Smith discussed her research on UFO abductions on Thursday night. Several years ago, 11 people were simultaneously abducted on Coronado Island, and this case is going to be featured in her forthcoming book, she said. Right now, she's working on a three-witness case with Dr. Roger Leir and Jaime Maussan, hypnotically regressing two of the witnesses who were children when the incident occurred. An implant was removed from one of the witnesses, and Dr. Leir believes we may have enough data to determine the origin of the ETs, she revealed.

The ET's agenda appears to revolve around the hybridization program, said Smith, as many of the abductees have sperm and ova removed. Further, she reported that some female abductees feel their own children may have been genetically altered. Abductees are often told that they're being trained for a particular job, "and when the time comes they'll know exactly what they're supposed to do," she noted, adding that this might relate to certain dreams abductees have had in which they are guiding large numbers of people somewhere."

Her site http://www.ysmith.com

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These and a few other pieces are heading for the vendor section of the So-Cal Paracon.Ir is a great conference.Check it out.Stop by the table if you are going...


The So Cal Crew are manning the table for me since I can not go...Thanks guys

Found this today.Not Paranormal but interesting.Material from the Newsletter from Coast To Coast AM..Picture well known to Baby Boomers is from Dreamtime.

On today's date in 1813, the nickname for the United States " Uncle Sam" got its start. Samuel Wilson, a meat packer in New York, supplied barrels of beef to the US Army during the War of 1812, and marked them with the initials "U.S." for United States. Soldiers began referring to the food as "Uncle Sam's," and a local newspaper picked up the story. "

A group of young scientists is taking a crack at solving the puzzle of this odd desert area known as Racetrack Playa.

Most of the wandering stones are about the size of a one-liter soda bottle and far heavier, according to Brian Jackson, a NASA scientist who has been studying the area for more than four years.

"You don't expect 20-pound (9-kilogram) rocks to go sliding across the ground very easily, but they seem to do that on occasion," Jackson said.

Jackson said crackpot theories abound to explain the stones' travels across the playa (a term for a dried-out lake bed), which is about 3 miles (4.5 kilometers) long, almost a mile and a half (2 km) across, and preternaturally flat.

"I've definitely heard aliens, magnetic fields, frat boys from UNLV" — the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — "but nothing really plausible," Jackson said. "There's no way it could really be a hoax, because if someone were pushing them you'd see footprints."

The tracks show in the picture...

Another real estate story.This nurse was not even worn earrings like those pictured.

"Sometimes, a certain piece of haunted real estate haunts you and that influences you to buy it.

That's how it worked for Greg Lobdell and Jon Carlson when they decided to purchase the Bowers Harbor Inn in Traverse City, Mich. The building is said to be haunted by a ghost named "Genevieve," who, legend has it, hanged herself in an elevator shaft after catching her husband having an affair with a nurse.

"We grew up near there back in the 1970s, and it was generally accepted that there was a ghost there," Lobdell said. "As kids, we'd go check out the shaft.


"We grew up near there back in the 1970s, and it was generally accepted that there was a ghost there," Lobdell said. "As kids, we'd go check out the shaft."

The duo have rebranded the business Mission Table, but have kept the ghost. The legend of Genevieve is proudly displayed at the restaurant, and they welcome paranormal teams to investigate.

But having a ghost on premises does require some sensitivity.

"Some of the restaurant employees are intimidated about working late and we respect that," Lobdell said. "Every server has a story. One waiter told me about a woman who kept feeling she was being pushed when no one was behind her -- and, it turns out, she was a nurse!"
.http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/haunted-real-estate-a-scary-good-investment/19608579

This sharp lady knows how to make her haunted real estate work for her..
"Haunted Real Estate Is Scary Good Investment

(Aug. 27) -- For some people, there's not a ghost of a chance they'd ever buy a haunted property. But for others, like Annie Wilder, a copywriter in Hastings, Minn., haunted real estate can be a scary good investment.

Back in 1994, she bought a beautiful Victorian home that she suspected was spooked before she made the purchase.

"Actually, it didn't feel spooky, just out of time," Wilder told AOL News. "After we closed, the previous owner's daughter did ask if we had had any weird experiences, such as cupboards opening and closing on their own."
Turns out, that did happen. In fact, Wilder had purchased a home that was literally Grand Central Station for spirits and ghosts.

"That's what the resident spirit -- the previous owner, a German man -- told a psychic who investigated the house," Wilder said.
However, she didn't mind. She set the house up to respect the spirits who were there and established ground rules for those that didn't want to toe her line.

"We're very respectful of the ghosts," she said. "Anyone who moves into a haunted property should announce their presence and let the ghosts know you're there. When we moved in, we removed all the carpets and curtains -- which looked like they were stuck in the 1960s, but we promised him that we'd make it nice.

"On the other hand, I have no problem asking spirits to leave if they are rude to my family, friends and pets," Wilder said.

In the process, Wilder made her haunted house a true home -- and found a way to supplement her income in ways she'd never imagined..."


(Aug. 27) -- For some people, there's not a ghost of a chance they'd ever buy a haunted property. But for others, like Annie Wilder, a copywriter in Hastings, Minn., haunted real estate can be a scary good investment.


.http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/haunted-real-estate-a-scary-good-investment/19608579

The Star Child Skull has been of great interest for several years to me as well as the paranormal community in general.Recently a 2010 update was posted by the project.

You probably have heard of it.There is even a listing in Wikipedia.However their view is a bit more reserved than mine!
"The Starchild skull is an abnormal skull allegedly found in Mexico. It is primarily notable due to claims by paranormal researchers that it is evidence of extraterrestrial contact. Mitochondrial DNA recovered from the skull establishes it's mother was human, but skeptics believe it is a abnormal human skull..

Carbon 14 dating was performed twice, the first on the normal human skull at the University of California at Riverside in 1999, and on the Starchild skull in 2004 at Beta Analytic in Miami, the largest radiocarbon dating laboratory in the world. Both tests provided results of 900 years ± 40 years since death..."

Money of coures has been a problem for the expensive tests needed.The newest report is interesting.The brief account is :
" PRELIMINARY DNA FINDINGS 2010

In Brief: A modified "shotgun" DNA recovery technique has been successfully used to recover coherent segments of the Starchild Skull's nuclear DNA. Of the (approx.) 3 billion base pairs in the skull's genome, several thousand have been recovered. These nuclear DNA fragments have been analyzed by the National Institutes of Health BLAST program, and a substantial percentage of that DNA has "no significant similarity" to any DNA previously found on Earth.

These results have been verified and repeated; however, more DNA needs to be recovered and analyzed before a formal report can be completed."

The full account is at this site if interested:
http://www.starchildproject.com/dna2010.htm


Thank you for the nomination and I am honored to have won the award as a Leading Paranormal Blog...YEAH