666: The Mystery of Revelation

Even those who have never read the Bible will recognize it. Revered by the occul
t and feared by the superstitious, it's a number forever linked with infamy. It
is the number six hundred sixty-six. For over two millennia, this number has bee
n used as a proxy for Satan himself. It's been the subject of endless speculatio
n, hearsay, and confusion.
And during this time, it's been used to justify the false identification of hund
reds, perhaps even thousands, of individuals as the Antichrist. These false iden
tifications have only served to confuse people as to the original, biblical mean
ing of the number 666, and unfortunately, they also cause many to dismiss Bible
prophecy as a mere superstition of crackpots and conspiracy theorists.
So where does the number 666 come from? And what does it mean?
All the speculation concerning 666 comes from a single verse in the book of Reve
lation. In a passage describing the Antichrist and his world empire, we learn th
e following:
"He required everyonegreat and small, rich and poor, slave and freeto be given a m
ark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything
without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number represen
ting his name. Wisdom is needed to understand this. Let the one who has understa
nding solve the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number i
s 666" (Revelation 13:16-18, NLT).
During the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will require everyone on the earth
to be given a mark on the right hand or the forehead. Those who refuse this mark
will be unable to buy or sell anything, effectively cutting them off from all e
conomic activity - the purchase and sale of food, water, shelter, and the basic
necessities of life.
This mark will have the following characteristics:
1)
2)
3)
4)

It will be
It will be
It will be
The number

the name of the beast.

the number representing his name.
the number of a man.
is 666.

The Perfect Family

They were a pillar of society. That family on the block that everyone looked up
to. The parents always made sure that their family was the envy of everyone else
. Joel, the father, was an accomplished lawyer and businessman. Angela was the c
harming stay-at-home mom. They lived happily with their three orderly children;
George, Samuel, and Sarah.
Each child was adept at school, and at all athletics they attended. But then one
day during soccer practice, little Samuel broke his ankle.
They were a pillar of society. That family on the block that everyone looked up
to. The parents always made sure that their family was the envy of everyone else

. Joel, the father, was an accomplished lawyer and businessman. Angela was the c
harming stay-at-home mom. They lived happily their two orderly children George a
nd Sarah.

Fast Enough
I run down the block just as fast as my legs can possibly take me. And as I move
into a full on sprint, so too does the beast. Its amazing how the street of a s
eemingly ordinary residential neighborhood can transform into what feels like an
endless stretch of road under the right circumstances. My heart is beating out
of my chest and I dont know if its from fatigue or panic.
The dog is massive, 150lbs. easy. As it snarls mid gallop, I can see its horribl
e teeth. Teeth designed for ripping apart and tearing into flesh, teeth that it
has every intention of using. Im moving faster now than Ive ever moved in my lif
e. Terror is an unbelievable motivator.
I grit my teeth and try to will myself to speed up even more, but deep down I kn
ow that I wont be fast enough. The beast is too quick and Ill never catch it. No
t before it gets to my three year old son in the driveway.

Far From Home

After sitting in traffic for three hours on my way home from Maine, I was feelin
g a bit tired so I stopped on the side of the road to shut my eyes. It was aroun
d 9 o'clock and I only meant to fall asleep for a half hour. But when I abruptly
woke up and checked the clock in my car, it said 1:34 am.
I looked around and noticed that I was encased by thick forest and a bit of snow
. When I got ready to continue my trip home I saw something in the corner of my
eye. I readjusted my rear view and standing next to the back passenger window wa
s a person, his upper torso out of sight from my view point. He just stood there
. I didn't move an inch, frozen in fear I waited for him to move.
After a bit of time he sluggishly walked away. Was he standing there the whole t
ime? I was twisted in thought the majority of the drive and when I got about 3/4
of the way home my car got a bit fogged up from the heat. And to my misfortune,
revealed handprints all over the windshield, the trunk, my window. All accompan
ied with little finger drawn eyes. I'm glad my doors were locked.

Topic: When did THROWBACK THURSDAY hashtag started?

Back to the beginnings......
Its hard to pinpoint exactly where Throwback Thursday started. If you do a search
using the Instagramers iPhone app that lets you easily pull up the oldest tags
on file, you see that a user named @bobbysanders22 is the first person on record
as using the tag, in 2011, not long after Instagram added hashtags as a feature
.
However, Instagramers founder Philippe Gonzalez tells us thats no indication that
the user started the hashtag. We are never 100 percent sure, as Instagram is rem
oving old tags these last months and some old ones could have been deleted. Insta

gramers included Flashback Friday as one of its recommended hashtag games when t
he feature was first introduced in January 2011. So pinpointing the true first #
tbt post is tricky.
Looking at Google Trends, though, it seems people started looking up Throwback T
hursday more regularly in February 2012, and since then, interest in the hashtag
game has increased substantially.

A rapist and murderer appeared on the Dating Show.

Rodney James Alcala was a convicted rapist and sex offender when he was accepted
as a contestant to the reality TV show, the Dating Game. It was 1978 when he ma
de his television debut. By that time he was already a murderer, having killed t
wo women in California and possibly two other in New York.
Nevertheless, Alcala was introduced like a normal guy as "...a successful photog
rapher who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of
13, fully developed. The hobbies listed for Alcala were not torture and murder
as would have been more accurate, but rather skydiving and motorcycling. Still,
contestants knew something was off about Alcala.
Bachelor #2 Jed Mills, an actor, remembered that the man was really strange with
a weird viewpoint on things. The bachelorette refused to go on a date with Alca
la, because she thought he was creepy. It turns out she was right, but according
to criminal profiler Pat Brown, the bachelorettes refusal may have driven Alcal
a to kill several more women!
A man in the 1890 s dug up his daughters grave and cut out her heart thinking sh
e was a vampire!
This is going to get creepy fast. In the 1880s and 1890s the family of George an
d Mary brown of Exeter, Massachusetts suffered a sequence of tuberculosis, calle
d consumption at the time, infections. Mary, the mother, was the first to die an
d then their eldest daughter, Mary Olive, died in 1888. Their son, Edwin, then c
aught the infectious disease in 1890. Sadly, in 1891, another daughter, Mercy, b
ecame infected and died of the disease in January of 1892.
She was buried in the Baptist Church cemetery in Exeter. People began talking ab
out one of the family members being a vampire, as folklore went at the time that
if multiple family members died of a disease, then a family member must have be
en involved in undead activities. George Brown was persuaded to exhume the bodie
s of his family members in March 1892. While his wife and daughter, Mary Olive,
were considerably decomposed, Mercy was still quite preserved and still had some
blood in her heart, because they didnt embalm most people back then.
So, the villagers took that as a sign that Mercy was a vampire and the reason Ed
win was sick. Mercys heart was removed from her chest, burned, and the ashes mix
ed with tea and given to Edwin to drink to cure his ailment. He died two months
later.
A man received the heart of a suicide victim, married his widow, and years later
killed himself on the same day the donor did!
69-year-old Sonny Graham received a life saving heart transplant after another m
an named Terry Cottle committed suicide. Cottles shot himself, leaving behind a
widow, four children, and a perfectly good heart that was sent to Graham. Graham

was so thankful for having his life saved that he wrote a letter to Cottles fam
ily thanking them for his generous donation.
Eventually Graham met Cottles widow and claimed it was love at first sight. "I f
elt like I had known her for years. I couldn t keep my eyes off her. I just star
ed." They began dating and were eventually married. Strange? It gets weirder.
After a total of twelve years had passed since Graham received the heart, his wi
dow received a call that her second husband had just shot himself in the exact s
ame circumstances as her first! Get ready, because the story gets just downright
creepy.
Graham had Cottles heart inside of him, shot himself in the same way, in the sam
e circumstances, and also committed suicide on the exact same day! Friends of Gr
aham said he had never shown signs of being depressed and this was completely ou
t of the blue. While the story is extremely sad, the coincides are just eerie.

Darrell of "Storage Wars" once found a murdered corpse in a unit!

"Storage Wars" is a reality show on A&E that follows five people as they bid on
storage units that are being auctioned off. In California, where the show is fil
med, storage units go on the auction block after 3 months rent has been missed o
n them.
Each person has their nickname and Darrell Sheets is known as The Gambler and of
ten works with his son, Brandon, at the auctions. Two spin-off shows are in the
works in New York and Texas. Darrell has been bidding on storage units for 32 ye
ars. Some of his greatest findings included a big comic book collection, four dr
awings by Picasso, and a letter written by Abraham Lincoln that sold for $15,000
.
His creepiest finding, however, was a dead body that he found in a unit he bough
t. The corpse was wrapped in plastic. Darrell called the police and after interv
iewing him, he was determined to not be a suspect. The police determined that th
e previous owner of the locker murdered his wife and stuck her in the storage un
it.

The Head of King Henry IV of France was found preserved in an attic in 2010.
It might seem a little strange that the head of a king was in the attic of a tax
collector, instead of located on his buried body. The explanation is no less st
range.
King Henry IV ruled France from 1589 to his death in 1610. Many attempts had bee
n made on his life as king. One such attempt left him with a gash across his upp
er lip.
While in Paris in 1610, his carriage was stopped in the congested streets and he
was assassinated. It was expected for him to be buried at the Basilica of St. D
enis, north of Paris, where nearly every French king had been buried since 900 A
D.

His body was embalmed and interred with the kings before him, and was left alone
for almost two centuries. In 1793, during the French Revolution, a number of un
usual decrees were issued (such as changing calendars and clocks).
One of these ordered the destruction of all royal tombs, including the one Henry
IV was in. A mob tore through the crypt and pulled apart the royal corpses. The
y were carried outside and had quicklime poured over them to make them decompose
faster.
As a result, most of the bones at St. Denis were lost. For a while, it was thoug
ht that no royal remains survived the French Revolution, but rumors continued to
creep up. In 1919, the head of Henry IV was found and sold at an auction. Josep
h-Emile Bourdais, the photographer who purchased it, could not convince any muse
ums it was authentic.
When Joseph-Emile died, his widow then sold the head in 1955 to a tax collector
named Jacques Bellanger. There the head remained until a journalist looked at it
in 2010, and it was confirmed to be that of Henry IV.

TIPS TO FILL PETRON AND DIESEL

Fuel at night or early morning?: It is better to buy or fill up your car or bike
during early morning, when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that
all service stations have their storage tanks underground. . The colder the grou
nd, the more dense the fuel. When it gets warmer, petrol expands. So, buying in
the afternoon or in the evening, your liter is not exactly a liter. In the petro
leum business, the specific gravity and the temperature play an important role.
1 degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service st
ations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
Fill fuel when half tank empty: Another most important tip is to fill up when yo
ur tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tan
k the less is the air occupying its empty space. Petrol evaporates faster than y
ou can imagine.
Nozzle trigger should not be in the fast mode: While filling petrol, the nozzle
trigger should not be in the fast mode, instead it should be in the low stage to
minimise the impacts of vapour and to have maximum economy of petrol. If you se
e properly, you will find that the trigger has three stages-Low, Medium, and Hig
h. Filling petrol at the faster rate means you have more gas with your liquid pe
trol.
Don t fill petrol while tanker are unloading petrol: It is important to notice t
his as when the tankers fill fuel at the fuel station all the dirt that is settl
ed at the bottom gets disturbed and if you are fueling at the same time it can g
et into your vehicle tank along with fuel - it can affect your engine.
Proper tyre pressure: Tyre pressure must be checked once every two weeks. It hel
ps to reduce the drag while driving thus increasing your mileage. There is a lab
el in your car just when you open the driver seat which tells you the tyre press
ure.
Service vehicle regularly: During car service, always get three things replaced
- oil, oil filter & air filter. If you can find a reliable mechanic then you can
do it at low cost.

Replace spark plugs: once every 5 years, you must replace the spark plugs, use a
better quality spark plug not the ordinary one which comes with the stock car.
It improves your fuel combustion thus giving more mileage and it improves your A
ir condition performance.
Clear of unwanted items from the car: It is important that you remove all the un
wanted items whenever you are starting to move around. Every extra kilo of weigh
t will need additional fuel, decreasing the mileage.

THE ZOMBIE SLAVES OF HAITI

By The Deuce
The Afro-Caribbean religion of Vodou (also spelled Vodun and Voodoo) includes ma
ny stories of mind- and body-control, spirit possession, and zombie-like states.
The English word zombie is even a derivative of the Haitian Creole word zonbi. Whil
e many non-believers dismiss these stories as superstitious bunk, a Canadian-bor
n researcher may have found an explanation to one prominent case of alleged Zomb
ieism in Haiti.
Clairvius Narcisse was a poor Haitian man who became deathly ill in 1962. His sy
mptoms included fever, trouble breathing, and the feeling of bugs crawling under
his skin. He was taken to a hospital some distance from his home. While there h
e was seen and treated by two doctors (one was an American and the other had bee
n trained in the United States). After some time, he took a turn for the worse a
nd was pronounced dead. He was buried shortly after, but he claims he was never
really dead.
Narcisses story is that he woke up in his coffin in a daze. He believed he was po
isoned or under a spell. The next night, he was exhumed by a Bokor, or Vodou sha
man, and taken to an unknown location. He was given some sort of concoction that
put him in a zombie-like trance. The substance left him perceptible to suggesti
on, and he says he was forced to work on a sugar plantation day and night. Each
day, the same concoction was given to him and others on the farm to keep them co
mpliant.
At some point, the captives managed to flee their imprisonment and Narcisse spen
t the next 18 years wandering and begging on the streets. In 1981, he came upon
his home village and still recognized his sister after 20 years. She apparently
recognized him too, because when she saw him, she screamed quite loudly. He conv
inced her it was really him by using a nickname known only to the family.
A psychiatrist was brought in to question Narcisse to see if his story checked o
ut. Narcisse was able to correctly answer all of his questions based on the info
rmation given to him by the family. Many of the townspeople concurred and said t
hey recognized Narcisse from 20 years prior.
The media caught wind of the story and many prominent news outlets in the US and
elsewhere sent crews to cover it. In addition to the media, a researcher from H
arvard took particular curiosity in the case. Wade Davis is an ethnobotanist (he
studies the ways people use plants). Davis claims that Narcisse and others may
have been under the influence of one or more drugs to keep them in their sedated
and suggestive state.
According to Davis, a neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin or TTX is responsible for t
he death-like state that Narcisse was in prior to his burial. People who have in

gested this toxin are often catatonic with very few signs of life and are someti
mes mistaken for dead. The toxin is available via an indigenous toad in Haiti. N
arcisse thinks his brother may have slipped him the toxin before he became ill.
While a daily regimen of a paralyzing toxin doesnt sound like an efficient way ru
n a plantation, Davis has argued that another drug, datura stimonium, may have b
een included in the concoction given to the plantation workers. Datura stimonium
is prevalent in much of the Americas and, when used in regulated doses, can pro
duce delirium, suggestibility, and amnesia. Higher doses can result in hallucina
tions. Davis claims to have been present during the making of these potions and
is convinced they are the impetus behind Narcisses strange story.

[A MUST READ]
There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thom
pson. And as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of
school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her stude
nts and said that she loved them all the same.
But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, wa
s a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year be
fore and noticed that he didnt play well with the other children, that his clothe
s were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant
. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking
his papers with a broad red pen, making bold Xs and then putting a big F at the to
p of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each childs
past records and she put Teddys off until last. However, when she reviewed his fi
le, she was in for a surprise.
Teddys first grade teacher wrote, Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He d
oes his work neatly and has good manners. He is a joy to be around.
His second grade teacher wrote, Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his
classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and lif
e at home must be a struggle.
His third grade teacher wrote, His mothers death has been hard on him. He tries to
do his best but his father doesnt show much interest and his home life will soon
affect him if some steps arent taken.
Teddys fourth grade teacher wrote, Teddy is withdrawn and doesnt show much interest
in school. He doesnt have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class.
By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She f
elt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beau
tiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddys. His present which was clumsily
wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.
Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of
the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of
the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she
stifled the childrens laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, pu
tting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.

Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, Mrs. Thompso
n, today you smelled just like my Mom used to. After the children left she cried
for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing,
and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.
Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mi
nd seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. B
y the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the clas
s and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy beca
me one of her teachers pets.
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she
was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by befo
re she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high scho
ol, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his wh
ole life.
Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been
tough at times, hed stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate
from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was
still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Then
that
tter
now
.

four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained
after he got his bachelors degree, he decided to go a little further. The le
explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But
his name was a little longerthe letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D

The story doesnt end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Te
ddy said hed met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his fat
her had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might a
gree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother
of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that brace
let, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing
the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas to
gether.
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompsons ear, Thank yo
u Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel import
ant and showing me that I could make a difference. Mrs. Thompson, with tears in h
er eyes, whispered back. She said, Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one
who taught me that I could make a difference. I didnt know how to teach until I
met you.

CAT SEX IS EFFECTIVELY TORTURE

By Joshua T. Garcia
The innocuous house cat is a symbol of laziness and disinterest. But beneath thi
s nonchalant exterior lies a horrifying sexual attribute: Male cats are equipped
with painful barbed penises to scrape out rival semen.
Were just going to say it again: A male cats penis is barbed. And cat sex hurts.
Most mammals seem borderline complacent about sex, but if youve ever seen cats ma
te, you might notice that the female seems downright furious about participating
. The male bites down on her neck, keeping her from fleeing. That seemingly melo

dramatic behavior isnt because she finds boys icky. Cat sex is excruciatingly pai
nful. The cat penis is essentially a horrifying engine of pain covered in a doze
n tiny fishhooks.
But these tiny daggers serve a purpose. Ovulation starts 20 to 50 hours after ma
ting, giving rival suitors enough time to scrape an opponents semen out of the wo
mb. They probably wont get all of it. Males mate with multiple females, and its co
mmon for many kittens of the same litter to have different fathers.
Additionally, ovary maturation cannot even occur without consent from the barbs.
The painful scraping activates the hormone necessary to get things rolling in t
he ovulation department. Not every session causes ovulation, so the pair needs t
o try multiple timesas much as possibleto get things right.
None of this bodes well for the hapless female. Despite being actively driven to
pursue it (survival instincts and all that), shell try to hiss and scratch her w
ay out of sex. Whats worse, mating season lasts from January to August, and the f
emale can mate before turning a year old. But this method of mating can produces
fierce competition, helping to ensure that the next generation of cats gets the
best of the current gene pool.
Barbed penises are a feature of all members of the Felidae family, which include
s all cat species. Tigers, lions, leopards, lynxesall have barbed penises. Lions,
the only truly social cat, will pair up for several days at a time, ignoring ev
erything else and copulating upward of 100 times a day. Other species mate brief
ly with strangers.

THE TERRIFYING GUINEA PIGS OF ANCIENT HISTORY

By Morris M.
Youd be hard-pressed to come up with an animallessterrifying than a guinea pig. S
hort, unintelligent, and utterly harmless, todays guinea pigs are the epitome of
both cuteness and stupidity. However, their evolutionary ancestors were another
thing altogether: Eight million years ago, South America was swarming with guine
a pigs the size of buffalo.
In 2003, scientists made a bizarre discovery in Venezuela. In the mud outside a
small, anonymous town, an eight-million-year-old guinea pig skeleton had been in
credibly preserved. But what was truly shocking about this rodent was its size: G
uinea-zilla would have been 1 meter (3.5 ft) tall, nearly 3 meters (10 ft) long a
nd weighed an astonishing 700 kilograms (1,500 lbs).
Although a vegetarian, everything about this creature would have been terrifying
. Its teeth were nearly 20 centimeters (8 in) long, with evidence to suggest the
y simply never stopped growing. They moved about in packs and could exist happil
y either on land or in water. Their upper body strength was likely tremendous. I
n short, this would have been one guinea pig you didnt want to pick a fight with.
It should be noted, however, that this was a period of time when everything was
huge. Turtles regularly topped out at 3 meters. Raccoons were the size of bears.
A bird known aptly as the terror bird was so big it ate freaking horses. But stil
l: Guinea-zilla has been proven to be a direct evolutionary ancestor of our mode
rn guinea pig. What might have caused the largest rodent in history to shrink do
wn to one-seven-thousandth of its original size is a question we might never kno
w the answer to. Still, we can be thankful it did, or else our childhoods may we
ll have been very different.

PESSIMISM IS A GENETIC TRAIT

By Andrew Handley
That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing bu
t pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant. Rex Stouts Nero Wolfe, F
er-de-Lance
About 32 percent of people are born with something called ADRA2B-deletion, a sma
ll genetic variation that forces them to remember negative experiences more vivi
dly than positive ones. And as a side effect, they also have a tendency to dwell
on their negative experiences. Theres not much they can do about it; its written
into their genes. For these people, the glass is always half-empty, and probably
cracked.
The ADRA2B gene is involved in a very specific function: It detects and stores c
hemical signals from memories that have an emotional impact. It has no effect on
emotions themselves, or memory, but when the two are combined, ADRA2B jumps int
o action and influences the way that memory was storedand how easily it can be re
called later. For example, if you were in a car accident as a child, ADRA2B is t
he reason that memory comes back with so much clarity. But when you think about
what you had for breakfast two days ago, the memory isnt nearly as clear because
there wasnt an emotional factor (unless you really love waffles).
And since ADRA2B is so strongly tied to emotion, it also determines your emotion
al state when recalling that memory. If the memory was a happy one, you tend to
get happier thinking about it, and vice versa for sad memories. And as far as AD
RA2B is concerned, theres no gray area in betweenmemories are simply either positi
ve or negative. Losing your puppy for an afternoon is the same as, say, losing y
our parents.
In most people, the tendency to notice something emotional is equalthey notice th
e good and the bad. But for people with the ADRA2B variant, their brains pick up
on negative signals more easily than positive ones. When researchers at the Uni
versity of British Columbia brought together 200 volunteers to test the effect,
they found that people with ADRA2B-deletion consistently focused on negative sti
muli.
The test was simple. Eighty-four words were flashed in front of the subjects, on
e at a time for a fraction of a second each. For most people, recognizing a sing
le word a fraction of a second after another word is difficult because of a phen
omenon called attentional blink. But if a word has an emotional charge to it, th
e brain is quicker at picking it up (for example, death has an emotional charge; ho
use does not).
At the end of the test, the volunteers were asked to recall as many of the words
as possible. The people with a normal ADRA2B gene recalled positive and negativ
e words equally. But for the people with a genetic variant, the remembered words
were overwhelmingly negative. At the speed the words were flashed, they didnt co
nsciously pick out the negative wordstheir brains are just better at noticing the
m. A different study showed that survivors of the Rwanda genocide were more like
ly to experience terrifying flashbacks if they carried the gene variation.
But theres a bright side (although 32 percent of you might not agree): Even thoug
h the ADRA2B-deviants are more attuned to negative things, they still have bette
r memory overall. So thats a plus.

THE CULTURE THAT STILL PRACTICES CANNIBALISM

By Debra Kelly
Everything in this room is eatable. Even Im eatable. But that is called cannibalis
m, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies. Willy Wonka,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Korowai are a tribe of about 4,000 individuals living in the jungle of New G
uinea, and they are the last confirmed group to practice cannibalism. To them, h
owever, its not exactly cannibalismits the revenge consumption of a demon that has
taken the skin of a human and eaten another. The tribe has only recently begun t
o let outsiders close enough to get a look at their customs.
The Korowai live in the jungles of Indonesian New Guinea, along the Ndeiram Kabu
r River. With the rather reluctant admittance of outsiders into their homes and
villages, theyve become poster children for sustainable living (which is bizarre,
considering their rather taboo revenge ritual). They live in tree houses high u
p in the jungle canopy, a shining example of re-purposing naturally available ma
terials and making the most of their hot, humid environment. Its a great lifestyl
eif you can overlook the cannibalism.
It doesnt happen often, but when it does, its rather complete. The victim is almos
t entirely consumed by the tribes adults, save for bones, teeth, hair, genitals,
fingernails, and toenails. Bones are left outside as a warning, but the man who
killed the victim gets to keep the skull.
To the Korowai, the cannibalism they practice is part of a ritual crucial to kee
ping the members of their tribe safe from a demon called the khakhua. The khakhu
a is a male witch, a creature that disguises itself as a close friend or family
member of its chosen victim. Once the victim is asleep, the creature begins to d
evour his innards and slowly kill that person. If the tribesman whispers a name
on his dying breath, hes telling those he leaves behind the name of the khakhua w
ho devoured him. That named person is now no longer seen as a person, but as a d
emon. The khakhua is killed with a magical bone arrow, made from the bones of a
large native bird and carved with deep barbs along each side of the arrowhead.
Once killed, the khakhua is dismembered and cooked in much the same way they coo
k pigs, a dietary staple.
Its important to distinguish that to the Korowai, they do not believe theyre eatin
g a personthey are eating the khakhua. To a culture that holds revenge in very hi
gh regard, they are doing to the witch what that witch did to one of their human
tribesmen. To them, this cannibalism is justice, and will be served no matter w
ho the person was.
Even children can become khakhua, but they are traditionally not killed and eate
n until puberty. Children do not, however, take part in the eating of a khakhua.
The ritual isnt a common one, either, and its slowly becoming
s the Korowai are further exposed to the outside world. In some
cement has cracked down on the practice of the ritual killings.
dividuals are still not widely known in the area, and are still
leo (ghost demons).

more and more rare a

areas, law enfor
Light-skinned in
referred to as la

The Korowai lack modern medicines, and their jungle environment means they are c
ommonly exposed to diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. The average life span
is not high, and the frequency of illness and early death is sometimes explaine
d by the presence of a khakhuaespecially if tragedy strikes the same family in a
short period of time.

Notably, the area of Indonesian New Guinea that the Korowai call home is the sam
e place that Michael Rockefeller (of the Standard Oil Rockefeller family) disapp
eared as he was searching for native art to bring back for the Museum of Primiti
ve Art in New York City. His fate is officially unknown, but its been speculated
that he was a victim of cannibals.

Worth Reading:
An elderly man in Mumbai calls his son in New York and says,
I hate to ruin your day son, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are
getting a divorce; 35 years of marriage... and that much misery is enough!
Dad, what are you talking about? the son screams.
We can t stand the sight of each other any longer,

the old man says.

We re sick of each other, and I m sick of talking about this, so you call your
sister in Hong Kong and tell her!
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.
Like heck they re getting divorced, she shouts,

I ll take care of this.

She calls Mumbai immediately, and screams at the old man, You are not getting d
ivorced. Don t do a single thing until I get there. I m calling my brother back,
and we ll both be there tomorrow. Until then , don t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR??
and she hangs up.
The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. Okay , he says, It s all
set. They re both coming for our anniversary and paying their own airfare!!
No man / woman is busy in this world all 365 days.
The sky is not going to fall down if you take few days LEAVE and meet your dear
ones.
OFFICE WORK IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE and MONEY MAKING IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE
.

Garbage City: An Unbelievable Real-Life Urban Wasteland

No, it is not just trash talk or slang for some city slum this place really is k
nown as Garbage City with good reason: its denizens live in a surreal urban land
scape with waste stuffed in every spare corner, stacked on the sidewalks and sur
rounding every structure
More amazing than the trash-strewn architecture and garbage-stuffed city streets
is the strange fact that this place is fully occupied and abuzz with activity.
People live, work, eat and sleep within this object graveyard outside the city c
enter of Cairo, Egypt. Spaces not occupied by people are given over to livestock
(fed with trash scraps) and guerrilla urban gardens
Officially known as Manshiyat Naser, this district has shops and apartments like
any other, but its residents earn their keep by specializing in collecting, sor
ting and recycling specific types of trashed materials. A group of children can

be found sifting for plastic bottles while an organized team of women scours the
remnants for cans or glass. Other items are burned locally as fuel.
While it might not meet any health standards on Earth, the unique urban phenomen
a is arguably sustainable in a certain sense even green in a some ways. Working in
the area does provide some basic necessities for its inhabitants, though water,
sewage and (perhaps ironically) even official garbage collection services are n
ot available to those living within its trash-cluttered walls.

UPV Miagao. 2010.

It all started when I got two Mobile Phones. Since then, I don t use the other p
hone because it s already old, so I just leave it on my study desk. It has my ex
tra SIM card inside it.
One evening, while I was doing my homework in my room, my mum texted me. "Oh nag
-text ka pala gamit ang old number mo? Akala ko di mo na ginagamit ang dating ph
one mo." From that event, I realized that my other phone was lost. Immediately,
I texted my old number. It replied, "Buti na lang nagtext ka at nalaman ko din s
a wakas ang bagong number mo! Hahahaha!"
I was startled when I realized this! I reported it to the Dorm Head that I lost
my phone. Immediately, there was a room-to-room check to search for my lost phon
e. My phone wasn t found.
Weeks passed by, I tried to forget what had happened. Everything seems normal, a
gain. Not until my old number texted me. "Akala mo tapos na? Hindi pa! Hahahaha!
"
That text message haunted me. I keep on ignoring it yet the text messages keep o
n coming, becoming worse. One night while I was studying, it was past 3 AM, my o
ld number missed call me. It texted me "Lumingon ka sa labas, dun sa may malakin
g puno, andun ako! Nakatingin sa yo! Hahahaha!" I pretend that it didn t happen
. Deep inside, I was nervous!
Finally, I got the courage to reply to my old number. I challenged it for a meet
-up. The old number agreed and I told it that we will meet on a bench in Miagao
Plaza outside the Church at 8 PM.
I texted the old number.
Me: "Oh, asan ka na?"
Old Number: "Nandito lang, sa tabi mo!"
Me: "Eh, bakit hindi naman kita nakikita?"
Old Number: "Kasi wala kang kakayahan!"
It creeped me out! I felt something cold on my right side, and my goose bumps st
art to come in. I assumed the old number was on my right side.
Me: "Sige nga, san banda ka ba?"
Old Number: "Nasa kanan mo! Hahahaha!"
I couldn t help it but leave the place. That was creepy and disturbing.

My old number keeps on calling me around 2 AM - 3 AM every day. I keep on receiv

ing the text messages. I tried to get rid of it and finally changed my number.
Before everything seems normal again, we had an educational tour around Panay. W
e stayed in a resort beside the beach in Aklan. I was in the sea barrier, enjoyi
ng the cool night breeze and fell asleep there. When I woke up, I got 13 missed
calls from the old number and a text message saying, "Nakuha ko pala ulit yung n
umber mo, sana naligo ka na sa dagat at magpakalunod! Gusto kitang makasama sa k
abilang buhay! Hahahaha!"
To keep the story short, di ko kinaya ang nangyari at lumipat ako ng School. Sin
ce then, tumigil na yung Old Number sa pangungulit sa akin.

Joseph Newton Chandler III

On July 30, 2002, Joseph Newton Chandler III, an elderly hermit from Eastlake, O
hio, committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. An autop
sy discovered the presence of colon cancer in his body, which likely motivated h
is decision to take his own life. When probate courts attempted to work out the
mans estate, they tracked down his surviving relatives. They were shocked to disc
over that nine-year-old Joseph Newton Chandler III had actually been killed in a
car crash in Texas in 1945!
It turned out this unidentified man had been using Chandlers identity for decades
. In 1978, he had requested a copy of Chandlers birth certificate and used it to
apply for a Social Security card. Many theories were formed about who this man r
eally was. Crime buffs began to speculate that Chandler might have been the Zodiac
Killer since he bore a resemblance to the suspects composite sketch. They also n
oted that Joseph Chandler happened to be the name of an investigator who found one
of Jack the Rippers victims. The man also bore a striking resemblance to Stephen
Craig Campbell, a fugitive who had been wanted for attempted murder since 1982
and was never caught. However, there is no conclusive evidence to prove any of t
hese theories, so no one knows the real story behind the man who stole the ident
ity of Joseph Newton Chandler III.

The Batman Rapist

Britains longest-running rape investigation is code-named Operation Eagle and has b
een going on for 22 years. Authorities have spent that time attempting to catch
an unidentified sexual predator who is responsible for at least 17 attacks, all
but one of which have taken place within the city of Bath. The assailant first s
truck on May 21, 1991, when he attacked a 36-year-old woman returning home in he
r car. His modus operandi consists of attacking women in their vehicle and forci
ng them to drive to a secluded area at knifepoint, where he then proceeds to rap
e them. After one unsuccessful attack in 1999, the assailant left behind a hat w
ith the Batman logo on it, which led to him being dubbed the Batman Rapist.
One of the rapists most bizarre characteristics is an apparent tights fetish. He
will often force the victim to remove their underwear and put their tights back
on, so that he can rip through them to rape her. On one occasion, the victim was
nt wearing tights, so he forced her to put on a pair he had brought with him. In
2000, he even attempted to abduct a woman who had her seven-year-old daughter in
the car, but she managed to get away. During the mid-nineties, there were a few

long gaps when the rapist was inactive, leading authorities to suspect that he
has attacked other victims who never came forward. There is currently a substant
ial reward for the capture of the Batman Rapist, but his identity still remains
unknown.

Bella in the Wych Elm

On April 18, 1943, four boys from Stourbridge, England were poaching in Hagley W
oods when they came across a large witch-hazel tree. When one of the boys climbe
d the tree, he discovered a human skull in the hollow trunk. After police were n
otified, they found an entire skeleton concealed in the treealong with a shoe, go
ld wedding ring, and fragments of clothing. A severed human hand was also buried
next to the tree. A taffeta was found in the skulls mouth, indicating that the v
ictim had died from asphyxiation. A forensic examination determined that the vic
tim was female and had been dead at least 18 months. Coincidentally enough, a re
sident had reported hearing a female scream in Hagley Woods about 18 months befo
rehand.
Though the woman was never identified, her legend grew months later after myster
ious graffiti messages started appearing on walls, which often read: Who put Bell
a in the Wych elm?. These messages all appeared to be written by the same unknown
person, who may have had knowledge about what happened. This message last appea
red in 1999 when it was sprayed on the 200-year old Wychbury Obelisk. It was the
orized that the unidentified woman might have been the victim of black magic, or
that she was a member of a spy ring and was giving secrets to the Luftwaffe abo
ut local munitions factories. After 70 years, there are still no answers about w
ho Bella was or who put her in the Wych elm.

Hinterkaifeck Murders
The Hinterkaifeck murders are one of the most chilling and mysterious crimes in
German history. The Gruber family was composed of Andreas, his wife Cazilia, the
ir widowed adult daughter Viktoria, and her children, little Cazilia and Josef.
They also had a maid named Maria Baumgartner in their employ (poor Maria only wo
rked one day before she was killed; the previous maid had left because she belie
ved the house was haunted). They lived on a little farmstead called Hinterkaifec
k, around 40 miles from Munich.
Andreas reported some mysterious circumstances to neighbors in late March of 192
2; hed seen a set of footprints leading from the forest toward his farm, but none
heading back. Even stranger, he heard footsteps in his attic and found a strang
e newspaper. A set of housekeys went missing. And then, on March 31, the entire
family was murdered in the barn, one by one, with a pickaxe. They were found a f
ew days later. It was determined that whoever had done the killing remained on t
he farm for awhile; the neighbors saw smoke from the chimney, and the animals we
re fed. While police initially believed the motive was robbery, they dismissed t
he idea when a large amount of cash was found in the house.
To this day, no one knows who murdered the Grubers. The Munich Police Department
investigated for decades, but no suspect was never brought to justice. Some bel
ieve the killer was Viktorias husband Karl Gabriel, whod been branded killed in ac
tion during trench warfare during World War I. Karls body was never found.

Mellified Man
Ancient Chinese writings tell of an Arabian process wherein elderly men near dea
th would subsist on a diet of nothing but honey. Soon, his excrement and his swe
at would be entirely comprised of honey. The man would soon die from this rather
unhealthy practice, and his body would be placed in a stone casket full of hone
y. After a century or so of aging, the substance is gathered up and used as a me
dicine, particularly for the healing of broken bones.
There are very limited accounts of mellified men, the most notable coming from C
hinese pharmacologist Li Shizhen, in his Bencao Gangmu. Although honey is known to
never go bad (edible honey has been found in the tombs of pharaohs dead thousan
ds of years), and to have noted antimicrobial properties especially a protein du
bbed defensin-1, the effectiveness of this medicine is debated. Whether the stor
y is mere legend, or whether this vile medication ever existed, is unknown. Few
senior citizens seem willing to come forward and duplicate the experiment.