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What's the matter bucko, tired of those flying saucer people pestering you every day with their tales of woe and Armageddon?  Are you scared of the government and their corporate cronies looking for new ways to spy on you and take away your personal rights and freedoms? Are you sick to death of those pesky Men-In-Black harassing you because of those unwanted contacts with those flying saucer folks and government agents?

Well cheer up, because once again, like a bolt of awareness and enlightenment from the sky, Conspiracy Journal is here to uncover all those dirty little secrets that THEY are trying to hide! So sit back and relax and enjoy another thought-provoking issue of the number one e-mail newsletter of conspiracies, UFOs the paranormal and much, much more.

This week Conspiracy Journal brings you such lip-smacking stories as:

- CIA Says Global-Warming Intelligence Is ‘Classified’ -
-
The Great Radioactive Cigarette Cover-Up -
- The Ancient Astronaut Puzzle: Ancestors and Descendants -
- Do Loved Ones Bid Farewell from Beyond the Grave? -
AND: Pennsylvania Family Can Set Their Tap Water on Fire

All these exciting stories and MORE in this week's issue of
CONSPIRACY JOURNAL!

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It's the dirty little secret of UFOlogy -- something that only a few insiders dare discuss amongst themselves. For example, Lord Hill-Norton, the late five-star Admiral and the former head of the British Ministry of Defence, believed strongly in the existence of UFOs. But he did not see them in a positive light, professing instead in his privately printed UFO Concern Report: "UFOs are essentially a religious matter rather than a military threat and furthermore there is certainly a degree of psychic involvement in almost every case. Quite often, however, such experiences are definitely antithetical to orthodox Christian beliefs."

Journalist and author of "The Mothman Prophecies" (made into a film starring Richard Gere) John A. Keel was adamant when he stated: ". . ..The UFOs do not seem to exist as tangible manufactured objects. They do not conform to the accepted natural laws of our environment. . .The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and large, merely minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon."

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- IT'S A SECRET, NOBODY PANIC DEPARTMENT -

CIA Says Global-Warming Intelligence Is ‘Classified’

Two years ago, the Central Intelligence Agency announced it was creating a center to analyze the geopolitical ramifications of “phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts and heightened competition for natural resources.”

But whatever work the Center on Climate Change and National Security has done remains secret.

In response to National Security Archive scholar Jeffrey Richelson’s Freedom of Information Act request, the CIA said all of its work is “classified.”

“We completed a thorough search for records responsive to your request and located material that we determined is currently and properly classified and must be denied in its entirety,” Susan Viscuso, the agency’s information and privacy coordinator, wrote Richelson.

Richelson, in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, said the CIA has not released anything about its climate change research, other than its initial press release announcing the center’s founding.

“As far as I know, they have not released any of their products or anything else,” Richelson said. “There was a statement announcing its creation and that has been pretty much it.”

Steven Aftergood, who directs the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy, blasted the CIA’s response to Richelson.

The CIA’s position, he said, means all “the center’s work is classified and there is not even a single study, or a single passage in a single study, that could be released without damage to national security. That’s a familiar song, and it became tiresome long ago.”

When the center was announced, the CIA said it would become “a powerful asset recognized throughout our government, and beyond, for its knowledge and insight.”

President Barack Obama also promised a transparent administration, which he might not be living up to. For instance, in 2009, the Obama administration played the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that is still being negotiated across the globe.

What’s more, consider the 33-page report the White House issued Friday, “The Obama Administration’s Commitment to Open Government.”

Aftergood said the report “downplays or overlooks many of the administration’s principal achievements in reducing inappropriate secrecy. At the same time, it fails to acknowledge the major defects of the openness program to date. And so it presents a muddled picture of the state of open government, while providing a poor guide to future policy.”

Source: Wired
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/09/cia-classifies-global-warming-intelligence/

- UMMM, THE RICH FLAVOR OF POLONIUM-210 DEPARTMENT -

The Great Radioactive Cigarette Cover-Up

Tobacco companies knew that cigarettes contained a radioactive substance called polonium-210, but hid that knowledge from the public for over four decades, a new study of historical documents revealed.

Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, reviewed 27 previously unanalyzed documents and found that tobacco companies knew about the radioactive content of cigarettes as early as 1959. The companies studied the polonium throughout the 1960s, knew that it caused "cancerous growths" in the lungs of smokers, and even calculated how much radiation a regular smoker would ingest over 20 years. Then, they kept that data secret.

Hrayr Karagueuzian, the study's lead author, said the companies' level of deception surprised him.

"They not only knew of the presence of polonium, but also of its potential to cause cancer," he said.

Karagueuzian and his team replicated the calculations that tobacco company scientists described in these documents and found that the levels of radiation in cigarettes would account for up to 138 deaths for every 1,000 smokers over a period of 25 years.

The study published online in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

Cheryl Healton, is the CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, the organization created from the 1998 legal settlement against tobacco companies. She said the knowledge that cigarettes contain radiation is disturbing today, but would have been even more unsettling to Americans in the midst of the Cold War-mindset of the 1950s and 1960s.

"This was when we were crawling under our desks during school radiation drills and thinking about building bomb shelters in our backyards," Healton said. "You probably could not imagine a more ideal time where you would have maximized the impact of that information. Unquestionably, this fact would have reduced smoking if it had been publicized."

She added that most Americans are probably still unaware that cigarettes contain radiation.

Polonium-210 is a radioactive material that emits hazardous particles called alpha particles. There are low levels of it in the soil and the atmosphere, but the fertilizer used to grow tobacco plants contributes to the levels of polonium found in cigarettes.

Dr. John Spangler, a professor of family medicine at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, said when smokers inhale, the radioactive particles damage the tissue on the surface of the lungs, creating "hot spots" of damage. When combined with other cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco, Spangler said the damage from radiation is potent.

"The two together greatly increase your risk of lung cancer," Spangler said. "So tobacco smoke is even more dangerous than you thought before."

David Sutton, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, the largest U.S. tobacco manufacturer, said the public health community has known about polonium in tobacco for decades.

"Polonium 210 is a naturally occurring element found in the air, soil, and water and therefore can be found in plants, including tobacco," Sutton said.

All tobacco products on the market today still contain the polonium. In 1980, scientists discovered that a process called "acid washing" removes up to 99 percent of polonium-210 from tobacco. The documents reviewed by UCLA scientists reveal that tobacco companies knew of this technique, but declined to use it to remove the radioactive material from their products.

Officially, tobacco companies said acid washing would cost too much and might have a negative impact on tobacco farmers and on the environment. But Karagueuzian said the documents his team reviewed revealed another reason why the industry avoided acid washing for tobacco leaves: the process would alter the nicotine in the plants and make it less able to deliver the "instant nicotine rush" smokers craved.

Sutton said Philip Morris USA does not use acid washing on their products today.

Polonium's radioactive particles don't simply vanish when cigarette smoke blows away. Spangler said smokers may not realize how long this radiation can linger in their homes.

"Some of these radiation particles hang around for decades and decades," Spangler said. "You're emitting radiation when you smoke, and your family, your dog, your cat are all inhaling that radiation. How many smokers want to expose their child to radiation?"

Karagueuzian said he hopes the study will prompt the federal government to take further action to regulate tobacco companies and their products. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required tobacco companies to give detailed information about all new tobacco products and changes to existing ones. In June, the agency introduced new graphic warning labels that will go on all packs of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

"Our study should not be looked at exclusively as an indictment or another charge against tobacco industry," Karagueuzian said. "We hope that our work will provide a solid initial step to remind health officials and the FDA that removal of {polonium]alpha particles should be at the top of the agenda."

Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/tobacco-companies-hid-evidence-radiation-cigarettes-decades/story?id=14635963

- GUEST AUTHOR DEPARTMENT -

The Ancient Astronaut Puzzle: Ancestors and Descendants
By Diane Tessman

Recently I watched an “ancient astronaut” DVD and a puzzling question jumped out at me: As well as the enigmatic carvings into the land which can only be fully comprehended from a plane or helicopter in the air, the “landing strips” which crisscross the Nazca Plateau in Peru, just don’t make any sense.

The top of the mountain was carved off, the debris from that excavation is nowhere to be found, and tiny particles of glass are found in the sandy, rocky soil. It seems that the Incans were expecting an airplane to land, and hoped to please the occupants of that plane with their exotic carvings, which stretch over miles. As to where the top of the mountain (debris) went, and why/how the area is covered by tiny particles of glass, these remain a mystery.

Next, there is the Mayan King, Pacal the Great, whose sarcophagus cover is engraved with what looks like an astronaut, piloting a technology-driven rocket into the skies. Pacal is not alone, because in many places in the world, there are carvings, paintings, and artifacts with NASA-like astronauts with padded (insulated) suits, “globe” helmets, and, in some cases, breathing apparatus.

I wish to make note here that I am aware of the mainstream explanations for “ancient astronaut” artifacts, and while they do not make sense to me, either, I acknowledge they may be correct.

Here is the puzzle within a puzzle, which popped out as I watched these “ancient astronaut” DVDs: If ancient astronauts actually visited Peruvian Nazca, why did they need landing strips like modern passenger jets or propeller planes? Planes need landing strips. If UFO occupants were the ancient astronauts, wouldn’t they land in their saucers, which seem to come straight down? Certainly they don’t need landing strips!

Also, if ancient astronauts actually visited the Mayans, why did they need to ride high octane, primitive-looking rockets into the sky like NASA astronauts? Why did they need enclosed helmets, insulated space suits and breathing apparatus? Of course there are many examples around the world of ancient artifacts with images which look like astronauts with helmets and even breathing apparatus. Modern UFO occupants don’t seem to be dressed like NASA astronauts according to most reports.

A related area of confusion: We modern folk just can’t understand why or how our ancient ancestors would move gigantic stones which weighed many tons; they were, in some cases, perfectly-tuned stellar observatories which we are just now figuring out.

Did their monuments like Stonehenge, have to be that big and heavy? Since our ancestors had that amazing astronomical knowledge, they could have constructed smaller stellar observatories, made of stones which four strong men could put into place. However, all over the planet, there are huge, mind-boggling stone monuments which often have to do with astronomy. This is a nagging puzzle despite many diverse attempts to explain why and how gigantic stones were transported and used, from the pyramids of Egypt to the standing stones of County Cork.

The answer might be: Our ancestors or someone, wanted these monoliths to stand throughout time, so that we would scratch our heads about them. Maybe these monuments are meant to be a catalyst to our own curiosity and eventual evolution?

On the other hand, maybe our descendants will scratch their heads and wonder, why oh why, did we 2011 humans spend all that time pecking away at our computer keyboards. However, to forge on, the stone monuments are similar to the landing strips because they were really huge projects which don’t disclose to us why in the world our ancestors bothered to create them.

Yes, this is all very confusing. So then I thought, maybe the UFO occupants’ technology was back a few centuries, too, when they visited our ancestors; maybe the aliens had airplanes then instead of saucers, and those planes needed landing strips? But, no, how did they get to Earth, then, from far distant planets? Or if they are dimensional travelers, how did they come through dimensions in an airplane? It seems that the aliens’ technology must have been about as advanced as it is today.

Could it be that aliens and/or human “time travelers” showed the next stage of human evolution to our ancestors, telling them to make landing strips for flying machines (airplanes), appearing as NASA-like astronauts, and instructing them to make astronomical observatories from of the only material available (stone), which could span the cosmos? Maybe they even manifested a few 21st Century fighter jets and enjoyed piloting them.

In other words, our ancestors were shown by the aliens, our current stage of 20th and 21st Century evolution, which includes airplanes, rocket-propelled astronauts, and observatories which scan the sky to discover cosmic mysteries.

And today, we are shown flying saucers which are “scout craft,” large orbs and triangles which are “mother ships,” and an array of incredible flying phenomena which don’t quite make sense. Our experience with aliens seems to have evolved past propeller airplanes and astronauts riding a rocket to break the surly bonds of Earth.

The aliens who are perceived in the modern era, usually do not have breathing apparatus or bulky astronaut suits like many ancient astronaut artifacts. Our sightings have evolved, past the NASA-type astronauts whom the Incans and Mayans might have seen and interacted with.

So what is going on here?

Could it be that through some wonderful magic, humankind not only perceives its next stage of evolution, but is also busy creating it?

Today, we see UFOs which do not need a Nazca landing strip. Even our helicopters don’t need landing strips. Our next stage of evolution does not involve planes and landing strips. Therefore, the UFOs we see do not need landing strips, either. UFOs hover, zoom, fly at super-high speeds, then stop abruptly and make right-angle turns, and they sure do disappear a lot!

Today, whether little Greys or tall Nordics, they don’t wear bulky NASA suits.

Today, we are just beginning to get an idea of “their universe” through Hubble and other satellite telescope observatories.

But why are aliens from far-distant worlds so fascinated by humans? Maybe they are hopelessly intrigued with us for reasons only they know, good or bad. (No doubt, good and bad, because there is not one kind of alien but many, apparently, in our skies).

However, it is certain that our own ancestors and our own descendants would be interested in us!

Our ancestors are interested in us because of the overwhelming prime directive of evolution. And so, they see airplanes in their skies which need landing strips. They see NASA-type astronauts who need to be immortalized in stone as they ride their rocket into orbit.

And what of our descendants? Who has a more vested interest in what we do today? Are they the ones really behind all this?

I do not think they are the only ones behind all of this, but I think they are a big part of it. I think they have the crucial say-so amongst other aliens of space and time, on how 20th and 21st Century humans are “handled.”

I don’t mean “handled” in a negative sense, but maybe that is my own positive outlook. I do not believe when all is said and done, that what is happening regarding UFOs and aliens is a negative phenomenon. Maybe I just know that I create my reality, as we all do, and I want it to be positive, now and in the future. Is this the key?

That said, I feel our great, great, great, great, grandchildren are mostly positive beings. Yes, indeed, who else has a bigger stake in the future which we 21st Century humans create now?

The question may be: Are we creating these incredible UFOs and the occupants within, because of our inherent ability, which we have always had as the human species, to create “aliens” to come visit us from our future, whether we are Mayan or sitting at our 21st Century computer keyboard?

Or, are our descendants “real beings,” having gone through uncountable future centuries, who now fly starships? Humans, out there in the galaxy! Both “the dream creation” and the product of long centuries of physical evolution, arrive at the same thing: Reality.

Or maybe the UFOs we see now are the same phenomenon as the flying machines which the Incans perceived. The alien occupants of those airplanes did not really need to fly in planes which needed landing strips. Maybe the occupants of UFOs don’t really need those UFOs, either. Maybe they just click their heels and teleport themselves to look like a UFO, so we can see our astounding future. Maybe they can close their eyes and manifest in the Andromeda Galaxy. Who knows where human evolution leads in a mere 2 thousand years or 5 million years? 5 million years? Just a drop in the cosmic bucket.

Did we create the UFO occupants or are they real and sovereign beings in their own right?

The answer is both: We created them. They are real.

To learn more about Diane Tessman and her work, visit her website at: www.earthchangepredictions.com

- AND STAY DEAD DEPARTMENT -

800-year-old Body of "Witch" Discovered with Nails Driven Through Jaw

The 800 year old remains of what archaeologists believe was a witch from the Middle Ages was recently uncovered during a dig in Italy's Tuscany region.

The discovery was made in what is thought to be a 'witches graveyard.'  Also found was another woman's skeleton surrounded by 17 dice - a game which women were forbidden from playing 800 years ago.

Experts say they believe the women are aged around 25 - 30 years old and were found buried in a simple shallow grave in the ground with no coffin or shroud.

The macabre remains were found during a dig close to the sea at Piombino near Lucca in Italy's Tuscany region and the woman had seven nails through her jaw as well as another 13 nails surrounding her skeleton.

Archaeologist Alfonso Forgione, from L'Aquila University, who is leading the dig, is convinced that the women were suspected witches because of the circumstances in which they were buried.

He said: 'It's a very unusual discovery and at the same time fascinating. I have never seen anything like this before. I'm convinced because of the nails found in the jaw and around the skeleton the woman was a witch.

'She was buried in bare earth, not in a coffin and she had no shroud around her either, intriguingly other nails were hammered around her to pin down her clothes.

'This indicates to me that it was an attempt to make sure the woman even though she was dead did not rise from the dead and unnerve the locals who were no doubt convinced she was a witch with evil powers.

'The second skeleton we have found was buried in a similar fashion but this time we found 17 dice around her - 17 is an unlucky number in Italy and also dice was a game that women were forbidden to play.

'The way the bodies were buried would seem to indicate some form of exorcist ritual and the remains will be examined to see if we can establish a cause of death for them.'

One puzzle that the archaeologists have been unable to explain is why the women if they were evil witches were buried in consecrated ground as the area is the site of an 800 year old church.

He said: 'The only possible explanation is that perhaps both women came from influential families and were not peasant class and so because of their class and connections were able to secure burial in consecrated Christian ground.'

The team is trying to find the burial place of the St Cerbonius, a bishop who died more than 1,500 years ago and who is the local patron saint of the area.

The team is trying to find the burial place of the St Cerbonius, a bishop who died more than 1,500 years ago and who is the local patron saint of the area.

Pictures traditionally show him having his feet licked by a bear after legend has it the animal refused to eat him after he was condemned to death for sheltering Roman soldiers by the Barbarians who had invaded Tuscany.

Two years ago a Medieval woman's skull was found near Venice with a stone driven through its mouth - which experts said was the traditional way of dealing with vampires and preventing them from rising from the dead.

Source: The Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041671/800-year-old-remains-witch-discovered-graveyard-Tuscany-Italy.html?ITO=1490

- ONE LAST GOODBYE DEPARTMENT -

Do Loved Ones Bid Farewell from Beyond the Grave?

Nina De Santo was about to close her New Jersey hair salon one winter's night when she saw him standing outside the shop's glass front door.

It was Michael. He was a soft-spoken customer who'd been going through a brutal patch in his life. His wife had divorced him after having an affair with his stepbrother, and he had lost custody of his boy and girl in the ensuing battle.

He was emotionally shattered, but De Santo had tried to help. She'd listened to his problems, given him pep talks, taken him out for drinks.

When De Santo opened the door that Saturday night, Michael was smiling.

"Nina, I can't stay long," he said, pausing in the doorway. "I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for everything."

They chatted a bit more before Michael left and De Santo went home. On Sunday she received a strange call from a salon employee. Michael's body had been found the previous morning -- at least nine hours before she talked to him at her shop. He had committed suicide.

If Michael was dead, who, or what, did she talk to that night?

"It was very bizarre," she said of the 2001 encounter. "I went through a period of disbelief. How can you tell someone that you saw this man, solid as ever, walk in and talk to you, but he's dead?"

Today, De Santo has a name for what happened that night: "crisis apparition." She stumbled onto the term while reading about paranormal activities after the incident. According to paranormal investigators, a crisis apparition is the spirit of a recently deceased person who visits someone they had a close emotional connection with, usually to say goodbye.

Reports of these eerie encounters are materializing in online discussion groups, books such as "Messages" -- which features stories of people making contact with loved ones lost on September 11 -- and local ghost hunting groups that have sprung up across the country amid a surge of interest in the paranormal.

Although such encounters are chilling, they can also be comforting, witnesses and paranormal investigators say. These encounters suggest the bond that exists between loved ones is not erased by death.

"We don't know what to do with these stories. Some people say that they are proof that there's life after death," said Steve Volk, author of "Fringe-ology," a book on paranormal experiences such as telepathy, psychics and house hauntings.

Scientific research on crisis apparitions is scant, but theories abound.

One theory: A person in crisis -- someone who is critically ill or dying -- telepathically transmits an image of themselves to someone they have a close relationship with, but they're usually unaware they're sending a message.

Others suggest crisis apparitions are guardian angels sent to comfort the grieving. Another theory says it's all a trick of the brain -- that people in mourning unconsciously produce apparitions to console themselves after losing a loved one.

A telepathic link between loved ones

Whatever the source for these apparitions, they often leave people shaken.

Nor are apparitions limited to visions. The spirit of a dead person can communicate with a loved one through something as subtle as the sudden whiff of a favorite perfume, Volk says.

"Sometimes you just sense the presence of someone close to you, and it seemingly comes out of nowhere," Volk said. "And afterward, you find out that person was in some kind of crisis at the time of the vision."

Many people who don't even believe in ghosts still experience a mini-version of a crisis-apparition encounter, paranormal investigators say.

Did you ever hear a story of a mother who somehow knows before anyone told her that something awful has happened to her child? Have you ever met a set of twins who seem to be able to read each other's minds?

People who are extremely close develop a virtual telepathic link that exists in, and beyond, this world, said Jeff Belanger, a journalist who collected ghost stories for his book, "Our Haunted Lives: True Life Ghost Encounters."

"People have these experiences all the time," Belanger said. "There's an interconnectedness between people. Do you know how you're close to someone, and you just know they're sick or something is wrong?"

An eerie phone call at night

Simma Lieberman said she's experienced that ominous feeling and has never forgotten it -- though it took place more than 40 years ago.

Today, Lieberman is a workplace diversity consultant based in Albany, California. In the late 1960s though, she was a young woman in love.

Her boyfriend, Johnny, was a mellow hippie "who loved everybody," a guy so nice that friends called him a pushover, she said. She loved Johnny, and they purchased an apartment together and decided to marry.

Then one night, while Lieberman was at her mother's home in the Bronx, the phone rang and she answered. Johnny was on the line, sounding rushed and far away. Static crackled.

"I just want you to know that I love you, and I'll never be mean to anybody again," he said.

There was more static, and then the line went dead. Lieberman was left with just a dial tone.

She tried to call him back to no avail. When she awoke the next morning, an unsettled feeling came over her. She said it's hard to put into words, but she could no longer feel Johnny's presence.

Then she found out why.

"Several hours later, I got a call from his mother that he had been murdered the night before," she said.

Johnny was shot in the head as he sat in a car that night. Lieberman thinks Johnny somehow contacted her after his death -- a crisis apparition reaching out not through a vision or a whiff of perfume, but across telephone lines.

She's sorted through the alternatives over the years. Could he have called before or during his murder? Lieberman doesn't think so.

This was the era before cell phones. She said the murderer wasn't likely to let him use a pay phone, and he couldn't have called after he was shot because he died instantly.

Only years later, when she read an article about other static-filled calls people claimed to have received from beyond the grave, did it make sense, she said.

Johnny was calling to say goodbye.

"The whole thing was so bizarre," she said. "I could never understand it."

He had a 'whitish glow'

Josh Harris' experience baffled him as well. It involved his grandfather, Raymond Harris.

Josh was Raymond's first grandchild. They spent countless hours together fishing and doing yardwork in their hometown of Hackleburg, Alabama. You saw one, you saw the other.

Those days came to an end in 1997 when Raymond Harris was diagnosed with lung cancer. The doctors gave him weeks to live. Josh, 12 at the time, visited his grandfather's house one night to keep vigil as his "pa-pa" weakened, but his family ordered him to return home, about two miles away.

Josh said he was asleep on the couch in his home around 2 a.m. when he snapped awake. He looked up. His grandfather was standing over him.

"At first, it kind of took me by surprise," said Harris, a maintenance worker with a gravelly Southern accent. "I wondered why he was standing in the hallway and not in his house with everyone else."

His grandfather then spoke, Harris said.

"He just looked at me, smiled and said, 'Everything will be OK.' "

His grandfather then turned around and started walking toward the kitchen. Harris rose to follow but spun around when the phone rang. An aunt who was in another room answered.

"When I turned back around to look, he was gone," Harris said.

As if on cue, his aunt came out of the room crying, "Josh, your pa-pa is gone."

"No, he was just here," Harris told his aunt, insisting that his grandfather had just stopped by to say everything was OK. He said it took him a day to accept that his grandfather had died.

"Honestly, before that, I never believed in the paranormal," he said. "I thought it was all fake and made up. But I just woke up and I saw him. It couldn't be my mind playing a trick. He looked solid."

Fourteen years after his grandfather's death, there's another detail from that night that's still lodged in Harris' memory.

As he watched his grandfather walk to the kitchen, he said he noticed something unusual.

"It looked like there was a whitish glow around him."

Childhood is supposed to be a time of innocence, a time when thoughts of death are far away. But crisis apparition stories aren't confined to adults and teens.

Donna Stewart was 6 years old and growing up in Coos Bay, Oregon. One of her best friends was Danny. One day, Danny had to go to the hospital to have his tonsils removed. Stewart played with him on the morning of the surgery before saying goodbye.

She said she was in her bedroom the next day when she looked up and saw Danny standing there. He wanted to know if she wanted to go out and play.

Stewart trotted to her mother's bedroom to ask her if she could play with Danny. Her mother froze.

"She went white," Stewart said. "She told me that wasn't possible."

Her mother broke the news. Danny had an allergic reaction during surgery and died, Stewart said.

"When I went back to my room, he was gone," she said.

Stewart, now an Oregon homemaker and a member of PSI of Oregon, a paranormal investigative team, said the encounter changed the way she looked at death.

"These experiences have made me believe that those we love are really not that far away at all and know when we are not doing as well as we could," she said. "Just as they did in life, they offer comfort during crisis.''

Still, Stewart often replays the encounter in her mind. She asks the same questions others who've had such encounters ask: Did my mind play tricks on me? Could he have been alive? Did it all really happen after he died?

De Santo, the former New Jersey hair salon owner, has taken the same self-inventory. The experience affected her so much she later joined the Eastern Pennsylvania Paranormal Society, which investigates the paranormal.

She said she checked with Michael's relatives and poured through a coroner's report to confirm the time of his death, which was put at Friday night -- almost 24 hours before she saw him at her salon on Saturday night.

She said Michael's body had been discovered by his cousin around 11 Saturday morning. Michael was slumped over his kitchen table, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

De Santo was baffled at first, but now she has a theory.

Michael started off as a customer, but she became his confidant. Once, after one of her pep talks, Michael told her, "You make me feel as if I can conquer the world."

Maybe Michael had to settle affairs in this world before he could move on to the next, De Santo said.

"A lot of times when a person dies tragically, there's a certain amount of guilt or turmoil," she said. "I don't think they leave this Earth. They stay here. I think he kind of felt he had unfinished business. He needed to say goodbye."

And so he did, she said. This is how she described their last conversation:

As they chatted face to face in the doorway of her shop, De Santo said they never touched, never even shook hands. But she didn't remember anything unusual about him -- no disembodied voice, no translucent body, no "I see dead people" vibe as in the movie "The Sixth Sense."

"I'm in a really good place now," she recalled him saying.

There were, however, two odd details she noticed at the time but couldn't put together until later, she said.

When she first opened the door to greet Michael, she said she felt an unsettling chill. Then she noticed his face -- it was grayish and pale.

And when she held the door open for him, he refused to come in. He just chatted before finally saying, "Thanks again, Nina."

Michael then smiled at her, turned and walked away into the winter's night.

Source: CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/23/living/crisis-apparitions/

- THIS IS WHY GOD INVENTED BEER DEPARTMENT -

Pennsylvania Family Can Set Their Tap Water on Fire

Sherry Vargson has cooked with water from a five-gallon jug for the past year. It's inconvenient, but preferable to using tap water containing enough methane gas that she can light a match and see an orange flame flare out of the faucet.

Many water supplies in northern Pennsylvania have long contained detectable levels of methane, because of poorly constructed water wells and the unusual geologic features here. But the contamination in Ms. Vargson's existing well is among the first cases that state regulators have attributed to natural-gas drilling, prompting a normally competitive group of drilling companies to work together to fix the problem.

Cases like Ms. Vargson's are gaining more attention amid a boom in U.S. natural gas production. But methane-leakage problems in water wells are distinct from problems that some environmentalists attribute to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a drilling technique that involves injecting water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to break up gas-bearing rock.

Industry officials agree that methane leakage into the water table during gas drilling can occur in theory, although in specific cases there may be a dispute about whether it did occur. Because the drilling may be a prelude to gas extraction through fracking, many people consider any problem to be fracking-related.

However, while gas-drilling operations can lead to methane leaks, the commencement of fracking comes later in the process and companies say it has nothing to do with methane leaks.

The industry agrees that methane leaks are a risk of drilling, and it says it can prevent them. It points to Pennsylvania's cooperative effort as an example of how companies make safety their top priority.

"This is mission critical," said Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group. At meetings on methane, she said, "we have no challenges with attendance."

The outcome of industry efforts to clear away methane concerns will affect decisions in other states that sit atop underground gas reserves. New York and Maryland have effectively halted new drilling as they review safety issues.

"Improved performance is a necessary prerequisite to improved public acceptance of natural gas development," said a June study by the Massachusetts of Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative, an ongoing research effort into global energy issues.

Battles over natural-gas exploration have gained importance with the rise of hydraulic fracturing. Antifracking groups contend that the drilling chemicals in fracking could reach groundwater, a scenario the industry says is unlikely because the chemicals are used so far below the earth's surface.

When it comes to problems with methane, the industry says that even if drilling caused that gas to enter water supplies, the culprit would be poorly designed wells, not the fracturing process.

Methane is not a toxin, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, but it can pose a hazard by building up inside structures and causing explosions.

In May, Pennsylvania regulators fined Chesapeake Energy Corp. $900,000 for contaminating the water supplies of 16 homes in Bradford County, Pa., with methane, including the water well at the Vargson home. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. settled a similar case affecting 19 homes in Dimock, Pa., for $4.1 million in December.

Each company says it is not clear that its wells were the source of the methane.

"I believe that we are doing everything we can to construct our wells properly and safely and that we are not contributing to the problem," said Dave Bert, vice president of drilling for Chesapeake's eastern division.

In response to problem wells, operators have added an extra layer of steel casing and devised new cement mixtures to create a more effective seal. Companies test water supplies near their wells before they start drilling, in part to avoid blame for methane that is naturally occurring.

Ms. Klaber of the Marcellus Shale Coalition said operators in the Marcellus region, which includes parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and New York, are spending between 10 and 12 hours a month together at roundtables and on conference calls.

Chesapeake and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have both met with the U.S. Geological Survey to discuss efforts to better map the depth of Pennsylvania groundwater in order to protect it during the drilling process—a line of research that Cabot is also pursuing, according to a spokesman.

Scott Perry, head of oil and gas at Pennsylvania's environmental regulator, praised the industry for making "important improvements" and drilling most wells safely, but he isn't fully satisfied.

"Do I think that they have achieved the standards that people want them to achieve? No," he said. "We want to see 100% success. We don't want to have any gas migration cases."

In February, Pennsylvania incorporated many of the new practices for sealing wells into its regulations.

Ms. Vargson and her husband used to maintain a herd of 70 dairy cattle but got out of that business because of methane problems with their well water. The couple now work at other jobs and worry their son won't be able to farm here either. Ms. Vargson once allowed Chesapeake to drill a gas well in the pasture behind her home, but the experience has raised doubts. Drilling "can be done safely," she said. "I believe that the technology is there." But she added: "I believe that for the most part the industry takes a lot of shortcuts."

Source: The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903374004576583041824518766.html
?mod=rss_US_News#articleTabs%3Darticle

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