Italian scientist Giampaolo Giuliani, an employee at a physics institute at Gran Sasso, near the badly-hit city of L'Aquila, predicted the earthquake which has killed at least 150 people in the Abruzzo region.  

Giuliani told locals last month to evacuate their houses and posted a video on YouTube in which he said a build-up of radon gas around the seismically active area suggested a major earthquake was imminent. Several tremors had been felt in the medieval city of L'Aquila, around 60 miles east of Rome, from mid-January onwards, and vans with loudspeakers had driven around the city spreading the warning.

But instead of heeding Giuliani's warnings, the local authorities reported him to police for "spreading alarm" and he was told to remove his findings from the internet. The predicted earthquake hit L'Aquila at 3.32am local time April 7, killing at least 90 people and leaving up to 50,000 homeless.

A New York Times blog report notes, "The Italian version of PC World has an article about Giuliani’s warning, featuring an interview with him posted on YouTube, in which he repeated the prediction just a few days before the quake struck."

Rescuers are desperately searching through the rubble for trapped survivors of the 6.3 magnitude tremor, which destroyed countless buildings in L'Aquila and neighbouring villages.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, has declared a state of emergency.

Latest estimates suggest between 10,000 and 15,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the region. But the local authorities are already facing serious questions over why they gagged Guiliani rather than taking his findings seriously.

Italy's Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L'Aquila on March 31 to reassure the townspeople.

"The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L'Aquila," the civil protection agency said in a statement on the eve of that meeting.

"It is useful to underline that it is not in any way possible to predict an earthquake," it said, adding that the agency saw no reason for alarm but was nonetheless effecting "continuous monitoring and attention".

Even after the devastating earthquake, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute, Enzo Boschi, dismissed Giuliani's predictions.

"Every time there is an earthquake there are people who claim to have predicted it," he said. "As far as I know nobody predicted this earthquake with precision. It is not possible to predict earthquakes."

Boschi said the real problem for Italy was a long-standing failure to take proper precautions despite a history of tragic quakes.

"We have earthquakes but then we forget and do nothing. It's not in our culture to take precautions or build in an appropriate way in areas where there could be strong earthquakes," he said.

Source: The Telegraph (UK)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5114139/Italian-earthquake-
experts-warnings-were-dismissed-as-scaremongering.html

I have heard many things in my life and probably you have also. Strange sounds like crashes in the attic, to sound of plates and dishes crashing in the darkness. But in my extensive search through out my home that night and the next day nothing is found damaged or destroyed.

Was it a Darkling come to call?

I often think it's a small earth quake rattling the dishes in the closet. We cannot predict earthquakes in the sense of being able to tell exactly where, exactly when and how big. Even a tiny one that we can't feel will vibrate or knock something over. When it happens too many blame it on a real ghost not understanding that the earth moved.

"Movement disorders are complex phenomena that frequently create confusion among mental health clinicians working in the field of dual diagnosis. Some of the confusion arises from uncertainty about whether movements are voluntary or involuntary. Because abnormal movements are exacerbated by stress or other anxiety provoking situations, wax and wane in severity and are associated with other disruptive behaviors, they are frequently confused with other repetitive behaviors as well as primary psychiatric disorders. This first segment of a series of Ask the Doctor provides a basic overview of the neuropsychiatry and behavioral pharmacology of abnormal movements."
Ment Health Aspects Dev Disabil 2008;11(4):133-137

I tell myself after I read things like that. Hey, that could be the truth, but what if it was really a ghost? Or something actually worse?

Like, the ...DARK!

We fear the dark because we never know what lurks in the blackness. The fear of the dark is a common fear among children and to a varying degree is observed for adults. The pathological fear of the dark is sometimes called nyctophobia, scotophobia, or lygophobia.

Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud, consider the fear of the dark as a manifestation of separation anxiety. In the 1960s scientists conducted experiments to discover molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance, called scotophobin that was apparently responsible for remembering this fear was extracted from rats' brains. Subsequently these findings were debunked.

The fear of the dark is heightened by imagination: a stuffed toy may appear a monster with many teeth and bulging eyes in the dark. Nightmares contribute to the fear of the dark as well: after waking up because of a nightmare the child may refuse to go to bed without lights on. Fear of dark is a phase of child development. Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of 2 years. Fear of the dark is not fear of the absence of light, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by the darkness.

The dark, in the mind of some is actually a creature a monster of unlimited proportions. It has the power to scare us, unnerve us, set us on edge. The dark can scare you, it will drive you to madness and take away any hope of tomorrow.

Darkness (also called lightlessness) is the absence of light. Scientifically it is only possible to have a reduced amount of light. The emotional response to an absence of light has inspired metaphor in literature, symbolism in art, and emphasis.

Today many in the world enjoy researching and exploring Dark tourism - travel to sites associated with death and suffering, ghost and the paranormal.
As a poetic term, darkness can also mean the presence of shadows, evil, or depression.

Darkness can have a strong psychological impact. It can cause depression in people with seasonal affective disorder, fear in nyctophobics, comfort in lygophilics, or attraction as in gothic fashion. These emotions are used to add power to literary imagery.

Religious texts often use darkness to make a visual point. In the Bible, darkness was the second to last plague (Exodus 10:21) and the location of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12) The Qur’an has been interpreted to say that those who transgress the bounds of what is right are doomed to “burning despair and ice-cold darkness.” (Nab 78.25) In Greek Mythology, three layers of night surround Tartarus, a place for the worst sinners as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above earth.

The Hindu goddess Kalí (black, dark colored) is also closely associated with darkness and violence, though she is equally associated with motherhood and benevolence.

In Chinese philosophy Yin is the feminine part of the Taijitu and is represented by a dark lobe.

The use of darkness as a rhetorical device has a long standing tradition. Shakespeare, working in the 16th and 17th centuries, made a character called Satan, the “prince of darkness” (King Lear: III, iv) and gave darkness jaws with which to devour love. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream: I, i)[8] Chaucer, a 14th century Middle English writer, wrote that knights must cast away the “workes of darkness.” Dante described hell as “solid darkness stain’d.”

Even in Old English there were three words that could mean darkness; heolstor, genip, and sceadu. Heolstor also meant “hiding-place” and became holster, genip meant “mist” and fell out of use like many strong verbs, it is however still used in the Dutch saying "in het geniep" which means secretly, sceadu meant “shadow” and remained in use. The word darkness eventually evolved from the word deorc, which meant “dark”.

"The Dead's Great Inconsolable Grief": In many cultures, wearing of dark colors shows grief and attracts it.

In the dark objects that are familiar to us take on different shapes and sizes. They also reveal the qualities in them that are truly paranormal, and actually supernaturally in their nature.

Call it evil, or the work of the devil but the inanimate becomes alive...in the black of night. The darkling's, the shadows, the dead sneak near to you as you breath evenly and sound asleep.

Accounts of "THE DARK" as a being typically describe them as being deep non reflective black humanoid or creature like silhouettes. Some times with no discernible mouths, noses, or facial expressions, though at times those features might be all that you actually see in the darkness.

Many lurid accounts also exist of these entities being child-sized humanoids or shapeless masses that sometimes change to a more human like forms or animals. The eyes are usually not described as being discernible but in some reports glowing red, white or blue eyes are mentioned. The color of the eyes, if any, is typically given as red. Their specific form is described variously as two-dimensional shadow to a vaporous or distorted three-dimensional body (as though made out of smoke, fabric, water like or steam).

Movement is often described as being very quick and disjointed. Some witnesses describe this movement as though the shadow entities they have seen "danced" from one wall to the next, or as moving around the room "as if they were on a specific track".

Rarely, they are seen "standing" in the middle of doorways or off the wall. Often they are described as being seen staring at the floor. Some accounts describe what appears to be the outline of a cloak, and in some instances the outline of a 1930s style fedora hat. This last type is referred as the " Dark hat-man" or "The Darkling King".

The Dark has also been called "The Wight", from Old English word wiht, is a Middle English word used to describe a creature or a living being. It is akin to Old High German wiht, meaning a creature or thing.

The evil of the darkling's over the centuries are based on Shadow people, (also known as shadow men, shadow folk, or shadow beings) are supernatural shadow-like creatures of both modern folklore and traditional native American beliefs. These creatures are known to pull you room your bed at night violently. Strangle you rape you.

The Darkling's can also bite you, hit you, hurt you, and are known to poke your eyes out as you sleep. They have been known to kill infants as they sleep in their mothers arms or suckle at their breast.

The can scratch you to the boone, and tales of them even stealing kidneys, (thought to be what they love to eat) from sleeping victims. A darkling is best known to take the shape of cats, especially large black cats. They can roam highways, and slip into to your home and kill all that live their.

In the darkness they are the strongest paranormal entity you can encounter. They can change shape and even talk to you in the thick black night.

According to folklore, they appear as dark forms in the peripheries of people's vision as they begin to haunt them. If they find no reason to haunt you then they seem to disintegrate, or move between walls, when noticed.

Reports of shadow darkling people occupy a similar position in the popular consciousness to ghost sightings, but differ in that shadow people are not reported as having human features, wearing modern/period clothing, or attempting to communicate.

Witnesses also do not report the same feelings of being in the presence of something that 'was once human' is what a shadow person entails. a darkling has never walked the earth as a human.Some individuals have described being menaced, chased, or in some rare instances, attacked by shadow darkling's. There have also been reports of huge menacing darkling's appearing in front of witnesses and lingering for several seconds before disappearing. Witnesses report that encounters are typically accompanied by a feeling of dread.

Darklings have been known to hide at the sign of any type of light. their favorite spots to hide or in dark cracks, or inside a child's toys (bears. dolls, stuffed animals) or closets.

Robert The haunted Doll is thought to be a Darkling trapped in a stuffed body by a voodoo hoodoo spell.

In New Orleans Voodoo Darkling's are creatures that prowl the city looking for innocents to possess. They will take a person and make them act and turn into someone they are not. They who are possessed by a Darkling have been known to kill or hurt their family members during daylight hours. They are aptly called since the late 1800's "The Dark Darklings".

The great voodoo Queen Marie Laveau described them as the evil thoughts that good church people have that they don't act upon, come to life. They carry out evil deeds no sane man would do!

The actual belief is that the darkling enters a person through their mouths as they sleep, and are trapped inside them until they fall asleep again.

The person is like a zombified demon acting only on it's primal instincts. Kill or be killed. Marie Laveau is said to have used ground up monkey and cock statue powder, red brick and a secret ingrediant to chase them off.

Small children between the ages of 3- 9 are more apt to encounter these beings and see them clearly. Though those who have psychic powers have been known to see them as sparkling dark shapes in the blackness.

Source: Haunted American Tours/Mason Felinity
http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/paranormal/PARANOMALTHINGS.php

Two tricksters who created a UFO hoax in the skies over the Morristown, New Jersey area were sentenced by a municipal judge to pay $250 in fines each and work off 50 hours of community service for their antics.

Municipal Court Judge Michael Carlucci told Chris Russo, 29, of Morris Plains, and Joe Rudy, 28, of Chester Township the hoax could have had tragic consequences. The pair’s “UFOs” were made with road flares tied to helium balloons.

Over a five-day stretch in January and February, in a stated “mission to help people think rationally and question the credibility of so-called UFO professionals,” the New Jersey residents dispatched trains of balloons and flares into the night sky near Morristown.

They shot their own footage, then sat back as local TV stations reported the sightings. Local 911 dispatchers got a handful of calls and another family videotaped it, too. In an effort to keep the hoax going, Russo lied to a News 12 TV crew in rejecting police suspicions that it was flares: “From what we saw? No way — the way they were moving around. I mean, they zipped over our car.”

So proud of their work, the two men posted a star log of their activities on April Fool’s Day on a Web site called eSkeptic.com.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said, “Throughout we were concerned that what was now a joke could turn into a tragic situation. It was a tremendous waste of police resources and posed a serious fire threat to homes, wooded areas, posed a significant danger to air traffic and tied up valuable 911 resources.

“In mitigation, however, since these defendants stopped their actions once authorities asked them to, have led otherwise law abiding lives, did not contemplate that their actions would cause harm, and since they were cooperative with investigators, I believe that the plea to a municipal ordinance violation with a fine and community service and no criminal record, serves the deterrent effect in this matter to punish this conduct in a measured way. I also take into consideration that these young men should not have to suffer a criminal conviction in their young lives for what can otherwise be deemed a youthful indiscretion.

Bianchi added, “A municipal ordinance is not a criminal conviction, and does not appear on their record.”

Source: The Daily Record
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090407/UPDATES01/90407019/1005/NEWS01

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Science fiction and fantasy dramas like Doctor Who and Torchwood may be behind a rise in UFO sightings in built up areas of Wales, an expert has said.

Nick Pope, the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) former UFO project head, was commenting on figures released by the MoD which show sightings have gone up.

He said other sightings reflected the growing popularity of Chinese lanterns.

In 2006, 97 UFOs were reported across the UK. This rose to 135 in 2007 and 285 in 2008, with 18 Wales sightings.

These sightings in Wales included bright white objects over Anglesey, black disc shaped objects in the skies over Neath Port Talbot, objects moving like a football over Pontypridd and a UFO in Old Colwyn, Conwy, which was "bigger than a helicopter".

Mr Pope, who continues his research into the phenomena of UFOs on a private basis, said he believed the revitalisation of the Doctor Who franchise had made people more open to seeing UFOs.

"If I am being cynical, maybe Doctor Who and Torchwood being filmed in Cardiff and the surrounding area might make people look to the skies more than they would previously," he said.

"There have been quite a few sightings in Cardiff, Barry, Swansea and other built up areas in the south of the country.

"Traditionally people think of UFO sightings as taking place in a deserted and dark part of the countryside but many of the Wales sightings are from cities and towns."

Across the UK as a whole, the number of sightings have doubled from 2007 to 2008.

Mr Pope said he believed the reasons for this included the growing popularity of Chinese lanterns, which float off and glow brightly in the sky after being lit, and are well known for being mistaken as UFOs.

Last year, lanterns lit and set off at the wedding of Lucy and Lyn Thomas from Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, made headlines around the world when police officers in a helicopter admitted they could have mistaken them for UFOs.

Mr Pope also said the very fact that the MoD were releasing its files on the sightings was generating interest in the UFO phenomena.

"It is being covered on Newsnight and on the front page of the Sun," he said.

"You have to go back to 1985 before I can recall another UFO story on the front page of a newspaper.

"UFOs are a subject that almost everyone has an opinion on. It is one of those great subjects which if you mention it down the pub, someone will claim to have seen one, and another person will claim it's all a big government cover up and another will say it's all a load of rubbish."

But while it was an interesting and fun subject to debate, there was also a serious side, said Mr Pope.

"The UFO debate does raise important defence and air safety issues," he said.

"One case that springs to mind is the recent incident at RAF St Athan when a police helicopter was apparently nearly hit by a UFO.

"Another near collision happened last year over Birmingham when the pilot had to take evasive action to avoid hitting a UFO.

"This is why their investigation is important."

Source: BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7988552.stm