Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Real Ghost Story -- Ghost Fries Camera!



Watch as a ghost fries ghost hunter Allan Pacheco's camera in Santa Fe, New Mexico's Lost Graveyard.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Black Aggie

Retold by : S. E. Schlosser

When Felix Agnus put up the life-sized shrouded bronze statue of a grieving angel, seated on a pedestal, in the Agnus family plot in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, he had no idea what he had started. The statue was a rather eerie figure by day, frozen in a moment of grief and terrible pain. At night, the figure was almost unbelievably creepy; the shroud over its head obscuring the face until you were up close to it. There was a living air about the grieving angel, as if its arms could really reach out and grab you if you weren't careful.

It didn't take long for rumors to sweep through the town and surrounding countryside. They said that the statue - nicknamed Black Aggie - was haunted by the spirit of a mistreated wife who lay beneath her feet. The statue's eyes would glow red at the stroke of midnight, and any living person who returned the statues gaze would instantly be struck blind. Any pregnant woman who passed through her shadow would miscarry. If you sat on her lap at night, the statue would come to life and crush you to death in her dark embrace. If you spoke Black Aggie's name three times at midnight in front of a dark mirror, the evil angel would appear and pull you down to hell. They also said that spirits of the dead would rise from their graves on dark nights to gather around the statue at night.

People began visiting the cemetery just to see the statue, and it was then that the local fraternity decided to make the statue of Grief part of their initiation rites. "Black Aggie" sitting, where candidates for membership had to spend the night crouched beneath the statue with their backs to the grave of General Agnus, became popular.

One dark night, two fraternity members accompanied new hopeful to the cemetery and watched while he took his place underneath the creepy statue. The clouds had obscured the moon that night, and the whole area surrounding the dark statue was filled with a sense of anger and malice. It felt as if a storm were brewing in that part of the cemetery, and to their chagrin, the two fraternity members noticed that gray shadows seemed to be clustering around the body of the frightened fraternity candidate crouching in front of the statue.

What had been a funny initiation rite suddenly took on an air of danger. One of the fraternity brothers stepped forward in alarm to call out to the initiate. As he did, the statue above the boy stirred ominously. The two fraternity brothers froze in shock as the shrouded head turned toward the new candidate. They saw the gleam of glowing red eyes beneath the concealing hood as the statue's arms reached out toward the cowering boy.

With shouts of alarm, the fraternity brothers leapt forward to rescue the new initiate. But it was too late. The initiate gave one horrified yell, and then his body disappeared into the embrace of the dark angel. The fraternity brothers skidded to a halt as the statue thoughtfully rested its glowing eyes upon them. With gasps of terror, the boys fled from the cemetery before the statue could grab them too.

Hearing the screams, a night watchman hurried to the Agnus plot. To his chagrin, he discovered the body of a young man lying at the foot of the statue. The young man had apparently died of fright.

The disruption caused by the statue grew so acute that the Agnus family finally donated it to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.. The grieving angel sat for many years in storage there, never again to plague the citizens visiting the Druid Hill Park Cemetery.

From : http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/md4.html

Friday, May 1, 2009

27 Aquatic lifeforms you never caught while fishing

Deep-sea glass squidA martian? No, it's the glass squid. This odd looking creature is located in the southern hemisphere and is the prey of many deep sea fish (ex: goblin sharks), whales and oceanic seabirds.

Robot Fish
This one is a robo-carp you can observe at the London Aquarium. It's a self-guided robot-fish who use artificial intelligence and sensors to avoid obstacles . It's a 50cm long common carp, swimming with thei living counterparts.

Snaggletooth

Snaggletooth

Science experiment gone wrong? Sadly this is not the case. The Snaggletooth or Astronesthes slightly resembles the South American Payara without the charcoal finish and lack of scales. The Snaggletooth is a powerful predatory fish who resides in the deep waters between Australia and New Zealand.


Axolotl

Axolotl

You can learn more on this amphibian called axolotl on http://www.axolotl.org/ . This one is in the same family than the tiger salamander. The only place on earth you can find those one are at Lake Xochimilco in Mexico.


Mudskipper

Mudskipper
The mudskipper are special kind of fish that live most of their life on land beside than into the water. They are located in the Indo-Pacific as well than in the Atlantic coast of Africa. Mudskippers are quite active when out of water.


Slander Lanternfish

Slander Lanternfish
The mudskipper are special kind of fish that live most of their life on land beside than into the water. They are located in the Indo-Pacific as well than in the Atlantic coast of Africa. Mudskippers are quite active when out of water.


Deep-sea stargazer

Deep-sea stargazer
Stargazers are a family of muscular bulldog-like fishes that typically bury in the seafloor and ambush passing prey. Stargazers are the ultimate ambush predator, with the eye sets on top of the head allowing it to be almost completely hidden. This is combined with an electrical capability which can be used to stun its prey.


Giant Hatchetfish

Giant Hatchetfish
The giant hatchetfish is found in deep tropical and subtropical waters of all oceans, except the north Pacific. Its length is between 8 and 12 cm. The giant hatchetfish is a deep-bodied species with large eyes that are directed upwards, enabling prey to be silhouetted against the faint light coming from the surface, and a large mouth also directed upwards.


Dumbo Octopus

Dumbo Octopus
The deep-sea "Dumbo" octopus got its nickname from the ear-like fins protruding from the top of their "heads" (actually bodies), resembling the ears of Walt Disney 's flying elephant . They are benthic creatures, living at extreme depths, and are some of the rarest of the Octopoda species.


Eelpout

Eelpout
The eelpouts are a family of perciform ray-finned fish They are found in Arctic and Antarctic.


Black-lip Rattail

Black-lip Rattail
These sorts of rattails feed in the muddy seafloor by gliding along head down and tail up, powered by gentle undulations of a long fin under the tail. The triangular head has sensory cells underneath that help detect animals buried in the mud or sand. The common name comes from the black edges around the mouth.


Humpback Anglerfish

Humpback Anglerfish
This black seadevil, of the size of a tennis ball, is one of the weirdest fish in the world. Female humpback anglers have an enormous head dominated by a cavernous mouth full of long slender teeth that can fold backwards when prey is being swallowed.


Coelacanth

Coelacanth
They are the oldest kind of fish we know on earth. They were believed to be extinct before fisherman captured a couple of them in the 1930s.


Northern Seahorse

Northern Seahorse
The seahorse is also one of the top weird sea creature. The male are carrying the egg in a special abdominal pouch, like you can see on the picture.


Longhorn Cowfish

Longhorn Cowfish
The longhorn cowfish are found in the Indo-Pacific region. Their flesh is poisonous and would not make for a very good meal !


Leafy Sea Dragon

Leafy Sea Dragon
Sea Dragons are arguably the most spectacular and mysterious of all ocean fish. Leafy Sea Dragons are very interesting to watch- the leafy appendages are not used for movement. The body of a sea dragon scarcely appears to move at all.


Lumpfish

Lumpfish
The longest lumpfish so far recorded from the American coast measured 23 inches, and weighed 13 1/4 pounds; the heaviest weighed 20 pounds but measured only 21 1/2 inches (both from Orient, N. Y.), and the proportion of weight to length varies similarly in smaller fish.


Atlantic Wolffish

Atlantic Wolffish
The Atlantic Wolffish is a large bottom-dwelling predatory marine fish. The species is widely distributed across the North Atlantic.


Lionfish

Lionfish
A distinguishing feature of the Lionfish is its large fan-like pectoral fins. They are potentially dangerous, not only to the smaller fish the prey upon, but to humans, as well.. The spines on its dorsal fins contain a strong poison, which is perhaps one reason they are totally unafraid of divers.


Deep-Sea Lizardfish

Deep-Sea Lizardfish
The Deep-Sea Lizardfish, is a member of the Synodontidae family, it is found throughout the world in tropical and subtropical seas at depths of between 600 and 3,500 m. It is considered as an ambush predator hunting in the abyssal seafloor and devouring prey with its razor sharp barbed teeth.


Fangtooth Fish

The Fangtooth fish is found in midwater depths of about five kilometers (three miles). They are extremely muscular and their teeth are so long that when the jaw is shut, the lower pair must slide into special sheathes on either side of the fish's brain to avoid impaling it.

Fangtooth Fish

Check out this vicious fish devour it's prey.


Black Chimaera

Black Chimaera
Chimaeras are related to both sharks and rays. They are jawed fish with paired fins, paired nostrils, scales, two-chambered hearts, and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. Chimaeras grow up to two meters long, are found in the ocean floors and have a venomous spine which they use for defense purposes.


Clown Triggerfish

Clown Triggerfish
The Clown Triggerfish or Big-spotted Triggerfish is one of the most spectacular looking marine species. This species grows to 50 cm in length and is usually found in the warm parts of the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Even though its appearance is quite innocent; this fish is an aggressive carnivore that primarily preys on shelled invertebrates.


Longlure Frogfish

Longlure Frogfish
The Longlure frogfish are found in tropical oceans and seas around the world. They are small fish with large odd looking heads. They are mostly bottom-dwelling fishes that are well camouflaged; they employ the first dorsal spine as a fishing lure to attract prey.


Prehistoric Frilled Shark

The Frill Shark can be recognised by its slender eel-like body, six pairs of gill slits, terminal mouth, three-pronged teeth, single dorsal fin, caudal fin without a lower lobe, and brown colour. This species grows to a maximum length of about 2 m.
Checkout the frilled shark that was caught off the coast of Japan!


Black Swallowe

Black Swallower
The black swallower (Chiasmodon niger) is a deep sea fish that has the ability to extend its stomach 3 times its size so that it can swallow fish that are bigger than itself. It can be found in deep seas up to 1,500 meters or in hot tropical waters. It creates its own light because of the darkness found in some parts of the Pelagic zone. The black swallower can grow up to 25 centimeters.


Mantis Shrimp

Mantis Shrimp
This highly intelligent hunter with claws can lash out at prey with the force of a gunshot. Larger varieties have been known to shatter glass or sever human fingers. Most are either "spearers" (with sharp, mantidlike claws) or "smashers" (with blunt, clublike claws for cracking hard-shelled prey). Rare among invertebrates are the monogamous mating habits that several species demonstrate. Mated pairs share a burrow, and the male hunts for both his mate and young.