THOUSANDS OF VIETNAMESE FLOCK TO TERMITE NEST BUDDHA
news.com.au - Thousands of Vietnamese have converged on a rubber farm after the discovery of a termite's nest resembling the image of Buddha.
"Police and local authorities asked them to leave but others keep coming," said Vo Van Cuong, spokesman for the Rubber Company of Ben Cat.
He said thousands of people from southern Binh Duong province and neighbouring areas had rushed to the forest site since Wednesday.
The 40cm tall nest resembles Buddha sitting in meditation, Dantri International news website reported.
Pictures posted by Dantri showed incense, flowers and other offerings placed before the object which had attracted a crowd.
"According to rumours, it's the sacred land of Buddhism, and they have come here to pray," Mr Cuong said.
"I think it is a very good omen presented to us from above and that's why many people have travelled a great distance to come here and worship the Buddha," Dantri International quoted Hoang Thi Minh, a local resident, as saying.
Buddhism is the main religion in communist Vietnam and at least 70 per cent of the population are followers.
**********
HISTORIC TENNESSEE INN PARANORMAL PROBE
Click for video
wbir - Oak Ridge’s historic Alexander Inn is well-known not only for the scientists who once stayed there, but for those who some say are still inside.
Saturday night, investigators with the Office of Paranormal Studies put all the ghost stories to the test.
“We’re ghost hunters. We go around to places where paranormal activity is claimed. We’ll check it out for ourselves and see what we can find,” said Office of Paranormal Studies Co-Founder Clint Ferguson.
“There’s a lot of rumors that it’s haunted. We’d like to find out if it’s haunted or it’s not. If there’s activity here, we’ll find it,” Investigator Pete Fransen said.
Requests to track paranormal activity at the old hotel aren’t rare.
“I get a call probably every week to either take a tour to see the ghosts or somebody wants to come look for ghosts,” Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort Executive Director Kate Groover said.
This time, the Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort decided to say yes.
“A month ago, I took it to my board and said, ‘Look, what are we going to do about this?’ And they said, ‘Let them go. It can’t hurt us,’” Groover recounted.
ORRE, which bought the Alexander Inn last December, has faced consistent challenges with fund-raising efforts to restore the old hotel.
“We’ve been a little disappointed with our fund-raising efforts and so we thought, maybe this will help us do something, maybe it’ll bring us more attention, maybe we’ll get some more national exposure out of it,” Groover said.
Investigators spent six hours studying the deteriorating, graffiti-filled rooms and hallways.
“Sometimes we catch stuff, most of the time we don’t,” Ferguson said.
They used electromagnetic field detectors and night-vision cameras, as well as radios to open up potential lines of communication.
“Capture disembodied voices, voices of the dead,” Ferguson said.
Investigators also checked temperatures throughout the night with thermometers because they believe paranormal activity typically brings with it a drop in temperature.
When studying a room, the team would often ask questions out loud such as, “Is there anyone else here?” or “Would you please make yourself known?”
Towards the end of the evening, some investigators believe they picked up audio on one of their radios.
However, they say more conclusive results won’t come for another few weeks until after they’ve been able to review all the data, including audio and video recordings.
If anything abnormal shows up, the paranormal may become a more normal piece of Oak Ridge’s history.
“We’ll start having ghost tours I guess and charging money for it,” Groover laughed.
**********
TEXAS WOMAN WINS SEVEN-FIGURE LOTTERY FOR THE FOURTH TIME!
Once, twice, three times a Texas lottery millionaire - now it's four. Joan R. Ginther, a native of Bishop, Texas, made her fourth appearance on Monday at lottery headquarters in Austin to collect seven figures, lottery officials said. Ginther, 63, won $10 million, the top prize in Texas Lottery's $140,000,000 Extreme Payout scratch-off ticket she bought for $50, pushing her total wins to $20.4 million.
It was her third time to win on a ticket from a Bishop store, and second one at the Times Market there. "This is a very lucky store," said Bob Solis, store manager. Store owner Sun Bae is the one with the lucky hand, Solis said. "Sun sold both the winning tickets to the woman."
The store, which sells about 1,000 lottery tickets daily, now is eligible to receive a bonus of $10,000 for the second time. In 1993 Ginther first won a $5.4 million share of an $11 million Lotto Texas jackpot for a ticket bought in Bishop. She opted for annual payments of $270,000 (excluding tax charges) for 19 years. The cost of her lottery ticket could not be determined.
On year 13, while visiting Bishop to care for her father in 2006, Ginther won the top prize of $2 million in the Holiday Millionaire game thanks to a $30 scratch-off ticket. Ginther requested a lump-sum payment of about $1.5 million, after the 25 percent taken by the commission for taxes. In 2008, she collected a $3 million prize in Millions and Millions, another scratch-off, at the same Times Market where she won this week. That scratch-off ticket's cost also was not reported.
**********
TORNADO FORMING BEHIND TRAILER PARK IN MONTANA
Click for video
For some strange reason, tornadoes seem to zero in on trailer parks. Interesting video.
**********
THE ENCOUNTER
Click for video
The Encounter is a short Sci-fi Film which takes place in the Mojave Desert in Nevada.This story is about a happily married man who has everything one could desire, tragically one day his wife and child are killed in a car accident.
John "Michael Anthony" feeling there is nothing left for him to live for drives out to the desert to take his own life. However at the moment of truth he witnesses a UFO.
A close contact with a Pleiadian empowers him with knowledge, hope and a reason to carry on.
Written & Directed by Giovanni Sticco
Produced by Giovanni Sticco & Zac Hilon, Executive Producer
Fortean / Oddball News - 7/4/2010