Mysteries of mummified mermaid

Voynich manuscript - random gibberish ?

Gordon Rugg’s work showed that the Voynich Manuscript could have been hoaxed. Whether or not the manuscript actually was a hoax was another question. A key problem was finding a suitable type of statistical analysis. A breakthrough comes with the publication in Cryptologia this April of an article by Austrian researcher Dr Andreas Schinner, a theoretical physicist and software engineer at the Johannes Kepler University.Schinner analysed the text of the manuscript using specialist statistics capa...

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Joan of Arc’s Relics are Fake

The relics of Joan of Arc’s body housed in a church museum are forgeries and not the remains of the 15th-century French heroine and saint, it was reported Wednesday. Instead, the sacred items were manufactured from the remains of an Egyptian mummy, scientists say. The relics include a charred-looking human rib, chunks of seemingly burnt wood, a six-inch strip of linen and a cat femur—consistent with the medieval practice of throwing black cats onto the pyres of alleged witches. They are ...

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Stone of Destiny is a fake ?

Submitted by Da Verminator: Scottish, English and British monarchs have been crowned on the ancient coronation stone since the ninth century.It spent 700 years under the chair in Westminster Abbey after it was seized in 1296 by King Edward I, and was finally returned to Scotland 12 years ago.It has since been viewed at Edinburgh Castle by tens of thousands of people, and is regarded as a symbol of Scottish independence. According to legend, Jacob used the ancient stone as a pillow when he dreamt...

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The myth of the million dollar challenge

For ten years, the modern skeptical movement has wielded a cudgel against claims of the paranormal: the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge. In many debates over the possibility of psi abilities, the Challenge provides a final word for one side..."has so-and-so applied for the Challenge?" The financial reward offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation is seen by many skeptics as providing an irresistible motivation for anybody with paranormal ability - after all, if someone could genuine...

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An Evening With James Randi And Friends

The day after mediums marched on Downing Street, to protest against their possible ruination by legislation, it seemed apt that some of the finest proponents of scientific scepticism held their own gathering. The event in Conway Hall was billed as “An Evening with James Randi and Friends”. Randi—possibly the world’s most acclaimed scourge of psychics, healers and out-and-out chancers—was making a rare trip to the UK. He topped a bill of five renowned science communicators. MC for the eve...

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Professor debunks paranormal evidence

Is the world partially populated by wispy, dead folks who like to terrify living people by flinging open doors or caressing sleeping faces? Are there disembodied souls out there prone to torment, entertain or protect real folks? One ghost debunker says science just doesn't support it. "A century and a half of research into the paranormal has not provided substantive evidence of the claims," said Dr. Bryan Farha, behavioral studies professor and scientific and technical consultant f...

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Jesus tomb claim denounced

Leading archaeologists in Israel and the United States are denouncing the purported discovery of the tomb of Jesus as a publicity stunt. Scorn for the Discovery Channel's claim to have found the burial place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and — most explosively — their possible son came not just from Christian scholars but also from Jewish and secular experts who said their judgments were unaffected by any desire to uphold Christian orthodoxy."I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. ...

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Is U.S. Government Using LSD for Interrogations?

Old-fashioned journalists have a term for bizarre, interesting and/or disturbing little articles -- "Hey Mabel" stories, they call them. And the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein had a doozy of a "Hey Mabel" in yesterday's paper. In a new court filing on behalf of alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla, his lawyers allege that government interrogators forced him to take LSD, Gerstein reported. "Additionally, Padilla wasgiven drugs against his will, believed to be s...

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Crystal skulls 'are modern fakes'

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Two of the best known crystal skulls - artefacts once thought to be the work of ancient American civilisations - are modern fakes, a scientific study shows. They are the focus of the story in the latest Indiana Jones film. But experts say examples held at the British Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC are anything but genuine. Their results show the skulls were made using tools not available to the ancient Aztecs or Mayans. Researchers sa...

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Terrifying haunting or clever hoax ?

In 1662 English landowner John Mompesson began telling the world that his household was haunted by an evil and mischievous spirit. In a letter to William Creed, Regius professor of Divinity at Oxford and a relation by marriage, he said that he had initially thought that the disturbances were the work of burglars, before being forced to conclude that they could only be supernatural. He blamed the visitations on the witchcraft of William Drury, a drummer he had caused to be arrested in March for c...

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