Category Archives: Strange Phenomena

The Daying Dead Sea In China Is Really A Filthy, Giant Swimming Pool

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More Like A Cesspool Than A Swimming Pool, The Daying Dead Sea Is China’s Solution For Its Citizens To “Enjoy Swimming”

chinese pool 3When I first encountered a photograph of the Daying Dead Sea in Suining City, Daying County, China, I had no idea of what to make of it.

My mind conjured up a nightmare scenario like the 1973 film Soylent Green in which overpopulation has been dealt with by turning people into food.

chinese pool 1The Daying Dead Sea is not an aquatic human abatoir. It is a very large indoor swimming pool that regularly attracts crowds of 8,000 or more people. Of course there is absolutely no room to swim and people jam themselves into the water and stand or float on a tube in their one spot.

They don’t need the tubes. The people can effortlessly float because the pool is made up of 43 elements and microelements  to simulate the effects of the Middle East’s Dead Sea where the salt composition is extremely high enabling easy floatation.

chinese pool 4The Chinese Continue reading →

UFO In A 15th Century Painting?

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A Flying Saucer Or Just A Radiant Cloud?

The Madonna with Saint GiovanninoThe Madonna with Saint Giovannino by Domenico Ghirlandaio 1449 – 1494, is on display in the Sala d’Ercole in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.

The Madonna with Saint Giovannino ufoThere is nothing unusual about the painting until you look over the shoulder of the Madonna and in the right hand corner there is this object:

Now many people who have looked closely at this painting see nothing but a cloud. But there are others who claim that this is an object that is intended to represent some sort of flying object. At first glance it does appear to have some of the characteristics of a flying saucer.

The Madonna with Saint Giovannino ufo 2 Continue reading →

It Is Now 88 Years Since Houdini’s Death, And No Word From Him Yet

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Houdini, Debunker Of All Psychic Phenomena STILL Has Not Communicated From The Other Side

Houdini Emerges from jail cell

When Harry Houdini claimed he could do something, he would prove it. For instance, he said he could escape from any jail cell, sometimes with multiple gates and holding areas. Here he is seen emerging from a penitentiary holding only shackles and locks next to his near naked body. The demonstration would usually blow the superintendent or warden of the prison away. Before entering the cell Houdini was searched and stripped. How did he escape from all those jail cells?

Usually Houdini opened the lock with a carefully hidden key or pick – use your imagination to figure out where he hid it or click here to find out.  All over the United States and Europe, Houdini performed this trick as a jail breaker hundreds of times and it rocketed him to fame. The one thing Houdini couldn’t escape was death.

On Halloween in 1926 Houdini died. He promised his wife Bess Continue reading →

While Touring With A Friend, A New Yorker Finds Her Missing Brother – 1905

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Places A Tourist Should Go in 1905?

Bellevue And The Morgue.

1st Ave. 26th Bellevue Hospital postcard circa 1912

Visiting New York City today there are things that most tourists go and see. Typical touristy places include The Empire State Building, Times Square, The Statue of Liberty . A hundred years ago you might be surprised at what sights people would go and visit. In 1905 for one New Yorker, accompanying a visiting friend to Bellevue and visiting the morgue seemed like an interesting, if not macabre way to spend the day.

They say truth is stranger than fiction, so we’ll let The New York Evening World of September 11, 1905 pick up the rest of this strange story:

SAW PICTURE AT MORGUE OF DEAD BROTHER

Miss Magner, Showing a Friend the Sights, Identifies Photograph.

This isn’t a very big world since the railroad, the telegraph and the telephone annihilated distances, but here is the strange story of what happened at the points of a triangle with sides only a mile long.

On Feb. 26, 1904, the body of a young man was found on the doors of No. 269 Ninth Avenue, dead. No one knew him. At the morgue the body was photographed and a complete description taken. The breast and arms were tattooed with the form of a woman, the emblems of Faith, Hope and Charity and the initials “J.M.”

After a few days the unidentified body was burled In Potter’s Field, where it has lain for nineteen months. Last Saturday Miss Laura Magner, of No. 354 West Forty-sixth Street, who was entertaining a visiting friend from out-of-town, took him to see Bellevue Hospital and the Morgue.

Continue reading →

Why Are There Annoying Flies At Jones Beach Field 6?

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Is There Anything You Can Do To Keep The Flies Off Of You?

Jones BeachIn the summer if you ever go to Jones Beach in Long Island, especially the often filled popular field 6, you will notice one of two things, there are hundreds of flies swarming around and biting you or there are none at all. I have spent an inordinate amount of time swatting and killing flies as they relentlessly bite away.

So why is this?

The answer lies not in the temperature, the food you bring with you, your choice of sunscreen or fly repellant.

The swimming flags hold the key. Continue reading →

Man Eats Light Bulbs (And Other Delicacies) – 1939

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Harold B. Funston Demonstrates An Unusual Talent For Tolerating Pain

Harold B Funston eats light bulbs 1939

New York City– Harold B. Funston, accounting machine mechanic of Columbus, Ohio brought to New York for an appearance on a radio program, eats glass from a light bulb in a demonstration of his unique hobby — that of emulating the mysteries of the East Indian Fakirs. Credit line (Acme) 2/21/39

The radio program mentioned above was a CBS show, “Dave Elman’s Hobby Lobby.” In rehearsals, Funston amazed Elman, Radio Guide reporter Martin Lewis and the studio audience by chewing up and swallowing six razor blades, which he downed with a glass of water.  He then proceeded to eat some light bulbs.

Funston puts red hot soldering iron on tongue 1939 watermarkedFilm footage exists of Funston eating razor blades; putting fire in his mouth; and laying on a bed of spiked nails as another man sits on him. He also extinguishes a lit cigarette with his tongue.

Here is another Continue reading →

Young Man Swims In Lake Michigan On January 4, 1924

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90 Years Ago Today: Victor Barothy Goes Swimming In Lake Michigan January 4, 1924

Victor Barothy swims Lake Michigan on a dare January 5 1924

I’ve seen the polar bear clubs with swimmers who plunge into the Atlantic Ocean on New Year’s Day every year.

But this looks insane. Those large icicles and mounds of snow that loom in the background. Just looking at this photograph gives me the chills.

Unfortunately I cannot find an accompanying story that ran with this news photograph. The caption simply says that “Victor Barothy prepares to swim in Lake Michigan on a dare.” January 4, 1924.

Checking the social security death index, Victor Barothy was born January 4, 1907, so the dare he accepted would have been in celebration of his 17th birthday, even though in the photograph he looks a bit older than 17. With his father and his brother he ran the Barothy Lodge in Walhalla, MI. Victor passed away in Walhalla at the age of 65 in May, 1972.

How long Victor Barothy’s swim lasted in the icy waters of Lake Michigan is unknown.

The Strange Origin Of Modern Building Fire Laws In Britain

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Why Every Employee Must Be Able To Reach A Fire Exit In Under Two And A Half Minutes

Empire Theatre Fire photo Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries

Empire Theatre Fire photo Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries

The Telegraph just featured an interesting interview with Professor of Fire and Structures at Edinburgh University, Luke Bisby.

Professor Bisby does something I also do as well, which is when I enter a building I have never visited, I check how to get out of the building and where the fire exits are. Of course he looks at other factors that the average person wouldn’t take into account such as what is hanging on the walls and what the carpeting is made of.

Among the topics discussed was: why there are such tough safety rules in place in case of a fire in office worker’s buildings in the U.K.. The answer he provides is fascinating:

It may not be a surprise to learn that there are tight regulations surrounding the positioning and width of fire exits, and their location relative to workers’ desks, in a modern office.

But the basis for the stringent rules, which state that every employee must be able to reach a fire exit within two-and-a-half minutes, and that fire doors must be wide enough for all employees to pass through within the same time frame, is scarcely to be believed.

“This two-and-a-half minutes is the fundamental basis on which the built environment can exist,” Prof Bisby said. “You would presume there must be a good reason for it.

“The reason is that two-and-a-half minutes is, I’m told, the mean length of God Save the Queen. The British national anthem, when played in full, by a concert orchestra.”

The stipulation can be traced back to a fire at Edinburgh’s Empire Palace Theatre in 1911 which broke out during a performance by a French illusionist named The Great Lafayette, he explained. Continue reading →

A New York City 1859 Mass Murder Prank

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15 Dead Bodies Discovered in The East River

A shocking discovery was made on Thursday June 9, 1859 near Hell Gate in the East River, when some fishermen picked up a box which contained 15 dead bodies in various states of decomposition.

Death on the River print 19th centuryAs was common in early journalism there were mistakes made when the papers first broke the story.

They reported the box contained seven bodies, all dressed in fine night clothes, packed in lime and shavings and having the appearance of recent decease.

This caused a bit of panic among New York’s citizens who concluded that a whole family had been murdered in their beds and packed off to sea to conceal the crime.

The investigation by city authorities three days later revealed the true nature of what had transpired.

The bodies had been removed from the old Potter’s Field and were being transported by barges for re-interment in Long Island.

The box containing these bodies went overboard, and the workmen let it go without trying to retrieve it – just to see what an excitement it would create!