Newspapers in the late 1800s wrote about the Night Doctors. Mysterious men who desecrated graves and killed people for their bodies. Might there be a rational explanation:
"Folklorists believe that these stories of Night Doctors were spread and encouraged by whites to keep the ex-slaves under an informal curfew."
(Found through Cylindrical Primate Storage Unit.)

Many people believed in vampires in New England in the 1700s. Rhode Island and Connecticut were particularly prone to the problem. People would go dig up graves because they believed the dead person was sucking away the life of a living relative. More than likely, the problem was tuberculosis rather than vampirism.

I've been going to Books by the Falls in Derby since I was in high school. It's a used book store inside an old factory. There are about four rooms and each of them has books stacked high above, ready to topple at any moment. There's that great smell of musty old books. All the aisles are barely passable for one person. When there are two people in one aisle, it's a real project to pass by. In a back corner by the windows, there's a little desk where the owner sits. He has an old record player behind him. Through the years I've heard him play classical, opera, blues, jazz and light jazz.
I always head over to the science fiction section first. One huge wall covered in every old rocket-and-bug-eyed-monster book you can imagine. All the classic names are there -- Asimov, Heinlen, Sturgeon, Pohl, Anderson -- and every once in a while there are the classic novels that have gone out of print. Twice I've seen "Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner there.
I've seen a couple of references to Books by the Falls as disorganized. "They probably have some good things, but who knows where to find them?" says one reference site on the Web. But for me that has always been part of the joy. You start scrounging through big piles of books and see what attracts you. There's nothing like digging through a pile of books and catching a glimpse of an R.A. Lafferty book or an obscure sword and sorcery novel. It's not the kind of store you run into for something particular and then run out. It's a store meant for leisurely exploration.
I just went to Books by the Falls Saturday. The owner, who has gotten used to seeing me, said "hey you're into science fiction right?" Sure am. He directed me to two new book shelves full of science fiction books. He had dug up some amazing collection. It seemed like every classic science fiction book was there. I ended up picking up these books:
Hardcovers
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
The Third Level by Jack Finney
Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
Paperbacks
All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By by John Farris
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze by Kenneth Robeson
Doc Savage: The Fortress of Solitude by Kenneth Robeson
I found all of those almost immediately. All those books cost a total of $12. But I ran out of money. There was a ton of other books I wanted. I'm going back soon to pick up more.
There's just something about being in a used book store that can't be beat.
So what about you? Do any of you have used book stores you love? Or book stores in general? Does anyone else find the pleasure in this that I do?

Robert Rodriguez is bringing the comic book "Sin City" to the movies. Frank Miller's comic book is an effective set of noir tales told with beautiful black and white drawings. Rodriguez says he will work directly with Miller to capture the look and feel of the stories.
Rodriguez has always been good with action films, I think he's a good choice. However, I don't think he has done any work quite as dark as "Sin City." The closest is "From Dusk till Dawn," but even that movie relied on a lot of humor. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Two new dinosaur species found in Antartica. One is a small carnivore, the second is a herbivore similar to a brachiosaurus.

Testimony in a big murder case:
"Jose Sandoval, making his first sworn statement since he was convicted of the Sept. 26, 2002, Norfolk bank shootings, is asked why he jumped the counter.

'Because somebody was talking s--,' Sandoval replies.
Madison County Attorney Joe Smith asks who.

'A Smurf.'

'A smirk?'

'A Smurf,' Sandoval repeats, as in the blue TV cartoon character.

'I take it from your answer you don't want to answer that question,' Smith says. 'Or is it really your testimony that a blue Smurf was in the bank?'

'That's what I said.'

The prosecutor tries once more: 'Did you jump the counter because you wanted to make sure everybody was dead?'

'No, I jumped the counter because the Smurf was talking s--,' Sandoval says."

Asteroid gave world a close call. Until the sky cleared, astronomers thought there was a one in four chance that a 30-metre asteroid would hit Earth's atmosphere. After they found out we were all safe, they realized the asteroid was 500 metres across.

Police hunt "bunny girl." The bunny girl is a man "who is about six foot four tall and has been nicknamed 'bunny girl' by residents, wears high-heeled shoes, fishnet tights, a thong, a basque and a Lily Savage-style wig." He waits for unsuspecting women, then pretends to be tied to a tree. He asks the women to help. And that's all. He's a very strange criminal. (Although, I'm not sure he's broken any laws.)

The Asian giant catfish, which is the size of a bear is dying out. (With pics.)

Iran is looking to introduce a new jellyfish into its waters to fight off another jellyfish, Mnemiopsis or "The Monster." They hope the new jellyfish will eat the Monster.

Making Light, who normally writes about publishing, editing and writing, writes about dwarf mammoths. Tiny little prehistoric elephants, too cool.

You're The Sound and the Fury!

by William Faulkner

Strong-willed but deeply confused, you are trying to come to grips
with a major crisis in your life. You can see many different perspectives on the issue,
but you're mostly overwhelmed with despair at what you've lost. People often have a hard
time understanding you, but they have some vague sense that you must be brilliant
anyway. Ultimately, you signify nothing.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I'd feel so much better about this if I'd actually read "The Sound and the Fury." Still, that paragraph accurately describes how I've been feeling lately.

Two mummies that pre-date the Incas were found in Peru. They were so well preserved that an eyeball and intestines can still be seen.

At Undiscovered, a Fortean blog I recently discovered, the writer looks at the question of Shakespeare authorship:
"This is why, the topic of Shakespeare authorship studies (for want of a better phrase, is one peopled with assorted oddballs, lunatic theories and outlandish unsupported speculation. It doesn't however, automatically follow that there is no substance behind the speculation.
"The reality is that there is a problem, one that academia is addressing by denying it exists. But the facts speak for themselves."

Eight Arms to Hold You. Some amazing pictures of a giant squid as well as a long article I haven't read yet.

Science Fiction Weekly has a good interview with horror writer Ramsey Campbell.

Neil Gaiman linked to a decent article on Will Eisner's new graphic novel. The novel takes a look at the famous racist propaganda piece "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and shows how they were created. The last Eisner book I picked up was Dropsie Avenue, which traces a New York street from the first American settlers to the current residents.
Eisner's is always looking to push the boundaries of comics. I'm sure his new book will be worth your time.

Just finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Somehow I managed to get through high school and college without reading Huxley's dystopian novel. I'm glad I finally did.
I think I find the novel scarier than George Orwell's 1984. In the novel, people brought this nightmare world on themselves. They accepted the premise of a happy society being the highest goal. People traded off freedom and thought for security and happiness, even if that happiness had to come in a pill.
I think people these days are all too ready to accept those kinds of solutions.
Along those lines, here's a bizarre argument for social engineering and soma creation: Aldous Huxley : Brave New World. Your Brave New World is right around the corner.
Here's a Web site that focuses on Huxley and his works. And here's an
online searchable version of the book.
In this review from the Guardian, an important question is asked: Huxley points out the problems of this scientific future and, through the Savage, points out the problems of romantic ways of thinking. But does he offer us any alternative? Any solution? Any better way of life?
In the version of the book I have, there is a special foreword by Huxley. He has this to say about the book:
"In the meantime, however, it seems worth while to mention the most serious defect in the story, which is this. The Savage is offered only two alternatives, an insane life in Utopia, or the life of a primitive in an Indian village, a life more human in some respects, but in others hardly less queer and abnormal. ... If I were now to rewrite the book, I would offer the Savage a third alternative. Between the utopian and the primitive horns of his dilemma would lie the possibility of sanity -- a possibility alreaady actualized, to some extent, in a community of exiles and refugees from the Brave New World, living within the borders of the Reservation. In this community economics would be decentralist and Henry-Georgian, politics Kropotkinesque and co-operative. Science, and technology would be used as though, like the Sabbath, they had been made for man, not (as at present and still more so in the Brave New World) as though man were to be adapted and enslaved to them. Religion would be the conscious and intelligent pursuit of man's Final End, the unitive knowledge of the immanent Tao or Logos, the transcendent Godhead or Brahman. And the prevailing philosophy of life would be a kind of Higher Utilitarianism, in which the Greatest Happiness principle would be secondary to the Final End principle -- the first question to be asked and answered in every contingency of life being: 'How will this thought or action contribute to, or interfere with, the achievement, by me and the greatest possible number of other individuals, of man's Final End?' ... Thus altered, Brave New World would possess an artistic and (if it is permissible to use so large a word in connection with a work of fiction) a philosophical completeness, which in its present form it evidently lacks."

The serial murders of Fred and Rose West are being linked to the occult by Irish author Jim Cairns.
The article refers to Cairns as "renowned," but I can only find two books under his name at Amazon.co.uk and neither seems to be in print or have any reviews.
Also, the article seems link these murders to ritual satanic abuse, which I'm very skeptical about. However, I don't think it would be that hard to show the occult ties of people who keep bodies under their house and cut off fingers as souvenirs.

A World War II B-24 Bomber has been found intact in the sea near Palau. The search was conducted to bring "closure" to the families of the crew.