Free Beer Ghost to be Exorcized from Pub

DailyMail.co.uk-- The 60 year-old landlady, who runs the pub with husband Patrick, claims spirits are costing her a fortune after the beer-loving ghost continues to give away free beer.

She said the poltergeist, nicknamed 'Reedy' after legendary actor and drinker Oliver Reed, has been haunting her pub, the Apsley House in Southsea, Hants, after she took over the lease a decade ago.

But since the start of the year, it appears the generous ghoul mysteriously been filling regulars' glasses.

So frustrated at the ghost's actions, she plans to purge the pub of the spirit by holding a séance.

Stop Alien Abductions: The Thought Screen Helmet

IF YOU ARE ABDUCTED BY ALIENS THE HELMET WILL WORK FOR YOU

How The Thought Screen Helmet Works
www.stopabductions.com-- The thought screen helmet scrambles telepathic communication between aliens and humans. Aliens cannot immobilize people wearing thought screens nor can they control their minds or communicate with them using their telepathy. When aliens can't communicate or control humans, they do not take them.

A Record of Success
The thought screen helmet has effectively stopped several types of aliens from abducting or controlling humans. Only four failures have been reported since 1998.

Belarus develops 'tin foil hat' school uniform

ForeignPolicy.com-- It's not often that my native country of Belarus scores points for cutting-edge science and innovation, but this announcement (only available in Russian) makes up for the gap. In short, a Belarusian textile company has developed a special school uniform that protects kids from... electromagnetic radiation emanating from their cellphones! The uniform features a dedicated pocket that can store the phone and make it safe for those who wear it.

Now, despite all the supposed absurdity of this approach, I wouldn't necessarily bet on this being a failure. Chances are some bureaucrats will actually like the idea (the news was actually delivered by a Ministry of Trade official). It seems to me that this would work if every single schoolchild wears the same uniform. Otherwise, what's the point of having this magic pocket, if your deskmate stores his gadgets in his pants pockets, exposing you to radiation anyway?

Goverment Secrecy, a Vicious Circle

Herald Tribune-- Considering how the groundbreaking work of James Bamford (The Puzzle Palace, The Shadow Factory) and Tim Weiner (Blank Check, A Legacy of Ashes) failed to raise many hackles against the massive expansion of government secrecy, Trevor Paglen’s latest addition to the bookshelf isn’t likely to create much of a stir, either. But it does arrive at a time that makes the teabagger street rallies and the protests against Big Government health care look frivolous and knuckle-headed.

Released earlier this year, Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World, takes yet another look at how the United States nuked Section 1, Article 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution mandating the periodic publication of “a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money.” It’s a twisted bipartisan maze that ends with roughly $60 billion (the most recent estimate) earmarked for national security projects authorized outside congressional purview. Some 70 percent of the dough winds up in the hands of private contractors.

Inmate hacker locks down jail computers

Chaos reigns after cybercrook given programming project

The Register-- A UK prison computer system was left in lockdown after jail bosses gave a convicted cybercriminal the task of reprogramming it, the Sunday Mirror reports.

Douglas Havard, 27, an inmate at Ranby Prison, Nottinghamshire, was asked to take over a project to create an internal TV station using the jail's computer network. Havard is half-way through a six year term over his involvement in a £6.5m hacking and phishing scam (more details here), something the prison governors must have reckoned gave him the requisite computer programming skills.

Havard, originally from the US, was jailed in 2005 after he was convicted for running the UK end of an international phishing scam estimated to have netted up to £6.5m. The American and partner in crime Lee Elwood, 25, were jailed after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to launder money.

Learn the Art of Writing Horror

DreadCentral.com-- There seem to be lots of people out there who feel they just need a push to put the pen to the paper and get that great screenplay written. If you're one of them then stop being a lazy ass and start writing, damn you! It's not going to happen all by itself, is it!? Also, there's this Screenwriting Expo you might be interested in.

Coming up on October 17th, the Screenwriting Expo will host a seminar with Adam Green (Hatchet), Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project, Ti West (Cabin Fever 2) and Ryan Schifrin (S.P.O.O.K.S).

The SCREENWRITING EXPO is the most thorough, in-depth, and intensive screenwriting education available in a brief immersion anywhere. Everything they teach in film school about the craft, and everything they didn't tell you, is taught here. Guests will have a chance to hear and speak to producers, agents, screenwriters with blockbuster hits and critically-acclaimed films, screenwriters who are also national best-seller-list novelists, and world-famous screenwriting teachers among the 100+ members of this year's faculty. If you are an aspiring filmmaker or screenwriter, you don't want to miss this.

Russian UFO Crash

Two Deadly Quakes: Is Earth Unusually Active?

LiveScience.com -- Between the earthquakes that struck the Samoas and Indonesia yesterday and the temblor that devastated L'Aquila, Italy earlier this year, it might seem like Earth has been particularly shaky this year.

But that's not the case: "This is not out of the ordinary as far as the year goes," said John Bellini, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

While it's not unusual to have several large quakes in any given year, these rumblings of the Earth can have different profiles, occurring on different types of faults and triggering varying series of events, including tsunamis possibly even other earthquakes.

Scientists said it's possible the two quakes this week are related, but they don't know yet. Meanwhile, researchers have some preliminary explanations as to why the Samoan temblor generated a deadly tsunami but the Indonesian quake did not.

A year in earthquakes

More than a million earthquakes are estimated to shake the Earth's surface every year, though most of these are minor tremors, barely perceptible to humans if at all.

Paranormal Expert: Rosemary Ellen Guiley