Across Difficult Country

Was my cynicism premature? A major medical breakthrough in Indonesia could mean we truly can “fix” health care: A month ago Ponari was hit by lightning, according to his story. When he regained consciousness there was a stone on top of his head [ Obviously Ponari wasn’t struck by lightning, he was hit by a meteor – CVC ]. He threw it away but the stone came back so he took it home. There he discovered the healing effects of the stone: a neighbour healed of fever after he had touched it, the village head got rid of a bad pain in his arm and the local police officer, a pious Muslim, swears he has seen with his own eyes how Ponari healed a boy who had not spoken a single word for five years. The news about the miraculous healings spread quickly and people started to flood to the small village of Balongsari, a few hours drive from Surabaya. First dozens, then hundreds, and now there are thousands. They bring cups, bottles and buckets of water in which the boy wonder plunges his stone....

Scientists at Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research have been attempting to cross minke whales with cows ; so far without success (my guess is the cows drown when the whales try to mount them). They hope to produce a hybrid animal with the beefy goodness of a cow, the blubbery delightfulness of a 10,000 pound whale, and the ability to spout milk out of its blowhole. Unsurprisingly, this creative research project is being ridiculed by the moribund and humorless scientific establishment: The head of Australia's scientific delegation to the IWC, Dr Nick Gales, said the research not only lacked credibility - it was downright strange. "(The research involves) really bizarre and very strange experiments...It's totally esoteric, very strange research," he said from London. Gales claim to fame is his two year study of the turds and vomit of sea lions , so his jealousy of scientists doing something truly groundbreaking is understandable.

Larison’s blog has absorbed the American Conservative . Breathing in the dust of dried cow shits prevents lung cancer . Did the Sandsend Blob attack a Chatsworth, California woman in 1971 ?

Was a cow really attacked by a carnivorous tree in Padrame (or Patrame), India? 1 Skeptics have repeatedly pointed out how unlikely it is a tree, which after all only has slender branches to strike with, would attack prey as large as a cow. Birds, rodents, or other small game perhaps, but a cow, the skeptics argued, would be too bulky, and honest cryptobotanists conceded they had a point. But now, thanks to the fieldwork of intrepid reporter Melka Miyar , we have more details on the case, including a photograph of the injured bovine, a photo which changes everything . Everyone assumed the animal in question was a big fat Texas-style cow, the kind white men turn into delicious steaks and hamburgers. In reality it was a tiny jungle cow, roughly the size of a large dog, the kind men who wear towels around their waists instead of pants worship as a god. The tallest of pili maras wouldn’t dare attack the former, but even a small pili mara would have a no problem taking a bite out of the l...

In the village of Padrame in the Uppinangady forest range of India cows are being attacked by carnivorous trees : According to reports, the cow owned by Anand Gowda had been left to graze in the forests. The cow was suddenly grabbed by the branches and pulled from the ground. The terrified cowherd ran to the village, and got Gowda and a band of villagers to the carnivorous tree. The cow escaped after Gowda and the villagers beat the hungry tree into submission. Locals call such trees ‘pili mara’, or tiger trees, and many believe snacking pili mara are the reason so many of Padrame’s cows have been coming home at night with missing tails.

In Cameroon urine drinking is suddenly so popular Cameroonian health minister Urbain Olanguena Awono was forced to issue a statement urging quaffers to stop, warning those promoting the practice may be prosecuted. Said a piss drinker named Emile: "I used it to treat my haemorrhoids. Everyone uses it in secret. But you need to be brave." Though rarely mentioned in the history books, Gandhi was an aficionado of the ‘yellow wine’, and in his younger days became known for badgering unwitting guests at parties with his odd notions, diaper clad, glass of pee-pee in hand. Soon Gandhi stopped getting invited to parties. Instead of changing his ways, he became angry, and channeled his resentment into politics. I think you know how that turned out. If you thought Nigeria had more than enough unpleasant worms already you obviously don’t think like God, because a new ‘ mystery worm ’ is invading Nigeria’s Sokoto State. The worms, named Ba Susa , which means ‘no scratching’, infest the ...

Classrooms without walls, learning circles, constructivism, learner or child centered teaching, discovery learning, computer-aided learning, new math, new-new math, conceptual math, afrocentric math, new-new-new-new math, portfolios, group study, team teaching – there's no pedagogical fad the American educational establishment can resist. So when I read teachers in India were sprinkling cow piss on students I immediately alerted my local school board. As the Mangolorean reports : "Upper-caste headteacher Sharad Kaithade ordered the ritual after taking over from a lower-caste predecessor at a school in a remote village in the western state of Maharashtra earlier this month, the Times of India reported. He told an upper-caste colleague to spray cow urine in a cleansing ceremony as the students were taking an examination, wetting their faces and their answer sheets, the newspaper said. "She said you'll study well after getting purified," student Rajat Washnik was qu...

From rural India comes the disgusting news of a cow caught killing and eating chickens . Eyewitness Gour Ghosh recounts: “[W]e watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat.” Local veterinarians downplayed Lal the cow’s abnormal behavior, saying it’s likely because of a mineral deficiency. Unmentioned is the disturbing possibility that bovine serial killers, like human serial killers , start out abusing small animals before progressing to murdering people .

My God, just what is going on in Nigeria? According to Nigeria’s finest newspaper The Tide (motto: “A commitiment to truth”), a middle aged woman working as a street sweeper in the city of Port Harcourt was killed when a “ strange cow suddenly emerged from no where and strangled the woman to death .” Then, “after the cow had accomplished the havoc, it mysteriously disappeared the way it came since no one could trace it after thoroughly searching the area.” I’m not sure what this incident portends, but I plan on avoiding Nigeria as long as this murderous cow with ninja skills is roaming free. I also think I'll have a hamburger for lunch.

Source: PASSPORT TO MAGONIA UFO SIGHTINGS DATABASE, compiled by Jacques Vallee . Commentary added. ___________________ A haystack? Dec. 07, 1872. Banbury, Great Britain: At King's Sutton an object resembling a haystack flew on an irregular course. Sometimes high, sometimes very low it was accompanied by fire and dense smoke. It produced the same effect as a tornado, felling trees and walls. It suddenly vanished The physical description and behavior of the being described in the following encounter are eerily similar to accounts of my Norwegian grandfather: Apr. 17, 1897. Williamston, Michigan: At least a dozen farmers saw an object maneuver in the sky for an hour before it landed. A strange man near 3m tall, almost naked and suffering from the heat, was the pilot of the craft. "His talk, while musical, seemed to be a repetition of bellowings." One farmer went near him and received a blow that broke his hip. Possibly the first account linking UFO’s and cattle mutilation. ...