BRIEF REPORTS from INVESTIGATOR MAGAZINE 103 to 109
INVESTIGATOR 103 (2005 July)
NEW TIME-SLOT FOR GHOST
A television paint-commercial for Dulux paint got removed in March from children's viewing times because it gave children nightmares.
The commercial, accompanied by a pulse-raising soundtrack, showed a female ghost floating above ground and passing through physical objects as it chased a man through a house.
The man, barely in front, raced through a door and the ghost tried to catch him by floating through the adjacent wall. Instead it smashed into the wall and crashed to the floor.
A voice then said, "Nothing repels like Dulux..."
Parents of upset toddlers complained to the Advertising Standards Board.
FOUR-LEGGED WHALE
American scientists found 42-million-year-old bones from a 16-metre whale which, they said, had four appendages. The discovery was made at Wadi Hitan 100km south of Cairo.
The research team from the University of Michigan was led by Philip Gingerich a physical anthropologist.
In evolution theory mammals evolved after amphibians emerged from the sea, but some mammals then returned to the sea and gradually their legs evolved away. Discovery of the remains of a whale skeleton with four appendages may support this scenario.
Gingerich's discovery is being hotly contested by Creationists.
LUCKY CHARM WAS UNLUCKY
An Indonesian maid in Malaysia spiked her employer's drinking water with soiled nappies as a magic charm to ensure his family treated her nicely. Caught on camera she got fired. (The Advertiser 2005 June 4, p7)
FINGER POINTS TO CRIME
The 4-centimetre finger-tip that made news after a diner, Anna Ayala, bit into it at a Wendy's fast-food venue in Las Vegas has been identified. (Investigator 102, p29) It's from a family friend who lost it in an industrial accident in Nevada in 2004.
Wendy's lost millions in sales and laid off dozens of employees.
The finger-biter has been arrested.
The police chief announced, "The charade is over. They chose the wrong city to try to victimise people and perpetrate a hoax." (Sunday Mail May 15, p36)
POLYGAMIST DIES
Owen Allred, head of the Apostolic United Brethren, a Utah cult that allows polygamy, died in Salt Lake City, in February, aged 91.
The 6,000-member cult claims to follow Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons.
The main branch of Mormons gave up polygamy in 1890 when their president, Wilford Woodruff, claimed he received a revelation from God to ban it. Thereafter the Mormons excommunicated members who continued practicing polygamy.
Allred, who had eight wives, was excommunicated in the 1930s. After being excommunicated he and his brothers established a community which designated him a living prophet.
Allred's great-grandmother moved to Illinois to live in Nauvoo a town founded and ruled by Joseph Smith. There she married William M Allred in 1846.
Allred's grandfather, Byron H Allred, was born during another journey when many Mormons moved to Utah and founded Salt Lake City. Allred's father, Byron H Allred Jr., was a Mormon elder.
The new head of the Apostolic United Brethren is Lamoine Jensen.
INVESTIGATOR 104 (2005 September)
THE OCCULT GUIDES BUSINESS
Corporate Australia is increasingly employing psychics and witches as business consultants. For example Alana Fairchild, a former lawyer turned psychic, charges up to $385 an hour to use "intuitive diagnostics" to detect problems in organizational structure.
The Sunday Mail reported: "Self-employed professionals, small business owners and executives…are among those joining an expanding network of "covens" organised by businesswoman and self-described witch Stacey Demarco." (2005, July 3, p84)
Demarco, a former public relations manager, is author of There's A Witch In The Boardroom. She claims "spiritual values" are compatible with making money, has established three covens in Sydney, and runs workshops on "business magic".
Another psychic is Sally de Beche who advises clients on their finances using "holographic images" to find the peaks in the business cycle and therefore the best time to sell.
www.lawyer-news-info/news-about-psychics.htm
NO BLOOD PLEASE
Another needless Jehovah's Witness death from blood loss received wide publicity, this one in Munich, Germany.
Irmgard Christoph, 32, gave birth to a boy and then began to lose blood rapidly. Doctors removed her womb without blood transfusion and she regained consciousness twice but refused to change her mind.
She had brought an affidavit signed by a solicitor declaring she did not want a blood transfusion even in an emergency. Doctors, in such a situation, are legally powerless to save the person's life.
(Sunday Mail 2005, August 7, p36)
KILLER EXORCISMS
In Romania a convent nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, relapsed after treatment for schizophrenia.
A priest Daniel Petru Corogeanu, 29, and four other nuns therefore attempted an exorcism: "…she was allegedly tied to a cross, gagged with a towel and left for three days without food…she died of suffocation and dehydration." (Sunday Mail 2005, June 26, p42)
In England an 8-year-old Angolan girl died after 14 months of "physical and mental abuse" by her aunt, brother and another woman who wanted to exorcise "evil spirits". A court sentenced the culprits to 24 years jail.
(Sunday Mail 2005, July 10, p42)
www.religionnewsblog.com/H344
INVESTIGATOR 105 (2005 November)
TENTH PLANET
The discovery of our Solar System's tenth planet, bigger and further away than Pluto the ninth planet, was announced in July. (Sunday Mail 2005, July 31, p34)
The 10th planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory and was first photographed in 2003.
In 1781 the seventh planet, Uranus, was discovered. Some theologians believed Uranus would be the last — because seven, they reasoned, is the Bible number that symbolises perfection and therefore God created only seven planets.
In 1846 this was refuted by the discovery of Neptune.
However, the numbers ten and twelve are also common in the Bible and, some people argue, also symbolise perfection. Therefore why not predict 12 planets?
In other star systems outside our Solar System the number of planets discovered is now entering into hundreds.
BIG CRAP FROM LITTLE PEBBLE
Cult leader and prophet William Kamm, also called "The Little Pebble", has been found guilty of aggravated indecent assault and aggravated sexual intercourse.
Kamm, now 55 and a former Roman Catholic, claimed regular contact with Jesus and the Virgin Mary who named him "The Little Pebble" in 1983. He headed a religious community called The Order of St Charbel on the New South Wales coast near Nowra.
When his wife wasn't around Kamm kissed, fondled and masturbated a 15-year-old girl in the community and later "married" her.
The girl and parents joined the community about 1990 and accepted Kamm's teaching that he would be the last pope and would father a new race after the end of the world. He: "…told the girl and her parents she would be one of 12 queens and 72 princesses with whom he would conceive the "divine tribe" after "the end times"." (The Weekend Australian 2005, July 9-10)
Kamm started his community, which peaked at 200 members, in 1984 with further followers in North America, Japan and Africa. The cult became a doomsday cult when he predicted the Halle-Bopp comet would cause great destruction on Earth in 1997.
Another doomsday scenario came several years later:
The Little Pebble has told his 1500 followers to expect the world to end on May 5 or May 28. (Northern Territory News 2000, April 11; Herald Sun 2000, April 5)
The Vatican rejected Kamm's claims of supernatural visions and excommunicated him in 2002.
INVESTIGATOR 108 (2009 May)
IS CHINA TURNING CHRISTIAN?
A visit to a Chinese Christian church in Adelaide about 10 years ago elicited the information that China had at least 50 million Christians.
The book The Top Ten Of Everything (1989 edition) includes a list of the ten largest Christian populations in the world. China is not in the list. However, fifth in the list is West Germany with 57,557,000. This would have made China the country with the sixth largest Christian population.
The Top Ten Of Everything 2006 (published in 2005), however, does include China in its list of "top 10 Largest Christian populations".
With 113,800,000 Christians, China is placed third after the USA and Brazil.
INVESTIGATOR 109 (2009 July)
ADELAIDE SPARED
Adelaide clairvoyant John Nash predicted a tidal wave would hit Adelaide on January 15, 1976.
Thousands left Adelaide. Nash himself moved almost 1,000 miles to safety in Warwick in SE Queensland.
On the fateful day Premier Don Dunstan and a skeptical crowd gathered near the beach and jetty of the seaside suburb of Glenelg.
Nothing happened — no tidal wave. The following week, however, Warwick was hit by floods.