Paranormal Magazine

Police say a man living in Germany was shot in the back of his head, but that it took him five years to realize it.

Police said Tuesday that the 35-year-old man was hit by a .22-caliber bullet in the western town of Herne as he was out in the street partying and drunk on New Year’s Eve five years ago.

They say the man recalled receiving a blow to the head, but told them he didn’t seek medical assistance at the time.

The bullet did not penetrate the skull, and police say the Polish man only went to see a doctor recently when he felt a lump on the back of his head. An X-ray showed an object under his skin, and doctors operated and found the projectile.

Police say it may have been a stray bullet fired by a reveler in celebration.

The payout, approved by the City Council on Friday, settles a federal lawsuit the seven filed after they were arrested and jailed for two days for dressing up like zombies in downtown Minneapolis on July 22, 2006, to protest “mindless” consumerism.

When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of sound equipment to amplify music from an iPod when they were arrested by police who said they were carrying equipment that simulated “weapons of mass destruction.”

However, they were never charged with any crime.

Although U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen had dismissed the zombies’ lawsuit, it was resurrected in February by a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded that police lacked probable cause to arrest the seven, a decision setting the stage for a federal trial this fall. The settlement means there will be no trial.

“I feel great that the city is being held accountable for the actions of their police,” said Raphi Rechitsky, 27, of Minneapolis, one of the seven zombies, who said he and his friends were performing street theater when they were arrested. He is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota.

Minneapolis City Attorney Susan L. Segal said it was in the best interests of the city to settle. “We believe the police acted reasonably, but you never know what a jury is going to do with a case,” she said.

If a jury had concluded that the seven plaintiffs’ constitutional rights had been violated and awarded $50,000 to each, plus defense attorney’s fees, “it could have been quite substantial,” Segal said.

[via: startribune.com]

Genealogists have traced the heritage of ‘Twilight’ star to supposed Dracula inspiration, Vlad the Impaler…

Robert Pattinson isn’t the only famous vampire in his family.

Genealogists said the 24-year-old “Twilight” star is related to Vlad the Impaler, widely cited as the inspiration for the main character in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

Researchers at Ancestry.com discovered that Pattinson and the Transylvanian leader (real name: Vlad III Dracula) are connected through their relationship to the British royal family. Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson’s distant cousins; Vlad the Impaler was their distant uncle.

“Tracing Pattinson’s family back to Vlad was difficult research, but the pieces that unraveled created the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “Without any myth or magic, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson’s life — making his story just as supernatural as the one he’s playing on screen.”

Also connected to the prince’s lineage and therefore to Dracula? Stephenie Meyer, the author of the “Twilight” series.

The latest big-screen installment in the popular vampire saga, “Eclipse,” opens July 8.

[via: fox5vegas.com]

The Terrafugia Transition, a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile, is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The Transition was designed as a “light sport” aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. But the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features – airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance – that are required for road vehicles into that weight.

Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption – allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over the limit.

Light sport aircraft licences require just 20 hours’ flying time, making them much easier to obtain than full private licences.

The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30 miles per gallon. Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot – an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land – it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propellor, and take off. The folding wings are electrically powered.

Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot (one-third of a mile) runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage.

Terrafugia says that one of the major advantages of the Transition over ordinary light aircraft is safety – in the event of inclement weather, it can simply drive home instead of either being grounded or flying in unsafe conditions.

The company says that 70 people have ordered the car, leaving a $10,000 (£6,650) deposit each. The car is expected to retail at $194,000 (£129,000). Deposits are held in escrow, meaning that should the company go bankrupt before delivery, the money will be refunded.

[via: telegraph.co.uk]

Mystery surrounds a man wearing a horse’s head who has been captured on Google’s Street View in Aberdeen.

The man – who has become known as ‘horse-boy’ – can be seen in the Hardgate area of the city.

The sighting has become a popular attraction on Google’s service, which offers a photographic map of streets.

The man is wearing dark trousers, a purple shirt – and a brown and white horse’s head.

Dozens of BBC news website users have e-mailed from across Europe to say they know who horse boy is.

Others have sent in images of the mystery horse-head wearer and some have claimed to be him.

Stefan Kleen from Germany said he and a friend met horse-boy at a German festival last weekend.

He added: “He only spoke English so we didn’t really talk a lot to him.”

Anders Hauge reckons he has been shopping in Haugesund in Norway; John Hammond was convinced he was playing the fairways and relaxing in the bars of Marbella and Julian Sykes said he had been sighted in Cardiff.

John Ainsworth insisted he saw horse-boy in Norwich earlier in the year walking through Wensum Park.

He said: “I thought I was hallucinating at first but then realised it was real.”

Other readers have not been impressed with the story and some have told the website that it is not newsworthy and is a prank to generate further publicity.

A number of contributors have said that horse-boy features in other parts of Google’s street view service.

Mark Coates said: “If you go down the road and turn back you can see him putting on the horse head and on the shot back up the road again he has white hair.”

The BBC story has had more than 500,000 hits.

[via: news.bbc.co.uk]

A news study has suggested that people who play computer games before sleep may have a greater awareness and control over their dreams.

The research shows people who play more games more often have lucid dreams, where they look upon themselves from a third-person perspective. And also that they have a greater level of control over actions taken in the dream.

More recent studies by Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada, look into the idea that comparatively, gamers when faced with a nightmare, will take the initiative and aggressively fight their way out of the dream scenario with relatively little fear. This early hypothesis could mean that people who suffer frequent sleep depriving nightmares may find a solution in virtual reality gaming.

Read more at livescience.com.

Josef Stalin blocked two attempts to kill Adolf Hitler during the Second World War, fearing that his replacement as Nazi leader would make peace with the Western Allies, a top Russian general said.

A plan to attack Hitler’s bunker in 1943 and a 1944 plot involving an assassin who had gained the trust of the Nazi leadership were both cancelled on Stalin’s orders, General Anatoly Kulikov told a historical conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

“A plan to assassinate Hitler in his bunker was developed, but Stalin suddenly cancelled it in 1943 over fears that after Hitler’s death his associates would conclude a separate peace treaty with Britain and the United States,” Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Gen Kulikov as saying.

In 1944, the Soviets again plotted to kill Hitler after a potential assassin managed to gain the trust of the Nazi leadership. “A detailed assassination plan was prepared, but Stalin cancelled it again,” Gen Kulikov was quoted as saying.

Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945, as Soviet forces closed on Berlin, effectively ending the war in Europe and setting the stage for the Cold War stand-off between Russia and the West.

An estimated 27 million Soviet citizens died in the 1941-1945 war with Nazi Germany.

Gen Kulikov was Russia’s interior minister from 1995 to 1998 under President Boris Yeltsin. He said that the Club of Military Leaders, which he heads, would include details of the assassination attempts in a forthcoming book on the Second World War.

[via: telegraph.co.uk]

A family has defied the odds to have a son, father and grandfather all born on the same day.

When Benjamin Fox arrived in the world on May 8 he shared the same birthday as not only his father Lee but also his grandfather Harry.

Bookmakers have worked out the odds of three generations of the same family all having boys born on the same day as 272,910 to one.

David Williams a spokesman for Ladbrokes said: “It’s an incredibly rare thing to happen. If the family had put a bet on it before Benjamin was born they would be very rich now.”

Benjamin’s proud dad Lee, 35, a insulation engineer from Romford, Essex, said he was stunned when a midwife revealed at three months that his baby was expected to be born on his birthday of May 8.

He said: “When they did the scan and the measurements and worked out the baby would be born on May 8 I just said ‘No way, that’s my birthday and my dad’s too’.

“We were told first babies rarely arrive on their due day, they can be early and late so we never thought for a moment that the baby would be born on mine and my dad’s birthday.”

[via: dailymail.co.uk]

The infamous UFO-shaped balloon that caused a viral storm has now been returned to the “Balloon Boy” and his family

Richard Henne and family of Colorado will always go down in history as the folks who made the world believe that their son had floated away in a homemade balloon. The little boy was dubbed ‘Balloon Boy’. Henne and his wife were both charged and sentenced to short jail terms. Word is now, that the balloon has been returned to the family.

The UFO shaped balloon was an experimental balloon that the Henne Family had made as part of their family amateur weather experiments. It was in October of 2009, when a mysterious balloon looking craft was floating vicariously over the outskirts of Denver, Colorado and first word was that there was a child inside. Come to find out, the child had been hiding in the garage the whole time and the parents were charged with public endangerment.

Now the Henne Family have gotten their infamous balloon back. There were stipulations though. Richard Henne was forced to pay $36,000 in restitution for public services rendered in the chase of the balloon, committing to working 10 weekends with various non profits, and completing their 90 day jail sentences. Richard Henne has apparently done that and now the balloon that put them on the map is back home safe and sound.

[via: ecanadanow.com]

A music teacher, Frano Selak, who was dubbed the world’s luckiest man after cheating death seven times before winning the lottery has now decided to give away his fortune.

The 81 year-old won £600,000 five years ago in the lottery in Croatia, to celebrate his fifth marriage, after earlier surviving plane and train crashes.

He also survived other disasters including landing on a haystack after falling out of a plane door that had blown open.

Now the pensioner has decided that “money cannot buy happiness” and has decided to live a frugal life.

He has sold his luxury home on a private island, given away his fortune to family and friends and moved back to his modest home in Petrinja, which is south of Zagreb, in the centre of the country.

He kept the last bit of his winnings for a hip replacement operation so he could enjoy life with his wife and also so he could build a shrine to the Virgin Mary to give thanks for his luck.

Mr Selak said he has never been happier.

“All I need at my age is my Katarina. Money would not change anything,” he said.

“When she arrived I knew then that I really did have a charmed, blessed life.

“I never thought I was lucky to survive all my brushes with death. I thought I was unlucky to be in them in the first place.”

He added that people were always telling him he was lucky to have survived so many disasters but he added: “I always think I was unlucky to have been in them in the first place but you can’t tell people what they don’t want to believe.”

He had his first escape in 1962 when a train he was travelling on from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik jumped the rails and plunged into an icy river.

Seventeen people drowned and he barely made it to the riverbank after suffering from hypothermia, shock, bruises and a broken arm.

A year later, he was thrown out of a plane on his first and only flight when a door flew open.

This time 19 people died but he was thrown clear of the crash and landed in a haystack.

Then in 1966, a bus he was on skidded into a river, drowning four. He swam to safety with just cuts and bruises.

Accident number four came in 1970 when his car caught fire as he drove along a motorway and he fled with seconds to spare before the fuel tank exploded.

Three years later, he lost most of his hair when a faulty fuel pump spewed petrol over the hot engine of his car and blew flames through the air vents.

Then in 1995 came his sixth accident when he was knocked down by a bus in Zagreb but walked away with minor injuries.

The following year, he was driving in the mountains when he turned a corner to see a UN truck coming straight for him.

His Skoda careered through a crash barrier and over the 300ft precipice.

But he leapt clear at the last minute and sat in a tree as he watched his car hit the bottom and explode.

He then won £600,000 with his first ever lottery ticket and celebrated his fifth marriage saying: “I guess all the earlier marriages were disasters too.”

[via: telegraph.co.uk]

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