Recently in It's A Strange World Category

SuicideGirls helped comics historian Craig Yoe recreate the secret fetish art of Superman artist and co-creator Joe Shuster at back room soirée held at LA's Meltdown Comics last night.

Shuster's erotic illustrations were originally published in 1953 in the under-the-counter comic Nights of Horror. The work violated pornography laws at the time, thus Shuster was unable to lay claim to this work. A spate of murders in New York lead to a crackdown on pornography in the city the following year. The publisher of Nights of Horror was arrested, and the comics were confiscated and destroyed. Thus the adult work of Shuster, which had always been done undercover, was seemingly lost for all time.

Then, about two years ago, Yoe stumbled across a copy of Nights of Horror in a dusty box on an antique book stall. Yoe instantly recognized the DNA of the draftsmanship displayed in the images. Further research into Shuster's hereto unknown illicit work opened the door to a twilight world of showgirls, mobsters, neo-Nazi juvenile delinquents, hate crimes, murders, court cases, and government enquiries held at the highest level.

Yoe has compiled the stories and images he uncovered in a just-released book, Secret Identity. Read more on Yoe's remarkable voyage of discovery in my interview here.

For images from the Meltdown event, click here.

The British Government recently made formerly classified files on UFO's available to the public for the first time. Much of the data was compiled by Britain's DI55 intelligence service, a top secret Ministry of Defence organization whose primary official function was to gather information on ballistic missiles.

Due to the volume of documents that have been declassified under the Freedom of Information act, the release will be done in stages over the next four years, giving officials time to redact names, addresses, and other sensitive information. The first wave of files, covering the years 1978-2002, can be downloaded for free (for a limited period) via the National Archives website in PDF format.

France was the first country to make its X-Files available to the public online. The country's space agency, the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), and its GEIPAN unit, which is charged with the task of investigating unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP) and making information available to the public, launched a website last year which archived GEIPAN's UFO files.

Now that the UK has opened its X-Files, the US government has come under increasing pressure to follow suit. It's not just Sci-Fi fans and conspiracy nuts that are seeking more access to this information however. Many high level government and military officials, including politicians, CIA and FBI agents, former astronauts and NASA employees, are calling for the government to open up its X-Files and reopen its UFO investigations, which were officially halted in 1970. As detailed in the above documentary (if player fails to load, click HERE to view), many very credible people are saying some very incredible things. The truth is out there....

Fans of the film What The Bleep Do We Know!? will know all about Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto's work with well intentioned water, which is further explored in the new film Water (and comes conveniently pre-packaged by our friends at H2Om). Now it seems that chocolate can benefit in a similar way from good vibrations.

Dr. Dean Radin, the Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization dedicated to expanding science beyond conventional paradigms, looked into the matter. In double blind tests he found that "there was a 67% improvement in the mood of the people who ate the intentional chocolate."

"I think intentional chocolate reminds us in a particularly delicious way that at some fundamental level mind and matter really are deeply interconnected," notes Radin in this Current TV podcast.

The Daily Mantra is happy to hear there's yet another possible benefit to eating our favorite health food. We just have one question: Where can we volunteer for those double-blind chocolate chomping tests?

Further Reading:

• Get Your PMS Fix
  
• Chocolate And Hemp: Our Kind Of Alternative Medication
  
• Chocolate May Reduce Pregnancy Complication Risk
  
• Chocolate May Cut Diabetes Risk
  

It's only paranoia if they aren’t out to get you right? So the jury's still out on Mr. Radivoje Lajic. The Bosnian native is developing a slight persecution complex, to say the least, after a series of five meteorites landed on his property in the village of Gornja Lamovite.

"I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense," says Lajic. "The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit five times has to be deliberate."

The first missile from space hit its target in November. Since then four more space rocks have rained down on Lajic in this alien campaign of shock and awe. The strikes always happen during heavy rain, so the only time Lajic feels safe is when the skies are clear. In an effort to strengthen his defenses, Lajic has reinforced the roof of his home with a steel girder.

"I did not know what the strange-looking stones were at first but I have since had them all confirmed as meteorites by experts at Belgrade University," says Lajic. Belgrade University is now investigating local magnetic fields to see if they can shed any light on the ET assault.

"I am being targeted by aliens. They are playing games with me," complains Lajic. "I don't know why they are doing this. When it rains I can't sleep for worrying about another strike."

Click HERE to apply to become a Virgle pioneer. For more information about the open source, inter-planetary colonization project, view Richard Branson's orientation video by clicking HERE .

It's becoming more and more evident that apes are capable of speech, but what happens once they do finally get chatty with us humans? What if dolphins have the monopoly on intelligence and sensitivity, and talking apes turn out to be frat-boy like conversationalists? We've been expecting monkeys to come up with Shakespeare once they master the typewriter, what if their first words are, "Dude, where's the party?" Then again, perhaps the cheeky monkey in this video is just auditioning for the remake of National Lampoon's Animal House.


I'll leave you with one final thought:

• Question: What's smarter than a talking monkey?
  (Click HERE for answer.)

A new survey has revealed that Librans are the unluckiest drivers, suffering more breakdowns than those born under any other star sign. The research was done by the R.A.C., a British motoring organization that is similar to America's Auto Club. Pisceans were the luckiest drivers, experiencing over 40,000 less breakdowns than unlucky Librans.

The survey also revealed that Brits are more likely to know the laws of the zodiac than the rules of the road. Of those surveyed, 42% admitted to reading their horoscope in the past year, while just 12% had read the Highway Code (the UK equivalent to our Drivers Handbook).

Drivers who are willing to tempt fate, at least where their license plate is concerned, are also among the luckiest however. The report noted that, "registrations that include the number '13' are 25% less likely to break down than average" and that "cars with '666' in the number plate are 15% less likely to break down than average."

While being bad news for Libran NASCAR diver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., this survey may indicate an unexpected upside for devil-worshiping witches who drive.

The full star sign league table is (from unluckiest to luckiest):

• 1. Libra
  
• 2. Capricorn
  
• 3. Aquarius
  
• 4. Virgo
  
• 5. Sagittarius
  
• 6. Leo
  
• 7. Aries
  
• 8. Scorpio
  
• 9. Gemini
  
• 10. Cancer
  
• 11. Taurus
  
• 12. Pisces
  

Will civilization as we know it end on December 21st 2012 as some followers of pre-Mayan culture believe? Organizers of the 2012 Conference, to be held on Saturday March 1, 2008 at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood, CA, are hoping that the experts they've gathered for it will shed light on the question.

Using the movements of the planets and stars as their guide, the ancient Maya civilization developed a complex system of three main interlocking calendars, the Tzolk'in, the Haab, and a cycle known as the Long Count. There's some debate as to how exactly the Maya calendar and our own Gregorian calendar sync up, but the consensus of opinion says the first 394 year cycle of the Long Count calendar began on August 11, 3114 B.C., and that the thirteenth, and final, cycle is set to end on the December solstice of 2012.

What happens after this highly significant date is up for debate, hence the conference. Some say 2012 will mark the end of the world, while others believe that the Long Count was intended to work like an odometer in a car, and that it should be reset and counting should start again from zero come 2012.

While it's uncertain whether 2012 marks an end or a new beginning, we'll be hedging our bets and plan to celebrate Christmas a few days early that year just in case. In the meantime we're planning to high tail it down to the 2012 Conference to see how experts such as Cuban American medical anthropologist and psychologist Dr. Alberto Villoldo, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl author Daniel Pinchbeck, Timewave 2013 filmmakers Sharron Rose and Jay Weidner, and leading Mesoamerican cosmology expert John Major Jenkins think we should prepare for the impending shift.

The Queen Mary was once the jewel of Cunard's cruise ship fleet, capturing the Blue Riband transatlantic speed record in both directions the year of her maiden transatlantic voyage in 1936. She served as a troopship during World War II, before returning to her peacetime cruising duties. Superseded by the jumbo jet age, with her glamor faded but not forgotten, she now serves as a hotel and museum at her permanent dock in Long Beach, CA. With a storied past, The Queen Mary has seen much love and loss, and is consequently said to be one of the most haunted places in America. My husband and I decided to check in for a night to check out the grand old lady of the sea's restless soul.

• 5.50 p.m. As we unpacked, a bag that was lying on the bed in our room shifted a little in front of our eyes. My husband and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows.
  
  
  
• 6.06 p.m. I changed my clothes in the bedroom, while my husband took a shower in the bathroom. Suddenly, the toilet seat crashed down all on its own. The spook is on.
  
  
  
• 6.25 p.m. I stopped by the Piccadilly Corner gift shop to buy a postcard or two. The manager told me that while he was a skeptic where ghosts were concerned, a very good and reliable friend of his had seen a lady in white in the lounge at the Queen Mary's Sir Winston's restaurant.
  
  
  
• 6.30 p.m. Naturally our next stop was dinner with a spot of ghost-hunting on the side at Sir Winston's. I asked Jesus our waiter if he'd seen any ghosts. "I am a ghost," he jovially replied. "I serve the food and then disappear." If only he could've made our check vanish too.
  
  
  
• 8.45 p.m. We watched chanteuse Lauren Koval raise the spirits of Frank Sinatra and Cole Porter by the piano in Sir Winston's lounge where the White Lady is said to hang out. Though Lauren hadn't personally seen the music-loving ghost, she did report an incident that occurred some time ago which spooked her. While getting ready to perform in the restaurant's bathroom her toothbrush got thrown from the countertop to the floor, twice.
  
  
  
• 9.30 p.m. We took an evening stroll around the ship, checking out all the obvious spiritual hangouts, the bridge, the chapel and the many bars.
  
  
  
• 10.33 p.m. Back in our room, my husband heard a faint thud coming from the wardrobe.
  
  
  
• 12.33 a.m. The bath taps began to trickle out of the blue, and continued to do so for several minutes. Was it old plumbing or something more?
  
  
  
• 8.00 a.m. After a night of strange dreams about life on board the ship during war time, I drifted awake and was left with an overwhelming sense of loss, and a black and white photographic-like image of a small boy, dressed for school in shorts and long socks, carrying an old fashioned metal lunch box in my mind's eye.
  
  
  
• 8.33 a.m. My husband was awakened by a loud crash coming from next door. Judging by the equally loud voices that accompanied it, the disturbance was by those that were living rather than by anyone who'd crossed over.
  
  
  
• 9.00 a.m. We heard feint, very old-fashioned singing wafting down the corridor as we made morning coffee in our room.
  
  
  
• 9.11 a.m. When I went to the bathroom the toilet seat was up. My well-trained husband is always polite enough to leave it down. Very strange.
  

While the only spirits we can 100 percent say we experienced were the ones in our glasses after dinner, some strange things did happen that night. We'll definitely be back to investigate, and are planning to return at a later date for the Queen Mary's midnight Paranormal Investigation Tour.

We thought this piece of dubious exercise equipment was so spectacular in its utter redundancy that it deserved a special edition all of its own in our ongoing series Landfills Were Made For These, which highlights the useless stuff of life (see previous).

The manufacturers of the Hawaii Chair, which features a "2800 rpm hula motor" that rotates the seat, claim their invention "combines the ancient art of the hula with patented health science technology." They promise that "in just 20 minutes a day you can hula your way to a sexier slimmer you," and that the chair will "take the work out of your workout."

But wait. There's more. The folks from HawaiiChair.com say "the Hawaii chair wasn't just designed for at home," and that since office workers routinely spend 40 hours a week behind a desk, you should take your workout chair to work. We think, however, that if you "Hawaii chair while answering phones, using the computer, balancing books or filing paperwork," as this infomercial suggests (if player fails to load click HERE to view), the chair is more likely to take the work out of your life altogether as your boss hands you a pink slip for your peculiar behavior.

But hurry! This offer won't last for long. On their website the chair is reduced from $419.94 to just $293.96. Hmmn? We can't imagine why?