Oil Rig Explosion In Gulf Foreshadowed In 2009 Movie 'Knowing'?

Did the Nicholas Cage movie Knowing predict the oil spill in the gulf? Or is it just a coincidence? There seems to be some buzz on the internet about this. It is an eerie similarity, but then again, you could probably find other similarities to events that occur in a movies and events that occur in the real world.

Selling a haunted house...disclosure required?

I was reading a post written by Jason Offutt on his blog From the Shadows, and he mentioned that when selling haunted property in Indiana, there are laws that require real estate agents to disclose the haunting.  I was a little shocked by that...but I'm not too surprised.  I'm not surprised that a haunting is considered a stigma when selling a house, but I am surprised that the state would require that a haunting be disclosed.  Who gets to decide whether or not a property is haunted?

I did a little more looking around, and an article I found in the Wall Street Journal says that in 44 states and Washington, DC, a haunting falls under a category of 'psychological stigmas' (although that doesn't necessarily mean that realtors are automatically required to disclose a haunting since it is considered a non-material factor, but they shouldn't lie about it if someone asks) . Another article I found mentioned a court case from New York named Stambovsky v. Ackley, where a home buyer (Stambovsky) sued to rescind the sales contract for the house he bought after he found out it was haunted.  The haunting had not been disclosed to Stambovsky, and he won the case!

I wasn't able to find a list of states that require that a haunting be disclosed, but I got the impression that the laws vary state to state (and may not always be totally clear), and that it's not necessarily required that real estate agents disclose whether or not a house is haunted up front, but they should respond truthfully if a potential buyer asks.

Interesting nonetheless.  In the Stambovsky v. Ackley case, there were publications (including Readers Digest) that reported the house as being haunted.  But what if there were no published accounts of the house being haunted?  What else could a court go by in making a decision?  Who would get to decide whether or not a house was haunted?  Stambovsky had the benefit of buying a house that had been previously reported as being haunted, but what if there was a case where there were no prior reports for a haunting?  My guess is, if there were not prior reports of a property being haunted, it would be difficult to win a court case to rescind a sales contract.

Moon Buggy Repair: One of the many uses for duct tape

I've heard jokes before about different things duct tape could be used for, but I didn't know one of those uses was moon buggy repair, and yes, I do mean the kind of moon buggy that astronauts would use on the moon.

Back in 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt landed on the moon in a mountain-ringed valley named Taurus-Littrow.  At one point during their mission, part of a fender was accidentally torn off when Cernan brushed up against it and a hammer in his shin pocket caught it.  And apparently, a moon buggy with a missing fender can create a big problem when you're driving it on the moon.

According to NASA, here is why:

The reason is moondust. When a rover rolls across the lunar surface, it kicks up a plume of moondust in its wake. (Astronauts called them "rooster tails.") Without a fender, the rover would be showered by a spray of dark, abrasive grit. White spacesuits blackened by dust could turn into dangerous absorbers of the fierce lunar sun with astronauts overheating inside. Sharp-edged dust wiped off visors would scratch the glass, making helmets difficult to see out of. Moondust also had an uncanny way of working itself into hinges, latches and joints, rendering them useless.

The solution? Duct tape!

Read more about it at NASA's website here.

UFO Car

You didn't think there was a such thing, did you?!

Link: U.F.O.

See more unusual cars youdrivewhat.com.

The man with no appetite

An Indian yogi named Prahlad Jani has been in the news recently due to his claim of not having any food or water for seven decades.  Here's an excerpt from an article on Fox News:

Indian doctors are studying an 83-year-old holy man who claims to have spent the last seven decades without food and water.

Military doctors hope the experiments on Prahlad Jani can help soldiers develop their survival strategies.

The long-haired and bearded yogi is under 24-hour observation by a team of 30 specialists during three weeks of tests at a hospital in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

I thought I remembered hearing about this yogi before, so I looked up some more information on him and found a BBC article about him from 2003.  Jani is also mentioned in a Wikipedia entry about inedia, which is apparently what the alleged ability to live without food is called (although the entry states that the word "inedia" simply means "fasting" in Latin).

Some people think Jani is a fraud, but according to the news articles I've found, the physicians have not seen him eat, drink, or use a toilet.  If he is a fraud, he's a good one.  If he is legit, then he is a pretty unique guy.

I'm not sure if should be amazed or if I should feel sorry for him....he's missing out on some good stuff!