The Lighter Side of the News

[gwillybj]

Superstitions Collide: Full Moon Rises on Friday the 13th
By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor
June 12, 2014 10:39am ET


The June full moon, called the Strawberry Moon, occurs on Friday the 13th. Here a full moon climbs its way to the top of the Washington Monument, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls View full size image: http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/067/141/original/supermoon-full-moon.jpg?1402583096

This month, the full moon falls on Friday the 13th.

Freaky? Nah, probably not.

Despite many myths, the full moon does not actually embolden criminals, bring about births or make people mad, studies show. And while Friday the 13th superstitions may be well entrenched, there's nothing particularly special about a full moon falling on this date.

This Friday's full moon will be the lowest in the sky this year, however, since it will occur so close to the summer solstice. You can watch this freaky full moon rising in a live webcast on Live Science, beginning at 9:30 p.m. EDT tonight (June 12). [Gallery: Fantastic Photos of Full Moons: http://www.livescience.com/15048-gallery-full-moon.html]

Strawberry Moon

The June full moon is nicknamed the "Strawberry Moon," a moniker that goes back to the Algonquin Native American tribe, according to the Farmer's Almanac. June is strawberry season, and the full moon would have traditionally coincided with the harvest. (It's sometime called the Honey Moon because of all the weddings in June. GWB)

The June full moon is frequently the one nearest to the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. Because of a neat bit of galactic geometry, this means the full moon on Friday will be the lowest in the sky of any in 2014.

Here's how it works: The Earth rotates on a tilted axis; in June — summer in the Northern Hemisphere — the North Pole is tilted about 23.5 degrees toward the sun, while the South Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. On the solstice, the sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator.

Full moons happen when Earth's satellite is opposite the sun; that's why viewers on Earth see the entire face of the moon illuminated. Thus, when the full moon is directly opposite the sun when our host star appears at its highest point, the moon is at its lowest point with respect to the equator. That's why winter full moons rise higher above the horizon than summer full moons.

Moon Myths

June's moon reaches its fullest point at 12:11 a.m. EDT (0411 GMT) on Friday, June 13. Of course, this means that for people in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones in the United States, this full moon isn't a Friday the 13th full moon at all: It technically falls on June 12.

Friday the 13th full moons occur sporadically. The last one fell on Aug. 13, 2011. The next Friday the 13th full moon will be on Aug. 13, 2049.

Even those who live in the Eastern time zone should not stress over the confluence of the full moon with Friday the 13th. Contrary to myth, the full moon does not affect human behavior or health. For example, a 1985 review published in the journal Psychological Bulletin tracked hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, homicides and other crime over several months and found no uptick in any of those variables around the time of the full moon.

Alas for heavily pregnant women, a 2001 study in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society looked at about 70 million births in the United States and found no link between the phase of the moon and labor starting. So don't expect to finish your pregnancy just because the moon is full.

Studies have also shown that other phenomena, including seizures, crime and heart surgery outcomes, have no link to the full moon.

Pet owners might want to avoid walking their black cats under the full moon on Friday, however. One 2007 study of pet injuries published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association found that emergency vet visits for cats were 23 percent higher on days around the full moon. (Dog visits spiked 28 percent on those days.) Researchers speculated that people might use the extra light of the full moon to stay out after dark with their pets, perhaps boosting the likelihood of injury.

Editor's Note: If you have an amazing moon or general science photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Jeanna Bryner at LSphotos@livescience.com.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

http://www.livescience.com/46287-full-moon-rises-on-friday-the-13th.html

You have to go aaaaall the way back to June 13th, 1919 to find a Full Moon that fell on a Friday the 13th in the month of June. This will next occur on June 13th, 2098.

http://www.universetoday.com/112456/an-astronomical-eloping-how-rare-is-a-friday-the-13th-honey-moon/
(Has a chart of all the full moons the fall on the 13th from 1990-2030, regardless of whether it's Friday.)

[gwillybj]

Here's a creepy one:

Harvard Has a Book Bound in Human Skin...Your Move, Yale
By Elizabeth Palermo, Live Science Contributor
June 06, 2014 10:25am ET



Harvard recently announced a somewhat unsettling fact about one of the books in its library collection — it's bound in human skin.

Houghton Library, the university's repository for rare books and manuscripts, confirmed Wednesday (June 4) that its copy of Arsène Houssaye's "Des destinées de l'ame" (Destinies of the Soul) is without a doubt swathed in the hide of a human being.

The discovery was not entirely shocking to conservators and scientists at Harvard, who were privy to a strange note left inside the book by its original owner, Ludovic Bouland. A friend of Houssaye's, Bouland was a doctor and bibliophile who received the book as a gift in the mid-1880s and, according to the note he left behind, proceeded to bind it with skin from the unclaimed body of a female mental patient who had died of a stroke. [15 Weird Things Humans Do Every Day, and Why]

The note, originally written in French and here translated by Harvard, reads: "This book is bound in human skin parchment on which no ornament has been stamped to preserve its elegance. By looking carefully you easily distinguish the pores of the skin. A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering: I had kept this piece of human skin taken from the back of a woman. It is interesting to see the different aspects that change this skin according to the method of preparation to which it is subjected. Compare for example with the small volume I have in my library, Sever. Pinaeus de Virginitatis notis which is also bound in human skin but tanned with sumac."

Despite this fairly straightforward clue, it wasn't until yesterday that scientists at Harvard confirmed that Bouland's bizarre choice of material wasn't a hoax. Using several different methods, including peptide mass fingerprinting and a type of liquid chromatography, the researchers concluded with 99 percent certainty that the binding is of human origin.

The peptide mass fingerprinting technique used by researchers required that microscopic samples be taken from various locations on the binding, the Houghton Library blog reports. The technique, which identifies proteins by identifying the masses of their peptides and then matches that with proteins in a database, helped to reveal the source of the binding material.

Bill Lane, director of the Harvard Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Resource Laboratory, and Daniel Kirby, of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard, said that the PMF from "Des destinées de l'ame" matched the human reference sample and clearly eliminated other common parchment sources, like sheep, cattle and goat.

"However, although the PMF was consistent with human, other closely related primates, such as the great apes and gibbons, could not be eliminated because of the lack of necessary references," the researchers said in their results.

To rule out other primates, the researchers further analyzed samples from the binding using the liquid chromatography chemical analysis. This method allowed them to determine the order of amino acids in the samples' peptides and further revealed that the binding was almost certainly human.

"The analytical data, taken together with the provenance of "Des destinées de l'ame," make it very unlikely that the source could be other than human," Lane said in a statement.

This discovery marks the first time that one of Harvard's rare books was determined to be bound in human skin. Two other tomes that were believed to share this strange distinction have since been tested, and they are bound in something less controversial — sheepskin.

But as an earlier blog post from Harvard's Houghton Library explains, the practice of binding books in human skin isn't as unusual as it may sound. The term for this outdated practice is anthropodermic bibliopegy, and it originated in the 16th century.

According to the blog post's author, Heather Cole, an assistant curator of modern books and manuscripts at the Houghton library — starting in the 1500s, the confessions of criminals were occasionally bound in the skin of the convicted. The bodies of executed criminals were also donated to science, the author notes, the skins distributed to tanners and bookbinders. But perhaps most noteworthy for today's bibliomaniacs, it would seem that at one time requesting to be memorialized in the form of a book was actually considered normal.

http://www.livescience.com/46152-harvard-book-bound-in-human-skin.html

[Unorthodox]

Book binding...that's not a bad one to add to my final wishes... 


My wife works in the hospital, and they firmly believe in both Friday the 13th, but more they believe that full moons bring out the weird. 

[Geo]

..., but more they believe that full moons bring out the weird.

It doesn't tend to bring the weird in? In the hospital I mean?

[Unorthodox]

Considering her specialty deals with tiny (premature) babies, I think out is appropriate. 

[Buster's Uncle]

'Pastafarians' fail to win recognition in Austria
AFP
June 12, 2014 3:08 PM



ople arrive in costume, including one of the 'Flying Spaghetti Monster' during a rally on October 30, 2010 in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Chip Somodevilla)



Vienna (AFP) - Pastafarianism, a movement set up partly to ridicule organised religion, has failed to win official recognition from Austria's religious authority.

The Kultusamt authority ruled Wednesday that the "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" was not a proper "Church" because it is not a Christian religious community.

The organisation was founded in the United States to poke fun at religious dogma and to campaign against the teaching of creationism in schools, and now has chapters in several other countries.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a satirical deity "worshipped" by the church's adherents, who are called "Pastafarians".

It first appeared in a 2005 open letter written by student Bobby Henderson to the Kansas Board of Education in protest over its decision to teach Intelligent Design in schools.

Henderson argued his belief that the monster created the universe was no less valid than Intelligent Design, a form of creationism, as both theories had no scientific merit.

In Austria the group made headlines in 2011 when one of its adherents, Niko Alm, won the right to be pictured on his driving licence with a pasta strainer on his head.

Alm has since become a lawmaker for the NEOS opposition party in the Austrian parliament, although last weekend he stepped down as the party's spokesman on religious affairs.

The chapter's "Upper Macarono" Philip Sager said in a statement he regretted the Kultusamt's decision but said that he could not comment further because he had not been informed officially of the ruling.

http://news.yahoo.com/pastafarians-fail-win-recognition-austria-190839559.html

[gwillybj]

Just when you think you've heard it all...


(BU: I don't think I'll be able to top that one, but I'll surely try. )

[gwillybj]

Cat's cradle: Pet Perches Atop Investigating Cop
Associated Press
June 24, 2014 10:10 PM

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The cat. In the bathroom. On the officer's shoulders?

Nope, not a game of "Clue." But police say one orange tabby wanted to be closely involved when officers responding to a burglary report searched the cat's home in southeast Portland.

Sgt. Pete Simpson says police were called Monday afternoon when a woman returned home from work to find her house burglarized. When police entered the home to search for a suspect, Officer Sarah Kerwin noted broken glass on the floors of the basement and a bathroom.

Because the resident cat was walking around on the floor, the officer picked up the cat to make sure it didn't step in the glass. The cat happily climbed onto Kerwin's shoulders and stayed there as police finished searching the house.

No burglar was found.


In this June 23, 2014 photo provided by the Portland Police Bureau Officer, Sarah Kerwin is seen with a cat in Portland, Ore. Sgt. Pete Simpson says police were called when a woman returned home from work to find her house burglarized. When police entered the home to search for a suspect, Kerwin noted broken glass on the floors of the basement and a bathroom. Kerwin picked up the cat to make sure it didn't step in the glass. The cat happily climbed onto Kerwin's shoulders and stayed there as police finished searching the house. (AP Photo/Portland Police Bureau) .

http://news.yahoo.com/cats-cradle-pet-perches-atop-investigating-cop-021040299.html

[Unorthodox]

I had a cat that liked to do that...

[Geo]

It's a treecat! 

[Geo]

AV-8B no gear landing on USS Bataan

The pilot of this Harrier has with military precision demonstrated how to land a malfunctioning jet fighter on an aircraft carrier. Cpt. William Mahoney noticed after take-off his front landing gear got damaged. A colleague on board the USS Bataan came with an unconventional solution: assemble a huge stool on wich the nose can rest during landing. The pilot couldn't see it during landing, and Mahoney also had to take into account the swell of the aircraft carrier. The video of this spectacular landing was viewed over 400,000 times in one day.


______________________________________________________

First thought it was a British video, but then remembered the Royal Navy doesn't use the Harrier anymore.

[gwillybj]

Like trying to parallel park a school bus on Main Street: Easy, easy, easy, brake!

[gwillybj]

Mountain Lion Scares Shoppers in Utah
Associated Press
By BRADY McCOMBS
Friday, June 27, 2014



SANDY, Utah (AP) — Utah authorities captured a mountain lion Friday that startled people but didn't hurt anybody at a shopping center in a Salt Lake City suburb.

The mountain lion was spotted walking across a street and into Jordan Commons in Sandy, Utah, just before 8 a.m., Sandy police Sgt. Dean Carriger said.

Officers found the female cat hunkered down at the entrance of a steakhouse. Though it was early, there were dozens of people coming and going, many of whom work at a nearby office building, Carriger said.

Some were taking pictures and videos of the mountain lion while others were unaware the cat was there, he said.

"I was scared," Leesha Francis told KUTV (http://bit.ly/1veQFkF) She works at an office tower and saw the cat along with co-worker Maddie Gilbert who said, "It was a little bit shocking."

When the cat came running out, an officer fired one shot but missed, Carriger said.

"He was concerned there was imminent danger to the public," Carriger said.

The mountain lion ran away, jumped over a fence and hid in the brush near a commuter train line. Two wildlife officers arrived and cornered the cat with the help of the fences around the train tracks, hitting it with a tranquilizer gun about 1 ½ hours after it was first spotted, Carriger said.

The cat is about 2 years old and weighs about 100 pounds, said Scott Root, spokesman for Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. It was still under the effects of the tranquilizer Friday afternoon. When it awakes, officials plan to release her into the wild in central Utah, Root said.

The cat wasn't acting aggressively and doesn't have a history of being caught, so she'll be given a "second chance," Root said.

Mountain lion sightings are fairly common in Sandy, a suburb south of Salt Lake City with a population of about 90,000. But most cats are seen on the eastern side of the city that nestles up against the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, Carriger said. This shopping center, Jordan Commons, is on the western side of the city about 5 miles west of the mountains. It is across the street from Rio Tinto Stadium, home to Real Salt Lake, an MLS soccer team.

Authorities think the mountain lion followed one of the gullies or ravines that run east-west in Sandy and didn't realize how far it had gone.

"It's a little unusual to have one right here in the middle of Sandy in such a populated area," Root said.

http://news.yahoo.com/mountain-lion-scares-shoppers-utah-191357622.html

[Unorthodox]

Bah, happens about once a year.

[gwillybj]

Must be something like that, if people were either ignoring it or snapping photos.
Another fluff piece.