Bolivian Death Road

Another stop on my places to see list, though I am not sure I really want to travel on it, is the Yungas Highway in Bolivia. This 10 foot wide, one lane highway is rated as the most dangerous in the world. It traverses the side of the Andes on it's way to La Paz, Bolivia. It has a 3000 foot drop on one side and no guardrails, plus it is extrememly steep in places. All of these factors combine to give this highway a very high death toll, as cars and trucks routinely careen off the edge into the jungles below.

I would love to go and see this just for it's sheer scale and the danger it represents, but getting me to drive on it might be a hard proposition. This is man against nature at it's most basic a raw level.

By the way, it has become fashionable to mountain bike down this road, and a cottage industry that caters to foreign mountain bikers has sprung up. It is not in any means safe, as many of these same mountain bikers have plunged to their screaming death from the sheer face of the cliffs as they have overshot turns, or fallen down unseen holes hidden by jungle foliage.

Child Beaten to Death By Religious Kooks...

Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz adopted six children from poverty struck Liberia, so they could have a better life in the US. Too bad that better life included being beaten to death for something as minor as mis-pronouncing a word.

These children had the misfortune of being adopted by a family of followers of Tennessee evangelist Micheal Pearl. A basic tenet of his church is to beat your children to make them more obedient and faithful servants of God. They are so serious about it, his church published a written guide to doing it, and even recommends using a particular 1/4 inch plastic plumbing supply line.

Allegedly, these two held their children down, in the name of God, and beat them with a plastic pipe for hours causing massive injuries. Their 7 year old died. Another child of theirs, age 11, is in critical condition for the same reason. All of this started over a word the Liberian children could not pronounce...

It's God's will they say.

Here is the story on True Crime Report...

Here is a horrid story about their "Child Training" methods...

Yellowstone's Plumbing Exposed

Researchers have confirmed that the source of the Yellowstone Super-volcano (which makes up the entire National Park, basically) comes from the Earth's Mantle more than 500 miles down. This is unheard of in the world of Volcanism, and shows that the caldera upon which Yellowstone Park sits, is basically a giant plug leading to the core of the Earth. Most Volcanoes are not supplied directly from the Mantle or the Core.

When this blows, it is going to be big...

Yellowstone's Plumbing Exposed

The Real Death Star?

Scientists are in disagreement over the threat a local star presents to our solar system. They do, however, agree that it will very likely explode in the near future. This star, T Pyxidis, is a pair of stars in close orbit, called a Binary Star. One of this pair, is a White Dwarf, and is siphoning off material from the larger star at a cataclysmic rate.

It is widely accepted that this smaller star is at or near what is known as the Chandrasekhar Limit. This limit is the absolute maximum of matter the small dwarf star can hold without collapsing under it's own gravity. When this star collapses, it will form a Supernova, and destroy everything in the vicinity in a blinding explosion that will light up the sky.

The trouble is some scientists feel we are within the danger zone for this explosion. It is located 3200 light years from Earth, but if the explosion is poweful enough, it could strip away elements of our upper atmosphere, such as our Ozone Layer, on the side facing the explosion. This can lead to a reaction within the atmosphere, wherein all life eventually fails on the Earth's surface.

The scientific community is in disagreement over the danger presented by this small star. But one thing is for certain, when it goes, it will be the show of a lifetime (possibly ALL lifetimes!).

Here is a Popular Science article on this issue...

The Human Fat Trade

I know everybody has probably heard about this by now, but it is too strange to pass up. Police in Lima, Peru have charged a group of people with abducting and killing people for their body fat, to sell to cosmetics companies. It seems they have been very busy at this, and their murders span nearly 3 decades. The police supposedly busted a warehouse of sorts, where they would hang their victim's quartered bodies with a small fire underneath, and collect the fat in tubes as it slowly dripped out.

I wonder how many products have been using this stuff?

Here is an article about it...

The Moaning Sisters

Another ghost story for your amusement...

Above Georgetown, on the Potomac River, are three rocks, known as the Three Sisters, not merely because of their resemblance to each other—for they are parts of a submerged reef—but because of a tradition that, more than a hundred years ago, a boat in which three sisters had gone out for a row was swung against one of these rocks. The day was gusty and the boat was upset. All three of the girls were drowned. Either the sisters remain about this perilous spot or the rocks have prescience; at least, those who live near them on the shore hold one view or the other, for they declare that before every death on the river the sisters moan, the sound being heard above the lapping of the waves. It is different from any other sound in nature. Besides, it is an unquestioned fact that more accidents happen here than at any other point on the river.

Many are the upsets that have occurred and many are the swimmers who have gone down, the dark forms of the sisters being the last shapes that their water-blurred eyes have seen. It is only before a human life is to be yielded that this low wailing comes from the rocks, and when, on a night in May, 1889, the sound floated shoreward, just as the clock in Georgetown struck twelve, good people who were awake sighed and uttered a prayer for the one whose doom was so near at hand. Twelve hours later, at noon, a shell came speeding down the Potomac, with a young athlete jauntily pulling at the oars. As he neared the Three Sisters his boat appeared to be caught in an eddy; it swerved suddenly, as if struck; then it upset and the rower sank to his death.

Disturbing?

This slightly disturbs to me, but not because of the baby-killing. It is disturbing because it seems to be a popular Google search, and one more reason organized religion should be illegal, as it is simply cultural terrorism.

Another Death...

The first stirrings of Spring is supposed to be a time of life, instead, it seems the opposite. Another influential singer has died, though I doubt many of you have heard of this one. Any bonafide Gen X'er would recognize her music immediately.

Her name is Blossom Dearie. You would recognize her for her "Number Eight" song and many others on Schoolhouse Rock. She was actually a very talented traditional Jazz musician. Retro junkies like me are grieving the loss.

I do not know the details...

The End of a Legend

Several days ago, we lost a legendary performer, who happens to be a favorite of mine. Lux Interior, front-man for the iconoclastic, scary, and just plain strange band; The Cramps. The Cramps were Punk Rock before there was a name for it. Their sound combined the sounds of surf and rockabilly, with the shtick of Roger Corman B-Movies. They made being Dead cool, and helped usher in the Horror Punk and Death Rock movements. Lux and his dominatrix wife, Poison Ivy, started the band as a side project to her Domina work. They were actually funded by this work in the early years. They did not just act or dress the part; they WERE the part. They were truly strange and different people. They were also a huge influence on me, being a guitarist and general weird person myself.

Lux Interior was known for being the most chaotic, unpredictable, and just plain scary weird singer you would ever see live. Everyone else are pale imitations. There is a bass drum in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame that he put his head through during a performance. How cool is that? He was known for wearing women's high heels, and lot's of latex. He played sort of an aggressive male tart, while Poison Ivy played the evil Succubus pulling the strings. The roles were definitely reversed from the typical "cock" rock of the era (and our era as well). Lux Interior was 62 and kept playing and touring to the bitter end; The Cramps being one of the few bands to have never broken up, ever. He fronted the band from 1972 until his death on February 4th, of a pre-existing heart condition.

This is a true loss for REAL MUSIC.

Read more here...