Chupacabra? Aliens? What did this in Denville

Mike from Denville, NJ woke up to an interesting event this week. Magically a deer carcass appeared on his lawn, completely skinned to the bone. Aliens? the Chupacabra? or just some kids pulling something from the woods.

No signs of struggle, no drag marks. Animal Control on it's way.

KISS the Religion?

As you may or may not know, I am a closet KISS fan. Just something that brings back my childhood. Although, don't worry I do recognize that KISS is not exactly the upper echelon of musicianship. They are just easy, mindless and entertaining.

So today they have a new album coming out with new music. There is a big get up at WalMarts for this release. I happened to be at a WalMart in Linden, NJ and caught a glimpse.

Well, truthfully it wasn't all that impressive. There were KISS M&Ms, KISS Potato Heads, t-shirt, halloween masks, blankets, etc..
But it was kind of a mess and still being put on display. However, the best of all was what the new KISS album was labelled under. Either they've changed their musical style or Gene Simmons has succeeded in creating a religion out of KISS.

-Gene

Ft. Riley, Kansas - Beginning of the End of the World (Almost)

Fort Riley has been home to General George Custer, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9^th and 10^th Cavalry Regiments, Blackjack Pershing’s 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”) as well as the one of the greatest natural disasters to cast a shadow over all of humanity: the Spanish Flu of 1918. Similar to the more recent 2009 Novel H1N1 (“Swine”) Flu, this pandemic strain of influenza quickly evolved and spread from a pig farm in Haskell County to Ft. Riley. Soldiers quickly became infected by this virulent and deadly strain of flu. It could have easily been discovered and contained in this small Kansas town.

However…

· One can be infected with influenza and spread the virus days before feeling ill

· World War 1 was going on in Europe

Hundreds of soldiers—dozens of them infected—were being shipped out of Ft. Riley to the green fields of France by the day. Within weeks, the flu had spread across France, Europe and on towards Asia and Africa. It didn’t actually cause significant mortality to the United States until it came back to Boston, Massachusetts in its second wave (but that’s a tale for another day).

By the middle of 1919, the Spanish flu had killed over 100,000,000 people.

Why then will it always be called the “Spanish Flu”? Historically, epidemics had been named after the region around Ground Zero. Lyme disease is from Old Lyme, Connecticut. The Hong Kong flu was from the Pearl River delta near Honk Kong. Syphilis has been called the French Disease by the British and the British Disease by the French (but that’s a tale for another day). When the great influenza of 1918 first hit the front pages of newspapers, it ran as a story of European tourists in Spain first contracting the disease. Nowadays it’s bad for tourism and the pork industry to announce “Swine Flu” or “Texas Flu” so we have a sanitized moniker like 2009 Novel H1N1 Influenza A.

So what about Kansas? After the initial wave of infections and deaths—with most of the original infected shipped out to France—the Kansas state government took action to shut down public gatherings: schools, church, movies. All together about 30,000 people were infected. Thousands died. Considering this was ground zero, Kansas was very lucky.

HT Stock Ticker 09/16/2009

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The Mongolian Death Worm

In our latest Radio Show & Podcast, we discussed the Mongolian Death Worm. At first you'd think the idea of a large sand-burrowing worm that spews venom and electricity seem absurd but you'd be surprised at the strange worm-like creatures that really do exist in our world. Hear & learn more about the tales and reality of this mysterious beast.

SUBSCRIBE IN iTUNES

HT Stock Ticker 09/09/2009

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Swords vs. Deadliest Catch

If you've listened to our show recently you know I was excited about the new show on the Discovery Channel about line fisherman, Swords. Similar to Discovery's Hit Show, the Deadliest Catch, producers and videographers follow around several Northeastern fishing boats on their quest to make a living during fishing season, excepts Swords features Sword-fisherman on the East Coast vs. Catch's Alaskan king crab boats. To make it more exciting, Swords features a boat crew from Barnegat Light, NJ as part of the mix. I love to spend as much time as possible on Long Beach Island down the Jersey Shore during the summer which is where Barnegat Light is. So it feels close to home. And you feel for those routing for the boys from their hometown.

You can't help but draw the comparison between the two shows especially because it's from the same producers. So here's my evaluation of Swords Vs. Deadliest Catch. I guess it's simple, Swords is good but it's no Deadliest Catch for 3 simple reasons

THEME SONG - Catch has "Wanted Dead or Alive" as a theme song. Swords has nothing. And to think the Alaskan show gets a Jersey band's song. There's just something cool about Catch's opening intro blaring a quintessential road-cowboy song. And the only somewhat self-respecting Bon Jovi song. Advantage - Catch

VOICEOVER - Catch has Mike Rowe. You don't get cooler than Rowe. He was doing the VO for Catch even before "Dirty Jobs" came out. And then he tops it off with "After the Catch" featuring Rowe interviewing the boys from the boat on the boat. Advantage - Catch.

SENSITIVITY - Swords just can't win the PR battle on this one. Crabs look like spiders of the sea, Swordfish can be mistaken for Flipper. Swords will never be as big as The Deadliest Catch for that reason. I can't see my wife sitting thought shots of fisherman propping up a mass-lined and caught fish onto the deck then gutting it right there in front of the camera. Catch just grabs a bunch of little sea spiders into a cage and chases them into a hull. How cute. Advantage- Catch.

So what does Swords have on Catch? Not much. But it's got a Jersey boat with a pretty wimpy greenhorn who's a surfer so I'll keep watching.

Tales of Idaho

If you enjoy reading Tales of Idaho, take a listen to Show #242 when we discussed the very same topic- some strange and interesting tales & facts about Idaho.

American Falls, ID - The Town That Moved

If you fell asleep in 1924, awoke today and went looking for American Falls, Idaho you better hold our breath. It's at the bottom of a reservoir. When constructing the American Falls Dam the U.S. "Bureau of Reclamation" relocated the entire town to a different location. The old town still resides at the bottom of the reservoir. Believe it or not, this has not been all that uncommon in U.S. history although American Falls was one of the first.

Photo courtesy of VisitIdaho.org

Tales of Connecticut

In case you missed our last show we discussed Tales of Connecticut. Of course, as always 30 minutes is not nearly enough to cover all the amazing hauntings, oddities and interesting stories from The Constituion State but we did our best.

You can read some more tales of Connecticut on our CT page here.

As well, listen to the Radio Show below to hear Tales of Connecticut.