Mails are now pretty cheap, in fact Google, yahoo and many other allowing there user to use them for free. Now GO GREEN. Rather using paper to write a letter we can write mails. Now see the impact of free mails on our life. Me and you , probably receive many forwarded mail, saying "this mail must leave your Inbox in next 20 hour" etc etc..and what you all do? Immediately forward the mail to all your friends. Now think why exactly you have done this. Once I also used to do the same, and today you also doing the same. Why??? Only because its "FREE" . Thats the power of  "FREE " product. Now many mails having  religious text, various motivational quotes, and many lessons learned, will be instantly forwarded to next person when ever one come across the lines like "the Mantra must leave your hand in next few hour"...etc etc...and you actually do it...you hit that "Forward" button expecting something good to happen to you...what does it prove??either your life is so miserable you are left with no other option to believe forwarding mail can change your life..or ...never mind...Now I wonder, if ..assume GOOGLE and Yahoo starts charging all such mail...Think again...Will you do the same...??? I am sure the forwarding participant will be reduced by 90 %. Its Just like era when calling to customer care was free. Airtel, Hutch and many other in fact all of them used to provide calling to there customer care number for free...you dial 121 or something and start doing time pass.
What now, 5 paisa per 3 minute , I am sure useless call traffic might have dropped by half. Its funny world we live in, and not to be mentioned I am also part of it.

No Mail no good luck, now a days good luck is also passed to you online, electronically. I wonder if anyone of you ever saw GOD online. If not then shall I say GOD are technologically impaired or it is us who need to upgrade our technology as per his/her standard.?

In either way please stop forwarding useless mails, and if you forward also please don't blackmail the reader to forward next.

Enough to make one understand the rules of that Ladies Hostel

Enough to make one understand the value of Food

Enough to stay Loyal to "STANDARD CHARTERED"credit card.(Free with each 100 you spend in CCD)

Enough,anyway."NO comments", wondering whose property hanging over my window

Enough, no more shopping with girls.

Precognition is the direct knowledge or perception of the future, We all know we can only view our world as  3D, but when we take a photo of this 3D world the picture that we get is usually 2D, which is 1 dimension less, similarly if our eyes are able to capture the world in 3D which means this world must be made of 4D. Our Brain has the capacity to feel the higher dimension. Time has been define as 4D, so we can say that precognition is actually 3D snapshot of the higher dimension.
Precognition is the most frequently reported of all extrasensory perception (ESP) experiences, occurring most often (60 percent to 70 percent) in dreams. It may also occur spontaneously in waking visions, auditory hallucinations, flashing thoughts entering the mind, and the sense of "knowing." Usually the majority of precognitive experiences happen within a forty-eight hour period prior to the future event, most often it is within twenty-four hours. In rare cases precognitive experiences occur months or even years before the actual event takes place. Severe emotional shock seems to be a major factor in precognition. By a ratio of four-to-one, most concern unhappy events, such as death and dying, illness, accidents, and natural disasters. Intimacy is also a major factor, 80 to 85 percent of such experiences involve a spouse, family member or friend with whom the individual has close emotional ties. The remainder involves casual acquaintances and strangers, most of whom are victims in major disasters such as airplane crashes or earthquakes.This apparent ability to alter the perceived future makes precognition difficult to understand. If precognition is a glimpse of the true or real future, then the effects are witnessed before the causes. Such conditions do occur in quantum physics. The most popular theory holds that precognition is a glimpse of a possible future that is based upon present conditions and existing information, and which may be altered depending upon acts of free will. That theory implies the future can cause the past, a phenomenon called "backward causality" or "retro-causality."
One peculiarity concerning precognition is that one rarely perceives one's own death; perhaps one explanation is the trauma it too great for the ego to accept. Some notable exceptions do exist: Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own death six weeks before his assassination. However, his dream was not of being shot and dying, but of being an observer after the fact. He saw a long procession of mourners entering the White House. When he entered himself and passed the coffin, he was shocked to find himself looking at his own body.


Did this ever happened to you? Like in a certain instant of time you suddenly remember the same thing has happened before also, or the same thing I have experienced or seen before??? Well It happened with me few times. What about you? 

Bamboo tree is one of the fastest growing "GRASS" , yes probably the fastest growing grass.In  my childhood I was in a place which was surrounded by many bamboo plants. The view was awesome which I failed to realize in past. After 20 year I realized the beauty of bamboo plant after I moved out from there. Here ones story which was pretty famous at that time in our place. The story revolve around the bamboo forest, as basically bamboo will grow straight upward, but not necessary all bamboo will grow upward, one unlucky bamboo might fall on ground dissecting the road in between. Now the story is such one fisherman was returning home after his daily catch, his path consist of walk of 1 hour through bamboo forest . Generally the  fisherman will have one container made out of bamboo sheet , where he will keep all his fish and walk home till the market and sell them. He used to travel daily the same road, but one day he  realize that everyday the quantity of fish seems to decrease before he reach the market place. Next day he counted the fish before returning, he counted total number of fish was 13, but for his surprise when he reached home, he found only 10 was left. He was puzzled. There was no way those can escape his container as it was well secured. He then continued to count his fish for next few days, and for his surprise he found everyday 3 will disappear from his basket. He was confused how that was happening. So next day he went for fishing with his wife, his wife suggested keep only 2 fish in your basket and rest I will carry. ILL fate struck the fisherman that very day. When he was crossing the forest , his wife was walking few yard behind him. On the way he found a bamboo plant lying horizontally on the ground. Not knowing anything when he was crossing that bamboo plant, the plant erected itself with lighting speed cutting the man in two half. His wife watching the whole incident from behind fainted. She was recovered by local people after few hour, and she narrated the whole story. When She checked the container , 2 fish from her husband's(dead) basket was gone and 1 fish from her basket was gone and there was no sign of the horizontal bamboo plant and dead body of her husband. people kept on searching for him for many days but nothing could be recovered. 

Everyone was instructed not to travel any bamboo forest in afternoon and night and never to cross  over horizontal bamboo in middle of forest, as it was believed it would let us to the same fate and many people already met there fate in that same spot. Right now I am feeling a chill through my bones , up my neck while writing this story , thank god no bamboo plant inside my room. But I just felt someone touched my neck

It's the story about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, named Po, who is the biggest fan of Kung Fu around...which doesn't exactly come in handy while working every day in his family's noodle shop. Unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Po's dreams become reality when he joins the world of Kung Fu and studies alongside his idols, the legendary Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. But before they know it, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung is headed their way, and it's up to Po to defend everyone from the oncoming threat. Can he turn his dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master into reality? Po puts his heart - and his girth - into the task, 


And the unlikely hero ultimately finds that his greatest weaknesses turn out to be his greatest strengths.


Few of the movie's punchline are :- 

Shifu: But who? Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? To become the Dragon Warrior?
Oogway: I don't know.

Oogway: Your mind is like the water. When it is agitated it becomes difficult to see, but when you let it settle, the answer becomes clear.

Oogway: Quit, don't quit, Noodles, No noodles.. You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There's a saying: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

 Tai Lung: What are you going to do, big guy? Sit on me?
Po: Don't tempt me. (That was funny, as Po was hell one Big FAT FAT FAT panda.)

 Po: It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness!( well , LOL certainly big fat panda is never awesome, but if u believe you are awsome then probably you can turn this into reality :) ) 

Shifu: You cannot leave! A real warrior never quits!

Oogway: One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.


Shifu: I need your help, Master.
Oogway: No. You just need to believe. Promise me, Shifu. Promise me you will believe.
Shifu: I...I will...try.
Oogway: Good. (Looks around at the peach tree petals floating around him.) My time has come. (Hands Shifu his staff.) You must continue your journey, without me.
Shifu: Wha-What are you? What? (watches his master leave and realizes what's happening.) Master! You can't leave me!
Oogway: (starts to disappear in the petals floating around him.) You must....believe.
Shifu: Master!
(Oogway disappears, and Shifu stares sadly after him.)

Mr. Ping: The secret ingredient is....nothing!

Oogway: Look at this tree, Shifu. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before its time.

Shifu: Master, master! I have... it- it's very bad news!!
Oogway: Ah, Shifu. There is just news- there is no good or bad.
Shifu: Master, your vision- your vision was right! Tai Lung has broken out of prison! He's on his way! (pause)
Oogway: (for a moment loses composure) That is bad news. (then straightens himself) If you do not believe that the Dragon Warrior can stop him.

Shifu: Po, you're alive?... Or we're both dead.

Tai Lung(villain, strongest of all): You... can't defeat me! You... you're just a big... fat... panda!
PO: I am not just a big... FAT... panda, I am the BIG FAT panda

Po ultimately becomes a Kung Fu hero by learning that if he believes in himself, he can do anything

Human are amazing and the most amazing part of them is the ability to circulate unverified explanation of an event, and once it starts, The whole thing get converted into a chain reaction which eventually lead to self-amplifying chain of stories. The way we human exists in this world, same way this animal 'CAT' also exist, but as human tendency we search value in everything and hence all this stories. I came across few amazing values added by CAT in our society/world. I was amazed; not because of the value but for the imagination of one single Human who might have started this chain reaction. We have many stories associated with CAT, probably you also might be aware of many such stories, here I am sharing few interesting stories about CAT.


1. Cats can forecast the weather: they predict the wind by clawing at carpets and curtains; rain is highly likely when a cat busily washes its ears.
2. A black cat seen from behind fortells a bad omen.
3. A cat sneezing is a good omen for everyone who hears it.
4. A bride will have a happy married life if a black cat sneezes near her on her wedding day.
5. A black cat crossing one's path by moonlight means death in an epidemic
6. The Hindu believed the cat was the symbol for childbirth.
7. If you kill a cat, you are sacrificing your soul to the Devil
8. It is bad luck to see a white cat at night.
9. In ancient Japan, it was thought that somewhere on the tail of a cat there was a single hair that would restore life to a dying person. 
10.If a funeral procession encountered a black cat, they believed another member of the family would soon die.
11.In Japan, there is a myth that cats turn into super spirits when they die. According to the Buddhist religion, the body of the cat is the temporary resting place of the soul of very spiritual people.
12.During excavations in the ruins of Tell-Basta (the former Bubastis), a graveyard with 300,000 mummified holy cats was discovered. Though many were sent to England and sold as fertilizer, a few were sent to museums.
13.A Thai legend tells of cats that guarded a temple from Burmese invaders. They saved the temple treasure, a golden goblet belonging to the Buddha, by hooking their tails around it and not letting go. This accounts for the kink at the end of the tail of almost all Thai cats. Anther story is that when a certain princess went to bathe and gave her rings to a cat to guard, it kinked its tail so they wouldn't fall off.
14.To dream of a white cat means luck in creativity, spiritual matters, divination and spellcraft.
15. If you hear the scream or the mewing of a cat, a false friend is trying to do you harm.
16. A cat on top of a tombstone meant certainly that the soul of the departed buried was possessed by the devil.
17. To reverse the bad luck curse of a black cat crossing your path, first walk in a circle, then go backward across the spot where it happened and count to 13.
18. In the Netherlands, cats were not allowed in rooms where private family discussions were going on. The Dutch believed that cats would definitely spread gossips around the town.
19. In Egypt, it was once believed that the life-giving rays of the sun were kept in a  cat's eyes at night for safekeeping.
20. It was largely in the Middle Ages that the black cat became affiliated with evil. Because cats are nocturnal and roam at night, they were believed to be supernatural servants of witches, or even witches themselves. Partly because of the cat's sleek movements and eyes that 'glow' at night, they became the embodiment of darkness, mystery, and evil, possessing frightening powers. If a black cat walked into the room of an ill person, and the person later died, it was blamed on the cat's supernatural powers. If a black cat crossed a person's path without harming them, this indicated that the person was then protected by the devil. Often times, a cat would find shelter with older women who were living in solitude. The cat became a source of comfort and companionship, and the old woman would curse anyone who mistreated it. If one of these tormentors became ill, the witch and her familiar were blamed.


So much for Cats and Humans today, wondering if Swine and Dogs are that Lucky

“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?” ~ Albert Einstein

Questions, Questions are good, The quote was that he who ask no question stay dumb for ever. I agree, but what you do when people ask dumb questions. I believe the proverb was No questions are stupid, but he who never ask stay stupid for ever. I agree BOSS. I am with you..but what you do when someone walk into your desk and ask these below question.


1. What do you say success in English? arrey, wohi success , usko English mein kiya bolte hai hum?
2. What you say "Sakh" in hindi?? Suspect, sakh..usko hindi mein kiya bolte hai?
3.  07-august-2010 is cut-off date of the release, so what should be the last date for the release?
4.  How you start these batteries? ..( Hello nuts, you can start that mobile , not those batteries") 
5. After buying Cigarette, he was asking the shopkeeper, "Can I Smoke?"  


PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...PEACE...
Stay Calm...Stay Calm...Stay Calm...Stay Calm...Stay Calm...Stay Calm...Stay Calm...Stay Calm...

Allie tells Noah that when she dies, she wants to turn into a bird and fly. Romance soon blossoms after they see each other at the movies and the two become inseparable.

Allie's family leaves Seabrook the next day and Noah, devastated by their separation, writes her one letter every day for a year plus one extra letter saying goodbye. He never hears back from Allie because her mother hides the letters and keeps them secret.


While in college, Allie volunteers as a nurse's aide for wounded soldiers and meets the injured Lon Hammond, Jr., a wealthy and well-connected young lawyer who is handsome, sophisticated, charming, and comes from an old Southern family. To the joy of Allie's parents, they become engaged; meanwhile, Noah returns home. While visiting Charleston to file some paperwork, Noah witnesses Allie and Lon kissing at a restaurant. Devastated, Noah is consumed with restoring the old abandoned house from their summer together, believing that if he keeps his promise to her (building her her dream house on the plantation), Allie will come back to him. Once he is finished, Noah tries to sell the plantation, but finds he cannot part with it.


In the present, it is made evident that the elderly woman is Allie and Noah is her husband. She does not recognize their children and grandchildren, who beg Noah to come home with them. Noah insists on staying with his wife, refusing to abandon her.


After finding out about her impending illness, she wrote their story in the notebook with instructions for Noah inside: "The story of our lives, by Allie Calhoun. Read this to me, and I'll come back to you." 


The next morning, Noah is found unconscious in bed and he is rushed to the hospital; he later returns to the nursing home's intensive care ward. He goes to Allie's room later that night, and Allie remembers who they are. She asks him if he thinks their love can make miracles, and he says that miracles are what brought her back to him every time. She then asks him if he thinks their love can take them away together, and he replies, "I think our love can do anything we want it to." Noah's last words before falling asleep are "I'll be seeing you." 


The next morning, a nurse finds them in bed together, holding each other and discovers they died in the night.The next scene shows two birds flying together over the lake.

Amélie is a 2001 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. Its original French title is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain which literally translates as "The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain"; poulain is French for foal.

Amélie Poulain, was a girl who grew up isolated from other children. Raphaël, her taciturn, antisocial ex-Army doctor father, mistakenly believes that she suffers from a heart condition (a mistake resulting from the increase in her heartbeat caused by the rare thrill of physical contact with her father, who only ever touches her during medical check-ups). Her mother Amandine, a neurotic schoolteacher with shaky nerves, sees to Amélie's education. 
Amandine dies when Amélie is young, the victim of a freak accident involving a suicidal Québécoise woman who throws herself off the top of Notre Dame Cathedral and lands on Amélie's mother. Raphaël withdraws even further as a result, and devotes his life to building a rather eccentric shrine in the garden to Amandine's memory, which houses her ashes. Left to amuse herself, Amélie develops an unusually active imagination.
As a young woman, Amélie is a waitress in a small Montmartre café, The Two Windmills, run by a former circus performer. The café is staffed and frequented by a gang of eccentrics. By age 23, life for Amélie is simple; having spurned romantic relationships following a few failed efforts, she has devoted herself to simple pleasures, such as dipping her hand into sacks of grain, cracking crème brûlée with a teaspoon, skipping stones across St. Martin's Canal, trying to guess how many couples in Paris are having an orgasm at one moment ("Fifteen!", she informs the camera correctly!), and letting her imagination roam free.


It tells the story of a shy waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation. The film was an international co-production between companies in France and Germany.

On August 31, 1997, Amélie, shocked upon hearing the news of Princess Diana's death on television, drops a bottle cap, which loosens a bathroom wall tile. Behind the loose tile, she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier. Fascinated by this find, she resolves to track down the now adult man who placed it there and return it to him, making a deal with herself in the process: if she finds him and it makes him happy, she will devote her life to bringing happiness to others.

Amélie meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, a painter who continually repaints Luncheon of the Boating Party (Le Déjeuner des canotiers) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He is known as 'the Glass Man' because of his brittle bone condition. With his help, she tracks down the former occupant, and places the box in a phone booth, ringing the number as he passes to lure him there. Upon opening the box, the man, moved to tears, has an epiphany as long-forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. He then finds his way into the same bar as Amelie and vows to reconcile with his estranged family. On seeing the positive effect she had on him, she resolves from that moment on to do good in the lives of others.
Amélie becomes a secret matchmaker and guardian angel, executing complex but hidden schemes that impact the lives of those around her with subtle, arm's-length manipulation, leading to several sub-plots and episodes. She escorts a blind man to the Metro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes. She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having an air-hostess friend send pictures of it posing with landmarks from all over the world. She kindles a romance between a co-worker and one of the customers in the bar. She convinces the unhappy concierge of her building that the husband who abandoned her had in fact sent her a final reconciliatory love letter just before his death. She supports Lucien, the young man who works for Mr. Collignon, the bullying neighbourhood greengrocer; by playing practical jokes on Collignon, she undermines his confidence until he questions his own sanity.
However, while she is looking after others, Mr. Dufayel is observing her and begins a conversation with her about his painting. Although he has painted the same piece dozens of times, he has never quite captured the excluded look of the girl drinking a glass of water. They often discuss the meaning of this character, and although it is never explicitly stated, for Dufayel, she comes to represent Amélie and her lonely life. Through their discussions, Amélie is forced to examine her own life and her attraction to a stranger, a quirky young man who collects the discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths. When she accidentally bumps into him a second time and realizes she is smitten, she is fortunate to be on the scene to pick up his photo album when he drops it in the street. She discovers his name is Nino Quincampoix, and she plays a cat and mouse game with him around Paris before eventually anonymously returning his treasured album; however, she is too shy to actually approach him, and almost loses hope when, having finally attempted to orchestrate a proper meeting, she misinterprets events when he enters into a conversation with one of her co-workers. It takes Raymond Dufayel's insightful friendship to give her the courage to overcome her shyness and finally meet with Nino, and the two begin a relationship.

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged burning of a person's body without a readily apparent, identifiable external source of ignition. The combustion may result in simple burns and blisters to the skin, smoking, or a complete incineration of the body. The latter is the form most often 'recognized' as SHC.
There is much speculation and controversy over SHC. It is not a proven natural occurrence, but many theories have attempted to explain SHC's existence and how it may occur. The two most common explanations offered to account for apparent SHC are the non-spontaneous "wick effect" fire, and the rare discharge called static flash fires. Although mathematically it can be shown that the human body contains enough energy stored in the form of fat and other tissues to consume it completely, in normal circumstances bodies will not sustain a flame on their own.
History of Spontaneous Human Combustion
Many people believe that Spontaneous Human Combustion was first documented in such early texts as the Bible, but, scientifically speaking, these accounts are too old and secondhand to be seen as reliable evidence.
Over the past 300 years, there have been more than 200 reports of persons burning to a crisp for no apparent reason.
The first reliable historic evidence of Spontaneous Human Combustion appears to be from the year 1673, when Frenchman Jonas Dupont published a collection of Spontaneous Human Combustion cases and studies entitled De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. Dupont was inspired to write this book after encountering records of the Nicole Millet case, in which a man was acquitted of the murder of his wife when the court was convinced that she had been killed by spontaneous combustion. Millet, a hard-drinking Parisian was found reduced to ashes in his straw bed, leaving just his skull and finger bones. The straw matting was only lightly damaged. Dupont's book on this strange subject brought it out of the realm of folkloric rumor and into the popular public imagination.


On April 9, 1744, Grace Pett, 60, an alcoholic residing in Ipswich England, was found on the floor by her daughter like "a log of wood consumed by a fire, without apparent flame." Nearby clothing was undamaged.

In the 1800's is evidenced in the number of writers that called on it for a dramatic death scene. Most of these authors were hacks that worked on the 19th century equivalent of comic books, "penny dreadfuls", so no one got too worked up about it; but two big names in the literary world also used SHC as a dramatic device, and one did cause a stir.


The first of these two authors was Captain Marryat who, in his novel Jacob Faithful, borrowed details from a report in the Times of London of 1832 to describe the death of his lead character's mother, who is reduced to "a sort of unctuous pitchey cinder."


Twenty years later, in 1852, Charles Dickens used Spontaneous Human Combustion to kill off a character named Krook in his novel Bleak House. Krook was a heavy alcoholic, true to the popular belief at the time that SHC was caused by excessive drinking. The novel caused a minor uproar; George Henry Lewes, philosopher and critic, declared that SHC was impossible, and derided Dickens' work as perpetuating a uneducated superstition. Dickens responded to this statement in the preface of the 2nd edition of his work, making it quite clear that he had researched the subject and knew of about thirty cases of SHC. The details of Krook's death in Bleak House were directly modeled on the details of the death of the Countess Cornelia de Bandi Cesenate by this extraordinary means; the only other case that Dickens actually cites details from is the Nicole Millet account that inspired Dupont's book about 100 years earlier.

In 1951the Mary Reeser case recaptured the public interest in Spontaneous Human Combustion. Mrs. Reeser, 67, was found in her apartment on the morning of July 2, 1951, reduced to a pile of ashes, a skull, and a completely undamaged left foot. This event has become the foundation for many a book on the subject of SHC since, the most notable being Michael Harrison's Fire From Heaven, printed in 1976. Fire From Heaven has become the standard reference work on Spontaneous Human Combustion.


On May 18, 1957, Anna Martin, 68, of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was found incinerated, leaving only her shoes and a portion of her torso. The medical examiner estimated that temperatures must have reached 1,700 to 2,000 degrees, yet newspapers two feet away were found intact.


On December 5, 1966, the ashes of Dr. J. Irving Bentley, 92, of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, were discovered by a meter reader. Dr. Bentley's body apparently ignited while he was in the bathroom and burned a 2-1/2-by-3-foot hole through the flooring, with only a portion of one leg remaining intact. Nearby paint was unscorched.


Perhaps the most famous case occurred in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mary Hardy Reeser, a 67-year-old widow, spontaneously combusted while sitting in her easy chair on July 1, 1951. The next morning, her next door neighbor tried the doorknob, found it hot to the touch and went for help. She returned to find Mrs. Reeser, or what was left of her, in a blackened circle four feet in diameter.


All that remained of the 175-pound woman and her chair was a few blackened seat springs, a section of her backbone, a shrunken skull the size of a baseball, and one foot encased in a black stain slipper just beyond the four-foot circle. Plus about 10 pounds of ashes.


The police report declared that Mrs. Reeser went up in smoke when her highly flammable rayon-acetate nightgown caught fire, perhaps because of a dropped cigarette.


But one medical examiner stated that the 3,000-degree heat required to destroy the body should have destroyed the apartment as well. In fact, damage was minimal - the ceiling and upper walls were covered with soot. No chemical accelerants, incidentally, were found.


In 1944 Peter Jones, survived this experience and reported that there was no sensation of heat nor sighting of flames. He just saw smoke. He stated that he felt no pain.

Theories about Spontaneous Human Combustion
- Alchoholism - many Spontaneous Human Combustion vicitms have been alcoholics. But experiments in the 19th century demonstrated that flesh impregnated with alcohol will not burn with the intense heat associated with Spontaneous Human Combustion.


- Deposits of flammable body fat - Many victims have been overweight - yet others have been skinny.


- Devine Intervention - Centuries ago people felt that the explosion was a sign from God of devine punishment.


- Build-up of static electricity - no known form of electrostatic discharge could cause a human to burst into flames.


- An explosive combination of chemicals can form in the digestive system - due to poor diet.


- Electrical fields that exist within the human body might be capable of 'short circuiting' somehow, that some sort of atomic chain reaction could generate tremendous internal heat.


No satisfactory explanation of Spontaneous Human Combustion has ever been given. It is still an unsolved mystery.


What Remains After a Spontaneous Human Combustion Event
- The body is normally more severely burned than one that has been caught in a normal fire.


- The burns are not distributed evenly over the body; the extremities are usually untouched by fire, whereas the torso usually suffers severe burning.


- In some cases the torso is completely destroyed, the bones being reduced completely to ash.


- Small portions of the body (an arm, a foot, maybe the head) remain unburned.


- Only objects immediately associated with the body have burned; the fire never spread away from the body. SHC victims have burnt up in bed without the sheets catching fire, clothing worn is often barely singed, and flammable materials only inches away remain untouched.


- A greasy soot deposit covers the ceiling and walls, usually stopping three to four feet above the floor.


- Objects above this three to four foot line show signs of heat damage (melted candles, cracked mirrors, etc.)


- Although temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit are normally required to char a body so thoroughly (crematoria, which usually operate in the neighborhood of 2,000 degrees, leave bone fragments which must be ground up by hand), frequently little or nothing around the victim is damaged, except perhaps the exact spot where the deceased ignited.
Types of Spontaneous Human Combustion
Some events of Spontaneous Human Combustion are witnessed but some are not.


All reported cases have occurred indoors.


The victims were always alone for a long period of time.


Witnesses who were nearby (in adjacent rooms) report never hearing any sounds, such as cries of pain or calls for assistance.


In the witnessed combustions - people are actually seen by witnesses to explode into flame; most commonly. Here the witnesses agree that there was no possible source of ignition and/or that the flames were seen to erupt directly from the victim's skin. Unfortunately, most of the known cases of this type are poorly documented and basically unconfirmed. Sometimes there are no flames seen by the witness.


Non-fatal cases - Unfortunately, the victims of these events generally have no better idea of what happened to them than do the investigators; but the advantage to this grouping is that a survivor can confirm if an event had a simple explaination or not. Thus, there are far fewer cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion with survivors that can be explained away by skeptics without a second look.


Sometimes victims develop burns on their bodies that have no known external cause. These strange wounds commonly start as small discomforts that slowly grow into large, painful marks.


Sometimes the victim will exhibit a mysterious smoke from the body. In these odd and rare occurences smoke is seen to emanate from a person, with no associated fire or source of smoke other than the person's body.

ASTROLOGY AIMS FOR RESPECTABILITY

Thin Evidence Hasn't Hampered Brisk Business

NEW DELHI, India, JUNE 12, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Astrology enthusiasts recently won a battle in India in their efforts to obtain academic credibility. The nation's Supreme Court upheld a 2001 decision by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to introduce courses in Vedic Astrology leading to undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, the Indian magazine Frontline reported in its June 5 issue. The court decision, handed down May 5, rejected a challenge to the UGC approval brought by several academics.

In their petition to the court the academics argued that Vedic Astrology cannot be considered a part of scientific study because astrology lacks the basic attributes and tenets involved in the pursuit of science. Specifically, they argued, astrology does not use the accepted scientific method of inquiry that is characterized by fallibility, verifiability and repeatability.

In 2001 the UGC invited applications from universities to set up astrology departments. Out of 41 submissions the UGC accepted proposals from 20 universities. The article termed the Supreme Court decision "a serious blow to the efforts of the scientific community and rational-minded people who have been relentlessly campaigning against the pernicious move."

Nevertheless, the writer took solace in the recent defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India's national elections. The BJP, observed the article, gave backing to astrology and other similar practices as part of its support of traditional Hindu culture.

Defenders of astrology are not limited to India. On May 16, Britain's Sunday Times reviewed a book published by a Royal Astronomical Society member, Dr. Percy Seymour, in which he lends some credence to astrology. Seymour, former lecturer in astronomy and astrophysics at Plymouth University, stated that he does not believe in the validity of star-sign horoscopes. Yet, in his book "The Scientific Proof of Astrology," he maintains that brain development may be affected by the Earth's magnetic field, especially during a child's growth in the womb. This magnetic field is affected by interactions with the sun, the moon and other planets.

The review did note, however, that Seymour is a lone figure in scientific circles in his defense of astrology. Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, has described astrology as "absurd," noted the Sunday Times. "There is no place for astrology in our scientific view of the world; moreover its predictive claims cannot stand any critical scrutiny," commented Rees.

Payoff, but no proof

An example of this scrutiny was a decades-long study of more than 2,000 people, reported on in the British newspaper Telegraph last Aug. 17. The study involved a group born in early March 1958. Many of the babies were born within minutes of one another and, according to astrology, should have many traits in common.

Researchers examined more than 100 different characteristics, including occupation, marital status and IQ levels. In their findings, published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, the scientists reported no evidence of similarities between those born at the same time.

One of the researchers, Dr. Geoffrey Dean, said the results undermined the claims of astrologers, who typically work with birth data far less precise than that used in the study. "They sometimes argue that times of birth just a minute apart can make all the difference by altering what they call the 'house cusps,'" he said. "But in their work, they are happy to take whatever time they can get from a client."

HELLO? ANYBODY THERE?

Annalisa bought a new address book. As she was writing the names from the old book, she noticed her friends name. Linda had died several months ago. She felt silly transferring the name to the new book, but she felt a little strange to just ignore it. She knew she was being a bit morbid, but something was telling her to dial that number. Maybe to know and hear that it didn’t belong to her friend anymore might bring some closure to her. She was having trouble dealing with the grief that was with her almost daily.

Much to her shock, LINDA ANSWERED. Taken aback, she stuttered the beginning of a conversation. In no time, they were talking like the old friends they were. The last several months were especially hard for Annalisa. In addition to losing Linda, her fiancee left her, so she used the opportunity to pour her heart out to Linda. In doing so, the bitterness and hurt she felt lifted from her soul.

Linda asked why Annalisa hadn’t called in so long. "Why hasn’t Bruce Called?" Linda cried. "He promised to always be there for me."

Bruce was the driver of the car that took Linda’s life. He was driving her home after her bridal shower and the shower gifts were packed not only in the trunk but high in the back seat, blocking the back windows. They were to be married in just three short weeks. Bruce was injured in the accident and had been in a deep coma since that day. He knew nothing about Linda’s death.

Annalisa was thrown off guard. How do you answer such a question? Linda continued, "Why haven’t you called all these long months? Why hasn’t Bruce called?" She asked this over and over.

Not knowing what else to say, she gasped "BECAUSE YOU DIED." Annalisa heard no reply. All she heard was the DIAL TONE! Her heart was pounding in her ears, as she hurriedly dialed the number again. "Pizza Hut Pizza" announced the voice on the other end.