Damn Data

The West's Leper Colonies

nospam@example.com (Min Bannister) — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:12:19 -0700

Leprosy is really something that most people associate with ye olde days. Lepers roamed the Bible with their bells and continued up to the middle ages (in popular culture), shunned by a society that, rather understandably, did not want to get leprosy from them. Nowadays leprosy is very rare and confined mainly to India and Brazil but some people may be surprised to find that there are leprosy sufferers in the US, and even in Europe.

Carville in Louisiana used to be home to up to 500 people but nowadays, even though there are 250-300 new cases a year in the US, effective treatment means that sufferers are no longer expected to live in isolation and can continue with their lives as normal although the treatment requires a cocktail of drugs and can last several years. Today only a few elderly people live in Carville, people who have been there most of their lives.

Now known as Hansen's Disease, it is still little understood and to study it, the bacillus needs to be grown in armadillos as it cannot be cultured in the lab. It is thought that some of the people who contract Hansen's disease catch it from infected armadillos.

Romania holds the distinction of holding the last leper colony in Europe, a village called Tichilesti formed in 1928. At that time leprosy was seen as a sort of divine retribution and so was stigmatised even more. Ceausescu considered it to be caused by living a decadent western lifestyle and persecuted sufferers, evicting them from their homes and burning their possessions. Up until very recently the village had been literally wiped from the map and many people did not know of its existance but in 2005 a British diplomat called Jonathan Scheele heard of the colony and demanded to visit it. His driver refused to take him all the way, leaving him to walk the last part through the forest. As a result of this visit £70, 000 has been awarded to the village from the EU and has been used to refurbish houses and provide television and radio links to the residents.

Unfortunately I can't find any more recent stories about the residents of Tichilesti but I hope the improvements have helped them.

Eucharistic Miracles

nospam@example.com (Min Bannister) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:44:11 -0700

Transubstantiation is the changing of bread and wine in to the body and blood of Jesus Christ. There are many tracts written on how Christ can be present but the appearance or “accidents” of the bread and wine remain the same. However this is not always the case. Stories abound throughout history of actual changes of the Eucharist into flesh and blood. There are also other miracles including levitating and incorruptible hosts.

There are far too many cases to include them all in this post but here are three of the most interesting ones, all of which can still be viewed to this day. All of these are in Italy but similar miracles have taken place all over the world, including this one in Poland.

Lanciano, is the setting for our first miracle where an 8th century priest-monk experienced doubts about the true presence while celebrating mass. Before his eyes the host transformed into flesh and the wine into blood. The blood dried into five pellets and investigations by the monks showed that the smallest pellet weighed as much as the largest, one pellet weighed as much as all five together and two as much as any three.

In the 1970s, some investigations were done and both flesh and blood were found to be human and of the blood group AB. The tissue was heart tissue and the blood was found to have been from a live body and not a cadaver. No trace of any preservatives were found. The previous anomalies regarding the weight of the pellets were not found.

The church was demolished after earthquake damage but the miraculous flesh and blood still reside in the new church, dedicated to St Francis of Assisi.

S Maria Del Vado in Ferrara, on the 28th March 1171 a host turned in to flesh and sprayed blood over the marble vault behind it. The church was enlarged in 1500 and the marble vault removed to a side chapel and displayed. The drops of blood can still be seen. There is an excellent website with PDFs containing photographs of this and other miraculous events in PDF form, filed in country order.

Siena boasts two Eucharistic miracles, the first as the bloody page of a breviary in which a priest hastily inserted a host to take to a sick person in 1330. This maltreatment caused the host to bleed and stick to the pages and the priest quietly took it back and confessed. It may be seen today in the Basilica of St Rita in Cascia.

The second consists of a ciborium containing hosts which have remained uncorrupted since August 14th 1730 when they were stolen by thieves who had taken advantage of fact that clergy were distracted by the feast of the Assumption. The hosts were eventually located but due to their dirty and cobwebbed state when found, it was decided that the hosts could be allowed to decay naturally at which point they would no longer contain the body of Jesus Christ. They are held in the Basilica of St Francis in Siena and are not on permanent display but are shown at various times, mainly on the 17th of each month to commemorate the day of their discovery and are also paraded on the feast of Corpus Christi each year in a processional monstrance.

More modern miracles such as that in India 2001 and La Reunion 1902 have tended to consist of the appearance of the face of Jesus in a host. The Indian host survives and may be seen in St Mary of Chirattakonum in the diocese of Trivandrum.

Other Eucharist related activities of note include some astonishing acts of perpetual worship. Apparently the Cathedral of Lugo, Spain was the setting for the perpetual worship of the Eucharist for over 1000 years from the 4th century (from Joan Carrol Cruz although online sources say 6th century). The present Cathedral was built starting in 1129 and is very impressive.

A 500 year perpetual adoration took place in France in the Chapel of the Holy Cross Avignon from 14th September 1226, continuing till 1793 when there was a break until 1829 (after a bit of choppy choppy) when the adoration resumed.

Perpetual adoration has become popular, so popular in fact that the diocese of St Petersburg, Florida has banned the practice, fearing that worship of the host would detract from other sacraments.

Source - Eucharistic Miracles by Joan Carrol Cruz.

Great Haircut Riot

nospam@example.com (Min Bannister) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:41:43 -0700

The recent excitement over the Gorbals Vampire discussed here on the forum put me in mind of another crisis involving schoolchildren. This one was a little less sensational but destructive nevertheless.

One could be forgiven for thinking there could be few creatures more terrifying than an Aberdonian seagull but in fact, in 1919 schoolgirls with "verminous heads" were more fearsome still.

Seemingly some girls had been given haircuts by medical staff for being in possession of aforementioned vermin. That would be headlice to you and me. The girls' mothers were so angry at the trimmings that very quickly, a demonstration of hundreds of parents and children took place outside the Middle School at Gallowgate on the 16th June. They were keen to talk to the medical officer who unbeknownst to them, had left some time ago. By late evening, rushes on the school gates and missile throwing were the order of the day though there was nothing that the police were not able to control. The rain eventually cooled the mood and the demonstrators went home.

Later it became known that the demonstrations had taken place at several schools in Aberdeen - although at least one "demonstration" involved a trip to the beach - and the allegation was that large scale hair cutting had taken place without warning to the parents of the children involved. The home of the medical officer, one Dr Rose became the target of angry crowds until the police became involved and moved them on.

What calmed the outraged hordes is not recorded but after two days, the children simply returned to school and the Great Haircut Riot was over. Only the smashed windows of the Middle School and the reports in the Aberdeen Daily Journal were left to tell the tale.

Source-Grampian Curiosities by Robert Smith

Mary King's Ghost Fest

nospam@example.com (Min Bannister) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:13:38 -0800

Mary King's Ghost Fest has been running in Edinburgh for a number of years now, this is the sixth and it is a change of month, being a little bit earlier than usual. We went along to the press launch which is usually an action packed event as we get a wee taster of a few of the offerings.

This year we got an actual taste as two of the events are happening in the Malt Whisky Society in Leith. We tasted two amazing cask strength whiskies and were supplied with tasting notes. I was not able to detect “a Cathedral at Christmas” in the second (I'm not making that up) but I reckon I did get the blackcurrants in the first. This sensory delight was followed by a tale of terror from a bewigged and enthusiastic young man in period costume. The Whisky Society will host a “Spirited Storytelling Whisky Dinner” which from our preview promises to be a delicious and fun event. For the more sober minded, a “Spirited Paranormal Investigation” down in its vaults with Full Moon Investigations may be more your cup of tea.

After this we headed back to Mary King's close for a quick round of EVP with Mark Turner of Ghost Finders Scotland. We got some pretty scary “answers” to some pretty harmless questions. I could tell that quite a few members of the audience were freaked out by it, myself included! Ghost Finders Scotland will be doing “Electronic Voice Phenomena 50 years on” “A Close Encounter with medium Chris Conway” and “A close encounter with Ghost Finders Scotland”, all to take place in Mary King's Close.

A rather more relaxing time was spent in Annie's Room with medium Chris Conway of Most Haunted, when I say relaxing I mean nothing of note happened but of course, 20 minutes is nowhere near long enough to investigate anything. A better opportunity will be found in “A Close Encounter with Chris Conway” which is a three and a half hour investigation of Mary King's Close. This is likely to be a popular as it has the “Most Haunted” touch!

Other highlights of the programme will include “So You Want to be a Ghost Hunter” with Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe and Steve Parsons. This day of theory followed by practical work down in Mary King's Close will also feature a session on a history of hauntings by Gordon Rutter. You can also see Gordon do a talk on Paranormal Edinburgh
.
Because of the success of the Edinburgh event, there are now Oxford and Canterbury Ghost Fest's too.

The 2010 Mary King's Ghost Fest will run from Thursday 18th March to Tuesday 23rd March.

Uri Geller visits Lamb

nospam@example.com (Min Bannister) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:17:34 -0800

Readers may remember that some time ago Uri Geller bought Lamb Island, a small island in the Firth of Forth. Well today is his first visit there and it was preceded by a talk at the Seabird Centre at North Berwick so of course we went along to join in the fun.

Much to his delight, he arrived in Edinburgh at platform 11 at 11.11.11 - and was obviously keen to explore since he immediately climbed Berwick Law on arrival in North Berwick. Around 70 people squished into a small room at the Seabird Centre plus about 12 press photographers, making it very cosy indeed. Flash bulbs were going off all over the place when Uri appeared and it was all rather exciting.

He talked about the legend of Scota and the possibility of Egyptian treasure being on the island. Check out Emps blog post about the Scottish Pyramids for more info. His plan is to dowse for the spot where he thinks the treasure is located and apply for permission to dig for it. He will have to do it without attracting the ire of his new tennants/flatmates of 100, 000 seagulls!

And yes, before anyone asks, he did bend a spoon! Two spoons in fact and also made a mustard seed sprout in his hand. Really he was a very lively and entertaining speaker. He has also made a sturdy donation to the seabird centre and proceedings from todays talk will also go to it. He was presented with some fantastic photographs taken by local people of the island and a cute cuddly puffin. He is going to need it to help keep him warm as he intends to spend the night on the island and is there right now.

You can keep up with proceedings as he is updating his website from his Blackberry.

Thanks to Jeff for tipping us off about this event.
Thanks to Gordon for photos.

Chinese 'Goat Woman'

nospam@example.com (Q) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:30:00 -0800

Apparently, this cutaneous horn growing from the forehead of Zang Ruifang, 101, only started taking form in the last year. Now her family say that there is a similar protusion growing from the opposite side of her forehead. China appears to have an abundance of horned people, see our previous entry on the subject - The Horniest Man in China - for more details.

Source

'Snowflake Bentley'

nospam@example.com (Q) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:45:38 -0800

I imagine some readers are probably sick of the sight of snow and ice but I thought you may find this interesting:

Wilson A Bentley, a farmer and amateur photographer, will more than likely be a name you've not heard of before. Obsessed with the complex and beautiful patterns of snow crystals, he became determined to capture the first photomicrographic images of snowflakes - which he did, as you can see below - and was for many years unrivalled in his pursuits (simply because his photographs were so good!).

Unfortunately, Bentley died of pneumonia in 1931, the same year his book was published, Snow Crystals.

In pictures: The first ever photographs of snowflakes - Wilson A Bentley

Photographs by 'Snowflake Bentley' go on sale in New York

You can also read an article of his, from the Popular Mechanics Magazine (1922),
on photographing snowflakes plus more info on Bentley over at Snowflake Bentley.com, curated by the Jericho Historical Society.

Shocking ghost photo

nospam@example.com (Q) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:15:00 -0800

As in shockingly bad...

An absolutely unbelievable photo, reportedly taken via a mobile phone, showing a ghostly boy. Isn't it a tad early for April Foolery??

"Does this spooky image show ghost boy watching builders demolishing his old school?"