Watch Your Hide!

08/01/2012

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A new paranormal show on SyFy, Haunted Highway, is fast becoming one of my favorites.  Don't worry Josh Gates, Destination Truth will always be number one.  On a recent episode they went searching for a Skinstealer.  I haven't heard a lot of information about this strange and creepy legend so I went hunting for some.

Run for the hills folks.  A creature lurking in your neck of the woods wants to steal your skin.  It could be stalking you this very moment.  Skinstealers, Skinwalkers or Shape Shifters, as they are referred to by anthropologists, are found in Navajo legend and are thought to be powerful witches by the Native Americans.  Bigfoot is even a term referring to this mysterious creature.  Are they one and the same? 

The Skinwalker can turn himself into any animal by wearing that animal's hide.  Mostly commonly they are seen as a coyote, wolf, owl, fox, or crow.  Because of this bears, coyotes, wolves, and cougars pelts are tabooed in Navajo culture.  They are also known to shape shift into another human's body by looking directly in their eyes. They prey on children and the weak.  These evil beings cast curses and bring bad luck to anyone who crosses his path.  To become a Skinwalker you must kill a family member.  That can only lead to nothing good!  Native Americans do not talk about Skinwalkers.  Can you blame them? Little information is known about these evil beings.
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Some other abilities of these supernatural creatures include being extremely fast, the ability to read minds, imitate any animal sound, take on animal characteristics, disappearing footprints, and mind control.

Would you know a Skinwalker if you passed him on the street?  Some characteristics of a Skinwalker include their eyes glowing like an animal while in human form but when transformed into an animal their eyes are a hellish red.  They will do anything to keep their identity under wraps, even murder.  Skinwalkers sometimes use corpse powder to kill their victims.  Can't find that at the corner store. 
These creatures are found mainly in the Western United States.  Whew!  I'm safe for now.  In order for a Skinwalker to enter your residence it has to be invited in.  If he does make it into your house the only way to kill a Skinwalker is to shoot them with a bullet dipped in white ash or shoot them in human form.  Keep your rifle loaded. 

A friend in the UK said they believe these evil beings were never human but can take the form of various creatures and are linked to the werewolf legends.  After some research I discovered the stories of humans transforming into werewolves is very old and come from ancient myths of Greece and Scandinavia.

There is a remote location in Utah called the Skinwalker Ranch or UFO Ranch.  It is thought to be located on the path of the Skinwalker.  This 480 acre ranch is privately owned and dedicated to researching strange phenomenon happening around the ranch.  Can anyone say road trip?  UFO sightings, Bigfoot, other cryptids, and animal mutilations are often reported here.  Here is an interesting article about the ranch.

The Ute, a Native American tribe, believe the Skinwalker lives in a place not far from Skinwalker Ranch called Dark Canyon.  This canyon is located on tribal land and has petroglyphs on the walls depicting the Skinwalker and should be avoided at all costs so the Skinwalker is not provoked.  Brilliant idea. 

What do these scary animal-pelt-wearing creatures want?  Power.  And they will do anything to get it. 

Read about a run-in with a Skinwallker here.
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Does Paranormal Activity Heat Up during Star Time?

05/06/2012

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STAR TIME
What is Star Time?  The topic of Sidereal Time was brought up in a new paranormal forum, Buster's Ghost Gear (sign up for some great conversation!).  I had never heard of this term so I decided to check it out.  Sidereal Time is also called "Star Time".  Unlike our traditional time clock which is based on the relation of the earth to the sun, "Solar Time", Star Time relates to, you guessed it, the stars. 

Astronomers use this to view a particular star at a certain time each night.  The time is determined by a radio emission from the center of the Milky Way galaxy that passes overhead every 23 hours and 56 minutes and the time it takes the Earth to make one rotation relative to the vernal equinox.  Numerous studies have been done and a correlation has been found between this mysterious time, specifically 1330 sidereal time, and psychic abilities and paranormal activity.  Coincidence?

This strange radio emission happens not every 24 hours but every 23 hours and 56 minutes pinpointing a different time every day.  One theory is that a large concentration of dark matter in this region is pulling the Milky Way galaxy in its direction.  Can the energy generated to make this happen aid in the paranormal?

We decided to try out this theory at an investigation at Ashmore Estates, Illinois.  I used the link below to calculate when Star Time would be in this location at 1330 Sidreal Time and came up with 2323 Solar Time.  At this particular time, there was a lot of activity during our investigation.  We had great hits on our K2 meter while asking questions to a girl spirit, some of the best evidence of the night. 

Of course, I had to try it out again to make sure this theory was legit.  We had an investigation at a private residence.  I calculated Star Time at this location the night of the investigation and came up with 2313 Solar Time coinciding with 1330 Sidreal Time.  Again, at this time we had a lot of action in the attic of the house.  A flashlight went on and off on command and our K2 meter went off to questions we asked the spirits.  This particular time was the most activity of the night.

Could there really be something to this?  On the TV show, Paranormal State, their theory is that paranormal activity occurs at 3am "Dead Time".  On all of our investigations we have never had anything happen at that time.  All our activity seems to happen earlier in the night.  But does it have something to do with the stars?  I think we are off to a good start but need more evidence to determine if this celestial time clock can pinpoint us to paranormal events happening around us.

Calculate Sidereal Time at your location:  http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/sidereal.html
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Help! My Photo Was Stolen!

02/02/2012

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Your very best ghostly apparition photo suddenly appears on another site.  What can you do?

Recently we had a photo stolen from our Facebook site and posted on another site.  Needless to say, I was livid.  It was pure luck I even saw the photo.  I asked this person to give us credit for the photo and they could post it on their site.  They deleted my comment.  I asked them to take the photo down.  They deleted my comment and proceeded to post some not very nice comments.  I reported it to Facebook.  Within the hour the photo was removed.  Facebook contacted me and said they could not find the photo.  I assume this person didn't think it was worth the trouble and removed it.  There are some mean people in this world.

I did some research into what I could do to protect my photos in the future and I'm going to tell you how to do that.  First off, there is no sure-fire way to protect your photos from theft unless you are a computer genius but there are some ways to make it more difficult.

1.  Put a watermark on all of your photos.
2.  Disable the right click button on your website so the photo cannot be copied. 
3.  Copyright it.

According to the US Copyright Office:

"Copyright protects original authorship fixed in tangible form (17 USC sec. 102(a)). For works transmitted online, the copyrightable authorship may consist of text, artwork, music, audiovisual material (including any sounds), sound recordings, etc. Copyright does not protect ideas, procedures, systems, or methods of operation (17 USC sec. 102(b)).

Under U.S. law, copyright protection subsists from the time the work is fixed in any tangible medium of expression from which it can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.  Copyright registration is not mandatory, but it has important benefits."

Once you have anything down on paper text/photos/audio/video or the internet it is your property.  It's helpful to apply for a copyright but not mandatory.

WATERMARKS.  A watermark is a logo or text put on photos to identify your ownership.  This is easily done with various programs such as Microsoft Paint (I like to call it Pain because this program is not user friendly.  It will make you want to pull your hair out.)  I used Microsoft Paint on the photo below to the left.  Then I used a free program called Visual Watermark on the photo below to the right.  It can't get any easier than this. 

The downside to watermarks is the photo can still be copied and the watermark cropped out but this is one extra step to stealing your photo and that might deter the crook.
DISABLE THE RIGHT CLICK BUTTON.  The usual way to copy something is to right click, choose copy, and paste it where you want it.  You can disable this with a html code.  I am in no way code savvy so I searched for this code and embedded it in all my web pages.  Just try right clicking this article.  The downside to this is there are ways around it.  I don't know them but a computer guru might if he wants your picture bad enough.  I just realized this and I disabled the right click so you cannot copy the code on this page.  Go to this link to find the code on an unprotected page to disable right clicks.  This includes text and photos on the page.

COPYRIGHT IT.  You can file an application for a copyright of your work with the US Copyright Office.  The downside to this is you might have hundreds of photos and need to file for every one and this could be costly.  Way too much work for me. 

If you have a logo on the other hand, it might be a good idea to apply for a trademark which is different than a copyright.  A trademark is a design that identifies you.  See US Patent and Trademark Office for more info.  There is a whole list of different trademarks and they recommend hiring an attorney to navigate them.  Sounds like this one is going to cost you.

I don't think there is a way to protect your photo on Facebook operating your page as a group other than a watermark.  Anyone in the world can see your photo.  If someone steals your photo on Facebook you can report it.  Click on the stolen photo at the thief's website and hit Report This Photo.  A box will pop up.  Click on "is this is your intellectual property" at the bottom.  This will take you to Facebook copyright policy page.  Look for IP infringement form.  Fill that out and submit to Facebook.  You will need the link to the photo.  Facebook got back with me within 24 hours.

In the end you should take the theft of your beloved photo as a compliment.  They liked your picture so much, they wanted it for themselves.
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