Ah, Halloween again! If I had to pick a favorite holiday, I think Halloween would be it. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of terrorizing the countryside for half the night and scaring the hell out of each other. Although we sort of did that on the 4th of July too, we weren't wearing our disguises. I don't terrorize the countryside and scare the hell out of anybody these days (well, maybe just a little), but it's still fun to remember and watch my daughter and her friends have their turn at it.

Trick~or~Treat!

My story takes place in the autumn of 1978. As I look back, I believe it was in October of that year. We had been restoring a 1920's era oil mansion just down the street from the famous William G. Skelly Mansion and around the corner from J. Paul Getty's first mansion. This ornate old mansion, built during Tulsa's golden oil boom days, still had all the trappings of success. The entire family estate had passed away. Fortunately it fell into the hands of a local architect who specialized in historical restoration.

We had completed the outside of the home and were just about finished with the interior so the crew was down to just me and Delbert, my foreman. At a little before 10 o'clock one morning, Deb decided to go get us a soda and snack for break time. Meanwhile, I busied myself with the painting of the downstairs fireplace. It was no longer functional so we were just dusting it out and painting it to look good. So I wouldn't get dust in my paint, I placed my bucket and brush and a couple of hand tools on the bottom of a grand staircase that went upstairs. This is where it gets other worldly. When I finished dusting out the fireplace I went to get my paint and tools and they were gone.

I thought Delbert was trying to pull a fast one on me so I yelled out for him and asked him where my tools were. There was no answer. I kept calling his name all the way out the front door and on to this beautiful front porch you just don't see anymore and lo and behold his truck was gone. No Delbert, no truck, just me feeling stupid. I went back into the mansion and began retracing my steps, thinking I had misplaced them. I was 27 years old at the time so I know my memory wasn't going. I looked everywhere for those tools. I searched the basement, the kitchen, the dining room, formal living, sun room, closets, cabinets......well you get the picture.

Finally out of desperation I went upstairs and began looking around. I looked in all the bedrooms and to my shock, in the top of each bedroom closet was one of my hand tools. When I looked in the upstairs bathroom, there positioned in the middle of the original claw-toed tub sat my bucket of paint and my paint brush just like I left it. The paint hadn't even moved around in the bucket. It was like it had never been touched. A very urgent sense of 'Oh dear Lord, please get me the hell out of here yesterday' came over me. The end of my story may be boring but believe me, it's my favorite part of the story. That was our last day on the job. On some weekend drives with my wife, especially near Halloween, I still drive by that beautiful old home and remember the day of the "tools that moved by themselves". Never could get'em to do that again.
--Bob in Tulsa, Oklahoma

SPOOKY ASTRONOMY: Halloween is date of astronomical interest. It has to do with seasons: Halloween is a cross-quarter date, approximately midway between an equinox and a solstice. There are four cross-quarter dates throughout the year, and each is a minor holiday: Groundhog Day (Feb. 2nd), May Day (May 1st), Lammas Day (Aug. 1st), and Halloween (Oct. 31st).

"Long ago, the Celts of the British Isles used cross-quarter days to mark the beginnings of seasons. Winter began with Halloween, or as they called it, Samhain," says John Mosley of the Griffith Observatory. "Halloween marked the transition between summer and winter, light and dark -- and life and death. On that one night, according to folklore, those who had died during the previous year returned for a final visit to their former homes. People set out food and lit fires to aid them on their journey -- but remained on guard for mischief the spirits might do."

And so something astronomical became something spooky. It's not the first time. Happy Halloween!

I was looking through some of my weather station data today and came across something interesting. Since FB is quite greedy, he started to see all the trees around here as dollar signs a few years ago, and ever since then the wind has been blowing a lot more. Until today it was just the feeling that the wind blows a lot more. Now I actually have physical proof of the wind-breaking properties of the trees. In the following average wind speed graphs, I can almost see the exact day that the major tree cutting began to have an affect (and continues to this day). Fortunately I had moved the wood stove into the house the Fall before, otherwise I'd be buying even more LP gas than the 2500 gallons that I used to. Also, one month after the graphs show the increase in average wind speed, I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. Coincidence?

On the plus side, with so many trees gone my TV reception has never been better!

Hallowe'en has its origins in the British Isles. While the modern tradition of trick or treat developed in the U. S., it too is based on folk customs brought to this country with Irish immigrants after 1840. Since ancient times in Ireland, Scotland, and England, October 31st has been celebrated as a feast for the dead, and also the day that marks the new year. Mexico observes a Day of the Dead on this day, as do other world cultures. In Scotland, the Gaelic word "Samhain" (pronounced "SAW-win" or "SAW-vane") means literally "summer's end."

This holiday is also known as All Hallows Eve ("hallow" means "sanctify"); Hallowtide; Hallowmass; Hallows; The Day of the Dead; All Soul's Night; All Saints' Day (both on November 1st).

For early Europeans, this time of the year marked the beginning of the cold, lean months to come; the flocks were brought in from the fields to live in sheds until spring. Some animals were slaughtered, and the meat preserved to provide food for winter. The last gathering of crops was known as "Harvest Home, " celebrated with fairs and festivals.

In addition to its agriculture significance, the ancient Celts also saw Samhain as a very spiritual time. Because October 31 lies exactly between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice, it is theorized that ancient peoples, with their reliance on astrology, thought it was a very potent time for magic and communion with spirits. The "veil between the worlds" of the living and the dead was said to be at its thinnest on this day; so the dead were invited to return to feast with their loved ones; welcomed in from the cold, much as the animals were brought inside. Ancient customs range from placing food out for dead ancestors, to performing rituals for communicating with those who had passed over.

Communion with the dead was thought to be the work of witches and sorcerers, although the common folk thought nothing of it. Because the rise of the Church led to growing suspicion of the pagan ways of country dwellers, Samhain also became associated with witches, black cats ("familiars" or animal friends), bats (night creatures), ghosts and other "spooky" things...the stereotype of the old hag riding the broomstick is simply a caricature; fairy tales have exploited this image for centuries.

Divination of the future was also commonly practiced at this magically-potent time; since it was also the Celtic New Year, people focused on their desires for the coming year. Certain traditions, such as bobbing for apples, roasting nuts in the fire, and baking cakes which contained tokens of luck, are actually ancient methods of telling fortunes.

So What About Those Jack-O-Lanterns?

Other old traditions have survived to this day; lanterns carved out of pumpkins and turnips were used to provide light on a night when huge bonfires were lit, and all households let their fires go out so they could be rekindled from this new fire; this was believed to be good luck for all households. The name "Jack-O-Lantern" means "Jack of the Lantern, " and comes from an old Irish tale. Jack was a man who could enter neither heaven nor hell and was condemned to wander through the night with only a candle in a turnip for light. Or so goes the legend...

But such folk names were commonly given to nature spirits, like the "Jack in the Green, " or to plants believed to possess magical properties, like "John O' Dreams, " or "Jack in the Pulpit." Irish fairy lore is full of such references. Since candles placed in hollowed-out pumpkins or turnips (commonly grown for food and abundant at this time of year) would produce flickering flames, especially on cold nights in October, this phenomenon may have led to the association of spirits with the lanterns; and this in turn may have led to the tradition of carving scary faces on them. It is an old legend that candle flames which flicker on Samhain night are being touched by the spirits of dead ancestors, or "ghosts."

Okay, What about the Candy?

"Trick or treat" as it is practiced in the U. S. is a complex custom believed to derive from several Samhain traditions, as well as being unique to this country. Since Irish immigrants were predominantly Catholic, they were more likely to observe All Soul's Day. But Ireland's folk traditions die hard, and the old ways of Samhain were remembered. The old tradition of going door to door asking for donations of money or food for the New Year's feast, was carried over to the U. S. from the British Isles. Hogmanay was celebrated January 1st in rural Scotland, and there are records of a "trick or treat" type of custom; curses would be invoked on those who did not give generously; while those who did give from their hearts were blessed and praised. Hence, the notion of "trick or treat" was born (although this greeting was not commonly used until the 1930's in the U. S.). The wearing of costumes is an ancient practice; villagers would dress as ghosts, to escort the spirits of the dead to the outskirts of the town, at the end of the night's celebration.

By the 1920's, "trick or treat" became a way of letting off steam for those urban poor living in crowded conditions. Innocent acts of vandalism (soaping windows, etc.) gave way to violent, cruel acts. Organizations like the Boy Scouts tried to organize ways for this holiday to become safe and fun; they started the practice of encouraging "good" children to visit shops and homes asking for treats, so as to prevent criminal acts. These "beggar's nights" became very popular and have evolved to what we know as Hallowe'en today.

SMALLEY'S INN on Route 52 in Carmel has all the ingredients for a haunting. The inn was built around the mid-1800s, though evidence shows it may have been around a lot longer. The site had a series of tragic events, including a deadly fire and an execution. Owner James J. Smalley was at various times the sheriff, coroner and treasurer of the town. His daughter, Elizabeth, was only a toddler when she died, and there's the belief that a portion of the basement was used as a morgue when Smalley was the coroner.

Tony Porta Jr., who runs the bar/restaurant with his father, believes it to be haunted by the spirits of Smalley, Elizabeth and reportedly a Revolutionary War soldier. An unidentified woman has also been seen and captured in reflections of photos taken near the restaurant's large wall mirror. Staff members are convinced the building is haunted, with more than a few of them refusing to enter certain areas of the basement.

While on this recent inn investigation, Lisa Blake sat down and, with eyes closed and head bent, made herself receptive to spiritual communications. The HVPI group splits up so that members can monitor separate parts of the area. And on this night, Pearce and Williams had multiple cameras and recording devices set up in every corner with various members set up near the liquor closet and meat locker. As the night progressed, the members switched places. And the night did not go quietly.

Elizabeth, according to Blake, appeared and communicated to her. She said she was afraid to move on; Blake could see her very soaking wet, and in a kind of prairie dress. The notion of her being drowned was discussed. As photo after photo was taken and reviewed seconds later, a small child's face could be seen in a few photos, appearing to move in one direction and then disappearing.

Every so often a member would call out to Elizabeth, telling her that they were here to help her. Orbs or perfectly symmetrical white spots thought by some investigators to be a soul or spirit were also caught on film. A stack of pots and pans suddenly flew off a shelf in the upstairs kitchen, and a vacuum cleaner took off down the basement steps. Full Story

It was a great day for a ride! The Hawkeye likes cooler weather. The cooler it is the more power it makes. There were a lot of hunters out today. Not so many ATVs, but I did see a few. Nobody I knew. I see someone has been tearing the roads up. You should be ashamed of yourself. If I catch you, no sissy trail patrol stuff from me, I'll kick your ass. Plain and simple. The refuge is one of my favorite places to ride, and one of the only places I ride lately, so don't screw it up for me!

There were three eagles catching a thermal by the Yellow River:

The Yellow River has a little water in it again. Doesn't look yellow to me, but:

The leaves are all gone off the red berry bushes, but the berries remain bright as ever. I still don't know what they are:

Bigfoot, WHERE ARE YOU?:

Skid marks! Maybe Bigfoot jumped out in front of someone?:

Perhaps a sign like this one is needed?:

DELL HOUSE
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin


The infamous Dell House was built in 1837 by a man named Allen. It stood near a place called the Narrows in a shady glen that was close to both a sandy river beach and a fresh water spring. The Dell House was not a classy establishment. It catered to the basic needs of the rough river men who came there... food, a place to sleep, bad whiskey, gambling and women. Violence was not uncommon here and it is believed that a number of unlucky patrons probably found their final resting place to be the muddy bottom of the nearby river.

The days of the river traffic eventually faded and the Dell House closed down. By 1900, the ramshackle building had been abandoned. Adventurous tourists and local residents occasionally camped out near the site and so began the tales of ghosts and phantoms who were said to walk the ruins of the house. Campers spread tales of ghosts and mysterious sounds like cursing, laughter, breaking glass and pounding footsteps coming from the old structure.

The house came to an end in 1910 when a fire burned the empty building to the ground. All that remained were the foundations of the inn, the fireplace and the towering brick chimney. Eventually, the ruins were engulfed by the surrounding forest. The forest glen near the Narrows still remains, although the Dell House is gone.

There are still many who believe that it's ghostly legacy lives on however. Those who have ventured out near the site after dark still claim that unusual sounds can be heard in that area of the forest and that shadowy figures still slip past the trees and disappear.

Do the ghosts of past still haunt the site of the Dell House? We dare you to find out.....

The Wisconsin Dells are in central Wisconsin, about fifty miles northwest of Madison. Dell House once stood on a sandy glen near the Narrows. Today the ruins are covered by forest but the location can be learned by contacting the local tourist board or the Chamber of Commerce.

I finally saw the comet last night. I had been looking at it previous nights, but didn't know it. Last night it was easy to spot, because it was obviously bigger than a star. Looked like a little fuzzy moon because it doesn't have a tail. In the binoculars (I didn't bother to drag out and set up one of my telescopes) I could see the bright nucleus. Maybe it will get a tail soon? I took some pictures of it, but don't think they are very good. If it gets a tail, then the pictures might be more interesting.

I've now added a "Ghost Stories" search to my "In The News" section just in time for Halloween! Enjoy.

A ‘HAUNTED’ playground swing that rocks backwards and forwards on its own for days has scientists baffled.

Parents and children are convinced a ghost is to blame.

They were so spooked they reported the swing to cops after it began moving four months ago.

The phenomenon flummoxed police, who called physics professors into Firmat, Argentina.

But so far the experts have failed to find a logical explanation.

Locals claim the seat moves nonstop for TEN DAYS before stopping dead, while other swings remain still.

Teacher Maria de Silva Agustina said yesterday: “One child called it the Blair Witch Playground. We believe it is haunted.”

Academics have now ruled out magnetic and electrical fields, and winds – and called in ghosthunters.

Yesterday we carved pumpkins, and carved pumpkins, and carved pumpkins! 28 altogether, until I discovered one that I missed still in the garden (some of them had spread way out into the woods). So that meant my little row of pumpkins this year produced 30! One was too rotten to use. Good thing tea light candles are on sale at Pamida.

The Fall colors turned out better this year than what I thought they were going to do after the early frost. Even the oaks were really pretty instead of the usual browns. Actually, I think the oaks were more colorful this year than the other kinds of trees! Just about over now though. What's left is mostly brown, and they're falling fast.

Any day now I should be able to get to try out my new snowblower! VVRROOOMM! And then the snow can go away again. As long as there's enough ice for our Castle Rock Family ATV Club winter poker run, I'll be happy.

Tomorrow looks like a nice Fall day. Maybe I'll go do a little Trick-or-Treating on the ATV routes! BOO!

15 Famous Freaky Ghost Pictures
Slideshow includes the 'Brown Lady' and a ghost child. --KNBC

"My tent is about 4 feet tall, maybe a little less, and what I saw was more than twice as tall. At first I couldn't see any features, just the outline. Then it took a couple of steps towards me. I almost peed my pants right there. I picked up the .45 and took a shot off to the left of it. It stopped and looked at me. Then it started walking towards me again. ..."

"Deputy sheriffs, forest rangers have seen them, even a few Ph.D.s on vacation," Rugg claims. "Smart people who aren't likely to mistake it for a bear or the rear end of a moose. It's pretty hard to continue being a skeptic." Full Story

Was a juvenile Bigfoot picked up by a trail camera on the evening of September 16, 2007? For larger images and further details about R. Jacobs' photos from Northwest Pennsylvania, visit BFRO.net.

Is it a car..is it a plane?

A US company have developed a car that can easily beat traffic jams - it can fly.

At the touch of a button the Transition from Terrafugia four-wheeled car extends a pair of wings either side of its main body.

Chief operating officer, Anna Mracek Dietrich, said: "It will take just a few seconds to transform and will be fully automated after the command is given in the cockpit. We're currently sold out for at least the first year, approaching the first two of production".

The Transition will use low-cost electronics and feature GPS and auto-pilot weather radar.

The prototype, which runs on super unleaded petrol, cruises at 120mph and lands at 65mph.

The estimated hourly fuel burn of four gallons equates to 30mpg in flight.

Terrafugia - which means escape from the earth - are selling for £74,000.

The company hopes the first car will be ready by next December.

A small and very faint comet has surprised observers around the world by overnight becoming bright enough to see with the unaided eye.

Comet Holmes, which was discovered in November 1892 by Edwin Holmes, in London England, was no brighter than magnitude 17 in mid-October—that's about 25,000 times fainter than the faintest star that can normally be seen without any optical aid. In order to view an object this faint, one would need a moderately large telescope.

But the comet's brightness has suddenly rocketed all the way up to 3rd-magnitude, brightening nearly 400,000-times in less than 24-hours! On this astronomers scale, smaller numbers mean brighter objects. From urban locations, a 3rd-magnitude object might be hidden by light pollution, but under rural skies it would be clearly vsiible.

No tail

Comet Holmes is not as dramatic as some, lacking the characteristic tail that makes some of these frozen wanderers so beautiful. Instead, it appears as a fuzzy, albeit distinct, starlike object, but with no noticeable tail.

Bright moonlight can make it hard to find. But with a map and a small telescope, any relatively seasoned amateur should be able to spot it.

The comet is currently located among the stars of the constellation Perseus, which can be found about halfway up in the northeast part of the sky as darkness falls. Perseus is almost directly overhead by around 2 a.m. local daylight time and is still well up in the northwest sky as dawn begins to break.

Why Comet Holmes has undergone such an explosive outburst is not understood. What is amazing is that it made its closest approach to the sun last May, but came no closer than 191 million miles (307 million kilometers) to the sun. The comet is now moving away from the sun and currently is quite far out from Earth at a distance of 151 million miles (243 million kilometers). Not exactly a recipe for the typical show-off comet.

From deep space

This comet is part of Jupiter's "family" of comets—a group in which the far end of their respective orbits (aphelia) cluster around the orbit of Jupiter and takes 6.88 years to make one circuit around the Sun.

So why would a comet far out in the cold of space suddenly brighten hundreds of thousands of times? What is the source of such energy? Does it come from within the comet or without?

Alas, comets remain largely mysterious.

Comet Holmes is not alone in exhibiting anomalous effects. In the past, other comets have undergone unexpected outbursts in brightness. And this is probably not the first outburst for Comet Holmes: when it was discovered in 1892, it was likely in outburst mode, since it became as bright as fourth magnitude and was dimly visible to the naked eye.

"It appears that it is undergoing an outburst that strikingly parallels [a] famous 1892 event," said comet expert John Bortle.

Wednesday afternoon, Bortle said a report coming in from Japan suggested the comet was still brightening.

'Yellowish star'

Viewers all report the comet as appearing star-like, Bortle said, noting that observer Bob King, in Minnesota, said it looked "like a yellowish star."

Because of occasional close approaches to Jupiter, the orbit of Comet Holmes has been altered a few times. In fact the comet was considered "lost" for nearly 60 years before it was finally recovered with a large observatory telescope in 1964.

As to what this object will do in the coming days and weeks is not known. The brilliant light of the waxing Moon will be a hinderance for the rest of this week, but if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you might want to try seeing what certainly is one of the solar system's most enigmatic objects.

What a beautiful Fall morning! The moon was absolutely gorgeous! When I was walking down to the barn this morning, I could tell the moon was bigger than usual and it was so bright it almost hurt to look at it. It really made the frost on the grass sparkle.

I think it's funny, Winter comes about the same time every year and probably has for at least a couple of centuries, but some people still act surprised. Duh. I'm ready. Bring it on. I may not always be happy about Winter weather, but it certainly never catches me by surprise.

The old wood stove burned up a little creosote in the chimney this morning. That's good. It makes quite a bit, not as much as it does when your wood hasn't seasoned for a few years, but it still builds up in the moderate weather. Burning a little creosote often is way better than burning a whole bunch once in awhile. I remember those "burning a whole bunch once in awhile" chimney fires when I was a kid. Yikes!

I couldn't find the comet last night after sunset. I also watched for the space station, which was supposed to pass over between 6:40 - 7:00 pm, but didn't see that either. Maybe tonight I'll look for the comet again.

Crystal ball sets fire to house

Firefighters discovered the curtain fire was caused by a crystal ball

A woman returned home to a house full of smoke after a crystal ball set fire to her lounge.

Firefighters said the crystal ball on the windowsill had refracted sunlight on to the curtains, starting the blaze. The woman returned to her home in Poole, Dorset, at 1400 BST to discover the fire.

Watch manager Dave Cooper, of Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, said: "The conditions were just right with a low, strong October sun."

He added: "It was a most unusual incident.

"The glass ball had literally refracted the light and set fire to the curtains.

"The lady was understandably quite shocked and called us straight away and then stayed out of the house.

"She asked us to take away the offending article - which we did of course, so it wouldn't upset her."

While genetics and biology present us with new studies each day intending to validate the common origin of all species, new fossils continue to appear—more signs of a highly advanced distant past. Over time, these findings contribute to an understanding that human origins are far more remote than what is widely believed.

In fact, there exist many fossils that challenge our modern understanding of history. An impression of a perfect human hand (with fingernail marks) was discovered in 110-million-year-old limestone in Glen Rose, Texas; a 100-million year-old petrified finger (fossil identified as DM93-083), which had its bone structure revealed through radiography, was found on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada; there is the well-known discovery of giant human footprints beside those of a dinosaur in Rìo Paluxy, Texas; and there are many more. The apparent soundness of our current theories is shaken each time an "impossible fossil" comes to light.

Watch out for this guy on the ATV routes this weekend. He's pretty scary. Especially when he takes the mask off!

In 1976, a spoon that was first unearthed in 1937 inside a chunk of Pennsylvania soft coal was brought to public attention.

To rule out that such findings could be interpreted as a random occurrence, consider the 1967 discovery inside a Colorado silver mine: human bones alongside a 10-inch copper-pointed arrow. According to general estimates, the mineral deposit in which these were discovered is millions of years older than the human race.

BIG FULL MOON: This week's full Moon is the biggest full Moon of 2007. Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others and Thursday night's will be a whopper. The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side 30,000 miles closer to Earth than the other. The full Moon of Oct. 25-26 is located on the near side, making it appear as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier in 2007.

"The social and legal issues are daunting. If a hurricane were coming towards Miami with the potential to cause damage and kill people, and we diverted it, another town or village hit by it would sue us. They'll say the hurricane is no longer an act of God, but that we caused it." Full Story

Another case, published in 1831 by the American Journal of Science, deals with a block of marble extracted from a depth of about 60 feet, which was later cut into pieces. The marble, believed to have formed millions of years ago, revealed precise cuts 2 inches by 0.5 inch—the shapes of the very similar modern letters "u" and "i." The regularity of the symbols gave the impression of having been engraved by human hands.

A similar case was brought to light in 2002 in China's Guizhou Province, where a broken rock was found to have, at first glance, perfect Chinese characters of inexplicable origin, considering that the rock dated back to 200 million years ago! This relic is known as "The Stone of Hidden Words."

The first sighting took place on 30 March at around 8.30pm in Somerset. This was followed by a sighting at 9pm in the Quantock Hills. The witness was a police officer who, together with a group of scouts, had seen a craft that he described as looking "like two Concordes flying side by side and joined together". The reports came in thick and fast and when I arrived at work the following morning I received a steady stream of reports. It was soon clear that I had a major UFO event on my hands. One of the most interesting reports came from a member of the public in Rugely, Staffordshire, who reported a UFO that he estimated as being 200 metres in diameter. He and other family members told me how they had chased the object in their car and got extremely close to it, believing it had landed in a nearby field. When they got there a few seconds later, there was nothing to be seen. Many of the descriptions related to a triangular-shaped craft or of the lights perceived as being on the underside of such a craft. Indeed, in an apparent coincidence these sighting occurred three years to the very day after the famous wave of sightings in Belgium that had led to F-16 fighters being scrambled to intercept a UFO being tracked on radar. Full Story

We went to the haunted hayride/pumpkin walk at the Roche-A-Cri state park last night. It wasn't very scary, but I didn't expect it to be and it was fun just the same. Not much is scary after 20 years of marriage and children! It was more funny than anything. The funniest part was when Edgar, a guy that takes pictures for the newspaper, was photographing one of the displays along the ride. A young guy next to us screams and yells "oh my god, there's Edgar"! It was hilarious!

I was going to wear my Halloween mask last night, but changed my mind at the last minute and left it home. When we got there, nobody was wearing a costume. I told my wife that I wished I had worn my mask so that she wasn't the only one. Then she was pissed for some reason. Who knows, I'll never understand women. Something about she wasn't wearing a mask, is all I gathered.

We went on the pumpkin walk after the hayride. It was a mile and a half around the bluff, lighted all the way by Jack-O-Lanterns. It was really neat, and a nice night for a walk. Almost too warm, but I enjoy walking. At one point the trail goes uphill for a ways, and I was kind of glad when we got to the top and it was all back downhill from there! It wasn't too bad though. The worst part was this morning when I had another new calf waiting for me out in the pasture and had to carry it up to the barn! I really felt it when I got to the knee-deep shit in the barnyard. Whew. It wasn't a very big calf, but sure felt heavy this morning.

Another archeological treasure hidden in a carbon deposit was found in 1891 by S.W. Culp, a woman from Illinois. While she was extracting the black material, she accidentally broke a fragment, and a very thin gold chain was knocked loose. It had been lodged inside a bow-shaped cavity in the carbon.

It didn’t come from an airplane.

The mystery about the origin of a 16-inch, unidentified falling object that fell from the sky Monday and sliced “like butter” through the roof of a parked vehicle deepened Tuesday, after an official with the Federal Aviation Administration announced that whatever it is, it’s not a piece of aircraft.

At about 4 p.m. Monday, the brownish, hook-shaped piece of metal crashed through the roof of an unoccupied 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander parked at the Happy Harry’s drugstore at 536 Main St. in Stanton. Its arrival came with a boom that one witness told Mill Creek Fire Company Chief James Howell sounded like an explosion.

The SUV’s owner, Susan Wilson, said she was inside the drugstore at the time. When she returned to her car, she found ash and debris on the driver’s seat and gaping hole in the vehicle’s roof. Nestled on the rear passenger side floor she found the hot object still smoldering from its descent.

“The metal was still too hot to handle,” Delaware State Police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said.

Once the mysterious object had cooled down, it was turned over to the FAA personnel from the Philadelphia office. The federal agency was doing some last procedural work on the object Tuesday, but FAA spokesman Jim Peters said he’s confident it didn’t come from any plane.

Wilson, of Wilmington and her fiance Michael Roberto have struggled with how to deal with the aftermath of the object falling from the sky. Their SUV has been towed to a repair shop and the couple is waiting on the bill. Lacking answers to what launched the hunk of metal, Wilson’s insurance has asked her to pay the deductible for the damage.

The "Cube of Salzburg" is another challenge to history. It was revealed to the public when in 1885 an Austrian iron smelter broke apart pieces of carbon and uncovered a cube-shaped iron artifact. "The edges of this strange object were already perfectly straight and defined; four of the sides were planes, while the two remaining sides, situated in front of each other, were convex. Halfway up was a deep slot," wrote René Noorbergen, a specialist in these types of cases.

Chemical analysis later determined that the object did not contain any chrome, nickel, or cobalt, but instead was composed of a kind of forged iron. This composition seemed to rule out the hypothesis that the "cube" was a meteorite, as some had suggested.

In the1880s, a Colorado rancher extracted pieces of carbon from a mineral vein 300 feet below the surface. Later at his house, as he was breaking up the extracted pieces, he found a strange-looking iron thimble. News of the discovery known as the "Thimble of Eve" spread quickly, but due to its state of corrosion and people's over-handling, it disintegrated.

It is known that thimbles have been used by humans as far back as thousands of years ago. However, a curious detail in this case is that the carbon in which the thimble was found formed 70 million years ago, between the Cretaceous and Tertiary eras. According to modern understanding, the ancestors of human beings at this time were not even monkeys, but a different kind of small mammal, with protruding eyes, swinging between tree branches.

Eight years before the discovery of the Dorchester vase, a perfect iron nail was found in a 24-inch slab of rock in a quarry in Kingoodie, Scotland. The point of this nail was sticking out of the rock, while an inch of it, including the head, was sealed inside. It is estimated that such a rock would have formed roughly 60 million years ago.

In 1852 a giant rock mass in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was dynamited. After the explosion, workers found a curious metallic artifact among the debris, which was broken in two. Upon joining the two pieces together, they revealed a vessel in the shape of a bell with a base of 6.5 inches and height of 4.5 inches. Later they discovered that the vessel was made from a silver alloy. Curiously, this artifact, seemingly constructed with a high level of technology, appears to have been trapped in the rock while it was forming several millions years ago—when humans did not even exist.

It was foggy and rainy all morning:

I harvested our pumpkins. 29 and only one rotten one. I'm not sure what to do with them, but Ashley says she's going to carve every one:

The chickadees and nuthatches don't eat all the sunflower seeds that I put out for them. Sometimes they save them for later and then forget about them. I discovered this one's stash:

Approximately 320 million years ago, a species of small lobed creatures began to populate Earth's seas. These relatives of sea arachnids—similar to lobsters and crabs—once flourished but became completely extinct 280 million years ago. We are talking, of course, about the trilobite.

The human being, as it is currently accepted by the majority of scientists, appeared as a species no more than 2 or 3 million years ago. And the history of man such as he is known today does not exceed 10,000 years.

With these dates in mind, we can conclude that a human being could never have squashed a creature that became extinct millions of years ago, and even less so a person with shoes—an unequivocal indication of civilization. This is evidence which defies history—an impossible fossil.

In June of 1968, amateur fossil collector William J. Meister found a rock 2 inches thick in Antelope Spring, Utah. With a blow of his hammer, he exposed the fossil of a human footprint. But this footprint had a special feature—a squashed trilobite. It wasn't long before the news spread across the world, and several investigators made their way to Antelope Spring, finding more marks made by modern-style footwear in a geological stratum corresponding to extremely remote ages. What strange joke is seemingly being played on history?

The Long, Long Drive - A similar disappearance was reported by The New York Times in April, 1980. Charles Romer and his wife Catherine were one of those retired couples who spent half of the year in the north and half in the south, living in their summer home in Scarsdale, New York, then driving to Florida to enjoy the winter in their Miami apartment. It was on one such trip back to New York that the Romers met their mysterious fate. They set off on the long trip on the morning of April 8 in their black Lincoln Continental. Late that afternoon, they made their first overnight stop at a motel in Brunswick City, Georgia. It turned out to be their last. They checked in and dropped off their luggage in their room. Then they went out, possibly to get some dinner. A highway patrolman might have seen their car on the road that evening. If so, it was the last anyone ever saw of the Romers or their Continental. They never arrived at any restaurant and never made it back to the motel. It wasn't until three days later that an investigation showed that their motel beds were never slept in. A thorough search of the area found absolutely no trace of the Romers or their car - no clues whatsoever. They simply vanished without a trace.

Dad and Mom loved to take pictures. Some might say that's where I got my interest from. I've recently needed to look at a lot of old photos. Which brings to mind something I've noticed about the pictures that people take. There are "people photographers" and "object and scene photographers". Nothing wrong with either one, just two different ways of taking pictures.

Mom was somewhere in between. She was just as happy photographing a flower or river or colored leaf as she was posing people for portraits. Lots of diversity from one picture to the next. Mom used film exclusively, never slides, and she never had any interest in "digital".

Dad was a "people photographer" in that he liked to take pictures of people and not so much of objects or scenes. There are lots of pictures he took at events long ago. The majority of his event photos are of the people at the events and not necessarily of the events themselves. The pictures he did take of scenes and objects would normally have people posed in front of them. I can almost always tell his photos just by looking at them. Dad preferred slides, but sometimes used regular film. I'm pretty sure he died long enough ago that he had probably never heard of a "digital" camera. If he were alive today, you can bet he'd have had one!

I'm the opposite type of photographer. I prefer to take pictures of objects and scenes, and I only take pictures of people if they happen to be part of the scene or seated on the object. I don't think I have ever "posed" anybody, but I have "posed" my ATV, bicycle, etc. many times! I have never owned a film camera. My first camera, and every camera thereafter, was a digital.

They Drove Away... To Where? - Here's another case of a couple in Illinois, but this time they both vanished - along with their car. It was May, 1970 when Edward and Stephania Andrews were in the city of Chicago to attend a trade convention party at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel. Edward was a bookkeeper and Stephania a credit investigator. They were both 63 years old, considered average, upstanding citizens who lived in a fine home in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. During the party, other attendees noted that Edward complained of mild illness, which he attributed merely to be hungry (the party only served drinks and small hor d'oeuvres). They soon left the party and went to the parking garage to retrieve their car. The parking attendant later told authorities that Stephania appeared to be crying and that Edward did not look well. As they drove away with Edward at the wheel, he scraped the car's fender on the exit door, but kept on going. The attendant was the last person to ever see the Andrews. They vanished into the night. Police speculated that Edward, not feeling well, had driven off a bridge into the Chicago River. But an investigation uncovered no sign of such an accident; the river was even dragged for the car without success. The Andrews and their car were just gone.

ORIONID METEORS: Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. The display, feeble now but intensifying, is expected to peak on Oct. 21st.

I went for a ride in the Refuge today. I started in Necedah and stopped at the Wilderness:

After I left the Wilderness, all of a sudden I had sort of an emergency. Why is it as I get older, this type of thing comes on so suddenly? Is it just me? On a Saturday night out in the middle of the Refuge, and so many cars that I was afraid I was going to crap my pants before I could find a secluded place! I'm not opposed to going in the woods in these circumstances, but would hate for a carload of nuns to stop to see if I needed help and discover me with my pants down! Boy, was I glad to see this place:

Does anybody know about this bush with the bright red berries? I see them all over the place out there, but they do not grow anywhere near where I live, that I've ever seen. Doesn't look like anything eats them. Does Bigfoot like them? They are really bright red, almost glowing:

Gone in His Sleep - Bruce Campbell was right next to his wife when he disappeared, although she didn't see it happen. She was asleep. And perhaps so was he. It was April 14, 1959, and Campbell was traveling with his wife from their hometown in Massachusetts to visit their son some distance across the country. It was a long but pleasant drive across the U.S. with plenty of stops along the way. One overnight stop was in Jacksonville, Illinois... and it turned out to be the last stop Mr. Campbell was to ever make. He and his wife checked into a motel and went to bed. In the morning, Mrs. Campbell awoke to find the space next to her in bed empty. Mr. Campbell had vanished, apparently in his pajamas. All of his belongings - his money, car and clothing - remained behind. Bruce Campbell was never seen again and no explanation for his disappearance ever found. (From Among the Missing: An Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from 1800 to the Present, by Jay Robert Nash)

I hauled my month's worth of wood up in front of the house today. It'll actually last more like two months this time. It's the final step before the firebox of the stove. I also use this time to clean my chimney. I wasn't going to do the wood/chimney thing until Sunday or Monday, but the forecast is for rain for a few days starting Saturday night. I won't have time tomorrow, so thought I'd better get it all done today. Plus I did the Fall sweep of the roof to get all the pine needles off. The leaves seem to blow off by themselves, but not the pine needles.

After that, JR came over with one of the heads from Michael's SUV engine. I was going to try to lap the valves a little so we could get an idea if any of them were bent. My suction cups are all shot, but it turns out we didn't need to lap the valves anyway. At least one of them is obviously bent, so JR will get the head checked and the work done at a machine shop. That way it will be done right and no guessing.

Oh, and by the way, I only allow the finest porn-O on my web site. All of the old skanky stuff is removed immediately. ;-)

Performance artists are known for pushing the bounderies, but one Australian has astonished his contemporaries by having a third ear implanted onto his arm.

The Cypriot-born eccentric Stelios Arcadious spent 10 years searching for a surgeon willing to perform the controversial operation. Full Story

Halfway to the Well - Most disappearances do not have witnesses, yet there is sometimes circumstantial evidence that is no less puzzling. This is the case for the vanishing of Charles Ashmore. It was a cold November winter night in 1878 when 16-year-old Charles went out into the dark with a bucket to fetch water from the well for his family on their Quincy, Illinois property. He did not return. After many minutes, his father and sister became concerned. They feared that Charles perhaps had slipped in the snow that blanketed the ground and was injured, or worse, had fallen into the well. They set out to look for him, but he was just gone. There was no sign of a struggle or fall... only the clear tracks of Charles' footprints in the fresh snow that led halfway to the well, then abruptly stopped. Charles Ashmore had suddenly disappeared into the void. (From Into Thin Air, by Paul Begg)

Stumble into Nothingness - It's difficult to dismiss such incredible stories when they take place in front of eyewitnesses. Here's another. This case began as a harmless bet among friends, but ended in tragic mystery. In 1873, James Worson of Leamington Spa, England, was a simple shoemaker who also fancied himself somewhat of an athlete. One fine day, James made a bet with a few of his friends that he could run non-stop from Leamington Spa to Coventry. Knowing that this was a good 16 miles, his friends readily took the bet. As James began to jog at a moderate pace toward Coventry, his friends climbed into a horse-drawn cart to follow him and protect their bet. James did well for the first few miles. Then his friends saw him trip on something and fall forward... but never hit the ground. Instead, James completely vanished. Astonished and doubting their own eyes, his friends looked for him without success, then raced back to Leamington Spa to inform the police. An investigation turned up nothing. James Worson had run into oblivion. (From Into Thin Air, by Paul Begg)

Thanks once again to everyone that's been posting stuff on my calendar!

Well, looks like Fall has arrived. It's actually overdue. We've been lucky so far. The wind today felt like it was right out of the North Pole!

I think I'm about ready for Winter. It's a big relief to have the snow removal figured out. I put the doors on my machine shed today and installed the last storm windows on the house. I guess I got Mom and Dad's house about ready too. I only hope that we can sell it soon. I don't want to have to worry about heating it all Winter, and buying that damn gas. I'm still waiting for some info, but as soon as that's here I'll waste no time getting it listed.

The Vanishing Prisoner - The year was 1815 and the location a Prussian prison at Weichselmunde. The prisoner's name was Diderici, a valet who was serving a sentence for assuming his employer's identity after he died from a stroke. It was an ordinary afternoon and Diderici was just one in a line of prisoners, all chained together, walking in the prison yard for the day's exercise. As Diderici walked with his prison inmates to the clanking of their shackles, he slowly began to fade - literally. His body became more and more transparent until Diderici disappeared altogether, and his manacles and leg irons fell empty to the ground. He disappeared into thin air and was never seen again. (From Among the Missing: An Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from 1800 to the Present, by Jay Robert Nash)

The Great Worldwide Star Count is underway and there's still time to participate! Join thousands of other students, families, and citizen scientists counting stars this October, for the
Great World Wide Star Count, October 1 - 15, 2007! More Info

Here it is, what I'll be plowing the driveways with this year. It doesn't look too big in the picture, but it's pretty good size. 28" width, 8 horsepower engine, 6 forward gears, and 2 reverse. I don't think it'll be able to clear snow as fast as the old Sportsman. But after more thought, when the snow is piled up I might be able to go faster because I won't be trying to find places to push more snow. We'll see. It seemed to be the cheapest and best option for this year.

I got it at Tractor Supply (TSC). They were the best deal for what you got. I checked several places on the net, and went to some in person. I had already checked with Ace on the net, so knew what they had to offer, but I had to stop there on the way to TSC to get something else. Just for shits and giggles, I decided to ask them what they had for snowblowers since I didn't see any out front. TSC had snowblowers out front at least a month ago already.

At Ace they looked at me funny and repeated the word "snowblowers" back to me a couple times, like I was asking for them in June, or like I was asking for a spaceship. "I'm not sure if we have any." "Let's ask four more people about it." "Oh, there's some in boxes in the warehouse." So we go back to the warehouse, and sure enough, there was one in a box with a drawing of a snowblower on the outside and no information about it at all. All the while a dog was barking at us, and the guy said it was because I was wearing a hat. What the hell was the dog doing there anyway? Then an old bag sticks her head around the corner and says; "Hey, can you take your hat off?" Hell no lady. I only take my hat off for one thing, and you're way too ugly for that.

I said "never mind" and headed up to TSC. The blowers at TSC were bigger, more powerful, and hundreds less. And not one old bag told me to take my hat off, although the doll that waited on me there was worth considering it.

Mystical Misfirings
Scientists and scholars have long speculated that religious feeling can be tied to a specific place in the brain. In 1892 textbooks on mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and epilepsy. Nearly a century later, in 1975, neurologist Norman Geschwind of the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital first clinically described a form of epilepsy in which seizures originate as electrical misfirings within the temporal lobes, large sections of the brain that sit over the ears. Epileptics who have this form of the disorder often report intense religious experiences, leading Geschwind and others, such as neuropsychiatrist David Bear of Vanderbilt University, to speculate that localized electrical storms in the brain’s temporal lobe might sometimes underlie an obsession with religious or moral issues. Full Story

All people have a “tact filter”, which applies tact in one direction to everything that passes through it. Most “normal people” have the tact filter positioned to apply tact in the outgoing direction. Thus whatever normal people say gets the appropriate amount of tact applied to it before they say it. This is because when they were growing up, their parents continually drilled into their heads statements like, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!”
“Nerds,” on the other hand, have their tact filter positioned to apply tact in the incoming direction. Thus, whatever anyone says to them gets the appropriate amount of tact added when they hear it. This is because when nerds were growing up, they continually got picked on, and their parents continually drilled into their heads statements like, “They’re just saying those mean things because they’re jealous. They don’t really mean it.”

When normal people talk to each other, both people usually apply the appropriate amount of tact to everything they say, and no one’s feelings get hurt. When nerds talk to each other, both people usually apply the appropriate amount of tact to everything they hear, and no one’s feelings get hurt. However, when normal people talk to nerds, the nerds often get frustrated because the normal people seem to be dodging the real issues and not saying what they really mean. Worse yet, when nerds talk to normal people, the normal people’s feelings often get hurt because the nerds don’t apply tact, assuming the normal person will take their blunt statements and apply whatever tact is necessary.

So, nerds need to understand that normal people have to apply tact to everything they say; they become really uncomfortable if they can’t do this. Normal people need to understand that despite the fact that nerds are usually tactless, things they say are almost never meant personally and shouldn’t be taken that way. Both types of people need to be extra patient when dealing with someone whose tact filter is backwards relative to their own.

From Unknown Source

Thousands of Bigfoot sightings from eyewitnesses. One would be wrong to throw these out, even as a skeptic. No one case proves anything, but the sheer number of people should alert one to something unexplained going on. And the consistency of detail is astounding if one wishes to believe these are all misidentifications and hallucinations. We have a great bulk of reports, going back centuries, that correspond with each other, many with details researchers didn't appreciate well enough until recently. Full Story

This fungus glows in the dark. When I walk down to the barn in the morning, I go past the woodpiles in the yard. It's completely dark in the morning this time of year, and I can see the glowing spots in the woodpile. Looks cool. Fits right in with Halloween coming!

Goldie and one of the "free to good home" kittens:

My kindling work station. About 2/3 of another load complete:

Snoopy dancing. She likes to dance. She thinks she's part people:

Our last Indian Summer day? Certainly we won't have many more like this, if any. A few warm days probably, but the humidity will be making itself pretty scarce. That's ok with me. It's easier to get warm than it is to get cool. The colder and windier it is, the better the old wood stove burns too. That's when it's really nice to kick back and watch it. It doesn't make much creosote then either. (No, I haven't had a fire going in it for the last few days, in case you were wondering. Tomorrow night.)

The world's shortest couple?

Two Chinese newly-weds are hoping to get into the record books as the world's shortest couple.

Li Tangyong, 3ft 7ins, of Shunde city, married Chen Guilan, 2ft 4ins, this week.

"We had to postpone the marriage for three years because both our families objected," he told New Express.

But on October 1, they joined 30 other couples in a group wedding at a park in the city.

At the wedding, they announced they have applied to the Guinness Book of Records and are awaiting confirmation.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday.

The changes are worrying, said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," said Kawaoka, who led the study. Full Story

WEEKEND PLANETS: Venus, Saturn and the slender crescent Moon are gathering in the morning sky and they'll be beautifully close together all weekend long. Look east at dawn on Saturday and Sunday for a sight guaranteed to wake you up.

Mysterious Object Falls From Minnesota Sky
Reports of metallic object and flaming ball falling from sky

MINNEAPOLIS -- Shortly after 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, people around the Twin Cities metro reported seeing a “metallic” or “flaming ball” falling from the sky. Emergency dispatchers around the metro reported calls from around the metro of people seeing the object. Calls came in from Edina, Maple Grove, Inver Grove Heights and Brooklyn Park.

At 3:15 p.m. the FAA had no reports of anything falling from any airplanes in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The debris that fell on Interstate 94 on Wednesday was an unrelated incident.

Initial speculation is that it was a meteorite which may have burned up in the atmosphere, as no crash site has been identified.

Workers at business off Highway 100 and 70th Street said the object was visible from a first floor conference room with a westward facing window.

I've sure been itching to go for a ride. Bike and ATV both! Too many other things with higher priority yet. I've been wanting to get to the bike trail while the fall colors are good, which will mostly be gone by next weekend or shortly after. And I'd like to get up to BRF before the ATV trails close on the 15th. I've still got to get something to plow driveways with too. I think I'll just end up getting a good snowblower. Tractor Supply has a nice one for $699, so that's probably where I'll go soon. It's the least complicated solution for now. I'm already in over my ass with complications lately, so don't need anymore at the moment.

I haven't been cutting any firewood. (What?!) I've got an overflow of wood again and it's hunting season. Even though hunting has been ruined for me forever, I don't like to screw around in the woods much then. I've still been handling firewood when I get a free minute! One of my piles tipped over in the wind and rain the other night, so I had to re-stack it. In between milking, the other stuff, and in the evenings, I've been splitting kindling. I can split it pretty fine with my new ax (when I'm not trying to chop my fingers and thumb off). It's very therapeutic! I've been splitting and splitting and splitting whenever I get the chance. I've got a cubic yard or more of it now, and I only use a couple pieces once a month! I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do with it. I've even ran out of room to store it in the garage.

If anybody with a fireplace or wood stove needs some oak kindling, let me know. I've got lots!

I finally greased my Hawkeye and changed the break-in oil, after almost 1200 miles! I service my ATVs twice a year, April and October. Since I bought the Hawkeye in the middle of March, I let it go until October.

It was easy to service. Only 5 grease fittings, as opposed to over 30 on the old Sportsman. That's a good thing as far as ease of greasing it, but on the other hand I like to make sure everything is lubricated. As long as the stuff I can't grease doesn't wear out, great.

The oil change was ok. It's harder to get to the drain plug since it's underneath the middle of the engine, instead of on the side of a reservoir like the old one. The drain plug takes a 6MM allen wrench. I don't like that very much. Those allen heads get dirt packed in them and you have to pick it out before you try to put the wrench in. If you don't, you run the risk of rounding it out. I'll have to keep an eye on it. Also, the only way to pour the new oil in it is if you use a funnel with a really long tube on it. Which I just so happened to have, so no big deal. I knew I was going to need my long funnel when I first bought the Hawkeye, just by looking at it.

A strange thing I noticed about the air filter when I first bought this ATV is that there is no clamp holding it to the intake. It's just stuck on the intake tube in the air box, with a ridge built into the box to keep it from popping back off. I forgot to ask my dealer about it. The old ATV had a clamp holding it on. The Trailboss doesn't, but that's a totally different design. When I cleaned the pre-filter, I inspected the inside of the paper filter and the intake and they were spotless. It seems to be doing it's job without being clamped on. I'll have to remember to research it and make sure that it's not supposed to have a clamp. I could put a clamp on it anyway for peace of mind, but I don't want to risk having the clamp crush the intake tube if it's not needed.

My phone rings the other night, and the conversation went like this:

Me; "Hello."

Male with heavy Iraqi-type accent; "You have dog?"

Me; "Ahhh, yes, I have two."

Accent; "Your dog barking. Keep me awake."

Me; "I think you have the wrong number. My dogs are in the house with me and are not barking."

Accent; "Yes. Your dog barking. Have to work in morning."

Me; "Where do you live?"

Accent; "I you neighbor."

Me; "I have no neighbors. I live way out in the country."

Accent; "Yes, I you neighbor. Just move here. I live in house by big oak tree."

Me; "Nope, you're not my neighbor. You have the wrong number."

Accent; "Tell you dog shut the fuck up!"

CLICK! He hangs up.

I think it was a crank call. It came in on one of my unlisted lines, so was probably a prankster just dialing numbers until they got someone. The Caller ID gave me his number, which I saved for future reference. Reverse phone lookup just says it's a Mauston cell phone number, and no additional information. I typed the number in as many things as I could find on the net, so I doubt if barking dogs are keeping him awake now as much as telemarketers! Ha ha!