Centralia, Pennsylvania

Centralia is a borough and ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005, 9 in 2007, and 7 in 2010 as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962. All properties in the borough were claimed under eminent domain by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1992 (and all buildings therein were condemned), and Centralia's ZIP code was revoked by the Post Office in 2002. However, a few residents continue to reside there in spite of a failed lawsuit to reverse the eminent domain claim.

It is not known for certain how the fire that made Centralia essentially uninhabitable was ignited. One theory asserts that in May 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill, located in an abandoned strip-mine pit next to the Odd Fellows Cemetery. The firefighters, as they had in the past, set the dump on fire and let it burn for a time. Unlike in previous years, however, the fire was not extinguished correctly. The fire remained burning underground and spread through a hole in the rock pit into the abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, and it continued to burn throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Adverse health effects were reported by several people due to the byproducts of the fire, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and a lack of healthy oxygen levels.

In 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas-station owner and then mayor, John Coddington, inserted a stick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he withdrew it, it seemed hot, so he lowered a thermometer down on a string and was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was 172 °F. Statewide attention to the fire began to increase, culminating in 1981 when 12-year-old resident Todd Domboski fell into a sinkhole four feet wide by 150 feet (46 m) deep that suddenly opened beneath his feet in a backyard. Only the quick work of his cousin Eric Wolfgang in pulling Todd out of the hole saved Todd's life, as the plume of hot steam billowing from the hole was measured as containing a lethal level of carbon monoxide.

The only indications of the fire, which underlies some 400 acres spreading along four fronts, are low round metal steam vents in the south of the borough and several signs warning of underground fire, unstable ground, and carbon monoxide. Additional smoke and steam can be seen coming from an abandoned portion of Pennsylvania Route 61, the area just behind the hilltop cemetery, and other cracks in the ground scattered about the area. The underground fire is still burning and will continue to do so for a predicted 250-1000 more years.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

Wilmer McLean

The initial engagements of the Civil War on July 18, 1861, in what would become the First Battle of Bull Run, fought on July 21, took place on McLean's farm. Union Army artillery fired at McLean's house, headquarters for Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard, and a cannonball dropped through the kitchen fireplace. Beauregard wrote after the battle, "A comical effect of this artillery fight was the destruction of the dinner of myself and staff by a Federal shell that fell into the fire-place of my headquarters at the McLean House.”

McLean was a retired major in the Virginia militia, but was too old to return to active duty at the outbreak of the Civil War; he made his living during the war as a sugar broker supplying the Confederate States Army. He decided to move because his commercial activities were centered mostly in southern Virginia and the Union army presence in his area of northern Virginia made his work difficult. He undoubtedly was also motivated by a desire to protect his family from a repetition of his battle experience. In the spring of 1863 he and his family moved about 120 miles south to Appomattox County, Virginia, near Appomattox Court House.

On April 9, 1865, the war came back to Wilmer McLean when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of McLean's house near Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War. Later, McLean is supposed to have said "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor".

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmer_McLean

Lake Kaindy

Kaindy Lake is a 400 meter long lake in Kazakhstan that reaches depths near 30 meters in some areas. It was created by the result of an enormous limestone landslide. This resulted in the submersion of a large portion of the nearby forest. The track to Kaindy lake has many scenic views to the Saty Gorge, the Chilik River valley and the Kaindy gorge. Dried-out trunks of submerged Picea schrenkiana trees rise above the surface.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kaindy

Naga fireballs

The Naga fireballs are a phenomenon seen in the Mekong river—in Thailand and in Laos—in which glowing balls rise high into the air. The balls are reddish and about the size of chicken eggs; they rise a couple of hundred meters before disappearing. The number of fireballs is variable, being reported at between tens and thousands per night. The fireballs are most often reported around the night of Wan Awk Pansa at the end of the Buddhist rains in October. It has been proposed that the balls are produced by the fermentation of sediment in the river, which can supposedly combust in the particular river and atmospheric conditions of the nights in question.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_fireballs

Dave Soldier

Dave Soldier (born November 6, 1956) is an American composer and performer residing in New York. Some of his work is based on unusual collaborations. In the Thai Elephant Orchestra he built giant musical instruments on which he trained a group of elephants to improvise. The Thai Elephant Orchestra, located at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center near Lampang, has recorded three CDs, consists of up to 14 elephants, and is listed by Guinness as the world's largest orchestra by weight, claimed to be roughly equivalent as much as three Vienna Philharmonics.

He created specially designed instruments for music played by zebra finches and pygmy chimpanzees, the latter in collaboration with Gordon Shaw, the physicist who popularized the Mozart effect. He has a repertory for music, the Brainwave Music Project, played by performer's brainwaves using electroencephalograms in collaboration with the computer musician Brad Garton.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Soldier

Aokigahara

The forest contains a number of rocky, icy caverns, a few of which are popular tourist destinations. Due to the wind-blocking density of the trees, and an absence of wildlife, the forest is also known for being eerily quiet. The forest, which has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology, is a popular place for suicide.

There are a variety of unofficial trails that are used semi-regularly for the annual "body hunt" done by local volunteers, who mark their search areas with plastic tape. The plastic tape is never removed, so a great deal of it litters the first kilometer of the forest, past the designated trails leading to tourist attractions such as the Ice Cave and Wind Cave. After the first kilometer into Aokigahara towards Mount Fuji, the forest is in a much more pristine state, with little to no litter and few obvious signs of human contact.

The forest is reportedly the world's second most popular suicide location after San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. This popularity is often attributed to the 1960 novel Kuroi Jukai by Seichō Matsumoto, which ends with two lovers committing suicide in the forest. However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara dates from before the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death: ubasute (see prior Weird Weekly Wiki on Ubastue http://weirdweeklywiki.blogspot.com/2010/03/ubasute.html - Josh)was practiced there into the 19th century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the ghosts of those left to die.

Since the 1950s, more than 500 people have lost their lives in the forest, mostly suicides, with an average of approximately 30 counted yearly. In 2002, 78 bodies were found within the forest, replacing the previous record of 73 in 1998. In 2003 the rate climbed to 100, and in recent years the local government has stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to downplay Aokigahara's association with suicide. The high rate of suicide has led officials to place signs in the forest, in Japanese and English, urging those who have gone there in order to commit suicide to seek help and not kill themselves.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aokigahara_Forest

Tanganyika laughter epidemic

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 was an outbreak of mass hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness (MPI), rumored to have occurred in or near the village of Kashasha on the western coast of Lake Victoria in the modern nation of Tanzania near the border of Kenya.

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic is sometimes understood as implying that thousands of
people were continuously laughing for months. However this may not have been the case. Other reports tell that the epidemic consisted of occasional attacks of laughter among groups of people, occurring throughout the vicinity of the village of Kashasha at irregular intervals. According to reports, the laughter was incapacitating when it struck.

The school from which the epidemic sprang was sued; the children and parents transmitted it to the surrounding area. Other schools, Kashasha itself, and another village, comprising thousands of people, were all affected to some degree. Six to eighteen months after it started, the phenomenon died off. The following symptoms were reported on an equally massive scale as the reports of the laughter itself: pain, fainting, respiratory problems, rashes, attacks of crying, random screaming. Doctors reported that there were more complaints about gas than ever before.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_Laughter_Epidemic