Empire State Building Bermuda Triangle

For centuries, sailors have feared wandering into the Bermuda Triangle, the patch of the Atlantic Ocean that allegedly turns navigation systems haywire and swallows ships without a trace. 

A few years ago, New York City drivers had similar fears about an equally terrifying place: Midtown.

Around 2008, drivers started complaining that within a 5-block radius of the Empire State Building, their cars would inexplicably die and refuse to start again.

“It was almost every day,” says Rony Yaakobovitch, manager of NYC Tire and Auto Care in Hell’s Kitchen. “We used to pick up those cars, take them a few blocks, and they would start.”

His best guess is that radio signals from the broadcast beacon on the tower were disabling alarm systems in cars and preventing them from starting.

About a year ago, the phenomenon disappeared as mysteriously as it began. Yet the broadcast beacon is still there. Hmmm . . . 

Source: nypost.com

My Cousin Attended Her Own Funeral

The funeral of my cousin was really strange... Especially when I saw her standing in the corner of the church.

The church was full of family and we just sat listening to the service and to others saying their goodbyes. It was nothing extravagant, but it was nice. I get distracted really easily because of my dyspraxia, so I was looking around and I saw her in the corner, looking at her own coffin.

I stared. I wasn't scared or shocked, I just didn't want to look away. My cousin, who had died a few weeks ago was standing right there. I won't tell you how she died, but it wasn't of natural causes.

I heard my name be called from the front, signaling that it was my turn to say a few words. I got up and went to the front. When I looked back, she was gone. I almost wanted to cry, the only time I would see her again, and I turned my back on her.

I said my bit, as well as I could through the tears and went back to my seat. When the service was over, we all went outside. I saw her again, standing by the trees. I walked to her as quietly and casually as I could. I stood in front of her. She smiled at me and told me she wasn't in pain anymore. I tried not to cry at that statement. I knew which sort of pain she meant and who caused it.

I nodded as I tried not to cry, and she vanished.

I have seen her around. I stayed at her house to sort things out. Her boyfriend keeps seeing her too. He's creeped out by it, but I'm just happy to see her. The loss isn't so bad if the person you miss keeps turning up to comfort you.

Source: yourghoststories

The White Lady Of Burger King

 It's been a while.

For a while things had calmed down in my life with the supernatural, but as of the last couple of years all kinds of bizarre events are happening. I thought some would make great stories to share with you, but I'm starting with an ongoing saga of what we have dubbed "The White Lady" at my Burger King.

I've worked for the company a year now, and both locations I have been at were haunted. While there's not much story to the first store I was at, what I've experienced on the night shift, along with others, at my current store? Is something straight from a horror movie.

It started simple enough. One night, while I was manning the front counter I noticed a young woman in her twenties waving to get my attention. She had what I'd best describe as a formal white gown on from the flapper days and long blonde hair. I explained I'd be right with her, and turned away less than a second. In the time I'd taken to turn back around - she was gone.

I assumed I was just exhausted, and wrote it off until a month later. My co workers and I were discussing ghosts, and while asking if a friend believed in them she mentioned she'd seen one at work. When I asked the story - I'll give you one guess as to the specter she described. That's right, the same lady, the same wave, even standing in the same place.

It really creeped us out - but we didn't think much of it. But apparently, the woman knew we'd seen her because that's when the haunting began in earnest.

The Ghostly Touches In The Dark Room

This is something that happened to both me and my sister. I am sharing this with my sister's expressed permission.

If you have read my already published experience; The Dog man on the porch, then you would know that the house I lived in from age four to later parts of nine was haunted. This incident took place in that house.

Our house was a single floor brick construction from the early twentieth century. The layout of the house was a mixture of bus topology found in old colonial houses, and the long corridors and balconies found in Bengali houses. 

There were three bedrooms. One for my parents and one for me and my sister. They were both adjacent to a long balcony that overlooked the north side of the perimeter of the house. Our parents bedroom and ours also had a door as a direct link between the rooms. On the other end of the long balcony, lied the door to our kitchen, the door to our dining and living room (the two didn't have a door between them), and the door to our store room.

The incident in question happened in this storage room. It was a long time ago, but I'd say the room was twelve feet long and seven feet wide, with two feet wooden shelves coming out from both sides of it's length. This room has a tragic history to it (I know from older kids who had heard it from the old people in our campus).

As people who have read the previous incident that took place in this house would know, our house was used as a dumping ground for dead bodies by the Pakistani military in the genocide of 1971. Well, our storage room in particular was used to dump the bodies of the women the Pakistani military violated.

They had, as hearsay goes, found four bodies in our storage room. I will not go into the state of the corpse upon discovery, but let's just say they were vandalized in a way that it'd be very inappropriate for the younger audience to hear of it.

My sister, fifteen at the time, was home in a vacation. It was the late Autumn (Hemonto season, for my Bengali readers. October-November for my non-Bengali ones) months and we had decided to make a kite to fly it in the nearby field. All the instruments for this was in the storage room.

At that moment, the storage room was being used to hang my father's coats, by a wire. Cold was starting to settle down, and he'd have to start wearing them shortly.

It was afternoon nearing evening. Both of us were reluctant to go in alone; it was dark in there, so we went in together. The storage room had no other window, or any electric lighting and the light from the door was obstructed by the coats. On top of that, coats are not exactly transparent. My father's coats were long, as he is a tall man. It'd be fair to say that, we were quite blind in there.

My sister was telling me about her plan of which spot to fly our kite from when the little light we had from the door disappeared. We tried to get to the door, but I stepped on a coat and tripped, my sister falling right with me.

My sister, however, got up and proceeded to bang on the door, calling for our parents. She had thought that perhaps our mother had unknowingly locked us in. Nobody answered. I would come to know later on that they were out on their evening stroll.

A few minutes passed by before I felt a touch on my back. I know, I was surrounded by coats and they were touching me anyway, but this felt deliberate. I shook in place, thinking it's a bug. It moved away. Not three seconds passed before my sister slapped her leg, looking confused.

Then I felt the touch again. It was on my arm this time. I actually swatted on my arm but it didn't go away. My sister also jumped, grabbing her behind this time.

One after another, more touches joined in. They began to feel like hands, but no warmer than the surrounding. They weren't violent or forceful, although I believe I felt nails in some touches. All they did was touch and caress all over the body. Their demeanor was much like what old people do when they find young children. But at the time and in that situation, it was quite overwhelming. I could also note a heavy breathing sound, but since both me and my sister were in a small closed space, very much panicking, it's not really something that could pass to be of paranormal origins.

I do not remember much of what happened to my sister, but I believe I did hear her whimpering. Or it might've been me. I'm running on some old memories here.

This went on for a long time. It was after sunset that my parents came back home. Then they waited for us, thinking we're both outside. We had been there for almost three hours before our mother finally opened the door to the storage room. This encounter had gone on for the entire time we were in there, and stopped as soon as she opened the door. I was told later that when she opened the door, I was just sitting there like I'm laying an egg and staring at her. My sister had passed out and my father went in to carry her outside.

After she woke up, we narrated our experience to our parents. They listened to us, but told us that it was because the both of us were just scared in the situation and the touches were the clothes. It wasn't as if either one of us had anything to show for our encounter.

My sister stayed for that vacation but refused to come back to that house after she got back to the cadet college. She'd rather live in a dorm alone than come back to that place.

It is also worth noting that during that time, my sister was being bullied severely by her seniors in the cadet college. Bullying by seniors, or otherwise known as "Ragging", is already a big problem in cadet colleges and residential schools in general. But my sister's seniors went a step further with their bullying. It had went on until the month prior to this incident, when they pushed my sister onto a cactus. She spent a week in the infirmary after that. Two of the seniors who took part in doing this were suspended.

Now for the disclaimers:

My parents might be correct. It was dark and stuffed with coats. Coats had a lot of dust. It was enough to asphyxiate two kids. The touches could just be the coats, the nails that I felt either false memory or just the coat buttons. I was wearing a thin tank top with a three quarter pant, while my sister wore a loose t-shirt above pajamas. So we weren't heavily clothed. The breathing would simply be my sister. This does not explain how the door closed itself, though. It had a bolt on the other side. Perhaps it was a gust of wind that slammed the door and the bolt locked itself out of inertia?

For a long time, I was very much bothered by this incident and shuddered to think of it. But slowly the emotions attached to the experience faded away. Now it's just another inexplicable memory clunking in my head. My sister is still bothered by it, but she gave me the permission to share it, and I applaud her strength for doing so. And yes, I did compare notes with her, and what we experienced was almost absolutely the same, save for her passing out.

So, what do you think? Were my parents correct? Was it a residual haunting? Was it something foreign?

Source: yourghoststories

What If You Knew Before It Happened

I remember this experience like it was just yesterday. At the time I was living in a rented apartment with my mom. The area where we stayed was incredibly quiet and peaceful and I sometimes miss living there since now we have our own home in a different location.

It started one night whilst I was sleeping. I was somehow in a state of being half awake and sleep when suddenly I saw two dark shadowy figures enter my bedroom and surround my bed. These figures looked just like the outline of a human being but they were filled with darkness. I couldn't see details on these beings. The only thing that was obviously different between the two figures was that one seemed much taller than the other.

It happened so quickly, one being came to the left of me and the other to the right of my bed. I then felt them touching me simultaneously, saying clear as daylight, "Give me your money!" With that I immediately woke up startled! I looked around, nothing was there. It was just a bad dream.

Fast forward some time after having that dream, putting it far behind me thinking give me your money? I am not wealthy. How can this be applied to me?"

My uncle shows up one day asking me if I would like to come and spend some time with him and my cousins. I agreed. I was a kind of babysitter to my younger cousins at the time since my older cousin, their mother, had to go off to work.

One day after we all had breakfast, I felt compelled to go out into the gallery. I immediately saw a white van slowly approaching the house (we had no fencing). Two suspicious looking men came out. One was tall, the other short. The taller man looked at me whilst pulling a cigarette, asking me in a sly way if my father was home. That was enough for me!

I slammed the door and ran inside, advising my cousins to not go outside and I immediately called the police. It was then that I realized the significance of my dream.

Source: yourghoststories

Siopao in Colon

One well-known urban legend in Cebu City dates back to the Second World War when meat was hard to come by. Due to the scarcity of pork, cat meat was supposedly used by siopao makers in Colon. The story continued to spread even after the war. But, this particular urban legend may have resulted from the rivalry of two siopao makers who wanted to vilify each other by making disparaging remarks about the siopao of each other.  These comments were eventually carried over even after the war. It soon evolved into the use of cat meat for the siopao. 

Alice on 'taong ahas' urban legend

Alice Dixson to reveal her side of story about ‘taong ahas’ urban legend
Alice Dixson will reveal her side of the story surrounding her rumored involvement in the alleged “taong ahas” incident at a mall three decades ago.

On Instagram, the actress shared a teaser video of herself revisiting the mall where it all happened.
“Mahal kong kababayans ... hindi ko gustong buhayin ang chismis; that is the farthest from my intention,” she wrote.
Alice said she made a promise to a friend which was why she would now “tell my side of the story this year at dahil 30 year anniversary na this month, it is NOW time.”
The actress promised to share in detail on her upcoming vlog the things that happened that day.
The urban legend on the “taong ahas” resurfaced after she was featured in a video ad for the said mall in 2018.
In 2016, Alice also talked about the story on the former GMA show “Sarap Diva.” – Jannielyn Ann Bigtas/RC, GMA News

Photo reignites debate over existence of Loch Ness Monster

A photo of an unusual creature taken by a tourist in Scotland has people wondering whether he finally captured an image of the elusive Loch Ness Monster, the Daily Record reports.
Steve Challice, of Southhampton, England, and his brother, visited the Urquhart Castle — the ruins of which sit next to the Loch Ness — in September 2019 when he noticed a ripple in the water near the opposite shoreline.
Challice told the publication he saw what initially appeared to be a large, 8-foot-long fish that was about 30 feet away from him.

We found literally the only tool you need to make delicious grilled food in the safety of your own home this summer.
“I started taking a couple of shots and then this big fish came to the surface and then went back down again,” he recalled. “It only appeared in one shot and to be honest that was something of a fluke. I watched for a while as you can see from the last picture but didn’t see it again.”
While sifting through his photographs, Challice decided to share the picture he took, sparking a discussion over whether the water creature was the Loch Ness Monster — a cryptid with a long neck and multiple humps.
Some people have been convinced that the creature depicted is the monster, although Challice admitted that he has his doubts.
“I have to say I don’t believe in the Loch Ness Monster, and, frankly, I think if anything is there, then there is a logical explanation for most of the sightings,” he said. “My guess would be that what I captured was a catfish or something like that. As seals get in from the sea, then I expect that’s what it is and that would explain why these sightings are so few and far between.”
The photo also caught the attention of Roland Watson, who founded the Loch Ness Mystery blog and had his doubts.
“If this is a genuine picture of a creature in Loch Ness, it would easily rank in the top three of all time,” he said. “At this point, I am in an ongoing conversation with Steve as to the objections and concerns I have about this being a Photoshop picture, so we will see where that takes us.”
The Record spoke to a digital photography expert, who went so far as to say that Challice may have altered the image’s color saturation and noted the blurry lining around the animal in the picture. Challice, however, denied that he did any retouching.
“There are pics on Google showing large monsters with lots of loops like a snake or something, and my image is nothing like that,” he said. “I genuinely think, to this day, it’s just a big fish.”
Source: Yahoo.com

Ghostly Passengers

This story originates with taxi drivers, specifically ones who have had the eerie experience of picking up late-night passengers who ask to be dropped off at a cemetery. Usually, the protagonist in the story is a beautiful young woman waiting on a remote road for a taxi. 

Once she’s in the taxi, she doesn’t speak again and wordlessly hands the driver money when she arrives at her destination. In the morning, when the driver looks at the money, hell notes, money burnt as an offering, have replaced the Singaporean bills.
Source: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/

Chinese on the Radio

This legend is a common one among young men starting their National Service. As the story goes, a radio in the barracks was on a Chinese radio station every morning. Since the recruits span multiple ethnicities, some young men accused the Chinese members of hogging the radio—an accusation they vehemently denied. 

This disagreement continued to build until one of the boys woke up one night, looked over towards the radio and saw a ghostly old man fiddling with the stations. The spirit changes – it may be a young girl or an old woman – depending on the version of the story, but the radio is always on a Chinese station.
Source: https://theculturetrip.com/

The Ghost of Bishan

Bishan MRT station sits on the grounds of Pek San Teng, a former cemetery. When the station opened in November 1987, multiple passengers reported seeing headless figures and other ghastly apparitions aimlessly wandering the site. 

Nighttime maintenance staff further exacerbated these rumours by saying that they saw coffin bearers in the tunnels between Bishan and Novena MRT, also built on the site of a former graveyard.
Source: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/singapore/

Village of Kuldhara

The Indian village of Kuldhara was seemingly abandoned overnight, and no one knows why, though there are a few eerie theories.

There are structures in the town of Kuldhara that date back to the 13th century, but no one has lived there since 1825, when all its residents seemingly vanished into thin air.
According to local lore, 1,000 villagers completely abandoned their home overnight, without a trace. No one knows why they left, where they went, or even saw them leave.
Theories as to why they left range from poisoned wells to a greedy ruler levying high taxes to a dwindling water supply, though none of those explain why the inhabitants left so suddenly.
You might be wondering why no one has tried to resettle the town — that's where the legend comes in. It's said that the village chief cursed the land: apparently, anyone who tries to live there will die.
The Indian Paranormal Society spent a night there, and reported "Disembodied whispers, screams, noises are common at dark hours. Many of our members have witnessed apparitions, heard footsteps, experienced unusual touch and so on," according to Gulf News.
Source: www.insider.com/

Bigfoot.

The legend of Bigfoot begins in 1958, when journalist Andrew Genzoli published a letter from a reader of the paper he worked at. The letter detailed mysteriously large footprints that loggers in northern California had found. "Maybe we have a relative of the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas," Genzoli wrote, according to History.com.

Ever since then, the country has been hooked on trying to spot this giant creature, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where alleged sightings have been the most frequent. There have been dozens of movies, books, podcasts, and articles written about Bigfoot.
As Insider previously wrote, Bigfoot has been called a "ferocious beast who attacks loggers and hikers, or a gentle giant who wants to be left alone. "
Source: www.insider.com/

The Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman, is said to roam the Himalayas by the Sherpa people.

Sherpas are a Nepalese ethnic group, not just an occupation or a verb, like many people believe. According to CNN, the word translates to "people from the East." They're best known as the seemingly superhuman climbers that help others ascend Mount Everest.

But they have a rich culture and history, including the legend of the Yeti. According to the BBC, there are more than a few stories about Yetis, and what they are exactly. The generally accepted description of a Yeti is "an enormous, shaggy ape-man with huge feet and aggressive sabre-like teeth." It's said to reach about six feet tall, and produce footprints that are around 13 inches long.
One story says that a village of Sherpas were being tormented by a group of Yetis, so they decided to trick the Yetis into getting drunk and fighting each other. The surviving Yetis declared revenge, and moved up higher into the mountains, periodically coming down to terrorize the Sherpas.
Over the years, explorers have flocked to the Himalayas to try and find evidence of the beast. In 1921, a journalist named Henry Newman interviewed locals who told him about the existence of a "metoh-kangmi," which means "man-bear snow-man," according to LiveScience. Newman mistranslated the "metoh" part to mean "filthy," and he chose to use the word "abominable" instead. Thus, the Abominable Snowman was born.
Source: https://www.insider.com/

Popeye the Sailor Man was Really Frank “Rocky” Fiegel from Chester, Illinois

Popeye the Sailor Man really existed…..
Popeye the Sailor Man was a squinty-eyed sailor who was the main character of a comic created in the late 1920s by E.C. Segar. Like many beloved characters, he didn’t begin as the star of the story – he was a minor character hired to be apart of a ship’s crew. While he was only meant to be around for a few strips, the Popeye character quickly became very popular and the focus of the strip. Popeye eventually won the heart of the originally unimpressed and at times fickle, Olive Oyl and becomes the adopted father of Swee’Pea, a baby he finds in the mail. 

Elzie Segar, the creator of the comic, knew a man in Illinois named Frank “Rocky” Fiegel who inspired the character Popeye. Frank “Rocky” Fiegel  was born January 27, 1868 in Poland. He was a retired sailor contracted by Wiebusch’s tavern in the city of Chester, Illinois, to clean and maintain order. He had a reputation to be always involved in fighting, so he had a deformed eye (“Pop-eye”). 

He had demonstrated his strength in so many fights that he became a local legend.  He always smoked his pipe, so he spoke only with one side of his mouth. Like the character Popeye was similar to “Rocky” in that he smoked a pipe and was toothless, but Segar took a few other liberties. Fiegel was less of a spinach eater and more of a drinker, and instead of a sailor he was actually a bartender.
Like Popeye, Fiegel was said to be very kind to children and loved to be around them. There is no accounting of his imaginary adventures which boasts about the exploits of his physical strength, ensuring he never lost a fight. The author of Popeye, Elzie Crisler Segar, born in Chester, met Frank when where the young man was to listen to their stories and years later honored him with the character Popeye the Sailor Man.

Olive Oil also existed, she was Dora Paskel, owner of a grocery store in Chester. She is also described to dress just like Olive Oil. Segar kept in touch with Frank and had always helped him with money. Frank and Popeye also carried some inherent features like courage, chivalry and virility.  Fiegel wasn’t really aware of his role in the creation of Popeye until his final years of life. An engraving of Popeye’s face is on his gravestone. A statue of Popeye was put up in his honor in Chester, Illinois. He died on March 24, 1947.
Source: https://urbanlegendsonline.com/

Gamer Bianca Yao addresses issues with Alden Richards

Source: lionheartv During the live gaming stream of Bianca Yao who is also known to her followers as Slice of Bian Cake on Twitter, Alden Richards suddenly gave her 143 stars as a sign of support for a fellow gamer like him.

Upon receiving the 143 stars from Alden, Bianca got distracted but she thanked the Kapuso star.  She said: “Wala na, nawala na ako sa laro. Hi Alden, thank you for the stars.”
Surprised as she was, she also teased Alden and said: “Sige na nga ‘di na kita bubugbugin, aalagaan na lang kita.”
A day after Alden gave her the stars, Bianca clarified that there is nothing romantic going on between the two of them, and advised everyone not to put any malice in Alden’s effort in giving her 143 stars.
Bianca stated: “Gusto ko lang sabihin na guys, mabait lang talaga ‘yung tao. Nagsu-support siya sa mga gamers in general, hindi lang ako. Huwag natin bigyan ng kahulugan lahat ng bagay, may mga tao talagang masaya lang kapag nakakapag-pasaya ng ibang tao. Gusto ko lang rin sabihin sa mga fans niya na, kung may nasabi man akong hindi maganda, sorry and di ko sinasadya kung ano man yun. Sa naalala ko, wala pa naman. May nakikita akong mga saring-sari comments. Basta mabait talaga yung tao.”
Source: lionheartv

Vilma Santos Urban Legends Part 3: More Urban Legends Debunked

German Moreno—still harboring ill-feelings towards a "son" who did him wrong—said in his speech at SOP's celebration of his birthday last Sunday, that today's stars should work on durability in the business rather than getting the faster, bigger bucks.
Kuya Germs may have been waxing very personal, but today's celebs should take to heart what the Clover Theater Janitor-turned-Master Showman said.

There are stars who, after so many years, managed to stay in show business but lost their brilliance and got content playing supporting roles. This is actually better than those who just faded away and sulked in obscurity, completely forgotten by everyone.
That's why Vilma Santos is unique. She holds the distinction of being the only actress in Philippine showbiz to have gone through four-and-a half decades without being unseated from her throne as one of the most admired and most bankable movie stars in local cinema.
She may have rested in some years during those 45 years to give way to new stars, like Sharon Cuneta, Maricel Soriano, Manilyn Reynes, Claudine Barretto Judy Ann Santos and others. And yet, when a Vilma movie comes out, fans queue the theaters to see her perform. Because of her box-office successes, she was accorded the title—Star for All Seasons.

Vilma Santos's Urban Legends Part 2: The Men in Vilma's Life

Early in her career, during her teen years, Vilma Santos proved that she could hold her own against a much popular competition. When critics doubted and belittled her abilities, she pushed herself to prove them wrong and gave out memorable performances.
By going beyond expectations, Vilma showed early signs that she would really make a name and have a long, durable career in show business.

And because of her persistence, determination, talent and of course, beauty, it was inevitable for Vilma to attract the attention and affection of almost every man in showbiz and in other fields of work.
There was a lot of talk about the men linked to Vilma. Some stories said the relationships were not real; these were just rumors that were spread to drum up publicity for her movie with whoever was her screen partner.
Here is PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal)'s probe on the second Vilma urban legend: The Men of Vilma—who's real, who's just plain rumor?
TEEN STAR. From being a child star, Vilma went through her teens without experiencing the usual problem of child stars entering their teens, particularly young girls—that is, lacking roles to play because of their "awkward no longer-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman" stage.
From ages 13 to 15, Vilma essayed roles in movies like the Hollywood film The Longest Hundred Miles (1967), the heavy drama Sino Ang May Karapatan (1968), and the Ferdinand-Imelda Marcos love story Pinagbuklod ng Langit (1969) where Vilma played the role of Imee Marcos.

Secret tunnels below the campus

Lots of universities in the world are believed to have secret tunnels below their campuses. Through the years, students have made up various stories concerning hidden pathways leading to dungeons, ritual rooms and so on. 

This legend is again particularly popular in the US. Students from Michigan State University believe that there are creepy dungeons below the university. That is partially true, because there ARE tunnels running under the campus, but they are actually steam tunnels that were built to house campus utilities. No dungeons whatsoever have been found. 
Another version of the same belief exists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where some students there believe there is a secret room below the Foreign Language Building and that it holds a supercomputer, which is owned by the government. 
They also claim that there are secret tunnels below the buildings on the Quad, whose origin and purpose is unknown.
Source: https://www.topuniversities.com/

Statues come to life

Many universities around the world have some sort of statues or monuments in front of their main building. It might be a statue of the creator, benefactor, alumnus or an abstract symbol. 
A popular myth is that at night those statues come to life and move around the campus. The legend varies from institution to institution, but the pattern is the same. Some colleges might even have monuments of animals or different types of fantastic creatures. 

The University of Cincinnati, for example, has stone lions in front of its McMicken Hall, which some students believe they have heard growl at night. Some variations of the legend say that the statues only move when a virgin or a cheater walks past them. 
Others go even further and describe paintings and other objects coming to life as well. Students from Michigan State University, for instance, claim that the portrait of Mary Mayo moves its eyes and follows you through the room.
Source: https://www.topuniversities.com/

Vilma Santos's Urban Legends, Part 1: "The Mysterious Hanky"

Vilma Santos's Urban Legends Part 2
In 1963, a nine-year-old girl from Trozo, Manila, went to Sampaguita Studios for a movie assignment that her cameraman uncle got her. She was supposed to star in a movie with then big-name actresses Gloria Romero and Rita Gomez. 
But along the way to the set, she and her mother stopped by an ongoing audition for kid actresses for a new movie. Star-maker and Sampaguita Studios owner Dr. Jose "Doc" Perez saw her and asked her to join the audition. Hesitant at first because she had already committed herself to another movie, she later gave in to Doc Perez's request. He was the movie company's owner, after all.

When her turn to act with veteran character actress Bella Flores came, everyone was impressed, including Doc Perez himself. She did not only pass the audition, she also got the lead role.
The movie was titled Trudis Liit (the first of her 196 movies), and the little girl who got the lead role and later got an acting award (the first of her 75 awards) for her performance was Vilma Santos.
Fittingly dubbed as "The Star for All Seasons," she has maintained her luster despite the years and changes in show business; despite the challenges brought about by the coming of younger stars; despite the intrigues, challenges and personal problems that threatened to rid her of her throne as a queen in Philippine movies.
Vilma Santos maintained her status as a bankable movie star and as a critically-acclaimed actress over the four decades (and still counting) that she has been in show business. Vilma won not only numerous top acting awards, but also the love and loyalty of movie fans who call themselves "Vilmanians."
This five-foot-flat Scorpio-born also gave a new meaning to the term "versatility." Adding to her roster of abilities and talents—acting, singing, dancing, producing and hosting—she entered politics and governed first, Lipa City, and eventually the whole province of Batangas, famous for its machismo or "pagiging barako."
Victorious Vi transformed from an award-winning box-office actress to a well-loved, highly respected public servant—Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto.
URBAN LEGEND: THE "MYSTERIOUS HANKY." But a legendary star like her is not without naughty rumors, tall tales, or urban legends. Vilma had her share of stories bordering on exaggeration and fallacy.
One such story is the urban legend of Vilma Santos's "mysterious hanky."
One tale has it that she always carries a hanky to hide the bulging veins on her left hand. Mischievous rumormongers have another version that says Vilma has very sweaty hands, that's why she always has this handy hanky—to wipe her hands first before shaking a person's hand or touching another person.

The Dead Roommate

Another grim college legend, which is repeated across many dorm rooms, is the one about the dead roommate. No one knows where it started or whether it has any basis in true events, but rumour has it that if a student’s roommate in college dies by accident, 

Illness or suicide, s/he will get only straight As until the end of the year. This, of course, is complete fabrication. Those students might receive some consideration for the stressful circumstances, but they will most definitely not automatically get only excellent grades. (So don’t start getting any murderous ideas!) One of the US colleges where this belief is particularly popular is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Source: https://www.topuniversities.com/

The Halloween massacre

The Halloween massacre is one of the most famous college myths of all time. It is not certain how and when it actually started, but it has made its way into most American universities. 

For decades now, it has created panic and fear among thousands of students (and possibly even a few professors as well). The legend goes that a popular psychic has made a prediction that on a Halloween night a masked man (in some variations, he is dressed as Little Bo Peep) will enter the campus of a university that starts with the letter 'M' or 'W' and is located near a pond/lake/river, railroad track, or cemetery. 
He will then kill everybody there. This story has existed for many years now, but no massacre has happened yet. However, students from all around the country still fear it, especially at colleges such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin.
Source: https://www.topuniversities.com/

B1 Floor - Parking Lot

It was my 3rd year in college, I am living in province and need to travel to city where my school was for about 1 or 2 hours due to traffic.

I always join in extracurricular activities in my university and I was a member of different organizations. When the day came that we need to prepare a lot of things for our big event.

My classes end at 6 o'clock in the evening, after that I went straight up to the other building where my organization is located. We are so busy that day and I haven't noticed the time and it was passed 9 pm already!? So, I had to say goodbye to my seniors since I need to catch the last bus.

I was walking in the hallway and directing through the elevator, I pressed the down button and while waiting for the elevator, I just feel silenced and I liked it. Then I look at the scenery outside the glass window, the field is full of darkness because the lights are already out.

Suddenly, the elevator door opens, I went inside and push the ground button. I certainly remember that I pushed only 1 button and its located in ground floor.

Then this is when my experience happened.

While I was texting my mom that I am on my way home. I got goosebumps and shocked when the elevator stopped on the B1 floor where the parking lot is located, I cannot see anything because the whole floor is filled with darkness there is no light at all on that parking lot and I do not why they do not have lights there.

I keep on clicking the close door but it won't work. While looking straight I have this feeling that there is someone running towards me and because of the fear I felt, I closed my eyes while trying to push many times the close button and saying " please please please close the door please" and then the door closes but there is something weird that I am feeling, I felt cold in my body that makes me get nervous even more. I was only looking down at the buttons because I feel like someone is watching me on my left side.

I also noticed that the ground button is only light up means it's only the floor that I have pushed on.

And I thank God, finally the elevator went up again to ground floor, as soon as the door opens I rushed out, not looking back and went out to the gate of our university.

Hope you like my 2nd creepy stories. More real life experience to come:) Thank you for reading.

Read more at www.yourghoststories.com/

Aswang sa Lapuz, Iloilo?

Is it real?

Covid-19 | The coronavirus isn’t alive. That’s why it’s so hard to kill.

SPECIAL POST:

The coronavirus isn’t alive. That’s why it’s so hard to kill.

Viruses have spent billions of years perfecting the art of surviving without living — a frighteningly effective strategy that makes them a potent threat in today’s world.

That’s especially true of the deadly new coronavirus that has brought global society to a screeching halt. It’s little more than a packet of genetic material surrounded by a spiky protein shell one-thousandth the width of an eyelash, and leads such a zombielike existence that it’s barely considered a living organism.

But as soon as it gets into a human airway, the virus hijacks our cells to create millions more versions of itself.

There is a certain evil genius to how this coronavirus pathogen works: It finds easy purchase in humans without them knowing. Before its first host even develops symptoms, it is already spreading its replicas everywhere, moving onto its next victim. It is powerfully deadly in some but mild enough in others to escape containment. And, for now, we have no way of stopping it.

As researchers race to develop drugs and vaccines for the disease that has already sickened 350,000 and killed more than 15,000 people, and counting, this is a scientific portrait of what they are up against. 

‘Between chemistry and biology’

Respiratory viruses tend to infect and replicate in two places: In the nose and throat, where they are highly contagious, or lower in the lungs, where they spread less easily but are much more deadly.

This new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, adeptly cuts the difference. It dwells in the upper respiratory tract, where it is easily sneezed or coughed onto its next victim. But in some patients, it can lodge itself deep within the lungs, where the disease can kill. That combination gives it the contagiousness of some colds, along with some of the lethality of its close molecular cousin SARS, which caused a 2002-2003 outbreak in Asia.

Another insidious characteristic of this virus: By giving up that bit of lethality, its symptoms emerge less readily than SARS, which means people often pass it to others before they even know they have it.

It is, in other words, just sneaky enough to wreak worldwide havoc.

Viruses much like this one have been responsible for many of the most destructive outbreaks of the past 100 years: the flus of 1918, 1957 and 1968; and SARS, MERS and Ebola. Like the coronavirus, all these diseases are zoonotic — they jumped from an animal population into humans. And all are caused by viruses that encode their genetic material in RNA. 

That’s no coincidence, scientists say. The zombielike existence of RNA viruses makes them easy to catch and hard to kill. 

Outside a host, viruses are dormant. They have none of the traditional trappings of life: metabolism, motion, the ability to reproduce.

And they can last this way for quite a long time. Recent laboratory research showed that, although SARS-CoV-2 typically degrades in minutes or a few hours outside a host, some particles can remain viable — potentially infectious — on cardboard for up to 24 hours and on plastic and stainless steel for up to three days. In 2014, a virus frozen in permafrost for 30,000 years that scientists retrieved was able to infect an amoeba after being revived in the lab.

When viruses encounter a host, they use proteins on their surfaces to unlock and invade its unsuspecting cells. Then they take control of those cells’ own molecular machinery to produce and assemble the materials needed for more viruses.

“It’s switching between alive and not alive,” said Gary Whittaker, a Cornell University professor of virology. He described a virus as being somewhere “between chemistry and biology.”
Read more at ▶▶ https://www.washingtonpost.com/