Author: Jon Bolton

 When you hear the word Zombie it usually conjures up images of slow walking, drooling, brain eating and expressionless faces on the living dead. Now in recent years the whole Zombie epidemic has taken a grip on the modern world and there are quite a number of books, movies and tv shows made in reference to zombies. One of the earliest accounts I remember reading about zombies was in the book the Serpent and the Rainbow about a college professor who took on voodoo priests to see how they created zombies. It turned out through his research that it was a type of drug that would render the person motionless for a period of time and then keep them in a trance like state.

 This idea of zombies and ancient voodoo drugs for complete zombie like control seems to not just be for people, but also seems to be able to affect the insect world. In particular I am talking about ants and a certain type of fungus that takes over their minds then their bodies and then when the fungus is done with them it kills them. Essentially this fungus puts the ants into a zombie like state and then uses it for its own purpose till it’s complete.

The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis has in fact been around for millions of years, if you believe the earth is that old, and attacks carpenter ants as they move around the floor of the forest. In fact this fungus could be found almost anywhere, which is scary in itself. As the fungus takes hold of the ants it does it most bizarre damage towards the end of its usage of the ant. The ant will climb to the underside of the leaf it is on and then lock its mandibles into the main vein of the leaf in a type of death grip which locks the fungus into position on the plant.

Scientists who have studied this strange zombie like instance say that the force of the bite into the main vein can actually leave a lasting mark. The fungus uses the ant in order for it to reach the levels of the forest that are best for its growth and process. While scientists do not know the true cause of how the fungus produces such an effect it is clear that this parasitic fungus is a nasty one.

Can you imagine a fungus that takes over our body and mind then controlling your every movement and thought only to kill you once you have served its purpose? That’s a pretty scary though in my opinion and while I have not found any mention of the fungus being able to effect humans I am sure that enough was release on to a person it might just have the same effect.

Be safe and destroy all fungus,

Jon Bolton

The Fountain of Youth, the elixir of life and the bringer of immortality is the conquest and of so many people from the past to the present and I’m sure the future as well. Some many people have tried to stay or become youthful by means of botox, liposuction and diet to the point of starvation. They conduct botox parties that helps to remove wrinkles and there are some laser methods to help in the reduction of fat. Almost everyone seems to want to be eternally youthful, well ho doesn’t? You hurt less, move faster and in some cases look better. Yet there are those people who have trekked across the globe in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth.

The fountain of youth is said to be just as it states, a fountain with water pouring from the ground that grants eternal youth and immortality. Those two traits alone have caused many explorers to waste vast amounts of time, money and energy upon the conquest to find such a spring of life.

The fountain of youth is most notably connected with the great explorer Ponce de Leon, who happened to be the first governor of Puerto Rico. The story goes that Ponce de Leon was searching for the elusive fountain of youth in 1513 and believed its location to be in Florida. To this very day there are people who conduct exploration of Florida I hopes of finding such a spring emitting life water. The origin of the story itself is not exactly known, but it is closely associated with the tribes of people located within the Caribbean at the time, whish is where Pone de Leon is said to have heard the legend.

Why is Florida the location for the legend of the fountain of youth? Well this is where Ponce de Leon first landed when exploring the Americas. How the legend of the fountain of youth became associated with Ponce de Leon is a mystery though. There are no records of him actually taking an expedition to find the spring of life in any of his writings. The only thing that could be loosely tied to the story I that it was said Pone de Leon was looking for the healing waters of Bimini in order to cure his impotence, well if that’s not a good reason to find the fountain of life I don’t know what is. So when Ponce de Leon landed in Florida it must have been because he though the healing life water was in fact there and not in Bimini, it’s a stretch I know.

Bimini is said to b the real location of the healing waters of life yet there still is no exact location and no one to this day has found said waters. Of course if you found it would you want the world to know about it? The fountain of youth in my eyes is simply a story/legend because of people’s own fixation with wanting to be eternally youthful and never wanting to face ones own mortality. These are people who don’t want to experience life to its fullest, but rather hold on to the past and glory days of their youth. Just remember you can never go back so make the most of it now.

Be safe and explore life not legends,

Jon Bolton

 The Tunguska event is not known by many people except for some of those die hard people who love to research the weird and unexplained…yep I would be one of those people. Now some people have heard mention of a giant explosion that had happened in Russia, but nine times out of ten when you hear that you think of the great Chernobyl Incident that happened with the metl down of their nuclear facility. However there is that 1% who will think of the event that damn near shock half of the entire world. They may not remember the name and they may not remember all the details, but they will remember that their was an explosion of awesome magnitude.

 The Tunguska event/explosion occurred on June 30 around 7:15 AM near the Tunguska River located in Russia in 1908. The explosion was said to be caused by a meteor or comet that had exploded above the earths surface by somethin they call an air burts. And air burst is simply what it says, it is when something explodes or is exploded in the air rather than the surface. This was believed to happed approximately 3 miles above the earths surface and centralizing in Russia.

The explosion caused significant damage to the area such as entire forests being knocked over and uprooted and was said to harness the power between 5-30 megatons of TNT. If you want a better guage it would be considered to be 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War 2. That right there is some serious power for a simple air blast 3miles above the earths surface.  Can you imagine what that would have done had it hit the earth’s surface? Can anyone say, reason the dinosaurs became extinct? See, I knew you could. It is said to be the largest “impact” over land in recorded history.

Now even though scientists are 99.9% sure that is was the airburst from a meteor or comet, because they have a number of mineral deposists that easily suggest such an event, there are those 1% of people who feel differently. There are some who say it was antimatter that collided with the earth there are even those who say it was caused by Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower, me personnaly I would love for this one to be true. I will talk about Mr. Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower at a later date however, mainlt because Im a huge fan of Tesla.

Then there are those who consider this to be one of the greatest UFO encounters of all time. They are even going as far to say that this is Russia’s version of the infamous Roswell UFO conspiracy/cover-up. Some would belive that this was either an alien weapon being fired at the earth or the explosion of an alien aircraft. Either way they feel that not does Russia know the truth, but that the United States helped cover it up and really took control of the situation because Russia didn’t know how to handle it. Isn’t that always the case, if it’s sneaky and cloak and dagger we call upon the US to show and teach the rest of the world how to do it…the right way.

Be safe and I recommend wearing a hard hat,

Jon Bolton

In the wacky world of the supernatural and paranormal there are those people who believe they have a connection to “the other side” and no I don’t mean Canada or Mexico. That’s right, if you have been living under a rock for most of your life, there are people who believe they can communicate to the dead or predict the future. Now how awesome of a superpower would that be to posses that ability? Forget super strength or lightning fast speed, with the ability to talk to the dead and/or predict the future; the possibilities are limitless. Now I know there are people out there who either think those who can either predict the future or talk to the dead are complete scam artists and then there are those people that believe in this gift 100%. Where do I stand on this issue? Well at one point in my life I sided with those who completely believed and then later in my life I turned into one of those who thought they were a complete and total sham. However I sit here today typing my thoughts trying to figure out where I now stand on this topic.

Let’s begin with the name mediums, I have seen these people and I don’t think they have been a medium size in years, but that’s my opinion. The definition of a medium is “someone who serves as an intermediary between the living and the dead”, so essentially these people are what the catholic priests are between you and God, which I have an issue with, but that’s another rant for later. However back to the land of the scam artists aka psychics, these people pray on the innocence of people and their desire to want to talk loved ones who have passed on into the afterlife. This is absolutely disgusting, to want to make money off of people and their fragile emotions. There has never been true evidence that these so called intermediaries between the living and the dead can actually come through with what they promise. Many people have tested these scam artists and each time the scam artists have failed and fallen flat on their faces. To read more into this please check out James Randi and his organization. He puts up one million dollars for anyone with a true gift to take so long as they perform in a controlled environment. And you know what? Not a single one of these people have come forward or been able to successfully get the million dollars. The ones who have TV shows and made tons of cash already say they don’t need to prove themselves…well don’t they have a charity they could donate the money too or wouldn’t they want to put all speculation to rest? I guess not.

As for psychics, they fall in the same realm of mediums and while they don’t claim to talk to the dead they do claim to have the ability to look into the future. Come on now really? All I have to say to that is if you could do that then why have you not played the lottery? Or how come you have never come forward about major events that could have saved peoples lives? I actually asked these and more questions to a few psychics and you know what the typical standard go to answer was…”It is not my place to interfere with fate”. Really? So you can charge $5 for a palm reading or $10 to gaze into your crystal ball and tell me about the future, but you can’t save people’s lives…oh yeah that makes complete sense.

All I ask is that you don’t give into these fakes and phonies, they are only preying upon your weak emotions and don’t really care about your future or your dead relatives. Life is way too short to worry about the past and you have all the time in the world to worry about the future. Live your life to the fullest and you will see that happiness is its own reward…thank you fortune cookie.

Be safe and medium? HA more like extra extra large,

Jon Bolton