The Scotto Grotto (org)

Hooray for broccoli-cheese empanadas (and chicken-jalapeno for my bro as a treat)! I went by the place again on the way home from work. I may get brave next time and get a plantain one next go ’round for dessert.

Weirdo News of the day- “A ship full of rotting fish, with no crew or life-rafts, has been found drifting off the remote north-west coast of Australia.”

Dubbed the “ghost ship”, the 20-metre (65-foot) vessel, registered in Taiwan and flying an Indonesian flag, was boarded by the Australian navy last week after it was spotted drifting aimlessly.

It’s certainly puzzled everyone

Australian Federal Police spokeswoman

A massive search has turned up no clues, but the presence of up to three tons of rotting mackerel in the ship’s hold has convinced police the boat was used by fishermen rather than people smugglers.

An international investigation is now under way to track down the owners of the boat.

Life-raft launched

The vessel, named the High Aim 6, was initially spotted at the beginning of January 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the north-west port of Broome.

The only occupants of the boat were tons of rotting mackerel

When the Australian navy boarded the ship they found the crew had gone, but many of their personal items, including seven toothbrushes, were still on the ship.

There were also signs that a life-raft had been launched.

The ship has now been towed into Broome, where it is being examined by Australian customs officials and police.

The reason for the ship’s abandonment has mystified the authorities.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police admitted: “It’s certainly puzzled everyone.

“The ship would require a crew of up to 12, it is in really good condition, and weather conditions in the area have been good since the vessel was first spotted.”

There have been suggestions that the boat was used for illegal fishing, but police operations co-ordinator Bill Graham said he was keeping an open mind.

“At this stage we have not located the crew or discovered any plausible reason for their absence,” he said.

The prime concern at this stage was to identify the crew members and determine if they were safe, Mr Graham said.

More on the Malawi Vampires – Not Your Usual Vampires, but Scary Nonetheless

By RACHEL L. SWARNS

LANTYRE, Malawi, Jan. 10 — They wear dark clothing, it is said, and carry syringes to draw blood from their drugged victims, who sicken or die. The creatures have magical powers and a fondness for vanishing in graveyards, but no one has ever heard of them changing into bats.

“I’ve never heard of them drinking blood, either,” said Gospel Kuseliwa, 22, who says he and his friends recently chased some bloodsuckers while patrolling in Chiradzulu, a village just 12 miles from Blantyre. The men, who had never heard of Dracula, said drinking blood sounded like a pretty bad idea anyway, particularly in this era of AIDS.

Malawi, despite the best efforts of its government, is in the grip of a form of hysteria. Vampires are attacking the villages, people say.

Men are finally fighting back. At night, when darkness shrouds the green hills and women and children hide in their huts, the patrols creep slowly through the cornfields. Twelve brave men peer behind towering anthills and whispering trees with pickaxes, knives and clubs at the ready.

Their prey, witnesses insist, are modern-day vampires: men carrying flashlights who disable their victims with sleeping gas. There have been no sightings here of caped men with sharp teeth.

The persistent complaints about vampires have outraged government officials, who describe the reports as ludicrous and issue press releases and statements to make it absolutely clear to local citizens, potential tourists and the world at large that Malawi does not have a vampire problem.

The repeated reassurances have not eased the deepening fears. Anxious crowds have already killed at least two people believed to be bloodsuckers. Several other people have been attacked, including three priests and the governor of Blantyre, who was stoned this month by a crowd of 200 people after a local chief accused him of harboring vampires in his home.

Hoping to end the mounting hysteria, the police have arrested nearly 40 people and charged them with spreading lies and falsehoods. Seven more were charged with the attack on the governor.

“We have asked those who have evidence to come forward and report to the police,” said Paul Chifisi, the regional criminal investigations officer. “Some people have come forward. But when you ask, what are the injuries, what is the description of the suspect, they do not show any injuries or offer any description.”

In the frightened villages, the government’s opinions are dismissed. The debate here is mostly about whether bloodsuckers are spirits or human beings with magical powers. No one questions whether vampires are real.

They have smelled the acrid sleeping gas, people say. They have found abandoned syringes. Elesi Makwinja in Chiradzulu said she narrowly survived an attack and watched the vampires vanish into thin air with her own eyes. A woman in Thyolo died last month after a vampire removed her precious blood, her relatives say. “We don’t know whether they are real people or spirits, but we know they are attacking,” said Peter James, the brother of the middle-aged woman.

“It’s been happening almost every week,” said Mr. James, who says the police refused to investigate his report. “We have seen them, but we haven’t got close. They were wearing dark clothes and always walking fast. I heard the government’s statement on the radio, but we know that this is happening to us.”

In these impoverished rural communities, which lack electricity, running water, adequate food, education and medical care, peasant farmers are accustomed to being battered by forces they cannot control or fully understand.

The sun burns crops, leaving fields withered and families hungry. Rains drown chickens and wash away huts, leaving people homeless. Newborn babies die despite the wails of their mothers and the powerful prayers of village elders.

People here believe in an invisible God, but also in malevolent forces — witches who change into hyenas, people who can destroy their enemies by harnessing floods. So the notion of vampires does not seem farfetched.

Some people speculate that villagers are dizzy with hunger and imagining things. Others blame hungry thieves for creating the havoc. President Bakili Muluzi accused the opposition of stirring up the trouble to tarnish his administration.

Then again, AIDS might be to blame. With so much shame and stigma surrounding the disease, some people might prefer to blame vampires for sickness and death. Charles Kaiya interrupts a visitor’s musings over the various theories to suggest another possibility: the villagers might be right.

He remembers another vampire scare in Malawi some 30 years ago. In the end, he says, police arrested a man with who was caught with syringes and bottles of blood in his refrigerator. Everyone knows that politicians lie, Mr. Kaiya said, which is why few people trust the government’s position on vampires.

Mr. Kaiya’s theory? Perhaps the government has promised to sell Malawian blood to donor nations in exchange for financial aid. “Maybe it’s going to Saudi Arabia to get money,” he said.

That story was full of juicy things to plunder. It appears that the Monkey Man phenom of India takes another form in Africa. Isn’t it amazing how many convoluted unintuitive forms that there “mass hysteria” can take?

“Some people speculate that villagers are dizzy with hunger and imagining things.”

Yes, the hunger-induced vision of men in black using gas to incapacitate victims long enough to extract blood with a syringe is a common one. Just ask a supermodel.

“Others blame hungry thieves for creating the havoc.”

This is a common MO. You see, your average hungry thief has no respect for life or the rule of law, so they have even less respect for truth.

“Hoping to end the mounting hysteria, the police have arrested nearly 40 people and charged them with spreading lies and falsehoods.”

See? With the police busy arresting all those people spreading lies and falsehoods about dark men with syringes, those hungry thieves are having a field day. Nothing to see here, everyone go home.

But wait. Could this have a political element?

“Anxious crowds have already killed at least two people believed to be bloodsuckers. Several other people have been attacked, including three priests and the governor of Blantyre, who was stoned this month by a crowd of 200 people after a local chief accused him of harboring vampires in his home.”

and

“President Bakili Muluzi accused the opposition of stirring up the trouble to tarnish his administration.”

Lets see now. We have hungry thieves, hunger-induced visions, political chicanery, and some mass guilt/denial complex connected to AIDS as the source of these mass hallucinations — and those are considered to be simpler, more *rational* explanations than that maybe there are guys in dark clothing gassing people and getting blood samples without permission.

Occam’s Razor needs a little sharpening in this case.
The experts need to come up with something simpler and more reasonable than the original assertion before they have a “rational explanation.”