27 January 2012, JellyBean @ 9:59 am

Princess is the star of New Jersey’s Popcorn Park Zoo and she has correctly picked the winner of five of the last six Super Bowls.

She went 14 and 6 predicting regular season and playoff games this year, and has a lifetime record of 88-51.

The Bactrian camel’s prognostication skills flow from her love of graham crackers. Zoo general manager John Bergmann places a cracker and writes the name of the competing teams on each hand. Whichever hand Princess nibbles from is her pick.

On Wednesday, she made her pick with no hesitation at all, predicting bad news for Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, even though the Las Vegas oddsmakers have New England favored by about 3 points.

Her only miscue in the big game was picking the Indianapolis Colts over the New Orleans Saints two years ago, indicating that even camels know it’s generally risky to go against Peyton Manning.

“It started out when a local radio station was looking to have some fun, so they asked Princess who was going to win a particular game each week, and it just took off from there,” Bergmann said. “Now we have guys calling up on Sunday morning wanting to know who Princess has picked that week. One guy even asked if she does lottery numbers.”

Her best season was 2008, when she got 17 out of 22 games right, including correctly picking the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl.

Princess doesn’t do point spreads. But she has nearly mastered the art of picking straight-up winners.

The cunning camel was once the personal pet of heiress Doris Duke, the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke.

Doris Duke raised Princess and her sister Babe from youngsters, Bergmann said.

The pair of camels had their own barn, and spent summers at Duke’s Rhode Island estate. During bad weather, they were put up in the solarium.

After Duke’s death in 1993, the camels stayed on her estate in Hillsborough. Babe died several years ago, leaving just Princess.

When Princess’ caretaker was about to retire, the estate offered Princess to Popcorn Park Zoo, which took her in. The zoo cares for abandoned and abused animals.

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21 January 2012, JellyBean @ 9:15 am

A Wisconsin man charged with domestic abuse told cops that a “ghost” was actually responsible for injuries suffered by his wife, according to police.

The bizarre claim by Michael West, 41, did not prevent the Fond du Lac man’s arrest for strangulation, battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

According to a January 18 criminal complaint, West and his spouse got into an argument Sunday that turned violent.

The victim told cops that West twice strangled her, and that he punched her in the face when she tried to dial 911.

When cops arrived at the couple’s home, the crying woman was bleeding from the nose and had blood on her Packers jersey.

During police questioning, West claimed his wife sustained her injuries to her face and neck during several falls.

When pressed by a cop–who pointed to marks on the woman’s neck–the intoxicated West shifted his story.

“A ghost did it,” he said.

In light of the apparition claim, officers sought to place West in custody.

After a struggle, he was handcuffed and transported to the county lockup, where he remains in custody in lieu of $1000 bail.

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18 January 2012, JellyBean @ 6:15 am

Paranormal investigators are studying a video said to show a ghostly-looking figure resembling Princess Diana in a stained glass window.

The video was shot in a Glasgow church by Chinese tourists who did not notice the Diana image until they played their holiday video back when they got home.

Paranormal writer Michael Cohen – who was sent the video – said it was one of the “clearest” paranormal images he had come across.

He said: “The footage is currently being examined by myself and other researchers to ascertain if it is a genuine ghost capture. It might be a bizarre optical illusion, but then again, it could be a ghost – possibly Princess Diana’s.

“Ghosts often appear in places connected to their lives and families. Ghosts might appear to warn individuals, groups and even entire nations of possible impending danger.”

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18 January 2012, JellyBean @ 4:24 am

University of California-Berkeley scientists have taken the first step in an attempt to decipher signals they believe could have been sent by aliens.

New research from the university’s Kepler team, a division of the Mountain View, Calif.-based Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, suggests that certain radio signals picked up by the project’s telescope may have been transmitted by extraterrestrials.

“These signals look similar to what we think might be produced from an extraterrestrial technology,” researchers wrote on the project’s website Friday.

“They are narrow in frequency, much narrower than would be produced by any known astrophysical phenomena, and they drift in frequency with time, as we would expect because of the Doppler effect imposed by the relative motion of the transmitter and the receiving radio telescope.”

But scientists conducting the research were quick to point out that the signals could — and likely do — mean nothing.

“It’s not fair to say we’ve taken the very first step in finding extraterrestrials. I think it’s fair to say that we made some progress in the analysis of the new data,” said Andrew Siemion, a University of California-Berkeley Ph.D. candidate and lead researcher on the study.

Other astronomers also stressed that the signals detected could very well be telecommunications signals sent by a familiar species — us.

“They’re definitely picking up an intelligent species, but one that’s likely well known to us — ourselves,” said Dr. Seth Shostak, a SETI senior astronomer.

“This is very common. It would require quite a bit of follow-up to determine whether it’s E.T. or just AT&T.”

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