New research proves that lucky charms DO actually work

They are taken to exams, job interviews and weddings in the hope they will bring good fortune.

But new research shows that, far from being a mere superstition, lucky charms do actually work.

A research team told half the golfers on a putting green that they were playing with a lucky ball, and the rest they were playing with a normal one.

Those with the lucky ball sank 6.4 putts out of 10, nearly two more putts on average than the others – an increase of of 35 per cent.

The results have sparked huge interest among behavioural psychologists who say they put luck in a different light.

The research from the University of Cologne was on just 28 students but the results are being considered significant.

But the figures will also be an encouragement for the millions who cling to a lucky shirt or ring on special occasions to bring them fortune.

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Daily Mail

DAMIAN Amos says he was just following orders from a “head alien” when his car sped into another vehicle in 2004, killing a Gold Coast grandfather.

But government prosecutors said Amos was simply drunk, The Gold Coast Bulletin reports today.

During the opening day of his trial in Southport District Court Tuesday, the 32-year-old pleaded not guilty, on the grounds of insanity, to the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, causing death.

The jury heard how Amos had a history of paranoid schizophrenia and had not taken his medication the morning of October 9, 2004, when his car, travelling at 140km/h (87mph), rear-ended the hatchback of 58-year-old Keith Evenis in Queensland.

The massive impact shunted the hatchback forward 74m (243 feet.) into a tree. It exploded in a fireball, instantly killing Evenis.

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Daily Telegraph

A characteristic and reliable aspect of the UFO phenomenon is its ability to manifest itself in rural and forested areas, and frequently over farm fields and back roads. Debunkers take great delight in this information, consequently offering their own guffaws and questions like, well, how come it’s always some farmer in the back woods who sees these things? This is, of course, blatantly untrue (and offensive to farmers), but such questions always evoke a few laughs from any unknowing audience.

Many years ago, amidst newspaper reports of cattle mutilations allegedly caused in some way by UFO activity around the country, I wrote a newspaper letter to the editor and cautioned that supposedly untouched living animals in the immediate areas may be just as important for research as the dead and mutilated ones — perhaps more so. A suspected relationship between low-flying or hovering objects and animal populations has long been documented, and one might easily wonder if major, as yet unknown, UFO-related influences upon our lives, animal lives, vegetation or the planet occur under cover of darkness, during anticipated secret moments in out-of-the-way places.

If we look at the UFO in this way, then any and all of those isolated little reports from sparsely populated areas should always be of interest.

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Robert Barrow Blog

Amid the convulsion unleashed by the economic crisis and the violence that pervades every corner of the country, and in an episode reminiscent of the Chupacabras legend, young men and children from Monclova claim having seen a figure they have described as otherworldly, and was christened as “El Alien” by the media. In both of these cases, boys and teens describe a strange creature with smooth grey skin, large shining eyes similar to those of a dog, four-legged but walking on its two hind legs.

In recent days, the alleged discovery has represented a sort of respite after the psychosis that residents of the Central Region have experienced as the outcome of violence in several parts of the country, the economic crisis and the fuel boycotts that will take place on Saturday.

The subject is suitable for comment by the gas station attendant, who asks his co-worker: “So what’s up with the Alien?” by the psychologist from a state agency who wonders about the motives behind the entity’s alleged presence, and the businessman who claims to be part of the new generation of government employees, on account of the high cost of electricity, fuel and taxes.

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Inexplicata