New "Paranormal Cops" TV Series

There have been a lot of paranormal or psychic type shows aired on TV, including NBC's Medium, W Network's Most Haunted, A&E's Paranormal State, the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures, and Scifi's Ghost Hunters and T.A.P.S International.

While the third season of Paranormal State premiered on 19 January, 2009, there still does not seem to be any signs of the genre easing up on TV or cable networks. In fact, Scifi's Ghost Hunters is already on its fifth season, Most Haunted has reached its twelfth series, and the second series of Ghost Adventures is scheduled for June 2009, with a further 26 episodes planned (presumably for season 3).

And, of course, let us not forget Psychic Kids, co-hosted by Chip Coffey (the psychic/medium who also appears on Paranormal State), or the TV series Supernatural and Medium.

According to Reuters, A&E is tentatively premiering a new paranormal series, Paranormal Cops, which aims to give more credibility to investigations. Investigators include a group of Chicago police officers (who moonlight as "ghost chasers" at night), as well as two technicians and a medium.

A network spokesman said that the "ghost-chasing group existed before the show's producers came along" and the "officers' respective departments have approved the venture", which should provide some solid background resources for eliminating natural phenomena rather than supernatural. The first episode is scheduled sometime this year (no set date yet), but let us hope that the conclusions are objective and that they do not become so analytical that they actually debunk anything paranormal.

This might be something to watch when it does air, so stay tuned and see what happens from here.

Freaky Coincidences - Part III

Sometimes novelists unwittingly write fictitious stories that end up coming true or they have weird experiences that cannot be explained rationally. It seems that sometimes people's fates are inexplicably intertwined somehow. Here is another entry belonging to the Freaky Coincidences umbrella - which already includes parts #1 and #2 - but the theme here is authors and novels. Some of these may have been repeated in previous entries, some of them are prophetic in nature, and some of the are just bizarre.

Anne Parrish

While American novelist Anne Parris browsed bookstores in Paris, in the 1920s, she stumbled upon one of her childhood favorites, entitled Jack Frost and Other Stories. She showed her husband, remarking that she the book had been one of her favorites as a girl. Her husband opened the book and was astonished at the inscription inside, which read: "Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado". As it turned out, the book was her very own copy from her childhood.

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhome Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was a popular American author of such books as the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He was born on the day that Halley's Comet appeared in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910. In fact, he himself predicted this a year before his death when he said: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1935. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it."

Edgar Allan Poe

Famous horror writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote a book entitled The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket in 1838, actually his only complete novel. The story is about four shipwreck survivors who were in an open boat for several days before they decided to kill and eat Richard Parker, the cabin boy. Forty-six years later, the Mignonett foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventually the three senior crew members killed and ate the cabin boy. The cabin boy's name was Richard Parker.

Morgan Robertson

In 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote a novella entitled Futility (or The Wreck of The Titan. It was about an Olympic-class ocean liner called Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.

• The Titan (800' long) was considered to be "indestructible", the Titanic (882' long) was described as being "unsinkable".
• Both ships had three propellers and two masts.
• The Titan was launched in April from Southampton, so was the Titanic on her maiden voyage in April 1912.
• The Titan carried 24 lifeboats, less than half required for her 3000 capacity, whereas the Titanic carried only 20 lifeboats, less than half the number needed for a passenger capacity of 3000.
• The Titan struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, 400 miles from Terranova (Newfoundland) while traveling at 25 knots, the Titanic traveled 23 knots too fast, 400 miles away from Terranova.
• The indestructible Titan sank, with over half of her 2500 passengers drowning, the "voices raised in agonized screams", whereas the unsinkable Titanic sank with more than half 2207 passengers dying screaming for help.

Prophetic coincidence? Could be, but there are also a few differences between the Titan and the Titanic. These can be viewed on Wikipedia.

Norman Mailer

When Norman Mailer started work on his novel Barbary Shore, he had no plans on having a Russian spy as a character. However, as work continued on it, he introduced a Russian spy in the US as a minor character, who soon became the dominant character in the novel. After completion of the novel, the US Immigration Service arrested a man living one floor above Mailer in the same apartment building. His name was Colonel Rudolf Abel, allegedly a top Russian Spy working in the US at the time.

Émile Deschamps

In 1805, stranger Monsieur de Fortgibu treated French writer Émile Deschamps to some plum pudding. A decade later, in a Paris restaurant, he saw plum pudding on the menu and decided to order some, but the waiter told him that the last dish had been served to another customer, who turned out to be Fortgibu. Years later, in 1832, Deschamps was at a diner and was once again offered plum pudding. He remarked to friends that only de Fortgibu was missing for the setting to be complete - and at that same moment the now aged de Fortgibu entered the room!

Ben Jordan Paranormal Investigator

The folks at Grundislav Games have developed a series of games centered around paranormal investigation work. The games revolve around its central character, Ben Jordan, a college grad who decides to become a P.I. - that's Paranormal Investigator - apparently influenced by episodes of the X-Files, and his adventures.

There are seven in the series, with an eighth in development. The first, Case 1: The Case of the Florida Skunk-Ape, was created in 2004 using Adventure Game Studio (AGS). The game's popularity within the AGS community was such that more Ben Jordan games were created.

For Ben's first case, he visits the Florida Everglades, in search of something known as "The Skunk-Ape", a local variation of Bigfoot, so named because of its horrible smell. Furthermore, several park rangers have been murdered, so Ben is called in to investigate the possibility that the Skunk-Ape is responsible. To compound the theory, all of the victims' livers are missing.

The gameplay is reminiscent of those old Sierra classics from the 90's - Space Quest and King's Quest. In fact, AGS uses the same engine that Sierra did all those years ago, but it was designed specifically for recreating the same kinds of adventure games. Retro-gamers familiar with the Sierra classics will definitely feel the familiarity here, as the GUI is the same and with its built-in points system whenever you receive points (for successful actions), you'll hear a distant Bigfoot growling sound.

Characters are unique, each with specific (and sometimes humorous) traits, like Ranger Rick, who is very superstitious, or an angry hippy, who certainly is funny. The author has spent some time developing the characters appropriately for the game, although in later games this is much more in-depth.

There are a number of puzzles in the game. I'm usually hopeless at logical thinking, but for the most part found them fairly easy, so probably won't pose too many problems.

Overall, the game is entertaining and anyone who likes adventure games (especially those with the Sierra-style GUI) will definitely like this one. Although it's a little too short for my liking, it does have a high replayability if not for some of the funnier lines than anything else. I would definitely recommend this game to adventure game enthusiasts and those into the paranormal alike.

The game itself can be downloaded here, where there are two versions to download. The simple download (6.4 Mb) and the deluxe version (36.3 Mb) which has improved graphics and full speech.

For a comprehensive list of all the Ben Jordan games available, here is the website. Enjoy them as much as I am (currently playing Case 3).

Celebrity Paranormal Project

I remember vaguely seeing an episode or two of the Celebrity Paranormal Project, where well-known celebrities investigate haunted locations. This particular episode, celebrities are actor David "Kung Fu" Carradine, pro boxer Mia "The Knockout" St. John, Andrew "The Bachelor" Firestone, playboy model Bridget Marquardt and rapper/actor Coolio.

What's interesting to me is that David Carradine is passive and fearless, unphased by the apparent ghostly goings-on and Coolio, who "ain't afraid of nothin'", eventually freaks out. This is quite entertaining considering that it's meant to be a bona fide investigation conducted by people with celebrity status.

Haunted Britain - Real Ghost Stories

There is no doubt that something, just beyond the edges of our psyches, exists, caught in between two worlds. They are the darker shadows of the night, within the night, the "night stalkers", preying on our fears and terrorizing us. Perhaps they are manifestations of our darker natures, or perhaps they are something far more sinister. This video (only part 1) details one such instance.

The other parts (20 in total) can be viewed here. The rest of the episodes chronicle other eyewitness accounts of paranormal activity.