One of the finest YouTube channels on strange oddities and true crime is from Stephanie Harlowe.. She just did a deep dive on the rash of missing or dead scientists.. this is good material and well sourced..
Year: 2026
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Big players in the paranormal UFO world will be at Contact in the Desert this year
There is a growing list of speakers at CONTACT IN THE DESERT for May 28 through June 1 2026.. including..
George Noory
Dr Jacques Vallee
Dr Eric Davis
George Knapp
Jeremy Corbell
Jimmy Church
Dr Diane Hennacy Powell
Daniel Sheehan
Dalia Burgoin
Dr Beatriz Villaroel
Keffrey Nuccetelli
Scott Gearan
Whitley Strieber
Dr Avi Loab
Chris Ramsay
Richard Dolan
Dr Thomas Cambell
Chris Bedsoe
Diane Walsh Pasulka
Tim Gallaudet
James Keenan
Contact will be held in Indian Wells California on a 22 acre retreat..
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The brutal killing of Athena Strand
Even the most ardent opponents of the death penalty are having trouble grappling with the murder trial of Tanner Horner.
Horner, a FedEx delivery driver, drove past the home of Athena Strand, a 7-year-old girl, and is accused of abducting her and killing her in a slow, brutal manner.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to killing Athena after making a delivery at her home.His initial story, however, was far different. Horner claimed he accidentally struck the girl with his vehicle, then panicked. According to him, he placed her in his van to avoid telling her father what had happened. He said he tried to break her neck, and when that failed, he strangled her.
Prosecutors made it clear to the jury that this version of events didn’t hold up. The evidence told a much darker story.
During the trial, jurors were forced to listen to a series of deeply disturbing audio recordings. These recordings reportedly captured Horner repeatedly abusing Athena before ultimately killing her. It was, by all accounts, a mentally exhausting and emotionally devastating presentation—one that underscored just how brutal this crime truly was.On Thursday, April 16, 2026, jurors were shown surveillance footage and audio from inside Horner’s delivery truck, including portions capturing Athena’s final moments before her death..
Jurors watched video showing Horner pulling up to the girl’s home and walking back toward his truck with Athena following behind him, before lifting her inside and shutting the door.
They then heard audio from inside the truck in which Athena repeatedly asked, “Are you a kidnapper?” and “Where are you taking me?” as Horner warned her not to scream or he would hurt her. At one point, he told her, “You’re really pretty, you know that?” before ordering her to remove her shirt. She refused and asked for her mother.
The audio included crying, screaming and banging, prompting jurors to sob and appear visibly shaken. Some of Athena’s family members left the courtroom during the playback.
The breadth of depravity in this case is undeniable.
What makes it even more haunting is the detail that the package Horner delivered that day was meant for Athena herself—a set of “You Can Be Anything” Barbie dolls. That small, innocent detail only amplifies the cruelty of what followed.
Many true crime watchers have questioned why Horner was not charged with additional sex crimes, especially given indications that something more may have occurred. One possible explanation is strategic: prosecutors already secured a capital murder case, which carries a sentence of life without parole or the death penalty. Adding more charges may not have changed the ultimate outcome.
There are also growing questions surrounding FedEx and its hiring practices. Athena’s father has publicly criticized the company, suggesting that background check failures may have allowed Horner to be hired despite prior disqualifying information. Civil litigation could follow, potentially bringing additional details to light in another courtroom.
This is one of those cases that cuts through everything—legal arguments, moral debates, even long-held beliefs about punishment. The sheer brutality, the inhumanity of it, has shaken a lot of people.
Sentencing is next.
And in a case like this, there won’t be tears shed for Tanner Horner if the death penalty is the final outcome.. -
We keep talking about the mighty God of Chaos of 2029
The asteroid..
Not just any asteroid… but 99942 Apophis. A roughly 1,100-foot space rock that, at one point, was considered one of the most dangerous known objects ever tracked. Back when it was first discovered in 2004, it carried an initial 2.7% chance of impacting Earth in 2029.
Since ’04, the threat level has dropped to essentially zero. Scientists—real scientists, not the ones chasing views on TikTok—are in full agreement. NASA and every major space agency tracking it say the same thing: it’s going to pass by Earth harmlessly. Close… but harmless.
We’re talking about a flyby of roughly 20,000 miles above Earth’s surface. That might sound like a lot, but in space terms, that’s extremely close. About 12 times closer than the Moon. For an object this size, it’s one of the closest approaches ever recorded.
And that’s where things get interesting.
Because despite all the data, all the tracking, and all the reassurance… you already know what’s coming next. Rumors. Speculation. Conspiracies. For the next several years, leading up to April 2029, people are going to talk.
They’re going to say it could get caught in Earth’s orbit.
They’re going to say it leaves… and then comes back.
They’re going to say it is going to hit, and “they” just aren’t telling us.
The usual playbook.
And look… let’s be honest for a second, it really is a giant asteroid.
So if something like Apophis did hit Earth, it would be catastrophic and life-altering. The kind of event that reshapes planetary history. So yeah… when people hear “20,000 miles away,” it doesn’t exactly feel comforting. It feels like standing on train tracks while something massive flies by just close enough to shake the ground.
But here’s the reality: everything we know right now says it’s not hitting.
Not in 2029. Not later. The math checks out. The orbit is understood.
Still…
Can we just take a second to acknowledge one very strange detail?
April 13th, 2029.
A Friday.
Friday the 13th… in April.
You couldn’t script that better for a horror story if you tried.
And for some of us, there’s another layer to all of this. This site has been around long enough—and some of us have been paying attention long enough—to remember when this asteroid was first discovered. More than 20 years ago, it was the story. The one that made you pause.
And now here we are, finally approaching that date.
In the grand scheme of space, it’s nothing.
But here on Earth… it feels like something.
So let’s hope the vast majority of scientists are right. That the risk truly is zero. That this becomes nothing more than a historic flyby and a strange little footnote in time.
And that we all wake up on Saturday, April 14th, 2029 to a beautiful sunny day post-Apophis.. -
They were Heroes just for one day
It’s been months now since the series finale of Stranger Things, and fans are forgetting… they’re forgetting quickly.
Not just the friendships we made with each other, or the rekindled family moments watching the show and talking about theories together… but the friends we had on the show too. They were ours. We cried for Max Mayfield when she faced Vecna. We cheered for Murray Bauman. We stood against the Soviets. We were wrapped in nostalgia.
And now… we just have nostalgia for the nostalgia.
There’s a dullness to it now, like a blunted edge. The new animated series is coming, and no one really seems to care. The fading light of the The Duffer Brothers has cast a shadow over their newest project, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. And maybe that title says more than it should about what happened when we saw the show!
Because something very bad did happen.
The fading star of Stranger Things.
It was with us for nearly a decade… and then it was gone in an instant. So fast. Quietly slipping away with that closing credit scene, carried out by the haunting echo of a David Bowie song. It didn’t leave with a thud… it left with a whimper.
Remember the days leading up to the finale? When we were all hoping like hell that Conformity Gate was real… that there was a secret episode coming. One more piece. One more answer. One more night in Hawkins.
It never came.
It was never going to.
But even now, months later, sitting with it… I still feel like Vecna won.
I know it was just fiction. I know that. But in this world that felt so real… it didn’t feel like a victory. We saw conformity through Mike’s eyes, and the ending felt bleak in a way that lingers longer than it should.
Maybe one day we’ll get that reunion. Maybe the cast comes back, set in the 90s. Maybe we see who stayed friends… and who didn’t.
Just like life.
Because that’s the part that hits the hardest… they move on. And so do we.
But every now and then, I catch myself. I have to snap out of it… out of that nostalgic fog where I’m thinking about a show that was never real, about people who never existed.
The eulogy-like sendoff… it just lingers there as a reminder. Time moves on and things that feel massive today become memories tomorrow.
And eventually they become something we almost forget.How we loathe nostalgia…
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The UFO president
It is feeling like the New Jersey drone story all over again..
The media is suddenly paying attention to missing or dead scientists.. the President of the United States is commenting on it and saying UFO files will be released.. that they are interesting..
Will the media keep focus or will this just vanish after a few more news cycles?While en route to Las Vegas, President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House Lawn that the executive branch was investigating the mysterious disappearances of ten scientists.
Trump emphasized it was “pretty serious stuff and he “ just left a meeting on that subject.
More..
“I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half,” Trump said.
One of the scientists who went missing was retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William “Neil” McCasland from his home in February of this year in Albuquerque, according to local officials. Local officials said he had “mental fog” and were medically concerned for him..
You know what.. it is really weird isn’t it?
Also weird.. A massive cluster of unknown flying objects was spotted near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a military installation long rumored to be linked to UFO activity. Witnesses near the Ohio base captured the craft on April 8, showing a silent triangle of glowing lights moving in perfect formation before splitting apart mid-flight. The lights appeared to drift slowly downward, flickering, pulsing and changing brightness individually as they hovered in the night sky.
Finally… Rep Tim Burchett, a now famed face in the UAP/UFO world, says he talked to President Trump about the issue..
So .. we will follow as we have been and undoubtedly you will too..
Until then, if you’re a scientist with vast knowledge on anti-gravity propulsion or UFOs, keep you head down and watch your 6..
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Dreams before death
While morbid, equally fascinating .. vivid nostalgic dreams are common near the end of life..
Dreaming is believed to help us process our emotions, store memories, strengthen neural connections, reduce stress, solve problems, and think creatively.
Vivid dreams happen most often during the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage, when the brain is particularly active.
Some people, especially women, said they were able to recall their dreams more often during the COVID-19 pandemic, which researchers attributed to greater stress, depression, and sleep disruptions.
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Perhaps we can call this longer legs
Nicolas Cage And Osgood Perkins Are Officially Making A New LONGLEGS Movie: The LONGLEGS universe is set to expand, with Osgood Perkins and Nicolas Cage officially in production on a follow-up to the 2024 horror hit…
It was a good movie and the sequel have done right could be more of a prequel, and let’s be honest, Nick Cage was unrecognizable and frightening.
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Faces of a box office dud
Faces of Death cost about $7 million dollars to make and made under $2 million dollars in his opening weekend it’s about 1600 theaters. Probably safe to consider the Flop but a modest flop, but with some very bad reviews..
But thanks to the Super Mario Brothers with some more huge numbers the American box office is rocking and rolling early that year..
It was never expected to soar high but horror fans not liking it much sure didn’t help.
It solidifies for good that when people hear about Faces of Death they’ll think about the 1970s and 80s macabre version as opposed to this new incarnation train wreck..
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FACE OF DEATH WEEKEND
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie which is posting $18.7 million Friday on its way to a $71M three-day total at 4,284 theaters, off 46% week over week, will end up being the number 1 film for the weekend again..
FACES OF DEATH doesn’t stand a chance to get that big..
As a matter of fact, FACES OF DEATH has received little media attention.. little advertising.. little notoriety besides on horror sites or genre forums..
And those horror sites have not been too nice..
Bloody Disgusting wrote:
Smart commentary and a clever approach get Faces of Death off to a strong start, but it lacks the conviction to see its bolder ideas through to its forgettable and far too conventional end. Whereas watching the 1978 film felt like a rite of passage, this update superficially wades into ideas already covered more chillingly in films like Red Rooms.
Others have not been nicer..
It is getting a less than stellar opening reception on ROTTEN TOMATOES..
Faces of Death opens in 1,600 movie houses…