Eastern State Penitentiary, considered by many to be America’s most historic prison, will host an unprecedented seven hour live and interactive broadcast on the Travel Channel, Most Haunted Live USA on Friday, June 1st, 2007.

Most Haunted Live, is a spinoff of the popular paranormal investigation show Most Haunted which airs on the Travel Channel in the US and on LivingTV in the United Kingdom. The June 1 program is the first broadcast from the United States and is expected to generate a wide national audience.

The Most Haunted panel of paranormal investigation experts - including presenter Yvette Fielding and spiritual medium David Wells - will be armed with night vision cameras, thermal-imaging devices and other paranormal investigation tools to detect supernatural findings from within the prison walls.

The Most Haunted Live USA experience will be extended to the web, with multiple webcams streaming live images from select areas within Eastern State Penitentiary. Viewers will be able to log onto http://www.travelchannel.com/mosthaunted to watch all of the action from the webcams, supplementing the live broadcast. Viewers can also participate in the broadcast by e-mailing the studio with paranormal sightings, sending well wishes for the team, offering suggestions on rooms to investigate, and premonitions.

Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through “confinement in solitude with labor.” Some of America’s most notorious criminals were held in the Penitentiary’s vaulted, sky-lit cells, including bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone. After 142 years of consecutive use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cell blocks and empty guard towers. The prison hosts one of America’s largest and most acclaimed Halloween events each fall, Terror Behind the Walls.

I’m not sure if my satellite dish offers the Travel Channel, so this was a great idea on the part of the producers. The interactive element should add some interest, should the ghosts decide to be shy.

Source: PRNewswire

Granny Zhao, 95, of Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province, said that the growth appeared three years ago as a mole. Three years later, it has grown five inches and resembles a pumpkin stalk. No one knows what caused a simple mole to grow in such a frightening way, including local doctors. Her family is hopeful that medical specialists can explain the phenomenon.

Stephen King drew from his classic stories to make this made-for-TV film. It begins with parapsychology teacher, Joyce Reardon (Nancy Travis), giving a lecture to her students about Rose Red, a reputedly haunted mansion in Seattle. Just as she concludes this lecture, a student reporter challenges her about using university funds and equipment for her upcoming excursion, while her boss and arch nemesis, Professor Miller, watches from a room above the lecture hall.

The two professors get into a heated exchange before Steven Rimbauer, the last heir to the Rimbauer estate (Rose Red) and her lover, arrives. Knowing that Professor Miller is about to destroy her career, Reardon takes a gamble and continues with her project because she wants to prove to the faculty that the paranormal does exist. From the very beginning it is quite clear that she is obsessed with Rose Red, which she believes is the mother lode of haunted houses.

She hires six psychics to accompany her to this place to revive it from its “dead cell” state. One of them is autistic 15 year-old Annie Wheaton (Kimberly Brown), who is a powerhouse of telekinetic ability. Joyce is just as obsessed with the girl as she is with the house because she feels that Annie is the key to unlocking her proof and catapulting her into stardom. The professor is so blinded by her ambitions that she doesn’t see the danger until it is too late. What was supposed to be a weekend of catching spirits and voices on tape, turns out to be a fight for survival.

Rose Red is a very good movie on several levels, although it starts out slow. We’re forced to sit there and wait for Joyce Reardon to finish her lectures about the house and its owners. While interesting, it bordered on too much. I’d say that almost half of the first DVD was taken up by this.

Once the movie got going, I found myself riveted. The characters had a variety of psychic powers and quirks, plus their own motivations for embarking on this mission. It was their quirks that determined how they dealt with the environment they found themselves trapped in and if they survived.

The other qualm was the quality of the special effects, especially where the ghosts were concerned. In all my research about ghosts, I’ve never heard of an account where they appear as corpses. Solid or translucent versions of their former selves, yes, but not walking corpses. Because this was a made-for-TV movie, there isn’t a lot of gore, which is good because the movie had plenty of creepy elements, such as the way the house continued to change its geography.

While Rose Red is not all that original, it is definitely worth watching.

A cub scout leader and a postal worker are the latest to contact the West Midlands Ghost Club about a Big Foot sighting at Cannock Chase, near Stafford. These sightings have been reported by civilians, law enforcement, military personnel, and scouts for many years. Theories range from crazed homeless people to aliens. But perhaps the most interesting theory comes from a paranormal investigator who wishes to remain anonymous.

He believes that the creatures are a Stone Age throwback, surviving in the caves and catacombs of the heavily-mined Chase for centuries. How they survived and how they came to this place is a mystery. These creatures have been blamed for a rash of pet disappearances that occur around the time of a sighting.