A few words of my thoughts!

 They say rushing at work is the first road to shit. When the student was quickly busy and he made the material assigned to the lesson ahead of schedule, the teacher immediately gave him another assignment. After some time, one of the students could not stand it and asked:

-Why, when someone hurries up, they are immediately given new material and cannot rest, while others continue to fumble with the old task? Why is it not included in the final grade, because only tests, homework, and answers count anyway?

Then the teacher replied:

-You see, you are already on the threshold of adulthood, this year you have a high school diploma. Well, this is what real life looks like when you are an adult. Let this be a lesson for you for your future life.

Do you agree with that? 😉

The cult of money and the rat race in conditions of constant scarcity, low wages, and exploitation, created predatory people, detached from nature and fascinated by the possession, amassing, and bragging of goods.

Consumerism - the attitude of the unjustified acquisition of material goods and services, or the view that consumption is considered a determinant of the quality of life (or the most important, or the only value) - hedonistic materialism.

I think the time has come for us humans to finally stop being slaves to shopaholism. That we would realize how toxic and debilitating this addiction is. That we separate ourselves from this form of functioning in which objects are of the highest rank.

To tell the truth, it scares me how it all looks like now. When I go shopping - very rarely, I avoid it like fire - it's in the process until I'm suffocating from excess and chaos. I am suffocating from the constant temptation and manipulation in the stores. I feel cornered by something that harms and enslaves - by unnecessary products, and by people who are there in the hypnotized puppet version, for whom the purpose of possession is the overriding goal. In the past, we had access to maybe 10% of what is available today, and how was it? Contrary to appearances, it is much better and lighter. Why? Because you lived yourself, your surroundings - family, nature, and what the day brought. It's all gone way too far. How many times? About 30 years old.

I managed to live in a time when excessive consumerism was just beginning to spread. As a child, I had fairly quick access to various news. I remember when Dad brought better and better gadgets, clothes, sweets, and the like with every return from abroad. Wow! How much joy and satisfaction it was! But ... It was then, in many families, that the process of making pleasure and self-worth dependent on the number of possessed objects developed. And did this process really bring good to our lives? In retrospect, can you see that it is better in terms of being human and experiencing our earthly existence? Not! Definitely not! Today, you can clearly see the differences between what the way of life looked like before the technological and consumer frenzy, and what it looks like now. You can see, hear and feel how much damage this has caused in ourselves and in our environment - in our main home called the planet Earth. We seem to be developing, but also in many respects we are regressing, we are destroying 

A dozen or so years ago, free, spontaneous meetings, whether at home, in the countryside, or in the city - to play cards, talk, sing, enjoy yourself, eat, freedom to be here and now - that was the goal and the norm. As well as a tiny black and white TV set with a knob to search for a program or a regular telephone, it gave more satisfaction than all these modern devices. Today, as standard, we have to shine in salons, and artificiality, creating an atmosphere according to shallow rules such as - who has better, who has more, who has dressed up in more luxurious rags, or who has achieved more in the professional arena.

In short -> one big - sorry - SHIT! And we largely do this to ourselves! We let ourselves be sucked into this muck, deeper and deeper. Because we believed the disgusting lies that surround us from everywhere.

Therefore, you should ask yourself whether we really need these new clothes, new gadgets, new interior design, etc., etc.? And does it all have to be branded, the most popular - in my reasoning that is the most deceiving? For me, items, especially clothes with the logo of more expensive companies, are something - no offense - for Suckers .. For people who believed that the purchase of these items would increase their value as people - that they would be better, more fun, and that their life would be better. made sense ..

Do you not see what it really is? Well, it's mainly about fooling us all! For shallow satisfaction of insignificant needs! It is constant use of worthless jammers. Consisting in deepening one's dependence on something or someone. One big game of the rich with all of us. We fell into their trap completely! Losing myself, my time, my health, and my life. Forgetting about what's important ..

According to the scheme:

"Go work as much as possible! Then go ahead and buy as many as possible! Have more! Want more and more! As many as possible! You will be better! You will be happier! You will be somebody! " And it can never really be enough! Still not enough! The machine of consumerism, loaded with our stupidity and naivety, spins with more and more force. And happiness? Soon no one will know about its true essence. Because excess is bad for everyone.

Consider... Are the basic components of this happiness not enough in the basic essence of our existence? So, first of all, a sense of security which includes meeting the needs such as food, a roof over your head with access to heating, electricity, and water? A piece of land to be able to satisfy the need of the first with the help of crops and the closeness of good, honest, kind people next door? Yes - they are enough! And that's all! That's the whole recipe for happiness! Rejected by the majority choosing to live in pursuit of toxins available in stores or a dubious form of entertainment of civilization.

If each of us spent even a week alone in the wild, away from everything and everyone - in forests, fields, in the mountains - we would take a different approach to many matters. Approaches called gratitude and minimalism. And then this shitty love of shopping and the pursuit of possession would largely disappear from our lives.

And so, we are part of a cruel manipulation based on the desire for power, and money and identifying the value of an individual from how the rest of the community perceives him, from what the individual has in his possession. We live on the inverted version of the fact that robes do not adorn people. And in this cleverly devised destructive process, almost most of us are. In a process that uses one of the ego's main needs - to present himself best in the eyes of others, to be liked and accepted. Liked, accepted by what I have or what I look like? I personally choose to be hated and rejected rather than praised for such shallow things.

Where did this outflow of let's say of regret come from? Because I can't believe how much evil it creates and what this so-called consumerism. When I often see and hear what a person is able to do to a person and talk about how one of them has more and better. My blood pisses me out when I see people who think themselves better, because they have something that other people do not have. All because of the subject, money and / or job title. For me, you, who represent this way of being-functioning, are completely broken / broken. You are a pest in the system of human values ​​and the creation of good between us all. And believe that a homeless person from the street has much more beauty and value than your person.

Get over yourself at last and instead of more rags in the wardrobe, better household appliances or electronics, cosmetics or beauty visits (often actually disfiguring), start sharing the excess that you have to help someone who suffers - someone in life for various reasons failed too good. And that's what will make you feel true happiness! This is what will increase the quality of your life! This will make your environment better! Because the fewer people suffering around, the better your existence and the general. And ultimately these help, support, sharing, honesty and kindness will free YOU from the quagmire you are currently in. Yes! You are in it.

Also know that being good, selflessly happy with others creating humans will help you. It will help you to breathe freely with your breasts, to have a good night's sleep and to finally feel what it is like to have an authentic smile on your face.

And as a reminder - everything that has a beginning also has an end. You will not live in the human edition forever .. Nobody really knows what to do next and or anything .. But is it worth putting yourself at risk and risking yourself for several dozen years of living in luxury with the prospect of a probable eternity in which money has zero meaning? The answer is obvious - NO, it's not worth it! Wake up at last, rub your eyes and understand that golden chains are far from respect, love and freedom. Begin to truly shine through your good deeds and behaviors.

More and more Cheated Chocolate Boxes among us .. Beautiful packaging, but after opening .. Emptiness.

Some new secrets of human body been found? And other science news...

 Scientists have just announced their new discovery. It turns out that there is a second hidden code in human DNA that contains information that can change the way we read the instructions in our DNA and interpret mutations that affect health and disease.

Scientific communities expect the new discovery to help better diagnose the disease as well as develop new treatments. The discovery was made as part of the work of the ENCODE project, which aimed to thoroughly investigate what elements of DNA are essential for storing information about biological functions programmed into the human genome.

Ever since the DNA code was first decoded, it was thought to be responsible only for the encoding of information about proteins. Now, however, it has turned out that there is a second language sewn into the genome. One actually describes making proteins, and the other instructs cells to control their genes. One of the languages ​​is written above the other and that is why no one has discovered it for so long.

This amazing discovery is further evidence that DNA is an extremely powerful "device" for storing information, which nature is very willing and skillful to use. Its similarity to modern computer programming languages ​​is amazing.

The fact that the genetic code can record two types of information simultaneously also means that many changes to DNA at this level of data recording can also lead to disease by disrupting the genetic control of cells.

Recent research shows that as many as 40% of the population can be infected with toxoplasmosis, a type of brain parasite that can affect a person's behavior.

According to John Webster, professor of epidemiology at the Imperial College of London, brain parasites are isolated and protected from the immune system. However, you should be aware that they can affect people's behavior. Toxoplasmosis is common in domestic cats. According to the estimates of the aforementioned scientist, approximately 350,000 British people are infected with the parasite every year. Czech scientist Jaroslav Flegrei believes that toxoplasmosis also leads to depression and suicide.

The parasite occurs in the form of microscopic cysts. Its presence was found in two areas of the brain: the one responsible for fear and pleasure. Recent studies have shown that DNA toxoplasmosis includes two genes that increase dopamine secretion. When this was tested in mice, toxoplasmoses suddenly stopped responding to the smell of cat urine after being infected with the protozoan. Dopamine choked off natural instincts. Scientists suggest that some unsafe car drivers may be carriers of a parasite that affects their driving style, making it more chaotic and dangerous.

MIT researchers say they have developed a simple tool that helps analysts predict the future based on time-series data. Defined as a collection of observations recorded over a period of time, time series data and its forecasts are critical for resource analysis, medical diagnosis, and even weather forecasting.

Nobody knows what the future holds for us. Less scientific approaches to predicting the future involve humans such as media, media, and astrological predictors. However, such practices and their methods have not been able to consistently produce scientifically valid results. In contrast, mathematicians and statisticians dealing with data analysis often use predictive analytics tools to offer a fairly accurate picture of possible future events. Unfortunately, most of these forecasting systems rely on complex algorithms and significant computing power, making them largely inaccessible to ordinary time series analysts.

The MIT researchers say they changed this equation by developing a simplified future prediction algorithm that any researcher could use. Making predictions from time series data typically requires multiple steps in data processing and the use of complex machine learning algorithms that have a learning curve so long that they are not readily available to laymen. That's why experts come to the rescue with a new tool, tspDB (Time Series Forecasting Database). Unlike other complex data analysis and forecasting tools, tspDB "takes care of all the complex modeling behind the scenes so that the layman can easily create a forecast in just a few seconds."

Surprisingly, the team behind the new system says tspDB is more accurate and efficient than almost all current deep learning methods in two key areas: predicting future values ​​and filling in missing data points. The program researcher Abdullah Alomar says the performance is due to tspDB's use of a "new time series prediction algorithm" that is extremely effective at analyzing multivariate time series data. An example is weather analysis where indicators such as cloud cover, temperature and dew point depend on past values.

In the published results, the MIT team explains how it tested the tspDB system against competing algorithms, including advanced deep learning techniques, by analyzing real-time series datasets. These included data from the electricity grid, traffic patterns, and financial markets. As expected, the new algorithm performed brilliantly, outperforming all other systems tested to predict future values ​​except one. One of the reasons it works so well is because the model captures a lot of the dynamics of the time series, but ultimately it's still a simple model.

As it stands, the MIT prediction tool can be installed on an existing database, allowing researchers to fill out a prediction query "with just a few keystrokes in approximately 0.9 milliseconds, compared to 0.5 milliseconds for a standard search query". The researchers note that with unprecedented speed and accuracy, their predictive tool becomes even more accurate the more data is added to the system.

The MIT team praises the system's efficiency and accuracy, but says their efforts are driven by the system's ease of use for random researchers. In this context, it is important that tspDB succeeds as a widely used open source system. Time series data is very important and it's a great idea to build predictive functions right in your database.

Artificial intelligence is an extremely useful tool that is more and more willingly used in many different fields, and its continuous development means that it has more and more applications. In recent research, scientists have shown that AI can learn to recognize gaps in people's habits and behaviors, and then use them to influence human decisions.

A research team from the Australian research agency CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) has developed a method to detect and exploit weak points in the way people make choices. He then tested his model by running three experiments in which human volunteers played games against the computer.

In the first experiment, participants clicked on red or blue boxes to earn bogus money. Artificial intelligence learned the participants' selection patterns and led them to make a specific choice. SI showed an efficiency of 70%.

In a second experiment, volunteers were tasked with observing the screen and pressing a button when a specific symbol was displayed. Here, the artificial intelligence arranged the order of the symbols in such a way that the participants made as many mistakes as possible. It turned out that the participants of the study made 25% more mistakes.

The last experiment consisted of several rounds. The participants played the role of an investor and were to transfer money to the trustee, i.e. artificial intelligence. The AI ​​then returned the participants a certain amount of money, and players had to decide how much money they would invest in the next round. In the first mode, artificial intelligence tried to obtain as much cash as possible, and in the second mode, it sought a fair distribution of money between itself and the investors, i.e. the participants of the game. It turned out that artificial intelligence was successful in every mode.

In each experiment, the machine learned from the participants' responses and identified and targeted weak points in the decision-making process. In this way, the AI ​​learned to manipulate participants into taking certain actions.

The latest research not only allows you to create a system that can effectively mislead you. The results of the experiments also help us understand how people make choices. Artificial intelligence can be used for good or bad purposes - it can, for example, detect people's weaknesses and in certain situations help to avoid bad choices or exert a negative influence on public opinion.

Ghosts or urban legends? Haunted places in Krakow

 People have always been fascinated by areas where everyday life meets mysteries, unexplained events, or even the afterlife. For centuries, tales of ghosts and contacts with the dead have been passed down in many cultures. Echoes of those emotions can still be seen in stories about haunted places. Sometimes it's just plain urban legends, sometimes it's events that spark the media attention. There are also places that are considered haunted by ghosts on the map of Krakow.

Historical ghosts - Krakow full of Black Ladies

Stories related to ghosts, which have been appearing regularly in some Krakow buildings for centuries, have been known for years. Anecdotes related to them have been described in numerous books. Among other things, the city has stories about mysterious Black Ladies.

The most famous, but also the most gloomy of these characters is to be Anna Branicki, widow of Sebastian Lubomirski. She died in the 17th century in the present "Krzysztofory" Palace at the Main Market Square in Krakow and was buried in the church of the Dominican Fathers. However, in the vicinity of the former homestead, she reportedly appears also after her death - this time in the form of the Black Lady. Each time, he carries a dark prophecy: he tells the person he meets with exact news about the date of his death. In this way, it was supposed to predict, for example, the death of King Jan Kazimierz and Jacek Kluszewski, the founder of Kraków's Stary Theater.

Ghost in the City Hall

The same nickname is used to describe the mysterious figure who was to visit the Wielopolski Palace many times, i.e. the present seat of the Krakow magistrate. This time the ghost is to be a young woman secretly beheaded in the palace, who appeared at night to the inhabitants of the building. During the renovation of the palace at the beginning of the 20th century, even the skeleton of a woman was found embedded in the wall. It was supposed to haunt for over 150 years, it was mentioned by the pre-war town hall ushers. In recent years, however, the authorities of Krakow have not been visited by, or at least no one has admitted to having contact with this ghost.

Are you planning a trip to Krakow? We invite you to Best Western Kraków!

The last of the black figures encountered in Krakow is to be the Black Princess from the Church of St. Benedict in Krzemionki. This is Kraków's most dangerous apparition - according to legends, it attacks and strangles young men, and in the end… it tears their heads off. Supposedly, in the nineteenth century, you could meet her in Krzemionki, where she waited for a daredevil who would love her and marry her, thanks to which she would provide her with eternal peace. Another version of the legend says that it guards the treasures hidden under the church.

Haunted house, dark forest

At Wawel, however, there is no shortage of not only historical legends, but also completely modern stories eagerly researched by seekers of ghosts and paranormal phenomena. This category includes several allegedly haunted places that some residents avoid like the plague after dark.

The most famous house was at ul. Kosocicka, in the area of ​​Rżąka, which is part of the Krakow district of Bieżanów-Prokocim. It stood in the place where the cemetery was supposedly located centuries ago. Its construction could not be completed - according to one story, the brothers who were building it quarreled, and finally one killed the other. The local inhabitants were afraid to show up in this area after dark, the ghosts were to chase away the workers who were renovating the nearby road. However, the vacancy was finally demolished in 2016.

Missing students

The urban legend also connects its extraordinary history with the forest in Witkowice near Krakow. At the beginning of the 21st century, nine students were supposed to go missing there, who were going to camp there for the night and celebrate the beginning of the academic year. Apparently, they dissolved into a fog - no trace of them was found. Even more mysterious is the fact that when a few months later friends of one of the students visited the forest and took a few photos there, they were supposed to recognize the silhouettes of the missing figures on the developed film. Since then, the forest has been exceptionally infamous.

Krakow city legends. What places are better to avoid in Krakow

 There are things that should definitely not be done in Krakow. There are places better not to visit ...

Cracow. Don't get in the way of football fans

Large blocks of flats

Fans' wars in Krakow's housing estates cause a cold sweat of terror on their foreheads, for others a wave of the hand - because in Krakow it was, is, and will be ... Cracovia has always fought here with Wisła, and Wisła with Cracovia, fan divisions run deep between families, districts, colleagues at work. Prokocim was cutting Bieżanów with knives, Mistrzejowice was mercilessly knocking down Prądnik Czerwony, and baseball batons in the hands of young people from Nowe Piaski crashed on the heads of young people from Kurdwanów (or vice versa). One thing is certain: the violent clashes between Cracovia (Jude Gang) and Wisła (Sharks) hooligans have become one of the bloodiest fan wars in modern Europe.

Apart from Glasgow in Scotland, where the football war has an additional religious background, it is Krakow that is presented as the most dangerous city on the continent's stadium map. The tabloids from Great Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands are especially successful here, where before each match of the Krakow teams at the European level, you can read chilling reports from the "empire of evil and violence" that Krakow is said to be. There is a lot of exaggeration in this because although machetes, knives, baseballs, axes, and even pitchforks are in the hands of some Krakow fans the so-called reusable tools, hooligan war goes on its own track, do not affect outsiders, and around it there is a reluctance to do anything. The collusion of silence with the police.

We certainly do not advise:

- walk around Kozłówek, Prokocim, or Mistrzejowice in any red-white-blue colors, and never with elements of white stars (colors and the coat of arms of the Vistula);

- walk around Bieżanów, Azores, Prądniki - Biały, and Czerwony, or the Strusia type housing estates in Nowa Huta, in any outfits with white and red stripes (colors and an element of the Cracovia coat of arms);

- loudly manifest your sympathy for Pasy (Jews) or Vistula (dogs) in the streets of the city center, especially in numerous clubs and discos of the Old Town or Kazimierz;

- to discuss fan topics that are unknown to fans of Cracovia ("Belts"), reminding them, for example, of introducing a fashion for using knives in clashes; or to remind the Wisła team of the long-standing patronage of the PRL militia.

Cracow. Don't go through this tunnel

The former passage under the tracks in Płaszów

This is already a legend. A real "devil says good night". Dripping with water, covered with moss, mold, rust, and rot, an almost infinitely long tunnel. It connects the less civilized surroundings of the ruined Kraków-Płaszów railway station with the even less civilized backs of industrial and warehouse Rybitwy. It's dark here as if the devil's tails are extinguished, there is a ghostly echo as if some devil is giggling at our recklessness ... What the hell to enter here - we don't know. In any case, the worst memories of horror movies, rape scenes, and stories about werewolves and the living dead come alive in the tunnel near Plaszow. Once in, it's worth leaving. It is a pity that the length of the tunnel allows you to get out of it quickly only by running, if, of course, someone has the courage not to go back and continue on. Watch out for cables and metal elements sticking out of the walls. The communal news carries that a few daredevils have paid for touching them with the loss of health, and maybe even their life. Not counting those who died in the tunnel from fear, though entering the tunnel did not leave their mouths. But not to mention those who died of ... boredom, because usually, nothing happens in the tunnel near Płaszów.

Cracow. Don't be crazy - stop smoking the gum

Bora-Komorowskiego Street

Extreme sport is not only made in Kraków. At night, from the flyover over the Polsad roundabout to the intersection with the Wiślicka multi-lane artery of Bora-Komorowski, cannons of fast cars speed at a dizzying pace. All as if they had conspired to heat their engines to an ultra-loud roar in the same place and time, to develop speed? about 200 km / h, to respect road signs, lines on the road, or the police desperately waving a lollipop. "Racing under Géantem (Real)" - this is the working name of those illegal races in which you never really know who is taking part. Oh, a collection of fast BMW, Mercedes, Saab, Audi, plus tuned cars of various other brands. Men of all ages are behind the wheel, but also a little bit excited women. Suddenly, around two in the morning, everyone wanted to get out of their beds and show how much God had given under the hood, how many people would pull on the alarm clock ...

The rule is simple: first come first served. Anarchy at night is straight from the American highways, the outskirts of Arab cities, and the suburbs of Paris, London, Rome, and Barcelona full of cultural mixes. Now here - in the north of Krakow with almost a million inhabitants. Not on the A4 motorway, but on the illuminated thoroughfare between Olsza and Nowa Huta.

We do not advise:

- drive around Bora-Komorowski at night in Seicento, Matiz, panda, Corsa, etc .;

- cross the aforementioned street at night, even on the green one, even on the lanes.

- to stand at Bora-Komorowskiego at night like a star. Wiocha!

Cracow. Do not wish anyone to visit this place

Labor Office at Wąwozowa Street

Pandemonium. Someone who has come up with the idea to go to its farthest part in search of a job in Krakow should be bored. A visit to the Labor Office located in a horribly ugly building on Wąwozowa Street, on the outskirts of Nowa Huta, is a difficult, even traumatic experience for an unemployed person. Already on the way to the place, you have the impression that you will definitely get lost. Then, as you walk on worn linoleum and PVC tiles, you have a feeling that the whole trip was a mistake from the beginning. However, only after talking to a yawning official can you be sure that you will not find a job here. The most difficult thing is to sit in a room where absurd proposals for absurd works for absurd money are shifted on absurdly large screens.

The expression on your face says it all: you have to escape from Wąwozowa quickly and instead of in Krakow, look for a job, for example in Radom, which is permanently in crisis (200 km north - we also do not recommend it). The Krakow Labor Office is the exact opposite of the situation on the labor market of Krakow itself. The city has one of the lowest unemployment rates in a country with a population of 40 million, and it has a lot of offers for qualified specialists. It is difficult to guess how long a trip in search of employment or benefits will be a humiliating wandering for the citizens of the city.

Cracow. Don't go to a haunted house

The hand

There were two brothers, they were building a house together, they quarreled to death, one killed the other - this is, in short, the ghastly story of a house abandoned years ago in Rżża, on the border of Kraków and Wieliczka. The house is large, brick, unplastered, surrounded by a rusty mesh, with a huge inscription stuck to it, "auto-flashing varnish" ...

It is said that those who dare to go inside have hair on their heads. We don't know, we didn't go in just in case! But while browsing the Internet, we easily come across scary descriptions of "attractions" that these inconspicuous walls hide. From those real, that is, a dried hedgehog in a cage and scattered next to the corpses of lesser animals, the wild wind blowing through broken windows, plus an old carpet with reflected traces of oil lamps and black Satanists masses, to finger-drawn visions of howling, stuck on the hooks of unfortunates, leaking the stairs (from the attic to the basement) of the blood of innocents, the stench of devil's hair and the ubiquitous shaggy thirsting for human werewolves ... Certainly, however, the house is haunted by the local population of Prokocim, Bieżanów and Rżąka. Nobody has been going there for years, and as far as it goes, it is at their own risk. Nobody can solve the problem, from the owners of the land to the district authorities. The house is standing, no one is building in the immediate vicinity, no one will come to mind to concert the memory of the brotherly murder, for example with a new house in the same place. Does it surprise you? Not us!

The Tatras are full of mysteries and strange phenomena

 The death of the Kasznic family is a mystery to this day. Many bodies, despite searches, have never been found.

On Czerwony Wierch, something pulls a person into the abyss, on the Iwaniacka Przełęcz he runs along the path and does not want to let him go into the world, on the Goly Wierch he scares ...

Supposedly, the worst thing for a tourist is when he sees his huge shadow on the cloud. Then, as the old highlanders say, you can't count on returning to the cottage and family safe. The black butterfly in the mountains is also supposed to foretell a tragedy ... Other signs, ghosts, and phenomena that are said to be encountered during hiking in the Tatra Mountains are to be experienced. They only fuel fear!

- There is really something in our mountains - admits Kazimierz Gąsienica Byrcyn, a long-time TOPR rescuer, a Tatra mountain guide. - There are places in the Tatras where the man leads, places with a bad reputation. There are also, recorded in the book of emergency exits, strange stories, still unexplained mysterious deaths and disappearances, which a man would in vain want to explain in such a way to the peasant's understanding.

The greatest mystery of the Tatra Mountains, still unknown, although it is already 83 years old, is the death of the Kasznica family and their "guide".

- It happened exactly on August 3, 1925 - says Mr. Kazimierz. - The Kasznic family: 46-year-old Kazimierz Kasznic, vice-prosecutor of the Supreme Court in Warsaw, his wife Zofia, 12-year-old son Wacław, left Chata Tery'ego in Dolina Pięciu Stawów Spiskich to reach Łysa Polana via the Ice Pass.

They were also accompanied by 21-year-old mountaineer Ryszard Wasserberger, who promised to bring them safely from Lodowa. Extremely exhausted, because the weather broke, a strong wind began to blow and it was raining and snowing - they stopped at Jaworowe Peak. They sat down. Kasznicowa gave them a glass of cognac. And they all, one by one, began to die. - All three died in literally 15 minutes - emphasizes Byrcyn. Kasznicowa spent almost three days at the corpse and then went down to Łysa Polana in perfectly good shape. There was an investigation, it was suspected that Kasznicowa had poisoned them with cognac, especially since the cognac bottle was lost as proof of the crown. There were also suspicions that someone had given the prosecutor a poisoned cognac. An autopsy revealed that all three died of pulmonary edema and heart paralysis. But what was the reason, it is not known to this day.

This tragedy will forever remain the greatest undiscovered secret of the Tatras. Although some assumed that it was a well-planned crime, others believed that strange phenomena had occurred there. Cases were made of similar incidents that occurred in the Tatra Mountains. Five cavers on their way to the cave in Kominiarski Wierch decided to rest. For reasons unknown to this day, two of them died within half an hour, although they were not exhausted. Nothing happened to the three.

As the guide adds, it is true that you can find a void in the Tatras. - Although I never found myself in it, for example, Eugeniusz Strzeboński or Romek Hoła almost killed: they were already choking without air, but managed to escape from this vacuum - our interlocutor says.

There were also such strange cases in the Tatras that - as in the Bermuda Triangle - people died in unexplained circumstances, and although the rescuers sometimes searched literally meter by meter, neither the person nor the body was found.

A similar, extremely strange story happened at Hala Kondratowa many years ago. Mrs. Kwiatkowska went with her friends to the Tatra Mountains, but she felt bad and stayed on Kondratowa Street. She was supposed to return to Kuźnice but did not come back. What happened to her is still unknown! Neither she nor her body was found.

There are many places with a bad reputation in the Tatras, where people died under strange circumstances. Giewont, kind of gentle Red Wierchy, Western Tatras. Especially the latter is said to mislead tourists. A lot of people died in them. Very often young, strong, with polished mountains.

In winter, dangerous snow curls form there. A person climbs it, thinking that it is a ridge and falls with the snow, and in autumn it is very easy to slide down the slippery grass into the abyss. Hence and then, people tell each other strange stories that they deceive tourists, that Bermuda triangles are here, and that people are leading on the Iwaniacka Pass. - Sure, he is leading on Iwaniacka Street! - assures Bernadeta Krok, a tourist from Nowy Sącz, who has been wandering the Tatra trails for 10 years. - I knew this mountain pass well, but it happened to me that I literally walked in my footsteps in circles. I thought that we would never get out of there with my friend. And I really started to be afraid when the lighter in my hand crumbled into small pieces, just at that moment, when I wanted to see on the map which way we should go! Then I felt such fear that I began to pray to Saint Jude from the hopeless. And although many years have passed since that event, I still believe that by a miracle we found our way at night and survived. I am convinced that something strange happened with us there because it feels like ...

Not only on Iwaniacka Wodzie. People say that about Czerwony Wierchy, and about Karczmiska as well. - In Karczmiska you often get lost, mainly in winter - confirms the director of the TPN, Paweł Skawiński. - People say he's leading them. But especially in winter, when there is fog, there are such situations that a person loses their orientation and a sense of the boundary between the snow cover and the fog layer. Everything is suddenly white, a person does not even notice that he is moving because he has no point of reference, and then there are various disturbances: the labyrinth, balance, then the psyche, sometimes even people feel nauseous.

But leading, mumbling, and Bermuda triangles are not the only superstitions associated with the Tatras. Perhaps the most known specter of Brocken is the most known recently. People say that when someone sees their shadow on the clouds, they will not see their huts and their loved ones anymore. It is the same with the black butterfly. - As for the butterfly, I haven't met it, but I have seen the specter several times, and nothing! Yes, a nice phenomenon, but that I should be afraid? Byrcyn is surprised.

He claims that he has been walking in the mountains for so many years and does not believe in any superstitions. Yes, there are apparently places where he leads, where his colleagues saw white ladies completely awake, but rather exhausted, as they were after hard work ...

10 interesting facts from the history of the Tatra Mountains that you had no idea about

 Thousands of tourists, crowds in Zakopane, queues on the trails - it would seem that the Tatra Mountains no longer have secrets from us and are not something distant and inaccessible. However, I would like to prove to you that many stories are waiting to be discovered there. Here are 10 historical curiosities that will surely appeal to Tatra maniacs :-).

1. Dethronement of the Sławkowski Summit

The top of the great and sprawling Sławków Summit was once considered the highest point in the Tatra Mountains. Local reports say that on August 6, 1662, a gigantic rockfall took place, as a result of which the peak lost about 300 m in height. The sources of the catastrophe were found in the long-term cloudburst, earthquakes, meteorites, and even the activity of a dangerous dragon.

Well, enthusiasts of legends say theirs, and science pours a bucket of cold water on their heads. The research carried out so far rejects the hypothesis of the collapse of the apex and the dethronement of the Sławków Summit by Gerlach. It seems that the great piles of stones were formed much earlier ...

2. Border in the Tatras

The Tatras have been border mountains since time immemorial. Interestingly, until the end of the First Polish Republic, the border between Poland and the Kingdom of Hungary was not strictly defined here. A strip of no man's land ran through the Tatra Mountains.

The contractual border survived for a long time under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that it was finally decided to resolve the question of belonging to the Tatra lands. The case ended in an international court which awarded Galicia with most of the disputed areas. The verdict of the court turned out to be extremely long-lived because the border from 1902 is still in force (with a little turmoil on the way) to this day.

3. Slovak stretchers

Due to the difficulties in supplying Slovak shelters, many of them use the help of stretchers, i.e. porters who follow steep routes with a backpack of several dozen kilograms. They carry beer kegs, drink packs, gas bottles, and food preparation ingredients.

The institution of notice was established in the Tatras for good in the 1930s when a large number of porters employed in the construction of the cable car to Lomnica found work in mountain huts. The legend of that period, Ondrej Hudáček from Lendak, carried an average weight of 70 kg to the top. The record holder, Laco Kulanga, carried a load of 207 kg to the Zamkovsky Hut.

4. Ariadne in the Mylna Cave

The name of the Mylna Cave is not accidental. The multitude of its branches means that not only a flashlight but also Ariadne's thread can be a useful element in a backpack.

History knows one fatal case in cave exploration. On July 25, 1945, Father Józef Szykowski set off for the Tatra Mountains without giving the purpose of his trip. When his hearing was lost, TOPR undertook a rescue operation, which ended in a fiasco, and the priest was declared missing. His body was not found until January 1947, in one of the arms of the Mylna Cave. He probably lost his way in deceptive corridors and starved to death. Difficult conditions (caused by the military downtime in tourism) prevented him from finding his way back.

5. Expedition to the Chochołowska Fissure

In the 1950s, the communist authorities supported - in their ideologically bizarre way - the emancipation of women through work and professional activity. Fortunately, the women not only found tractors but also contributed to the exploration of the Tatra Mountains. From February 1 to February 4, 1956, the first exclusively female cave expedition in the history of world speleology took place, the Chochołowska Crack was chosen as its target.

The result of the expedition was more than satisfactory - the Krakow team led by Zofia Łukaszczyk discovered a new passage from the lower floor of the cave to the vicinity of the entrance.

6. The Tatra Mountains in technicolor

In 1899, the peak of Rysy was reached by Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. Love for the mountains was also shared by their daughter, Ewa. Together with Romuald Gantkowski and the Polish community in New York, she made a colorful film about Poland in 1938, entitled The Land of My Mother. The Tatra Mountains could not be missing there.

In the 11th minute of the film, the material about Zakopane and Kasprowy Wierch begins. It shows the gondola lift, the majesty of the mountains, beautiful vegetation, ski jumping competitions, and above all - the pre-war climate devoid of today's trash and commerce.

7. Eldorado in Krywan

Krivan is a "holy mountain" of Slovaks, with popularity comparable to our native Giewont. This is evidenced by, for example, the masses of tourists and the presence in the anthem, the state emblem, and even on the local euro cent. Few people know that probably the first conquerors of this summit were the fifteenth-century gold miners mining in Krywanski Banie, located at an altitude of about 2100 m above sea level.

The mountain, however, jealously guarded its treasures. The output was so small that the effort and cost put into obtaining it did not pay off in any way. Exploitation was soon abandoned, its traces can be seen today on the blue trail to Krivan.

8. The last way of the cable car to Lomnica

Much is said about the effort put into the construction of the cableway to Kasprowy Wierch, and less often about a similar undertaking on the part of Czechoslovakia - i.e. the construction of the cableway to Łomnica. It was built in the years 1936–1940, it operated in its original form until 1973 when the previous lower part was replaced by a new connection with greater capacity.

The old cable car was gradually taken out of service, today a dilapidated car is dusty in the lower station under the hotel "Praha". His last journey took place in 2005, for the film Príbeh one lanovka (in the words: The History of a Certain Queue). At the end of it, see how a certain epoch in the history of the Tatra Mountains is passing away.

9. Słowacki's sarcophagus

When in 1909 it was decided to transfer Juliusz Słowacki's ashes to Poland, the country was in turmoil. It can be said that the bones of the poet have become a bone of contention in the nation. Stefan Żeromski spoke on the matter, who proposed to place the ashes of the Prophet in ... the crag of the Tatra Kościelec:

In its western wall, two hundred meters above the Czarny Staw, i.e. halfway up the mountain, there is a huge granite recess eighty meters high and of considerable depth, where, due to the natural deviation at the top, avalanches do not fall and the screen does not fall off . - In this Tatra chapel, according to the plans of the appointed artists, a catacomb in the granite should be carved, in it a large sarcophagus from the same granite, the whole cave should be covered with an iron or bronze grate and the monumental stairs leading to the whole tomb should be carved - from the path that leads to this niche.

Eventually, peace broke loose between the proponents of the various burial locations. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Słowacki rested next to Adam Mickiewicz in the Crypt of National Prophets in the Wawel Cathedral.

10. Nazi Monk

The absurd ideas of Nazi ideologues also reached the Tatra Mountains. In 1941, the German border guards hung a large wooden swastika, painted white, on the wall of the Monk (visible from the Morskie Oko lake).

Two mountaineers did not like it - Czesław Łapiński and Kazimierz Paszusza. During the attack on Mnich's summit (thanks to which they went down in the history of Polish mountaineering), they tapped and tapped on the fasteners of the ropes holding the swastika. At the first stronger gust of wind, it collapsed onto the nearby scree. The guilty party of this "sacrilege" was halny, who replied to the accusations with only a long sigh.

Urban legends about computer games

 Urban legends, modern counterparts of ancient myths, have accompanied mankind for years. Those who like to be scared look for dark stories with interest, which they then pass on to themselves. As they pass from mouth to mouth, these stories change, the details blur and be replaced by other details. After all, it's hard to know how true a story is or how far it is made up. But there is no shortage of researchers who spend time researching city myths, sometimes succeeding and proving that the terrifying passes that few believed did actually take place. There are also many secrets in the computer games industry, some very dark, others fascinating. Some are probably imaginary, others are confirmed by researchers as 100% true. In a series of articles, I would like to present to you the most interesting of them. In most cases, without asking how much truth and how much falsehood there is, leaving the decision of whether to believe them to each reader individually.

The pale moon will show you the way

In the 1980s, when the Internet was not yet widespread, the distribution of computer games was completely different. Many fans of electronic gameplay then organized meetings with similar enthusiasts, during which they exchanged simple productions that could be stored on single floppy disks. Amateur programmers also used such "exchange points" to release their own titles into the world. Sometimes hand-to-hand games could spread across the continent like today's viral movies.

One of the games "distributed" in this way was Pale Luna, a part of the then-dying genre of text adventure games, which was wandered among players living in the San Francisco Bay. It was a very poor title, and it was also full of mistakes. When the player started playing, he was greeted by a black screen with the following text:

You are in a dark room. The moon is shining through the window. In the corner, there is GOLD, ROPE, and SHOVEL. There is a DOOR in the ENTRANCE. Give the command.

The game only accepted five simple commands: Pick up a shovel, Pick up gold, Pick up a rope, Open the door, and Go east. The player quickly left the room to be greeted by the following text:

Collect your reward. The pale moon smiles at you. You are in the woods. There are paths to the NORTH, EAST, and WEST. Give the command.

From this point on, the game became extremely irritating and repetitive. The player had to choose one correct path each time, and then he was greeted again by the same screen. Choosing the wrong direction completely crashed the computer, and the game only responded to three commands related to the use of items. When attempting to use gold, she answered Not here, an attempt to use a shovel was endorsed with the phrase Not now, and the rope was not allowed to be used, as you allegedly already used it.

The poor mechanics and the eternal crashes of the game drove most players furious and ended up throwing a Pale Luna disk into the corner. But there will always be someone with too much free time and the patience of a Tibetan monk. Michael Nevins, a young man, decided to check if Pale Luna was hiding something more. For five hours, by trial and error, he made his way through successive screens, and finally, after countless reboots, he saw a different text:

The pale moon smiles broadly. There are no more paths. The pale moon smiles broadly. The ground is soft. The pale moon smiles broadly. It's here. Give the command.

Over the next hour of typing in different phrases, Nevins finally came across the combinations of commands he had to give: Dig a hole, Drop-in gold, Bury a hole. This made the last text appear on the screen:

Congratulations.

—— 40.24248 ——

—— -121.4434 ——

After thinking about it, Michael concluded that the numbers given by the game were actually coordinates. He checked them and found that they led to a point in the woods of the surrounding park. Armed with a map, a compass, and a shovel, he decided to bring the mystery of Pale Luna to the very end. Breaking through the forest, he noticed with some fascination how his next steps corresponded with the paths chosen in the game. Eventually, he reached his destination, where he saw a pile of dirt. With increasing excitement he began to dig a hole in the ground, expecting at any moment to find some eccentric treasure left by the creator of the game. Instead, he found the head of a girl with blonde hair in a state of severe decay.

Frightened, Nevins quickly informed the police of the find. The girl was identified as 11-year-old Karen Paulsen, who had been reported missing a year and a half earlier in San Diego. Despite strenuous efforts to locate the author of Pale Luna, the semi-legal nature of the game swap meetings led to many dead ends. Today, collectors are willing to pay up to six figures for an authentic copy of the game, but this one remains almost impossible to get.

The rest of the girl's body has never been found.

Self-canceling game

In 1989, a small company Karvina Corporation released a title that could be called the precursor to survival horrors such as Silent Hill, entitled Killswitch. The game allowed players to assume the role of one of the two playable characters - a woman incapable of defending, occasionally randomly changing the size of a Porto woman, or an invisible, combat-capable demon Ghast. The latter was invisible not only to opponents, but also to the player, which made it extremely difficult to control and, consequently, users almost always chose Porto. The woman wandered through a mysterious mine, discovering the dark history of the place where she had worked before and where the directors, dissatisfied with the efficiency, sent prods torturing the employees to make them work more intensively. Human suffering unleashed ancient demons that took over the mining machines and began to murder everyone around. Porto tried to obtain evidence of what happened in the mine and then escape with them to the surface.

The game was extremely difficult and contained several puzzles that, despite many attempts, no one was able to complete. A mysterious member of the community gathered around the game, hiding under the pseudonym Porto881, came to the rescue, revealing solutions to extremely difficult puzzles several times. Thanks to his help, many players brought the title to the very end ... and after seeing the ending, they would say goodbye to Killswitch forever.

The game was designed in such a way that it could not be copied in any way, and after reaching the end of the adventure, it permanently and irreversibly deletes itself from the owner's hard drive. As the creators only created five thousand copies of their production, the number of Killswitchy in existence around the world began to drop drastically very quickly. This caused a lot of confusion among players, disappointed that they cannot learn all the secrets of the game, including, in particular, Ghast's storyline. When asked about this, Karvina issued a statement in 1990:

Killswitch is designed to be a unique experience. In a reality, it is unique, irretrievable, and illogical. You could say unspoken. Death is final, death is complete. The fates of Porto and her beloved Ghast are as unknown as ours. At Karvina Corporation, we want it to stay that way and we ask our customers to respect this wish. Don't worry, Karvina will still provide the West with the best quality games, and Killswitch is just one of our many wonders.

The utterance, because of one word used in it, instead of reassuring, drove the fans to obsession. It was about Ghast being Porto's "beloved". Throughout the woman's story, the demon did not appear once, nor was it even mentioned. This prompted fans to consider various theories, for example, that the end of the invisible being's story is also the beginning of the Porto plot. That Ghast becomes the gases that Porto inhales and therefore gains the ability to resize. The truth, however, remained unexplored - and it was impossible to obtain new copies of the Killswitch, as nearly all copies had been deleted. The few who kept their copies tried to get to know Ghast's story, but playing him was so difficult that they ended up giving up, choosing Porto, and all ending up on a white screen that would equal the game's deletion.

Until 2005, when perhaps the world's last copy of the Killswitch was auctioned off in perfect condition. It was bought for $733,000 by Japanese Yamamoto Ryuichi, who promised to record and share with the world how he went through the entire game. Instead, he only published one minute and forty-five seconds long video, which was removed from the network shortly after. During the recording, you could see skinny Ryuichi sitting in front of his computer screen, which showed the Killswitch character selection screen.

Ryuichi cried.

Killer record

In the 1980s, computer games salons experienced golden times, gathering the then youth in their interiors. They were often a rather unpleasant meeting place for problematic kids who regularly experimented with stimulants and were at odds with the law. The Friar Tuck facility in Calumet, Illinois, stood out against this background. The business run by the couple, compared to the gloomy amusements of the competition, was distinguished by a medieval inn-style appearance and a very pleasant atmosphere, which made many parents decide to spend the afternoons with their children right there. All the more shocking for many were the events that took place in such a seemingly safe place.

One of the most popular games in the early 1980s was Berzerk, a simple production in which, by controlling a green man, the player eliminated opponents and traversed the labyrinths of rooms, trying to get the best score. One of the machines with this game stood in Friar Tuck and it was on April 3, 1982, that Peter Bukowski decided to play. Peter was a nice and quiet eighteen-year-old in excellent condition. On this very cold day, he managed to travel a few kilometers, first visiting his girlfriend, then returning home, visiting a friend, and finally, with him going late at night to a nearby arcade. On the way, Bukowski did not feel well, he complained to his friend that he was thirsty and hard to breathe. So he went to the store and bought himself a drink. Although the drink did not make the boy feel better, when he finally reached his destination and started playing a well-liked game, the excitement allowed him to forget about his ailments. He played two games, it took him a total of about a quarter of an hour, maybe twenty minutes. He managed to get on the list of the best results each time. After the second game, he entered his initials on the list and immediately stepped away from the slot machine. He took a few steps and fell unconscious to the floor. Despite the immediate help provided by an employee of the facility and a quickly called ambulance, Peter Bukowski died on the way to the hospital. A later autopsy of the boy's body revealed a rather surprising fact - his heart turned out to be covered with scar tissue.

The surprising death of a boy in perfect condition, who had apparently been killed by a computer game, caused quite a stir. A legend has arisen around the infamous Berzerk slot machine, according to which entering your own initials on the high-score list would bring misfortune, in some cases even death. In addition to the case of Peter Bukowski, the story of Jeff Dailey, a nineteen-year-old from Virginia, who in January 1981 persistently played the infamous game for many hours in January 1981, finally suffered a heart attack and died unexpectedly. At the time this happened, his record score was no less, no more, but only 16,660 points.

Tales of a killer game usually end at this point - one solidly documented and one given the lack of precise information, possibly a fabricated story. Hardly anyone knows, however, that there is also a third act written by the infamous Berzerk, which took place seven years after Bukowski's death, and in addition in the very same pro-family Friar Tuck salon, at the same slot machine that finished the heart of an eighteen-year-old.

On an exceptionally warm March night in 1988, seventeen-year-old Edward Clark Jr. together with a group of friends decided to spend time playing computer games. Edward was not an innocent, he already had more than half a dozen minor disputes with law enforcement. First, the boy played a little Battlezone, then his interest turned to the machine on which Peter Bukowski spent his last moments years earlier. At the vending machine, Clark noticed a few stray quarter bills lying around. He decided to take one of them and used it to play Berzerk. Suddenly, a few moments later, the owner of the money appeared next to the boy, demanding that Clark Junior be returned. Wanting redress was Pedro Roberts, a very infamous 16-year-old who was better not to mess with. Both teenagers got into a serious fight, which was quickly interrupted by a salon employee. He first threw Roberts out of the arcade, then waited ten minutes, and then let Edward Clark Junior go as well, instructing him to take a different route than his adversary with his friends a moment earlier. Clark ignored him and followed Pedro with his friends. It was a mistake - as it turned out, the dangerous sixteen-year-old was counting on just that, and he jumped out of hiding in one of the alleys, stabbing Edward several times with a knife. The injured teenager did not believe the injuries were serious and declined the offer to rush him to the hospital. It was a mistake - when his colleagues decided he was wrong and put him in the car, it was too late. The boy could not be saved. He was killed about who had the right to play the game. The same one that had already led to the death of the young soul.

Elisa Lam: disturbing elevator footage and mysterious death

 Elisa Lam was born on April 30, 1991, in Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada). Her parents were immigrants from Hong Kong. The woman studied at the University of British Columbia. At the beginning of 2013, Elisa went on a trip around the United States. The destination of the expedition was California. Lam traveled alone on trains and intercity buses. First, she went to San Diego. This is evidenced by photos taken by a woman in the local zoo and published on social media. On January 26, the student arrived in Los Angeles. Two days later, she checked into the (in) famous Cecil Hotel near Skid Row in the city center. Initially, the 21-year-old was allocated a shared room on the fifth floor. Her roommates, however, complained about the Canadian's strange behavior. Elisa Lam was therefore transferred to her own room after two days.

The Cecil was built as a business hotel in the 1920s. Subsequently, its owners faced severe financial difficulties during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The problems also arose later. One of the main reasons was the poor reputation of the hotel. Several known crimes were committed directly in the hotel or their perpetrators were associated with it. In 1964, Goldie Osgood was raped and murdered in her room in Cecil. This crime has never been solved. Serial killers Jack Unterweger and Richard Ramirez also lived at the Cecil Hotel. There were also suicides of hotel guests. One of the jumps out of the window ended fatally not only for the suicide but also for the pedestrian who was passing the entrance to the building. After recent renovations, attempts were made to save the hotel's image and attract guests, but its gloomy reputation was not to be forgotten.

Coming back to the heroine of our story - Elisa was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. To treat these conditions, she was prescribed four medications - Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor. According to the family who kept their daughter's history of mental illness a secret, Lam had had no previous thoughts or attempts to commit suicide. One report, however, stated that she had been missing for a short time earlier.

In mid-2010, Lam started a blog called "Ether Fields" on the Blogspot platform. For the next two years, she published photos of models in stylish clothes and reports from her life, especially the fight against mental illness. In a January 2012 post, Lam lamented that a recent relapse had forced her to drop out of several subjects in college. Elisa felt lost at the time and could not find a goal she could pursue. She titled her entry: "You are always haunted by the thought that you are wasting your life." It was a quote from one of Chuck Palahniuk's books. These words became the motto on the 21-year-old's blog. Just over two years after starting blogging, Lam announced that she would be abandoning her current blog in favor of a new one - "Nouvelle-Nouveau", which she started on Tumblr. Its content consisted mainly of photos from the world of fashion, quotes, and own reflections.

Lam contacted her parents daily during the trip. On February 1, 2013, the day she was to check out of the Cecil Hotel and go to Santa Cruz, her parents did not receive any news from her daughter. They became concerned about this and called the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The family also flew to California's largest city to help with the search.

The hotel staff who saw Elisa that day said she was alone. The only person outside the hotel who remembered Lam that day was Katie Orphan, manager of a nearby bookstore. The woman mentioned that the missing woman was buying gifts for her family members. She seemed very lively and friendly. Orphan remembered Lam wondering if the purchased gifts would be too heavy and if she could carry them with her for the rest of the trip.

The police searched the hotel to the extent that this was legal. Service and tracking dogs checked Lam's room and looked around the building, but no trace of a Canadian could be found. However, the police did not search all rooms because they did not have sufficient evidence to believe that a crime had been committed. On February 6, a week after the disappearance of Elisa Lam, officers decided that additional help was needed. Leaflets with the image of a woman were posted in the neighborhood and on the Internet. The media also got interested in the matter.

On February 15, after another week with no trace of the missing person, Los Angeles police released a video from one of the Cecil Hotel's elevators on February 1. The video is approximately two and a half minutes long. The video shows Elisa Lam making very strange movements and gestures. After entering the elevator, the 21-year-old began pressing buttons to close the door, but it remained open all the time. At one point, Elisa exited the elevator as if fearing that someone outside was preventing the door from closing. Missing seems terrified.

The film received a lot of attention worldwide due to Lam's strange behavior and was widely analyzed and discussed. Several theories have attempted to explain the peculiar behavior of the missing woman. According to one of them, Lam tried to force the elevator to move in order to escape from someone who was chasing her. Others suggested that the 21-year-old may have been on ecstasy or some other drug. When bipolar disorder came to light, it was also hypothesized that Lam had had a psychotic episode. Personally, I think the strange behavior was caused by mental problems. Perhaps Elisa stopped taking medication or did it irregularly.

Other viewers argued that the movie was modified before it was released to the public. In addition to obscuring the timestamp, they argued that part of the film had been slowed down and almost a minute of footage removed. This could be due to a desire to protect the identity of a person (whether related to the disappearance or not) who would otherwise be in the film.

Elisa Lam 4K Elevator Video  

During the search for Elisa Lam, hotel guests began to complain about low water pressure. Some later argued that it was black in color and had an unusual taste. On the morning of February 19, Santiago Lopez, a hotel restorer, found a woman's body in one of four 1,000-gallon (3,785 liters) tanks on the roof. They provided water to guest rooms, kitchens, and cafes. Through the open hatch, the man saw Lam lying face up in the water. The tank was emptied and cut open because its maintenance hatch was too small to accommodate the equipment needed to remove the body.

On February 21, the Los Angeles coroner's office released a statement about accidental drowning, citing bipolar disorder as a significant factor. According to a full coroner's report, published in June, Lam's body was found naked. Clothes similar to the ones she was wearing in the elevator movie were floating in the water, covered with "sand-like particles." A Canadian's watch and a room key were also found nearby.

Lam's body was bloated and in a state of moderate decay. It was mostly greenish in color, with visible skin separation. There was no evidence of physical trauma, sexual assault or suicide. Toxicology tests showed traces of the substance identical to the composition of the prescription drugs found among her belongings. There are also over-the-counter tablet ingredients in the blood, such as Sinutab and ibuprofen. A very small amount of alcohol was also present (about 0.02 per mille). However, no sign of any drugs was found. Researchers and experts noticed that the concentration of prescription drugs in the body of the deceased indicated that she was taking too little of them or that she had recently stopped taking them.

The investigation established how Lam was killed, but initially, it was not made clear how it got into the tank. The doors and stairs leading to the roof of the hotel are locked, and only employees have access codes and keys. Any attempt to cross them would allegedly set off an alarm. A video posted on the Internet after Lam's death by one user, however, proved that the hotel roof was easily accessible through a fire exit and that the two water tank covers were open.

They wondered how the woman got on the roof and whether she could enter the water tank by herself. All four were cylinders measuring 1.2 x 2.4 m placed on concrete blocks. There was no permanent access to them and hotel staff had to climb a ladder to check the water level. In addition, the tanks were protected by heavy covers that would be difficult to move. A hotel employee who found the body said the lid was open at the time, putting an end to speculation about how Elisa might have closed the hatch. Oddly enough, the police dogs who searched the hotel shortly after noticing her disappearance found no trace or smell - not even on the roof.

The theories related to the elevator recording have emerged. Some have argued that the woman was trying to hide from a persecutor, perhaps someone ultimately responsible for her death. Others said the student was simply frustrated by the elevator failure. Some supporters of the theory that she was under the influence of drugs have not been discouraged by the results of toxicology. A hypothesis has emerged that Lam may have taken unusual drugs that are not detected by standard testing. The very low levels of prescription drugs in her body and the amount of the remaining pills suggested that she was taking insufficient or recently stopped taking bipolar medications, which could have led to a psychotic episode.

The autopsy report was also challenged on the basis of incomplete information. For example, it does not specify the results of tests designed to verify that there was no rape. There was also no information as to whether such a study had been conducted. The report also included information about blood pooling around the anus and rectal prolapse. Some have suggested that this could be a sign of sexual abuse. One pathologist noted that this could be due to gas during the decomposition of the body. Even the coroner's pathologists seemed not entirely convinced that Lam's death was a consequence of the accident.

After Canada's death, her blog on Tumblr has been updated, possibly via an option that allows you to schedule and automatically publish posts. The phone was not found near the body or in the hotel room. It is believed that it was stolen shortly before or after his death. It has not been established whether further updates to Lam's blog were the result of a phone thief, hacker, or Tumblr's Queue.

Interestingly, the backstage of the case resembles the story from the horror movie "Dark Water". It would not be surprising, if not for the fact that the film was first made over 10 years earlier (Japanese original in 2002, American remake in 2005). In the films, the main characters (mother and daughter) discover the title "dark/gloomy water" dripping from the ceiling. With time, they learn that the flooded apartment above them belongs to a family that has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The body of a missing girl who lived in the building is finally found. It turns out that she was abandoned by her parents and drowned in ... a water tank. There is also a plot of the elevator and the strange operation of its buttons. Coincidence? Probably, but very peculiar.

Orbs - mysterious orbs in photos

 Each of us happened to see round, white circles on them while viewing the photos. We used to think that it was a film defect or an exposure error, now we are most often responsible for dust pollen or water vapor. Few people realize that it is very possible that they just took a picture of a ghost. This phenomenon is called orbs.

Although there are many theories of their formation, the phenomenon of the appearance of orbs has not been fully explained yet. Their Polish name comes from the English word "orbs" (Latin Orbis - wheel). The first orbs were observed at the beginning of the 20th century. Initially, they were taken as an exposure error, film error, or a camera defect.

According to the most popular theory, the small, translucent orbs of light visible in the photos are supposed to be a manifestation of ghosts. They arise from the transformed spiritual energy of people or immaterial beings. They are the plasmodial accumulation of energy, hence their spherical form.

The appearance of the orb is accompanied by an inexplicable change in the electromagnetic field that can be measured with an EMF sensor. They appear near the ghosts. They are created unconsciously and without the knowledge of the source - they are "thrown away" when trying to contact a person. Often their appearance precedes the manifestation of the spirit or its materialization. Everything indicates that they are perfectly seen by animals. Cats are particularly sensitive to their presence.

Extremely many pictures of orbs were taken in cemeteries or places considered haunted. They can also appear in photos of funerals, weddings, or family celebrations of a spiritual nature. Most often, however, we see them in random photos. According to some observations, they seem to portend death or a tragedy.

A group of friends went on a journey in two cars. After a long drive, they stopped to rest in the parking lot. Then they also took pictures of themselves, and then went on a further tour. Unfortunately, shortly after leaving the parking lot, a tragic accident happened - one of the cars was crashed and its passengers were killed. During the mourning, no one thought about developing photos. When it was finally done, it turned out that all the photos had white spots on their faces. This could be considered a camera defect, but the orbs were perfectly positioned on the faces of the dead and were visible in all photos taken together. Such situations happen very often. In the photos taken of people shortly before their death, you can see strange white spots. Most often they cover the face of the subject. The closer to the date of death, the stain is stronger and clearer.

Another theory is that orbs are energy spheres of unknown origin. They observe people's lives, but also contribute to the formation of mysterious crop circles. They are supposed to reproduce the texture of the orbs on the ground. Studies have shown that orb activity increases in the vicinity of crop circles. According to some researchers, the orbs show signs of intelligence and want to make contact with us.

Supporters of another theory claim that small, luminous spheres are nothing but angels that look after us. They play a part in the healing process. They are attracted to spiritual and meditative gatherings.

Not every stain in the photo is a spiritual manifestation. Orbs are perfectly round, they can be paler or more expressive. They are translucent, sometimes with a dark spot inside. On their surface, we can see a kind of texture - delicate lines forming symmetrical shapes. These entities give the impression of spaciousness. Orbs pass through matter - they will pass through humans as easily as they pass through walls. They are not visible to the naked eye, they can only be seen through the lens.

The nature of the orbs has also been taken up by serious physicists, incl. working for NASA prof. Klaus Heinemann or Prof. William Tiller. There was even a conference devoted to this phenomenon in the American town of Sedona. This subject was also dealt with by the theologian Miceal Ledwith associated with the Vatican.

We don't know what the nature of the orbs is. Regardless of whether they are ghosts, aliens, or angels, the phenomenon is so common that it attracts a lot of attention. If it is true that the orbs are irrefutable proof of the existence of an extra-material world, inaccessible to humans, then it is definitely worth spending time and money on researching them. Maybe thanks to discovering their nature, new possibilities and perspectives will open up to us. And this could be a milestone in the fate of mankind.

Brittanee Drexel - missing teen victim of human traffickers?

 Brittanee Drexel was born on October 7, 1991, in Rochester, New York (USA). Her mother's name was Dawn and her father was a Turkish man. His identity is not publicly known. Shortly after the girl's birth, Dawn married Chad Drexel, who adopted Brittanee. After the man ended his military service, the family settled in the town of Chili in the suburbs of Rochester.

Brittanee liked to play football as a child. According to the memories of friends and family, she did very well on the pitch despite her short stature. Over time, other passions appeared in Drexel's life. The teenager was considering starting a career in nursing, cosmetology or modeling.

It is worth adding that Brittanee was slightly different in appearance. The girl was born with a rare disease. For this reason, she underwent several operations, which unfortunately did not bring any result - Drexel could not see with her right eye. To hide his tendency to squint, the teenager wore contact lenses.

The girl's parents split up in 2008, which was not easy for her and negatively affected Brittanee's academic performance. It also worsened the depression she had suffered from for a long time, according to Chad. The teenager remained in the care of her mother with whom she lived but continued to maintain close contact with her father.

In April 2009, Brittanee asked Dawn for permission to travel to Myrtle Beach during spring break with her boyfriend and some girlfriends. It should be added that this place is one of the greatest attractions of South Carolina, but also of the entire United States. Millions of tourists choose Myrtle Beach every year for its warm climate, beautiful beaches, hundreds of restaurants, hotels, and more. It is also worth noting that just three years older Heather Elvis disappeared in this area.

The mother did not agree, however, because she did not know her daughter's friends with whom she planned to go. She also didn't like the fact that teenagers would not be accompanied by an adult. Dawn also had a strange feeling that something bad might happen during this trip.

This led to an argument that lasted for several days. Everything changed on April 22, when Brittanee asked if she could even go to her friend's house for a day or two, to which her mother agreed. That day, however, the 17-year-old went with friends to South Carolina, not to mention the family.

Brittanee called her mother three days after the entire group had arrived at the Bar Harbor Hotel in Myrtle Beach. The teenager told Dawn she was at the beach. Mom wasn't concerned, as she assumed Brittanee was referring to the beach along the shoreline of Lake Ontario.

On the same day, at around 8 p.m., Drexel left her friends and left the hotel. She walked about 1.5 miles south along South Ocean Boulevard to visit a longtime friend who stayed at the Blue Water Resort. Monitoring at this point registered her arrival. The 17-year-old was then wearing a black and white T-shirt, shorts, flip-flops, and a beige handbag. Cameras caught her as she left around 8:45 pm.

Brittanee wrote that evening with her boyfriend, John Grieco, who stayed in Rochester for work. They exchanged text messages for a while, but around 9:15 pm Drexel stopped replying. Grieco became concerned and began calling her friends in Myrtle Beach. He wanted to see if they knew where his girlfriend was or what happened to her.

When these efforts failed, he called the girl's mother, who only then found out that her daughter was in Myrtle Beach. Dawn called Chad and then called the Rochester Police Department. She hoped the local detectives could get in touch with their South Carolina colleagues. Multiple calls and texts to Brittanee's phone went unanswered.

Myrtle Beach Police started looking for Drexel the next morning. Investigators found the security camera footage of the Blue Water Resort. The policemen also found friends who were visited by the 17-year-old. The last person to see Drexel before she left was Peter Brozowitz, a 20-year-old nightclub promoter. Brittanee knew him from the Rochester area, and it turns out he was on vacation in Myrtle Beach as well. They said they met the previous night at a local nightclub.

Police questioned Brozowitz and the men he shared hotel rooms with. Investigators later found that they had not excluded any of them from the suspects. At the same time, they did not bring charges against anyone.

The police also searched the hotel room of the missing teenager. All the clothes she had taken with her were found in it. However, a purse and a mobile phone were missing. Signals from the girl's cell pointed to a route about 90 km south of Myrtle Beach. This was an area along US Route 17, near the Georgetown-Charleston County border. The signal was suddenly interrupted in the early morning of April 26.

The disposal of the body was searched for eleven days in the area around Myrtle Beach. In 2011, the police also checked a flat in Georgetown, but all these actions were unsuccessful.

Dawn, who went to Myrtle Beach the day after her daughter disappeared, eventually moved there permanently. She wanted to be close to the place of Brittanee's disappearance and better monitor the progress of the investigation. In a 2014 press article on the fifth anniversary of the events, the girl's mother outlined her theory. According to her, her daughter was so anxious to go to Myrtle Beach because the teenagers were promised something interesting. For example, it could have been a modeling job that Drexel dreamed of. Dawn also claimed that her daughter was in the hands of human smugglers.

Myrtle Beach Police have denied this, saying little or no human trafficking takes place there. Interestingly, the 2019 report by the South Carolina human trafficking task force in Horry County (where Myrtle Beach is located) reported the most victims of trafficking in the entire state.

In June 2016, the FBI held a press conference during which the hypothesis was presented. According to her, Drexel was murdered shortly after her disappearance. The 17-year-old was about to be abducted from Myrtle Beach. Then she was probably taken somewhere outside Georgetown where her cell phone signal was cut off, then killed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation awarded a prize of $ 25,000 for information leading to the resolution of the case.

Two months later, the Charleston Post and Courier reported the interrogation of a man named Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor. The man was serving his sentence in state prison. FBI agent Gerrick Munoz testified that earlier that year, Taquan Brown, another South Carolina inmate who had begun serving a 25-year sentence for manslaughter, told them that in 2009, shortly after Drexel's disappearance, he traveled to the town of McClellanville. . He was supposed to donate the money to Shaun Taylor, Timothy's father.

When Taquan arrived at Taylor's house, he was supposed to see Timothy sexually abusing Drexel in the presence of other men. Brown continued on to the yard where he found Shaun and paid. While they talked, Brittanee ran away from home but was soon captured again. Taquan said he saw Timothy hit the teen with the handle of the gun and then took her back inside. Then Brown heard two shots he supposed were fired at a young woman. The man added that he had seen the wrapped body taken out of the house and then thrown into one of the alligator ponds in the area.

Brown's testimony was partially confirmed by another informant. His identity was not revealed, but it is known that he was also in a prison in Georgetown County. According to a second inmate, Timothy picked up Drexel in Myrtle Beach and took her to McClellanville. Then he showed it to friends to whom he tried to sell it. Brown said that when the case caught media attention, Taylor decided to kill the girl to avoid arrest.

In February 2019, Brown gave a telephone interview to Rochester WHEC-TV from the McCormick Correctional Institution where he was imprisoned. The man said Drexel saw her four times after she disappeared.

Taquan saw Drexel sexually harassed by a group of eight to twelve young men. This happened at the McClellandville hideout on April 27, two days after her disappearance. Brown did not recognize her then but did realize it a month later when the case became public.

Brown's second meeting with Brittanee came a few days later. It was this situation that the man described to the FBI, mentioning the shots in the building and the removal of the body. Brown claimed he saw Drexel for the third time five days later on a dirt road near his cousin's Jacksonboro mansion, 130 kilometers south of McClellanville.

Taquan last saw Brittanee at the end of May, once again at his cousin, whom he was visiting with his friend. In the wooded area to the rear of the property, Brown claimed to witness the murder of Drexel by a man whom he only knew as "Nate." He shot her twice with a shotgun. Brown and his friend left the place immediately, fearing that they would be considered accomplices if they stayed there longer.

WHEC-TV was able to corroborate some of Brown's testimony. His description of the McClellanville hideout matched the station's account of the 2016 visit. The reported situation, which took place during the second meeting with Brittanee (when the teenager was about to be shot), is in line with his original story as presented by the FBI.

The station has failed to identify the friend who would accompany Brown on his last visit. The cousin, who owned the property in which the teenager allegedly died, is no longer alive. It is also unknown who the man called "Nate" was.

Unfortunately, the issue has not been officially resolved to this day. Considering all these circumstances, however, it must be assumed that Brittanee is probably dead.