Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>]

The American Museum of Photography
Ghosts & Ectoplasm Captured by the Camera!
http://www.photographymuseum.com/believe1.html

A child whispers "I see dead people" and millions of moviegoers feel a chill
go up their spines. More than a century ago, however, photographs of ghosts
were greeted as joyous proof that the spirit survives after death. Were these
images the result of manipulations -- or miracles? View this exhibit, weigh
the evidence... then, you decide.

The American Museum of Photography's exhibition of spirit photography from
1868 - 1935 gives you three galleries devoted to ghosts and ectoplasm
captured on film. The images chronicle spirit photography, starting with
"technological marvels intended to amuse" to the international wave of
spirit photography launched in 1868 when a Boston engraver claimed that he
had taken actual photographic records of ghosts.


and just because they said I couldn't resist (they were right):


   Suspicious wives in Japan are stopping their men from cheating on
them--with the help of magical holy phalluses. Worried women head to the
Yumizori Shrine in Kumamoto, a fertility temple with a two-meter long
phallus as a centerpiece. Each buys a scaled-down version of it, and
inscribes thereon her husband's name. The women then hammer nails into the
phalluses--one for each year of their age. The result: The gods will ensure
that the named husbands will be physically unable to commit adultery.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/flash_2.html

sorry, no pictures accompany the article.