By now you've probably heard of Farmville and if you haven't then its a good chance you don't spend much time online. This game has in a very short period of time reached over 60 million monthly active users. That is a huge community of players and neighbors that for months now have been having great fun withe game.

Early in the days of Farmville there were many loopholes and cheats discovered. Cheating in any game is a bad idea and we don't promote the use of it. In fact none of these original exploits are still open to the public and many of been plugged up so that they are no longer effective.

Not to worry though because its still entirely possible to play the game the traditional way. You just need to use the right tactics. Most definitely the basics of the game such as planting, harvesting and crap mastery will never stop and perfecting these to the best of your skills is the quickest way to dominate the game.

Growing crops such as soybeans and raspberries are a good way to accumulate coins and experience quickly which will enable you to level up faster than your friends. Also, adding lots of neighbors is a great way to enable many extra features of the game and advance as quickly as possible within the Farmville universe.

To get coins and experience points its important to follow all of these steps and by accumulating as much as you can you will be able to buy vehicles, animals and decorations. Doing this is sort of the social aspect of domination. You see being the top level is the true test, but of course its always nice to show off to your friends with the most impressive looking buildings and animals.

So follow the basic steps and you'll soon be on your way to being the best farmer in the neighborhood.

Search Engine Optimization also known as "SEO" is a term associated with Web pages and their rankings. This technique is included in Web pages to improve your rankings in major search engines. Efficient Technology SEO, which can be a list of Web pages earlier or later in a search engine, thereby increasing traffic to your Web pages with users who are looking for a specific keyword phrase or topic. Different algorithms are implemented to attract the attention of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search. One such method is the optimization of organic SEO.

SEO experts use various methods for optimizing Web pages such as text optimization, image optimization, flash optimization and geographical optimization. Flash optimization work around the recoding of HTML code for Flash pages with the majority of flash content to be search engines. This is one of the latest methods of optimization in SEO. Previously, it was difficult for search engines to read and index pages with Flash content. Geographic optimization aims to include web pages in search listings for users who are looking for services in a particular county, city or state.

SEO services can be implemented either as a separate service or as part of online marketing. The strategy often involves adding keywords and Meta tags on pages. SEO-specialists are able to insert these tags in your HTML code so that they will be indexed by crawler programs used by search engines to list pages.

Two main approaches to optimize the web site black hat SEO and white hat SEO (organic SEO). Black hat SEO uses fraudulent methods to obtain an immediate high rating, but the rating will be temporary in nature and will have a shorter life expectancy. On the other hand White hat SEO implements algorithms in "normal" or "natural" way in accordance with ethical standards in coding. These algorithms are designed to maintain higher search rankings and will operate over a long period of time.

A good SEO team of consultants can review and recommend changes to the existing design and content. They can also develop and implement a page from scratch with search engine optimization techniques Incorporated. Copywriting Quality of service along with its unique design, easy navigation tools and marketing services are part of an effective search engine optimization.

All the major search engines support the organic SEO techniques implemented in web pages. Most web pages listed in the main search results that have implemented effective services SEO. Small investment in effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques will ultimately make your website more visible and to work in a highly competitive and profitable manner with a large return is guaranteed.

Those who have read about search engine optimization they know well what back links are. They have to come across the word at least for once. But who are new to the subject of SEO they must think what the term back links refers and what the importance of back links is. It is nothing but an important thing to build a good SEO. Rather it can be said that Back links have become so important to the scope of Search Engine Optimization, that they have become some of the main building blocks to good SEO.

At first look at the factor why back links are important in search engine optimization. Actually these links are like a voting system and they make the search engine know how much people respect the opinion. Higher the popularity scale, higher the number of back links. They are like voting for you. If lots of people link to your web pages, using anchor text appropriate to your theme, this is taken as validation of your content. The logic is: why would people link to you unless you have something valuable to offer? Exactly for this reason it is considered as a measure of popularity.

Now come to the point that we have hinted at the beginning of this topic. That is web designers and web masters and online publishers take various types of methods both legitimate and illegitimate to get back links. It is indeed very sad that for getting a link you need to give money to another website. For instance, would it make sense if some poker website paid me to put their link on this web design and SEO blog (unless of course I specifically mention that it is an advertisement)? The buying and selling of links has become so rampant that Google is contemplating penalizing people indulging in these tactics?

Now automatically comes the topic how a good position or good way to be found to get quality back links. You should get back links in a normal, natural manner and back linking should be voluntary, not mercenary. For your own satisfaction and in order to keep your business safe and clear you can mention it on your website or blog that you are being paid to publish those links, and Google even goes to the extent of recommending the rel=nofollow attribute for the websites you are linking to if you are publishing external links for extra bucks.

So far the best way of obtaining a higher quality back links is by means of generating valuable content regularly and timely and for a long time. You need to revise it and update it on a regular basis. Your content must be off higher quality and fit the purpose of your website. Webmasters and bloggers enjoying high traffic always like to refer to an external link rather than explaining a topic from scratch. Give people something to link to and see how your traffic surges up.

Today, in this fast-paced world, people get annoyed when they visit a blog that doesn’t look good. They get frustrated and leave. That little X box is clicked on and you have lost a potential visitor. We all want our blog to look good, I know I do.


To get your visitors to read your content and to want to come back for more there are some simple blog design strategies that you can do.

#1: Design

You have a very short time for your blog to make an impact on your reader. Does it hit them in the face with bright colors or does it draw them in so they want to stay and read your content. Having a simple or minimalistic design can create harmony for the reader.

Is your ‘above the fold’ area too cluttered? Does your text tell the reader what the blog name is and what the blog is about?

The use of white space is very effective in drawing your readers into your blog. White space means the empty space on your blog. The human eye needs this space so that we can easily see what is there.

#2: Does the design compliment the content?

Blog design and related content go together. If you visit a blog that sells dog blankets and they have an article on trout fishing, would you stay? Most likely not, I know I wouldn’t. It would confuse me and I wouldn’t go back to that blog.

Font and font size needs to be considered as well. Are your fonts modern or are they curly and old-fashioned.

Images are another important factor in designing your blog to be visibility enticing. Keep your images to one size and place them in the same place in your posts. This gives the reader familiarity and confidence so that when they go back to your blog things will be in the same place.

#3: Is Your Design a Platform for your Content?

The purpose of your blog design is to draw your reader to the content. Are your posts easily found? Or are they buried under uncategorized categories. Do you have ads that detract from the reader and make them want to run from your blog.

#4: Is your design functional?

Blog readers want to know about you, they want to know your story. Have you got your ‘My Story’ and ‘About Me, on your blog.

Navigation Bars – Is your navigation bar on the right side, left side, top or bottom of your blog. Books read from left to right so it makes sense to have our navigation bar at the top and on the left side.

Eyetrack research has shown that our eyes are most often fixated on the upper left of the page. Only after looking at the top of the page do our eyes explore further down the page. It makes sense then to put your navigation bar top and left of your blog.

Take a look at other blogs to give you an idea of want you want your blog to be. While you are looking, write down what you like and don’t like. Then and only then change your blog or get your web-designer to do it. It will be worth it.

If you own a blog you know the importance of keeping your blog fresh and your audience interested. It can be challenging to come up with blog posts that won't bore your visitors and is interesting enough to keep them coming back.


It doesn't matter whether you are blogging for fun or blogging to make money, if visitors are your goal then here are eight types of blog posts that you can use to keep your blog interesting, promote sharing, increase followers and encourage comments.

Type 1 - The 'QUICK TIPS' Blog Post

Quick tips are great “in between” posts. They are short and normally between 100 and 250 words. If you have ideas that you want to share with your readers but it doesn’t justify a full blog post, posting quick tips are ideal. The tip should be focused on one key area of your niche. For example, “How to eat less when eating out” is a perfect 'quick tip' for a dieting blog.

Type 2 - The 'HOW TO' Blog Post

Expanding on the quick tips blog post, let's look at the 'how to' posts. These provide expanded and much more detailed information to your readers on how to do specific things related to your niche such as step-by-step instructional detail or specific examples. You could even separate these posts into two or three part courses.

For ideas on 'how to' posts, have a look at niche topic forums or other related blogs for questions that others are asking on how to do specific things. Well written, detailed informative 'how to' posts are typically very popular and can help recognize you as an authority in your field.

Type 3 - The ‘REVIEW’ Blog Post

Product or service reviews are especially useful to readers because it helps them with the decision buying process. It's also a great way to monetize your blog. This is particularly beneficial to affiliate marketers. When you review a product and include your affiliate link, this gives you the opportunity to make a commission from each sale you generate.

The key to writing a credible 'review' blog post is not to simply go over the major benefits and highlights of the product, but to also mention things about the product that could be improved. This keeps your review balanced and also gives your reader a more objective view. Your blog visitors will appreciate your candid honesty and will be more likely to trust your recommendation.

Type 4 - The RESOURCE Blog Post

Some of the most popular blogs use resource lists. Blog readers love lists because they can easily scan the information and focus on what they are most interested in reading.

For example, if writing a post on the '10 ways to lose weight fast' a resource list would mention the posts from related blogs that also have this information. This gives your reader a much broader view of ideas and tips available to them.

By doing this you will also find that readers will look to you as a useful resource for finding as much well-rounded information as possible on the topic at hand.

Type 5 - The INTERVIEW Blog Post

People love interviews, especially if it's with someone they like and admire. Try interviewing someone in your niche and sharing the results of the interview with your blog readers. This is also a powerful traffic generator as the person you interview will most likely post the interview on their blog and around the web, bringing more traffic back to you!

Type 6 - The 'BEST OF' Blog Post

These are great end of the year or end of season posts. For example, if you do a lot of reading, you might list the 'best of' articles, books or guides that you read during the past year. Additionally, you could also create a post highlighting your most popular blog posts of the year. Whatever your niche, have a look back at the items, events or ideas that were the year's best and create a post around them. This can be a fun, especially for the nostalgic reader.

Type 7 - The PERSONAL STORY' Blog Post

Everyone loves a personal story. Anyone that follows you or your blog would be interested in a personal event or happening related to your niche. Did you attend a seminar? Did you buy a new product? Did you have a mishap that could be made an example of? Without getting too personal or overly detailed, writing a blog post on you personal achievements or activities almost always draws interest and feedback.

Type 8 - The 'NEWS' Blog Post

Every niche has some news related items or happenings. Keep your eyes and ears open to what's going on, then find a newsworthy item and write your personal comments. This is not only an easy to create, quick post; it also encourages feedback from readers. Be sure to link to the post you are referring to along with your comments.

Are you a rank and file employee who would like to earn some more cash in your free time? Or are you a student who has lots of leisure time but want to convert this into money? Or maybe you are a stay-at-home mom who would like to earn some more to have her own savings?


If time is not an issue and you have the passion for writing, why not turn into blogging?

For quite some time, a lot of people have been acquainted with blogging. However, most of them blog because they would like to freely express themselves through writing. They commonly make blogs and write as a hobby.

But what most people don't know is that you could get money from spending some time writing stuff about random subjects and just pouring your thoughts out. How does this work?

Well, for starters, you need to look for possible advertisements and the applications which would continuously supply them to your site. These advertisements could either count the number of visitors in your blog site or the clicks that their ads get as directed from your blog's links. From this, they would compensate you depending on the number of the clicks and impressions that they get from your site. Because of this, it is really important to write about interesting topics and have people get particularly interested with the product or service of the company. It is essential to maintain page rank and site traffic so that you'll earn more.

Maintain a blog, make money online now!

An increasing number of businesses are establishing an online presence. As a cheaper alternative to websites, they are turning to blogs to promote their products and services. Business blogs are also a good way for companies to communicate directly with their clients. Thus, business blogs are now an invaluable tool for marketing.


How can businesses use blogs to do effective marketing? They can exploit the immediacy of blogs. Blogs are easy to update so posts on new products and services, as well as announcements of upcoming sales, discounts and bargains, can go up on the site as soon as they are written. To complement these posts, you can also include photos and embed videos. In addition, contests can be run on the blog site, which would not only promote the business but also build traffic to the blog.

Blogs also allow for a high level of interactivity between the blogger and the visitor. You can engage your customers by inviting them to post suggestions and share their ideas on your products and services. Blog posts can also be used to answer frequently asked questions. The posts can be updated as new questions arrive.

The secret to a successful business blog is to have new posts frequently. People would lose interest in visiting the site if it is not constantly updated, and it may result in lost customers. A professional-looking design for the blog would also help a lot in making people take your business seriously.

The possibilities in using a business blog for marketing are seemingly endless. Businesses just have to be aware of how to exploit them.

You have just set up a blog, worked up a fair amount of enthusiasm, just made a relevant post and you're ready to launch it into the blogosphere. That is all well and good but learning how to make money from your blog is crucial since it will teach you how to actually make money. If you're in it for the money, you should realize that every post and every tiny space in your blog is a possible money earner. You should optimize everything within your space so you'll be able to stretch the benefits as far as it should allow you to.


At the bottom of each post, you'll probably leave an empty space before your comment section. What you don't know is that you can use that space to maximize your income. You can post ad links or links on other topics that are found in your blog. Most people only came upon your blog through search engine searches. Only the page with the information will be displayed and after the reader is through with it, he'll probably move on to another site. To increase page views and to make your other posts known to your visitors, placing related posts will make them curious about what more can they learn from your blog.

If you want to place ads links then make sure this is relevant to your post. Create a way to make the ads part of the content they're reading. People are wary about advertisements and they think it's a waste of time to check them out. By incorporating a sentence with your ad link, it will look like a natural part of the post structure and you'll encourage your readers to click on the link. If you already have build a reputation as a blogger, your readers will take your recommendations and you'll generate a lot of clicks because of it.

Now that you have a little knowledge about how to make money from your blog, make sure that you'll optimize whatever chance is presented to you and build your credibility along with it. The only way to magnetize loyal readers is to gain their trust and that is something you should endeavour to do.

Blogging For Success: What You Need

Blogging for success is not a difficult thing to do if you really know what it is that you are doing. There are certain aspects of making money with a blog that everyone should follow and everyone should put into practice.


SEO

Your blog should have proper SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization and it is the means and the way that you are found for the keywords that you want to rank for and it’s the way Google or Yahoo or MSN sees what’s on your page. A proper SEO’d blog will rank higher than a blog that is not properly SEO’d.

The best way to SEO a blog is with a plug-in. If you use Wordpress and your own host (which if you aren’t, shame on you) then there are a few plug-ins you can insert that will do all of the heavy lifting for you. The best one is the All In One SEO plug-in. You can find it by Googling it. With a few clicks it will properly optimize your blog for you. Good stuff.

You also need to monetize your blog properly. There are several ways to do this. Some people choose to use Adsense and some people choose to use affiliate products. Either way you will be able to make money. There is a lot of argument as to which will make you more money but it really depends on how you market your content. Some people make thousands of dollars a month with Adsense and some people make thousands of dollars a month with affiliate marketing. It all depends on what you want to do. There is a sales aspect to affiliate marketing though so if you want to be just a straight content provider then Adsense is your answer.

Search engines are the web’s most used means of driving traffic to websites, and knowledge of search engine marketing is essential to anybody wanting to succeed online. However knowledge of Blogging techniques is also instrumental in gaining you a high position in the search engine listings fore your chosen keyword.


Sure, you can promote your site in many ways and there are more ways than a top listing on a search engine to drive traffic to your website, but there is nothing to beat a top ten listing on Google or one of the other major search engines such as Ask, Yahoo or MSN to provide you with consistent sustained traffic day after day after day.

It is not difficult to get listed in a search engine, but it not so easy to be listed in that all-important top 20 position. The top 10 is the ideal, but if you are listed on one of the first two pages of a major search engine, then the traffic will come to you. That is guaranteed. Naturally, the higher you are listed the better, and you will do an awful lot better on the first page than on the second, but if the best you can do is page three then you are going to need a lot more than search engines to help you attract business.

So what are the main essentials of search engine marketing? You have two objectives, the first being to get listed and the second to reach the top 20. It is easy, as I stated earlier, to get listed on a search engine. Many design their site, submit it to Google and then wait for the Google Dance, when Google carries out its World Wide Web search for websites.

Forget that: do not submit your site to Google or any of the other search engines because that can delay your listing. Instead do one of two things. The best is to write a few articles on the topic of your website and submit them to the top article directories. If you can’t write, or if English is not your main language, then use an article ghostwriter. There are plenty people online offering article services at good rates.

Google and the rest frequently visit the higher ranked article directories and will pick up on the link to your website in your ‘author’s resource’, or bio. When they find your site, you get listed, and that can happen in less than 24 hours. That is the main way, but the other is blogs. Add a blog to your site, and it will soon be listed. Google, especially, likes blogs, particularly if it is a Blogger blog, since Blogger is owned by Google. You are virtually guaranteed a listing. If you are not too keen on Blogger, you can switch once your site has been listed. Word press is arguably the most versatile Blogging software available at the moment, especially if you are running it from your own web space.

Once you are listed, you can improve your position by optimizing each website page for the topic of that page. Don’t forget that search engines list each page separately, and so each page should be optimized separately. However, you should initially focus on your index page, since it is that page which almost invariable gets listed highest. Once your site does have a reasonable high listing, it is possible that another page could get listed higher than your index page, although this is not generally the case.

You can then post a blog on the topic of the page, and add new postings on a regular basis. You should also include a link to your blog from your web pages and a link on your blog sidebar to your website. This will enhance the probability of your home web page being listed, as it also will your blog, since your blog can also be listed on Google and other search engines.

There are some simple things that you can do to make your index page more attractive to the search engines. Bear in mind that your listing is for one search term only, as used by someone seeking information related to the topic of your page. You can receive another listing for another search term (or keyword) on a different index. So, what you must do is to determine the best keyword for which to optimize your index page.

Once you have decided that, include it in the title of your page and place the title in ‘title’ tags. Try to make the title a bit longer than your keyword, so if your keyword is, say, ‘lock design’, make the title ‘The History of Lock Design’, for example. The main heading for the page need not be the same, but should also contain your keyword. A good heading, for example, would be ‘Lock Design from the 18th Century’. Place that in H1 tags to tell the search engine algorithm that the heading contains important text relating to your web page.

In order to accentuate the fact the ‘lock design’ is an important term in your web page, use it in the first 100 characters and again in the last paragraph of the page. You can also use it once for every 300 words if you want, but don’t overuse it. Use plenty of words that relate to the term, in order that the algorithm used to determine the relevance of your page can decide what the actual subject is. Hence, in the example used, it is still not clear if the locks referred to are canal locks or security locks. You should make that clear in the syntax of the page.

For example, your title could be changed to ‘Canal Lock Design from the 18th Century’, and you could make lots of reference to canals, barges, longboats, plan, construction, locks and design. These words will make it clear to the statistical mathematical formula that makes up the LSI (latent semantic indexing) algorithm that determines the meaning of the words used on your page, and determines that the page is about canal locks and not locks and keys.

There are many other ways in which you can optimize your web page to make it more relevant to the search term, and the more relevant the search engine deems it, then the higher the listing in the index for that specific keyword. Blogging can enhance the effect of your SEO, and not only improve your listing position, but also be listed have itself, thus providing evened more traffic to your website.

Search engine marketing involves a good knowledge of search engines and how they work, but if you get it right then the rewards can be very high in terms of traffic highly targeted to your product. The problem is, unless you know how, or have the right advice from people who know what they are talking about rather than trying to sell you a service, and then it takes a long time to learn.

A group of young Indian women is bombarding religious zealots with pink knickers in a Valentine's Day protest.

They now have more than 18,000 supporters signed up to oppose the men who are intent on curbing female freedom on the day for lovers.

Activist Benson Isaac told Sky News Online: "It was started last week by a friend, Nisha Susan, on Facebook but we never thought it would get this big with thousands sending their underwear."

Known as The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women, the group unleashed their frilly fury at male members of Sri Ram Sena - Lord Ram's Army.

"SRS is a fringe element of the Hindi right wing that is very violent and they condemn any Western culture, restricting freedom for women, going to pubs or even unmarried couples enjoying St Valentine's," Mr Isaac said.

Last month several young women were filmed being assaulted by SRS men after visiting a lounge bar in Mangalore.

The Minister for Women, Renuka Chowdhury, denounced the attack as a "Talibanisation" of India, where radicals also oppose cricket cheerleaders and kissing in Bollywood films.

"It is basically an attitude towards women, using the whole thing of Indian culture to restrict movement," said Mr Isaac.

In response the group is urging supporters to visit pubs on Valentine's Day and post pink "chaddi" - Hindi slang for underwear - to the zealots.

"Thousands of young people are sending them chaddi from around the country and groups are even sending them in big packs of 50 to 100 at a time," said Mr Isaac.

He added: "We haven't got a direct response back from SRS yet but we have had very nasty phone calls - this is our protest against the girls who were attacked."

A computer virus attacking Microsoft Windows has infected almost nine million machines and is spreading faster than ever before.

Experts say the worm has "skyrocketed" in recent days.

It is sweeping through thousands of offices in the UK and has affected computers at the Ministry of Defence.

The virus - known variously as Conficker, Kido or Downadup - burrows deep into the operating system and tricks the machine into running the infected program.

Once the worm is running on the computer it automatically starts to download more malicious programs from hackers' websites, with devastating effects.

The majority of computers infected by the worm, which was first identified in October, are in Russia, China, Brazil and India. But the virus is now taking hold in the UK.

The worm has password cracking capabilities, often successful because company passwords sometimes match a predefined password list that it carries.

Eddy Willems, a security analyst with anti-virus firm Kaspersky Labs, said that a new strain of the worm was now causing additional problems.

Computer users are advised to ensure their anti-virus software, operating system and firewall is up to date, and that they have installed a Microsoft patch designed to combat the problem.

Experts have also warned the virus could spread by copying itself to USB memory sticks shared between computers, and urged users to use caution.

The latest innovation by Google could let users track the whereabouts of friends, children or even straying spouses.

The Latitude service has been added to Google Maps on some types of mobile phones and BlackBerrys.

Users appear as a small dot on a map, allowing friends to instantly find out where they are.

"Now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one's flight landed safely, despite bad weather," Google said in a blog post.

Handsets with GPS are extremely accurate, showing where the user is to within a couple of metres.

Without GPS, it could be metres - or even kilometres - wrong, depending on the nearest mobile phone mast.

Dismissing fears of Big Brother-style surveillance, Google said each individual chooses to be tracked by the system - and controls who can see it.

They can even lie by manually changing the location.

"For instance, let's say you are in Rome. Instead of having your approximate location detected and shared automatically, you can manually set your location for elsewhere - perhaps a visit to Niagara Falls," Google's blog added.

The search company insist they will not save information on where users have been.

"We store only the most recent automatic update or location you manually enter," a spokeswoman said.

The Google Maps add-on has been launched just weeks after Google axed its Dodgeball service, which used text alerts.

Latitude is available in 27 countries on Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian 60, as well as PCs.

Similar geosocial networking services are already provided by smaller companies, such as Loopt and BrightKite.

RAIN FALLS from a perfectly cloudless sky; or it falls in a faucet-like steady stream or in an impossibly localized fashion. Water drips from a ceiling above which are no pipes; sometimes the ceiling is even dry. The causes for these water phenomena are inexplicable, yet they have occurred on numerous occasions throughout history – and continue to take place.

April, 1842 – It was documented that water poured from the sky in a steady stream over a particular small point in Noirtonfontaine, France. It continued for more than two days without any logical meteorological explanation.

October, 1886 – Although there were no clouds in the sky to account for the phenomenon, a steady rain soaked a piece of land in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. It could have been dismissed at a freak rainfall if it had not lasted for an astonishing 14 days!

October 1886 – Over a three-week period, the Charlotte Chronicle (North Carolina) reported, several eyewitnesses saw rain fall onto a certain spot between two red oak trees every afternoon at 3 p.m. It lasted for one half hour, then stopped. Stranger still, the sky was always sunny.

Fall, 1886 – How is it possible for rain to fall on an area measuring just 10 square feet? It happened in Aiken, South Carolina.

November, 1886 – An area not much bigger – just 25 feet wide – was the focus of a steady flow of water from the sky in Dawson, Georgia.

November, 1892 – A peachtree was sole beneficiary of a bizarre rain that came down in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Witnesses said the rain seemed to come out of thin air just several feet above the tree and fall in an area about 14 feet surrounding the thirsty tree.

Water poltergeists

Water dropping from seemingly nowhere outside is one thing, but when it occurs indoors without any logical cause, that’s quite another thing. Paranormal researchers have, in many cases, found this water manifestation to an element of poltergeist activity that is occurring in the house. Usually there are other symptoms as well: banging on the walls, doors opening and closing of their own accord, lights going off and on, odd odors and more. It is thought that this poltergeist phenomena is a kind of psychic activity generated by a member of the household.

August 1995 – During a summer drought in Lancashire, England, the Gardner family was plagued by water dripping from their ceilings and walls. This has been going on for 10 months before a paranormal investigator was brought in. The attic space above the wet ceiling was found to be “bone dry.”

November, 1972 – An odd case centered around a nine-year-old boy named Eugenio Rossi in Nuoro, Sardinia. Suffering from a liver ailment, the boy was hospitalized. Shortly thereafter, water inexplicably began to seep up through the floor of his hospital room. Changing rooms didn’t help. Wherever the hospital staff moved him – a total of five times – the puddles would appear.

1963 – The Martin family of Methuen, Massachusetts was forced to move from their home because of their water poltergeist. In this case, apart from the water dripping from walls and ceilings, it was on occasion described as literally “spurting” from various points throughout the house. Unfortunately, moving didn’t help. The phenomenon continued in the Martin’s new home.

August 1919 – A rectory in Norfolk, England had more than water to contend with. When the residents noticed oily patches on the ceiling, investigators were brought in the find the cause. To their astonishment, they began to collect the drippings at the rate of a quart every 10 minutes. Some of it was plain water, but the rest appeared to be kerosene, gasoline, alcohol and sandalwood oil – as much as 50 gallons of the stuff. No cause was discovered.

Over 600 years before Hogwarts School was created, an alchemist claimed to have discovered the incredible secrets of "the sorcerer's stone" - possibly even immortality

The phenomenal success of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, and the film based on "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," is introducing a whole new generation of children (and their parents) to the world of magic, sorcery and alchemy.

What is not widely known, however, is that at least one of the characters - and his magical quest - referred to in "Harry Potter" is based on a real alchemist and his strange experiments.

According to the Harry Potter stories, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, earned his reputation as a great wizard due, in part, to his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. And although Dumbledore, Harry and all the other teachers and students at Hogwarts are fictional, Nicholas Flamel was a real-life alchemist who dabbled in some of the most mystical corners of the magical arts, including the quest for an Elixir of Life. Some wonder, in fact, if Flamel is still alive!

When "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was written, Flamel's age was pegged at 665 years. That would be just about right since the real Flamel was born in France around 1330. Through an astonishing series of events, he became one of the most famous alchemists of the 14th century. And his story is almost as fantastic and enchanting as Harry Potter's.

An Incredible Dream Comes True

As an adult, Nicholas Flamel worked as a bookseller in Paris. It was a humble trade, but one that provided him with the relatively rare abilities to read and write. He worked from a small stall near the Cathedral of Saint-Jacques la Boucherie where, with his assistants, he copied and "illuminated" (illustrated) books.

One night, Flamel had a strange and vivid dream in which an angel appeared to him. The radiant, winged creature presented to Flamel a beautiful book with pages that seemed to be of fine bark and a cover of worked copper. Flamel later wrote down what the angel spoke to him: "Look well at this book, Nicholas. At first you will understand nothing in it - neither you nor any other man. But one day you will see in it that which no other man will be able to see."

Just as Flamel was about to take the book from the angel's hands, he awoke from his dream. Soon after, however, the dream was to weave its way into reality. One day when Flamel was working alone in his shop, a stranger approached him who was desperate to sell an old book for some much-needed money. Flamel immediately recognized the strange, copper-bound book as the one offered by the angel in his dream. He eagerly bought it for the sum of two florins.

The copper cover was engraved with peculiar diagrams and words, only some of which Flamel recognized as Greek. The pages were like none he had ever encountered in his trade. Instead of parchment, they seemed to be made from the bark of sapling trees. Flamel was able to discern from the first pages of the book that it was written by someone who called himself Abraham the Jew - "a prince, priest, Levite, astrologer and philosopher."

The strong memory of his dream and his own intuition convinced Flamel that this was no ordinary book - that it contained arcane knowledge that he feared he might not be qualified to read and understand. It could contain, he felt, the very secrets of nature and life.

Flamel's trade had brought him familiarity with the writings of the alchemists of his day, and he knew something of transmutation (the changing of one thing into another, such as lead into gold) and knew well the many symbols that alchemists used. But the symbols and writing in this book were beyond Flamel's understanding, although he strove to solve its mysteries for over 21 years.

The Quest for Translation

Because the book had been written by a Jew and much of its text was in ancient Hebrew, he reasoned that a scholarly Jew might be able to help him translate the book. Unfortunately, religious persecution had recently driven all of the Jews out of France. After copying only a few pages of the book, Flamel packed them and embarked on a pilgrimage to Spain, where many of the exiled Jews had settled.

The journey was unsuccessful, however. Many of the Jews, understandably suspicious of Christians at this time, were reluctant to help Flamel, so he began his journey home. Flamel had all but given up his quest when he chanced upon an introduction to a very old, learned Jew by the name of Maestro Canches who lived in Leon. Canches, too, was not eager to help Flamel until he mentioned Abraham the Jew. Canches had certainly heard of this great sage who was wise in the teachings of the mysterious kabbalah.

Canches was able to translate the few pages that Flamel brought with him and wanted to return to Paris with him to examine the rest of the book. But Jews were still not allowed in Paris and Canches' extreme old age would have made the journey difficult anyway. As fate would have it, Canches died before he could help Flamel any further.

Successful Transmutation

Returning to his Paris shop and his wife, Flamel seemed a changed man - joyous and full of life. He felt somehow transformed by his encounter with Canches. Though the old Jew had deciphered only those few pages, Flamel was able to use that knowledge to understand the entire book. He continued to study, research and meditate on the mysterious book for three years, after which he was able to perform a feat that had eluded alchemists for centuries - transmutation. Following the exact instructions provided by Abraham the Jew in the book, Flamel claimed to transform a half-pound of mercury into silver, and then into pure gold.

This was said to be accomplished with the aid of a "philosopher's stone." (Incidentally, the British title of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.") For Flamel, this was reputed to include a strange, reddish "projection powder."

Turning base metals into silver and gold... it's the stuff of superstition, fantasy and folklore, right? Quite possibly. The historical records show, however, that this humble bookseller inexplicably became wealthy at this time - so wealthy, in fact, that he built housing for the poor, established free hospitals and made generous donations to churches. Virtually none of his newfound wealth was used to enhance his own way of living, but was used exclusively for charitable purposes. The transmutation Flamel achieved was not only with metals, it was said, but within his own mind and heart. But if transmutation is impossible, what was the source of Flamel's riches?

Flamel Dies... or Does He?

In the Harry Potter book, the evil Lord Voldemort seeks the sorcerer's stone to attain immortality. The same power of the stone that brings about transmutation can also result in the Elixir of Life, which would allow a person to live forever... or, by some accounts, at least 1,000 years.

Part of the legend that surrounds the true story of Nicholas Flamel is that he succeeded in the transmutation of metals and in achieving immortality.

The historical records say that Flamel died at the ripe old age of 88 - a very great age at that time. But there is a curious footnote to this story that causes one to wonder.

After Flamel's official death, his house was ransacked again and again by those seeking the philosopher's stone and the miraculous "projection powder." It was never found. Missing too was the book of Abraham the Jew. During the reign of Louis XIII in the first half of the 17th century, however, a descendent of Flamel by the name of Dubois might have inherited the book and some of the projection powder. With the king himself as a witness, Dubois allegedly used the powder to turn balls of lead into gold. This startling feat attracted the attention of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu who demanded to know how the powder worked. But Dubois only possessed what remained of his ancestor's powder and was unable to read the book of Abraham the Jew. He therefore could not reveal Flamel's secrets.

It is said that Richelieu took the book of Abraham the Jew and built a laboratory to exploit its secrets. The attempt was unsuccessful, however, and all traces of the book, save perhaps for a few of its illustrations, have since disappeared.

Later in that century, King Louis XIV dispatched an archeologist named Paul Lucas on a scientific fact-finding mission in the East. While in Broussa, Turkey, Lucas met an old philosopher who told him that there were wise men in the world who possessed knowledge of the philosopher's stone, who kept that knowledge to themselves, and who lived many hundreds, even thousands of years. Nicholas Flamel, he told Lucas, is one of those men. The old man even told Lucas of the book of Abraham the Jew and how it came into Flamel's possession. Most amazingly, he told Lucas that Flamel and his wife were still alive! Their funerals were faked, he said, and both of them migrated to India, where they still lived.

Is it possible that Flamel really did stumble upon the secret of the philosopher's stone and achieved immortality? Does the ancient knowledge of transmutation and the Elixir of Life really exist?

If so, Nicholas Flamel might still be alive. In fact, he might be taking great delight in the magical adventures of Harry Potter.

These scientists would fit right in at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - except that their astounding conjurings were not works of fiction.

The latest Harry Potter book and film, with all their wizardry, magic and bizarre scientific experimentation, puts us in mind of some real-life science experiments that in their weirdness, fantastic ambitions and astonishing implications rival anything conducted at Hogwart's. Mad or not, these scientists managed to conjure incredible manifestations, human invisibility and even attempted to build a Messiah!

John Tyndall and the Test Tube of Beasties

John Tyndall was a respected Irish physicist of the 19th century. Making his career primarily in Great Britain, Tyndall made important contributions to the study of atmospherics and radiant heat, and may be best known for his discovery of "the Tyndall effect" - the diffusion of light by large molecules and dust in the air.

One of his experiments, however, conducted in the late 1800s, sounds like something out of a computer-effects movie. Tyndall had combined a variety of vapors from nitrates, iodides and acids in a test tube to record the effects of beams of light upon them. What he saw forming in the glass tube astonished him. At first the vapors formed clouds of remarkable colors. But then they started to take on distinct and familiar shapes. The vapor clouds began to arrange themselves in the form of vases, bottles, shells and various flowers. "In one case," he said, "the cloud-bud grew rapidly into a serpent's head; a mouth was formed, and from the cloud, a cord of cloud resembling a tongue was discharged."

More incredibly, the vapor then formed itself into a perfectly symmetrical fish. "It positively assumed the form of a fish, with eyes, gills and feelers. The twoness of the animal form was displayed throughout, and no disk, coil, or speck existed on one side that did not exist on the other."

What happened here? Had Tyndall inadvertently inhaled some strange vapors and hallucinated the scene? Or were his thoughts - images from his mind - somehow made manifest in the stimulated vapors? We may never know exactly what happened in Tyndall's laboratory that day.

Sir Thomas Brown and the Spectral Plant

You have no doubt seen the famous Kirlian photographs in which the outline of a severed piece of a leaf still appears in Kirlian energy. A phenomenon similar but much more remarkable is said to have taken place in the laboratory of Sir Thomas Brown, a 17th century physician and author, when he saw the "spectre" of a plant rise from its burned remains.

In this experiment, Sir Brown took a plant and reduced it to ashes through calcination - a process in which an object is turned to powder through high temperature, then by drying, decomposing or oxidizing it. After fermenting the powder, he poured it into a vial. When heat was applied again, something unexplained occurred.

A witness wrote: "This dust thus excited by heat, shoots upward into its primitive forms; by sympathy the parts unite, and while each is returning to its destined place, we see distinctly the stalk, the leaves, and the flower arise; it is the pale spectre of a flower coming slowly forth from its ashes. The heat passes away, the magical scene declines, till the whole matter again precipitates itself into the chaos at the bottom. This vegetable phoenix thus lies concealed in its cold ashes."

In other words, when the vial was heated - even from the heat of a person's hand - a ghostly form of the original plant rose from the ashes out of the vial. All parts of the plant could distinctly be seen, according to this account, then faded away. It sounds like a conjurer's trick, but that is the story that has been passed down.

John Murray Spear and the God Machine

In their efforts to create a Utopia or a more perfect world society, many a well-intentioned scientist have been led down dark roads to the abominable. The experiments of the fictional Dr. Victor Frankenstein (and the not-so-fictional Johann Konrad Dippel) come to mind. But they may have been eclipsed in their maniacal ambitions by the work of a group led by John Murray Spear, who gathered to create nothing less than the Messiah - God himself.

Spear, a minister of the Universal Church, brought together a group in October, 1853 to a cottage on a hilltop in Lynn, Massachusetts with the intention of physically constructing "Heaven's last, best gift to man" - what they hoped would be the New Messiah. Spear was deeply into spiritualism and participated in many séances as a trance medium in which many spirits spoke through him on a great many subjects. In 1853, through automatic writing he began to channel a group of spirits who called themselves the "Band of Electricizers," directed by the spirit of Benjamin Franklin himself.

These spirits and others, claiming to be working for the elevation of humankind, provided Spear with plans for advanced ships, "thinking machines" and great planned cities. A priority, however, was the creation of the New Messiah. Spear and several other spiritualists congregated at High Rock Cottage in Lynn to begin their audacious experiment. Over a nine month period, Spear channeled the instructions for the machine while the others built it, piece by piece, "much the same way... that one decorates a Christmas tree."

The result was a crazy, if somewhat impressive, assembled mass of machined copper and zinc parts, shafts, flywheels, magnets, wires, insulators, chemical compounds and a "brain" made up of copper and zinc plates that were supposed to draw power directly from the atmosphere. All at the exorbitant cost of over $2,000.

Electricity was applied to the machine and then Spear, himself clad in metal and gemstones, sat near it. He fell into a deep trance and it was said that an umbilical of light stretched between the two. Some time later, one of the pregnant members of the group, near delivery, lay on the floor in front of the machine for two hours while she went through labor pains. And when she rose and touched the machine, the group claimed that for a few seconds their God machine actually became animate!

Did it? Critics and skeptics who saw the machine said that it did not move (except for a few dangling parts), but that it was beautifully put together. Eventually, it was torn apart by an angry mob and nothing of it appears to have survived.

Young Scientist and the Invisibility Suit

We know that today's stealth aircraft are virtually invisible to radar, but can true invisibility be achieved through electromagnetic or other means? Some believe exactly that was accomplished with the infamous "Philadelphia Experiment," but the account of that incident has become so muddled and fictionalized (like the alleged UFO crash at Roswell) that the truth may never be known.

In 1934, however, a young British scientist is said to have achieved full invisibility of himself - and he did so on a brightly lit stage in front of an audience. The scientist, whose name seems to be lost to history (might it have been "Potter"?), walked on stage in a crowded public hall in London, England and declared that he had discovered the secret to electromagnetically induced invisibility. Wearing a device he called an Electro-Helmet and other gear that witnesses said made him look like "a deep-sea diver," he stepped into an open-front cabinet. He reached up and touched two contacts above his head with both hands, then gave the signal for the switch to be thrown. The switch appeared to send a current of electricity to his strange devices and through the scientist. His body at first became transparent... and then gradually vanished from his feet to his head!

According to the story, spectators invited onto the stage could touch and feel his body within the cabinet as if he were still there, but they could not see him. "All one could see," the story goes, "was the development of a cone of light such as might be projected between the two poles of a powerful transmitter." Naturally, the inventor refused to reveal how his contraption worked, stating only that it was the result of many years of experimentation. Photos were allegedly taken of this feat, but could not explain how it was accomplished - only that he was visible one moment and invisible the next.

Was he a brilliant scientist? Or a clever magician? Or perhaps he was a graduate of some real-life version of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.