This week in Doubtful News for May 8, 2012

Here is a rundown of the top stories in pseudoscience, paranormal and anomaly news from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News

Ghost hunting is a popular pastime for those looking for some thrills. These aren’t your serious, sciencey paranormal investigators but kids whose curiosity leads them to trespass and vandalize or to just annoy local residents with their screaming.

Meanwhile, the media circus over the Toms River, New Jersey supposedly haunted house moves to The People’s Court (TV show) so everyone can watch the proceedings as the former tenants try to get their deposit money back.

There is news of more nonsense-based shows on TV, JREF’s Pigasus winning performer, Theresa Caputo is back for another season of Long Island Medium. It’s all about entertainment.

Despite the fact that psychics do not provide concrete evidence that has ever directly lead to the solving of a crime, police investigating the Madeleine McCann disappearance are going back over their psychic tips to see if anything is worth pondering.

Two other news items revealed psychic scammers at work – A San Jose woman is found guilty of a felony and another arrest is made in a Massachusetts scam where a psychic demanded money to remove a curse before it lead to suicide of the client’s daughter. How low can you go?

Belief in another curse rose this week as the death of former pro football player Junior Seau added fuel to the legend of the San Diego sports curse.

In superstition taken to extreme, a man attempts to sacrifice his son in a cemetery after supposedly following the directive of his dead grandmother’s spirit. Thankfully, there are still heroes around.

A survey says that one in seven people worldwide expect to see the end of the world in their lifetimes.

These folks, followers of Jose de Luis de Jesus and the cult-like Growing in Grace International organization, are VERY serious about their own supposed transformation, coming in June.

Let’s talk about the science of mermaids. Yes, really. Animal Planet is set to deliver a new CGI special chock full of speculation and reference to an old discredited pseudoscientific idea about aquatic apes.

Finally, check out this new woo – grounding – which is very silly, but we can at least rejoice that the FTC shuts down some get-poor-quick scams that promised easy millions.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But, people really believe this stuff.

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Sharon Hill runs Doubtful News, a unique feed of news stories about the paranormal, pseudoscience, the weird and the unexplained with questioning commentary.