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“Diver Claims To Have Seen Steve Irwin’s Ghost”
allnewsweb.com

Pino Termini of Naples in the south of Italy has spent more hours underwater than most. Having dived for the Italian Navy for seven years he now spends much of his time traveling the globe in search of the ultimate diving experience. None of this prepared him for what he claims to have seen during his last expedition. Last month he arrived at Port Douglas in tropical North Queensland for his eighth time, The Great Barrier Reef being one of his favorite playgrounds. He had heard that Batt Reef was worth a plunge into the deep blue. He chartered a boat from Port Douglas and made his way out to the area he planned to explore.

‘As I started my dive I saw somebody and was surprised because I saw no other boats around, then I noticed that the person had no oxygen tank or mask, the person swam towards me and I realized that it was none other than the crocodile hunter himself: Steve Irwin. I freaked out, but he looked calm and at peace’

‘I have seen a lot underwater but never a ghost. It was as if he was looking after the spot where he met his end, I felt that I should not impose myself on his turf as it was his and it seemed as if he was caring for the living creatures there.’ Termini said of his traumatic diving experience.

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“Scientists Find Gloomy Days Are Good For Brain”
Daily Mail

Next time you find yourself drenched in an unexpected downpour, look on the bright side – it’ll be a memorable experience.

While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall, psychologists say.

But those who feel in a good mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried out by Australian researchers.

Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: ‘It seems counter-intuitive but a little bit of sadness is a good thing.

‘People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they were in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy and carefree, they flunked it.’

The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small ornamental objects on the check-out counter.

They included plastic animal figures, a toy cannon, a pink piggy bank and four small matchbox-sized vehicles, including a red London bus and a tractor.

On rainy days, sad music was played in the store including requiems or slow pieces by Chopin.

When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music such as Bizet’s Carmen and Gilbert and Sullivan tunes.

This was done to ‘further influence them towards negative or positive moods’, said researchers at the University of New South Wales School of Psychology.

After shopping, customers were asked how many of the objects they could remember.

Their scores were three times higher when the weather was bad and they were feeling grumpy, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Joe Forgas.jpg

A report on the findings said: ‘They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people think, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.’

Professor Forgas said: ‘We predicted and found that weather-induced negative mood improved memory accuracy.

Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.’

He said a worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.

He said: ‘Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings.’

‘In a positive mood we are more likely to make more snap judgments about people we meet.

‘We are more forgetful and yet we are paradoxically far more likely to be over-confident that our recall is correct.

‘Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.

‘Accurately remembering mundane, everyday scenes is a difficult and demanding task, yet such memories can be of crucial importance in everyday life, as well as in forensic and legal practice.

‘Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.’