  Mystery
This week: Technological Mysteries Edited by: Jeff  
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
-- Carl Sagan
Random Mystery Trivia of the Week: Mystery novelist Nevada Barr, although born in Nevada, was named not for her state of birth but after a character in one of her father's favorite books. She's most famous for her Anna Pigeon series of books set in national parks. Their settings are drawn from Barr's own experiences working as a season park ranger during the summers.
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Amazon's Price: $ 14.99
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TECHNOLOGICAL MYSTERIES
Many people associate the advent of modern technology with having easier access to information; with being able to find people and learn about them with much less effort than you had to exert in the past. After all, you can find old friends on Facebook and read their status updates about what they had for breakfast or who they're dating. Social media apps like Foursquare and Yelp allow you to "check in" at stores and restaurants you visit, so people even know where you are and when you visited. And with photo tagging on Facebook, it's possible that people can find pictures of you that you haven't even posted yourself; a friend can post a photo of you that they took and if they tag you, other people can track you down in the photo.
But what about the mysteries that come with technology? Sure it's easier to find people... but when you're easier to find, doesn't that also increase the chances of someone undesirable tracking you down? Cyber-stalking is a very real concern for many people now. In some cases it's relatively harmless, like people who follow their crush around Facebook, "liking" their posts and commenting on all their statuses... but it's also possible for something far more sinister if someone uses that readily available information and use it to hurt you, physically or emotionally.
The downside of sharing ourselves with the world wide web is that it becomes much easier for strangers to find our information. You used to have to personally show people the photos you took and had developed at a film processing center. You used to have to write letters if you wanted to tell peole what you did during the day. You used to have to make phone calls from work, home, or a pay phone.
When writing mysteries, consider the questions that arise from having your information available online. When someone knows all of your biographical information, who your family is, where and what you like to eat, and even your exact location at any given moment from the GPS on your cell phone, it opens a dangerous door for someone that wants to do you harm. Even worse, it may not even be someone you know... it could be your neighbor across the street, or a random person in another state, country, or on another continent. So remember that there's a darker underbelly to the proliferation of information available through technology... and that itself could raise all kinds of questions and mysteries. 
Until next time,
-- Jeff
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
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This week, I would encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
Even the bright crescent of the moon, waning overhead this cloudless night, seemed dull in the background of the blazing mansion. Standing at the edge of the emerald lawn, gazing out at the now brilliantly glowing structure, a shadow watched. All but its outline remained invisible as the flames projected the still figure against the pine forest. No other soul witnessed the skeleton of oak beams suddenly topple into the ashes.
Leonard jumped, his head throbbing against his skull. His eyes widened, the man sitting on his oak rocking chair had his red hair, his seven-foot height, and his lanky frame. Blinking, his head throbbed again. He had little recollection of the night, except the sight of Cumulonimbus clouds and rain pelting on his face. Yet there his clone sat, still as a statue, his eyes hidden beneath a bowler hat-a hat Leonard owned.
You have heard the urban myth of the butterfly's wings. / The way the soft flutter flirts with disaster that it brings. / A single pebble barely brushed begins waves that roll. / A monsoon in the south pacific tortures an innocent soul.
There's a bit of a mystery related to pants that I haven't quite been able to figure out. I can try a pair of pants on in the store and they can fit as if they've been designed for me. I'll bring them home and hang them in the closet and when I pull them out to wear them they never fit the same. Some seem to grow as I wear them and I'm constantly tugging them up. Others fit so tight, I have difficulties getting them on.
"Are you kidding me? Shel? Shel! Come here a minute!" Harvey's clawed grip was crinkling the newspaper as he uneasily shifted in his lawn chair. His eyes were latched onto a small column on the front page. "What it is, hon?" Shelly's mass of fair curls emerged from the tent and she glanced at her husband. She knew that Harvey was often serious about his paper, but this particular expression of grave concern that engulfed his face alarmed her. She immediately abandoned the tent, eyed the article, and joined him by the campfire.
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Mystery: April 11, 2012 Issue [#4986]
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