Planet Stalker

This is final blog post of Glenn's six-part blog series. Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off is on sale in stores next week, August 30th. Go and lose your pants!

Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror
Chapter Four: Fall Out Boy
Chapter Five: Bee Afraid

It’s official—planet Earth has a stalker. A monster asteroid larger than England’s famous Tower of London, and more than twice the size of New York’s Madison Square garden.

This sinister space-stalker, discovered last year by a team of astronomers in Ireland, goes by the name of 2010 SO16, and according to the experts, it has been tracking us for the last 250,000 years.

The object is one of over 7,000 known Near-Earth Asteroids (or NEAs for short). These are sizable lumps of space rock measuring over 160 feet (50m) across, lurking within 120m miles (or 200m kilometers) of our precious planet Earth.

So should we be afraid? Making plans to hop the planet an live on Mars, perhaps? Digging underground shelters we can hide in? At the very least, wearing ant-asteroid crash-helmets or something?

Well, As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off, asteroid impacts are no joke.

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Bee Afraid

This is part five of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror
Chapter Four: Fall Out Boy

Let’s face it, few people actually like wasps and bees. Fewer still are fond of hornets, scorpions, and other stinging creatures. Most of us are wary of them, many of us hate them with a passion, and some of us are so terrified of them that we scream, freeze, or sprint for the horizon whenever we see one. In fact Apiphobia (the fear of bees) and Vespaphobia (the fear of wasps) are among the most common of human fears, worldwide.

As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off, this is all perfectly understandable. After all bee and wasp stings are very painful and unpleasant. What’s more, if you’re allergic to them - and you don’t make it to a hospital in time - your body’s reaction to a nasty sting could actually kill you.

Me? I’m not allergic, and I’m not particularly scared of them. But believe me, I’ve had my fair share of bee battles and wasp wars.

The first time I can remember being stung was when I was about 10 years old. I was walking home from school when a bee flew into my straggly hair, got all tangled up, and swung down into my face, Indiana Jones-style, to plant its sting right in the center of my forehead. Ouch. It burned like crazy, and I remember crying a bit. But my mum plucked the sting out with a pair of tweezers, and the swelling and pain soon went away.

A week later, a wasp stung me in the armpit while I was out playing football with my friends. A week after that, a bee stung my hand as I tried to swat it away. I was starting to think maybe I had a big target painted on me, in a colour only wasps and bees could see.

But in reality, I was just a bit unlucky. Or stupid. Maybe both.

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Fall Out Boy

by Glenn Murphy  

This is part four of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Previously:
Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror

At the end of my last blog installment, I had just survived a terrifying tornado and a turbulent trip across the Atlantic from America to Edinburgh.

Well, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I survived the trip home, and I’m now back in sunny Raleigh, North Carolina - enjoying a) the sunshine, b) my local outdoor swimming pool, and c) not having plummeted to my doom in that airplane four weeks ago.

Since we’ve already looked at the tornadoes and airplanes, this month I thought we’d explore a related theme - the fear of heights and falling.

As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares your Pants Off, when I was young, I was afraid of lots of things. One of these was heights. And although heights are easier to avoid than, say, the dark or open spaces, they’re no less terrifying when you find yourself somewhere high up.

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Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror

by Glenn Murphy  

This is part three of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Previously:
Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown

“Quickly, into the basement! Don’t forget the radio! I’ll bring my laptop, and we can track it online for a bit. But it’ll be useless if the power goes out...”

“What about torches---have we got torches?”

“Yep---in there already. Austin! Austin! C’mere, kitty! Ouch! Don’t claw me---I’m trying to save your life, you stupid animal! Quick---get in! Are we all here? Okay---shut the door. Here it comes...!”

I’ve got a very special story for you this month. I wrote my previous two blog entries---for March and April---sitting in my big, sunny house in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. But this time, I’m in the middle of a book tour in the UK. I’ve just spent a week doing shows and signings at the Edinburgh Science Festival in Scotland, and at the Science Museum in London. Right now, I’m kicking back with a laptop to write this at a friend’s house in Southern England.

It’s a big, old house in the countryside---near Hastings, in East Sussex. Today is a lovely, sunny day. The sky is blue, the birds are singing, there’s hardly a cloud in the sky and barely a breath of wind.

 Looking at the quiet, peaceful landscape outside the window, it’s hard to believe that just one week ago, I was in 3000 miles away in America, and the wind and rain were roaring furiously outside my home. I’d just heard on the radio that a deadly tornado was headed our way. Within seconds, my wife and I were scrambling for the concrete basement room beneath the house, grabbing supplies and our two pet cats---Austin and Ka-geh---along the way.

Funny thing is, for this month’s blog entry, I was thinking about writing about scary storms and dangerous tornadoes, anyway. Little did I know that I would be basing this on my own, terrifying experience.

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Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown

 by Glenn Murphy

This is the second of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off! What do bats, revenge and ice cream sundaes have in common? Read more to find out!

Previously:
Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off

When I was about 6 years old, my family went on a camping holiday in the south of Spain. There was me, Mum, Dad, my sister Lorna, and my brother Heath. I’m the youngest of the Murphy siblings---with 6 years between me and Heath, and 8 between me and Lorna. We’re all grown up now, of course. But for many years, I was the “baby” of the family. I explain this so that you’ll understand the point of this story. I was only little, so I should have been the biggest scaredy-cat at the table. As it happens, I was not . . .

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