Unsolved Mysteries: Ghosts (Episodes 10-17)

2012 in one sentence: It was the best of times, It was the blurst of times.

Man of Steel - Official Trailer #2 [HD]

Unexplained Mysteries - Touched By an Alien [HD]

Vampire Threat Terrorizes Village -Yahoo News

For the people in a tiny Serbian village there is nothing sexy or romantic about a vampire. In fact, they are terrified that one of the most feared vampires of the area has been roused back to life.

Rather than 'Twilight's' Edward, the people of Zorazje fear that Sava Savanovic is lurking in their forested mountains of western Serbia.

They believe that he is on the move because the home he occupied for so long, a former water mill, recently collapsed. Savanovic is believed to be looking for a new home.

"People are very worried. Everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people," Miodrag Vujetic, local municipal assembly member, told ABC News. "We are all frightened."

Vujetic said villagers "are all taking precautions by having holy crosses and icons placed above the entrance to the house, rubbing our hands with garlic, and having a hawthorn stake or thorn."

"I understand that people who live elsewhere in Serbia are laughing at our fears, but here most people have no doubt that vampires exist," he says.

According to legend, Savanovic would kill and drink the blood of the peasants who came to grind their grain at his watermill on the Rogacica River. Tour groups from around the Balkans would come to see the mill. But even tourism had its limits.

"We were welcoming tourists, but only during the day. Nobody ever overnighted there," said Slobodan Jagodic, whose family owned the mill for over 60 years.

"We were too scared to repair it, not to disturb Sava Savanovic," says Jagodic. "It's even worse now that it collapsed due to lack of repair."

Traditions die slowly in this part of the world. "In the dark forested mountains of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia, many people still believe in vampires and take them quite seriously," says Dr. James Lyon, Ph.D, a noted Balkan historian who has done extensive research on the folklore behind vampires.

"In local folklore, vampires are not potential boyfriends. Rather, they are hideous, blood thirsty creatures with red eyes and iron teeth that bloat when they feed, and are able to shift their shape," says Lyon, author of "Kiss of the Butterfly," a historical thriller about vampires in the Serbia.

Savanovic has maintained his notoriety in modern Serbia. He was featured in a 19th century book "Ninety Years Later" written by Milovan Glisic, whose book inspired a 1972 horror film "Leptirica" (Butterfly), widely watched throughout all of former Yugoslavia. More recently, Savanovic appeared in an award winning book "Fear and Its Servant" written by Mirjana Novakovic.

The Balkans have long established itself as Ground Zero for vampires when it comes to fanged folklore, and Serbia is a leader in this, according to Lyon.

"Vampires originated in Serbia, not Romania," says Lyon. "The word vampire entered western languages from Serbia in the late 1720s."

Austrian forces returning from conquests in Ottoman Serbia in the early 1700s brought back vampire stories, which circulated throughout Europe, later inspiring Byron, Keats and Coleridge, he claims.

"In 1730-31 the Austrian Army sent a military surgeon into Serbia to conduct autopsies on suspected vampires. He and other Austrian Army officers wrote of their experiences, and these records still exist today," Lyons said.

Documented reports of vampire-related activity continue to this day throughout the Balkans, the most recent having occurred in 2011 in Serbia.

Back in Zarozje, villagers will have to be on their guard for at least seven more months, because local legend holds that vampires are most active between Christmas and the Feast of the Ascension on June 7.

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BFRO Report 1083: William Roe account -- Highway worker has lengthy sighting at close range & records much detail

BFRO Report 1083: William Roe account -- Highway worker has lengthy sighting at close range & records much detail

Bigfoot declared to exist in 1974? Yes.

From: http://www.examiner.com/article/bigfoot-declared-to-exist-1974

"The public knows very little about Bigfoot. In fact, most claim that Bigfoot is a mythical creature and does not exist. Almost everyone knows Bigfoot is approximately eight feet tall, is very hairy, has big feet, and may or may not exist. The majority of the academic and scientific world scoffs at the idea such a creature could exist, and the news media can always find a good Halloween story if the hunt up the local Bigfoot hunter.

Skeptics almost always blow off the evidence that has been laid before them. This evidence includes foot castings, hand castings, vocal recordings, photos, videos, hair, scat, fingerprints, and thousands and thousands of eye witness reports. But, if this evidence was presented in a court of law, Bigfoot would be convicted as existing.

What if a government agency came out as admitted Bigfoot exists. Not just any little rink-dink branch or shop, but a major branch of the Federal Government—The US Army? Recognition from such an authority would surely shake up the skeptics and Nay-Sayers and deserve a closer look?

In 1974, the US Army officially recognized the ape like creature inhabiting the Northwest and Siberia known as Bigfoot. The Army Corps of Engineers devoted a complete page to Bigfoot in their 1974 Washington Environmental Atlas.

In the Atlas, it is revealed the FBI had done major testing on hair samples, and concluded the hair did not come from any human or known animal source. The article did state the FBI could not provide any information on the lab tests. This starts to bring up questions. Was the FBI commanded to delete the reports? Was this the start of the “Bigfoot Cover Up?”

It would be interesting to go back and look at historical files to determine when reporting a Bigfoot sighting became associated with being insane. It seems that in 1974 there was a great deal of interest in Sasquatch at very high levels. Then suddenly it became a sign of “being a few cards short in your deck of cards”.

In the Washington Atlas, it describes Bigfoot as being a very large animal of 8 to 10 feet tall, weighing up to 1000 pounds with feet measuring up to 24 inches long. The width of the footprint is up to 10 inches wide.
Does Bigfoot exist? The Army seems to think so."

Note: Move over BFRO.

It appears that the U.S. Army discovered Bigfoot first :)

- Rob

King Richard III Found in Parking Lot?

The following story comes from MSNBC and Live Science:

"Battle-scarred skeleton may belong to King Richard III

Cleaved-in skull and other bones found at English dig; DNA tests to be conducted"

A human skeleton with a cleaved skull discovered beneath a parking lot in England may belong to King Richard III, researchers announced Wednesday, though they have a long way to go in analyzing the bones to determine the identity.

The researchers note they are not saying they have found King Richard III's remains, but that they are moving into the next phase of their search, from the field to the laboratory.

"We are clearly very excited, but the university now must subject the findings to rigorous analysis. DNA analysis will take up to 12 weeks," Richard Taylor, the director of corporate affairs at the University of Leicester, told reporters this morning, as recorded in a Twitter tweet.

The remains were hidden within the choir of a medieval church known as Greyfriars, where the English monarch was thought to be buried. Though the location of this church had been lost, historical records suggested that Richard III was buried there upon his death in battle in 1485.

Two skeletons were discovered: A female skeleton that was broken apart at the joints was found in what is believed to be the presbytery of the lost church. The other skeleton, which appears to be an adult male, was found in the church choir and shows signs of trauma to the skull and back before death, which would be consistent with a battle injury, the researchers said.

"A bladed implement appears to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull," according to a University of Leicester statement.

In addition, a barbed metal arrowhead was lodged between the vertebrae of the male skeleton's upper back, Taylor said, adding that the spinal abnormalities suggest the individual had severe scoliosis, though was not a hunchback, as he was portrayed by Shakespeare in the play of the king's name.

Even so, the scoliosis seen in the skeleton would've made the man's right shoulder appear visibly higher than the left one. "This is consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance," according to the university statement.

University of Leicester archaeologists began excavating the parking lot of the Leicester City Council building on Aug. 25, in search of the church and the king's remains. Since then, they have turned up the Franciscan friary, a 17th-century garden thought to hold a memorial to the king and various other artifacts.
On Aug. 31, the dig team applied to the Ministry of Justice for permission to begin exhuming the two skeletons, a process that began on Sept. 4.

"We are hopeful that we will recover DNA from the skeleton," University of Leicester geneticist Turi King said at the briefing, as recorded in a tweet by the university.

The king's tales

King Richard III ruled England two years, from 1483 to 1485, before dying in the Battle of Bosworth Field, part of the War of the Roses, an English civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

"Men dressed as medieval knights pose for pictures in Leicester on Wednesday, at a site where a skeleton that researchers believe could be King Richard III was found. Researchers from the University of Leicester said they had found a male skeleton with similarities to historical descriptions of Richard, who ruled England between 1483 and his death in battle in 1485. The remains, which are well preserved, are undergoing DNA analysis."

 

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48995408/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/battle-scarred-skeleton-may-belong-king-richard-iii/#.UGSnTK7DKuo

Nazi-Acquired Buddha Statue Came From... Space?

"It sounds like a mash-up of Indiana Jones' plots, but German researchers say a heavy Buddha statue brought to Europe by the Nazis was carved from a meteorite that likely fell 10,000 years ago along the Siberia-Mongolia border.

This space Buddha, also known as "iron man" to the researchers, is of unknown age, though the best estimates date the statue to sometime between the eighth and 10th centuries. The carving depicts a man, probably a Buddhist god, perched with his legs tucked in, holding something in his left hand. On his chest is a Buddhist swastika, a symbol of luck that was later co-opted by the Nazi party of Germany.

"One can speculate whether the swastika symbol on the statue was a potential motivation to displace the 'iron man' meteorite artifact to Germany," the researchers wrote online Sept. 14 in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

Iron man adventure

The iron man first came to Germany after a 1938-1939 Tibet expedition by zoologist and ethnology Ernst Schäfer, who was sent to the region by the Nazi party to find the roots of Aryan origin. The statue then passed into the hands of a private owner.

Stuttgart University researcher Elmar Bucher and his colleagues first analyzed the statue in 2007, when the owner allowed them to take five miniscule samples of it. In 2009, the team had the opportunity to take larger samples from the inside of the statue, which is less prone to contamination by weathering or human handling than the outside where the initial samples were taken.

They found that the statue is carved from a rare class of space rocks known as ataxite meteorites. These mostly iron meteorites have a high level of nickel. The largest-ever known meteorite, the Hoba meteorite of Namibia, is an ataxite meteorite that may weigh more than 60 tons.

It came from outer space

A chemical analysis of the iron man samples revealed they are a close match for a famous scattering of space rocks from the Siberia and Mongolian border. The Chinga meteorite field holds at least 250 meteorite fragments, most relatively small, though two topping 22 pounds (10 kg) have been found there. Scientists estimate the Chinga meteorite fell 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. The field's first discovery was recorded in 1913, but the statue's existence suggests people were mining the field for artistic materials long before that, Buchner said.

The identity of the carved man is unclear, but the researchers suspect he may be the Buddhist god Vaisravana, also known as Jambhala. Vaisravana is the god of wealth or war, and he is often portrayed holding a lemon (a symbol of wealth) or moneybag in his hand. The iron man holds an unidentified object in his hand. The statue is about 9.5 inches (24 cm) tall and weighs about 23 pounds (10.6 kg).

Many cultures used meteorite iron to make daggers and even jewelry, Buchner and his colleagues wrote, and meteorite worship is common among many ancient cultures. But the Buddha carving is unique.

"The Iron Man statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite, which means we have nothing to compare it to when assessing value," Buchner said in a statement. "Its origins alone may value it at $20,000; however, if our estimation of its age is correct and it is nearly a thousand years old it could be invaluable."

Source: Yahoo News and LiveScience

Note: Wow.

Just wow, -Rob

BFRO Report 1091: Albert Ostman account -- Multiple-day encounter with family of Sasquatches

BFRO Report 1091: Albert Ostman account -- Multiple-day encounter with family of Sasquatches

Albert Ostman had written his story before I met him. When he was asked to recall all he could of his encounter with the sasquatch back in 1924 he went about it by gathering whatever he could locate from that other period in his life, including among other things a shopping list for one of his prospecting trips. Then he set about rebuilding the experience in detail, including his own actions prior to and following the actual encounter, in an attempt to re-enter, as much as possible, the scene of events that took place more than 30 years ago.

When he was later asked if he would swear to the accuracy of the account he made it clear that he could do so only as to the main elements of the story, not the surrounding detail. The above is the story he wrote. If someone told it now it would probably be laughed off, even by sasquatch enthusiasts, because detailed information is readily available in print and several people have made up slightly similar accounts of adventures with the hairy giants. For Albert Ostman there was no pattern to follow. Some of the things he said of the sasquatch have not been confirmed by the hundreds of later reports. No one else, for instance, has described anything like bark and moss blankets. But his descriptions of the creatures themselves, which were at variance with the common impression at that time, have been confirmed over and over again.

The only other information that has come to my attention which appears to have a bearing on the Ostman story was a comment by an old friend of mine that he had first heard of the sasquatch in the early 1930’s from a trapper at Toba Inlet who said he knew a young Swede who had been carried off by one.

BFRO Report 35631: Woman sees a tall figure at night outside her home in a subdivision south of Leesburg

BFRO Report 35631: Woman sees a tall figure at night outside her home in a subdivision south of Leesburg

"The witness went outside her house around midnight to put the trash out on the curb. On the night of May 30, 2012, the moon was a waxing gibbous and five days away from being full so there was enough light to see a silhouette standing by the neighbor’s fence. She saw what appeared to be a large head and very full shoulders standing behind a 6 ft. fence; it was looking towards her. The back fence was about 50 ft. from where she was standing and although she could not see facial details, she was able to see long hair moving in the wind around the head and shoulders. She thought at first it might be a prowler, but quickly realized how tall it was to stand head and shoulders over a 6 ft. fence. She felt very uneasy and could feel the hair on her neck stand up in fear. Quickly dragging her can to the curb, she retreated inside the house.

Once inside her dog uncharacteristically began growling. She let him out, and it stayed out longer than usual. When he returned after repeated calls, it was from the direction of where the silhouette had been.

Later that night when she went to sleep, a loud bang was heard. It seemed something had hit the bedroom wall which is located in the back of her house. With further questioning I learned that on occasion, late at night, the family experiences sounds that seem to be objects hitting the back wall loudly, or small rocks/acorns hitting the back windows.

At another time when she and her husband came home, they thought a person had gone through their trash because the bag had been opened neatly and taken out of the can. It was obvious an animal had not gotten into it because there was not a mess. Also the can had not been tipped over.

The subdivision literally sits on the border of Lee County and Dougherty County. It is within 3 miles of Report #18707 and Report #24393.

After speaking with the witness and researching the local area, I believe she may have seen a Sasquatch. The unexplainable sounds of things hitting the house supports typical Sasquatch behavior too. When looking at the location of her house it is possible that Bigfoots go scavenging through the new neighborhood from the forest. Garbage cans and backyard gardens could provide a food source."

BFRO Report 33985: Daylight sighting by Paranormal Investigators at a rural Cemetery

BFRO Report 33985: Daylight sighting by Paranormal Investigators at a rural Cemetery

Alien abduction

Latest Cryptozoology News: Bigfoot injured in Battle Mountain, Nevada?

Seen on Lon's site: Phantoms and Monsters:

The following was posted at BigfootEvidence.com back in July.

On August 6, 1999, Battle Mountain, Nevada, exploded into several simultaneous range fires in what would be known as the Battle Mountain Complex Fire. A Bigfoot was supposedly injured in the fire according to an anonymous government employee, who alerted the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO). In a letter to BFRO dated "7 August 1999, Battle Mountain, Nevada" the anonymous government employee, states:

"I observed an animal wounded by fire moving on all fours not like a bear. More like ape. Fire fighters captured animal, contacted local vet and medical doctor. U.S. Department of Fish and Woldlife, Department of Interior, and Bureau of Land Management on the scene.

Animal tranquilized and moved to unknown location. Those at scene told not to talk about what they saw.

Animal approximately 7.5 feet long/tall, human like arms and legs, face not like man or ape but mixed between. Genitalia: male, uncircumcised and human-like. Hair covering most of body except chest, chest has hair but sparse, hands with sparse hair, palms bare, with five digits with human opposition of thumb and 5th digit.

Multiple burns

Speech - attempted to communicate with care-givers once it realized they were attempting to care for it. Multiple burns on hands, feet, legs and body; some 2nd and 3rd degree burns, using "rule of nines" approximately 45 per cent of body with burns.

Doctor and Vet working together providing care and moved it to unknown location locally. This notice given in violation of orders given by BLM, DOI and DF&W. Witnesses numbered in the area of 30-25. Word is out in the government agencies, and among the firefighters, since an M.D. was called out. Many thought a firefighter was injured.

Please note that I am a government employee of one of the listed agencies fighting bruse fire in wilderness area of Nevada (large scale fire approximately 70,000 acres burned) and under orders not to disclose information.

Protected area

I believe a cover up is in the making, people need ro know, the animal needs to be kept alive and studied and released in protected area".

The BFRO didn't know what to believe and on top of that they had been unable to verify that there had been a fire in the Battle Mountain area. Thom Powell: "Late Monday (August 9) I was finally able to determine from Forest Service sources that there was most certainly a large range fire in this area of Nevada".

The Battle Mountain Complex Fire had extended to 180,000 acres by Monday and had 610 personnel fighting it at that time.

Nothing else was heard from their witness despite e-mail attempts to reach him. Then, some ten days after the initial report, the witness contacted their BFRO investigator by phone. Here is parts of the report that the investigator prepared after speaking with the witness:

Strict anonymity

"Much to my surprise, tonight at about 9 PM the reporting party of the Battle Mountain incident callerd me. I talked with the gentleman for about 70 minutes. Although he is maintaining strict anonymity, I was able to put together a bit of a profile of the individual.

This fellow, whom I will give the pseudonym 'Marty', is a male, full-time worker for a federal agency. Currently he is involved in the joint fire fighting efforts in Nevada. He has extensive EMT training and experience.

He says that until this incident he had "seen it all" in fire fighting, and these days he stays mostly in the truck manning the radio. He is friendly, but not effusive. He is intelligent, likable, and fairly observant, but he isn't outstandingly articulate. He is a matter-of-fact, low-key, seen-it-all kind of character.

Very tired

His regular duties may be in personnel, as he mentioned that tomorrow he would be seeing the M.D. involved in this incident about other matters regarding firefighting crews. It was abvious during our conversation that he was very tired. Our talk ended with 'Marty' saying he had to get to bed to get some rest.

Approximately 20 people were in the immediate vicinity of the incident. All were debriefed and informed in no uncertain terms that this incident was not to be discussed. There has not been a word about the incident at the BLM fire HQ.

He is very concerned about keeping his job, and says he would not look forward to taking a lie detector test. He created an e-mail address exclusively for reporting this incident.

Absolute privacy

Although I had originally encouraged him to call me collect this lengthy call was on him so he could maintain absolute privacy. He is reporting the incident because he belives the information should get out. We agreed in any future communication to use the term "patient" to describe the sasquatch. I'll use it here.

The incident happened in the early afternoon. About 20 fire fighters were directly involved. The injured patient appearantly wandered within sight of the fire crew, and was then surrounded.

The patient "seemed to know that he was captured", because he soon gave up. Marty mentioned this several times - "he just gave up". The patient sat down on his buttocks, giving no evidence of a will to resist. "Like a dog gives up, and then you can do anything with it".

Singed hair

The patient was laid out on the ground at first. His injuries were rather serious, including burns to the hands, feet, legs, and trunk, as well as much singed hair.

It didn't take long for medical services to get to the scene. The attending medical team included the regular M.D. for the fire crews, a vet that Marty didn't recognize, and one or more paramedics.

The vet was taken aback at working on a creature so human-like, and he is reported to have allowed the physician to do most of the work. At some point Demerol and morphine were administred.

The patient was placed on a spine board, which was too small. He was then placed on a regular ambulance stretcher. The sides were left down because part of the body hung over too far. The feet hung off the end.

Bowel sounds

A cut-down was performed to obtain an intravenous line, and fluids were administered. During the treatment of his wounds and the efforts at life support, the patient communicated with moans, groans and grumbling. Bowel sounds were heard by Marty, who was as close as three feet from the patient.

No language-like vocalizations were heard. The patient responded to touch: specifically patting and stroking to calm him ("You're not going to find an ape or a monkey responding the same way").

Two or three times Marty mentioned that the patient was especially responsive to a young Native American woman who started ministering to him right from the very beginning.

The patient was removed from the scene in the back of a utility truck, not in an ambulance. Marty said an ambulance would have alerted townsfolk and possibly news reporters, thinking that a fire fighter had been injured. No one would follow a nondescript van. The total time from initial sighting to extraction was estimated at three hours.

Blood leaking

There was no urination, defecation, or vomit at the scene. The patient did not eat anything during that time. Serum and blood were leaking from the burned areas of the body.

The area of the arm on which the cut-down was performed was shaved. The hair probably fell to the ground. There was significant blood from the cut-down site and from the subsequent insertion of a venous line, and some of that blood dripped to the ground.

No one knows where the patient was taken. No video cameras were on the scene to film any aspect of the incident. The fire commander was present. He had a camera, and he did record what he saw.

The patient is described as being about seven feet tall - "Give or take a few inches". Marty does not give a weight estimate.

Equine odor

Most of the body is covered by brownish hair about two inches in length; no gray hairs are evident. There are no mats noted on the coat. There is an odor about the patient. It is not an especially obnoxious odor. Marty calls it a "natural" odor, but he had a hard time describing it. He said it is similar to a strong equine odor.

The head is not "sloped", the forehead is "heavy boned", the lips large, but human-like, the ears human-like and tight to the head, with the ear lobe attached, not dangling.

The patient is "strong jawed". He could not remember the color of the eyes, but thought they might be brown. The head is about two times the size of a human head. There is hair on the face, but not on the palms or soles of the feet.

Great bulk

There is great bulk to the patient, but there is no fat. He said hos observations of the form of the body did not match with "that film with the one running into the woods", and he called that film a probable hoax.

The hands are about 1.5 times a human hand; five fingers with opposable thumb. The fingernails are thicker and heavier, and one was chipped. The feet are large; five ties on each foot; no evidence of fractures, injuries, arthritis, or deformation.

The sexual features are those of an uncircumcised male, matching the human anatomy. Marty made the comment several times that these are not monkey or ape features. He felt he was in the presence of a very human creature.

Access to the area

I have asked him to return to the scene and search for the hair from the shaved arm, or even the blood that dripped on the ground. He said he has access to the area, but probably won't be able to return until after the fires are controlled".

In response to Doug's plea that someone return to the site and search for blood and hair evidence, Marty reported back to him on 26 September: "Dozer has torn up the area. Nothing left. Word is there is still life. Location unknown. Believe within couple hundred miles. Later, Marty".

Thom Powell: "Doug concluded that the dozer work seemed a bit too convenient and was likely a cover story concocted by Marty to explain away his inability to recover any physical evidence. Doug strongly suspected that the whole matter was a hoax on this basis and that is where the situation pretty much ended".

Precise detail

But Thom Powell couldn't leave the case that easily and further on continues: "It is my feeling that this person (Marty) was not lying, and this set of described events really happened. There is simply too much precise detail and a complete absence of error or contradiction".

The report was dismissed as a probable hoax and never posted for public inspection at the BFRO website, where it might have been seen by someone else who was present at the time and who might have contacted BFRO to confirm or deny the account.

Three years after the event, Thom Powell dug up the old files on the Battle Mountain matter and decided to try and send Marty an e-mail message and see what happened. Less than twenty four hours later, he was surprised to receive this reply:

Not disclosed

"Thom, I had almost forgotten about the event until now. Have not spoken due to the classification that was put on it. The patient was taken to a university or some hospital that was not disclosed. As for verification, well other than my contact with you, I know of no one other than those there on the scene. An affidavit was signed under Department of Interior, and US Forest Service as:

1. Confidential under penalty of felony arrest and jail time.

2. Immediate loss of Government Service rank, loss of retirement, and benefits.

Several meetings were held in reference to "him". I do respect his rights of life and will always be a believer of their existence beyond any shadow of a doubt as seen with my own eyes, smelled with my own nose and heard with my own ears.

Native man

His image is still visible as it was then. No monster, no animal but a linage of native man. His trust in us to take care of him and recognize him that harm was not meant when contact was made, knowing that care would be given to him... I am sure that Department of Interior knows where he may have been released.

What more can I say? Specifics, features, anatomy? Well, stand in front of the mirror and think of man's evolution".

More of this story can be found on Phantoms and Monsters and by searching for it on BigfootEvidence.com, Cryptomundo and other Cryptozoology/Bigfoot related sites.

Note: This is a very interesting story but I don't know if it is 100% true, half true or pure fiction.If it is the former, I would not be surprised. -Rob

When the World Stopped Turning: A 9/11 tribute

BFRO Report 31302: Avid hiker recalls years of experience living in an area with what local people called the "Shadow People" near Montague

BFRO Report 31302: Avid hiker recalls years of experience living in an area with what local people called the "Shadow People" near Montague

Hitler's Secret Science

Ghost Research 101

Brought to you by Kimberley Ghosthunters and friend Jaco Pieterse via Facebook:

"Could Einstein's law of energy conservation help to offer evidence for the existence of ghosts ?

Paranormal investigators often cite Einstein in discussing how our spirit may persist after death. The law of energy conservation dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed, thus bringing up the question of what happens to the energy of a human being after death - where does it go ? Could it leave our bodies and become what some believe to be a 'ghost' of that person ?

Every night, amateur ghost-hunting groups across the country head out into abandoned warehouses, old buildings and cemeteries to look for ghosts. They often bring along electronic equipment that they believe helps them locate ghostly energy.

Despite years of efforts by ghost hunters on TV and in real life, we still do not have good proof that ghosts are real. Many ghost hunters believe that strong support for the existence of ghosts can be found in modern physics. Specifically, that Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds of all time, offered a scientific basis for the reality of ghosts.

A recent Google search turned up nearly 8 million results suggesting a link between ghosts and Einstein's work covering the conservation of energy. This assertion is repeated by many top experts in the field. For example, ghost researcher John Kachuba, in his book "Ghosthunters" (2007, New Page Books), writes, "Einstein proved that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed. ...

So what happens to that energy when we die? If it cannot be destroyed, it must then, according to Dr. Einstein, be transformed into another form of energy. What is that new energy? ... Could we call that new creation a ghost?"

Do You Believe in Ghosts? How Many People Believe in Ghosts?

It's interesting that at least one third of the population of the United States believe in ghosts.
And almost one quarter of Americans believe they have had some sort of an encounter with
ghosts. After 1013 participants were questioned about what they believe by telephone, a
2007 AP-Ipsos poll found that approximately 34% of Americans believe in ghosts, with about
23% claiming they have either been in the presence of a spirit or actually seen one.

For comparison, the Baylor Religion Survey released in 2006 used telephone and mail,
finding that 37 percent of people surveyed from around the country believed that places can
be haunted, with nearly 20 percent believing we can have communication with disembodied
human spirits - ghosts.

What's interesting is how the percentages of people who believe in ghosts changed when the
method of polling was different. For example, a 2003 Harris Poll found through surveying
2,201 adults on-line that 51% of people believe in ghosts. In their survey, 58% of women
believed in ghosts along with a whopping 65% of younger adults aged 25-29. Shockingly, only
27% of the people polled over age 65 believe in ghosts.

Help with Haunting: Helping Ghosts! More People Believe in Ghosts Than We May Know

Two factors could effect the percentages of those surveyed who do not believe in ghosts. The first would be a person's religious affiliation. Some religions teach that ghosts are impossible to exist because people are in another place - either in a blissful heaven or a torturous hell. The second factor would be anonymity. Many who have memories of ghost encounters sometimes bury them
only later to forget or discount the experience.

Why do some choose not to tell of their possible paranormal encounter? To believe in ghosts might require embracing the risk of ridicule by others who have not yet had their own encounter with the paranormal, especially if those beliefs are openly shared. Some people who have seen spirits question their own sanity regarding what they encountered. It is altogether quite possible that some people secretly withhold sharing their beliefs about ghosts and haunting.

For those who have come to terms with a haunting or ghost encounter, their mind is made up.
They believe in ghosts. Staunch skeptics will have a difficult time refuting people who openly
believe in ghosts because of the power of the believer's personal experiences. This is
especially true if experiences with ghosts and spirits occur after the death of a loved one.

Believe in Ghosts: Skeptics vs Cynics

Some scientists and cynics will often attempt to disprove the existence of ghosts by
attributing such ghostly experiences to either environmental factors or illusions produced by
the human brain. In some cases, this is indeed true; but these explanations fall short of
disproving sightings of ghosts that have been witnessed by multiple people.

To be open-minded and not sure is a good thing; it just means the person has not had enough of a
ghostly encounter to move beyond skepticism. Yet, they remain open to the possibility. To the
cynic, however, their mind is made up and closed. They will not believe in ghosts even if they

What are Ghosts?

Fundamental, traditional Christianity does not allow at all for the existence of ghosts, because
of fear-based doctrines, which sadly divide mankind - one from another. Teaching both a place of the eternally damned called, "Hell," and a place of eternal bliss for the good called, "Heaven," the Christianity attempts to place all earthly departed souls in one of these two after-life worlds. Unfortunately, much of society has been influenced by this idea, simply because they were taught it is true. It is important to understand why we believe certain things, and in this case why society in general has such a misunderstanding concerning ghosts and spirits. So seemingly, Christianity & ghosts do not mix.

Yet, Jesus' message was very different than what is being taught today as truth; religion today has messed up our understanding of the spirit realm. This has created much mis-information of ghosts and how they can exist, in light of what many have been taught as impossible. Many ask, "What are ghosts?"

If we consider the message of Jesus contained in the manuscripts, rather than religious ideas created after him, we should see he taught the realm of spirit (or spiritual world) to co-exist with this physical world. All of us exist in the realm of spirit and that realm is the life-giving force of all - in all, and through all that is...and is everywhere. "We live, move and have our being in Him (Spirit)." Call that spirit God, if you like...the Divine energy: the sum of all the parts, perhaps? In that context, your soul, and for that matter all souls, would be participating in the unseen realm of the spirit (a different plane of existence) and the physical world we know, at the same time; while we seem to only be able to identify with this physical realm.

It is like being in a room with a two-way mirror. We think only those in the same room with us can see our actions, but are not aware of the audience we may have on the other side of the mirror. Hence, I am participating in both worlds, but only aware of the one in which I am able to see. In Hebrews it states, "We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses." This perhaps would explain how others on the other side would be able to see us and speak to us; yet we may not be aware of their presence, yet they are with us just the same, interacting with this realm at times. Maybe, they feed us some of the thoughts we think, and we think those same thoughts and call them our own. Therefore, from the Christian perspective, the existence of ghosts and the paranormal manifesting within this earthly realm should be quite possible.

When we "cross over" to the other side at what we call "death," we leave our attachment from this physical realm by leaving the vehicle (the body with the sensories) that keeps us in the physical world. My theory for the existence of this physical world, is that it is used to individualize each person from the whole (spirit, or God). Think of, how a baby after birth, begins to notice itself and stares for long periods at its hands and fingers. Then the baby grows, and the mind and emotions mature, as well. Then perhaps the detachment from this physical world is necessary, as the purpose for it has been completed. The soul - spirit body separates from the physical body by the "silver cord being cut." The silver cord is thought to be the connection between The Spirit, our individual spirit, and the physical body which it keeps animated - for the spirit gives it life.

The next step is being freed from mis-thinking created here on Earth (guilt, fear, condemnation) and the knowing of truth ("The truth shall set you free.") - learning who we are and the power we have been given to create and overcome (but do not yet fully understand...Jesus demonstrated this power for us, in the physical realm).

We will examine different passages of the Bible to demonstrate that ghosts or "spirits" are both
contained in the New and Old Testaments. I will also give some speculation as to how different paranormal phenomena possibly line up perfectly with different biblical terms and events. Why do I mention such religious things? I do so to help others overcome the fears that were placed within them by religion itself. What better way to remove it than to use the same information in a good way.

As for me, my interest in ghosts and Halloween started when I was a kid. I guess what fascinated me with the supernatural was I wanted to believe that more existed than what I could see with my eyes. Later on as I became an adult, I no longer was allowed to have an interest in ghosts and the paranormal because I had become religious.

Religious fear kept me from exploring these ideas I now have, because they are not within fundamental Christianity's core tenets which I shall label as "safe zones." The condemnation sent forth from fundamental Christians on one who explores an area spiritually that may be different from their beliefs, will usually produce a warning such as, "You better stay clear of that thinking, because that could be of the devil." And hence, the seed of fear has been planted once again into a free mind. I no longer fear exploring the paranormal because I now know that fear is man-made, not god-sent. God is Spirit; why not explore Spirit?

I find it worth mentioning that I had an out-of-body experience a decade ago that proved to me that we are both a physical body and a spiritual body. As I hovered above my seemingly, lifeless body, it became apparent quite quickly that the spirit and physical realms co-exist.

What are ghosts? Ghosts are people in spirit, no longer having bodies. They have remained earthbound for various reasons which can always be summed up as being fear. Ghosts are people who need freed to move on in their life-journey. Enjoy the ghost information, and hopefully come to an understanding regarding ghosts, spirits and the realm of spirit."

Note: This is very insightful info and is very valuable to ghost and paranormal
researchers in general. Thanks goes again to Kimberley Ghosthunters and
Jaco Pieterse for posting this very valuable info.

The Montauk Monster

98-year-old message in bottle sets world record - Yahoo News

A message in a bottle has been pulled from the ocean 98 years after it was written, and officials say it is the world’s oldest of its kind.

Scottish fisherman Andrew Leaper found the letter in his nets while sailing off of Scotland’s northern coast. And on Thursday, Guinness World Records confirmed that is the old message in a bottle ever found, beating the previous record holder by five years.

“As we hauled in the nets I spotted the bottle neck sticking out and I quickly grabbed it before it fell back in the sea,” Leaper, 43, told the BBC. “It was very exciting to find the bottle and I couldn’t wait to open it.”
Amazingly, the previous record holder was found by the same boat, the Shetland-based “Copious.”

Read more of the story here: 98-year-old message in bottle sets world record

Man killed while trying to create Bigfoot sighting

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A man dressed in a military-style "ghillie" suit and apparently trying to provoke reports of a Bigfoot sighting in northwest Montana was struck by two cars and killed, authorities said.

The man was standing in the right-hand lane of U.S. Highway 93 south of Kalispell on Sunday night when he was hit by the first car, according to the Montana Highway Patrol. A second car hit the man as he lay in the roadway, authorities said.

Flathead County officials identified the man as Randy Lee Tenley, 44, of Kalispell. Trooper Jim Schneider said motives were ascertained during interviews with friends, and alcohol may have been a factor but investigators were awaiting tests.

"He was trying to make people think he was Sasquatch so people would call in a Sasquatch sighting," Schneider told the Daily Inter Lake (http://bit.ly/PWJvA5) on Monday. "You can't make it up. I haven't seen or heard of anything like this before. Obviously, his suit made it difficult for people to see him."

Ghillie suits are a type of full-body clothing made to resemble heavy foliage and used to camouflage military snipers.

"He probably would not have been very easy to see at all," Schneider told KECI-TV (http://bit.ly/PkdWMO ).

Tenley was struck by vehicles driven by two girls, ages 15 and 17, who were unable to stop in time, authorities said. -Yahoo News

First Moon Landing 1969

Possible Bigfoot Sighting?

Yahoo News reports the following story/account of an alleged Bigfoot sighting:

"The video was shot in April in the Grand River area of Northeast Ohio, according to a description posted by HowTo101Channel, a YouTube user who described him- or herself as "looking for UFO's, Bigfoot, Paranormal activity, current events a rick roll or two lol."

Beyond that the details are scarce, but that hasn't sto

pped people from looking at the video nearly 400,000 times in all.

The 38-second clip shows a creature running across the road, from left to right, while appearing to hold a long stick in its hand. The video appears to have been shot by someone on a motorized bike or scooter.

The person who captured the moment makes little sound at the sight but does veer off into the bushes with the camera, then drives off."

Hmm... Possible Hoax?

Read more of the story here, including comments:

Bigfoot-sighting-big-joke-decide

Foo Fighters - Next Year

Neil Armstrong, The First Man on the Moon, Dies at Age 82

From the NY Times:

Neil Armstrong, who made the “giant leap for mankind” as the first human to set foot on the moon, died on Saturday. He was 82.

His family said in a statement that the cause was “complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.” He had undergone heart bypass surgery this month in Cincinnati, near where he lived. His recovery had been going well, according to those who spoke with him after the surgery, and his death came as a surprise to many close to him, including his fellow Apollo astronauts. The family did not say where he died.

A quiet, private man, at heart an engineer and crack test pilot, Mr. Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, as the commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the mission that culminated the Soviet-American space race in the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy had committed the nation “to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” It was done with more than five months to spare.

My favorite part of the article is this:

"After news of Mr. Armstrong’s death was reported, President Obama, in a statement from the White House, said, “Neil was among the greatest of American heroes.”

“And when Neil stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time,” the president added, “he delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten.”

Read the rest of the article here:

RIP Neil Armstrong - The NY Times

From Yahoo News:

"A lot of people couldn't figure out Armstrong."

With those words Tom Wolfe introduced Neil Armstrong, the astronaut hero of his nonfiction masterpiece,

"The Right Stuff." Armstrong, of course, was a masterpiece himself: the commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and the first man ever to walk on the moon. Armstrong died Saturday from complications relating to heart surgery. He was 82.

All these decades, Armstrong, the lunar Adam, has represented a code his admirers knew better than to try to crack. Not that, early on, great literary minds—besotted by the baby-faced genius—didn't try.

Wolfe continued: "You'd ask him a question, and he would just stare at you with those pale-blue eyes of his, and you'd start to ask the question again, figuring he hadn't understood, and— click —out of his mouth would come forth a sequence of long, quiet, perfectly formed, precisely thought-out sentences."

So Wolfe warned against understanding Armstrong in "The Right Stuff." And that warning was more or less heeded, somewhat miraculously, until Armstrong's dying day. Profilers kept their mitts off him. Hollywood starlets didn't swoop in to wreck his family. And, most mercifully of all, Carson and Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore and Ali G and Oprah didn't demand that he couch-surf with them."

Read the rest of the story here:

Neil Armstrong Moon Mystery Man

Note: Neil Armstrong is a true American hero, icon and legend.

Godspeed, Neil.

RIP.

Also, I dedicate this video and song to him from the Foo Fighters,
"Next Year":

Foo Fighters - Next Year - Youtube

Best Of UFO Sightings Of June 2012, AFO

Boy Creates 'Bucket List' for His Dying Service Dog - Yahoo News

“Eleven-year-old Cole Hein has a very special relationship with his Jack Russell terrier: Bingo is his service dog. Cole has a potentially lethal form of apnea, a medical condition that causes him to sometimes stop breathing. Bingo, trained by Canada’s National Service Dogs organization and the MSAR Search and Rescue Association, is certified as a hearing, medical service, and therapy dog. He’s trained to alert people if Cole needs CPR.

“In the first 6 months, she saved Cole’s life three times,” wrote Cole’s mom Mandi Hein. “A constant companion, Bingo has given Cole freedom and safety, devotion, and friendship.”

Bingo was honored for saving Cole numerous times by being inducted into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame in 2010, reports the Winnipeg Free Press.

And now, Bingo is dying. And he has a Bucket List. Or as Cole calls it, a “Lick-It List.”

After being told that Bingo only has weeks to live after being diagnosed with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome, Cole created a list of things he wants to do with his dog before Bingo passes away:

1) Let Bingo “taste” the world by getting him dog treats from around the globe.

2) Take Bingo for one last “public” outing to Ruckers (a game-and-pizza place).

3) To walk around the block twice with Bingo. (Cole later decided that doing one block one day, and a second block the next day was easier for Bingo.)

4) A photo shoot with just Bingo and Cole, which has already been arranged.

Cole and Mandi have set up a Facebook page to encourage people to send dog treats as a reward for Bingo’s many years of service. Mandi emphasizes that they do not need financial donations; pet insurance is covering Bingo’s medical bills. Mandi also notes, “Your dog treat donations will be put to excellent, dog-drooling use. What Bingo doesn’t get around to eating will be donated to a local shelter.”

Before Bingo joined their family, Mandi says, they had to have 24/7 nurses and healthcare staff, because Cole need constant supervision. Bingo, trained to recognize the specific gagging sound Cole made when he stopped breathing, would bark to alert her if Cole needed help. She’s grateful that Bingo allowed her to raise her three children safely, especially when her husband deployed to Afghanistan.”

Read more of the article, including comments, here:

http://shine.yahoo.com/pets/boy-creates-bucket-list-dying-dog-171200146.html

A sad but touching story.

I hope the best for the both of them.

Rare Spider Discovery

Interesting find!

"A group of cave explorers and scientists have made a rare discovery: an entirely new taxonomic family of spider in the caves of southern Oregon.

Only two other spider families (the taxonomic group above both genus and

species) have been found since 1990, and this is the first newly discovered, native one uncovered in North America since 1890, said California Academy of Sciences researcher Charles Griswold, lead author of the study that described the species.

So far, the family consists only of the one species described, which the researchers named Trogloraptor marchingtoni. The species is named after Neil Marchington, a member of the Western Cave Conservancy, who first discovered the spider. The genus name, Trogloraptor, means "cave robber."

It's an apt name for a spider with unique hooks, or claws, on its legs, which the researchers believe are used to snatch flying insects, like midges, out of the air. With its legs outstretched, the spider measures up to 3 inches (8 centimeters) long.

"They're biggish," Griswold said. "But when you're in a cave and it's dark and there's only the beam of your head lamp, they look much bigger. It's quite astonishing to see them hanging from a few threads."

Read more:

http://news.yahoo.com/rare-discovery-hook-legged-spider-found-oregon-cave

On a side note, it looks like a friggin' facehugger from the movies Alien/Aliens! -Rob

Who? Who? Two New Owl Species Discovered

"Two new owl species have been identified in the Philippines, and researchers say the birds' songs led them to the discovery.

"More than 15 years ago, we realized that new subspecies of Ninox hawk-

owls existed in the Philippines," zoologist Pam Rasmussen, of Michigan State University (MSU), said in a statement. "But it wasn't until last year that we obtained enough recordings that we could confirm that they were not just subspecies, but two new species of owls."

In fact, the researchers found that the Philippine hawk-owl (Ninox philippensis) consists of seven allopatric species, or those that emerge as a consequence of individuals being isolated geographically, or temporally. They also identified one subspecies.

Two of the species had never been described nor officially named, until now. One of the newly identified owl species, now called the Camiguin hawk-owl, lives only on the small island of Camiguin Sur and has a very different voice and set of physical features than other owls in the region, the researchers said. It has blue-gray eyes and sings a long solo song at night that builds in intensity with a low growling tone. Pairs of Camiguin hawk-owls, meanwhile, sing short barking duets that kick off with a growl."

Read more at:

http://news.yahoo.com/two-owl-species-discovered

From Yahoo News and Space.com - CIA Declassifies Amazing 1972 Spy Satellite Capsule Deep-Sea Rescue, Finally!

From Yahoo News and SPACE.com:

"It's a plot worthy of a Hollywood action movie: 40 years ago, the U.S. Navy carried out a daring mission to retrieve a top-secret film capsule that had settled more than 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) underwater on the ocean floor. At the time, the expedition was the deepest undersea salvage operation ever attempted.

Documents released publicly by the Central Intelligence Agency on Aug. 8 detail the capsule's incredible recovery, using what was at the time the Navy's most sophisticated deep-sea submersible.

On July 10, 1971, a classified U.S. satellite, code-named Hexagon, attempted to return a mysterious "data package" to Earth by ejecting a capsule over the Pacific Ocean. The capsule's parachute failed, and the canister slammed into the water with an excruciating 2,600 Gs of force.

Hexagon satellites, which were declassified in 2011, were photoreconnaissance spacecraft that were part of an American Cold War-era spy program. Since these satellites preceded today's era of digital technology, Hexagons recorded images on film, sending them back to Earth in capsules that re-entered Earth's atmosphere and landed within a designated zone near the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

During the first Hexagon mission in the summer of 1971, a parachute carrying one of these capsules broke, and the precious cargo crashed into the ocean and sunk about 16,400 feet (almost 5,000 meters).

To recover the sunken capsule, the U.S. Navy crafted a bold rescue mission that would be carried out by its Trieste II Deep Sea Vehicle, or DSV-1. At the time, this mini-submarine was the Navy's best deep-sea submersible. [Photos: 1972 Spy Satellite Capsule's Deep-Sea Rescue]

The newly declassified CIA documents include a report of the undersea mission and pictures of the Navy's DSV-1 and the film capsule at the bottom of the ocean. The report, which offers a glimpse of the exhilarating events, also explains how and why the CIA decided to retrieve the Hexagon Recovery Vehicle (RV) in the first place.

"The decision was made to attempt the deep sea recovery of the RV primarily for the intelligence value of the film record and secondly to establish a capability for deep oceanographic recovery," intelligence officials wrote.

According to the documents, the Trieste II made three attempts to salvage the film capsule: first on Nov. 3, 1971, then on Nov. 30, 1971, and finally, in a successful third try, on April 25, 1972.

The mission's planners had four primary areas of concern, beginning with the ability to pinpoint the impact area. At that time, no object the size of the film canister had been detected by sonar and been searched for underwater. Officials were also unsure how much damage the capsule had suffered upon impact, and after being submerged in sea water. Finally, the Trieste II had yet to venture below 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) before then.

These obstacles were eventually overcome, and on its third attempt, the Trieste II found its sunken treasure. In the predawn hours of April 26, 1972, the Trieste II emerged about 350 miles (563 kilometers) north of the Hawaiian Islands with the remains of the Hexagon film capsule.

"The third attempt was successful in locating and securing the film stacks; however, as the Trieste was surfacing, the film broke into pieces," officials wrote in their report. "Twenty-five feet was recovered."

The film stack underwent extensive analysis, and it was determined that the Hexagon's Recovery Vehicle broke apart as it crashed into the water. The spools of film were separated from the capsule and several pieces were cut and floated away.

But, all was not lost. The mission proved to be a valuable test of the Navy's ability to carry out deep-sea recovery expeditions. In the report, CIA officials discussed some of the lessons learned, particularly from setbacks that were experienced on all three attempts.

"The third dive, the mechanical arm failed to work, almost preventing operation of the recovery device," the report said. "The on-board computer has never worked. Much more attention is required to the use of high reliability parts and extensive subsystem testing to assure confidence in any given operation."

Still, the mission was seen as a success, even as the motivation for the capsule's recovery shifted from the potential value of the film's reconnaissance, to the usefulness of testing the capabilities of the Trieste II submersible. 

"All of the men involved remained enthusiastic and determined throughout the many frustrations and are to be commended for their fine efforts," the report concluded."

Very interesting! For more on this story including some pictures and comments,
see here: CIA Declassifies Amazing 1972 Spy Satellite Capsule Deep-Sea Rescue

Also, this comment by JoeMawma is very interesting to read relating to this cold war era story
from the Yahoo News article:

"In 1968 a Soviet G-class submarine mysteriously exploded and sank to the bottom of the Pacific. With Cold War secrecy and speed, U.S. military intelligence raced to find a way to raise the sub. In the new preface to this edition of The Jennifer Project, which was first published in 1977, author Clyde Burleson discusses some of the sources he could not reveal twenty years ago and provides an interesting swords-to-plowshares update.

In one of the more remarkable episodes of high-tech espionage and engineering of the Cold War, the effort to raise the Soviet sub, code-named the "Jennifer Project," assembled a cast of players that included top military brass, the CIA, and the eccentric millionaire and inventor Howard Hughes.

The Project was a monumental effort to create a tool that could reach three miles below the ocean's surface and pull the sub from primordial muck—in secret. Financed and built by Hughes and Global Marine under contract with the CIA, the ship created to pluck the sub from the ooze was a technological marvel. Two football fields in length and twenty-three stories high, the Hughes Glomar Explorer held in its hull a six-million-pound submersible "claw" for picking up sections of the submarine.

The project cost the U.S. government hundreds of millions of dollars, but the intelligence community was betting that, if successful, reclamation of the Soviet submarine would mean accessing invaluable military knowledge as the two superpowers neared negotiations in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks. The Jennifer Project revisits a fascinating period of high-level intrigue and invention that has remained unknown to many Americans."


Thanks for the info, Larry too as well for bringing The Jennifer Project up! :)

-Rob

Sasquatch Hand Found July 2012 youtube

Ghosts, Spirits, and Demons!!

Bizarre rock 'ice shelf' found in Pacific, Extraterrestrial Origin: Bizarre Crystal Zipped Here From Outer Space

Bizarre rock 'ice shelf' found in Pacific

From Yahoo News:

A huge cluster of floating volcanic rocks covering almost 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 square miles) has been found drifting in the Pacific, the New Zealand navy said Friday.

The strange phenomenon, which witnesses said resembled a polar ice shelf, was made up of lightweight pumice expelled from an underwater volcano, the navy said.

An air force plane spotted the rocks on Thursday about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) offshore from New Zealand and warned a navy warship that it was heading towards them.

Lieutenant Tim Oscar said that while he knew his ship the HMNZS Canterbury was in no danger from the pumice, which is solidified lava filled with air bubbles, it was still "the weirdest thing I've seen in 18 years at sea".

"As far ahead as I could observe was a raft of pumice moving up and down with the swell," he said.
"The rock looked to be sitting two foot (half a metre) above the surface of the waves and lit up a brilliant while colour in the spotlight. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf."

Scientists aboard the ship said the pumice probably came from an underwater volcano called Monowai, which has been active recently.

They said the phenomenon was unrelated to increased volcanic activity in New Zealand this week, including an eruption at Mount Tongariro that sent an ash cloud 20,000 feet into the atmosphere.

Extraterrestrial Origin: Bizarre Crystal Zipped Here From Outer Space:

A sample of a bizarre crystal once considered unnatural may have arrived on Earth 15,000 years ago, having hitched a ride on a meteorite, a new study suggests.

The research strengthens the evidence that this strange "quasicrystal" is extraterrestrial in origin.

The pattern of atoms in a quasicrystal falls short of the perfectly regular arrangement found in crystals. Until

January, all known quasicrystals were man-made. "Many thought it had to be that way, because they thought quasicrystals are too delicate, too prone to crystallization, to form naturally," study researcher Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University told LiveScience at the time.

Then researchers announced the presence of a natural quasicrystal in a meteorite found in the Koryak Mountains of Russia. . That meteorite was being kept in a museum in Italy. Now, on an expedition to the site where it was found in Russia, Steinhardt and his colleagues now have found more natural samples of quasicrystals for analysis.

Mysterious matter

Quasicrystals were first synthesized in a lab in 1982 by Israeli chemist Dan Shechtman, whose work won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2011. Regular crystals are made up of regular clusters of repeating atoms arranged in particular symmetries. Quasicrystals are orderly, too, but they do not exactly repeat themselves. If regular crystals are like boring bathroom tiles, quasicrystals are like complex tile mosaics.

Steinhardt and his colleagues were long on the hunt for natural quasicrystals. They first saw one in 2008, when Italian mineralogist Luca Bindi of the Museum of Natural History in Florence spotted a tiny quasicrystal grain in a rock sample in the museum's collection.

The researchers reported that find in the journal Science in 2009 and then traced the rock to Russia. An analysis of the rock fragment, published in January in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the rock was a meteorite that likely formed in the early solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago, before the Earth existed.

The hunt for quasicrystals

Now Steinhardt and Bindi report in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics that quasicrystal samples are found in an environment that would not have had the extremes needed to create them. The report strengthens the case that the sample rode to Earth on a meteorite.

On their expedition to the Koryak Mountains, the researchers also determined that the samples came to Earth during the last glacial period, about 15,000 years ago.

"The fact that the expedition found more material in the same location that we had spent years to track down is a tremendous confirmation of the whole story, which is significant since the meteorite is of great interest because of its extraordinary age and contents," Steinhardt said in a statement.

The next goal, Steinhardt said, is to figure out the secret of the natural quasicrystals' formation.

"What does nature know that we don't?" he said. "How did the quasicrystal form so perfectly inside a complex meteorite when we normally have to work hard in the laboratory to get anything as perfect? What other new phases can we find in this meteorite, and what can they tell us about the early solar system?"

"At the moment, we are at the tip of the iceberg," Steinhardt added.

Cool but rather somewhat odd news for this early in August :) - Rob

Two years later, alien-like sea creature gains Internet stardom

By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com and Yahoo News

Among the more bizarre-looking visitors to California waters this summer are Mola molas, or ocean sunfish, which are being seen in unusually high numbers. But it's a stunning photograph of one of these gentle giants that appears to be getting the most attention. The image, captured off San Diego by Daniel Botelho, became an instant hit after being posted last week on his Facebook page.

"It got 1,000 'likes' in 36 hours," said Botelho, an award-winning photojournalist who specializes in underwater photography. Through Monday the number of likes and shares beneath had grown to 1,375 and 1,237, respectively.

There was no back story provided but Botelho, when reached via email, explained that he captured this image in July of 2010, while on a blue whale photography mission. But he somehow placed it in a folder of non-used images and did not discover it until recently, while planning another blue whale odyssey.

The Facebook post was the first time the image had been published. "It is so funny, I wasted that image and after two years I found it, posted it, and it becomes viral," Botelho said.

Though molas are docile and appear sluggish, they're difficult to photograph because they're deceivingly swift and do not generally tolerate divers who try to get close.

"There were more than five in the same spot but once I got in the water, as stealthily as I could, they all went out fast," Botelho explained. "But one specific fish stopped to check what I was, and God knows why the fish decided to follow me. People in the boat said it seemed like a dog following his owner."

The photographer in the image had hoped to photograph Botelho next to the sunfish but instead he became the subject to lend perspective as to how large and moon-like molas can be.

The sunfish can measure 14 feet and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. They're found in tropical and temperate oceans. With their large bodies, truncated tails, tiny mouths, and huge eyes, they look like something not entirely whole and not of this world.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, in a species description, states: "Ocean sunfish, or molas, look like the invention of a mad scientist."

They feed primarily on jellies but will also eat squid and small fish. Large numbers of jellies and gelatinous creatures called salps this summer may help to explain an increase in sightings made by California boaters.

-- Image is courtesy of Daniel Botelho for use with this story only, and is protected by copyright laws

-http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog

Note: Awesome pic! -Rob

20 Things You Didn’t Know About Dogs

From: expose-the-light via tumblr:

20 Things You Didn’t Know About Dogs

1  The sultry “dog days of summer” get their name from ancient astronomers who noticed that those days coincide with the period when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun.

 2  Bad astronomy: Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, but it is just one 10-billionth as bright as the sun and has no effect on our weather.

3  Nerd. Fido will touch his nose to a computer screen if it has a picture of a dog on it but not if it shows a landscape, University of Vienna researchers have found.

4  Austrian scientists have also demonstrated that a dog seems to feel “inequity aversion” when another dog gets a better treat as a reward. The envious dog plays hard to get.

5  South Korean scientists cloned four beagle puppies with a gene that produces a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light. (The red color is visible in the pups’ bellies and nails even under normal light, but it doesn’t glow.)

6  Maybe they should have offered a Day-Glo option. BioArts, a California company, recently closed its dog-cloning business. One reason: The market was too small.

7  Another problem: “unpredictable results,” according to BioArts. In one case, the clone of a black-and-white dog came out looking greenish yellow.

8  The number of dogs worldwide is estimated at 400 million, roughly the human population of the United States and Mexico combined.

9  They really do look like their owners. In a study conducted at England’s Bath Spa University, people matching photos of dog owners and dogs chose the right breed (out of three) more than half the time.

10  Half of all owners allow their dogs to lick them on the face, but only 10 percent share E. coli strains with their pets. The real factor in germ transmission may be whether an owner washes his hands after playing fetch.

11  Fighting a hangover by drinking “the hair of the dog that bit you” may have originated in an ancient belief that ingesting the hair of a dog that literally bit you could guard against infection.

12  A 2006 study showed that household dogs with minimal training can smell early- and late-stage lung and breast cancers. Swedish oncologists also found that dogs can distinguish among types of ovarian cancer.

13  A dog’s nose has roughly 220 million olfactory receptors, 40 times as many as humans have.

14  Penn State engineers are trying to design an artificial sniffer based on the fluid mechanics and odorant transport of the canine nose.

15  Dogs can hear frequencies up to 45,000 Hz, about twice as high as humans can. But they’re not the champs: Porpoises go to 150,000 Hz.

16  A team led by UCLA biologists concluded that small dogs descended from Middle Eastern gray wolves more than 12,000 years ago. The connection was traced through a growth-factor gene mutation not seen in larger dogs.

17  Much older canid remains have been found in Germany, Russia, and Belgium, dating as far back as 31,000 years.

18  The reference genome for doggie DNA studies is the boxer, a breed that has an unusually high degree of genetic uniformity.

19  So that’s why schnauzers look like Groucho. According to scientists at the National Human Genome Research Institute, an alteration in one gene, RSPO2, gives dogs wiry eyebrows and mustaches.

20  A variant of another gene, FGF5, produces long, silky coats, and curly hair comes from a mutation in KRT71. All three variants produce a coat like that of the Portuguese water dog adopted by the First Family.

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