Missing Thunderbird Photo Finally Solved?

"Here's a fascinating email that I received from a ShukerNature reader on 16 December 2014 (in response to my blog post re the supposed missing thunderbird photo), who very kindly gave me full permission to quote it here. I have this person's full name on file but they asked me to refer to them only by their initials here. Here is the email, which offers a very interesting potential new source for the thunderbird photo, if the photo in the programme concerned is indeed the real thunderbird photo (always assuming of course that there is one!):

"Hi there! Reading your article on the thunderbird and thought I would pass along something of interest. I also remember seeing the thunderbird photo in a book, but in the early 80s. It was something I picked up from the local library and the pic was just like the one somebody described in your comments section. Since I have always followed this story, I was really interested in an old photo shown on an episode of Wild West Tech of all places, a show hosted by David Carradine before he died. This photo showed what looked like a pteradactyl, but it was held by KNEELING civil war soldiers, not nailed to a barn. I was fascinated because it looked real so I paid attention. The episode was not about pteradactyls - ha but the photo was stuck in strangely. I cant remember which episode now, sorry, but I did look for a photo credit at the end, there was none. I googled the show to try to see it online and learn more but it was unavailable. I would love to see that pic again and learn of its origin and possible authenticity. The soldiers might also be muddying the waters for others that saw it in contrast to the barn photo. If you look into it and find any info, please share!!!! Thanks, C.F."

 Has anyone seen this episode or knows where it can be viewed? Would be excellent to check it out!" Friend and author Dr. Karl Shuker via The Journal of Cryptozoology on Facebook

Conducting Bigfoot Field Investigations

Investigation should not be just a jaunt into the wooded area looking for Sasquatch signs.
Determination of merit is what we need, if an account is to be considered real. First travel their route and time it. Using the sample time line above, if they left the party at 10:00 PM. On Main St., what if the gas station is only around the corner? Unaccounted time.
What if the area of the sighting is actually an hour from the area of the gas station? If you have a good feeling about a witness, remember, “Trust but Verify.” You may have to retrace steps on a trail to verify times, but do it! It can be the determination between “a good story” versus a legitimized account.
Here is a basic list of equipment that you should always have on hand when you are in the field:
◾Plastic/Rubber/Nitrile gloves  – Preventing evidence contamination – keeping hands clean while casting, etc.
◾Measuring tape –  Measuring prints, track ways, etc.
◾Note pad  – Taking notes, drawing maps, etc.
◾Pen or pencil  – Self explanatory (can be used as a photographic scale reference in a pinch)
◾Ziploc bags  – Evidence storage as well as protecting equipment.
◾Paper bags or envelopes –  Evidence storage
◾Garbage bags  – Protecting tracks until they can be cast – expedient raingear or shelter
◾Tweezers (sterile) –  Evidence collection


Cont. on Cryptomundo and The Examiner

The Short Bigfoot Flap of Waterford in 1981

"I first learned of this, almost thirty years after the incident happend in 2010 while examining one of my heroes of the Bigfoot mystery, author John Green's database. There was a reference to the Troy Record reporting on a rash of Sasquatch sightings in Waterford. HUH?


So my first step was to visit the Troy Public Library, where they have a robust microfilm library of newspapapers dating back to the early 1800's. Sure enough there was an article written by Staff Reporter Jonathan Hodges, detailing several sighting reports dating back to early August 1981.


Well this kicked my interest up so I filed a Freedom of Information Act on the Waterford Police Department and sure enough, I got a phone call, saying my documents were ready. I hastily rushed down to the station where I was politely given my documents for a nominal fee.
Back in August 1981, there was a series of Bigfoot sightings that occurred in the town of Waterford that made the local papers.


The first report was on August 4th, 1981 in which at 12:38 A.M. the Waterford police had received a report of a woman seeing the creature in the village and had growled at her.
The officers did not seem awfully convinced and added a bit of sarcasm and humor by fininshing their report with, "At 00:48 hours the Officers stated that the subject is GOA (gone on arrival) and that he must have gone back to his cave."


However before the story hit the press several children had a sightings in the Prospect Hill section of Waterford. On August 5th, the matter was handled a bit more seriously when calls were received at 2:03 P.M. to report a sighting earlier in the week at the power station on Middletown Rd. and again later at 3:30 P.M. about a sighting behind St. Mary's Cemetery.


Whether it was a bear, moose or Bigfoot, none of the above was tracked down in Waterford, so such remains a mystery. What exactly did occur that summer in 1981 is anyone's guess at the moment." Via the Examiner and Cryptonundo

Did Lee Harvey Oswald Kill JFK? Yes.

Confession: I am a JFK assassination buff. I never much liked the term, but it describes me well. I've read just about every book ever published on the assassination, watched every documentary, mock trial, and dramatization. And for a long time, until about 14 years ago, I was a conspiracy theory believer. Too many loose ends. Too many coincidences of propinquity. And since I had no understanding of physics, or ballistics, or medicine, or of the world, really, I was fascinated with Oliver Stone's enormously influential JFK. I remember writing somewhere, and bear in mind I was 14 at the time, that the third act scene with "Mr. X" was one of the most dramatic moments in modern film history. That might have been true to a kid who hadn't seen many movies and who had no idea how awful New Orleans prosecutor Jim Garrison actually was, or how utterly absurd his theories were.



A year later, the day that Gerald Posner's Case Closed came out, I remember sitting in my high school library waiting for my chance to page through U.S. News and World Report, which was serializing the chapter on the "single bullet." I was nervous. Part of me didn't want to read a book that concluded something that was precisely the opposite of what I believed. But, clearly, I wasn't totally convinced, because I wanted to read it in the first place.
 I took the magazine and began to read. I can pinpoint the moment when my blinders came off, when my childhood assassination conspiracy fantasies dissolved. Posner pointed out that (a) the president's row of seats inside the presidential limousine were built to be higher than the row of seats where Gov. John Connally and his wife, Nellie, would sit; and (b) all the photographs of the motorcade entering Dealey Plaza showed Connally sitting closer to Nellie, away from the edge of the car.


 And suddenly, the single bullet theory made absolute sense. The trajectory of a bullet fired from the Texas School Book Depository absolutely could have entered JFK's upper back, exited his throat, and tumbled through the governor, lodging, finally, in his leg. The two men were perfectly aligned. It was just true. No "in mid-air, mind you, the bullet changed direction." None of that was necessary. If the single bullet theory had to be true — and it did, because no one was capable of firing two bullets at precisely the same "x," one of them hitting Kennedy and the other missing Kennedy and hitting Connally on an angle that passed through JFK's torso — then everything else I thought I knew had to be questioned.




"Keep in mind: I was 15. This was a seminal intellectual experience for me. It was my first exposure to the powers of skepticism and reasoned argument.




 Reason triumphed over magical thinking. If Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a conspiracy, then Ruth Paine, a friend of his family's in Dallas, had to be, too, because she alerted Oswald to the open job at the Texas School Book Depository about a month and a half before the assassination. Come to think of it, Roy Truly, the building superintendent, also had to be part of the conspiracy, because he hired Oswald and assigned him to the fifth and sixth floors of the building. In other words, if Oswald was long-slated to be the patsy, unless a conspiracy fomented somehow REALLY fast in the last six weeks before Kennedy's death, those two HAD to be in on it. Had to be. But clearly, they weren't. Not only was their no evidence of their connection to anyone bad, save Oswald, but no one ever tried to silence them. Their stories checked out. And they were paragons of the community. They just weren't part of the conspiracy because there was no conspiracy.




What about... what about enigmatic David Ferrie, who was mob boss Carlos Marcello's pilot, and who also knew Lee Harvey Oswald from childhood? Well, turns out that Ferrie was never Marcello's pilot — he was a contract employee at one point, but that's about it, and there's no evidence he ever knew Oswald.


 What about the famous horrific snapping back of the president's head right after a bullet tore through his skull? Actually, his head gets pushed forward, violently, before it snaps back, both of which are entirely consistent with a shot entering the occiput and existing above the right ear, blowing out brain tissue.


 None of it hung together. The evidence of Oswald's guilt was, and is, overwhelming. The evidence for a conspiracy is thin to non-existent, and is almost always predicated on assumptions that themselves are very sketchy.


I do understand the sociological significance of the conspiracy theories. JFK's death was incredibly traumatic; how could a figure of such enormous historical importance be felled by a puny, angry, disturbed ex-Marine? But he was. That's kind of amazing." How I Figured Out That Lee Harvey Oswald Killed JFK, The Week



Some notes:



1."Death of a President November 1963" by William Manchester and "Reclaiming America" at over 1,000 pages are great books on the JFK assassination and the life and actions of Lee Harvey Oswald as well, besides The Warren and other Commission



2. Oswald was an ex-Marine, Communist/Marxist whom the FBI already had a file on



3. Oswald was a crack shot, good at shooting, high marks at shooting range



4. Witness's first reported only 2 shots fired, later due to mass confusion and journalistic error/misreporting, people had thought 3 shots had been fired from the Book Depository (though 3 shells we re found, one might have been a misfire)



5. Oswald spent over 30 months in Russia, may have had training from Russian Red Army snipers from Stalingrad, other battles



6. Two police officers ran into the Book Depository after the 2nd, fatal shot was fired. They encountered LHO on the 2nd floor staircase, very nervous but his boss was close by and vouched for him. Ballistic and fiber plus handprint evidence links him to the gun that killed JFK and the 6th floor of the TSBD. Science does not lie



7. Oswald killed Officer Tippet apx. an hour later, firing 4 shots into him from a .38, he then fled into a movie theater nearby. 9 witnesses witnessed Officer Tippet's brutal.murder



8. Oswald may have had Asperger Syndrome combined with some LD's and psychological disorders



9. Motives for killing JFK: Fame, acceptance from Dallas anti-Kennedy crowd, impress wife, hated someone more successful then him, Communist beliefs, anarchist beliefs, etc




10. Saying he was a patsy may have been a clever psychological ploy and attempt to claim innocence rather then serve life in prison or be executed by the state, feds

48th Anniversary of Mothman

Date: November 15 1966 Time: midnight
Two young married couples, Steve Mallette, Mary Mallette and Roger and Linda Scarberry on a cold, clear and crisp night were out on a lark in the desolate TNT area, located on the Ohio River off Route 62 about six miles north of town. In 1966 was a favorite with couples who liked to park and neck. On this night they were looking for friends and “chasing parkers,” as Linda Scarberry related later. They made the rounds through the ghostly igloos without success and headed back to the unlocked gate at the old generator plant. They went over a small rise in the road, and the car headlights caught something that made Roger slam on the brakes. Illuminated in front of them was a slender but muscular man-like creature, six to seven feet tall, with huge round red eyes, wings, and large hands. It had no definable head. The circular eyes looked more like they sprouted from the shoulders. The eyes about 2 inches in diameter and about six to eight inches apart, stared at them with hypnotic intensity. The creature was gray, or as Linda described much later, flesh colored with ashen wings. One of its wings appeared to be caught in a guide wire near the road, and it pulled at the wing with its hands. Later, Linda thought the creature was frightened, but in the heat of the moment it was the occupants of the car who erupted in fear and panic. While they screamed, the creature wiggled its wing free and wobbled with an odd shuffling gait into the generator plant through an open, broken door.




Roger hit the gas and tore out of the gate onto the road, heading for Route 62 back to town. Suddenly, the creature was in sight again, standing on a little hill, as though it had instantly teleported itself. The car headlights struck it again, and it spread its ten foot wings and took off straight into the air. It began following the car, matching its speed. Roger pressed the gas pedal down harder and harder until they were flying along Route 62 at 100 to 105 miles per hour. The creature effortlessly kept up, banging down on the roof of the car two or three times as they fled. It made a high-pitched squeaking noise like a mouse.


Then they careened down the road and its dangerous curves without mishap. As they grew closer to the bright night lights of town, the creature peeled off. They saw it once again crouched on the Ohio River floodwall, its legs and wings tucked in. Roger drove to the Dairyland and they tried to calm down and decided what to do. They could not agree on whether or not to report the creature to police and they argued over whether or not they would be labeled crazy or drunk or both. A decision was made to return to the TNT area, but partway back they decided against it. When they turned back around they saw the body of a large dead dog by the side of the road. According to one of the witnesses, the winged creature jumped out at them as they passed the dog, went over the top of the car, and went through the field on the other side.
Back in town, the couples decided to notify the police and told their story to Deputy Millard Halstead. Seeing their genuine fright, Halstead took them seriously. He got in his patrol car and the two vehicles went back to the TNT area. The body of the dog was missing. There was no sign of the red-eyed monster, but when Millard turned on his police radio a strange garbled sound screeched out at high volume, as though someone were playing a tape recorder at fast-forward speed.




Source: John A. Keel. Cryptomundo

Excerpt: "Deliver Us from Evil: A New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural"

An excerpt via Amazon, demonologists, ghost hunters and parapsychologists please take note!

"Despite “Virginia’s” reassuring remark, Joe and I already recognized her for what she was—a demon operating under an alias. But there was one mistake in this masquerade that revealed the supposed human spirit was literally blowing smoke: It took the form of a woman only from the waist up. That’s typical of the demonic; they always give themselves away with some abnormality of appearance when they try to manifest themselves as human beings.

Also characteristic of an infernal force was the demon’s divide-and-conquer strategy. By showing itself to only one person, it sowed the seeds of panic, confusion, and self-doubt. Is this really happening—or am I just imagining it? victims in such cases will ask themselves. Often they are reluctant to tell their friends or family what’s happening to them, fearing that people will think they’ve lost their mind. Instead, they withdraw into themselves, feeling more and more alone in their bizarre ordeal. This, of course, is the goal of the demonic, since self-doubt and emotional turmoil eat away at their prey’s will, paving the way for possession.

So far, this is all standard operating procedure for the demonic—but there was an unusual twist in this case. Rather than wear at Gabby’s nerves with the unsettling ploys of infestation—the first stage of diabolical activity in most cases, marked by such unnerving events as midnight knockings, peculiar phone calls, or tormented animal cries—the satanic spirit was hell-bent on full-blown oppression from the start. Oppression is the second stage of diabolical activity, and involves terrifying mental and physical attacks on the victim. The way it behaved in Gabby’s bedroom reminded me a little of police calls I’ve responded to where people are actually held prisoner in their own home, because they invited someone to stay with them for a short time, then had their guest take over their house.

This “guest” was quite charming at first. The next day, according to Gabby, the spirit returned in broad daylight, while she was down in the basement. “My attention was directed to a large mirror we have hanging there, and in it I saw Virginia,” she reported. “Again she said, ‘Parents, help,’ then told me she’d been in finishing school abroad and had followed her parents here. In quaint, old-fashioned speech, she said, ‘What manner of place is this?’ Upon looking around the room and at me, she asked, ‘What manner of dress is this?’ I answered that this is how we dress in the 1990s, but she insisted that the year was 1901. I felt no fear of her, and we had a lengthy conversation.”

Link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250059496/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1250059496&linkCode=as2&tag=phantomsandmonsters-20&linkId=3IE55QBOS6EBGGLZ

Paranormal Research Notes - Noises In The Attic And Other Notes

Paranormal research notes: thermal expansion and contraction; old pipes; water heaters; other housing problems.

Mistaken for: Tree's falling on houses, doors and windows slamming shut, animal and human intruders, ghosts, hauntings, paranormal activity, etc.

Still not researched yet: footsteps, voices, shadow people, moving/falling/stacking objects, dolls moving on their own, various smells, electrical/electronics problems, feelings and sensations of being watched/touched, coming down with medical problems, including dreams and nightmares, cold spots, etc.

Note: Research over period of 1 year or more; take notes, ask questions to experts in many areas; further research must be done in these areas.

Possible causes: Human/animal, building related (including, but not limited to, mold, mildew, asbestos, carbon monoxide, natural gas, other causes, etc.), auditory hallucinations/problems, wind carrying sound, sleep paralysis, night terrors, human brain functions recalling memory's/playing tricks, faulty electric wiring, pranks, hoaxes, medical/psychological related, stress, depression, medications, drug use, alcohol and other known and unknown factors.

Percentage these events worldwide are of a genuine paranormal nature:

15-25% in my estimate.

Noises In The Attic - Trained Eye Home Inspection

UFO Sighting Photos In Chile Confirmed By Government - inquisitr.com

"A UFO sighting in Chile has been officially confirmed by a department of the government as not being produced by meteorological phenomena or any other known human-made object.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, a Mississippi hunting camera took a video of a UFO beaming down lights onto deer way out in the middle of the nowhere. The owners of the infrared were not exclaiming conspiracy theories about little green men, but they also couldn’t figure out the strange light projected by the UFO could possibly be. Since then the number of UFO sightings in 2014 have gone up significantly, with strange objects being caught on video in the United States (including a recent one in Texas), Canada, England, and the Netherlands.

These particular high quality UFO photos were taken above the Collahuasi copper mine, which is located in the northern regions of Chile. In April of 2013 four engineers say they witnessed a disc-shaped object hover 2000 feet above them for about an hour without making a sound before disappearing to the east. They described the unidentified flying object as a “a flattened disc, of brilliant color, with a diameter of 5 to 10 meters [16 to 32 feet]. It performed ascending, descending and horizontal movements in short lengths, about 600 meters above the ground.” Unfortunately, the four witnesses do not want to be associated with the UFO sighting and they have refused to talk about it further."

For more info, see here:

UFO Sighting In Chile Confirmed By Government

UFO on Mars? Daily Mail

"This latest ‘discovery’ was taking by the two cameras on the mast of the rover, its head and neck, known as Navcam Left and Navcam Right.

The images were taken by the rover on 20 June, 665 Martian days since Curiosity first landed on Mars in August 2011."

For more info, see this article here from The Daily Mail:

UFO on Mars? Daily Mail

Discovery of Hammer of Thor - Epoch Times

"The discovery of a 10th century Viking artifact resembling the Hammer of Thor has solved a long-running mystery surrounding more than 1,000 ancient amulets found across Northern Europe, according to a report in Discovery News.

The relics, known as the Mjöllnir amulets, appear to depict hammers, which historians have linked to the Norse god Thor. However, this could not be concluded with certainty as their shapes are not conclusive, and none of them contained inscriptions revealing their identity.

However, another similar pendant has been found in Købelev, on the Danish island of Lolland, which is the first one to be discovered with an inscription. The runic text reads “Hmar x is”, which translates to “this is a hammer”.  Cast in bronze, and likely plated with silver, tin and gold, the 1,100-year-old pendant shows that Thor’s myth deeply influenced Viking jewellery."

Also:

"According to Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing and fertility. Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of the Germanic peoples, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania, to the tribal expansions of the Migration Period, to his high popularity during the Viking Age, when, in the face of the process of the Christianization of Scandinavia, the Mjölnir amulets were worn in defiance and Norse pagan personal names containing the name of the god bear witness to his popularity."

Discovery of Hammer of Thor

My Own Paranormal Experiences...

I've always been into the paranormal, ghosts, UFO's and cryptozoology (Think of actor Dan Aykroyd  from Ghostbusters and I'm an Aspie like him as well) etc. since childhood and I've had strange things happen not only to me but in my family as well, such as the following and some of it relates to my mother and family, not just me:

1. My mother has always had premonitions and dreams of airplanes crashing or earthquakes and
sometimes they would come true the nest day or even just hours after she had them when watching
the news on TV.

2. My father died when my mother was 4 months pregnant with me. When I was only a year old,
maybe younger, I would tell my mom something about my dad, even though I never knew him
like "I saw dad the other day" and "I talked with daddy" similar stuff. A psychic on the radio
also told my mother one time that I was the reincarnation of my father! (I do have a memory
of wandering around these empty, silent, somewhat dark and creepy halls in a hospital, like near a morgue area, this memory may have taken place after my dad died and before I was born, I remember it starting
from a young age and I feel the hospital is either Little Company of Mary in Evergreen Park, IL
or Christ Hospital in Oaklawn, IL).

3. When my mother was sitting alone one evening or night at a park the swing next to her started swinging
by itself. No one else was present (I was several feet away playing I think) no wind, nothing. It was Summer
I think as well.

4. My mother whom is very religious once had a dream about The Virgin Mary and she was surrounded by
pure gold and she also spoke to my mother as well. This took place in my step-grandpa Ed's house in
Mt. Greenwood at the time in his basement I think where my mom was sleeping.

5. Some of my other family members (they were from Scotland/Ireland/Lithuanian on my mom's side
and German on my father's side and in terms of ancestry as well) would pass away with people
present like friends and other family members witnessing a vapor of some sort come out of their
chest and going upward then vanishing.

6. I remember as a child running in the dark at night through where I lived at, just for fun, but it always
seemed that I was chasing something, maybe imaginary, maybe not. I have to wonder  if I was chasing
ghosts or demons or if it was just my young mind at work?

7. I was living with my mother at my step-grandpa Ed's & grandma's house in Chicago's beautuil Mt. Greenwood  area (a few blocks away from St. Xavier University) and in the middle of the night one time looked out into Ed's small backyard through a bedroom window and I swear I saw or at least thought I saw 3 dead dogs, all white in color. I told woke up my mom, told her but she didn't see anything.

8. Strange faces in tree's at my Godparents house (Peggy and Martin) in Palos Hill's, IL in their average to moderate sized backyard and it was behind this house (accross their backyard) where a woman neighbor was murdered one Summer in 1995 by her husband. Being Catholic, Martin put up a cross in  his yard to protect against evil spirits. Still... Strange. Maybe my own imagination and mind at work. Then again, maybe
not. Who knows?

9. One time in the middle of the night when I was living in Midlothian, IL our microwave which a Pastor friend brought us (it was used but almost like new, as our old one had broke so she donated it) read 666
on it. I quiackly erased it, unplugged it and maybe said a prayer or two. I was kinda freaked out for a
few weeks after that. It was dark in the kitchen and that was the only light on besides the moonlight
illuminating the small kitchen area through a window.

10. In the same Midlothian apartment I saw a shadow, a man in orange one night walking through my room
then vanishing into a wall. I ran so fast out of my bedroom I hurt my shoulder by banging it into a wall!

11. A strange whistliling sound (maybe an auditiry hallucination?) that I've heard for many years throughout my life of a man whistling. Sometimes it loud, sometimes it's soft. It really creeps me out when I hear it sometimes though.

12. Feelings of being touched, tickled, patted on the back, hair touched and sometimes screaming when I wake up (see my thoughts on #11 above) that I had for a while. I don't exp. them anymnore which is good.

I've got more stories but those are mainly non-paranormal in nature (including dreams and nightmares but excluding dreams of dead relatives) like what you'd see on Reddit assorted along stories of the paranormal.

Also: I did see a UFO once over Midlothian, IL and one through a window at a Walgreens in
Oaklawn (maybe Chicago Ridge?) during the 90's. They looked like round metallic objects just floating there in the air. These sightings occurred during the daytime btw (and one time in Midlothian I also saw a fighter jet pass close to my apt. building window as I lived on the 3rd floor which was cool!)

So there you have it! These are my stories.... -Rob

p.s. It is important to be aware of medical conditions (I havee Type 1 Diabetes myself since age 12 now almost 30) and know the basics of psychology, general science, building construction, logic, critical thinking, forensics, CSI, investigation and other areas when dealing with any typr of paranormal event in order to rule it out.

NASA’s “Flying Saucer” Successfully Passes Flight Test -technobuffalo

"High over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, NASA’s LDSD “flying saucer” spacecraft traveled at almost four times the speed of sound as it raced upwards toward the heavens. At approximately 180,000 feet, NASA successfully performed the craft’s first crucial test imperative for a possible future Mars mission. But not everything went according to plan.

After deploying the craft’s doughnut-shaped inflatable device, dubbed Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD), NASA was able to slow the saucer’s descent to a more manageable 2.5x the speed of sound. But upon deploying the LDSD’s giant parachute—the second and most crucial part of NASA’s test launch—the chute became tangled, and the spacecraft eventually splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. It was supposed to land gently.

If there was payload on that craft—or worse, humans—the mission would have been an unmitigated disaster. But luckily this was just a test, and NASA can use that data to improve upon the LDSD’s systems. The agency is using a parachute system that dates back to the 1970s, but with heavier payloads and a larger overall chute—about 36 meters in diameter.

Stating the obvious, Dan Coatta, one of the mission specialists, said it appeared as though the chute didn’t “deploy that well.” NASA tested the LDSD technology at extremely high altitudes because they’re most similar to the upper atmosphere of Mars."

-Read more here:

NASA’s “Flying Saucer” Flight Test

Ghost-Hunting Mistakes: Science and Pseudoscience in Ghost Investigations - Skeptical Inquirer

"Ghost investigations can be deceptively tricky endeavors. Very ordinary events can be-and indeed have been-mistaken for extraordinary ones, and the main challenge for any ghost investigator is separating the facts from a jumble of myths, mistakes, and misunderstandings. It can be very easy to accidentally create or misinterpret evidence: Is that flash of light on the wall a flashlight reflection-or a ghost? Are the faint sounds recorded in an empty house spirit voices-or a neighbor's radio? It's not always clear, and investigators must be careful to weed out the red herrings and focus on the verified information".

Later the article states after talking in length about many subjects related to this, even the hit TV show
Ghost Hunters (i.e.The Atlantic Paranormal Society TAPS, I think):

"However, in a stakeout the ghost hunter cannot control all, or even most, of the variables and conditions in the experiment he's conducting. It's important to remember that nearly anything that anyone thinks is odd for any reason can be offered as evidence of a ghost. There is an impossibly broad spectrum of phenomena that have been claimed as signs of ghosts, including lights, shadows, noises, silence, heat, cold, moving objects, smells, uneasiness, and so on. If the presence of a ghost could be narrowed down to a specific phenomenon-for example, if everyone agreed (or it had been somehow proven) that ghosts give off red light or a certain high-pitched sound-then the problem of not having a controlled location would be greatly reduced. An investigator wouldn't need to rule out every possible source of sound, smell, light, etc., but instead would need to rule out merely any sources of red light or high-pitched sounds. But because just about any phenomenon can be attributed to ghosts, there is no way to rule out or control for the conditions. A ghost stakeout or lockdown is a completely unscientific waste of time.

Ultimately, of course, whether ghost hunters choose to use scientific methods and strategies is up to them. I personally don't care either way; it's not my time, effort, and money that's being wasted by doing fundamentally flawed investigation. But over the years I have gotten results and solved many cases using scientific techniques."

This is interesting and true from what an intelligent, well educated and a bit eccentric U.S. Chaplain named Joe once told me regarding hauntings on the paranormal in general:

"1. Assuming that no specialized knowledge or expertise is needed to effectively investigate ghosts.

One of the most common assumptions among ghost investigators is that in the paranormal field “there are no experts.” If there are no experts, then of course anyone can effectively investigate ghosts. Almost all ghost hunters are amateur, part-time hobbyists, and they come from all walks of life. On Ghost Hunters, two ordinary guys who work as plumbers during the day are touted as experts on ghost investigations, although none of the team members has any background or training in science, investigation, forensics, or any other field that might help solve mysteries.

Why it's a mistake: Paranormal investigation requires no certificate; anyone can do it with no training, knowledge, or expertise whatsoever. Whether they are effective or not-actually able to solve mysteries-is another matter entirely. Effectively investigating claims and solving mysteries does require some experience and expertise-specifically in investigation, logic, critical thinking, psychology, science, forensics, and other areas."

The article then states before it closes:

"If ghost hunters don't care about performing scientifically valid investigations and are happy with the level of evidence they are getting, they are welcome to ignore this information. But they can't complain that no one offered a science-based paradigm for paranormal investigation. I believe that if ghosts exist, they are important and deserve to be taken seriously. Most of the efforts to investigate ghosts so far have been badly flawed and unscientific-and, not surprisingly, fruitless. If investigation is to be done, it should be done right."

Note: Really good article from The Skeptical Inquirer and I will look for more of these articles that take a more open minded and scientific approach to not only the paranormal but also UFO's, Cryptoxoology, etc. and are not afraid to point out mistakes people in these fields make but also other issues as well.-Rob 

Ghost-Hunting Mistakes: Science and Pseudoscience in Ghost Investigations - Skeptical Inquirer

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/ghost-hunting_mistakes_science_and_pseudoscience_in_ghost_investigations

Advice for any paranormal researcher/ghost hunter/parapsychologist

Advice for any paranormal researcher/ghost hunter/parapsychologist and anyone else into related topics (e.g. Cryptozoology, UFO's, etc.) would be to:

1. Always investigate and evaluate all claims, story's and eyewitness testimony

2. Use investigative techniques that police/detectives use if applicable

3. Be familiar with what constitutes as evidence and how to treat and examine it, also be familiar with any equipment you use, how use it properly and repair it

4. Having at least a general education helps greatly esp.in the fields of basic science/related fields, zoology, aircraft, old building hazards and building construction, geology, weather/meteorology, CSI techniques, psychology, medical conditions, interviewing techniques, doing research, taking evidence and notes, how to tell when someone is lying by eye movement/body language, logical fallacies, critical thinking, knowing first aid, local history of area you are investigating, etc.

5. Conducting basic/general research, asking questions, doing interviews, taking notes on paper/tape recorder, writing computer reports, etc.

Historians Claim to Have Tracked Down Remains of Vlad the Impaler, ‘Dracula’ -The Epoch Times

"A team of Estonian scholars believe they have finally discovered the long-lost location of Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century Prince upon which Bram Stoker based his 1897 gothic novel ‘Dracula’.  According to the report in Hurriyet Daily News, his remains are in the Piazza Santa Maria la Nova graveyard in Naples, and not the Romanian Transylvanian Alps as first thought.

Vlad III, the Prince of Wallachia, was born sometime between 1428 and 1431, probably in Sighişaora, Transylvania. His patronymic, ‘Dracul’, means Dragon, derived from the membership of his father, Vlad II Dracul, in the Order of the Dragon, an order of chivalry for the defence of Christianity in Eastern Europe against the Ottomans, so the young Vlad became known as Dracula, or “son of Dragon”.

Although Vlad was infamous throughout Europe for his cruelty, it was his favourite method of execution that ensured his place in history and gave him the name Vlad Tepes (‘Vlad the Impaler’).  It is said that as Vlad retreated from a battle against the Ottomans in 1462, he impaled and put on display some 20,000 people outside the city of Targoviste as a deterrent to the pursuing Ottoman forces. This psychological attack worked, as it is claimed that the sight was so repulsive that the Ottomans, after seeing the scale of Vlad’s carnage and the thousands of decaying bodies being picked apart by crows, turned back and retreated to Constantinople."

For more on this story see here:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/736964-historians-claim-to-have-tracked-down-remains-of-vlad-the-impaler-dracula/    

Mystery solved: This is the monster that ate that great white shark - Gizmodo

"It wasn't the Kraken. It wasn't Godzilla. And it wasn't even a rabid killer whale. The mysterious animal that had killed and eaten the 9-foot great white shark and had stumped scientists turned out to be a super predator feared by even apex predators like the great white shark. So what was it?

According to the researchers who investigated the puzzling case, it was a "colossal cannibal great white shark."

We found that the original YouTube video we posted this morning belongs to the documentary The Search for the Ocean's Super Predator, produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It seems that the Smithsonian Channel repackaged it into another documentary called Hunt for the Super Predator.

 The documentary narrates the scientific effort to catalogue Australia's great whites and the search for the killer of this 9-foot great white that initially had bewildered the scientists. It was only after further studying the bigger migrating great whites that came into the area where the 9-footer was killed when they finally guessed the identity of the killer."

Cont. on link:

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/mystery-solved-heres-the-animal-that-ate-the-9-foot-gr-1587429691

Missing Flight 370: Al Qaeda link explored as 11 terror suspects arrested

True theory or from a conspiracy nut? You decide! v

"As I have been saying for weeks and predicting they will not find the plane because the authorities deliberately blew it up as soon as it illegally turned from north to west. The reason why they did it was because its two Muslim pilots were on a suicide run. Learning from the actions of the four Muslim pilots in the 911 attacks, the authorities look for the actions of pilots which indicate a suicide run:

1. They cut off all voice communications
2. They disabled all electronics and tracking systems
3. They illegally changed course

The older pilot was angry at his Muslim government because his best friend, a politician, was put in jail for sodomy and the younger pilot was a religious nut who prayed in the mosque everyday. Once the plane changed course the authorities had 20 minutes before it would crash into downtown Kuala Lumpur and its giant Petronas Twin Towers. So the decision was made to destroy the pane then have it crash into the towers. The wreckage was quickly collected and all the search planes and ships were sent thousands of miles away on a wild goose chase.

Recently a pilot from Ethiopia hijacked a plane to Switzerland. Although the plane was followed by fighter jets, it was not shot down because the pilot maintained voice communications and did not disable the electronics. It also remained on course. If he did any of the tricks the pilots on the Malaysian flight, I am sure it would been blasted out of the sky.." -Mike215
arrested

Missing Flight 370: Al Qaeda link explored as 11 terror suspects arrested

http://www.examiner.com/article/missing-flight-370-al-qaeda-link-explored-as-11-terror-suspects-arrested

Flight MH370 Crashed/Went Missing To Unite World Government's?

Flight MH370 crashed/went missing in order to unite most of the world's major governments,
someone told me recently.

Like in Alan Moore's comic book series, graphic novel and movie "Watchmen".

But weren't these government's already friendly towards each other in the first place?

I know the USA and Malaysia are and that the U.S. does business with China, it also
has good relationships with Australia, India, etc. same for many other country's.

Even without the USA e.g. China and Malaysia, Australia and Malaysia, China
and Australia, etc.

Still, something interesting to think about, I guess...... -Rob

BREAKING NEWS: Loch Ness Monster Found? -Animal Planet

Satellite imagery accessed using Apple's satellite map app has Nessie fans all over the world buzzing. It appears to show a mammoth underwater monster swimming below the surface of Loch Ness.

The Official Loch Ness Monster fan club has been studying the image for about six months. Various explanations have been ruled out and hundreds if not thousands of Nessie connoisseurs around the world are
now convinced that this is definitive evidence of the Loch Ness Monster's existence.

What do you think? Is this just a case of misaken identity or could it be the real thing? Sound off in the comments!

Our own Jeremy Wade, host of River Monsters set out on a journey to unlock the mysteries of Loch Ness. Watch the video below to see what he uncovered.

Read more of the story here:

BREAKING NEWS: Loch Ness Monster Found? -Animals Planet/Discovery Channel

http://blogs.discovery.com/bites-animal-planet/2014/04/breaking-news-loch-ness-monster-found-.html#mkcpgn=fbapl1

New Device Enables Scientists To Converse With Dolphins - Animal Planet

A baby Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and mother swim together in the seas near Curacao, Netherlands Antilles (Photo by Horizons/UIG via Getty Images)

Humans are one step closer to communicating with dolphins, after scientists successfully interacted with dolphins using an underwater audio device, according to news outlets.

Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry, or Chat, enables scientists to emit audio that resembles the sounds dolphins make in the water. While the microphones do not translate the dolphin sounds into human language, it allows scientists to “speak” in clicks and high-pitched whistles that can be used to teach dolphins new commands and vocabulary, according to The Independent.

Read more of the story here:

New Device Enables Scientists To Converse With Dolphins - Animal Planet/Discovery Channel

http://blogs.discovery.com/bites-animal-planet/2014/04/new-device-enables-scientists-to-converse-with-dolphins.html

Someone's Handing Out Leaflets in Eastern Ukraine Telling Jews to 'Register' - Yahoo News

For my 401 post I wanted to post something important via yahoo news:

In a disturbing reminder of an era that's supposed to be bygone, an image has been circulating of what appears to be a leaflet asking all Jews over the age of 16 in Donetsk, Ukraine, to "register" with separatist militants. The leaflet, reported by Ynet and picked up by USA Today, bears the signature of the head of Donetsk's temporary pro-Russia "government" Denis Pushilin. However, the Ukranians attempting to bring the region under Russian control have denied any involvement with the flyer.

Secretary of State John Kerry declined to assign blame for the leaflets in a Thursday statement. However, he condemned them as "'intolerable" and "grotesque." 

According to Ynet's English report, the leaflet, written in Russian, reads:

""Dear Ukraine citizens of Jewish nationality. Due to the fact that the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine supported Bendery Junta," a reference to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement which fought for Ukrainian independence at the end of World War II, "and oppose the pro-Slavic People's Republic of Donetsk, (the interim government) has decided that all citizens of Jewish descent, over 16 years of age and residing within the republic's territory are required to report to the Commissioner for Nationalities in the Donetsk Regional Administration building and register."

The flyer continues to instruct its Jewish readers that an "ID and passport are required to register your Jewish religion," and that they should bring "religious documents of family members, as well as documents establishing the rights to all real estate property that belongs to you, including vehicles." Members of Donetsk's Jewish population say they were handed the flyers by three masked men on their way out of the region's synagogue last week. The flyer notes that registration will cost $50, and that anyone who doesn't comply will be, basically, deported.

http://news.yahoo.com/someones-handing-leaflets-eastern-ukraine-telling-jews-register-173828220.html

Note:

I posted about this yesterday on yahoo comments on another story regarding Russia/Ukraine. WWII ended a long time ago, and so did The Holocaust but antisemitism is still alive and well. Jews over there should ignore this leaflet but be ever vigilant, aware and careful. The world is watching, including the USA, Israel, U.N. and other Allies, ready to take action against any pogroms. History will hopefully not repeat itself again and if it ever does, Homosexuals would be next, followed by politicals, religious people and others. -Rob

Car accident killed SD girls missing since 1971 -Yahoo News

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office shows a Studebaker with skeletal remains found in Brule Creek near Elk Point, S.D. Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson were last seen May 29, 1971, driving a 1960 Studebaker Lark on their way to a party. The attorney general, sheriffs from Union and Clay counties, and the Union County state's attorney scheduled a news conference Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Elk Point where they plan plan to release test results and update the investigation into the 1971 disappearance of the two girls near Alcester. (AP Photo/South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, File)

ELK POINT, S.D. (AP) — Two South Dakota girls on their way to an end-of-school-year party at a gravel pit in May 1971 drove off a country road and into a creek where their remains lay hidden until last fall when a drought brought their car into view, authorities said Tuesday.

State and local officials held a news conference Tuesday afternoon confirming that the 1960 Studebaker unearthed in September included the remains of Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson, both 17-year-olds who attended Vermillion High School.

The investigators showed dozens of photographs of well-preserved clothing, Miller's purse and even her driver's license complete with a smiling photograph. Those personal items and DNA were used to identify the girls, said Attorney General Marty Jackley. Jackson didn't have her purse along.

Read More of the Story here:

Car accident killed SD girls missing since 1971

http://news.yahoo.com/car-accident-killed-sd-girls-missing-since-1971-194013896.htm

Note:

Glad this mystery is finally solved, albeit a bit too late. This brings to mind many more mysteries of missing people, vehicles and planes from not only here but around the world. Imagine if everyone of us was a detective/PI/investigator btw, almost every mystery might be solved, but then again bad people could use that knowledge to cover up other mysteries, their own too.

Also:

Also sad to hear the father passed away only 5 days before his daughter was found, the wreckage was right under everyone's noses hiding in plain sight almost, I hope this teaches police, detectives, amateur searchers and SAR in general, plus others an important lesson. I hope these girls did not drown btw, but their is no telling if they did, and if someone possibly bumped them off the road like a drunk teenager. -Rob

Flight MH370 mechanical problems/fire/zombie plane theory?

Flight MH370 mechanical problems/fire/zombie plane theory?

"Caught fire. The pilots, thinking it was an electrical fire, turned off all electrical systems they could. (Worry about fire is one reason they CAN turn off everything, including the radios.) Then they turned west toward the nearest major airfield, to try to make an emergency landing.

Unable to put out the fire, they climbed to extreme altitude because the low oxygen content of thin air (there is as much oxygen, percentage-wise, but less air in total, so less oxygen) reduces the intensity of fire and would help put it out. The problem is that to do this they climbed higher than the plane was normally meant to fly, and when you get that high the air is so thin that the stall speed (the speed below which there isn't enough airflow over the wings to keep flying) starts to get dangerously close to your regular speed. So it's very easy to stall the airplane-- it stops flying and starts falling.

Any pilot is trained to recover from a simple stall. In fact all you have to do is put the nose down to gain speed, or in this case drop to a lower altitude where the air is thicker. The plane climbed to 45,000 feet then suddenly dropped to 25,000- looks like a stall and recovery to me.

It is possible they depressurized the airplane at high altitude to try to put out the fire, and then discovered their emergency oxygen masks didn't work. (Multiple failures at once are rare, but when a plane is lost it is often because of several things that went wrong at the worst possible time-- which is one reason such accidents are so rare.) If so everyone on board would probably be unconscious from this point on, and the plane just flying on automatic pilot.

"Personally, I think that is the most likely scenario. While 45,000 feet is above an airliner's usual cruising altitude, 25,000 is below it. I am just guessing here, but I would think an airliner that had stalled and was falling out of the sky from 45,000 should be able to recover before it had fallen that far. But if the pilots had set the autopilot just to keep the plane flying straight and level the autopilot, being dumb, might just keep trying to do that as the plane stays in its stall and keeps falling. This would continue until the mere thicker air at lower altitude allowed the plane to fly out of the stall on its own.

If the pilots weren't incapacitated when the plane went to its highest altitude, the plane stalled, forcing them to lower altitude again. There the fire flared up again, and the pilots were overcome by the smoke.

In any case the pilots were incapacitated, and the plane flew on from there on autopilot, going wherever it happened to be pointed.

It is likely everyone else on board was also incapacitated or dead by the time this happened. We can hope so because if not they were on the wrong side of a heavily armored security door designed to make it impossible for passengers to break into the cockpit-- and they were along for the ride to nowhere with nothing they could do.

Certainly anyone aboard would have tried to use their cell phone, but the range of a cell phone out to sea is three or four miles maybe, and they were hundreds of miles out." -Bill via Amazon Discussions

What do you think happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdPage=28&cdThread=Tx3QEAPS0DF6CT&newContentID=MxXKZ317MDE7FO&newContentNum=708#Mx144I8WEJAO36A

More Thoughts on Missing Malaysian Flight MH370:

Yahoo user Frank responds to Torrent (see previous post on this blog, below this one) with these comments regarding missing Flight MH370 via yahoo news comments (see link to article below, also I commented as yahoo user Robert):

"Great post - here's some thoughts-

So - Let's rule some stuff out.

1. Agreed - Suicide is out. The pilot would have to disable some control systems but within his capabilities. But the flew on for 7 hours - he would have had to kill all onboard too - doing that without just crashing the plane is too weird..
2. Kinda - Terrorism is out. It could have been a lone wolf type of thing - like Boston.
3. Agreed - Theft of the plane is out - this is a theory that I believe oringniated on yahoo comment boards and is about as idiotic as even the worst theories.
4. Kinda - Theft of the plane for technology is out, although terrorist would love to have a 777 to learn how to fly on - it's a difficult thing to pull off - the "radar" thing would have watched the plane land anywhere (except Diego Garcia - but the ACARS data does support the plane flying in that direction).
5. Agreed - Military seizure is a very difficult solution to a problem where so many much simpler solutions exist.
6. Out - Communicable diseases theory is straight out of Hollywood - right now there is some producer that is calling Harrison Ford about this movie right now.
7. Out - Theft of the plane to pack it full of nukes - This just couldn't happen for so many, so many, so many, so many, so many reasons - here's a short list - tracking of nukes, tracking of current flights and current squawks, the huge number of civilians that would act as part of all of these systems make a cover up in possible, RADAR - it sees planes flying around, missile defense systems, fighters ready to scramble at a moments notice, ACARS, etc.

Thought on the List of oddities:

1. Complete radio and telephone silence - last words heard: goodnight tower (no stress or concern in voice). Technological know-how and ability to disable communication systems is extreme - and the pilots should have been able to communicate using alternate forms of communication as systems began failing.
2. Disappearance from all area national radars
3. Disappearance occurred on a calm night.
4. All passengers and crew are cleared of terrorist suspicion
5. Pilots are cleared of suicidal tendencies

Conclusions: Need a single thing that can fit into all of the oddities - Rapid Cabin Depressurization - at altitude could kill everyone on board in minutes - O2 system could last 15 minutes as best (and likely on for the pilots at that time). Pilots could have still descended quickly to an altitude with enough O2. BUT, what if a spark in the O2 system cause the explosion - this would eliminate the O2 from the masks, killing everyone on board within 2 minutes. The plane would continuing flying on George - even executing the preprogrammed turnaround towards the nearest airport (common practice) but with dead pilots, the plane would keep flying til flame out."

My own thoughts are that it was either...

1. Poison gas (including, but not limited to Co2 - Carbon Monoxide).
2. Electrical fire that had deadly smoke, fire eventually burned out though.
3. Cabin Depressurization like Frank mentioned above.
4. Terrorist/Lone Wolf Bombings/Other act, also as Frank Mentioned above.
5. A fast paced deadly virus would be possible like Torrent said, possibly, killing all onboard.
6. Pilot Suicide is always possible.
7. Pilot or Hijackers crashed plane into ocean as a political act, religious one, or other. 
8. Something else.

-Rob

Mini-sub to dive again after aborting first MH370 search - Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/mini-sub-tries-again-first-search-mh370-aborted-015845573.html

Missing Malaysian Flight MH370 oddities...

Regarding missing Malaysian airliner Flight MH 370:

"OK - So - Let's rule some stuff out.

1. Suicide is out. The pilot could just ditch the plane - with no need to disable anything.
2. Terrorism is out. No one has come forward to take credit for the lost plane. And, if you wanted to destroy the plane, you just crash it.
3. Theft of the plane for money is out. If money were that important to you, you could extort hundreds of times more than the value of the plane by holding the passengers hostage.
4. Theft of the plane for technology is out. You can just buy one.
5. Military seizure of the plane to arrest political criminals is out. After the targets were acquired and in custody, the rest of the passengers would be sent home.
6. Communicable diseases: Perhaps there was an outbreak of some airborne and deadly virus on the flight. The pilots turned the plane around and headed for the most remote areas of the Earth to keep the disease from spreading. But this does not explain radio silence.
7. Theft of the plane to pack it full of nukes to fly into a major city under the guise of a different plane. U.S. satellites have the ability to track and recognize radiation signatures of nukes. The plane would be shot out of the sky before it reached U.S. airspace. This theory does not explain why no passenger used satellite phone technology to call someone and blow the whistle.
What more should be on this list of Rule-Outs?

List of oddities:

1. Complete radio and telephone silence - last words heard: goodnight tower (no stress or concern in voice). Technological know-how and ability to disable communication systems is extreme - and the pilots should have been able to communicate using alternate forms of communication as systems began failing.
2. Disappearance from all area national radars
3. Disappearance occurred on a calm night.
4. All passengers and crew are cleared of terrorist suspicion
5. Pilots are cleared of suicidal tendencies
What other Oddities need to be included?

I have to admit - this has me stumped".-Via yahoo news commentator Torrent

Great list btw. Very interesting. -Rob

Mini-sub to dive again after aborting first MH370 search - Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/mini-sub-tries-again-first-search-mh370-aborted-015845573.html

Report: Ship detects "pulse" signal in search for jet airliner MH370 - CBS News

PERTH, Australia -- "A Chinese ship involved in the hunt for the missing Malaysian jetliner reported hearing a "pulse signal" Saturday in Indian Ocean waters with the same frequency emitted by the plane's data recorders.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said a black box detector deployed by the ship, Haixun 01, picked up a signal at 37.5 kilohertz (cycles per second). However, Xinhua said it had not yet been determined whether the signal was related to the missing plane, citing the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center.

Malaysia's civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, confirmed that the frequency emitted by Flight 370's black boxes was 37.5 kilohertz.

Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Chief Coordinator of the Joint Agency Coordination Center -- the Australian government agency coordinating the search -- said Saturday the Haixun's report of electronic pulse signals could not be verified at this time. U.S. officials from the NTSB and FAA were not able to confirm the report, either.

Houston also said the report of a number of white objects on the water's surface about 90 kilometers from the signal detection area could not be confirmed to be related to the missing plane.

The deployment of Royal Australian Air Force assets to the area where the Chinese ship detected the sounds is being considered, Houston said."

Read more here:

CBS News - Flight MH370 Located?

Of Prehistoric Eels and Lake Monsters - Cryptomundo

Of Prehistoric Eels and Lake Monsters

"When the paleontology community has pooh-poohed the idea of relict plesiosaurs being responsible for the identity of various sea and lake “monsters” in different places around the world, some researchers have embraced the simpler theory that these hypothetical animals may be giant eels. The giant eel theory goes as far back as famed early American naturalist Constantine Rafinesque in 1817, who proposed it for the Lake Erie monster. The theory was further fueled by a 6 foot larval eel captured off the coast of South Africa in 1930. Based on ratios of the size of the larval stages of known eel species to the adults, it was theorized this 6 foot larvae might produce a 60 foot adult.

In 1970, ichthyologist D.G. Smith produced evidence to suggest that this 6 foot larvae was probably not a true eel but a Notocanthiform fish (related to the true eels). The Notocanths have large larvae that do not have the same disparity in size with the adults, so this was taken as a defeat to the sea serpent idea for the1930 larval fish. This has been disputed by some, however."

Read more here: Cryptomundo - Prehistoric Eels And Lake Monsters

Mountain Monsters: Kentucky Hellhound of Pike County - Cryptomundo

"Decades of folklore and eyewitness encounters collide as AIMS travels to Pike County to investigate the Kentucky Hellhound. First spotted in 1939 in the western heart of Hatfield and McCoy territory, and originally written off as the delusion of backwoods moonshiners, this enormous 500-pound canine predator is in fact alive and well, menacing the local farming community. AIMS must act fast to capture the creature in a huge bamboo cage trap before the cornstalks are harvested and the Hellhound migrates for the winter season."

Read more here:

http://cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/mountain-monsters-kentucky-hellhound-of-pike-county/

10 Scientific Explanations For Ghostly Phenomena - Listverse

According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 37 percent ofAmericans believe in haunted houses, and according to a 2013 HuffPost/YouGov poll, 45 percent believe in ghosts. These are surprising numbers, but the next time you hear a spooky sound, don’t call the Ghostbusters—get a scientist instead. Behind every shadow, poltergeist, and disembodied voice, there’s a perfectly rational explanation.

10. Electric Stimulation Of The Brain

Frightened witnesses all over the world have seen the shadow people. These dark beings are glimpsed out of the corner of the eye only to vanish when confronted. Many believe them to be demons, some think they’re astral bodies, and some say they’re time travelers, here for a second and gone. However, some researchers have a more shocking theory.

When Swiss scientists electrically stimulated an epileptic patient’s brain, things got really spooky. The patient reported a shadow person sitting behind her, copying her every move. When she sat up, it also sat up. When she bent forward and grabbed her knees, it reached around her body and held her. The doctors then told her to read a card, but the shadow person tried to take it out of her hand.

What happened was the scientists had stimulated the left temporoparietal junction, the part of the brain that defines the idea of self. By interfering with the area that helps us tell the difference between ourselves and others, the doctors screwed up the brain’s ability to understand its own body, thus leading to the creation of a copycat shadow person. Researchers are hoping this is the key to understanding why so many people, both schizophrenic and healthy, encounter shadow beings and other creatures like aliens.

9. Ideomotor Effect

The Spiritualist movement was pretty big in the 1840s and 1850s. It provided a way for people to talk to their dead loved ones. One method of communication was the Ouija board. Still popular today, the board was covered in letters, numbers, and simple words (like “yes” or “no”). People would then place their hands on a wooden piece called a planchette and ask the spirits a question. A ghost would respond by moving the planchette from letter to letter, spelling out a response (or unleashing Captain Howdy).

Another creepy method for interacting with spirits was table tilting. During a séance, people would gather round a table and place their hands on the tabletop. To everyone’s surprise, the table would start moving by itself. It might tilt up on one leg, levitate off the ground or scoot around the room.

Con men were definitely involved in some of these incidents, but were all these encounters frauds? Renowned physicist Michael Faraday wanted to find out. Through clever experimentation, Faraday discovered that the tables were often moving thanks to the ideomotor effect.

This is when the power of suggestion causes our muscles to move unconsciously. People expected a table to move so they unintentionally moved it. A similar event took place in 1853 when four doctors held an experimental séance. When they secretly told half the participants the table would move to the right and half it would move left, the table didn’t budge. But when they told everyone it would move in one direction, the ideomotor effect struck again! This same principle applies to the Ouija board. It’s our own muscles that are doing the spelling, not the spirits.

8. Infrasound

After seeing a gray ghost near his desk, researcher Vic Tandy was worried his laboratory might be haunted. But the next day, Tandy made an interesting discovery. While preparing for a fencing match, Tandy placed his sword in a vise. He then noticed the blade was vibrating on its own. All of a sudden, everything clicked. He realized the force causing his sword to shake was the same force haunting his lab. Vic Tandy was dealing with infrasound.

Humans can hear sounds up to 20,000 Hertz, but we’re unable to detect anything lower than 20 Hz. These “silent” noises are called infrasound, and while we can’t hear them, we can feel them in the form of vibrations. Dr. Richard Wiseman says we can feel these waves, especially in our stomachs, and this can create either a positive feeling (such as awe) or a negative feeling (such as unease). In the right surroundings (see “creepy house”), this might create a sense of panic.

Infrasound can be produced by storms, wind, weather patterns, and even everyday appliances. Returning to Vic Tandy, after witnessing his wobbling sword, he learned that a new fan had been installed in his laboratory, and sure enough, it was issuing vibrations of about 19 Hz. Since our eyeballs have a resonant frequency around 20 Hz, the infrasound was vibrating Tandy’s eyeballs and creating images that weren’t really there.
When Tandy turned off the fan, presto: no more ghost.

Similarly, Dr. Wiseman believes these vibrations are responsible for paranormal activity in “haunted” locations. For example, when investigating two underground sites, he discovered evidence of infrasound coming from the traffic overhead. Wiseman thinks this explains the ghostly figures and creepy footsteps in these areas, proving there’s nothing good about these vibrations.

7. Automatism

What do witch doctors and Shirley MacLaine have in common? They’re all big into channeling! Channeling is one of mankind’s oldest attempts to reach the spirit world. The idea is to clear the mind, connect with some sort of cosmic consciousness and let a centuries-old spirit possess your body, which doesn’t sound creepy at all. The shamans of ancient religions were believed to channel the dead, TV psychic John Edward says he can speak to those who’ve crossed over, and medium J.Z. Knight claims she channels a spirit named Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old spirit from Atlantis. Obviously, there are quite a few frauds in the channeling community, but what about the people who sincerely believe in what they’re doing?

The answer is automatism, an “altered state of consciousness” where people say things and think things they’re not aware of. So when a psychic clears his mind, he starts searching for a friendly spirit guide. The spirit guide is supposed to enter his body and then provide secret knowledge about the universe. When the psychic clears his mind, random ideas and images start popping up in his head, and the medium assumes these thoughts are coming from another entity. However, these ideas are just coming from his mind.

Our brains are capable of coming up with all kinds of crazy stuff without any conscious effort on our part. How many times has something inspired you out of the blue? How many times have you had totally bizarre nightmares or daydreams? That’s not the work of an otherworldly guide. That’s your brain, working overtime all the time.

6. Drafts

You’re exploring a creepy, run-down mansion in the middle of the night when suddenly the air grows cold. However, if you take a few steps to the left or right, the temperature returns to normal. This is what parapsychologists call a cold spot. According to ghost hunters, a cold spot is a sign of paranormal activity. When a ghost has nothing better to do than appear out of thin air and scare people to death, it needs energy. So the ghost draws heat from its surroundings (including people) in order to manifest.

However, scientists have a much simpler (and much more boring) explanation. When skeptics investigate “haunted” houses, they usually find cool air entering the house through a chimney or window. But even if the room is sealed off, there’s still a perfectly rational explanation. Every object has its own temperature, and some surfaces are hotter than others. In an attempt to equalize the room temperature, the objects try to lose heat in a process called convection. This is where hot air rises, and cool air drops. Similarly, when dry air enters a humid room, the dry air sinks to the floor and the humid air rises to the ceiling. This swirling air will feel cool against a person’s skin, giving the impression of a cold spot. Next time you feel a ghostly presence, turn on the heater

5Camera Issues

          
5. Camera Issues

In 1921, ophthalmologist William Wilmer published a bizarre paper in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. It told the story of the “H” family and their haunted house. Their hell home was plagued with the sounds of slamming doors, moving furniture and footsteps in empty rooms. One of the children felt something sitting on him while the other was attacked by a mysterious stranger. During the night, the woman of the house awoke to see a man and a woman standing at the foot of her bed, only to watch them vanish moments later. As the hauntings continued, the family grew tired and depressed, and then their plants started to die. It was then they discovered the faulty furnace. The furnace was supposed to send its fumes up the chimney, but instead the gas was pouring into the house. It turns out the family was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas, which makes it really hard to detect. It’s dangerous because our red blood cells absorb CO much easier than they do oxygen, and this oxygen deprivation leads to symptoms such as weakness, nausea, confusion, and eventually death. But before you kick the bucket, you might experience hallucinations, just like the “H” family. For example, in 2005, a woman called the authorities after seeing a spirit in her bathroom. It turned out the paranormal activity was due to her leaky water heater which was filling the house with CO. Bottom line: Stay away from carbon monoxide, folks, because one way or another, it’ll have you seeing ghosts.

                                                                                                           


4. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

In 1921, ophthalmologist William Wilmer published a bizarre paper in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. It told the story of the “H” family and their haunted house. Their hell home was plagued with the sounds of slamming doors, moving furniture and footsteps in empty rooms. One of the children felt something sitting on him while the other was attacked by a mysterious stranger. During the night, the woman of the house awoke to see a man and a woman standing at the foot of her bed, only to watch them vanish moments later. As the hauntings continued, the family grew tired and depressed, and then their plants started to die. It was then they discovered the faulty furnace. The furnace was supposed to send its fumes up the chimney, but instead the gas was pouring into the house. It turns out the family was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas, which makes it really hard to detect. It’s dangerous because our red blood cells absorb CO much easier than they do oxygen, and this oxygen deprivation leads to symptoms such as weakness, nausea, confusion, and eventually death. But before you kick the bucket, you might experience hallucinations, just like the “H” family. For example, in 2005, a woman called the authorities after seeing a spirit in her bathroom. It turned out the paranormal activity was due to her leaky water heater which was filling the house with CO. Bottom line: Stay away from carbon monoxide, folks, because one way or another, it’ll have you seeing ghosts.

3. Mass Hysteria

In June 2013, over 3,000 workers went on strike at a garment factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh. They weren’t protesting against long working hours, and they weren’t demanding better wages. They wanted someone to do something about the ghost in the restroom. An angry spirit had attacked a worker in the lady’s room, causing everyone to panic. A riot ensued, and the police had to restore order. A similar event took place at a school in Patong, Phuket when 22 students were hospitalized after seeing the ghost of an old woman. But while the Bangladeshi factory owner ordered an exorcism, perhaps he should have called a counselor instead.

Both the workers and the students experienced a psychological phenomenon known as mass hysteria. These collective delusions occur when people are really stressed out, usually thanks to their oppressive environments (like a strict school or busy workplace). This pent-up stress then turns into physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, or violent spasms. Throw in religious and cultural beliefs, a relatively isolated environment and the always-busy rumor mill, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Other people will “catch” the same strange symptoms, they’ll spread like a disease, and panic ensues.

It’s interesting to note that very few of the 3,000 factory workers actually encountered the ghost. Even the woman who sparked the frenzy didn’t actually see anything. She got sick and just assumed it was the work of an evil spirit, but the suggestion was so powerful and the circumstances were so perfect that everyone freaked out. Fortunately, it didn’t end with human sacrifices or dogs and cats living together.

2. Ions

Unfortunately, real ghost hunters don’t carry proton packs. However, they do use tools such as the ion counter. The ion counter, well, counts ions. An ion is an atom with an uneven amount of protons and electrons. If an atom gains an electron, it becomes a negative ion, and if it loses an electron, it becomes positive.

Ghost hunters go crazy over ions because they supposedly show a paranormal presence. Some say a spirit’s presence interferes with the normal ion count in the atmosphere while others say ghosts draw upon ionic energy when they want to appear and scare people to death. However, ion counters are really pretty lousy when it comes to detecting ghosts. Ions are caused by all kinds of natural phenomena like weather, solar radiation, and radon gas. So it basically comes down to how someone interprets the evidence. Scientists see ions and think, “Natural.” Ghost hunters see ions and think, “Paranormal!”

Interestingly, both positive and negative ions can affect our moods. Negative ions can make us feel calm and relaxed while positive ions can give us headaches and make us feel lousy. This might explain why people who live in “haunted” houses describe feeling tired and tense, as well as having headaches.

1. Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics is the study of the smallest types of matter, and it has led to some pretty awesome inventions. However, it can get pretty weird when physicists start talking about souls and ghosts. Take, for example, Dr. Stuart Hameroff and his physicist friend Roger Penrose. Hameroff and Penrose theorize that human consciousness comes from microtubules inside our brain cells, and these tubules are responsible for quantum processing (our souls basically). Hameroff and Penrose believe when people have a near-death experience, all that quantum information leaves the brain, yet continues to exist, which is why some people report out-of-body experiences and lights at the end of tunnels.

As you might expect, a lot of scientists have problems with Hameroff and Penrose’s theory. But Dr. Henry Stapp isn’t one of them. As a respected quantum physicist who worked with the famous Heisenberg, Stapp believes that a person’s personality might be able to survive death and exist as a “mental entity.” Stapp theorizes if these entities could return to the physical world, then concepts like possession and channeling could really be possible. Are men like Stapp, Hameroff, and Penrose just wishful thinkers? Or are they modern day Galileos?

Nolan Moore was once bitten on the foot by an alligator, but he survived to become an ESL teacher. He hopes to avoid future alligator encounters and one day make it as a writer.

Source: Listverse - Ghosts