Why NASA Has Never Returned To The Moon

Alien moon: Why NASA Never Returned To The Moon 1

Alien moon: Why NASA Never Returned To The Moon 2

Alien moon: Why NASA Never Returned To The Moon 3
Video that documents reasons why NASA has not returned a mission to the moon's surface.

Why NASA Has Never Returned To The Moon
Why NASA Has Never Returned To The Moon

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UFO Videos: Hermosa Beach, CA - 4/22/08

Two-part video of a UFO that was seen over the ocean at Hermosa Beach, CA on 4/22/08. There is an introduction by the videographer in the beginning of the 1st video.

UFO Videos Hermosa Beach CA
UFO Videos Hermosa Beach CA

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Video: Vietnam Confirms UFO Explosion / Crash

An unidentified flying object exploded at about 10:00 AM on May 27th over the northern part of Phu Quoc Island, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

This is a region off the coast of the southern province of Kien Giang. Col. Nguyen Van Qui, military chief of the island district, reported the explosion and consequent discovery of debris.

It is reported that many residents found what are described as "many gray metal pieces, including a 1.5 meter long piece".

The island district authorities on Phu Quoc quickly contacted airline companies in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but so far none have confirmed any accidents involving their flights.

The explosion happened at about 8 kilometers, or five miles, above the ground, the VNA reported, "and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft."

The Phu Quoc Island People’s Committee mobilized local armed forces and volunteers to help rescue any survivors, believing there had been a disaster, but there were none to be found. Col. Nguyen Van Qui was the person who described the craft as an "unidentified flying object" according to the VNA.

The deputy commander of the Cambodian Air Force, Kung Mony, said the initial determination was that a foreign plane had crashed in the Cambodian province of Kampot, but that suggestion was later retracted. Villagers in Kampot confirmed that they heard a loud explosion and then found small chunks of metal near the coast, presumably from the craft. They did not elaborate as to what type of metal it was.

One possibility the VNA cited, is that a military aircraft taking part in a secret mission exploded. If that is the case, its country of origin has not claimed it.

The theory was given some weight by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) report which said: "The explosion happened at about 8 km above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft."

Video Vietnam Confirms UFO Explosion Crash
Video Vietnam Confirms UFO Explosion Crash

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Revisit: The San Pedro Haunting - Video

One of the most famous recent haunting was the San Pedro Haunting or the Jackie Hernandez case, that was investigated by Barry Taff, who also investigated the famous “Entity” case.

Taff got involved in the case, along with cameraman Barry Conrad, in 1989 when he was asked to look into a house in San Pedro, California that was allegedly being haunted. The owner of the house was Jackie Hernandez, a young woman who also had some emotional problems in the past.

The investigators were told of strange smells, unexplained sounds, moving objects, apparitions, a glowing cloud that tried to suffocate her (and which had appeared in front of other witnesses) and actually witnessed a peculiar, dripping substance dripping from the kitchen cabinets.

The events in the house grew stronger and even followed Jackie from place to place. Taff began to believe that she was creating the phenomena unconsciously because of her emotional problems and what became a strong romantic attachment to Barry Conrad. It seemed that anyone who might be perceived as threat to Jackie’s relationship with Barry ended up on the end of a violent attack by the poltergeist.

However, there are problems with the theory that this was strictly a haunting brought on by living subject. The unexplained lights are certainly odd and so would be the reports of male apparitions from witnesses. Also, as Barry Taff found out later, Jackie’s house continued to be reported as haunted long after she moved out. According to the owners, no subsequent tenants stayed there for longer than 6 months. Could this be merely some residual from Jackie’s presence there or was there really a bonifide manevolent spirit?

The San Pedro Haunting
The San Pedro Haunting

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UK 'Bigfoot' Video Possibly a Cryptid Big Cat

Internet buffs claim to have filmed a wild 'Bigfoot'-type beast in the Peak District.

The video has been posted on internet site Youtube and has now been viewed by big cat spotters across the UK and further afield.

Although many people are suspicious of the footage, others claim it could be the real thing.

The film comes after various big cat sightings in the Dales and Peak over the past decades

Video Possibly Cryptid Big Cat
Video Possibly Cryptid Big Cat

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Attempt To Smuggle Radioactive Chernobyl Helicopter Foiled

A plan to smuggle a highly radioactive helicopter from the site of the world's worst nuclear accident and turn it into a cafe has been foiled in Ukraine, police said Friday.

Suspects were detained on Thursday carrying scrap 20-30 times the legal radiation level from the 30-kilometer (18-mile) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station, which exploded in 1986, police said in a statement.

The criminals "tried to take an Mi-8 helicopter out of exclusion zone to use it as an original coffee shop in one of Ukraine's cities," read the statement from the elite SBU special services.

A workhorse of the Soviet armed forces, the Mi-8 helicopter is capable of carrying up to 28 people in its normal configuration, although it's not clear how many customers the gang had been hoping to seat.

Smuggle Radioactive Chernobyl Helicopter
Smuggle Radioactive Chernobyl Helicopter

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Japanese Man Discovers Woman Living In His Closet

A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said Friday.

The 57-year-old man living alone -- or so he thought -- in the western city of Fukuoka installed a security camera and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around his home while he was out.

"We searched the house in the man's presence. We found the woman in the closet," said a local police spokesman.

The woman, named as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found in a flat storage space only just big enough for a person to squeeze into lying down.

She had sneaked a mattress and several plastic bottles into the cubby hole, police said, adding that the women had been arrested.

"She told police that she had nowhere to live," the spokesman said. "She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time."

It is unclear how she managed to enter the home undetected. Police suspect she might have been closet-hopping, moving from house to house.

Japan Woman Living In Closet
Japan Woman Living In Closet

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UFO Image Captured Over Spennymoor, County Durham

BRITISH UFO researchers are to examine a photo taken of a strange object in the sky above a North-East town.

Derbyshire man Barry Knaggs found the strange image when he downloaded pictures he had taken on his digital camera during a visit to Spennymoor, in County Durham, at the weekend.

Mr Knaggs, 61, was returning to the town where his parents used to live on a nostalgic visit with his wife.

Although the couple noticed nothing unusual at the time, Mr Knaggs says he was amazed when he downloaded the photos to his PC once back home.

"When I zoomed in to have a look I had to tell myself to stop being silly," he said.

"It looked like the typical fuzzy photo of a flying saucer."

Mr Knaggs sent the photo to The Northern Echo in the hope someone may be able to identify it.

UFO Spennymoor County Durham
UFO Spennymoor County Durham

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Lancashire: Second Only to London in UK Haunting Density

He came with a spade to Walton-le-Dale to dig up a corpse for necromancy - using black arts to communicate with spirits to predict the future.

Legend has it that Edward Kelley visited Lancashire in the 16th Century to raise a corpse at St Leonard's Church to discover the location of hidden treasure.

A convicted criminal and self-declared spirit medium, Kelley died aged 42, after a life trying to contact angels and convincing influential people he could produce gold.

The tale of the Walton-le-Dale corpse is the favourite Lancashire ghost story of a man who has helped compile a comprehensive list of paranormal activity.

Darren Mann began to collect stories for the national Paranormal Database in 1999 as part of a freelance photography project.

He said: "Before long the list far exceeded what it was intended for. Rather than sit on the information, I decided to share it with anyone with an interest in the subject.

"Most of the reports we have been sent from Lancashire are based around ghosts and haunted locations. We also have a few concerning UFO sightings but these are probably experimental aircraft from BAE. Pub ghosts are quite common and many of the old halls and manor houses in the region also have legends or ghost stories attached."

And according to the database, Lancashire has the second highest density of paranormal places in the UK.

The county clocked up 402 entries, which equates to a paranormal place every 2.95 miles. The only area which was more paranormally active was London, with a paranormal place every 1.3 miles.

The report was based on 7,944 incidents which were extracted from the database on May 1 2008.

Darren, who is based in Ipswich, added: "Lancashire has more than its fair share of ghosts, myths and legends and the diversity of these stories is fantastic - from demonic dogs to dragon legends.

"It is not clear why there are such a large number of reports in the region though Lancashire's history is richly diverse, covering conflict and cultural change."

Lancashire UK Hauntings
Lancashire UK Hauntings

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The Corbin Municipal Hospital Entities May Remain After It's Razed

With less than two weeks until its demolition, the question remains, will the ghost stories diminish with the Corbin Municipal Hospital?

The old Corbin Municipal Hospital has resided on a hill off of 4th street since 1951.

Sometime in the 1980s, Baptist Regional Medical Center opened its doors and the old hospital was left abandoned, falling into disrepair. However, there is evidence of recent activity there. Over the years, its windows have been busted out. Its walls have been covered with graffiti. Empty bottles and trash can be seen lining the floors.

But some residents believe this isn’t the only activity taking place at the old hospital.

An online search of the hospital brings up accounts of unexplainable occurrences. A YouTube search brings up videos someone searching through the old hospital. The Web site darkdarling.com provides a sound byte of an unexplained voice supposedly recorded at the hospital faintly whispering “I’m hurting.”

Tales of unexplained lights, sounds, voices and screams have been tied to the hospital since it was left abandoned long ago. There are some who believe the hospital has not lived such a lonely existence on the hill and something has made its home in the dark, moldy halls and glass covered floors of the building.

Many believe the old hospital to be haunted.

However, the mist pouring out of the open windows Wednesday was anything but an apparition materializing. Abatement crews were on site to remove asbestos in preparation for the hospital’s demolition, which is planned to occur within the next couple of weeks.

The Kentucky Communities Economic Opportunity Council purchased the property several years ago and plans to build affordable housing on the site. Soon, the building’s current “residents” will no longer call the Corbin Municipal Hospital home.

The looming destruction of the hospital has given amateur ghost hunters a smaller window to conduct searches of the old hospital in hopes of witnessing the unexplainable.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Jim Paul, who owns Ellison Funeral Home in Williamsburg, set out to debunk the ghost stories.

“My kids believe in ghosts, so I went to prove they weren’t there,” he said.

The group set out, camera in tow. Some were hoping to come away with photographic evidence of the supernatural. Although Paul did not, he snapped away, taking pictures of musty rooms and dark halls of the vacant building.

“We all went through it looking for this ghost that was supposedly there.”

Paul said he saw nothing. He heard no disembodied screams or cries of agony. The hospital was nothing more than a dark, dank empty building.

After a few hours of exploration, Paul and his children left the hospital and returned home to review the pictures taken. He sorted through numerous pictures, with nothing appearing out of the ordinary. However, when he came across a posed picture of his boys in the old hospital’s operating room, something stood out.

“There’s these little circles floating around everywhere,” he said. “Somebody told me they’re called orbs. It was cool.”

Orbs are believed by those in the paranormal field to be ghosts in the form of balls of light or energy used by spirits to manifest themselves.

Paul said conditions are far too damp for dust to have been so present in the air. But despite possibly obtaining evidence of the paranormal, Paul remains unconvinced about the existence of ghosts.

“I don’t believe this stuff,” he said. “I’m really critical of it.”

However, Paul said his kids were convinced they had gotten first-hand evidence of ghostly energy around them.

“We came up with those floaty things on the pictures, so I didn’t win the argument. We called it an even draw after the pictures.”

Miles Estes, vice president of advancement for the KCEOC, said he was unaware of the spectral yarns surrounding the hospital until the organization was preparing to purchase the property, which they did in July 2005. Prior to the completion of the acquisition, Estes said he did some online searching and found the results surprising.

“I did some research to see what we were getting,” he said. “I’ve actually had people call and say it’s one of the top haunted hospitals in America.”

Since the KCEOC’s purchase of the old hospital less than three years ago, several paranormal investigation organizations have expressed interest in studying the old hospital. However, Estes said these requests have been rejected by the KCEOC because of safety concerns.

“I’ve had paranormal organizations call me wanting to go in,” he said. “I was mostly amused at the inquiries. But our insurance freaked out. They’re not scared of ghosts. They’re scared of someone falling on a rusty nail and suing us. They’re worried about the liability.”

Estes indeed attributes the lights and sounds people have claimed to have witnessed in the old hospital to activity in the building — but not ghosts.

“An awful lot of kids spend an awful lot of time in there, so I don’t know that it is (haunted),” he said.

Rick DiMaggio, who operates Kentucky Ghost Trackers out of Corbin, said he has never personally investigated the hospital because it is privately owned property.

“No one would let us because it was dangerous,” he said. “We’re not trespassers.”

However, DiMaggio, who has been investigating paranormal activity for little more than a year, said that while he has not been inside, he and his wife set up a video camera outside the hospital one night to record. Hours of footage resulted in no evidence. However, DiMaggio said just because he was unable to capture evidence of ghostly activity doesn’t mean he’s ruled out the possibility of paranormal activity.

“It’s not to say there isn’t activity, we just didn’t see anything,” he said. “I’ve heard of a lot of people passing on at the hospital. I’m sure there’s something there if hauntings are real.”

While DiMaggio agreed with Estes that some of the lights and sounds are likely created by people roaming its halls in search of ghosts, he also said proving the true existence of ghosts is impossible.

“In reality, no one can prove any of this doesn’t exist,” he said. “No one can prove they do either.”

He said people can be injured while ghost hunting. And, most likely, it’s not the ghosts causing the harm.

“The majority of time, people are injured while running from what they thought they saw,” he said.

One of DiMaggio’s mentors, Chuck Starr, who operators Ghost Chasers International with his wife Patti, is not surprised that folks have reported ghostly activity at the hospital.

“My opinion is this, anytime you have an accumulation of humanity, you’re going to have hauntings,” he said. “Especially in places of strife or wars or hospitals. I guarantee, in all probability, there has been paranormal activity at some time in that hospital.”

He also said that those claiming to have experienced unexplainable occurrences, paranormal or not, are more likely being truthful when recounting what they have seen or heard.

“They’re not fabricating for the most part,” he said. “What they’re telling you is actually happening.”

Starr agreed with DiMaggio that lights and noises may be the result of trespassers hanging around the old hospital. He also said pictures of orbs can be attributed to dust, raindrops or insects. And as for those dislocated voices people have heard, Starr said science has an explanation for those as well.

Starr said he recently read a book on quantum physics, which stated that subatomic particles make up all of space. He said these ubiquitous particles trap sounds that have occurred at a certain place over time.

“They are the conduit for sounds,” he said. “As you and I have this conversation, sound goes into the universe and is trapped there forever.”

Another thing Starr agreed with DiMaggio on is the difficulty in proving the existence of ghosts.

“Ghost hunting is a lot like fishing,” he said. “You don’t know if you’re gonna get a nibble, let alone a fish. It’s kind of like you’re a detective and putting together pieces of a puzzle. In my opinion, in our lifetime, evidence will never be made available to us. Ghosts can be anywhere and everywhere and nowhere.”

As the old hospital’s destruction is imminent and its moldy, graffiti-covered walls come down, Starr said don’t look for its other worldly inhabitants to pack their bags. According to him, the apartments will only provide these spirits with a new place to call home.

“Chances are the tenants of those houses will experience paranormal activity,” Starr said. “Just because the hospital’s gone doesn’t mean the entity will go.”

Corbin Municipal Hospital Entities May Remain
Corbin Municipal Hospital Entities May Remain

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Video Reconstruction of 'Glowing Little Man'

The COPENOA news agency has provided the following link to a 3-D "reconstruction" of the "glowing little man" allegedly seen in San Carlos, Argentina.

Argentinean folklore offers a wealth of narratives involving diminutive paranormal entities, such as "El Pombero", and others whose presence is still reported -- and feared -- by rural residents.

Video Reconstruction Glowing Little Man
Video Reconstruction Glowing Little Man

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New Video Evidence Of Extraterrestrial / UFO To Be Unveiled Friday 5/30

A video that purportedly shows a living, breathing space alien will be shown to the news media Friday in Denver.

Jeff Peckman, who is pushing a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver to prepare the city for close encounters of the alien kind, said the video is authentic and convinced him that aliens exist.

"As impressive as it is, it's still one tiny portion in the context of a vast amount of peripheral evidence," he said Wednesday. "It's really the final visual confirmation of what you already know to be true having seen all the other evidence."

When Peckman went before city officials this month to discuss his proposed ET initiative, he promised to show the video.

Peckman said the general public will have to wait to see it because it's being included in a documentary by Stan Romanek.

"No one will be allowed to film the segment with the extraterrestrial because there is an agreement in place limiting that kind of exposure during negotiations for the documentary," he said.

But people won't have to wait too long to see it for themselves.

"There is an open, public meeting in about a month in Colorado Springs," Peckman said. "We'll hope to do one in Denver at some point, and then in a few months, there will be the documentary that anybody can have, and it'll have the footage."

An instructor at the Colorado Film School in Denver scrutinized the video "very carefully" and determined it was authentic, Peckman said.

Peckman, 54, said the video was among the reasons he was "compelled" to launch the proposed ballot initiative, which has generated news as far as South Africa.

"It shows an extraterrestrial's head popping up outside of a window at night, looking in the window, that's visible through an infrared camera," he said. The alien is about 4 feet tall and can be seen blinking, Peckman said earlier this month.

In a statement, Peckman said "other related credible evidence" proving aliens exist will be shown at Friday's news conference, too.

In 2003, Peckman authored an off-beat ballot initiative that would have required the city to implement stress-reduction techniques. The "Safety Through Peace" initiative failed, but garnered 32 percent of the vote.

Extraterrestrial UFO Video Evidence
Extraterrestrial UFO Video Evidence

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Revisit: David Adair and Area 51

Living UFO
David Adair is an internationally recognized expert in space technology spinoff applications for industry and commercial use. At age 11 he built his first of hundreds of rockets which he designed and test flew. At 17 he won "The Most Outstanding in the Field of Engineering Sciences" from the US Air Force. At 19 he designed and fabricated a state-of-the-art mechanical system for changing jet turbine engines for the US Navy that set world record turnaround times that still stand today.

He is a world class presenter and keynote speaker, seminar and workshop leader and consultant. His presentations include little known facts and anecdotes from his involvement with the space program, commercial technology development, films and "the things he has seen" at Area 51.

David Adair Area 51
David Adair Area 51

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Frog Species Use Cat-Like Claws For Defense

"Amphibian horror" isn't a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. Harvard biologists have described a bizarre, hairy frog with cat-like extendable claws.

Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads, probably when it is threatened.

David Blackburn and colleagues at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology, think the gruesome behaviour is a defence mechanism.

The researchers say there are salamanders that force their ribs through their skin to produce protective barbs on demand, but nothing quite like this mechanism has been seen before.

The feature is also found in nine of the 11 frogs belonging to the Astylosternus genus, most of which live in Cameroon.

Instant weapon
"Some other frogs have bony spines that project from their wrist, but in those species it appears that the bones grow through the skin rather than pierce it when needed for defence," says Blackburn.

At rest, the claws of T. robustus, found on the hind feet only, are nestled inside a mass of connective tissue. A chunk of collagen forms a bond between the claw's sharp point and a small piece of bone at the tip of the frog's toe.

The other end of the claw is connected to a muscle. Blackburn and his colleagues believe that when the animal is attacked, it contracts this muscle, which pulls the claw downwards. The sharp point then breaks away from the bony tip and cuts through the toe pad, emerging on the underside.

Hirsute horror
The end result may look like a cat's claw, but the breaking and cutting mechanism is very different and unique among vertebrates. Also unique is the fact that the claw is just bone and does not have an outer coating of keratin like other claws do.

Because Blackburn has only studied dead specimens, he says he does not know what happens when the claw retracts – or even how it retracts. It does not appear to have a muscle to pull it back inside so the team think it may passively slide back into the toe pad when its muscle relaxes.

"Being amphibians, it would not be surprising if some parts of the wound heal and the tissue is regenerated," says Blackburn.

Males of the species, which grows to about 11 centimetres, also produce long hair-like strands of skin and arteries when they breed (see image). It is thought that the "hairs" allow them to take in more oxygen through their skin while they take care of their brood.

Spiky snack
In Cameroon, they are roasted and eaten. Hunters use long spears and machetes to kill the frogs, apparently to avoid being hurt by their claws.

"This is an incredible story," says Ian Stephen, curator of herpetology at the Zoological Society of London, UK. "Some frogs grow spines on their thumbs during breeding season, but this is entirely different."

"For me, it highlights the need for a lot more research on amphibians especially in light of the threat of mass extinctions," he adds.

The existence of frogs with erectile claws like cats was first described by Belgian zoologist George Boulenger in 1900 in frogs found in the French Congo, now the Republic of Congo.

Frogs Cat-Like Claws
Frogs Cat-Like Claws

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FBI Investigates Continental Airliner UFO Close Encounter

An ABC news affiliate is reporting that a Continental Airlines pilot has reported a UFO. Taking off from Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday at 10:15 AM, Flight 1544 reported an unknown flying object near the giant passenger plane. This report was verified by the FBI, which is investigating the report.

The UFO was seen shortly after take-off of Flight 1544, which held 148 passengers, and 6 crew members. Continental Airlines has confirmed that the jet landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio. The FAA's best guess is that the object may be a model rocket, some of which are capable of heights of 10,000 feet. The UFO was close enough to the jet to cause safety concerns. More on this as new info comes to me.

FBI UFO Continental Airliner
FBI UFO Continental Airliner

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Strange Explosion Over Vietnam

A large unidentified flying object has exploded over an island just off the coast of Cambodia, Vietnamese officials have said.

The officials said Wednesday that they suspected it could be either a military plane or a civilian plane but not a flying saucer.

According to Ngang Van Truyen, chairman of the commune, the explosion occurred on Tuesday morning above Cua Can commune on Phu Quoc, a large island belonging to Vietnam just off the coast of Cambodia.

"It was a huge explosion, and we thought at first that it was thunder," Truyen said. “But then we saw a 100-meter-long smoke trail in the sky and knew that it was the explosion of a flying object."

Truyen added that people in the commune found six pieces of aluminum-like metal painted yellow-green on one side. The largest piece is more than one meter long and 50 centimeters wide. However, no markings or letters are found on the pieces.

Strange Explosion Over Vietnam
Strange Explosion Over Vietnam

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Zahi Hawass Believes He Has Identified The Tomb Of Cleopatra VII

A flamboyant archeologist known worldwide for his trademark Indiana Jones hat believes he has identified the site where Cleopatra is buried.

Now, with a team of 12 archeologists and 70 excavators, Zahi Hawass, 60, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has started searching for the entrance to her tomb.

And after a breakthrough two weeks ago he hopes to find her lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, sharing her last resting place at the site of a temple, the Taposiris Magna, 28 miles west of Alexandria.

Hawass has discovered a 400ft tunnel beneath the temple containing clues that the supposedly beautiful queen may lie beneath. “We’ve found tunnels with statues of Cleopatra and many coins bearing her face, things you wouldn’t expect in a typical temple,” he said.

A fortnight ago Hawass’s team discovered a bust of Mark Antony, the Roman general who became Cleopatra’s lover and had three children with her before their ambitions for an Egyptian empire brought them into conflict with Rome.

They committed suicide – he with his sword, she reputedly by clutching an asp to her breast – after being defeated by Octavian in the battle of Actium in 31BC. “Our theory is that both Cleopatra and Mark Antony are buried here,” said Hawass.

The archeologist, best known in Britain for demanding the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum and for promoting the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 dome in London, believes the temple’s location would have made it a perfect place for Cleopatra to hide from Octavian’s army.

Work on the site has been suspended until the summer heat abates and is due to resume in November, when Hawass will use radar to search for hidden chambers.

The queen’s life and death were immortalised in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, and the Hollywood movie Cleopatra – starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who fell in love during the filming – but the location of her tomb has remained a mystery.

If Hawass is right, he could make the greatest archeological discovery in Egypt since Tutankhamun’s tomb was uncovered by the British archeologist Howard Carter in 1922.

Other experts are cautious, though. John Baines, professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, warned that searching for royal tombs often proved a “hopeless” task. He also doubted that Antony would be buried alongside his lover.

“It’s unlikely Mark Antony would have a tomb that anyone would be able to discover because he was the enemy at the time he died,” he said.

Hawass, however, remains defiant. “This is our theory. Others may disagree, but we are searching to see if we can prove it,” he said.

Zahi Hawass Tomb Cleopatra VII
Zahi Hawass Tomb Cleopatra VII

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'The Governess' Still Haunts The Griffin Inn

CONTINUING our series on ghostly tales from north Warwickshire, here's another extract from the forthcoming book by author JONATHAN MOSS

AN UNLIKELY regular at the Griffin Inn is a tall lady known as The Governess who commands attention in the bedrooms of unsuspecting sleepers.

Her presence around the bed area apparently has been so intense that, on numerous occasions, the occupants have been woken with a start.

Witnesses to this manifestation describe her wearing a black "funeral" veil that would have been worn in the Victorian era.

But more concerning is the feeling of the neck area tightening and breathlessness that accompanies the vision.

The temperature noticeably drops as the oppressive atmosphere builds until you're compelled to leave the immediate area.

She's also heard in the cellar, shuffling around, going about her duties.

She's never seen in the cellar but this is no consolation as the staff of the Griffin Inn can confirm.

As the evening shift nears its end there is never a volunteer to go into the cellar, no matter the reason.

On researching this tale I came across what I'm going to offer as my conclusion, an explanation if you like.

An attempt, not so long ago, was made to "contact" this lady and the information she returned read as an effort at a confession, perhaps a plea for clemency.

She had been the charge of number of children, in her earthly existence, some of whom had drowned while in her care.

This is not as innocent as it first sounds, as the impression given is that she felt eternally condemned, caught between two plains, looking for forgiveness, as it was herself that had caused these fatalities.

Only on her own death has she been dealt her punishment.

Her behaviour in the main bedroom of this inn, although initially startling, has a sad twist as this must be her first step in trying to obtain absolution.

Governess Haunts Griffin Inn
Governess Haunts Griffin Inn

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Alien 'Glowing Little Man' Sightings Causing Fear and Panic in San Carlos, Argentina

Drawings that allegedly show the "glowing little man" seen in the Valles Chalchaquíes region of Salta Province, a location that appears repeatedly in chronicles of UFO and high-strangeness events in the Andean region of Argentina. Click image for orignal story and video

Residents of the town of San Carlos in the province of Salta claim having seen a strange entity, standing some forty centimeters tall, and seemingly protected by a magnetic field. The story given by Omar Ferlatti, who saw the strange being, is brief and starttling due to the certainty of the details offered on the strange visitor’s physionomy.

Ferlatti was in the company of Walter Lopez when the saw the strange entity. The townsmen’s story coincides with the acocunt given by a shepherdess from the Valles Chalchaquies. The shepherdess was startled by the strange visitor while tending her flock.

A news team from the Copenoa news agency interviewed residents of San Carlos. These will be issued in video format and will surprise viewers with accounts of UFOs witnessed in this historic community, nestled in the Valles Chalchaquies of Salta Province.

Argentina: “Glowing Little Man” Spreads Panic in Salta

*** Once again, Salta becomes the site for weird events ***

Residents of the town of San Carlos now claim seeing a strange being, standing some 40 cm tall, with a magnetic field that kept people from approaching it.

Two people, mechanics Walter Lopez and Omar Ferlatti, informed police about the sighting of the diminutibve creature whom they described in detail: the being was small, glowing and wore pants. It appeared it be protected by a magnetic field.

This incident increased the collective fear of the residents of this community of the Valles Chalchaquies even further. In recent days, a luminous object was seen in the vicinity of their town.

“Kids aren’t going out at night out of fear of the strange creature and the UFO,” claimed a resident of San Carlos in a statement to the Copenoa news agency.
Ferlatti and Lopez’s account dovetails with the one given by a shepherdess on the hills, who was startled by the strange visitor.

Police have stated that both stories coincide and that local residents are indeed frightened. “It hasn’t been seen again. It would be good for it to return, to ascertain that the events were indeed as described,” said deputy sheriff Luis Comenares.

Alien Glowing Little Man San Carlos Argentina
Alien Glowing Little Man San Carlos Argentina

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Girl Stung By Scorpion In West Virginia Wal-Mart

A family shopping for Memorial Day grub Sunday afternoon at the Barboursville Wal-Mart ended up in the hospital after their daughter was stung by scorpion.

Megan Templeton was in the produce department picking out a watermelon when she was stung. The scorpion got into the crate when it was shipped from Mexico.

The scorpion, said her father William Templeton, stung her finger. She was taken to Cabell Huntington Hospital to be monitored for any allergic reaction. No further information was available on her condition.

Store manager caught the scorpion.

Girl Stung Scorpion West Virginia Wal-Mart
Girl Stung Scorpion West Virginia Wal-Mart

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2000 U.S. General Election: The Biggest Conspiracy In American History

This hour long documentary follows the award-winning reporter-sleuth Greg Palast on the trail of the Bush family, from Florida election finagling, to the Saudi connection, to the Bush team's spiking the FBI investigation of the bin Laden family and the secret State Department plans for post-war Iraq. These are the hard-hitting reports that have been seen in films like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11", broadcast internationally on BBC Newsnight television, and are found in Palast's international bestselling book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy".

May I also suggest you also watch HBO's presentation "Recount".


2000 U.S. General Election Conspiracy
2000 U.S. General Election Conspiracy

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Videos: UFO / OVNI Fleet Formation - Merced, California

2 videos (1 using a filter) of a UFO / OVNI fleet formation seen over Merced, California in the summer of 2007. There are still reports of various type UFO / OVNI in the same area. This sighting has been reported MUFON.

Videos UFO OVNI Fleet Formation Merced California
Videos UFO OVNI Fleet Formation Merced California

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Baby Jumping During Spanish Festival

Grown men have been leaping over rows of babies in the north Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia in an annual rite meant to ward off the Devil.

Jumpers dressed as the Colacho, a character representing the Devil, bounded over clusters of bemused infants laid out on mattresses.

Nobody appeared to get hurt in this year's festive event.

Castrillo, near Burgos, has been holding the event since 1620 to mark the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi.

The feast is widely celebrated in Spain, often with processions and mystery plays.

Pageants can feature dancers depicting demons and angels or other characters.

Baby Jumping Spanish Festival
Baby Jumping Spanish Festival

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Forensic Investigation of Saskatchewan Mutilation Begins

Investigating unexplained animal deaths for possible paranormal connections is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

That’s why Barb Campbell has committed herself to the challenging and widely unknown profession as an unexplained animal death – or UAD – investigator.

The founder of the Saskatchewan Provincial Paranormal Research Centre Inc. (SPPRC) and a contributor on UFO Connection Radio, Campbell has now turned her full attention toward using forensic science to explain mysterious animal deaths. Her most recent case involves the death of a male buffalo on a ranch located only a few kilometres south of Lloydminster. It was last seen alive on March 10 and its mutilated carcass was discovered on March 13.

“It looked like a partial job, his mouth and eye and all that were not touched,” said Campbell. “His sex organs were removed and he had a total complete coring of his rectum.”

There have been many instances of mutilations to livestock across North America, and in most cases it involves the removal of one or both eyes, the tongue, internal and sexual organs. The most recent reported case in Saskatchewan was earlier this month on a farm near Stockholm.

The first thing that struck Campbell at the scene of the dead buffalo was the absence of any footprints, tire tracks, or animal tracks leading to or from the carcass. There was also no blood evident and the buffalo’s wounds were surgical in their precision, leading Campbell to rule out the possibility that this was done by animals.

She collected soil samples at the scene which were sent to a lab in the U.S., where they will be tested for a certain concentration of magnetic particles.

“If there’s a specific pattern around where the carcass was found – say 60 meters in diameter – then we know there was something 60 meters in diameter above the animal at that time,” she said.

What that object could be is difficult for her to say so early into the investigation, though there are several popular theories about livestock mutilations which could provide some clues.

Some believe the mutilations are done by the military, which uses livestock as target practice for their top-secret laser weapons. Campbell believes this is unlikely because the military could easily conduct the tests on its own land, far away from the prying eyes of the general population.

Another common theory is that cults carry out mutilations as part of their satanic rituals. Campbell has looked into that possibility, but based on her interviews with cult members she says they are as baffled by it as anyone else.

“Of course, their thinking is possible demons or dark angels, dark ones from beyond that are coming down and taking sacrifices,” she said. “That’s their kind of thinking ... I don’t know, it’s hard for me to believe.”

For Campbell, the most plausible theory is that mutilations are the work of alien species, albeit ones whose motivations are open to speculation. One possible explanation is that the aliens are doing something similar to a safari, coming to Earth to steal body parts from animals which may have some value to them.

“We have hunters here which go on safaris and all they want to do is kill an animal for a horn ... what if this is some sort of exotic thing for an alien?” she said. “They’ve got to come down and grab an ear, a tongue, a cheek, a muscle, a sex organ – maybe they have a fetish … I don’t know.”

As a scientist, Campbell cannot offer any conclusive explanations so early into the investigation. Much like Crime Scene Investigators, UAD investigators follow a very methodical and scientific approach. In fact, she believes they deserve more recognition among the scientific community, which has largely shunned the discipline.

“There doesn’t seem to be any interest from the medical community here in Saskatchewan,” she said. “I’ve approach the college (of veterinarians) for help and assistance, but hey do not seem to have any interest in this type of research whatsoever.”

Forensic Investigation Saskatchewan Mutilation
Forensic Investigation Saskatchewan Mutilation

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Ohio Bigfoot Conference: M.K. Davis Presents 'Patty' Theory

The Patterson-Gimlin film has been both decried as a clever hoax and lauded as visual proof that an unclassified biped roams the North American continent.

Shot in 1967 near Bluff Creek, Calif., the few dozen frames of 16 mm film show a creature walking away from amateur cameraman Roger Patterson. He and Bob Gimlin were in the area filming for a documentary Patterson planned to produce when they encountered a creature matching the description widely attributed to Sasquatch or Bigfoot: hair-covered, 7 to 8 feet tall weighing several hundred pounds and muscular.

During the 20th Annual Bigfoot Conference/Expo Saturday at the Salt Fork Resort & Conference Center, M.K. Davis, a foremost expert on the film, presented what he said was proof that the film was not hoaxed and that Patty, as the creature has come to be known, is a flesh-and-blood creature.

"There's no way in the world it's a suit," Davis said. "You're not looking at a man in a suit."

The Mississippian is an astrophotographer by vocation and is accustomed to examining photographs in detail and spotting what others might overlook. He blended this meticulous discipline for observation with technology to examine the film, presenting some of his findings to the more than 400 audience members.

By using technology not available until many years after the film was shot new details can be gleaned from the footage, Davis said. Among those that he has observed is what may be a braid in the creature's hair (the braiding of horse manes is associated with some sightings), movement of hair in an estimated 8 to 9 mph breeze at her back and pendulous breasts that move in concert with her stride and variations of skin tone.

Other details that Davis said substantiates the film as authentic include clearly visible back muscle and gluteal muscle movement corresponding appropriately to the creature's gait and bumps along the spine like that of a human spinal column.

A wound is visible on Patty's right thigh, Davis said, and she can be seen digging a small trench by dragging a foot through the sandy soil.

Davis addressed a "bloody pool" seen in some frames. The area was frequented by logging crews, and he suggested that the pool was a hole -- pointing out apparent tool marks along one edge -- filled with an unknown red fluid. While pursuing the creature with camera in hand Patterson reportedly stepped into the hole but continued to film.

Though Patterson, who died in 1972, was stigmatized for the filming, and the footage and those defending its authenticity have since been scorned, the weight of the scientific evidence presented by the film and by those who have objectively scrutinized it, said Davis, can only establish it as documentation of an unclassified creature in its native habitat.

Davis said his work on the film was done in tribute to Patterson.

ALSO: Davis has made some controversial statements in reference to the creature in the Patterson-Gimlin film. His theory is that there was a "massacre' of several Bigfoot creatures days previous to the day 'Patty' was filmed and that the bodies of these creatures were buried at the location by the perpetraitors of the massacre...thus the 'red' fluid in the film. As well, he feels that 'Patty' was returning to retrieve the remains when Patterson and Gimlin came on the location. Several of the people in this discussion say that Davis has implied that 'Patty' was shot as well and exhibited evidence of being wounded in the film. Go to the following links for detailed behind-the-conference private discussions reported at
Cryptomundo and at BlogSquatcher also here and here.

Bigfoot Conference M.K.Davis Patty Theory
Bigfoot Conference M.K.Davis Patty Theory

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Meldrum Seeks Yeren For 'MonsterQuest'

Dr. Jeff Meldrum presented his findings from a recent trip to China researching the Yeren, one Asian creature similar to Sasquatch, Bigfoot and the Yeti.

Meldrum said he spoke with witnesses to the Yeren in a rugged, mountainous and wet (as much as 870 inches rainfall annually) interior region of the country. He accompanied the director of an amateur research group and was able to examine two superb plaster casts of tracks. The tracks, he said, showed the effects of a stride by a creature with a foot physiology different from that of a human. This type of stride can be seen in the Patterson-Gimlin film, further substantiating claims that the creature cannot simply be a human actor in a suit.

Meldrum also announced that his published scientific name for tracks and footprints attributed to Sasquatch-like creatures -- Anthropoidipes ameriborealis -- has not been contested in the scientific community.

Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society Director Eric Altman briefed the audience on both ancient and recent reported sightings. He said that Lenni Lanape and Susquehannock tribes both had names for the creatures they observed, including "masked being" "living solid face" and "game keeper."

The first recorded sighting of Bigfoot in Pennsylvania was in August 1838. Research began in earnest during the late 1960s. In 1998 the PBS was formed. Altman, who had an interest in Bigfoot stretching back to his youth, became the director in 2000.

A particularly intriguing case dated from July 2006. A family heard screaming from nearby woods. The following day members found a deer with its right front leg wedged tightly in the "V" of a tree. The hind quarters were missing and the head bloodied. Tracks 17 inches in length were found nearby as well as uprooted trees.

One theory was that a large cat could have killed the deer. However, Altman said, state wildlife officials said there were no such predators in the area.

Altman was also involved in researching an image of a creature captured by a stationary camera in October 2007. The image was distributed nationally, and shows what some say is a mangy bear and what others claim to be a juvenile Bigfoot.

Scheduled speaker Igor Bourtsev was unable to attend from Russia. Due to political unrest there he was forbidden from leaving the country. However, he e-mailed his presentation and Davis gave an abbreviated presentation.

Bourtsev has been involved for many years with research in Asia into the Almas, the region's Bigfoot-like "cryptid" or unknown animal. He has had a role in research into the story of Zana, reportedly a female Alma who mated with a human male and bore two children.

Bourtsev also joined an expedition to Tennessee to the Carter Farm, sight of numerous sightings. Hairs were collected there and analyzed, and reportedly the DNA contained within them is very close to that of humans.

Native Ohioans Bob Gray and Liza Foster were also on hand promoting the motion picture "Bigfoot." Gray wrote, directed and acted in the film shot on location in the marshes of northeastern Ohio.

Unlike some characterizations of Bigfoot as gentle giants ("Harry and the Hendersons" for example), the creature in Gray's film is a murderous monster that kills, among others, Gray character.

Foster plays a wildlife officer and Gray a sheriff. Distribution plans are in the works for the award-winning film.

Jeff Meldrum Yeren MonsterQuest
Jeff Meldrum Yeren MonsterQuest

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Video: UFO / OVNI - Guadalajara, Mexico - May 22, 2008

Video of UFO / OVNI from a public park near Guadalajara, Mexico on May 22, 2008.

Video UFO OVNI Guadalajara Mexico
Video UFO OVNI Guadalajara Mexico

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Paranormal Search In Corpus Christi Ritz Theater

The Ritz Theater downtown has been abandoned for almost twenty years, but volunteers have been working hard to restore its former glory. However, they are also noticing a lot of unexplained noises and shadows lurking in the corners and they claim to hear strange voices echoing through the building.

Paranormal investigators looked into the history and the hauntings of the Ritz. Veronique Ramirez told KRIS 6 News, "We did a run-through up in the projection room just asking questions and we played back the evidence we had captured a little girl's voice."

So, the team of investigators gathered up their equipment, including tools to measure electromagnetic frequency (EMF). Hector Rios explained, "A spirit needs energy to manifest themselves and this thing will pick up different types of energy readings."

They also brought in special thermometers. Rios added, "They need energy to manifest themselves and one thing they'll do is draw heat and they leave cold spots in the area."

The investigators also utilized a parabolic microphone to pick up noises of any kind of spiritual activity. They asked the group to be still, and Patrick Zapata claimed, "I looked down this hallway and saw a shadow walking toward us."

As it turns out, in the 1800s, a family's home rested on the grounds where the Ritz is now. Investigators believed they made contact with one of the children.

The temperature dropped four degrees, and the EMF reader made noise, prompting one investigator to ask, "There's a flashlight on the floor, can you move it for us please?"

Investigators told 6 News they asked the spirits at the Ritz if they are pleased that the theater is being renovated. So far, there have not been any negative responses.

Paranormal Corpus Christi Ritz Theater
Paranormal Corpus Christi Ritz Theater

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Revealed: Search For Titanic Was Cold War Cover Story

A mission to find the lost wreck of the Titanic was actually a cover story for inspecting the wrecks of two nuclear submarines, the man who discovered the famous liner has revealed.

Dr Bob Ballard led a team in 1985 that pinpointed the wreckage of the enormous ship 73 years after it sank in the Atlantic. But he almost didn't succeed after his top secret mission to find two Cold War subs left him with just 12 days to find the Titanic.

The United States Navy lost two submarines during the 1960s - the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion - which had more than 200 men on board.

Officials feared at least one of them had been sunk by the USSR. When Dr Ballard approached the Navy for funding to find the Titanic using his robotic submarine craft, they asked him to discover the submarines first.

"I couldn't tell anybody," the oceanographer said.

"There was a lot of pressure on me. It was a secret mission. I felt it was a fair exchange for getting a chance to look for the Titanic."

He added: "We handed the data to the experts. They never told us what they concluded – our job was to collect the data. I can only talk about it now because it has been declassified."

The USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead ship of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. She was lost during deep-sea diving tests in 1963 after a high-pressure pipe blew causing the vessel to lose power and implode as it sank.

However, the USS Scorpion disappeared in 1968 amid speculation that it was sunk by Soviet forces.

Dr Ballard mapped both submarine wrecks using his newly developed underwater robot craft. He concluded that the most likely cause of the Scorpion's destruction was being hit by a rogue torpedo it had fired itself.

Investigating the wrecks gave Dr Ballard the idea of finding a trail of debris that would lead him to the Titanic. Both the Thresher and Scorpion had both broken into thousands of pieces.

He criss-crossed the North Atlantic seabed and eventually found a debris trail that led him to the luxury liner's final resting-place.

He found the Titanic split in two but had little time to explore further. It was not until he returned to the site in 1986 that he was able to make a detailed study.

Titanic Search Cold War Nuclear Submarine Cover
Titanic Search Cold War Nuclear Submarine Cover

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Swiss Steal Loch Ness Monster!

Nessie has been hijacked by the Swiss in a bid to promote tourism in the land of chocolate and cuckoo clocks.

A new brochure features a Nessie look-a-like swimming through a lake in a famous Swiss beauty spot.

The illustration is almost identical to the famous "surgeon's photograph" of the elusive beastie.

But the hi-jacking of Nessie to promote the wild side of Lake Lucerne could spark a monster-sized row between the Scots and the Swiss.

One angry fan living on the shores of Loch Ness said: "What a cheek. You'd think they would have someone famous of their own to promote their country."

Swiss Federal Railways, who are using the brochure to boost the number of travellers to the area, proved to be almost as shy as Nessie when the Sunday Mail went hunting for answers. No one was available for comment.

But Switzerland Tourism, who endorsed the publication, were a little more forthcoming.

Spokesman Roland Minder said: "It certainly looks like Nessie, I agree.

"They have decided to put Nessie in Lake Lucerne - I don't know why - to advertise their excursions around the area.

"If you ask me why they used Nessie, I haven't a clue. You'll have to ask them."

Yesterday, VisitScotland said it was clear the monster in Lake Lucerne was Nessie, or at least a creature like her.

A spokeswoman said: "The image is an interesting choice for Switzerland, as I'm sure many people who see the advert will think of Scotland and the legend of the Loch Ness monster.

"Nessie is one of our major icons and is known and loved around the world.

"The Loch Ness area is one of our major tourism draws, attracting visitors from home and abroad.

"Other countries have their own monster legends but none has gained the international recognition of our very own Nessie."

A recent survey by VisitScotland in Madrid showed more than 70 per cent of Spanish people believed in Nessie.

Thousands of monster hunters from all over the world - some of them respected scientists - have probed the dark waters of Loch Ness in a bid to find her.

One of them, Steve Feltham, from Dorset, has scanned the loch from a caravan for 17 years.

The global stampede to find Nessie was sparked by the 1934 photo credited to London doctor Robert Wilson.

But in 1994, it was revealed the monster was, in reality, a toy submarine with the attached head of a sea serpent made out of putty and cardboard.

Swiss Steal Loch Ness Monster
Swiss Steal Loch Ness Monster

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NYC Issues Warning On Toad Venom Aphrodisiac

Health officials are warning New Yorkers to stay away from an illegal aphrodisiac made from toad venom after the product apparently killed a man.

The city's poison control center issued the warning Friday after receiving a hospital report that a 35-year-old man who ingested the hard, brown substance died earlier this month.

The product is sold under names including Piedra, Love Stone, Jamaican Stone, Black Stone and Chinese Rock at sex shops and neighborhood stores. It is banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

City health officials said the victim, whose identity was not released, was admitted to the hospital complaining of chest and abdominal pain. He died two days later.

Health officials said the hardened resin, made with venom from toads of the Bufo genus, contains chemicals that can disrupt heart rhythms.

The aphrodisiac was supposed to have been applied to the skin, not eaten, but authorities said even that use can be harmful.

"There is no definitely safe way to use it," said Dr. Robert Hoffman, director of the city's poison control center. "Don't buy it. Don't sell it. If you have it, don't use it. Throw it out."

The same type of product killed a 40-year-old man in Brooklyn in 2002 and at least four New Yorkers in the early 1990s. A 17-year-old boy also fell seriously ill, but survived following hours of aggressive treatment.

Following that outbreak, city investigators went looking for the poison and found it was being sold sporadically in grocery stores, smoke shops and from street vendors.

Inspectors have been on the lookout for the stuff ever since, but identifying it isn't always easy. It is sometimes sold in packaging labeled only in foreign languages.

It isn't clear how available the aphrodisiac is elsewhere in the U.S., although some similar products have been seized from suspected drug traffickers in other East Coast cities, authorities said.

Toad Venom Aphrodisiac
Toad Venom Aphrodisiac

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Kid's Are NOT Inflatable!

A Cambodian father and mechanic learned the hard way not to inflate children when he inserted an air hose designed to fill car tires into his 5-year-old son's anus and blew him up, local media reported on Thursday.

The Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea daily reported Try Sienghym was "playing" with his son Sok Sambo when the incident took place.

The paper said the child's stomach became distended and his concerned mother rushed him to hospital, where he remains in a stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.

"The father very much regrets playing like this now," the paper quoted a family member as saying.

Father Inflates Child
Father Inflates Child

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New Skunk Ape Evidence Found In Big Cypress, Florida

The Big Cypress Natural Preserve is home to many animals. But only a few believe it is actually home to the skunk ape.

Devoting 40 years to Skunk Ape research, Dave Shealy stumbled on a rare find - what he says are their breeding grounds. He showed ABC7 the spot where supposed skunk ape droppings, along with water and animal traffic, prove his theory.

"This particular area contains everything that a small group of animals would need to survive and this is where we found the track," said Shealy.

That track, found Friday morning, is believed to be from that of a young skunk ape.

"The more I looked at it and saw the round toes and the differences, that's when I knew I found a juvenile skunk ape track. I was very excited," said Shealy.

He says wide open spaces are where a skunk ape is most likely to be. But the big question is if they really exist, how come so few people claim to have seen them.

"You don't always see them - they're wild animals," said Shealy.

Shealy went back out Friday night hoping his new find will get him one step closer to shedding light on the skunk ape mystery.

Skunk Ape Evidence Found
Skunk Ape Evidence Found

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All Points Bulletin: Calling All 'Exorcists'!

Hundreds of Germans, tortured by inner voices, are on the search for priests who can free them from what they believe to be the grip of the Devil, according to an extraordinary radio documentary that has stirred an awkward debate about exorcism in the Catholic Church.

“Over the past year alone I have received requests from around 350 people who think they are possessed by an evil spirit,” says Father Joerg Mueller, who heads a group of priests, doctors and therapists to deal with the problem. “Therapy hasn't worked for them; they want exorcism — a prayer that can free them.”

Father Mueller, who is based in a Bavarian monastery, was talking to a team from WDR, the state radio network, which was allowed to record extracts from eight exorcisms.

A Polish exorcist, named only as Father Wiktor, suggested that this was only a fraction of the actual number seeking help.

“I would say that every day at least one person is undergoing a full-scale exorcism,” he told WDR.

This has come as a shock to the Catholic Church in Germany, which has shied away from exorcism since the tragic case of Anneliese Michel in 1973.

Ms Michel, 23, from a strongly Catholic Bavarian village, had epilepsy and suffered from hallucinations. Two priests were authorised to perform an exorcism. They performed the ritual 67 times until she died, having starved herself to 31kg (68lb).

After her death the priests and her parents were sentenced to six-months' suspended jail sentences for not referring her for medical treatment.

That verdict and the publicity — two films were made about the case including The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005 — scared the Church hierarchy. Permission for a full exorcism now has to be granted by a bishop, but few permits have been given. In a poll of German dioceses, only Paderborn admitted to having authorised three exorcisms.

Frustrated by the lack of exorcists in their own country, disturbed Germans are turning to esoteric spiritual healers and priests in Switzerland and Poland. Andrzej Trojanowski, a Polish priest, even has plans to set up an exorcism centre in Poczernin, on the Polish-German border.

WDR broadcast some of the sessions of the exorcists with Ms Michel. She is heard growling and barking. “Tell the truth in the name of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary!” commands Father Arnold Renz. The answer comes in the form of a long, terrifying scream.

The recording is making the Church leadership more reluctant to address the needs of the supposedly possessed. Yet by doing so the bishops are flying in the face of the Pope, who urged a convention of exorcists to “carry on your important work in the service of the Church”.

Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican exorcist-in-chief, has performed the ritual more than 40,000 times.

The Vatican aim appears to be to place at least one exorcist in each diocese to ensure that the distressed do not drift away from the Church. In Germany, however, that drift is already happening.

“I would say that 90 per cent of those who think they are posessed by the Devil are mentally ill,” said Father Mueller. A large number of them have suffered sexual abuse as children. Some think that an exorcism is easier than long years of psychotherapy.

He added: “But about ten per cent of the people who approach us have some sign of demonic possession and then you have to turn to special, charismatic men and women who have the gift of being able to feel and recognise if demons have entered someone.”

Only a handful qualify for exorcism. He gave the example of a widow who was convinced that her late husband had returned, in demonic form, to taunt her. She was offered psychotherapy.

Counting the Devil

300 Estimated number of trained exorcists in Italy

70 Estimated number of exorcists in Poland

84 Pages in the Vatican's 1999 Latin “rule book” on exorcism

Source: Times archives

Exorcisms Rising Germany
Exorcisms Rising Germany

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Interesting Crop Circles Appear In Amsterdam

Massive Crop Circle at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

New Amsterdam Crop Circles May 2008 From Air
Crop circles appear near Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on the 17th of May 2008. The 3 very large circles seem to have been burned away by a high powered heat source.

Interesting Crop Circles Appear Amsterdam
Interesting Crop Circles Appear Amsterdam

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West Virginia Woman Called Medical Miracle

A West Virginia woman was being transferred to the Cleveland Clinic after walking the line between life and death.

Doctors are calling Val Thomas a medical miracle. They said they can't explain how she is alive.

They said Thomas suffered two heart attacks and had no brain waves for more than 17 hours. At about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, her heart stopped and she had no pulse. A respiratory machine kept her breathing and rigor mortis had set in, doctors said.

"Her skin had already started to harden and her fingers curled. Death had set in," said son Jim Thomas.

They rushed her to a West Virginia hospital. Doctors put Thomas on a special machine which induces hypothermia. The treatment involves lowering the body temperature for up to 24 hours before warming a patient up.

After that procedure, her heart stopped again.

"She had no neurological function," said Dr. Kevin Eggleston.

Her family said goodbye and doctors removed all the tubes.

However, Thomas was kept on a ventilator a little while longer as an organ donor issue was discussed.

Ten minutes later the woman woke up and started talking.

"She (nurse) said, 'I'm so sorry Mrs. Thomas.' And mom said, 'That's OK honey. That's OK," Jim Thomas said.

Val Thomas and her family strongly believe that the Lord granted them their miracle and they want everyone to know.

"I know God has something in store for me, another purpose. I don't know what it is but I'm sure he'll tell me," she said.

She was taken to the Cleveland Clinic for specialist to check her out. Doctors said amazingly she has no blockage and will be fine.

West Virginia Woman Called Medical Miracle
West Virginia Woman Called Medical Miracle

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Video: Wolf Packs In Indiana?

A pack of 'wolf-like' canines was sighted and later shot in Gatchel, Indiana. Tests are currently being done to determine what these canines actually are, either wolves or hybrids.

Wolf Packs Indiana
Wolf Packs Indiana

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Video: McMinnville, Oregon UFO - May 11, 1950

McMinnville Oregon UFOs May 11, 1950
Video: McMinnville, Oregon UFO - May 11, 1950. One of the earliest sightings though it has been questioned by many skeptics.

Video McMinnville Oregon UFO
Video McMinnville Oregon UFO

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Bizarre Theft: 400 Olive Trees Stripped In One Night!

Busy thieves have stripped an entire olive grove of its fruit in an overnight raid, the latest of a series of such bizarre thefts.

Quentin Von Essen, who runs an olive grove in Lovedale, in NSW's Hunter Valey, was alarmed to find that all but two of his 400 trees had been stripped of their olives earlier this month.

Mr Von Essen said he was dumbfounded how it could have happened without anyone noticing.

"It would take approximately six people up to three days to pick our olive grove," he said.

"It appears that ... a whole lot of people have come into the grove overnight and stripped trees.

"The eerie part is ... there is not an olive on any of these trees and not an olive on the ground. We would have been able to hear a loud machine."

Mr Von Essen said that he knew of five other properties in the area that had been raided recently.

Mr Von Essen said he had alerted the police.

Bizarre Olive Theft New South Wales
Bizarre Olive Theft New South Wales

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Large Black Cat Killed In Missouri

A Newton County deputy shot and killed a large, black cat of uncertain species Monday morning when the animal, either a leopard or a jaguar, charged him.

Capt. Richard Leavens of the Newton County Sheriff’s Department said Vickie Sanders, 61, called shortly after 6 a.m. Monday to report what she took to be “a black panther” at the door of her home at 9555 Orchid Drive, southwest of Neosho.

When Cpl. Donn Hall of the Sheriff’s Department arrived, he spotted a large, black cat standing on its hind legs and pawing at a storm door of the home.

“When he got out of his car, it charged him,” Leavens said. “He fired on it and wounded it. It ran past him to the end of the driveway and then came back at him.”

Hall left his patrol car with a shotgun and fired two shots on the cat’s initial charge, Leavens said. As the cat charged a second time, Hall fired additional shotgun blasts and then pulled his .45-caliber Glock handgun, he said.

“It took several shots with that to get one that took effect,” Leavens said.

Hall escaped any injury from the cat, as did Sanders and her dogs, Leavens said.

Sanders had been hanging some laundry on a clothesline in her yard when the cat appeared and started toward her, Leavens said. She told the Sheriff’s Department that one of her dogs “intercepted” the cat, allowing her time to get inside her home along with her dogs.

The cat then began pawing on the door of the home and kept it up until Hall arrived, Leavens said.

A state Conservation Department officer was called to the scene after the animal was killed. While the species of the animal was not immediately certain, the suspicion was that it was not accustomed to living in the wild.

“This most likely was a kept animal that either had been dumped out or had gotten away,” Leavens said.

He said officers could see, after it had been killed, that its claws had been surgically removed.

He said there has been some speculation that the cat might have been on the loose in the wake of the recent tornado damage in the region.

Large Black Cat Killed Missouri
Large Black Cat Killed Missouri

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Steven Spielberg’s Ghost/UFO Social Network To Be Called 'The Rising'

More details on Steven Spielberg’s upcoming ghost and UFO based social network, which we first wrote about in early March and followed up with additional details a week later. The site will reportedly be called “Rising” or “The Rising” (our understanding is that they have acquired both .com domain names), and the logo above and animated logo below are at least preliminary versions of the final.

We originally heard that The Rising is being created in partnership with Windsor Media, Terry Semel’s investment firm, but we still haven’t gotten confirmation of their involvement. Windsor was created by Semel before he went to Yahoo, was put on hold during his tenure there, and fired up again after his departure last year.

The Rising will have original video content with a permanent host in addition to the social network where users can share stories and experiences, tapping into serious demand for this kind of thing. There are thousands of forums dedicated to paranormal and UFO topics today - among them is, yes, a Meetup site for ghost trackers.

Steven Spielberg’s Ghost/UFO Social Network The Rising
Steven Spielberg’s Ghost/UFO Social Network The Rising

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Beginning of the End: Westboro Baptist Church Appeal Denied

Whether the picket signs carried by members of Westboro Baptist Church carry religious or political messages is at issue on whether the church has to pay tax on the pickup truck used to carry the signs.

But the decision may be irrelevant if the church's appeal of a federal court decision in Maryland fails.

In fact, a decision Monday in the Maryland case removed a legal obstacle to beginning collections on the property.

This past October, a federal district court in Maryland found Pastor Fred W. Phelps Sr., Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, Rebekah A. Phelps-Davis and Westboro Baptist Church had invaded the privacy of and inflicted intentional emotional distress on the family of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by church members.

A jury awarded Albert Snyder, father of the Marine, compensatory damage of $2.9 million and punitive damage of $8 million. But on Feb. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett reduced the punitive damage to $2.1 million, for a total judgment of $5 million.

The church and the Phelpses filed a petition seeking a stay on the collection on that penalty. They also filed an appeal of the verdict.

If the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Maryland upholds the lower court decision, property owned by the three named Phelps family members and the church itself would be confiscated.

The appeals court there issued an order Monday denying the church's request for a stay in the execution of the lower court's ruling. No date has been set for the hearing on the appeal itself.

Sean Summers, a York, Pa., attorney representing Snyder, said rejection of the stay allows the court to proceed to collection of the church's property even though the ruling has been appealed.

The issue of the property tax on the pickup truck was heard Tuesday in Topeka before the Kansas Court of Appeals. Margie Phelps, an attorney and member of the church, argued that all of the church's messages are representations of what the church considers to be its religious purpose.

But Shawn Leisinger, assistant Shawnee County counselor, noted that Kansas law requires that a property must be used exclusively for religious purposes to be exempt from taxation. He noted the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals ruled the truck was subject to taxation because of evidence presented that there was at least some political content in the messages.

He said that of 602 picket signs cited in the BOTA case, 250 named public figures, many of them political figures.

Westboro Baptist Church is known for picketing and using other means to protest against acceptance of homosexuality. The strongly worded picket signs and other activities used during the pickets anger a number of people.

And that was used by Margie Phelps as part of her argument that the signs aren't political.

"If any member of this church were to endorse a political candidate — which they never do — it would be the kiss of death," she said.

Westboro Baptist Church Appeal Denied
Westboro Baptist Church Appeal Denied

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Video: Flying Fish Near Yakushima Island, Japan

Some remarkable footage of a flying fish has been captured by a TV crew filming off the southern tip of Japan.

It is claimed to be one of the longest recorded flights of this acrobatic animal.

The fish was completely airborne for 45 seconds. This beats one previous, impressive report from an American researcher in the 1920s of 42 seconds.

The animal is seen travelling parallel to a ferry, which itself is motoring at about 30km/hour (20mph).

The fish was able to continue flying by occasionally beating the surface of the water with its tail fin. The footage was shot by an NHK crew as it travelled to Yakushima Island.

According to Junji Yonezawa, at the Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Outlying Islands, the animal's flight-time of 45 seconds must be close to its physical limit, as brachial respiration is impossible while moving through the air.

There are some 40 species of "flying fish" in the family known as Exocoetidae. The animals are found worldwide in warmer waters.

Their flight ability comes from a glide rather than a powered flapping.

Flying Fish Near Yakushima Island Japan
Flying Fish Near Yakushima Island Japan

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Was President Abraham Lincoln Terminally Ill?

Did John Wilkes Booth shoot a dying man?

That's the controversial conclusion reached by physician and amateur historian Dr. John Sotos, who says that President Abraham Lincoln was suffering from a lethal genetic cancer syndrome when he was shot at Ford's Theatre 143 years ago.

"Lincoln was a rare man with a rare disease," said Sotos. He has self-published a 300-page book and 400-page database to support his conclusion, based on an exhaustive analysis of Lincoln photographs and historical eyewitness descriptions of the president's health. "This solves a puzzle."

While most Americans only reflect on dead presidents during long weekends in February, Sotos and other physician historians pore over ancient accounts of long-gone symptoms, studying aches and pains as if the patient had stepped out of the grave into the clinic.

These hobbyists have crafted a collection of retrospective diagnoses: George Washington might have suffered dementia during his last years in office; James Madison suffered seizures; Calvin Coolidge grew depressed after the death of his son; after a lifetime of heavy drinking, Franklin Pierce died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Lincoln's health has fascinated medical sleuths. In 1962, it was suggested that his great height and long limbs were linked to a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. Others have proposed alternate ailments - Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, perhaps, or Stickler syndrome. Some say he suffered from depression or exhaustion.

The late president's health had long puzzled Sotos.

Last year, while assembling a medical database about the 16th president, Sotos read an unrelated article about thyroid cancer, the deadly and inevitable outcome of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B, or MEN 2B.

Many of the symptoms matched Lincoln's, and at 3:15 a.m., Sotos made a link. The condition, which causes aggressive thyroid cancer, explains Lincoln's lanky build, chronic constipation, hooded eyes, asymmetric jaw and the lumps on his lips, he said. His health was weakening in the months prior to the assassination, Sotos asserts.

If true, Lincoln's death could have been messy and lingering, Sotos speculates, not sudden and shocking. For a nation in post-war turmoil, "it would have been a much different ending."

The medical community is divided on the theory.

"Sotos has presented a very compelling case," said Dr. Charis Eng, director of the Genomic Medicine Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "It is fascinating, but the jury is still out."

More skeptical is Dr. Jeffrey F. Moley, an expert on the disease at Washington University in St. Louis. "I strongly doubt that Lincoln had MEN 2B. I have seen a hundred patients with MEN 2B and I see none of the characteristic features. It's very, very unlikely."

This isn't the first president Sotos has diagnosed, living or dead.

He's compiled meticulous medical histories on all 43 U.S. presidents - as well as Vice President Dick Cheney ("a vasculopath with an almost 30-year history of coronary atherosclerosis.") He diagnosed severe sleep apnea in William Taft and graphed the president's weight gains and losses.

Other projects include a "Periodic Table of the Senators," where legislators are arranged horizontally from the liberal left to the conservative right, in shades of blue and red. He's compiled biographies of every NASA astronaut and designed an online calculator that weighs the risk of mad cow disease vs. heart attack.

A cardiologist, colonel and chief flight surgeon in the California Air National Guard, Sotos also is a medical consultant to the TV show "House, M.D." and has founded the company Apneos, which builds devices to treat sleep apnea.

"I enjoy peeling back the boundaries of my ignorance," he said. His interests are so vast that Sotos earned his math degree from Dartmouth and a medical degree from Johns Hopkins before coming to Palo Alto to study artificial intelligence at Stanford.

Unmarried, the 50-year-old surrounds himself with rich friendships. An insatiable reader, Sotos walks the Stanford "Dish" trail two hours a day - nose in a book.

"It's paved. Except for the time I stepped on a snake, it's completely safe."

Longtime friend and former Johns Hopkins colleague Dr. Hugh Rienhoff calls him "a polymath - a fascinating character who works completely outside the system, adapting to whatever the problem is and moving with ease, rather than being straitjacketed.

"When he focuses, he becomes consumed - which lets him get to the level of granularity that he does," he said. "Once he puts his mind on something, he gets down to bedrock."

Only a DNA sample will prove if Lincoln might have soon died a natural death had Booth lost his nerve. That sample won't come from Lincoln; he's buried in concrete. It won't come from his living descendants; there are none. Only a precious sample of blood, from a saved swath of soiled fabric, would be definitive.

Until then, history offers the best clues.

"Physicians have an obligation to investigate everything that may shed light on their patient's health," said Sotos. "I have simply approached Lincoln as if he were my patient."

Was President Abraham Lincoln Terminally Ill
Was President Abraham Lincoln Terminally Ill

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Japanese Cloning Cancer-Sniffing Dog

A Japanese centre which says it has trained a dog to sniff out human cancer cells is cloning the animal in South Korea, a Seoul bio-technology company and the dog's owner have said.

Cloned foetuses from the black labrador retriever named Marine were last month implanted into a surrogate mother dog, said Ra Jeong-Chan, president of RNL Bio.

"We are going to see the clones around the end of this month," Ra said.

Marine, who is six and half years old, lost her ability to reproduce when she had her womb removed because of disease.

She is owned by Yuji Satoh, a head trainer at St. Sugar Cancer Sniffing Dog Training Centre located at Shirahama in Chiba prefecture.

Satoh told AFP in Japan that experts from Seoul National University, which created the world's first cloned dog in 2005, had taken some skin samples from Marine and brought them back to South Korea for the project.

"We are making clones of Marine. She is touted as having a world top cancer-sniffing ability. By making her clones, we want to promote studies into cancer-sniffing dogs," Satoh said.

"It's the world's first cloning of a cancer-sniffing dog."

He and the Korean firm, which is coordinating the project, have agreed to produce two clones and train them at Satoh's centre.

One will then be brought back to South Korea for study at the university and the other will stay at the centre.

If the project for two pups succeeds, they plan to produce more.

"We want to make more clones of Marine for worldwide distribution" for studies into canine detection of cancer, Satoh said.

Researchers in several countries are investigating whether dogs have the ability to detect lung, breast, prostate and skin cancer at an early and treatable stage.

They believe cancer cells create a scent not present in healthy cells, which can theoretically be picked up by dogs in breath or urine samples.

RNL Bio's last such project was an order for the world's first commercial cloning of a pet dog — a request from a US woman to re-create her beloved former pitbull.

The firm said in February it planned to charge 150,000 dollars to clone the pitbull for the California woman, using tissue from her dead pet named Booger.

A Seoul National University team created the world's first cloned dog in 2005, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

Team leader Lee Byeong-Chun told AFP last week that Snuppy was expected to become a father this month following the first breeding of cloned canines.

Lee's team also produced seven clones of drug-sniffing dogs last year at the request of the Korea Customs Service. They are said to be easier to train than ordinary canines.

Japanese Cloning Cancer-Sniffing Dog
Japanese Cloning Cancer-Sniffing Dog

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The 1897 Aurora, Texas UFO Crash Mystery

The Aurora UFO Incident is an alleged UFO crash that occurred on April 19, 1897 in Aurora, Texas. A UFO is said to have hit Judge J.S. Proctor's windmill resulting in its crash, and the burial of the dead pilot at an unmarked grave at the Aurora cemetery. The Aurora cemetery contains a Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident. A portion of the second paragraph on the marker states, “This site is also well known because of the legend that a spaceship crashed nearby in 1897 and the pilot, killed in the crash, was buried here.” At the time of the incident, the Dallas Times Herald reported that the pilot of the craft was "not of this world" and that the "being" was buried at the local cemetery.

A MUFON investigation in 1995 uncovered a piece of metal that was 95% aluminum, and 5% iron. This is very uncommon in nature, leading to the assertion raised in MUFON's report that, given the presumption that it originated in 1897, the sample could not be of terrestrial nature. However, even MUFON's report does not discount the explanation that the sample was simply left there at some point during the last century. The graveyard was also searched, where a marker was uncovered that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort. MUFON asked for permission to exhume the site, but the community resisted. The report speculated that the people of Aurora did not want to lose the notoriety that the alleged crash had brought them. The previous owner of the land where the crash had taken place is known to have discarded the metal from the wreckage by throwing it into his well. Having subsequently developed severe arthritis that he blamed on contaminated well water, the same previous owner sealed over the well with a concrete slab. A document with unknown hieroglyphics was also found after the crash.

1897 Aurora Texas UFO Crash Mystery
1897 Aurora Texas UFO Crash Mystery

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Video Larry King Show: British X-Files Released

UFO FILES X-POSED! Larry King CNN Part I of II

UFO FILES X-POSED! Larry King CNN Part II of II
Videos of Larry King Show on CNN discussing the release of secret British UFO / ET files.

Larry King Show British Secret UFO Files
Larry King Show British Secret UFO Files

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The Trinity From Hell!

The Hon. James David Manning says Oprah Winfrey, Barack Hussein Obama, and Jeremiah Wright are the Trinity of Hell. This message was preached on 10 May 2008.

Pastor James David Manning
Pastor James David Manning

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Thylacine DNA Restored To Life

Australian scientists say it may one day be possible to bring the dinosaur back to life, after a world-first experiment with DNA from the extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Injected DNA from preserved Tasmanian tiger specimens was injected and brought back to life in a mouse embryo in the nine-year experiment conducted by Melbourne University zoologists Andrew Pask and Marilyn Renfree.

In results published in the international scientific journal PLoS One, the experiment proved the tiger DNA was able to grow cartilage and bone in the mouse, showing the extinct gene could be brought back to life.

Dr Pask said the same technique could now be used with other extinct species such as the dinosaur, mammoth and neanderthal, all of which scientists had large amounts of DNA available.

And he said while the technique could recreate only a single extinct gene, with technology advancing all the time, it could one day be possible to bring whole creatures back to life.

"I have no doubt the whole creature could be brought back to life in the future," Dr Pask told AAP.

And he said creating combinations such as Pterodactyl wings on mice would also be possible.

"Yes it does, you could look at those combinations," he said.

In the world-first experiment, DNA was extracted from baby Tasmanian tigers which had been pickled in alcohol at Melbourne's Museum Victoria for a century.

The tigers were babies in their mothers' pouches when they were killed and preserved.

Tasmanian tigers have been extinct in the wild for about 100 years, with the last one of its kind dying in captivity in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

The experiment with their DNA was conducted in Houston with University of Texas molecular genetics professor Richard Behringer.

Professor Renfree said the study proved for the first time it was possible to resurrect the function of an extinct gene.

"This study has proved you can use DNA material from extinct animals and see what function they have," Prof Renfree said.

Prof Pask said as well as paving the way to recreate extinct species in the future, the research could also have potential bio-medical therapeutic outcomes.

"It gives us the ability to unleash the potential of extinct species," he said.

The experiment linked the tiger's DNA, the Col2a1 gene with a reporter gene, which showed the embryo's developing legs and arms.

The scientists said this showed the tiger gene would have a similar function in developing cartilage and bone development as an equivalent mouse gene.

The embryo was not developed into a live mouse, but Dr Pask said the technique could be taken further in the future, similar to the way DNA from still-surviving species was currently used.

"I think people have been introducing new life into mice and genetically modified organisms for a long, long time," he said.

"The only difference is this animal is extinct."

But the scientists stressed the ability to resurrect single genes of extinct species did not make the growing number of extinct species any less of a concern.

"Absolutely not," Prof Renfree said.

"The extinction of species is an enormous scientific concern, particularly in Australia where we have the worst record."

She said while the research allowed the function of individual genes from extinct species to be revealed, it was still a long way from being able to bring that species back to life.

Thylacine DNA Restored To Life
Thylacine DNA Restored To Life

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Attack On New Mexico Boy Remains A Mystery

A 5-year-old boy hiking with his family near Sandia Peak, New Mexico, has survived an attack from an unidentified species of large animal, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said Sunday, May 18, 2008.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said the family was hiking near the popular Balsam Glade area on the Sandia Mountains, when the boy ran ahead of his parents. It happened on the east side of the Sandia Mountains around 7 p.m. Saturday.

A sheriff’s department report identified the boy as Jose Salazar Jr. of Albuqureque, New Mexico.

The boy’s parents saw the animal emerge from the brush and start dragging away their child, White said. The father then chased the animal, which let go of his son.

White said the animal was a mountain lion, but Ross Morgan, a spokesman for Game and Fish, said dogs trained to track mountain lions picked up no scent in the area Saturday night or Sunday.

Officials said they don’t know what kind of animal attacked the boy. They’re looking at the tracks in the area to find out if it was a cougar, mountain lion, or bear.

“The animal had the kid and was dragging him down the side of the hill. When the father jumped over there, the animal ran off,” said Ross Morgan, who works for the Department of Game and Fish.

“The dad described it as a short, stocky, dark brown animal,” Morgan said.

Morgan said hikers in the area Sunday were told about the attack, but the news did not deter them from hiking.

The Department of Game and Fish is warning people to be careful if they’re in the mountains.

Some people visiting the mountains on Sunday said they are aware of the dangers and are prepared for what could come their way.

“We have to expect that we’re going to come across animals,” visitor Rich Weiner said. “We’re in their habitat.”

But others who spend time in the Sandia Mountains, like David Czaplewski, said news of the attack has them shaken up.

“It’s shocking and kind of scary,” Czaplewski said. “We’re making sure we’re keeping track of where everyone is and looking around.”

Officials said everyone who is visiting the mountains should be extra careful, so they don’t become the next victim.

The boy suffered puncture wounds (bite marks) to his head, neck and back. He was in serious condition at University of New Mexico Hospital on Saturday, White said.

A hospital spokeswoman said Sunday the family declined to make the boy’s condition public.

He’s currently in the Intensive Care Unit at University of New Mexico Hospital.

Attack New Mexico Boy Mystery
Attack New Mexico Boy Mystery

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'Ghost Hunters' Investigate The Red Mill, Clinton, New Jersey

When it comes to paranormal TV, the TAPS crew from Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" is tops.

Fans of the popular show can look forward to seeing TAPS investigators at a Hunterdon County landmark during the show's June 11 episode.

The crew recently conducted an examination of Clinton's Red Mill and the grounds of the Red Mill Museum Village. Did the investigators find anything? You'll have to wait until June 11 to see, but Red Mill trustee Bruce Pearson said viewers won't be disappointed.

It was Pearson, a Hunterdon County native and longtime documentary filmmaker, who contacted The Atlantic Paranormal Society based in Warwick, R.I., after hearing "enough credible witnesses." Mill visitors and staff members discuss paranormal events they experienced at the property. Pearson is among them.

Just a few months ago, during the last slushy snowfall of the season, Pearson went to the mill to plow.

"I had done the first loop around the back of the property and came to the front. On the third floor of the mill there looked to be someone with a flashlight in the window."

He watched for 50 or 60 seconds.

"It looked more like a flickering light and I could see the outline of a person," he recalled.

He got off his plow to investigate. He thought some kids might have broken in but there were no footprints in the snow at the front or back entrances, he said.

"It kinda creeped me out. I never found anything and the place wasn't on fire thank God."

Charles Speierl, the mill's executive director for the past 10 years, said there are visitors and staff who feel "uncomfortable" on certain floors. One visitor reported seeing a tour guide in a hat when no guide was there.

The mill's possible haunting doesn't worry Speierl.

"I've been here 2 in the morning, when there's a thunderstorm, the power goes out and I have to go down all the floors. I'm not happy about it but I'm not uncomfortable."

Speierl also isn't aware of any deaths or tragic events at the facility which was built in 1810 and served as a wool, grist and talc mill. The mill also produced electricity for the town in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

While it was in a "rough side of town" and used the manpower of transients and itinerant workers in the early to mid-1900s, the mill is now operated by a private, nonprofit organization and is on the state and national registers of historic places, the director said.

Details are being finalized for a free, live screening of the "Ghost Hunters" episode at a Clinton location, featuring talks by some of the mill staff and visitors who have experienced the strange phenomena TAPS investigated, Pearson said.

The mill staff also is bracing for an expected influx of earthly patrons after the show airs. The TAPS crew reported many places investigated have seen an increase in visitors after shows on the locations aired, Pearson said.

He and the board would be definitely happy, not scared, about that.

Ghost Hunters Red Mill Clinton New Jersey
Ghost Hunters Red Mill Clinton New Jersey

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Lack of Evidence Stalls Erath County, Texas UFO Investigations

Whether a UFO visited two Central Texas towns will remain a mystery – at least for now.

"All the video that we've analyzed hasn't provided substantial proof," Ken Cherry, Texas state director of the Mutual UFO Network, said Sunday. "Without definite evidence, we're left with the word of our witnesses."

The Erath County towns of Stephenville and Dublin were thrust into the national spotlight in January after dozens of people – including a pilot and business owners – said they saw a large, silent object with bright lights flying low on Jan. 8. Two military jets were in hot pursuit, the witnesses said.

Mr. Cherry and the UFO network's chief investigator, Steve Hudgeons, delivered their findings at an Irving public library. Mr. Cherry said the case is at a standstill unless someone produces better evidence.

Several dozen people who attended the meeting Sunday are convinced that Texas was visited by something not from this world.

"I think that 200 people didn't make something up," said Dallas resident Jackie Schroller, a new member of the network, which has chapters all over the U.S.

The investigation looked at various pieces of evidence, including a cellphone video that was too dark to be conclusive. Mr. Hudgeons said most of what witnesses saw could be explained, such as a light display being caused by an unsteady camera focused on a bright star.

Mr. Cherry said the findings "will not satisfy the believers or the debunkers."

Some at the meeting said they believe the U.S. government wants to keep secret about what was in the sky.

The military initially denied having any planes in the area on Jan. 8. About two weeks later, it said some F-16 fighters had been flying near Stephenville that night.

The flip-flop was blamed on "an internal communications error."

Mr. Cherry said the witnesses are very credible and difficult to ignore. He said three police officers, who do not want to come forward publicly, also reported seeing light patterns in the sky.

"One was close enough to it to use his radar gun to track the thing," he said. "It moved away at 27 miles per hour and then vanished."

Erath County Texas UFO Investigations
Erath County Texas UFO Investigations

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Five Britons Reveal Their Personal UFO Close Encounters

They may sound too bizarre to be credible, but they make gripping reading nonetheless — the first-hand accounts of ordinary Britons who claim to have seen UFOs in our skies.

After the Ministry of Defence released details last week of around 7,000 sightings since 1977 — including reports from policemen, military pilots and air traffic controllers — FEMAIL went back to five of them to hear their incredible stories.

RUTH NOVELLI, 61, lives in Bushey, Hertfordshire, with husband Bruno, 60. In 1984 Ruth reported a UFO sighting to the MoD.

She says: To this day, my children have never forgiven me for not waking them up the night my neighbour and I spent several hours gazing at what looked like a UFO in the night sky.

Twenty-four years on and it's come back to haunt me with the previously secret Ministry of Defence report in which my sighting is recorded.

It was April 26, 1984, and as night fell, we saw out of the kitchen window what looked like a huge shining star in the sky.

It started to change colour — pinks, reds, blues and greens — and there were balls of light coming off the sides.

The object stayed in the sky, occasionally moving sharply back and forth and side to side.

We lived close to the Bentley Priory RAF headquarters so initially decided that if it wasn't a star, it was perhaps military equipment being tested.

Suddenly, an almighty flash of bright light passed over our houses and we were so panicked that we called the RAF HQ. They claimed they knew nothing about it, so my neighbour and I called the police.

Almost immediately, they came and blocked off our road while scrutinising the sky. We were asked to fill out lots of forms detailing what had happened.

Nobody ever told us what it was we'd seen, but the following day local papers carried reports of strange lights sighted above the Thames. A friend of a friend said she'd seen something similar on the same night.

The weirdest part of the whole episode was when a local UFO enthusiast called me a few days later.

LYNN JONES, 33, lives in Wrexham, Wales, with partner Leigh, 32, and their three children. In 2007, she saw strange lights hovering over the town.

The MoD was alerted but the lights remain unexplained.

Until the day I saw a UFO myself I had never even thought about them — I didn't believe such things happened.

But even now, when I look back on what I saw, I can feel the fear creeping over me again — it was a truly terrifying experience.

It was 12.30am and I was in bed when Leigh came rushing in saying he could see strange lights in the sky.

I felt so sleepy I waved him away, but he drew back the curtains and I literally gasped at the sight.

There in front of us was a formation of seven brilliant white and yellow lights, which together had formed the shape of a cigar.

Leigh and I were dumbstruck. We opened the window and listened for any noise but there was none.

Yet, the lights above us were clear as could be — they were incredibly white and mesmerising.

We decided to use the video camera so we could zoom in on the sighting.

As I went to find it, I felt frightened. I hoped that looking through the video would reveal it was just a plane, but it wasn't.

The next day I phoned my local paper to see if anyone else had seen anything. It turned out the police had received a phone call in the middle of the night — and the paper had also received sightings from around six other people in the area all describing the same thing.

Since then I've been contacted by a number of UFO enthusiasts all wanting to see the film.

Through them I've discovered that this area is renowned for UFO sightings — it was near here that the "Welsh Roswell" happened in 1974 in the Berwyn Mountains when one day a huge tremor was felt and police later found the remains of an unidentified object.

Rumours are that the military destroyed a UFO.

To be honest, I have tried to put it out of my mind. I found it very unsettling and going over it all again raises more questions than it answers.

Nevertheless, it would be correct to say I am now more open-minded to the possibility that we may not be alone.

YVONNE UNDERWOOD, 51, lives with husband Richard, 54, in Northampton. At 9.30pm on February 3 this year, she saw a UFO.

My husband and I live in a beautiful location, next to a golf course, and because we don't have any close neighbours we never draw the curtains.

Then one day, while I was watching a film on TV, I glanced out the window and was left aghast.

There in the sky I could see five bluey-white lights. I leapt out of bed to get a better look.

They were moving steadily and very low in an oblong formation. I felt my mouth go dry wondering if it was some aircraft going to crash land. We often have police helicopters fly over our house but this was something else — there was no noise at all.

I shouted to Richard to come and look. But as he did the lights seemed to pass by the house and out of view of the bedroom window.

I ran to the front of the house, where from one of the bedrooms there is a balcony.

As I opened the door my hands began to shake. It sounds silly now but I wondered what on earth I'd find.

The lights had been so low I almost expected to see something in the front garden. But there was nothing at all.

I came back in the house visibly shaking and terribly frustrated that Richard hadn't seen it as well.

A few days later I was still so bothered that I contacted our local newspaper. I wanted to know if anyone else had seen them or if there was some logical explanation.

They contacted the MoD, who confirmed nothing untoward had gone on that night — however, there had been 27 such sightings in Northamptonshire in the past decade.

Over the next few weeks I was teased by a few friends and I think my children thought I had lost the plot.

I kept going over the incident in my head but I still couldn't come up with any explanation.

I even tried to work out if what I saw was car lights reflecting on to the road that runs past our house.

A few weeks later I then discovered through my father-in-law that another man walking his dog nearby had also seen the same thing. Like me, he'd been astounded. His sighting tallied with mine.

It was a relief because until then I'd felt as if I were going mad. I've always had an open mind about UFOs but until February it never crossed my mind to even look at the sky for one.

Truthfully, it has shaken me — the worse thing is not having an explanation and realising however much you try to analyse what you saw, you will never know the truth.

SEAN TIERNEY, 46, runs the Hull UFO Society. He spotted a UFO in 2001 and reported it to the MoD, but no explanation was given. Sean says:

Vicki and I were driving through Scarborough in February 2001. It was just a normal night but it was clear and cold.

Suddenly, I saw two bright white balls of lightmoving steadily, one in front of the other, about 4in apart.

I was so excited that my first reaction was to call my son Sean to come and meet us and video what we were witnessing.

For me, it's more evidence in my mission to prove UFOs exist.

Since the age of 11 I have believed in the existence of alien lifeforms — it was also the same age I saw my first UFO, when I observed strange lights and what looked like meteor showers in the sky.

As an adult I was more interested than ever and aged 21 went to my first Hull UFO Society meeting. Now I'm running it.

I've lost count of the exact number of times I've reported sightings to the MoD but it must be between 20 and 30 now.

During this particular sighting in 2001, though, we watched the lights for about eight or nine minutes before they were lost behind a building or a cloud.

I wasn't alarmed, just intrigued to watch it making its way across the sky.

When I looked on the Hull UFO Society website, I saw that other people had posted messages in the sightings section saying that the lights had been seen as far away as Nottingham.

I have tried to rationalise what I saw, but as there was no noise or flashing lights

I'm sure it wasn't a military plane.

Just to be certain I wrote letters to Humberside Airport, Humberside Police and all the local RAF bases and the MoD, who all assured me there'd been no planes in the sky that night.

Intriguingly, the MoD confirmed that there'd been other sightings that night, although it refused to offer an explanation. I'm certain that what we saw was a UFO.

Personal UFO Close Encounters
Personal UFO Close Encounters

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Baby Playing With Indian Cobra

The Hindu religion reveres the cobra as God (Shiva and Vishnu). Anyway, this is a bit unnerving to me. The cobra doesn't bite or spit at the baby for whatever reason...just hissing and defensive striking. Frankly, I don't know if the fangs have been removed or trained not to bite.

Baby Playing With Indian Cobra
Baby Playing With Indian Cobra

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Interest In Lake Memphremagog Serpent Legend Fading

Barbara Malloy long ago grew immune to people who think she's off her rocker because she believes in a sea serpent nicknamed "Memphre" who lives in Lake Memphremagog, which straddles the Vermont-Quebec border.

Malloy claims to have seen Memphre eight times. The 69-year-old grandmother of six, a 1957 graduate of Colonie High School, maintains a Memphre Web site (http://www.memphreusa.com) and has written a 500-page manuscript, "My Best Friend Memphre & Me." She describes documenting more than 100 Memphre sightings by some 250 witnesses since 1816.

Malloy has organized a 25th anniversary Memphre event on July 5 in Newport, Vt., at the 27-mile-long, glacial-cut lake with depths of 350 feet. The lakeside village has a population of 6,000 year-round residents.

Malloy and her daughters had their first sighting on Aug. 12, 1983, of the creature she describes as a 50-foot-long, humpish, gray, slimy, mud-burrowing beast.

Malloy was in Albany recently, visiting a son and her newest grandchild, as well as a daughter who lives in Averill Park.

Last profiled in the Times Union in 1990, she still sounds calmly rational and, well, grandmotherly -- without a hint of the characters who fill supermarket tabloids with tales of Elvis sightings, UFO babies and the face of Virgin Mary in a chicken nugget.

Malloy has been the subjects of numerous articles and documentaries and relished the publicity, but is looking to retire from pitching Memphre.

"I knew the Champ guy for a long time, but he gave it up and I think I'm the only sea serpent promoter left," she said, referring to the reputed Lake Champlain dweller. "It's hard to let go of something that's been so much fun. I'd like to pass the torch to my children and grandchildren, but they have their own lives and don't seem as interested."

Malloy helped form the International Dracontology Society of Lake Memphremagog. Dracontology is an invented word from drakon, which means "serpent" in Greek.

Her society colleague and fellow Memphre booster, Jacques Boisvert, died in 2006 at 73.

Lake Memphremagog Serpent Legend Memphre
Lake Memphremagog Serpent Legend Memphre

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'UFO Hunters' Investigate Tinley Park Lights

When a trio of red lights shaped like a triangle appeared a few years ago in Tinley Park skies, they stopped drivers in their tracks, strained the necks of neighbors at barbecues and drew workers outside to gawk at the clouds.

One resident nicknamed the trio of lights the "Cleanup Crew." Some people said the lights moved, others said they were still. They were spotted three times in 2004 and 2005.

Were they helium balloons and flares suspended by a string of rope? A spacecraft, perhaps, from a galaxy far, far away?

The sightings have garnered Tinley Park - population nearly 60,000 - national attention from those who believe we are not alone in this universe, and skeptics who poke fun.

They were the topic of a daylong panel at the Tinley Park Convention Center in March. Now they'll be the subject of an episode of The History Channel's "UFO Hunters," in which a team of investigators tries to separate fact and fiction when it comes to unidentified flying objects landing in your back yard.

Since its debut in 2005, the show has examined cases including a deadly dispute between Mexican and U.S. authorities about a collision between an unknown object and a civilian aircraft and whether the U.S. government is competing with extraterrestrials by using their downed spacecrafts to come up with modern technology, such as fiber optics and night vision, among other topics, according to the show's Web site at www.history.com.

But the "UFO Hunters" crew's visit to Tinley Park is top secret. So much so, the filmmakers won't divulge any details, not even when the team will scour this south suburb looking for evidence and witnesses.

Tinley Park resident Wally Bekta laughed when he was asked about what he saw in 2005 and voiced the eerie sounds, "do do do do do do." Then he realized he might get on TV.

"They were flares on balloons," said Bekta, 48, who was hosting some friends at a firepit in his back yard in the 8200 block of Queen Victoria Lane. "I spotted them. They just came across the house next to us over the peak of the roof, no more than 50 feet over the peak of the house. They were climbing and rising. We got a very good look at them."

Does he believes in UFOs? "No."

His friend, David Palagi, is even more detailed in his description. And he doesn't believe the lights were life from another planet.

"It was extremely clear," said Palagi, who also was at Bekta's home. "There was no doubt in my mind they were red helium balloons and flares suspended by a string of rope. They were just over (Bekta's) next-door neighbor's house, just climbing up over the distance."

Palagi, 54, said he had seen the red lights a few months before that evening, but they were much higher in the sky, at least as high as an airplane.

Just the mere mention of the Tinley Park lights attracts a flurry of e-mails and comments from skeptics and believers.

Sam Maranto, Illinois director of the Mutual UFO Network, described the sightings as "quite possibly the best mass sighting case, as far as witnesses' videos, evidence, etc., of all time. I'm dead serious. If not the best, one of the best."

Maranto said he plans to help the "UFO Hunters" investigate the Tinley Park cases, but that's all he would say. He is, though, very chatty when it comes to the red lights.

"There are elements to (the sightings) that clearly seem to not be anything like road flares attached to balloons, at least on two of those nights or more," Maranto said. "And we're investigating each case separately."

A witness has footage of the August 2004 sighting that shows something going in and out of the flying object, Maranto said.

"Why would we have animals going crazy if these objects were prosaic?" he said.

While you're waiting for the "UFO Hunters" to arrive, stay tuned for more details about another UFO Symposium plannedfor June 22 at the Tinley Park Convention Center, 18501 S. Harlem Ave. Maranto also will be on "Dateline NBC" tonight talking about the Tinley Park lights as part of an episode titled "10 Close Encounters Caught on Tape."

UFO Hunters Investigate Tinley Park Lights
UFO Hunters Investigate Tinley Park Lights

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Indian School Bus

Here we have a transport for school children in New Delhi. Basically, it's an oversized sardine can on a bicycle. Could be deadly if broadsided by a water buffalo or rickshaw.

Indian School Bus
Indian School Bus

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Shouts For 'Help' From Cyclone Ghosts

In the middle of the night, in the worst-hit areas of the cyclone, villagers hear voices from the fields.

"Hey …. help us, Hey … help us," the voices say. But when villagers search the fields with their torch lights, no one can be seen.

"We believe it must be the ghosts of those who died, because they died unnaturally in the cyclone," said a villager from Peinneakone village in Laputta Township, Irrawaddy Division, where Cyclone Nargis struck May 2-3.

Most Buddhists believe that the spirits of those who died in accidents are restless and continue to dwell near their loved ones.

"I heard people say they see their friends and family who died in the cyclone still sitting beside them," said a social worker who visited Kun Chan Kone Township in Rangoon Division.

"The spirits just stayed and move around their children as if they were still alive."

Many survivors were traumatized after they lost parents, children and belongings before their eyes.

A volunteer physician in Rangoon who is helping cyclone survivors in the Delta region said, "I think the survivors of the Cyclone have been mentally traumatized and they tend to lose control and see things and images and hear sounds. It might seem normal in the daylight but when night falls, people tend to hear the voices of their loved ones and see them."

"So, they might think it is spirits or ghosts," said the doctor.

Many dead bodies were floating on the water while survivors tried to escape from villages to get food and water near the township.

Burmese believe the ghosts cannot harm them, only haunt them.

One of the ghost stories being told goes like this: A soldier had a dream last week that the ghost of a woman slapped him, complaining that the soldier took her body away before her family had a chance to see it, and to confirm that she was dead. She also complained that the soldier took her body away without any clothing – in full view of the public.

Burmese Ghosts Cyclone
Burmese Ghosts Cyclone

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The Story Behind the Crystal Skulls

It didn’t seem all that significant at the time. In 1968, while stationed in Panama with the U.S. Air Force, Bill Homann stumbled onto a magazine article about British adventurer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges and a mysterious crystal skull found among the Mayan ruins of Central America.

Forty years later, Homann places that same crystal skull on a Lazy Susan covered in black velvet on the coffee table of his rural Chesterton home.

“Some things just catch your eye and imagination,” he says, slowly turning the artifact. “You can see it in a book or magazine, but it’s nothing like seeing the real thing.”

As the fourth installment of the “Indiana Jones” film franchise, which bases its story on crystal skull mythology, gets closer to its nationwide release, Homann, a modern-day adventurer with an eighth-degree black belt in karate, has seen increasing interest in the Mitchell-Hedges piece. Tonight, Homann is featured in the two-hour documentary “Mystery of the Crystal Skulls,” airing at 9 p.m. on the Sci Fi Channel, and on Thursday the much talked about “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” opens in theaters.

“It’s never dull around the crystal skull,” Homann says.

The LaPorte native, who owns Homann Karate Do with his son, Brett, in Crown Point, became caretaker of the world’s most famous crystal skull after Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, died last year.

Homann met Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1981 through a Chicago friend. The two became so close that Homann cared for her at his home during the final years of her life. She entrusted the skull to him shortly before her death on April 11, 2007, Homann’s birthday.

“She was my teacher,” he says. “My best friend.”

Carved out of a single piece of clear quartz, the life-sized skull features smoothly contoured cheekbones and a detachable jaw that sets perfectly into the cranium. It is so scientifically accurate that a face of a young Mesoamerican woman can be reconstructed from it. But how it was made and by whom remains a mystery.

The Sci Fi special follows Homann and host Lester Holt of NBC as they retrace Mitchell-Hedges’ steps through Belize and Honduras in search of the skull’s origins. It also explores the history, legend and controversies that surround crystal skulls found throughout the world.

“I tried to shake him,” Holt says of Homann. “I asked him a lot of pointed questions, and I came away at least with the conclusion that he’s a true believer. He’d lived with Anna Mitchell-Hedges, knows the skull and has heard her story, has asked her many of the same questions that I asked him.”

The skull, which F.A. Mitchell-Hedges dubbed the Skull of Doom and his daughter called the Skull of Love, was reportedly discovered in 1924 by the young Anna Mitchell-Hedges in a Mayan pyramid in Lubaantun, British Honduras, now Belize.

“She was on top of this pyramid that she wasn’t supposed to be on when she saw this glimmer of light,” Homann says. “She came down and told her dad that someone was in (the ruins) with a flashlight. That’s when they found the skull.”

Because the Mayan civilization peaked between A.D. 300 and 900 and no other crystal skull has been excavated from a documented archaeological site, many experts discount Anna Mitchell-Hedges’ account.

“Her strongest feeling had always been that she found it in Lubaantun,” Homann says. “Where it came from may be anybody’s guess, but she never changed her story.”

Adding to the mystery is a series of tests performed on the Mitchell-Hedges skull by scientists at Hewlett Packard in 1970.

“They discovered that the skull and the detached jaw were both made from the same quartz crystal,” Homann says. “They also found that no modern tools could make the skull because the vibrations would crack the crystal.”

If it was made by hand, however, the Hewlett Packard team concluded it could take as long as 300 years to complete.

“It would have been very easy for me to walk away from this with a big smirk on my face if we could have definitively proved that this thing was made in some machine shop in lower Manhattan,” Holt says. “But that’s not the case. We don’t know where this came from and whether it was machine-made, or how many years ago it was made.”

The legend, based on the Mayan “Long Count” calendar, which runs out on Dec. 21, 2012, says that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls that, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth from destruction.

“(It says) that if they’re brought together, they have some kind of significant power, and that’s where it gets a little sketchy,” Holt says. “But the origins of it coming from the Maya has some legitimacy.”

During the Sci Fi expedition, which took place in February, Homann found quartz in some unexplored jungle near Lubaantun.

“(The Mitchell-Hedges skull) is made of quartz and we, on this expedition, discovered that quartz is available nearby,” Holt says. “We learned a lot about the Maya culture. And you walk away thinking, ‘Hey, maybe, maybe.’ ”Of course, many less plausible theories abound about the origins of this and other crystal skulls. As the Sci Fi documentary reports, some contend the skulls hold the knowledge of the lost civilization of Atlantis; others say they have supernatural powers. The skulls have been connected to everyone from unscrupulous 19th-century antiquities dealers to extraterrestrial beings, and everything from Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in the English countryside, to the Nazca Lines, a series of geoglyphs in the high desert of Peru.

“I think it’s good to have all those different theories,” Homann says. “There are so many stories about crystal skulls. I’ve even heard the Ark of the Covenant is supposed to be made up of crystal skulls” (of course, Indiana Jones knows this all too well).

The number of skulls that have been found also is up for debate.

“Some people say there are only three; some people say there’s eight,” Homann says.

Regardless of the number, he still believes that at least two of the 13 skulls in the legend still may be in Central America.

“You can look out and see all these mountains, but they’re not mountains at all,” Homann says. “They are pyramids and ruins that haven’t been excavated yet.”

Even the admittedly skeptical Holt agrees that there may be some credence to that theory.

“You look at the Maya culture, and you realize that they had their day,” Holt says. “These are people that did do some extraordinary things. So who am I to say what their limiting point was? … The sky might have been the limit for them, including making these skulls.”

Homann is the first to admit there are still a lot of questions about the origins of crystal skulls, but thanks to a certain big-screen adventurer, someone may one day find the answers.

“In a week’s time, a billion people will suddenly become aware of crystal skulls,” Homann says. “If nothing else, the movie will give people the opportunity to search and learn about them and make up their own minds.”

Crystal Skulls Mayans
Crystal Skulls Mayans

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Pregnant Cow Mutilation Reported In Saskatchewan

A macabre mystery that pops up around the world has surfaced once again on a secluded Saskatchewan farm.

The most recent case of cattle mutilation occurred in the Stockholm area, just yards away from where Heather Harris and her husband slept. Harris was out tending the cattle the next day when she made the grisly discovery.

"It's hard to describe what she looked like ...," Harris said, recalling finding the cow's corpse. "I told my husband, 'You don't even want to see this.' "

The pregnant cow was missing its rectum, female organs, udder, navel, top and bottom lips, one ear and one eye. The animal's tongue appeared to be cut out.

Harris said there was no sign of blood in the area, and all of the injuries appear to be precise incisions. Harris said there were no signs of struggle in the area, and no tire tracks, footprints or blood anywhere around the animal.

The gruesome scenario appears to be a classic case of "cow mutilation," a bizarre occurrence attributed variously to natural predators, aliens, government operatives, cults and a variety of other elusive sources.

Mutilations first rose to public prominence in the United States in the 1960s, and have continued to surface around the world ever since -- including from time to time in Saskatchewan.

Documented mutilations are remarkably similar and often involve the removal of one ear, the animal's eyes, udders and sexual organs, tongue and lips. They are also characterized by a lack of blood and what appear to be clean incisions and cuts.

Many who have studied cow mutilations maintain the deaths are attributed entirely to natural sources, in particular the effects of scavengers and predators, coupled with the effects of dehydration and decomposition.

But others aren't so sure. Some surmise the mutilations are the work of alien spacecraft conducting experiments or gathering genetic information from the animals, and others believe they are conducted by cults or Satanists who use the animals' blood and body parts for rituals.

Still others maintain the mutilations to be part of a government conspiracy -- whether testing high-powered laser weapons or doing covert research about radiation, mad cow disease, or other cow illnesses which could spread to humans.

After looking at pictures of the remains of Harris' animal, veterinarian Dr. Kathleen Francis said she was shocked.

"Anything that could make that kind of incision took a little bit of skill," said Francis, who has been a vet for 11 years. "There was absolutely no blood anywhere around the carcass which was really weird, you know, to be able to make those kinds of cuts without losing blood somewhere on the ground."

Francis discounted predators as a possible cause of the cow's death, noting there were no bites or claw marks on the carcass. She said the bloodless wounds could mean some kind of electric cautery unit was involved.

"I'm not so convinced I believe the alien theories, but I could certainly go for the cult or that kind of thing happening. ..." she said. "It kind of makes you think -- strange things are out there."

Harris said the experience has left her shaken and she is unwilling to go outside by herself at night. But after reading up on some of the theories, Harris says she still isn't sure what to think about the bizarre occurrence.

"I know from what I've seen on the Net they put it down to cults or extraterrestrial ... but I don't know," she said. "I just know it's very, very freaky."

Pregnant Cow Mutilation Saskatchewan
Pregnant Cow Mutilation Saskatchewan

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New Skunk Ape Video: Myakka, Florida - May 2, 2008

No other information has been provided by the person who posted the video. There was a well-known Bigfoot/Skunk Ape sighting reported in the same area in 2001.

Skunk Ape Video Myakka Florida
Skunk Ape Video Myakka Florida

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New Information On Berwyn UFO Incident

Documents have surfaced which could shed new light on one of North Wales' greatest UFO mysteries.

The Berwyn mountains incident in 1974 has remained an enigma ever since, with reports of lights in the sky, an earthquake, claims of a crashed object and a cover up afterwards.

In fact some claim a UFO crashed, and “bodies” were retrieved and taken away by soldiers.

Now the Daily Post has acquired official documents showing how police were bombarded with calls and eye witness accounts of the strange event.

The “Welsh Roswell” incident happened one dark winter’s night on January 23, 1974, in the Berwyn Mountains between Bala and Corwen.

Families in the villages of Llandderfel and Llandrillo were settling down to watch TV, an explosion was heard and the ground shook. It measured 3.5 on the Richter scale.

As people ran from their houses, fearing another tremor, they saw a blaze of light on the mountainside above.

A local nurse, who believed an aircraft had crashed, drove to the site and saw a pulsating orange and red glow on the hillside and other lights.

Police converged on the area and emergency services were put on standby.

Searches were undertaken but, surprisingly, officially nothing was found.

Gwynedd Police received a number of reports that night from people claiming they had seen a UFO. The documents give a fascinating insight into what went on.

l Gwynedd Police Constabulary Major Incident Log – explosion – 21.10pm PC receiving 999 calls of UFO.

l A witness who saw an object on the hillside said in a statement: “Saw bright red light, like coal fire red. Large perfect circle. Like a big bonfire. Could see lights above and to the right and white lights moving to bottom. Light changed colour to yellowish white and back again.”

l A message in a police log said: “There’s been a large explosion in the area and there is a large fire in the mountainside. I am speaking from... and can see the fire where I am.”

l Telex message to chief constable Gwynedd constabulary. 22.00pm approx 23/1/74: Saw bright green lights, object with tail – travelling west. Saw about Bangor direction – dropped down.

l At approx 10pm on 23/1/74: Saw a circular light in the sky at an estimated height of 1,500 feet. This object exploded and pieces fell to the ground. Mr ...... estimates the pieces would have fallen into the sea between Rhyl and Liverpool.

UFO researcher Russ Kellett has studied the event and is convinced something extraordinary happened.

He said: “There is conclusive evidence because of other documents I have that mention these objects on that night from Newcastle down to the Home Counties up to Coventry being seen in the sky.

“Five witnesses who were there on that night, who I know through a friend, said there was a crashed craft by the side of the road near Llandrillo.

“It became known as the Berwyn Mountains incident because there were two objects that came down at two separate locations.”

“I know there is a photo of the crash site taken by the five and if any of them have it I would like them to contact me on 0560 2826901.”

UFO sightings across the UK from 1978-1987 were released in eight MoD files to the National Archive yesterday.

New Information Berwyn UFO Incident
New Information Berwyn UFO Incident

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300 Workers, Rabbis Arrested At Kosher Meat Plant For INS Violations and Meth Production

Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work.

The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.

In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture.

According to the application, a former plant supervisor told investigators that some 80 percent of the workforce was illegal. They included rabbis responsible for kosher supervision, who the source believed entered the United States from Canada without proper immigration documents. The source did not provide evidence for his suspicion about the rabbis.

The source also claimed to have confronted a human resources manager with Social Security cards from three employees that had the same number. The manager laughed when the matter was raised, the source said.

At least 300 people were arrested Monday during the raid, for which federal authorities had rented an expansive fairground nearby to serve as a processing center for detainees.

The search warrant application said that 697 plant employees were believed to have violated federal laws.

Agriprocessors officials did not return calls from JTA seeking comment.

Workers Rabbis Arrested Methamphetamine Kosher Meat Plant
Workers Rabbis Arrested Methamphetamine Kosher Meat Plant

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'Cursed' Tourists Return Stones To Ayer's Rock

Hundreds of visitors who casually pocketed chunks of the sacred landmark and took them home found they brought nothing but bad luck, including illness, marriage break-ups and even death.

National park rangers receive at least one package a day of what have been called “sorry rocks” pilfered from the landmark, now known by its indigenous name of Uluru.

While many of the packages were accompanied by a simple apology for having stolen the stones in the first place, about a quarter contained details of personal tragedies.

"About 25 per cent made that reference to bad luck,'' Jasmine Foxlee, a PhD student who is studying the phenomenon, told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"Interestingly enough, a lot of the others were more about people wanting to see those rocks returned to their rightful place.

"There's quite a deep-seated uncertainty about Aboriginal spirituality and culture and often we err on the side of caution when we don't know something well. So I think there's an element of: `If I return it, it's a bit of a safeguard for myself'.”

While most of the rocks were small, a German family returned a chunk weighing 9kg and a couple from South Australia posted back a large 32kg slab.

The Anangu, the Aboriginal tribe who live in the vicinity of the rock, have appealed for visitors not to take anything from the sacred site.

They also ask, for cultural and spiritual reasons, that the half a million tourists who flock to the giant red rock in the Northern Territory do not climb to its summit.

Tourists have been returning the rocks for years, and the phenomenon seems unconnected with the apology issued in February by the new Labour government of prime minister Kevin Rudd to members of the “Stolen Generation”, Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents and put into foster care.

Not all Australians applauded the idea of returning the souvenirs to their rightful home.

“What a load of crap! I've had my little piece of Ayers Rock for 14 years and I'm the most contented bugger on Earth,” one reader wrote on the newspaper’s website.

Cursed Tourists Return Stones Ayer's Rock
Cursed Tourists Return Stones Ayer's Rock

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Exotic Giant Beetles Seized at Pennsylvania Post Office

Customs agents seized more than two dozen giant beetles _ some the size of a child’s hand _ from an overseas package after postal workers heard the insects making scratching noises.

The large bugs arrived last week from Taiwan at a post office in Mohnton, about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in a box whose contents were labeled as toys, gifts and jellies, officials said Wednesday.

But the postmaster suspected the package contained live organisms and notified authorities, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. The package was sent to Philadelphia, where it was X-rayed and then opened.

“The specimens were some of the largest of their kind, and some of the largest I’ve ever seen, averaging five to six inches in diameter,” John Plummer, an agency agriculture specialist, said in a statement Wednesday. “They are highly destructive insect pests that can cause extensive damage to fruit and vegetable crops, trees, shrubs and turf grasses.”

In all, authorities found 26 Hercules, rhinoceros and Goliath beetles. It is illegal to ship live beetles into the United States without a permit from the Department of Agriculture.

Seven of the beetles were in containers labeled by gender, which means they could have been intended for breeding, customs agency spokesman Steve Sapp said Wednesday.

The sender and recipient have been identified, Sapp said. An investigation is under way, but no decision has been made whether to file charges, he said.

Giant Beetles Seized Pennsylvania Post Office
Giant Beetles Seized Pennsylvania Post Office

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Video: Chengdu, China Earthquake Live!

The video was recorded by an amateur cameraman while motor-biking with friends in a mountain reserve near Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

Video Chengdu China Earthquake Live
Video Chengdu China Earthquake Live

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Video: Surgery To Removed Alien Implants

Dr. Roger Leir has been removing supposed implants from patients who state they were abducted by extraterrestrials. This video is not recent but is still very interesting. The second video is from 'UFO Hunters' on The History Channel.


Video Surgery To Removed Alien Implants
Video Surgery To Removed Alien Implants

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British MoD Releases Secret UFO Files

Secret files about the sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) over Britain were opened to the public for the first time Wednesday, arousing anew the interest of “sceptics and believers”, officials said. The information, recording among many others a saucer-shaped UFO hovering over Waterloo Bridge in London, is based on details kept by police stations and airbases around the country.

It is being published by the National Archives in Kew, near London, which has kept the information secret for the past 30 years in line with legislation.

However, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London said it was not investigating the possibility of visitors from outer space making a stop at Earth.

Its main interest lay in checking that “UFOs were not in fact signs of earthly covert spying missions by other countries,” a statement said.

Nick Pope, who was responsible at the MoD for investigating the sightings said: “While there’s no evidence of little green men in these files, they should be of immense interest to sceptics and believers.”

Most of the UFO sightings were probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain, and include UFOs seen by police officers and pilots, and cases where UFOs have been tracked on radar, he said.

Over the next four years more than 150 files will be thrown open. But those hoping for proof of little green men will be disappointed, according to the MoD.

“The Ministry of Defence does not deny that there are strange things to see in the sky. It certainly has no evidence that alien spacecraft have landed on this planet,” a memo dating back to 1983 said.

British MoD Releases Secret UFO Files
British MoD Releases Secret UFO Files

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Mysteries of the Universe Conference

Mysteries of the Universe Conference

8:30 am - 9:30 pm

Registration open at 8:00 A.M.

June 7, 2008

Intrigue Park Place Hotel

1601 Universal Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri

Presented by: QUEST Investigation Group

All day lectures and trade show

Keynote Speaker: Nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman

Plus:

Margie Kay: Ghosts Among Us

Jason Offutt: Strange Stuff in the Midwest

Chris Brethwaite: The Evidence for Life After Death

Vince White: Hidden Nasa- Hidden Mars

Bill Hamilton: In Search of EBEs (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities)

VENDOR SPACE AVAILABLE!

Click here for website and more information

Mysteries of the Universe Conference
Mysteries of the Universe Conference

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Mexican Journalist Urges US Government To Investigate Alien Abduction Attempt

Aliens Caught In An Abduction Attempt On Tape: An
Noted Mexican journalist and ufologist Jaime Maussan addresses a UFO conference in reference to the 2005 alien abduction attempt captured on a cellphone by a group of teenagers in Mexico. He also urges the United States and other governments to consider this an authentic incident and to investigate.

Jaime Maussan Alien Abduction Video
Jaime Maussan Alien Abduction Video

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Einstein Describes Religion as 'Childish' and 'Primitive Legends' in Private Letter

The great scientist's views on religion have long been debated, with many seizing upon phrases such as "He [God] does not throw dice" as evidence that he believed in a creator.

But the newly-unveiled letter, a response to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, has cast doubt on the theory that Einstein had any belief in God at all towards to the end of his life.

In the letter, dated January 3 1954, he wrote: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."

Einstein, who died the following year aged 76, did not spare Judaism from his criticism, believing Jewish people were in no way "chosen" by God.

He wrote: "For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people.

"As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are better protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."

The letter, which for decades has been in private hands, has come to light as it is to go on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair on Thursday. It is expected to sell for up to £8,000.

Educated at a Catholic primary school but given private tuition in Judaism, Einstein later wrote that the "religious paradise of youth" - when he believed what he was told - was quickly crushed when he started questioning religion at the age of 12.

He wrote: "The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression."

But many of his pronouncements appear to support a belief in a divine being, or at least a wish to believe in one. The same year he wrote the letter he also said he wanted to "experience the universe as a single cosmic whole".

Einstein Religion Childish Primitive Legends
Einstein Religion Childish Primitive Legends

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No Bull! That's Some Heifer!

His name is Chilli and he's described as a gentle giant.

Which is just as well for his handler, Tara Nirula, pictured by his side.

His owners have contacted the Guinness Book of Records who are currently assessing his credentials and comparing them to other big bovines.

The black and white Friesian bullock weighs well over a ton and at the same height as a small elephant, casts a shadow over his cattle companions who are about 5ft.

Despite his grand stature, Chilli only grazes on grass during the day and enjoys the occasional swede as a treat.

The heifer, who is almost as high as he is long, lives at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard, Somerset, after he was left on their doorstep aged just six-days-old.

Nine years on, Chilli has kept on growing, and staff believe the giant will smash a record for Britain's tallest ever cow.

Naomi Clarke, manager at the sanctuary, said: "As Chilli was growing up we began noticing that he was bigger than our other cows.

"He now stands at 6ft 6ins from the floor to the top of his shoulder and he is massive when he holds his head up.

"We have made an application to Guinness Book Of Records and we are quite confident he will get it."

Chilli, who is 6ft 7ins long, was left running around on the doorstep of the sanctuary along with his twin sister Jubilee in 1999.

Over the years, staff noticed Chilli begin to tower over his sister and companions.

But it was only when he failed to fit in a standard cattle cage to have his hooves clipped that they realised just how big he had grown compared to normal bullocks.

Miss Clarke said: "For some reason a farmer decided he didn't want Chilli and Jubilee so dumped them with three others on our doorstep nine years ago.

"He was only six days old and didn't look that big but as the years passed we noticed he was getting rather tall.

"People would always comment on how much bigger he was from the other cows and bulls when they visited the sanctuary.

"He does weigh over a ton but is quite lean and not as fat as some of his companions."

She continued: "We don't know what has made him so tall. He doesn't eat that much and his feet and head are in proportion - he is just very large.

"He is a very friendly and gentle cow so we hopes he manages to break the record - he deserves it."

At present, the tallest bovine in the world is 6ft 8ins Fiorino, who lives in Italy.

A spokeswoman for the Guinness Book Of Records said: "I can confirm that an application has been received for Chilli which is currently under research."

Six months ago another bullock vying for a record breaking spot was The Field Marshal who weighed in at 3,000lb.

At the time he was on course to over take the current British record-holder, his former stablemate The Colonel, who stood 6ft 5in tall and weighed 3,500lb. He died in 2005.

Chilli World Record Bull
Chilli World Record Bull

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Massive Frog Migration Preceded Chinese Earthquake

On May 5th, many Chinese locals noticed thousands of frogs on the move. They were seen traveling without fear of traffic as they crossed streets in mass floods.

Many Chinese sensed the migration as a bad omen of a coming natural disaster, but the Chinese government told them that it was just a natural migration for the purpose of propagation. This calmed the people and no one took the omen very seriously.

On Monday, 12th of May, at about 2:45pm, central China region recorded a 7.8-magnitude quake which occured near Wenchuan County, Sichuan province, that killed nearly 10,000 people.

Many civilian houses and roads were collapsed and damaged. In one Dujiangyan city middle school, 900 students and teachers were buried in the collapsed building, at least 50 were killed.

The quake was the largest the region has seen for over a generation. It was so strong, even countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong felt the shake.

Many people are now calling the Chinese Earthquake Test Centers “useless”, as they were unable to even detect the earthquake before it happened. When they finally announced the earthquake had occured, it was 12 minutes after the disaster, and 2 minutes after the US had announced a large earthquake in China.

As for the Frogs and their omen, Chinese scientists stated animals have much better sense than human on detecting the natural disasters like this.

So much for “migration for propagation”.

Massive Frog Migration Preceded Chinese Earthquakes
Massive Frog Migration Preceded Chinese Earthquakes

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'Raffles Place Ghost' Video - Singapore - Hoax?

This video has been making the rounds throughout Southeast Asia. Supposedly taken on a security camera in Raffles Place Building in Singapore. Frankly, it looks like a CGI attempt to me, but you be the judge.

Raffles Place Ghost Video Singapore
Raffles Place Ghost Video Singapore

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Canadian Woman Mauled By Warthog In South Africa

A Canadian woman has been lying in an East London hospital for two weeks after she was gored in a savage attack by a “pet” warthog at a Queenstown safari lodge. Erhard Galka, 70, and his 69-year- old wife, Brunhilde, had arrived in the country from Ontario three days earlier for a hunting trip to Huntershill Safaris when the incident happened.

“We had encountered the warthog several times in the restaurant and kitchen, and had questioned the owners’ decision to keep a wild animal as a pet,” said an emotional Erhard from his wife’s bedside at St Dominic’s Hospital.

He said they had just finished dinner on Sunday, April 27, when his wife left the restaurant and walked towards their room, while he stayed behind with other guests.

“The next thing I heard excited shouts from outside, something about a woman being attacked, and I immediately thought it was my wife. I ran outside and found her lying on the ground, covered in blood.”

He said that she was unconscious when rushed to Queenstown’s Frontier Hospital, where she spent three hours being cleaned, stitched and given a blood transfusion.

“The doctors said that her wounds were very deep and that she had to be transferred to East London,” he said.

The warthog, according to Galka, had attacked from behind and gored her thighs behind and inside, and after she fell down it had sunk its tusks into her stomach and chest.

He said that a young girl nearby on a quad bike managed to chase it away.

“She was in very bad shape. I did not think she would make it,” Galka said of his wife of almost 50 years.

The day before Brunhilde was gored, the lodge’s barman was attacked by the same warthog and speared in both his legs. He was also brought to an East London hospital for treatment.

The Galkas were due to leave the country yesterday, but because Brunhilde is due for another operation on Monday, their stay will be indefinite.

A Huntershill Safaris manager told the Saturday Dispatch that the warthog, which had been at the lodge for almost a year, had been killed that same evening.

Refusing to give her name, the manager said they didn’t want to take the risk of it happening again.

“Guests are asked not to walk around in the dark because this is a game farm and there are animals like rhinos and lions roaming around,” she said.

“From what we understand (Brunhilde) took a short cut through a rather bushy and isolated area and probably frightened the warthog, and, like most animals, it retaliated by attacking.”

The lodge, at the foot of the Stormberg Mountains outside Queenstown , attracts hunters from around the world, who pay top prices to shoot wildlife.

Clients can choose either rifles or bows as their weapons of choice.

According to Huntershill’s website, hunters can pay anything from R40000 for a seven-day hunt for kudu, impala and springbok, to about R115000 for a top-end package.

Canadian Woman Mauled Warthog
Canadian Woman Mauled Warthog

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Barker Ranch To Be Searched For Manson Family Victims

Authorities say they will dig at a desert ranch in California once used by 1960s convicted killer and cult leader Charles Manson in search of bodies.

Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze issued a statement Friday saying an earlier search of Barker Ranch, located in Death Valley 150 miles west of Las Vegas, utilizing a cadaver dog and detection equipment was inconclusive, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.

"There was no consistent response from the dogs that searched, and no conclusive findings from the soil samplings tested by top experts in the field," Lutze said. "Therefore, I believe the only way to determine once and for all whether there are bodies buried at Barker Ranch from the time of the Manson family is to proceed with limited excavation in a very few areas."

Authorities are to begin about four days of digging on May 20, the newspaper reported.

Manson, now 73 and serving a life sentence in a California prison, and his followers wound up at Barker Ranch and nearby Myers Ranch after a series of slayings in Los Angeles, including the killing of actress Sharon Tate. There have been rumors for years that other Manson family victims are buried on the Barker property.

Barker Ranch Search Charles Manson
Barker Ranch Search Charles Manson

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West Midlands Girl Ghost Spooks Drivers

A paranormal research group is investigating a spate of ghostly sightings along Oldnall Road, between Wollescote and Cradley.

Parasearch, which is celebrating 22 years of scientific investigation into the paranormal, is looking into claims that an apparition of a little girl has been spooking late-night motorists driving along the countryside part of the busy road.

David Taylor, chairman of the group, said reports have been coming in, suggesting the ghostly figure may have been the cause of several accidents along the road.

He told the News: "One person who had an accident on that stretch of road said he'd swerved to avoid a child in old-fashioned - possibly Victorian - clothes standing in the middle of the road.

"And then, after going into a hedge, he looked back and there was nothing there.

"So we would like to hear from anyone who has seen the apparition or anyone who may have information about it."

He said the group is also looking into the possibility that sightings of the unearthly entity could be linked to the area's nearby archaeological sites such as Wychbury Hill.

All reports will be treated in strict confidence. Witnesses or anyone with any information about the sightings can call David Taylor on 07505 323443 or email david.taylor@parasearch.org.uk

West Midlands Girl Ghost Spooks Drivers
West Midlands Girl Ghost Spooks Drivers

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X-Conference '08 Video: Angelia Joiner - Stephenville UFO

Angelia Joiner, in her capacity as a staff writer for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, was the principal reporter covering the sightings in and around Stephenville, Texas in January of 2008. Due to the proximity to the President Bush’s Crawford, TX home (70 miles) and the presence of F-16 fighters these sighting events received international attention. Subsequently, Angelia appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live and continues to do many interviews across the nation. The Mutual UFO Network Texas branch recognized her recently as the organization’s “lead investigative reporter.” Angelia recently left the Empire Tribune and joined Mandatory FM radio station in Stephenville as News Director. Mandatory FM is a growing music station featuring Texas artists and the only local station with a streaming online listening audience. But now it is also “Stephenville’s Official UFO Information Station.” Angelia’s morning news broadcasts are Monday through Friday at 98.5 FM, 107.9 FM and at mandatoryfm.com. In 2007, Angelia earned two second place awards from the West Texas Press Association for feature writing and special coverage. She earned a Bachelor of Science and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tarleton State University in 1998 with an interdisciplinary teaching certification. She is a native of Stephenville, Texas. During her off hours, Angelia can be found at home writing for StephenvilleLights.com

Angelia Joiner Video Stephenville UFO
Angelia Joiner Video Stephenville UFO

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UFO / OVNI Fleet Images: Cologne, Germany - May 10, 2008

Witness stated:
I was having an evening meal with friends (Cologne, Germany) on the 10th of May this year. Suddenly my sister noticed an object flying over us at a huge speed (to fast for a balloon) and emitting no sound. The object flew in a straight line past us. After that object had passed, another object followed it. This happened until about 7 objects had passed us. Then, all of the objects met together and therefore decreased speed. Suddenly, all of them flew out of sight due to a sudden burst of high acceleration.

UFO OVNI Fleet Images Cologne Germany
UFO OVNI Fleet Images Cologne Germany

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Strange Formations In Tennessee Wheat Field

Residents in one neighborhood in Bradley County say they've noticed something strange in a field near their homes. And it has some of them looking for answers.

David Wall wanted to see it for himself when he heard about strange things in a Cleveland field from a friend.

"I went by her office one day and, 'We got crop circles', and I said, 'Well, I want to see them', so I went out and looked at them," he says.

Wall adds what they found were large distinct formations in the field.

Formations he thinks aren't man-made, adding, "if a person had done this as a prank, quite frankly, there would have been approaches to it."

You'd figure with food prices the way they are, pranksters wouldn't come out here to a crop and make crop circles, but even neighbors say they just don't know where they came from

"I always look in the field when I'm driving home because I see animals," says Laura Caton, who lives across from the field. "I just happened to notice the grass was laid down in a peculiar area, and I wondered for a moment if it was something more or if it was just the wind."

We went out for ourselves to look at the formations today.

Some have already been mowed down, but in others, you see the wheat still looks like it's been forced down.

Kim Frady with the local UT Extension Office says this can be a natural occurance.

He says it can be anything from simply the wind, to crops that get heavy due to rain accumulation up at the top of their stems.

"When that seed head starts to develop," Frady says, "that's when it gets really heavy, and the rainfall we had probably could have done that."

Wall has his own theory, saying "the most plausible explanation that I found, that I heard, are shifts in the magnetic forces of the Earth."

But he says he's pretty sure of what it's not.

"I guess ET could be involved, but you're gonna have to give me some stronger evidence for that," he jokes.

We also contacted the Bradley County Sheriff's Department. They tell us there have been no recent reports of vandalism in farm fields.

Strange Formations Tennessee Wheat Field
Strange Formations Tennessee Wheat Field

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9/11 Inside Job: How Come There Was Molten Metal Under WTC Building #4?

Interesting video on molten metal theory under WTC Building #4...which was not hit by a jetliner. There was also evidence that WTC Building #4 actually had demolition work done below ground and that thermate was used to melt the support structure.

William Rice -- Registered Professional Civil Engineer who worked on structural steel and concrete buildings in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Former Professor at Vermont Technical College where he taught engineering materials, structures lab, and other building related courses.
" The interesting fact is that each of these 110-story Twin Towers fell upon itself in about ten seconds at nearly free-fall speed. This violates Newton's Law of Conservation of Momentum that would require that as the stationary inertia of each floor is overcome by being hit, the mass (weight) increases and the free-fall speed decreases. "

Howard Switzer -- Licensed Architect, State of Tennessee.
" I was working out of my home that morning. My wife called me in to watch the TV after the first plane hit. When I saw the buildings collapse it was clear to me that it had to be an inside job and I let my network of friends and activist know. I was called names and lost a number of friends due to that. I remain convinced and have seen no reasonable evidence that explains the collapse otherwise. "

David A. Johnson -- B.Arch, MCP City Planning, PhD Regional Planning F.AICP Internationally recognized architect and city and regional planner. Professor Emeritus, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Tennessee. Former Professor and Chair of the Planning Departments at Syracuse University and Ball State University. Elected American Institute of Certified Planners . Past President of the Fulbright Association of the United States. Recipient of five Fulbright Scholarships.
" When I saw the rapid collapse of the towers, I knew they could not come down the way they did without explosives and the severing of core columns at the base. The spewing of debris from the towers where the planes entered also could not have occurred simply with just a structural collapse. Something else was happening to make this occur. Symmetrical collapse is strong evidence of a controlled demolition. "

9/11 WTC Building 4 Thermate Theory
9/11 WTC Building 4 Thermate Theory

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20 World Geography Facts That May Surprise You

1. Portland, Oregon, where it rarely snows, is about 130 miles further north than Toronto, and over 200 miles further north than Boston.
2. On France’s southern Mediterranean coast, Cannes, the sunny summer playground of the rich, which is sometimes incorrectly called ‘tropical’, is about 10 miles further north than Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
3. Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Cape Town, and Sydney are each thousands of miles apart and are known for having unusually pleasant year-round climates, and they are all almost identical distances from the Equator.
4. San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia are both known for mild and fast-changing climates, and they are identical distances from the Equator.
5. Estcourt Station with a population of 4 is in the northernmost tip of Maine, and it sounds like it’s probably snowed-in all winter, and yet London, England is still almost 300 miles further north.
6. The 49th Parallel, which makes up the long and straight US/Canada border in the west, is about 120 miles north of Estcourt Station, Maine.
7. Glasgow is about 280 miles north of London. Keep going another 250 miles north for Stockholm, another 370 miles north to reach Reykjavik, and 413 miles north to reach Hammerfest, Norway, which is almost 5,000 miles north of the Equator.
8. The entire country of England, with over 50 million residents, is a wee bit smaller than the state of Louisiana.
9. If you combine England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, then together they are a bit smaller than the deceivingly large state of Michigan.
10. France is about 30% larger than the state of California.
11. Crescent City, California is about 15 miles south of the Oregon border, but it’s about 10 miles further north than Newport, Rhode Island. In other words, you can still be in California and be further north than coastal Rhode Island.
12. Madrid, with summers so blazing hot that most people take a long break from work every afternoon, is about 10 miles further north than Salt Lake City, Utah.
13. About two-thirds of Africa is in the Northern Hemisphere.
14. Rome, which is located in the center of Italy, is located at the exact same latitude as Chicago.
15. Tehran, Iran, with its scorching summers, is located on the exact same latitude as relatively mild Tokyo, Japan.
16. About 90% of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere.
17. The incredibly remote island of Tahiti is slightly east of Anchorage, Alaska, which is slightly east of Hawaii. In other words, Hawaii is closer to the International Dateline than Tahiti.
18. If you are trying to get a handle on the climate of India it helps to know its northern border is the same as the northern border of Mexico in Tijuana, and the southern border is about the same as the southern border of Panama.
19. Sunny and just-barely-tropical Rio de Janeiro is about 25 miles further from the equator than Hong Kong.
20. Scientists recently discovered that Florida and Hudson Bay in Canada are getting about 1 inch closer every 36 years.

20 Geography Facts
20 Geography Facts

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Book: Max Schreck Was Not a Vampire

The first screen portrayal of Dracula was so eerie, some critics asked whether the actor himself could be a vampire. But since his death, little has been done to resurrect Max Schreck's reputation -- until now.

Schreck is best remembered for playing the cadaverous vampire Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror," the first, unauthorized cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula."

The rest of his career has been largely forgotten -- unjustly, in the view of German author Stefan Eickhoff, who has written what he says is the first biography of Schreck.

"Whoever hopes to discover a vampire will be disappointed, but they will find an actor of real skill and versatility," said Eickhoff. "Yet he himself remains somewhat shrouded in mystery."

"Nosferatu" failed to make its lead a star, but achieved such cult status that some film scholars speculated his name -- Schreck means "fear" or "fright" in German -- was a pseudonym.

In 1953, Greek-born critic Adonis Kyrou mischievously asked in his book "Le Surrealisme au Cinema" whether the actor was a vampire. The idea caught hold and later inspired a film.

Despite years of research, Eickhoff found there were virtually no anecdotes featuring Schreck, nor any references to him in the memoirs of the many people he had worked with.

Instead, Eickhoff's biography provides a detailed chronicle of the career of Schreck, a civil servant's son who appeared in around 800 stage and screen roles. Glimpses into the man behind the actor's mask remain few and far between.

Only in death does Schreck's character begin to come alive. The most revealing descriptions of the Berliner come from tributes paid to Schreck after he died suddenly in 1936.

Eickhoff's biography, "Max Schreck -- Gespenstertheater" (Ghost theatre) is due to be published later this year.

LONER

Contemporaries remembered Schreck, who was married but had no children, as a loyal, conscientious loner with an offbeat sense of humor and a talent for playing the grotesque.

One recalled how he lived in "a remote and strange world" and would spend hours walking through dense, dark forests.

"Nosferatu" helped propel Murnau to a brief but successful Hollywood career, but Schreck faded from the limelight.

The haunting film, which critics later saw as a metaphor for the collective trauma Germany suffered after defeat in World War One, changed the names of Bram Stoker's characters because the filmmakers failed to get permission to adapt his novel.

After the release, Stoker's widow sued the production company for breach of copyright, and won a court order to have all prints of the film destroyed. Since it had already been distributed worldwide, this ultimately proved impossible.

Over time, "Nosferatu" became seen internationally as a landmark of early German film and the horror genre -- while Schreck's other work has languished in relative obscurity.

Schreck died of heart failure aged 56, and was buried in an unmarked grave near Berlin, where he was born in 1879.

In the years that followed, his name has lived on in filmlore, thanks to the undying appeal of his most famous role.

In the 1992 sequel "Batman Returns," Christopher Walken plays a villain called Max Shreck, while in 2000, E. Elias Merhige's movie "Shadow of the Vampire" cast Willem Dafoe as Schreck the real-life bloodsucker hired to star in "Nosferatu."

Unlike Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, stars of later Dracula adaptations, Schreck never reprised the role and spent most of his subsequent film career in small, non-horror parts.

But as an actor, he was the equal of both, said Eickhoff.

"Their Draculas were refined creatures, whereas Schreck's was a more ancient, nightmarish vision," he said. "In a way, he resembled Lee a bit in that he tested himself in the most varied of roles. And funnily enough, both of them sang too."

Max Schreck Vampire
Max Schreck Vampire