The Romanian Defense Ministry has confirmed that a fighter plane was struck by four unidentified flying objects and released a video of the incident.
The ministry said the MIG 21 Lancer fighter plane was struck by the objects during an Oct. 31, 2007, check flight but was able to land safely, Hotnews.ro reported Friday.
Lt. Col. Nicolae Grigorie said a video recorded by cameras onboard the plane depicts "two solid bodies, which are not translucid."
Grigorie said authorities are working to determine what the objects could have been.
"They couldn't be birds because there are no birds in Europe able to fly so high. And they couldn't be ice bodies because it was a clear sky -- neither could they be pieces of another plane or a meteor," he said.
He said the government has ruled out rocket launches and ground artillery fires as causes of the incident.
NASA is slowly uncovering signs that soil on Mars may contain microbial life. It is just a matter of time that we get to know first extraterrestrial life forms in Mars that can survive harshest of the environments.
Scientists also estimate that close to 7 million tons of earth soil is sitting on Mars. The biggest question is who transported it? The way earth’s soil is distributed in Mars makes an evolutionary biologist nick up again and again.
Who transported such massive amount of earth soil to mars?
There is some theory that earth’s volcanoes billions of years back move these soil. Mars is that close to earth. If Moon did not get it, how can Mars get it?
The answer lies in lost ancient civilizations in the earth that were many times more sophisticated than that of ours. It had an extraterrestrial origin which brought Type III level sophistication in technologies.
Millions of years back the extraterrestrial civilization that reigned the earth created a super highway between earth and Mars through the moon. As earth deteriorated in living conditions, shifting of colonies took place. Eventually when conditions in Mars also deteriorated, they left to other solar systems. They left microbial life forms (their genetically manipulated so call ‘life’) of seed that will blossom into intelligent life one day if and when earth becomes more livable. We are the result of those genetic seeds. What we are finding in Mars is the same genetic seeds that created ‘life’ including us. If and when Mars become livable again, the microbial genetic seeds will eventually allow evolution of intelligent life forms.
SOPHIA LOREN is calling on her late husband, filmmaker CARLO PONTI, to visit her from beyond the grave.
The movie beauty, who plays a ghost in new film Nine, laments she has had no real life encounters with the spirit world.
Loren wishes she could enjoy an other-worldly experience with Ponti, who she was married to for more than 40 years until his death in 2007.
The 63-year-old says, "I wish to be able to experience these kind of things, you must believe in certain things. I don't even dream about my husband, and it's so sad for me. But I think, in life, he's always beside me."
Are the tuberculosis sufferers who were patients at the Imperial Hotel 120 years ago still there today?
Staff at the Picton watering hole have called in a specialist ghost researcher to monitor the unexplainable encounters they have had at the hotel.
Bistro manager Karl Klein said he was the biggest sceptic of all until he had two encounters recently.
``One day I was doing paperwork and I jumped and turned around because I felt someone looking over my shoulder but nobody was there'' he said.
``Another time I was in the bottleshop and looked up at the balcony and saw a white curtain move and thought somebody was opening the door because we have no curtains. Again, there was nobody up there.''
The Imperial Hotel was built in the 1860s and was a hospital for tuberculosis sufferers in 1877.
Mr Klein said a medium visited the hotel many years ago.
``She walked halfway across the top floor and then walked out very fast,'' he said. ``When she got downstairs she said: `They're all over the place up there and on the balcony and they're all wearing white'.''
Mr Klein said he believed the hotel was haunted by patients who died in the 1870s.
``In the old days they brought them out on the train and then through the tunnel that connects Picton station to our cellar underground,'' he said.
``That's how they got them in when they were sick because they didn't want to contaminate anybody.''
Other staff members have had similar encounters.
Tanya Klein, Mr Klein's wife, says she has felt her hair being pulled, and Ann, their daughter, has had a door shut by itself behind her.
``That door is very hard to close and I know that it would not shut by itself,'' Mr Klein said.
``And our chef Tony said that one day he scratched one side of his head and then felt something scratch the other side of his head straight after.''
The ghost researcher will soon visit the hotel with special equipment as part of a documentary.
Five people live in Kim and Steve Etters' house on Kerr Street — and, they believe — at least that many ghosts.
Three have made their presence known enough times to earn names: Princess, Sweaty Boy and Mr. Atwell, the name of the man who built the house.
Princess is described by the Etters children — 20-year-old KatiEarl, 16-year-old Casiann and 14-year-old Chase — and a family friend as being a little girl with no eyes and long ringlets who is always wearing a long white Victorian gown and white satin slippers.
Sweaty Boy, according to several eyewitness accounts, has eyes, but his neck and head appear to be wet. He's usually seen wearing overalls and a red shirt.
Mr. Atwell, a man of small stature, has brown hair and is wearing dress pants, a shirt and a vest.
The first sighting happened in the fall of 2001, a year after the Etters moved into the 6,000-square-foot, three-story house. It happened in the downstairs formal sitting room after Kim had brought some tiles from an upstairs fireplace to use around a fireplace there.
"I saw a shadow walk by the room," she says. Thinking it was her daughter, KatiEarl, she asked her a question, getting no response.
"KatiEarl, if I'm going to talk to you," Kim says she said, "you better talk back when I ask you a question."
KatiEarl was in another part of the house.
One weekend in September 2002, Kim's sister brought her three sons — ages 3, 5 and 8 — to stay with them for a few days. Before her nephews left to return home, Kim says the 5-year-old asked her, "Are the cops going to come take that dead body out of Chase's closet?"
"It was sort of a random question," she says. "I didn't know where that came from."
The following Tuesday, Kim, an assistant principal at China Grove Elementary School, says she and the children heard a "thump, thump, thump, boom, boom, glass-breaking noise."
Casiann says she was on the third floor and ran downstairs, meeting KatiEarl running up from the first floor. They found what they believe was the cause of that noise in KatiEarl's second-floor bedroom: a picture of a ballerina, the glass broken, lying in the middle of the floor with ballet trophies sitting up around it in a circle.
KatiEarl's soccer trophies, however, were on the other side of the room, she says, most of them turned on their sides.
Sitting on KatiEarl's bed, Casiann recalls, was the little girl who they would name Princess.
"KatiEarl and I screamed bloody murder and ran down the stairs," she says.
By the time they found Kim downstairs, she says they were hysterical. When a family friend offered to accompany the girls to KatiEarl's bedroom 10 minutes later, she also saw Princess.
Kim says she said, "Girls, get out of this room now."
In the meantime, Steve, a music professor at Catawba College, was getting ready to lead his first Community Band rehearsal when his family came running into his office.
"The kids are crying," he recalls. "Kim's saying, 'I want to move. I'm not spending one more night in that house.'"
Though that was the most dramatic paranormal activity, the Etters family and their guests continued to see Princess, Sweaty Boy and Mr. Atwell, as well as other ghosts, and hear unexplained noises such as footsteps and tapping. At one point, Kim says KatiEarl said, "Mom, I can't handle the high-pitched noise."
Kim says she once called a minister and told him about the ghosts.
"He said, 'Kim, this is not my league,'" she recalls. "'You may need to call a priest.' "The Etters also began to notice pennies being moved and materializing all over the house, and their family and friends reported finding unexplained pennies in their vehicles after visiting.
Word that the house was haunted spread among friends in Salisbury, including Katie Scarvey, LifeStyle editor at the Post.
That's why when Joe Wright of Paranormal Scene Investigators (PSI) of Rutherford County contacted Scarvey about setting up an investigation in a historic Salisbury home at no cost to the owners, she offered to contact the Etters family to see if they were interested.
Eager to find out more about the strange occurrences in their home, they contacted Wright.
After setting Saturday, March 29, as the date, Wright asked the Etters family to turn off their heat so ghosts would be forced to manifest close to the energy of team members and their equipment and would ultimately be more visible in the videos and photography. Wright and four PSI team members, including his wife, Jo, and their son, Chris, arrived around 5 p.m. and spent more than six hours in the house.
Wright had already talked with the Etters family about the sightings and occurrences and asked team genealogist/historian Kim Woods to research the house's history and its previous residents.
He and four team members spent another hour interviewing family members again upon arrival, after which Steve took Joe and cameraman David Harrill to visit the nearby Old English Cemetery, where former residents of the house are buried.
Upon returning to the house, the PSI team unloaded thousands of dollars' worth of equipment, including 14 video cameras and numerous audio recorders, which they placed in strategic locations on all three floors.
The Etters children left to spend the night with friends while Kim and Steve stayed behind, supplying team members with tea and homemade cookies, then Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee.
Once the equipment was set up, Joe, David and Chris, who handles the electricity for the team, walked through the house every hour or so with electromagnetic field detectors and digital air thermometers to detect any changes that might indicate the presence of ghosts while Jo and Kim watched on computer screens showing multi-camera views.
As the hours passed and the temperature dropped — the low that night dipped way into the 40s — the team continued the routine.
After encountering some unexplained smells, an unusual vomiting episode by the Etters' cat, Angel, and a close call when Jo almost fell down the stairs, the PSI team packed up after 1 a.m. to go study their tapes.
Returning a few weeks later to go over their findings, Wright played tapes of two definite Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs) and several other EVPs that are still under review. The first occurred when PSI member Kim Woods asked, "Are you unhappy that we're here?"
The response was "Uh-huh," Wright says, and appeared to be the voice of a small child.
A "yes" whisper, in what sounded like a little boy's voice, could also be heard after Casiann recalled seeing a boy she thought was her brother when she was outside the house looking in a front downstairs window.
Also, several photographs taken during the investigation showed orbs, unexplained circles of light.
Based on the voices and other findings, including pennies that materialized during the investigation, Wright ruled there was enough evidence to verify "an intelligent haunting" and other paranormal activity in the Etters' home.
Steve says he and his family were pleased with the findings.
"It's always nice to have confirmation of what you believe is happening," he says, "so people don't think you're crazy or you don't think you're crazy yourself."
The scientific way the PSI team went about the investigation was especially interesting, he says. "They try to debunk sounds and images and when there's no other plausible explanation, their only conclusion is it's paranormal."
Since then, Steve says the paranormal activity has continued in their home.
"We're still finding pennies," he says, "and we're still seeing things more peripherally than anything else up on the third floor. And the kids still hear sounds."
After all this time, though, the paranormal activity at the Etters home has become, well, almost normal.
Extreme Expeditions author Adam Davies’ just-released footage of the “Seljord Serpent” or Selma is actually secret footage that has never been released before.
Jan-Ove Sundberg of the Swedish group GUST writes:
The Selma video you now write about at Cryptomundo was taken on our expedition to Lake Seljordsvattnet in 1999.
That Adam & Co. took it has been kept a secret by them until now, but GUST have published many articles about the video. See this feature [which is in Swedish] published in 2005 (I have taken no less than 4 different pictures in there myself).
The reason I haven’t published it on [my site] is that Adam Davies forbid me to do so. Now I guess the time has come.
Of course, the reality may live someplace other than in what Sundberg states. The controversial Swedish figure may be misusing the word “secret.” The footage aired some time ago on the “Richard and Judy” show in the UK, which is their equivalent of “Oprah,” according to Adam Davies. Davies appears to have merely not allowed Sundberg to use the footage himself.
The uploading of the footage on YouTube and its playing on Cryptomundo are its first showings on the internet, but not publicly.
I received this statement today in reference to strange flight patterns witnessed this morning. No location was given. Any follow up would be appreciated:
...some crazy flight paths took place this morning 6/6/08 at around 4:00 to 4:20 am. what seemed like 11 to 12 planes (possibly the new f-22's and/or f-35's)flew around in strange patterns. they had red and green lights on what assumed is their wings along with an reddish-orange aura. it seemed like they where doing some kind of maneuver or where chasing something. after flying around in weird formations for a couple minutes some turned their lights to just green. Then they all increased elevation formed a v (with some crafts following in the rear) and no longer had any colored lights (all turned white). maybe someone out their know something about this.
If your a girl looking for a man who will keep you company anytime you want, go to movies you want to see, shop with you and even take you on a romantic dinner, then you will love the recently popular South Korean trend of adopting a “Pet Boy”.
Pet Boys, who are often college kids in their 20’s, find “Being someone’s pet is stress free job with no financial burden at all.”
The idea came from a Japanese anime story that was popular about 5 years ago. It was about a business woman who always had bad luck in relationships. One day, she decided to take home a young man off the street to live with her as her pet
Last month, a local Korean TV show announced they were accepting “Pet Boy” applications and around 2,200 people applied. Even on the internet, agencies have started popping up offering “Pet Boys” services.
The trend is expected to spread throughout Asia in the near future.
Something moved in the bushes. Everyone froze. I looked across at the man holding a stick beside me. He flinched and I swallowed hard.
I could feel a single trickle of sweat running down my cheek as the bushes moved again. Whatever it was, was making its way out. I squeezed my eyes shut, clenched my fists and braced myself for the impact.
But then, much to my relief, I heard the people around me start laughing. I tentatively opened one eye just in time to see a mongoose zip by my feet and into some more bushes behind me.
"Hee hee! A just one mongoose. Hee hee!" the man with the stick laughed, seeming much more at ease.
Seeking a monster
I, on the other hand, was still a bit shaky. You see, I was in the small, out-of-the-way community called Scott Town in the hills of Manchester, where an unidentified nocturnal creature, which, months earlier, had terrorised residents and obliterated farm lands, has made an unwelcome return.
"We nuh see it fi a long time and now, all of a sudden, it come back and start thief di melon dem again," said Munchy, a rather fragile looking fellow with small ears.
I had visited Scott Town early last year when the creature, known by many as the Scott Town monster, made its first appearance. Although nobody has a really good look at the creature, the collective glimpses that a handful of residents have got, paint a picture of a beast about twice the size of a big dog, with a snout and four long, skinny legs like a goat.
It was going around stealing melons and pumpkins from residents' fields and damaging many banana trees. The frustrated residents devised a detailed plan to stand watch in the fields at night with machetes and torches to capture and destroy the enigmatic beast, but they did so with no success.
"All di watch wi a watch, di creature just gone 'bout him business. After a while, we just figet 'bout it," said Munchy.
Short-lived respite
But their respite would be short lived. About two weeks ago, Maas Trevor, a retired truck driver turned banana farmer, was on his way to his field when he noticed what he thought was a small dog behind a tree.
"Mi pick up a stone and fling it afta di sinting and it nuh move. So mi ah wonder a how it so bright! So, mi fling a next one and den di sinting git up and mi realise dat it wasn't a dog, but di same crosses sinting dat wi did think gone from round here," he said, distress still evident in his eyes.
An agitated Maas Trevor pounded his fist against his knee as he spoke. He was wearing a baseball cap and a t-shirt with the words, 'The Harder They Come', printed on it. I was standing near the area where he spotted the beast, with him and his nephew, Munchy.
Now, residents of the community have developed varying theories of what the unidentified creature really is.
Miss Dorothy, the melon farmer, believes it's a beast of the devil himself who has come here to live because of the wickedness of the people.
"Di devil know seh Jamaica is a evil place and so him come teck root. Him will feel right at home wid all a di gunman dem," she quipped.
Wants it dead
Lorain, the shoemaker's wife, thinks the beast is the love child of a very accommodating goat and a most confused dog, while Maas Trevor couldn't care less what it is. All he wants is the beast dead.
"Di first time mi spot him, mi nuh shet mi yeye fi di whole night! Mi nuh know a wah it be, but mi nuh want it round mi," said he, his hand on his forehead.
So, as dusk quickly approached in the small hillside community, the residents of Scott Town slowly retreated to the safety of their own homes, all the while keeping an eye out for any sign of the next appearance of the mysterious Scott Town monster.
Selma, the so-called “Sea Serpent” that lives in Lake Seljord (Seljordsvatnet) obviously would have to be a Lake Monster, akin to the Loch Ness Monster. The location is near the inland town of Seljord, a municipality in the county of Telemark, Norway. The town’s coat-of-arms was created in 1989, and shows the “sea serpent Selma.”
According to most who have seen the supposed watery cryptid, Selma resembles a giant eel. The first eyewitness accounts date back to the 18th century.
Davies, author of Extreme Expedition: Travel Adventures Stalking the World’s Mystery Animals, writes:
“Between 7 and 9 second in, there is a distinct white line approx 1/3 of the frame down (using the shoreline as your starting point). The barbs of the tip are visible as it breaks the surface of the lake.”
Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo.com is requesting a more decernable screen capture from the footage be forwarded to him for inclusion on his site.
Mysterious Symbols found on Vietnam UFO Wreckage After a UFO allegedly exploded above Phu Quoc Island off the coast of Vietnam, metal debris was recovered that suggests the object may have been built by extraterrestrials.
According to Officials at the state run Vietnam News Agency, “An unidentified flying object exploded at about 10am on May 27 over the northern part of Phu Quoc Island." Colonel Nguyen Van Qui, a military commander on the island was the source of the report and no civilian, commercial or military aircraft are said to be missing in that area of southern Vietnam or nearby Cambodia.
The object that crashed was first seen in the skies over Cambodia where officials said it appeared as a “fire in the sky.” The thing exploded shortly after that and what was left of it crashed on Phu Quoc Island. Citizens of a commune on the island retrieved a piece of metal from the crash that they described as measuring “one metre by about 60 centimeters.” The metal is unusual looking and appears to have symbols engraved or stamped into it.
Additional pieces of metal were recovered by members of the military and civilians. At this writing, there are fourteen pieces in possession of the Military Command of Phu Quoc District. The metal debris rained down in Ganh Dau and Cua Can communes on Phu Quoc at about 10:20 a.m. on May 27, 2008, according to Lam Quang Chanh, a spokesperson for the provincial People’s Committee.
While it’s entirely possible that the sightings and recovered material may have nothing to do with an Alien Spacecraft, the events surrounding this crash are similar to other incidents involving UFOs. For example, some of the symbols that appear to be engraved or stamped into the metal (if they are genuine) are similar to those described by witnesses on the thing that crashed near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s. An I-beam from the Roswell UFO Crash in 1947 was also reported to have unknown symbols on it.
Phu Quoc Island is a popular tourist destination located in the Gulf of Thailand. It has thirteen resort areas and several urban centers. The island was once considered a backwater area known primarily for the production of anchovy sauce and black pepper. Once a French territory with rubber and coconut plantations, Phu Quoc Island housed a prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War. Vietnam and Cambodia struggled over possession of the island for years after the war until it finally became a part of Vietnam in 1975.
UFO crashes are rare events. When they occur in an area of the world that may not be under the control of the usual cover-up suspects, an opportunity presents itself for the nation and people involved to share what has happened with the world. Vietnam is a Communist country with close ties to China, so there still may be a tight lid clamped on this event at some point. If that doesn’t occur, we may have a chance to see the smoking gun that proves intelligent Alien life forms exist and are visiting the Earth.
Hard as it may be to take this story seriously, it appears that a ghost is being blamed for a spate of crashes, the latest of which involved a biker.
Paranormal researches have even investigated the claimed sightings of the ghostly apparitions of a girl aged between three and five in Victorian dress who apparently appears late at night near the accident blackspot.
David Taylor, chairman of the Parasearch group, said: “Although people who reported sightings didn't actually crash they had to swerve round the apparition.
"It could be an optical illusion of some sort.
"The area around there is an accident blackspot and there have been some serious incidents, so maybe they had all seen the same thing.”
The apparition apparently appears on Oldnall Road, between Wollescote and Cradley in the West Midlands, late at night.
"One person said he'd swerved to avoid a child in old-fashioned - possibly Victorian - clothes standing in the middle of the road; and then, when he looked back, there was nothing there," David added.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said the most recent incidents included a crash involving a motorbike and a car.
Taylor told The Mirror: “In all honesty we are probably not talking about the ghost (or apparition as we prefer) as a spirit of the dead, but rather as a reaction to a complex series of stimuli that results in the witnesses having different experiences from the same stimuli, what that stimuli is, is the really interesting question!”
This past February, I wrote about a man who reported a very close observation of a giant bird in neighboring West Virginia in late September,or early October, 2007. The man was driving on a rural two lane roadway outside of the town of Clendenin, at about 8 A.M. when he had to step hard on his brakes,to avoid hitting a giant flying creature in the middle of the road. The giant bird was only a few yards ahead of him, and was feeding on road kill. The witness, an avid hunter, was startled by the size of the creature, which stood at least four feet tall, with it’s head extending above the roof line of his vehicle.
The bird was covered with very dark brown or black feathers. The head seemed dominant, but not over proportioned to its body. The neck seemed long and slightly crooked. The beak was very long and large, and the eyes were very dark. But the feature which stood out was the massive wingspan of the bird. The wingspan was easily as wide as the two lane road. The witness stated, "the wings were as I can remember, as arms of a human are attached. It had shoulders. It had a very muscular upper torso and the wings were as if they were its arms."
The wing tips stirred the dust and gravel on both sides of the roadway as it ran to become airborne. The witness later returned to the site and measured the distance across the road from edge to edge. It was 21 feet. The witness stated that he was in a slight state of shock as he watched the creature fly off. The witness later tried searching for the identify this bird, but the closest creature he could find in a book was the drawing of a terratorn, an extinct bird. For more details on this case, see my report, " Was This A Close Encounter With A Thunderbird," at www.stangordonufo.com.
Rick Fisher, a researcher from Lancaster County, and Director of the Paranormal Society of Pennsylvania (www.paranormalpa.com) received a report from a witness who also saw a strange flying creature. Rick indicated that the witness appeared to be very credible and sincere, and wanted to remain anonymous due to his profession. This sighting was believed to have occurred about June or July of 2007, near the community of Granite Run. The witness was driving through the area at about 1:30 A.M., when he stopped to get some gas.
While pumping the gas, he heard a scratching sound which appeared to be coming from the roof of a nearby building. The man observed a dark shadow which he described as a being which stood from 3 to 4 feet tall, in a hunched position. He was able to observe that it had wings, but no feathers. The wings were above the creatures head. The witness felt that the creature was observing him, and from what he could see from the shape, it didn’t appear to be that of a bird.
The witness left the location for a brief time, and when he returned, he heard a whooshing sound and wings flapping, and could see that the creature had flown over to another nearby structure. The man had to be somewhere, and he left the area, still wondering about what he saw. When Rick interviewed the witness, he was certain that this was not a bird, owl, or anything he was familiar with.
Rick Fisher also received another giant flying creature report, which occurred about 8 miles outside of Harrisburg, in a very rural area. This sighting is believed to have taken place during the early morning hours of February 23, 2008. The driver said that he was driving about 35-40 miles per hour, when a huge bird like thing appeared from above the trees, came down and seemed to hover above his vehicle. The witness made Rick aware that he is an active hunter and angler, and had never seen anything like this before. He stated that the thing was huge, but wasn’t sure that he could call it a bird. The shadow of the creature covered his entire truck.
The driver who had a gun permit, and had the weapon with him, stopped his truck, and got out to get a better look at the creature. Whatever it was, had now flown above the trees and was moving away. The witness who has watched many birds in the woods, said this thing kind of soared or glided without a flapping motion. The witness admitted that he was quite scared during the observation, and stressed how huge the creature was, and stated," like prehistoric almost." The witness went on to say that he knew what he saw, and if people want to call him crazy that is fine.
Another more recent sighting of a giant winged something, just came to my attention. Jim Brown, an experienced paranormal researcher from Fayette County, provided me with details about this case which he is currently investigating. Jim has a very interesting web site: www.jimsdestinations.com.
This incident occurred on May 20, 2008, at about 2 P.M. in Washington County, Pennsylvania. The weather was in the 50s, and partly sunny at the time. The location of the sighting was about two miles north of US Route 40, from the southbound lanes of PA Route 43. The roadway is a four lane divided highway, two north and two south, with a grass median between them. The witness who Jim interviewed, was traveling south on the four lane roadway, about two miles from the Route 40 interchange. The communities of Brownsville and California were off to his left, across from the Monongahela River.
As the man traveled down the road, his attention was drawn to what he thought at first was an aircraft moving over the trees. He soon noticed that the wings were moving. The flying thing was moving in the direction of his car, so he pulled off the road, and got out to get a better look. The winged thing passed over the car and moved behind the witness, about 100 feet overhead. At that point this creature appeared to be gliding, and getting lower, and it looked more like a giant bat than a bird.
The witness could see no feathers, only short dark gray or black hair on the body. The wings appeared to be a membrane stretched over bone. It was a little difficult to see the details due to the sky being so bright. The witness commented that a small amount of light could be seen through the membrane. He emphasized that it was not solid like metal. As the man watched, the creature dropped lower from the sky behind his car. Apparently other motorists also caught sight of the huge flying animal.
One car stopped down the road, and a person got out. That driver had a camera with him, and was seen taking pictures of the flying creature. As they watched, the creature glided down to no more than 20 feet above the road surface, and was seen flapping its wings once or twice. With each wing flap, the creature appeared to rise about 20 feet higher above the roadway. Since the creature was flying so low, its huge wingspan was very evident to the witness. The man told Jim that when the creature spread its wings,they extended beyond the one edge of the pavement, to the other side of the two lane road. That would be about 20 feet or more in length.
The creature flew off towards the west, and was lost from sight over the trees on that side of the road. The man with the camera was seen running into the woods following the creature. The witness expressed to Jim that he was not going to stay around that location any longer and decided to leave. He was concerned that he could be attacked. He commented that this flying creature was big enough that it could easily pick up a man. There were no sounds or other effects reported as the creature moved over. The entire observation was estimated to have lasted about 45 seconds to one minute.
We are hopeful that the person who took the pictures of this creature will contact Jim Brown or myself. If anyone else has had a similar encounter, I am interested in hearing from them.
Now, really, what an odd thing to say ... unless, of course, you're a ghost?
This is just one of seven electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) recorded on the evening of April 19 and early morning of April 20 when the East Valley Paranormal Society spent the night in the Second Pinal County Courthouse.
After hearing and viewing all their audio and video of that visit, the group presented its findings to a small group of Pinal County government representatives earlier this month. The society collected EVPs and several photos and videos of unexplained sights, but stopped short of calling Florence's 1891 courthouse haunted.
The East Valley Paranormal Society classifies the places it investigates from 1 to 5. A "1" is a place with no interaction, and a 5 involves interaction with spirits by several witnesses. After their initial visit, they classified Florence's old courthouse a 3.
The society wants to return, with a smaller group of perhaps just six investigators and only one or two county government observers, to see if the kind of evidence they saw last month is still there.
The group is especially interested in a second-floor room it used as its control room. The room was locked all night and was empty except for one of the group's infrared cameras on a tripod.
The tape reveals a shadow appearing on the wall and door five different times. At other times, a dark object darts through the door at about waist level. An infrared camera represents dark objects as white, and vice-versa, so the shadow is actually showing the presence of light. The dark object is apparently not a bat, because bats appear white.
"We feel that's an actual apparition walking around in that room," Kim Mann, founder and director of the East Valley Paranormal Society, told county staff.
The group is hesitant to call the courthouse haunted, however, without more study. "We want to make sure there's no way for light to be coming through from behind the camera," Mann said, although the tape did not indicate a shadow made by the camera or tripod. The room was last a Juvenile Probation office before county government vacated the building.
A camera in the courtroom also recorded a black object darting over the railing at least four different times and "a big ball of light" that was "not your typical orb," according to the society's written report of the evening.
Cameras elsewhere in the courthouse captured white or blue orbs, which some society members believe are balls of energy indicating a paranormal presence. There were three orbs in the old courtroom, one in the lobby, a couple of them moving around in the basement, a solid white one in the attic and a blue one in an old records room. In all, the group captured 12 phenomena on film.
Just before 11 p.m. there was a loud metallic clattering on the main floor near the front doors. It was heard by the entire group of 10 society members scattered around the building, plus county government chaperones. They were unable to find a natural explanation for the noise.
Electronic voice phenomena, or EVPs, are noises and human-like voices that occur in room noise at a frequency below what humans normally hear. The society's digital voice recorders are turned all the way up to capture the sounds.
The group recorded a total of seven EVPs in the old courthouse. All were played back for Pinal County representatives and the local news at the group's presentation. Besides the one noted at the beginning of this article, another of the more interesting ones was a melodious baritone voice singing or yelling in the old conference room behind the assessor's office.
Another can be heard saying "Angie" - the name of a group member - in the main floor jail room.
In the courtroom, an investigator can be heard asking about feelings. An EVP is heard to clearly respond with the word "sad." At another time, also in the courtroom, an investigator is speaking and an EVP sounds like a woman's voice saying "hi."
"We believe there are spirits present," the group's conclusion in its written report states. "So many things happened this evening that are unexplainable. Noticeable temperature fluctuations, the loud strange noise and (an) unexplainable feeling someone was watching you are typical with an intelligent haunting.
"On a scientific point of view, we would have to say there is inconclusive evidence that this building is haunted. However, it does have its share of unexplained activity.
"We feel in order to really determine whether or not the building is truly haunted, a reinvestigation is needed. A smaller team would be brought in and we would concentrate on those areas where we feel the greatest need would be focused."
A British artist has produced what she calls a "photo-fit" of the Yeti based on "potentially explosive" new evidence of the elusive creature's existence.
Wildlife painter Polyanna Pickering was shown what is believed to be a 100-year-old yeti scalp at a remote monastery in the Himalayas.
At least one expert believe it could be the most important proof yet that the giant apelike beast is more than mere folklore.
Ms Pickering was gathering material for a new exhibition in the remote Bhutan region of the Himalayas when she made her chance discovery - with a little help from David Beckham.
She said: "I was told this was from a Migoi - their name for the yeti. All I know is, it was bigger than any human or ape scalp I have ever seen.
"It had tufts of reddish-black fur coming out of it and was mounted on a pole and seen as a holy relic."
The scalp was housed in a part of the monastery closed to visitors.
"The sole occupant was a caretaker monk who got very excited when he found out we were English and he was a huge David Beckham fan and then ushered us through to the back."
Photography is banned in all such monasteries but Ms Pickering, 65, was able to make a rough sketch of the scalp.
She also produced a full sketch of the creature, based on scores of eyewitness accounts by indigenous people.
"I was amazed when they told me of regular sightings, close encounters and even tales of people being carried off by the Migoi," she said.
"Their descriptions were so detailed, I ended up doing this 'photo-fit' with them all sitting round telling me to alter this or how that should look."
Jonathan Downes, director of the Centre of Fortean Zoology, which studies mystery animals, said: "If this is true it is the most important zoological discovery in 70 years."
He added: "This is potentially explosive. If this scalp is authentic and has bone still attached, it will probably be the single most important zoological find since the discovery of the coelacanth."
Mr Downes said the discovery was unique because the scalp still had a portion of bone attached to it.
He said: "Other yeti scalps have been found before but this is the only one with bone attached. The others turned out to be man-made.
"Quite a lot of the Buddhist monks dress up as Yetis as part of their religious ceremonies and explorers mistook religious costume as Yeti scalps."
Experts believe if it does exist the Yeti is a likely descendant of a giant ape which lived in India and China about half a million years ago.
Ms Pickering's sketches form part of her new Land of the Thunder Dragon exhibition, the name the Bhutanese people give to their region.
She is transforming her gallery in the Derbyshire village of Oaker into a Himalayan temple for the opening of the exhibition, which opens on Monday June 9.
This was posted with the video: "I thought my wife was playing piano and so I sneaked into the living room with our new video camera to surprise her. It turns out she was in the bathroom. I don't know what type of being was in my apartment at my piano and it barely came out visible on video, but it scared the hell out of me. At times it looked kind of like a purple-ish woman dressed in 1920's style but it kept going between black and purple translucent amorphousness as well. I can't really describe it. But when I said "Hello" it turned and looked right at me and then shot at me like a bullet as it dematerialized. I closed my eyes and accidentally turned the camera off but you can see the papers fly off the piano. We recently got the piano on Craigslist and I don't really know its history, but it is old."
It's hard to tell the authenticity of this video. I will attempt to make contact with the person who orignally posted it. I welcome any further information.
A paranormal investigation has been carried out in a bid to find the truth behind a theatre's resident ghost Norah'.
And the team has revealed a picture showing what they believe is a ghost.
Bacup Royal Court Theatre staff called in the investigators after cast, crew and visitors sensed the Rochdale Road venue was haunted.
The Paranormal Activity Research Team of Lancashire spent a night at the theatre with six staff.
Equipped with electro-magnetic field meters, infra-red cameras and temperature sensors, investigators Pete and Marlene Bony and Peter Everitt, were accompanied by medium Judith Roby.
After the investigation, Pete said: "There are certainly four or five spirits present including a couple of children. We believe there's a lot more to be found."
As well as the picture, the team said they also heard the sound of shuffling in the circle and a man who said he was Mr Jackson who had once owned the theatre. On the stage Pete said he felt that someone had fallen to their death, and Judith said she saw a lady playing piano in the rehearsal room.
The theatre was originally an iron foundry but opened the following year as a theatre.
In the 20th century it was a picture palace and a bingo hall before becoming The Empire Theatre. Several years ago, it changed its name back to the Royal Court and is owned and run by Bacup Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society on a charitable basis.
The Paranormal Activity Research Team of Lancashire was set up a few years ago and offers free investigations of all buildings in which ghosts are suspected.
But Pete said the team felt that Norah was not the ghost's name: "One of our psychics got the sense she was clearly given the name Kitty, which corresponds with a book of the history of the theatre which she hadn't been allowed to look at before the investigation.
Let’s be honest: vampires are cool, and Johnny Depp is awesome, so the idea that Depp wants to create a vampire movie is… well, coo-awesome. Okay, maybe we’re not breaking ground with new vocabulary here, but neither is Depp with his vampire project – a big screen adaptation of the 1960s supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows.
While Depp is helping produce the Dark Shadows movie along with Graham King and Warner Brothers, nothing else about the project was known, until now. Our friends over at IESB picked up a scoop on a few names set up to write and direct the movie adaptation.
The director isn’t that far of a stretch if you know anything about Depp. In fact, it’s pretty much what we’ve been assuming all along if the rumor is true. If it’s a Johnny Depp flick and it’s even somewhat supernatural or gothic, then Tim Burton must be at the helm. Not that I’m complaining. When you have an incredible team like Burton and Depp who can continue making movies together without it feeling like the same flick rehashed a dozen times, I say keep making movies!
The rumor for the film’s screenwriter is a little more of a concern for me. Writer John August has worked with Burton three times before. He wrote Big Fish which I loved, but also Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which disappointed me and Corpse Bride which I was pretty neutral on. I’ll have to revisit those later two and see if it was the execution of the picture that disappointed me or if they were problems that started at the script level. Regardless, August is the rumored scribe behind Dark Shadows.
The news actually comes through a whole other project. IESB’s Robert Sanchez was talking with Peter Segal about his upcoming flick Get Smart and asked about his next project, Shazam, which August is writing. Segal let it slip that August was bouncing back between Shazam and Burton’s Dark Shadows. I guess that means there’s some room for a misunderstanding if anyone wants to deny what was said, but this sounds pretty darn logical to me.
Still no word as to whether Depp himself will appear in the project or not, although it seems pretty likely if Burton is directing.
The Manchester-based makers of scary television shows including Most Haunted are launching a new television channel aimed at fans of the supernatural. The Paranormal Channel, run by husband and wife Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie through their Reddish-based Monster Pictures, will begin broadcasting as a free-to-view channel on Sky next Monday.
Beattie has dubbed the 24-hour channel “a light look at the dark side” as it will show comedies as well as drama and documentaries.
Fielding and Beattie's production company Antix has been making Most Haunted, shown on Living TV and also presented by Fielding, for more than eight years. It was the popularity of this show and Ghost Hunting With, which Antix produces for ITV2, that led the pair to set up Monster Pictures and the Paranormal Channel. Antix will continue to produce these shows for Living and ITV2 and will not be showing repeats on The Paranormal Channel for licensing reasons.
The couple are investing £1.1m of their own money in getting the channel off the ground, including over £300,000 on annual satellite costs. Additional programme costs will be kept down as much original content will come from Antix and their post-production company Television Broadcast Services.
In the next couple of months all three companies will move to new premises in Salford, close to MediaCity, which include two studios and space for editing facilities.
Beattie said he expects Monster Pictures to be profitable after its first year, with a turnover of around £2m up to June 2009, rising to £5m in the second year.
Original programming will include Whines and Spirits — a search for Britain's most haunted pub; Three Screaming Banshees, which will follow Fielding, Cath Howe and Lesley Smith as they chase paranormal activity up and down the country in a camper van; and scary bedtime reading by Paul Ross.
Monster has also gained the UK rights to show Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World series, first shown in 1980.
The channel is in sponsorship talks with products as diverse as a cosmetics, alcohol and toilet paper. Adrian Richmond, head of business development at television airtime sales company Dolphin Television, which will be selling the Paranormal Channel's advertising, said sponsorship opportunities could range from £5,000 to up to £250,000. “It depends on whether companies sponsor individual programmes, days, seasons or special weeks,” he said. “The channel is targeting everyone, taking a broad approach. It's not niche.”
Sources of revenue
Apart from ads and sponsors, other revenue will come from viewer texts and phone calls, although there will be no telephony services for the first three months of broadcast. “I know they are controversial at the moment but as long as we are honest, we'll have nothing to worry about,” said Beattie.
Beattie estimates viewing figures of around 50,000 per show at first, adding that it will take people time to find the channel. “Everybody says you need a target audience but this really does fit everyone,” he said, adding that Living TV's target audience is 16 to 44 year old females, although viewing data actually shows the male/female split to be close to 50/50 for Most Haunted.
Alison Wright, broadcast director at MediaVest, reckons that estimate is optimistic. “Dolphin's True Movies channel currently attracts in the region of 37,000 viewers for the best performing films. Most Haunted, which is shown on Living, delivers 144,000 viewers, but the channel is at least four times the size of a Dolphin channel,” she said.
“Their success will certainly depend on the quality of the new content, and how quickly this can be aired. The downside may be that interest in the paranormal peaked last year, at the height of Most Haunted viewing.”
Mark Watts, broadcast team account manager at media agency Mediacom North, said that since Most Haunted and Ghost Hunting With already do well and are recognised, the channel would pick up viewers from people flicking channels. “If people stumble across a programme it doesn't matter what channel it's on, but the ratings won't be as big as similar programmes on Living TV and ITV2,” he said.
He added that the channel's position in the Sky electronic programme guide — still to be assigned by Sky but expected to be in the entertainment section — is all-important. “If the channel is close to Living, for example, people will be flicking around the vicinity of that station. But if it's somewhere at the back with lesser known stations, there is less chance that will happen.”
The company hopes to add the channel to cable and Freeview digital after six months of broadcasting on Sky.
An elderly couple claim they had a close encounter with a UFO while travelling along a Territory highway.
Lawrie Fuchs, 70, and his wife Gwen, 69, were returning to their home town of Elliott following a trip to Queensland last Friday when they say the UFO swooped them as they drove along the Barkly Highway.
Estimated to be about six metres wide, they say the object passed the vehicle with such speed that its slipstream forced their Mazda sedan into the middle of the road.
They were travelling in a westerly direction and were about 55km east of the Threeways roadhouse when the incident occurred.
"It was about 4pm when suddenly we saw a dark, silvery flash and heard a loud sound as it passed,'' Mr Fuchs said.
"It was travelling at a terrific speed, very bloody fast, and there was no warning at all.
"I'm sure it dive-bombed us but I can't imagine why.''
"I do a lot of bush work and over the years I've seen a number of strange, unexplained things,'' he said.
Mrs Fuchs said she saw a little flash just below the sun visor then heard a loud whoosh as it passed over.
"I actually thought it hit the car, but there were no marks,'' she said.
Mr Fuchs, a mechanic who has lived in Elliot for 40 years, says he took the incident in his stride.
"I don't talk about it much because sometimes people don't take you seriously.''
Last week, another man reported seeing a UFO near Tennant Creek. Alan Martin, who is deaf, was obviously shaken by his experience. The Aboriginal man in his 40s had bought alcohol and headed alone into scrub land to avoid being humbugged.
He described seeing a disc-shaped object at close range. His drawing indicated it had red, green and blue lights.
There is other evidence, in fact, that Elvis committed suicide (Goldman, Elvis: The Last 24 Hours, pp. 161-175). He had attempted suicide in 1967 just before his marriage. Fourteen drugs were found in his body during the autopsy, including toxic or near toxic levels of four. Dr. Norman Weissman, director of operations at Bio-Sciences Laboratories, where the toxicity tests were performed, testified that he had never seen so many drugs in one specimen. Elvis’s doctor, George Nichopolous, had prescribed 19,000 pills and vials for Elvis in the last 31.5 months of his life. Elvis required 5,110 pills per year just for his sleeping routine. Elvis also obtained drugs from many other sources, both legal and illegal! It was estimated that he spent at least $1 million per year on drugs and drug prescribing doctors (Goldman, p. 56).
Was Elvis depressed enough to take a lethal dose at once? It is known that Elvis' religious background would have forbidden him from taking his own life, but his beliefs had changed later in life. Elvis constructed a personalised religion out of what he’d read of Hinduism, Judaism, numerology, theosophy, mind control, positive thinking and Christianity according to those close to him.
Regardless if his death was by his own hand, Elvis was on a inevitable path to destruction.
It's official: Lehi is haunted, and couldn't be more pleased.
Three teams of paranormal investigators descended on Lehi's Hutchings Museum late Friday, spending the night searching for ghouls.
The teams fanned out, poking into the museum's nooks and crannies with thousands of dollars of high-tech equipment, hoping to catch the voice of a ghost on tape or an image on film, or even just the electromagnetic signature of the disembodied.
The museum may soon look to raise funds from the effort.
"I would like to develop a ghost tour," said Valerie Mead, program director for the museum, which is city-funded.
Such a tour could be given by volunteer paranormal investigators and could include the museum and historic homes and buildings within walking distance, she said. The tour would be a fundraiser for the museum. Mead said she is working on a formal proposal.
"Lehi is the sixth-oldest city in Utah and has a lot of stories and has had all sorts of murders and intrigues for years," she said.
Is the museum haunted?
"I personally think there are good ghosts here," she said. "I've never been scared to be alone here."
Not only is the museum haunted, the ghosts can be rather, er, physical, said Michelle Lowe of Key2rip.com, one of the teams that spent the night investigating: "It was interesting," she said. "We didn't expect much to happen, but we had a couple of experiences."
Investigators several times heard what sounded to be "additional footsteps, like people were being followed through the basement," she said.
One of the investigators was grabbed on the leg by a ghost, she said.
"They were trying to debunk [the sound of extra footsteps] when it happened," she said. "It happened right down in the basement."
In addition, "a shadow might have been caught on video, but we are still looking to see if it was a [camera] flash or something," she said. "They did get some voices caught on tape. It sounded like a man just kind of chattering, but they couldn't make it out clear enough to hear what they were saying. They are going to try and amplify it on the computer."
The investigation, which lasted until 2 a.m., was an opportunity for ghosts to seek their 15 minutes of fame. The entire procedure was broadcast live via radio Webcast. Those interested in hearing a recording of the show can log onto www.blogtalkradio.com/residualhauntings. The team does a live investigation Webcast each week, and thousands log on to listen.
Perhaps the best part of the entire night's procedure was Shadow, a live, 7-year-old great horned owl who sat in the museum lobby, hooting at regular intervals.
Shadow, who is a demonstration bird often used for educational shows at the museum and other venues, is owned by Ben Woodruff of Skymasters Wildlife Foundation.
"She's here for ambiance," Woodruff said with a smile.
An owl is apropos because "in many cultures owls are associated with spirits or the spirit world," he said. "When you watch them, sometimes it seems like they are seeing things we are not seeing."
For those who might scoff at ghost hunters who spend hours and thousands of dollars on their hobby without pay, "Thomas Edison was way into it," said Amber Mandic of Key2rip.com.
"There is no 911 for ghosts and hauntings, and some people need help and don't know what to do," said Mandic. "Some people even sell their homes to get away from it."
Paranormal investigators can discover the cause and give advice for getting a haunt to leave, she said. And sometimes, what looks to be a paranormal problem is actually something much simpler.
On one occasion, what a homeowner was convinced was a ghost turned out to be a raccoon in the attic, said Mandic and Lowe. One another occasion, the culprit of strange noises was a bat.
Sometimes, when investigators find ghosts, the homeowners are pleased, having just wanted confirmation all along that they "are not crazy," investigators said.
And sometimes, homeowners want the ghosts to hit the road, the solution to which could be as simple as redecorating -- painting a haunted room pink and putting up Disney-themed decor can get rid of a surly male ghost, for instance.
