Witness statement: My 14 yr old son and I were driving home from a HS football game in Dallas. We were south bound on I-35 between West and Elmott when I noticed an odd light in the sky. It was almost due south according to the compass in my truck. It was about a hand width above the horizon. It was a spot of light that was irregular in shape and to the naked eye appeared to be changing both shape and color. It cycled through the pastel colors (light blue, light green, light yellow, light purple and light pink). I brought it to my son's attention to see if he could see the same thing. After watching it for a few miles he described it much as I did above. As we were passing through Elmott I estimated that it was directly above James Conally Airport. At one point I thought it might be a sheriff's chopper with a spotlight. I figured we would be passing it on our left as we travelled further south. We did not. It was either moving away from us or it was stationary and much further away than I had estimated.
As we approached the north side of Waco I decided we could get a better look if I hopped on Loop 340 which circles Waco to the West and South. It also takes us out of the city lights. As we rounded the loop headed toward Robinson it became apparent that it was much further away than I had thought. It was however still to the south but it did seem slightly lower to the horizon (about two fingers at arms length). All the while it continued to cycle randomly through the pastels and seemed to continuosly change shape to the naked eye. It never appeared to be round or symetrical in any way. We turned off on FM3400 and followed it to the south until we reached Downsville road approx 4-5 miles from the loop. As it became apparent that we werent getting any closer I decided to pull over so we could get a better look. Standing still made no difference. It still changed shape and color. The sky was clear and full of stars and a half moon. Nothing else in the sky came close in appearance. I would say it was 2 to 4 times brighter than the next brightest star. We watched it for about 5 minutes. It never really appeared to move. It just twisted and turned and changed color. From time to time I thought I could see faint light beams radiating out from it but I couldn't be sure. We then decided to go home and get my small spotting scope out. Sure enough we still had a good view of it from our back yard. Again it appeared staionary from that vantage. Through the scope it looked somewhat different. It appeared to have a solid shape but irregular like a rough tear drop shape on a 45 degree slant. You could still see the color changes clearly but it was really tough to focus and hold it in frame.
I decided to take some pictures so I got my Sony DSC-H1 and a tripod and took multiple pictures on multiple settings. I also took a couple of short MPG's which show the color changes very well. Most of the pictures are fuzzy but there are a few that are very interesting. They look stringy or like squiggles I assumed that was from the vibration from me pushing the shutter button. I had recalled seeing a few stills on the news from the Stephenville sightings earlier this year. I pulled them up on my computer to show my son. Actually it was a video on You Tube by David Caron. Both my son and I agree that they are a perfect match. Anyway, we quit watching it and came inside because it was getting cold. It was still in the same location doing its thing at about 2:30 a.m. Can you guys let me know if it is a known object? I don't see anything on the star chart that should be there.
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Over the last few weeks a few strange whispers have emerged from the woods of Wanstead concerning the possible sighting of a bear-like creature. The animal was first sighted during early November 2008 by 18-year-old angler Michael Kent who was fishing with his brother and father in the Hollow Ponds area of Epping Forest, on the border of Wanstead and Leytonstone.
The teenager claimed that whilst walking towards his brother’s swim, he heard a rustling in the bushes and saw the back of a dark, hairy animal around four-foot in height, that scampered off into the woods.
Local press heard about the story and for some strange reason asked whether Bigfoot was on the loose, giving the story a comical tale. However, a woman from the Love Lane area of Woodford Bridge, claimed she’d been left shaken after seeing a similar hairy beast in broad daylight which she described as having large feet, and standing around four-feet in height. The creature then leapt over a wall. Unfortunately, details of the sighting were rather vague and so such an incident will no doubt be relegated to the realms of folklore.
Despite local wildlife officials stating it was not possible for bears to be on the loose locally, we only have to look back to 1981 and Hackney Marshes for a very similar story. On December 27, as a white quilt of snow lay heavy over the fields, a 13-year-old Tommy Murray and friends were fleeing from what they described as, ‘…a giant great growling hairy thing’, which left strange tracks on the virgin snow.
More than fifty policemen with dogs, accompanied by marksmen, and a helicopter fluttering overhead, scoured the open spaces. Experts concluded that the tracks found were indeed made by a bear but no such animal was flushed out. The chief inspector at the time commented, ‘Although I didn’t see the boys myself, I’m reliably informed that they were very frightened by what they saw. They were not hoaxers, although, of course, they may have been hoaxed…I saw three sets of prints that to me were strange. One of the prints was on an island which had a perimeter fence and a locked gate. All three were on virgin snow and could not have been made by a hoaxer because no other prints were near them or led to or from them.’
The small scare echoed reports from the previous year when two bear corpses were discovered on the River Lea at hackney. The animals had been decapitated and skinned but no-one knows just where they came from.
Is it possible such elusive forms were phantom bears, ghosts from areas that once participated in bear baiting? At Chelsea’s Cheyne Walk, several bears of varying colour are said to haunt, whilst in the Tower of London a spectral bear was said to prowl and in 1817 to have frightened to death a sentry of the Jewel Room, whose bayonet passed right through the creature without effect. The guard was able to give his account before dying of shock shortly after.
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Last Saturday night a slightly luminous grey UFO was reported to police in the historic town of Bury St Edmunds in the United Kingdom. The UFO was seen spinning and hovering over the St Edmundsbury Cathedral by a townsman. Now it has emerged that the UFO was also seen by a staff member of the Cathedral. Sarah Friswell, the Cathedrals visitor officer, noted that the topic of the mysterious craft had come up in a staff meeting and one of the staff members confessed to also witnessing the rather clear UFO of a very ‘Classical’ appearance.
More interestingly the sighting was accompanied by unusual power cuts, confirmed by the Cathedral administration, that could not be explained by the local electricity provider. Many have claimed that such sightings are in fact pranks by hobbyists involving RC flying models, yet the power cut seems to somewhat disprove this theory as it is unlikely any hobbyist could pull such a feat off.
Also interesting is the historic significance of the town Bury St Edmunds. The town is said to be the place where the idea of the Magna Carta was born and hence a birthplace of modern democracy. The town is also the burial place of a number of ancient Saxon Kings and was once regarded as a place of miracles. Overall Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, just outside London, is regarded as one of the UK's great historic towns.
All this begs the question, are visitors from space interested in our history and going on tours of places of historical significance? After all this is not the first sighting in this area in recent months. The more pessimistic amongst ufologists have a far more worrying theory: The aliens might be documenting our history prior to putting into action a plan that will either end it altogether or change in forever.
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Witness statement: 3 objects with very bright white lights hovering for approximately 5 minutes (7:05 pm eastern time) in the near distance. Again approximately (9:45pm easter time) 1 object with bright white lights flying over a farm field not far from original sighting.
12/5/08 approximately 7:05pm eastern time: My family was leaving for a night out when we noticed 3 very bright white lights in the near distance outside our front door of our home. I took some pictures (enclosed) with a digital camera but the zoom didn't do a very good job so the pictures look farther away then we actually seen with our naked eyes. We stood there and watched in amazement and wonder what exactly they were. All three object were hovering in a fixed spot and then one object would glide what seemed to be in a slow motion toward one of the others and stop and then distanced itself further and had colorful blinking lights and what sounded like a quite (helicopter propeller) like sound, but quieter. Because of the time and our prior commitment, we had to leave but we had plenty to talk about and thought maybe it was military related since a naval air base is located 10 to 15 miles south in Horsham, PA.
12/5/08 approximately 9:45pm eastern time: My family was returning home and seen just one object with the same exact description (bright white lights) and what looked to be a circular shape but was hard to make out because the lights were so bright and very close to the objects underbelly (which made the object look blurred to the naked eye) even my family members said they couldn't make it out for the same reasons, the bright lights were just so bright which made it look blurry. It was flying close to the ground over farm fields off of Stump & Haring Roads in Plumstead and after trying to follow it for a minute or two with our vehicle, it was gone into the crystal clear, star-lit sky.
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Video of probable former US Government secret UFO film captures disclosed for media and public. Not sure on the year but seems to be from the late 1950's, possible the early 1960's. Good stuff.
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The original USS Constellation was commissioned in 1797 and her history is long and bloody. The ship fought against the French, various gangs of pirates, slave traders, and other unsavory Barbary corsairs. It served in 5 major wars, from the Civil War through World War 2. It was finally retired in 1955, and permanently docked in Baltimore, Maryland. There’s not much left of the original ship, which was totally rebuilt in 1855, but enough that ghosts from the original vessel are still seen on her decks. Cries and moans have been heard in the hold, and witnesses have heard the sounds and felt the motion of unseen people running about. Late one evening a night watchman inspecting the ship's orlop (storage) deck with only a flashlight to lead him through this narrow area at the bottom of the ship was startled by a misty white light which appeared out of nowhere and became a sailor in an outdated uniform. He walked towards the watchman, who stood frozen to the spot as the ghost passed through him. Who was it? There are several possibilities.
The Ghost of Neil Harvey
He was court-martialled by The Constellation’s first captain, Commodore Thomas Truxton, for cowardice. Truxton had Lieutenant Starrett, run his sword through the seaman. He then had Harvey’s wounded, but still living body tied to a cannon and blown to pieces as a warning to the rest of the crew. This was a brutal death, but a traditional one used by both the British and American navies in this era. Neil Harvey is the most frequently seen ghost aboard the Constellation. He often appears as a shimmering mass.
The Ghost of Captain Truxton
On a cold December night in 1955 close to midnight, Lt. Cmdr. Allen Ross Brougham and a friend set up a camera on the deck. After they "detected a faint scent in the air-a certain something not unlike gunpowder," before them appeared a "phosphorescently glowing, translucent ectoplasmic manifestation of a late Eighteenth Century or early Nineteenth Century sailor, complete with gold stripe trouser, cocked hat and sword." He quickly took a photo which was printed in the local paper a few days later. Some say this figure may be the stern Captain Truxton, who is also believed to haunt the ship.
The Ghost of a Young Boy
A young surgeon’s assistant was only age 11 when he was stabbed to death by two other sailors. According to Sybil Leek, a psychic who worked with Hans Holzer, he was murdered in the cockpit of the orlop deck.
The Ghost of a Depressed Sailor
Said to have been so overwhelmed by the harsh life at sea that he hung himself, he may be seen floating around and across the gun and forecastle deck.
The Ghost of Carl Hansen
This ship’s friendliest spirit, he was a night watchman who watched over the ship until an alarm system was installed in the mid 1960’s. He was a retired Royal navy cook, who clearly loved the ship. He has been seen on several occasions playing cards below deck. A frequently-told story about him tells of a priest who came aboard and not encountering any tour guides, went below alone. There he met an old sailor who proceeded to explain the workings of the ship to him. When he went back up to the deck, he encountered several tour guides who informed him that there was no one below. All hurried down, but no one was found. It has also been reported that he sat next to a young girl and smiled at her at a Sea Scout party.
Today the historic vessel is docked at Pier 1 in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, where you can climb aboard and get a firsthand look at what life was like aboard and perhaps have a close encounter with her past.
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They claim they were trying to drive the demons out of the 13-month-old, but law enforcement officers say the bottom line is a Rusk County couple bludgeoned the little girl to death with a hammer and other objects and bit her more than 20 times in the most grotesque murder the seasoned officers can remember.
Blaine Keith Milam, 19 and Jesseca Bain Carson, 18, both of Henderson, remain jailed on $2 million bonds each. They are charged with capital murder for the Tuesday morning death of Carson’s daughter Amora Bain Carson.
Lt. Reynold Humber said Rusk County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers received a 911 call from a home at 13717 County Road 2125 shortly after 10:35 Tuesday morning that a child was not breathing.
“When the first deputies arrived, Champion EMS was on the scene and they told the deputies the child was deceased and there were suspicious circumstances,” Humber said during a press conference Wednesday at the RSCO just moments after the couple was arraigned on the charges.
When the detectives entered the residence they found Amora on the floor in a bedroom and they immediately knew they had a homicide.
Humber said the couple told detectives multiple stories of how the child suffered the injuries, including a fabricated auto accident and then a story of how the child was attacked by the family’s dogs. The couple then told investigators they had left the child unattended and someone else must have gone into the home and harmed the child. Carson and Milam even said the child beat herself in the head with the hammer.
“They had multiple stories they went through before they told us they had beaten the child to death,” he said. “It is their version of the truth.”
Humber said the couple then told deputies the child was possessed and they were trying to rid her of demons.
An arrest affidavit states Milam performed an exorcism of the demons possessing their child. The affidavit continues to state after Milam killed the child with Carson looking on the couple “drove to Henderson to pawn some items to pay for an exorcism.”
Officials said Milam and Carson told detectives they decided to hire a priest after the exorcism went badly.
However, Humber said there was no information of any clergy being called to the home.
As the couple waited for arraignment on the charges, Carson crossed her arms and silently sobbed. Milam casually looked around the courtroom then occasionally looked back at his hand where he had a visible bite mark.
Milam was sentenced in August of this year on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child and received a probated sentence. He has also been arrested on charges of causing a disturbance and assault/family violence.
Humber said Carson graduated as an honor student last year and she seemed very intelligent and added she had not been in any trouble with police.
When asked if he bought the couple’s story about what happened, Humber replied, “The child had been beaten so much we couldn’t tell how many times it was hit and then there were more than 20 bite marks on her body. The bottom line regardless of any stories is that they killed that sweet little innocent child.”
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It was just a routine day at work for biologist Doug Killam - until he pulled this whopping 4ft-long salmon out of a Californian creek.
Mr Killam had been conducting a survey of salmon when he came across the monster fish which had died after spawning.
According to his calculations, Mr Killam determined that the live weight of the fish was 88lbs (6stone) and was between five and six years of age.
Mr Killam said: 'I have counted tens of thousands of salmon during my career, and this is the biggest I have ever seen.'
The fish was found in Battle Creek, a spawning tributary of the Sacramento River near the town of Red Bluff.
The fish is a pacific salmon, which die after spawning, so counting the dead carcasses is a common method to estimate the numbers of salmon spawning in each stream.
However most of the spawned-out salmon found on such counts weigh between 20 and 30 pounds.
Fishy facts
The largest Chinook officially recorded in California was an 88-pounder caught in the Sacramento River.
The largest Chinook salmon ever landed though was in Petersburg, Alaska in 1949 and weighed 126lbs (nine stone).
Chinook salmon are highly valued, due in part to their scarcity relative to other Pacific salmon along most of the Pacific coast.
They range from San Francisco Bay to the Bering Strait in Alaska, the arctic waters of Canda and Russia and populations occur in Asia as far south as Japan. The species has also established itself in the waters of the Patagonia in South America, where escaped hatchery fish have colonised rivers and established stable spawning runs.
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Two missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints received a scare on the night of Dec. 2 when they saw what they think was a set of sasquatch footprints outside of their Burns Lake home.
Tyler Beck and Brad Blazzard are in B.C. for two years, rotating in different communities throughout the Smithers and Burns Lake area for the past seven months.
"The first thing we thought was that someone was playing a trick on us," Beck said."But we don't know anyone our age who would do that and our house in on the southside, so pretty much in the middle of nowhere."
The footprints, which Beck said was about 20 inches long is right in front of Beck's porch, leading to the path where the pair keep their wood shed.
Beck said prior to finding the footprint at 9:30 p.m. on the night of Dec. 2, he didn't really believe in the possibility of bigfoot.
"I still don't know what to think," he said. "I have heard some pretty ridiculous things about bigfoot but now I am leaning toward the edge of thinking it may be possible."
The house sits in front of a lake and Beck said in the four-and-a-half months he has been there, he has seen all manner of coyotes and wolves. This is the first time he has seen any sign of the fabled creature.
In addition to a rash of sightings in the Bulkley Valley in the summer and fall, Larry Sommerfield, a self-proclaimed sasquatch hunter from Terrace had a cast that he claimed was a sasquatch print.
Sommerfield was reluctant to tell The Terrace Standard how he came into possession of the 16-inch long cast, except to say that it was made in mid-August from a footprint found in a gravel pit just east of the Kitselas First Nation's subdivision east of Terrace on Highway 16.
Brian Vike, Director of HBCC UFO research is still trying to verify three sasquatch sightings in Moricetown.
“Since I got the initial call, I’ve had no other information,” Vike told the Houston Today. “ As near as I can tell, the sightings all happened after the end of September but I have called and called but no one is calling me back.”
The lady who called on the morning of Halloween, told Vike that there had been a rash of sightings on the native reserve. Unfortunately without talking to someone who could give a first-person account, Vike said the information is hearsay at best.
Vike got the details from the first account from the woman’s mother.
“Allegedly, she was walking out to the mailbox and this thing walked in front of her,” Vike said. “But I called and called and got nowhere so I am thinking this is a little fishy.”
Another women apparently told friends that she had seen a sasquatch peeking in someone’s window.
The last report allegedly involved a school bus driver who saw the creature standing in a field.
A sighting in Houston in late July by Delores Harrie captured international media attention.
Harrie saw the creature out at her home on Buck Flats Road on July 28.
At 5:45 a.m. that morning, Harrie heard her dogs barking at the door. When she went down to investigate she saw that someone or something was rattling the door handle.
She eventually opened the door and the dogs were out like a shot, sniffing out something on he east side of her property.
When she looked out at the side of her house, she saw a creature that was walking on two legs.
“It was huge and it had long hair, not fur — kind of like the kind you see on an ox and a reddish brown, the colour of the trees that are killed by the pine beetle,” said the woman. “And it moved so fast, by the time I opened my door it had run from the porch to the other side of the house.”
Once outside, the dogs pursued the creature it continued along a dried-up ravine and disappeared into a forested area. Her oldest dog didn’t return for three hours.
“I was worried but what do you do, tell people your dog is chasing bigfoot?” she asked. “I drove up and down the road, looking for him and eventually he came back.”
After Harrie’s report, there was a report on Telkwa High Road and sightings in Campbell River.
"I have been here for almost five months trying to do good work and I end up with bigfoot prints in front of my house," Beck said.
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Carey Mansion on ABC's Dark Shadows series Collider.com talked to producer Richard D. Zanuck, who says that director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are making Dark Shadows next summer and that it's Tim's next project after Alice in Wonderland.
The film, written by John August, is based on the cult '60s supernatural TV show created by Dan Curtis. Johnny Depp would play Barnabas Collins, the vampire patriarch of the series.
With over 1,225 episodes, "Dark Shadows" was a highly atmospheric, spooky soap-opera that featured gothic horror staples like vampires, monsters, witches, werewolves, ghosts and zombies that ran from 1966 - 1971 and featured actor Jonathan Frid as Collins.
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The span of history a giant tortoise can live through is vividly illustrated in a remarkable picture on the British island colony of St Helena in the year 1900.
One of the men behind them (in the second picture) is believed to be an Afrikaner captured during the Boer War, which lasted from 1899-1902. The remote South Atlantic island, the final prison of Napoleon from 1815 until his death there in 1821, later housed a Boer War prison camp holding 6,000 inmates.
The scene is thought to be the grounds of Plantation House, the St Helena governor's residence in the island capital of Jamestown, where three giant tortoises were brought as ornamental pets from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean in 1882.
The animals may have been 50 years old then, and so would be about 70 when the photo was taken – and one of the three, named Jonathan, is still alive. At a possible age of 175-plus he would be the world's oldest living animal. The previous oldest-known tortoise was thought to be Harriet, a giant Galapagos land tortoise who died, aged 175, in 2005 in Australia.
Jonathan is treated as a celebrity, and for good reason: during his remarkable lifespan he has seen the coronation of eight British monarchs, from George IV to Elizabeth II, and a staggering 50 prime ministers.
These days he hangs out with fellow land tortoises David, Speedy, Emma, Fredricka and Myrtle, who are much younger; and according to locals, he still has the energy to mate regularly with the three females. "Jonathan feeds on the grass of the main paddock and is still very active despite his age, and adores attention," said a spokesman for the island's tourist board. "He is a real poser. He seems to be sightless in one eye, but does not let that slow him down."
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Whipper is a mutated budgie. "Budgie" is short for "budgerigar", the Australian term for the U.S. English word "Parakeet". There can be notable variations within the budgie Tribe and there are color mutations within his breed. But Whipper has been the only mutant of his kind. His most distinct mutation is the long curly plumage. Tragically rejected as a small fledgling, he grew up to be a pop star of New Zealand. He was born in Winton, Southland District, New Zealand.
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Guilty on all counts" was the verdict of a Las Vegas jury which, ironically, came 13 years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted on double murder charges in California. Although hardly "the trial of the century," this Las Vegas verdict may have been the beginning of the final chapter in a long history of legal cases starring O.J. Simpson.
Arguably one of the greatest football running backs of all time, Simpson starred at USC, won the Heisman, played 10 years in the NFL and ultimately made it to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. After his sports career, Simpson became a TV and movie actor, as well as a popular pitchman for Hertz.
As everyone will remember, Simpson played the starring role in the "trial of the century" which arose out of the 1994 brutal stabbing murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The 1995 trial lasted for months and the drama unfolded before our eyes on TV with an all-star defense team, including Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, winning a not-guilty verdict despite what appeared to be overwhelming evidence of Simpson's guilt.
Not long after the not-guilty verdict, Ronald Goldman's family filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit. Unlike the criminal jury, the civil jury found Simpson liable for the murder of Ronald Goldman and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages, the vast majority of which remains unpaid.
The Law Vegas case involved items of sports memorabilia that Simpson had lost when trying to hide them from seizure by the Goldman family to pay the wrongful death verdict. An associate of Simpson, Thomas Riccio, learned that memorabilia dealers who were staying at the Las Vegas Palace Station Hotel and Casino had some of the lost O.J. memorabilia. Riccio talked to Simpson and agreed to set up a "raid" in which a "purchase" would be arranged but, in reality, Simpson and others would retrieve the items.
On Sept. 13, 2007, Simspon and several associates went to the Palace Station. Although the testimony was contradictory, witnesses who participated in the "raid" and who took plea bargains stated that Simpson told them to bring handguns and that the guns were pointed at the dealers during the raid. In addition, audiotapes of the raid included a voice which sounded like Simpson's saying "Don't let nobody out of this room. Mother f--, you think you can steal my s- and sell it."
After the others involved in the raid cut deals with the prosecution and pled guilty to lesser charges, the charges filed against Simpson and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, included conspiracy (planning a crime with others), kidnapping (holding someone against their will), robbery (theft by means of force or threats), burglary (entering a home with the intent to commit a crime), assault with a deadly weapon and other charges. The theme of the prosecution's case against Simpson was that he planned and participated in the raid which involved holding people against their will with the use of handguns and the taking of personal property which included O.J. and other sports memorabilia. Simpson's defense, although he did not testify, tried to prove that Simpson was only retrieving his own personal property and that he did not know that guns were involved. Unlike at his double murder trial, Simpson did not have the all-star criminal defense team. His former defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran ("If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit") died in 2005 of an inoperable brain tumor.
After weeks of testimony and the presentation of secret audio recordings, the Las Vegas jury found both Simpson and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, guilty on all 12 charges. Although appeals are pending, Simpson was immediately incarcerated and likely faces stiff sentencing, which is scheduled for December. The kidnapping conviction could result in a life sentence. Robbery has a mandatory two-year sentence and the other charges carry 1 to 6 year sentences.
In reality, O.J. Simpson faces a minimum of 6 years in prison and will most likely receive a stiffer sentence. I will update this posting when the verdict is read, but the question is....was Simpson a victim of a conspiracy or did he receive justice?
UPDATE: O.J. Simpson received a minimum of 9 years in prison with a maximum of 33 years.
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Modern humans may have evolved more than 80,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study of sophisticated stone tools found in Ethiopia.
The tools were uncovered in the 1970s at the archaeological site of Gademotta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. But it was not until this year that new dating techniques revealed the tools to be far older than the oldest known Homo sapien bones, which are around 195,000 years old. Continued at National Geographic
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I want to wish 'Happy Holidays' to all and say 'thanks' for following the Phantoms and Monsters blog. I also extend an invitation to all to go to the Phantoms and Monsters Wiki and become a member. Share your thoughts on paranormal and alternative events that interest you or have read about on the blog. Lon
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Who needs a luxe penthouse triplex in Trump Tower when the family can live on a wet and windy Scottish beach with their very own ghost in the cellar?
The Trump Organization announced Wednesday that Menie House - the turreted estate in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, whose grounds will be the site of a planned $1.5 billion golf resort - is being renovated to become "the Trump family residence in Scotland."
Local lore says the house - which includes a tower dating back to the 14th century - comes with a ghost, the Green Lady.
News that Donald Trump may soon be a neighbor did not impress Michael Forbes, the ornery farmer who refused to sell his 23 acres on the Menie land to make way for the golf development.
Forbes said he considers Trump "a loudmouth bully" and didn't believe the tycoon would live locally. "It's too cold here for him," Forbes said.
Environmental advocate Mickey Foote, who lives 400 yards from Menie House, said he would greet Trump enthusiastically.
"I would welcome Donald to experience the tranquility and beauty of the land he's going to destroy," Foote said.
George Sorial, Trump's managing director for international development, insisted the family "will spend a lot of time" at the house and will not be deterred by northeast Scotland's notorious weather.
Sorial wouldn't put a price tag on the renovation but said it would be "significant .... We're looking to put it back to its original grandeur."
As for the ghost, Sorial said he and Trump both stayed in the house and haven't yet crossed her path.
"I'm looking forward to meeting her," he quipped.
Sorial denied that Trump is low on cash to finance the golf project. Trump Entertainment Resorts, which runs three casinos in Atlantic City, missed a deadline to make a $53.1 million interest payment earlier this week.
"He's not short on cash," Sorial said.
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It is a cold Monday night. The trees are bare and a light fog settles over the ground where the Battle of Stones River took place nearly 150 years ago.
Ryan Burk, sophomore recording industry major, and I bundle up in warm clothes while carrying a couple of Sony voice recorders and a flashlight.
Tonight, we are not here to enjoy the sites. We're here to catch a ghost.
Ryan has already had a few years of experience in paranormal investigation from working with groups like Tennessee Ghost Hunters.
The anniversary of the beginning of the battle, which began on Dec. 31, 1862, is at the end of next month. The battle ended on Jan. 2, 1863.
"This is the peak time of [paranormal] activity on the battlefield," Ryan says.
The air is still when we arrive at the battlefield, and we spend about 30 minutes quietly listening. Nothing. We decide to engage in some conversation with one another.
We try a few things to provoke spirits, such as asking questions and talking about major generals of the Civil War, but still nothing happens. After 90 minutes, we decide it is time to go.
But the night is still young. When we return to Monohan Hall, I am greeted by a group of three other college students. They know what we were doing and are eager to see a ghost.
The three convince me to return to the battlefield with them around 2 a.m. Ryan says that from 2 a.m. until 4 a.m. is the time that Ryan says is the best time for ghost hunting.
"A lot of it has to do with the gravitational pull of the moon," Ryan says. "It takes a lot of energy to pull the oceans' tides. That is energy that spirits can use to manifest themselves."
I leave Monohan Hall with the other three students almost immediately. Ryan is forced to stay behind because he has early classes the next day.
Upon arriving at the same scene, I notice the fog has grown thicker. This time, the battlefield is not so quiet. Within 15 minutes of our arrival, we see unexplainable flashes and experience cold spots.
Shortly afterward, my voice recorder's battery indicator drops from full to one bar. The mood among us begins to lighten. Each of us wants to have some kind of experience.
Soon, we begin to see a number of possible shadow figures and hear strange screeching noises and faint footsteps.
We try to replicate the flashes we previously seen by moving objects in front of the flashlight. Nothing we try reproduces them.
Much of the area surrounding the battlefield contains roads, factories and neighborhoods. This makes us doubtful that we will experience anything paranormal.
After another 90 minutes on the battlefield, we return to campus.
While listening to my recordings of the night, I hear a loud scratchy voice commenting on a crude joke one of us said. What the voice says is incoherent.
Still, the question remains - Is Stones River Battlefield haunted?
"Most of the proof for paranormal activity can only be experienced," Ryan explains. "[This] means all we have to go by is recorded evidence, which can easily be disproved."
The key to ghost hunting is research, Ryan says.
"Know the history. Know what happened," he says. "This can strengthen any evidence you find."
For some, Stones River National Battlefield may be an incredible site for ghost hunting. According to the National Park Service Web site, there were nearly 24,000 casualties during the battle, making the Battle of Stones River the second bloodiest battle in the Civil War.
Unfortunately, some of the more interesting sites of the battlefield belong to the state park, which closes before nightfall. The actual battlefield itself, though, spans far beyond the state park's boundaries into neighborhoods, roads and local businesses.
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Rights campaigners say “witch doctors” in some parts of the country convince parents that their children are possessed and will bring misfortune such as divorce or disease.
The fraudulent doctors then extort money from the frightened parents to perform exorcisms, campaigners say.
Some children fall into the hands of child trafficking networks after being handed over by their parents, the charities claim.
Bishop Sunday Ulup-Aya, arrested in Mbo, close to the Atlantic coast, with six other suspects, had claimed in a documentary to have killed 110 children beset by evil spirits, said Aniekan Umanah, the commissioner for information in the southeastern state of Akwa Ibom.
“I am not denying that I am a witchdoctor, but what I killed are witches in my patients with herbs, not children,” Mr Ulup-Aya said while in detention.
Akwa Ibom is one of Nigeria’s top oil-producing states, but poverty is pervasive and many residents are superstitious. The state has the highest incidence of child-trafficking in Africa’s most populous nation.
Sam Ikpe-Ituama, whose group Child Rights Rehabilitation Network is spearheading the rescue of children accused of witchcraft in the state, said Mr Ulup-Aya may be part of a network of human traffickers.
“No corpses were discovered in his church, but two kids held captive for supposed deliverance, as well as some fetish items, were taken from there by the police,” said Mr Ikpe-Ituama, who led a security team that raided the building.
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The American press and American public — with the exception of some steadfast loyalists — now have Nixon to kick some more.
And for good reason.
The release of some 200 hours of Nixon White House recordings is going to provide a treasure chest of inside glimpses into the man who helped usher in the politics of polarization and who helped dismember 1950s-early-1960s consensus politics — a trend that many hope will be reversed with the new, presumably more post-partisan Obama administration. Tidbits trickling out now about Nixon as preserved on tape aren’t exactly going to bolster Nixon’s image among the public — or among historians who’ll shape future generations’ perceptions.
Journalists are now going through tapes and the parts that have come out so far (within just a few hours) are revealing. NBC offers these:
– On July 1, 1971, Nixon instructs Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to have someone break into the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.:
“I can’t have a high-minded lawyer … I want a son-of-a-b—-. I want someone just as tough as I am. … We’re up against an enemy, a conspiracy that will use any means. We are going to use any means… . Get it done. I want it done. I want the Brookings Institution cleaned out and have it cleaned out in a way that has somebody else take the blame.”
– On April 4, 1972, Nixon discusses the press with Haldeman:
NIXON: “Return the calls to those poor dumb bastards … who I know are our friends. Now do it … We made the same mistake [Dwight] Eisenhower made, but not as bad as Eisenhower made, because he sucked the Times too much … G-d damn it, don’t talk to them for a while. Will you enforce that now?’ HALDEMAN: “I’ll try.”
– On May 18, 1972, Nixon talks to Henry Kissinger about the National Security Adviser’s meeting with Ivy League college presidents regarding the war in Vietnam:
NIXON: “The Ivy League presidents? Why, I’ll never let those sons-of-b—— in the White House again. Never, never, never. They’re finished. The Ivy League schools are finished … Henry, I would never have had them in. Don’t do that again … They came out against us when it was tough … Don’t ever go to an Ivy League school again, ever. Never, never, never.”
– On Nov. 14, 1972, Nixon talks with his aide Charles Colson about his landslide re-election victory over Democrat George McGovern:
NIXON: “What in the hell did you think of McGovern’s statement on the election? Wasn’t that the sour grapes crap again?” COLSON: “Well, it’s unbelievable, the arrogance of the guy … God, what a bad man. Just awfully glad we got him buried and put away for good. I think he is.” NIXON: “Oh, he’s buried. He’s buried.”
– On Dec. 9, 1972, Nixon talks to Colson about the appointment of building trades union leader Peter Brennan as secretary of labor:
NIXON: “The idea, they finally think the appointment of a working man makes them think we’re for the working man.” COLSON: “That’s precisely it.” NIXON: “They talk about all the tokenism. We appoint blacks, and they don’t think we’re for blacks. Mexicans. They don’t think we’re for Mexicans. But a working man, by golly, that is really something.”
Today’s release was the 12th of Nixon White House tapes since 1980. Approximately 2,217 hours of tape recordings are now available to the public.
CBS offers a link so you can explore some of the 60,000 new pages of Nixon material and 200 hours of tapes yourself. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal offers THIS TIDBIT of Nixon trying to create some diversity in his cabinet — although his discussion is not exactly PC.
What to make of all of this? There will be some aspects that will likely enhance Nixon’s image in the eyes of historians in terms of foreign and domestic policy. But the taped glimpses into how the man really talked and the attitudes he truly displayed will continue to cement his status as one of the most flawed Presidents in terms of actions and character.
This is a key aspect of American presidencies that’s often forgotten in the heat of the moment as some partisans (of the President’s party) defend him and other partisans (of the opposition party) diss him. A presidency’s true nature is seldom known during the presidency or even immediately afterwards. The true nature emerges as historical documents, investigative journalism pieces and detailed histories come to light.
And Nixon is not proving to be prettier as the more light from many years ago seeps out and shines on him.
Being “like Nixon” has being the ultimate insult to hurl at a President (perhaps second is being “like Carter.”). Fox News’ Chris Wallace recently got a lot of publicity by challenging the effort to “Nixonize” President George Bush. The most notable continuing strand with Nixon tapes both new and old: a lot is about Nixon, how he perceived himself and wanted to be perceived, how his enemies were out to get him and about how he wanted to get back at his hated enemies.
Expect more quotes to emerge in the media in coming days……
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Videos depict several personal descriptions of alien close encounters and abductions by Australian citizens. Very well done production. ___________________________________________________
The Gundiah Mackay Alien Abduction
An extraordinary and controversial milieu has developed around events that reportedly began late on the evening of Thursday, October 4th, 2001, at a Gundiah property near Tiaro, culminating in the early hours of Friday, October 5th, 2001, and then played out in the glare of rapidly escalating media coverage.
Three people were directly involved in these alleged events. Keith Rylance (39), his wife Amy (22), and their business partner, Petra Heller (35) were on their property, which was being developed as "Whispering Winds" winery. Other potential activities were also being developed at the location. The following account comes from interviews conducted by us with them, along with primary source material such as TV interviews.
Keith Rylance told us that he had gone to sleep in the caravan bedroom at about 9.30 pm. Petra retired to her bedroom in the caravan annex. Amy stayed on a couch watching TV in the caravan annex "lounge room". Each of these locations were in close proximity, separated by a window and wall respectively from the lounge room. Petra's room had a door leading to the lounge room, which was left ajar. The door to the bedroom, where Keith was, apparently was open to the lounge room. Amy apparently fell asleep on the couch. A storm was in the area.
Around 11.15 pm, Petra was reportedly woken up and when she entered the adjacent lounge was confronted by an extraordinary sight, that allegedly quickly overwhelmed her. A rectangular beam of light was being projected through the open window of the caravan lounge room. This light beam appeared to be truncated at the end. Inside the beam Petra claims to have seen Amy in a sleep prone position, being carried out head first through the window. Underneath her, also within the beam were the items that had been on the coffee table adjacent to the couch Amy had been on. Before apparently fainting in shock Petra saw that the beam was coming from a disc shaped UFO hovering just above the ground a short distance away, near a tree at the rear of the clear section, immediately behind the annex caravan house.
Petra reports she believes she was only in a faint for a very short period of time. Regaining consciousness, she began screaming. Keith reports that he was awoken by the commotion coming from Petra. As he came from the caravan bedroom and stepped down into the lounge room annex Keith claims he was confronted by the sight of a highly agitated Petra and the contents of the coffee table on the floor in front of the window. He told us that he soon realised that the window screen was torn in both a vertical fashion and along the bottom of the window frame. Keith indicated that initially he couldn't get any sense out of Petra who was crying and very agitated, so he rushed outside trying to locate Amy.
She was reportedly nowhere to be found. Keith states when he started to be less agitated himself he was eventually able to get from Petra an idea of what happened. Keith claims he initially refused to believe what Petra was telling him. He said he rushed outside again trying to find his wife. Eventually as the situation became clearer, Keith indicates he decided to call the police.
Keith call the Tiaro police around 11.40 pm reporting that his wife had been abducted and imploring that the police should come out. The manning status at that time meant there were some delays in the police coming out, but about hour and a half after the initial call Senior Constable Robert Maragna from Tiaro and an officer from Maryborough arrived at the site. Initially police thought they might have been walking into a situation involving foul play, even perhaps a murder scene, but then the bizarre circumstances of the alleged events came into focus. The two people, Keith and Petra, at the Gundiah property were claiming that Amy Rylance had been abducted by a "spaceship"! The officers were struggling to keep an open mind.
They were joined later by Sgt. John Bosnjak, the officer in charge of the Tiaro police. He had been asleep when the police called him to assist in the investigation. The three officers continued their investigations at the site. They confirmed that Keith Rylance and Petra Heller appeared to be in an agitated state and that there was no sign of Amy Rylance. The torn screen was examined. A flowering bush, commonly known as "yesterday, today, tomorrow" was located immediately outside the left side of window, had indications of possibly being affected by heat or another mechanism along its right side. Oddly another flowering bush, a hibiscus, located immediately on the right hand side of the window area was not affected in the same way. The police took samples for possible later testing.
While the police were at the property, a phone call came through, which was taken by Keith Rylance. A woman was calling from Mackay indicating that she had taken a somewhat distressed and apparently dehydrated young woman from a BP petrol service station on the northern outskirts of central Queensland city of Mackay, some 790 kilometres to the north of the Gundiah - Tiaro area.
The young woman turned out to be Amy Rylance, and the female caller was ringing to advise that Amy was apparently all right and was at the Mackay hospital, where she had been examined by a doctor. Keith handed the phone to Snr. Constable Marangna.
Given these extraordinary circumstances Mackay police were called in, making a total of three police stations involved in the investigation -Tiaro, on outskirts of central Qeensland, Maryborough on the coast and Mackay, some 790 kilometres to the north of the Gundiah - Tiaro area.
A statement was notarised by the Mackay police with a Justice Act acknowledgement, that required Amy to acknowledge that she had stated was true to the best of her knowledge and belief, and that if it is admitted as evidence, that she may be liable to prosecution if she had indicated anything in it that she knew was false.
This statement indicated that she last only recollected lying on the couch at the Gundiah property. She had no recollection of the events that Petra described, but claimed she then next remembered waking up lying on a bench in a strange rectangular room. llumination came from the walls and the ceiling. She was alone. She indicated she called out and heard what seemed to be a male voice, asking her to be calm and that everything would be alright and that she would not be harmed. Soon an opening appeared in the wall and "a guy" about 6 feet tall walked into the room.
The man appeared to be slender in build but in perfect proportion, covered head to foot in a full body suit. He had what seemed to be a black covering mask on his face, with a hole for his eyes, nose and mouth. He repeated his calming assurances. Amy felt she had been there a while. The guy told her they were returning her to a place not far from where they took her from, because the lights were wrong at the property and it wasn't safe. She then indicates she found herself lying on the bed and falling asleep.
The next thing she recollects is that she woke up on the ground with trees around her. She felt disorientated, could smell the ocean, and indicated she was not sure how long she tumbled through bushland, but seemingly it was for a long time, but she felt she wasn't making much progress. She then came out onto a road that looked like a highway and saw a light from a petrol station. She walked into the station, where staff seeing her state, tried to offer some assistance.
She accepted some water, as she felt somewhat dehydrated. Initially she was not able to answer identifying questions, and didn't know where she was. She was also asked if she had been drinking or was on drugs, to which she said no. Amy indicated she felt tired, sore, drained and lethargic. She asked a woman at the service station to take her to the hospital, as she didn't know of where else to go. The woman and her friend took Amy to the hospital. Later Amy spoke with two police officers and also spoke with her husband Keith from the hospital. She then went to Mackay police station where she gave the statement of events. Amy also indicated that this sort of thing had never happened to her before, but when she was in 5th year school she had seen a large UFO surrounded by smaller objects.
The police arranged to put Amy in a motel pending the arrival of her husband. He and Petra arrived during the day and indicated they spent considerable time with Amy discussing what happen. Extensive notes were apparently made and photographs were taken of a triangular arrangement of marks on her inner right thigh, marks on each heel and the growing out of her hair which she had dyed earlier in the week. Her hair had apparently started to show her former colour, suggestive that some considerable time had passed for her, apparently indicative of rather more than a few hours. Body hair had allegedly also become somewhat more pronounced that would otherwise would be apparent for the short time involved. Via an Newsagent's a copy of the Australian Ufologist magazine was purchased, Keith, Petra and Amy started to learn more about UFOs. Keith Rylance contacted the Australian UFO Research Network office number mentioned in the magazine. Diane Harrison took the call Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 15:20 p.m and for the next hour or so listened to the story that Keith and Amy told. Petra was apparently sleeping at the time.
Given the nature of the story, its complexity and the fact it apparently featured the alleged use of "solid light", Diane decide to bring Bill Chalker into the investigation, making contact with him during the evening of Friday, October 5th. Paradoxically Bill was scheduled to talk at a Brisbane UFO conference on October 13th, and his topics included "solid light" cases and the application of science to alien abduction cases. Bill put a call through to them at the motel, securing permission to record the conversation. Once again Petra was not available to talk about her part in the alleged events. Keith Rylance went into considerable detail about the events, referring often to the notes they had apparently been compiling during the day. The details described covered the events Petra had witnessed, what Keith had experienced, and what Amy told them had happened to her during her experience. Finally Bill spoke with Amy, focusing mainly on the events before and after the claimed onboard experiences, because Keith had already gone into considerable detail about the latter.
Bill discussed with Amy her general responses and her physical state and her current state of thought on her experiences. Keith Rylance seemed to want to control how both media and investigators would get involved. His desire to contact the media promptly drew from both Diane and Bill the suggestion that he should think very carefully about the possible ramifications of doing so. Keith seemed to feel that it was important to get the story out, as it would come out anyway and this way he could control the way it did. He was also trying to restrict the way the investigators could or should look into their experience. He claimed they didn't need to proof the experience. While he didn't directly witness the experiences he believed both Amy and Petra.
Given the possible nature of the event, and that irrespective of the ultimate resolution of the affair, it seemed destined to be a big story, Diane and Bill decided to undertake an investigation. They had been given an indication from Keith Rylance that the three would wait for the investigators to come to Mackay. The claimants were in no apparent hurry to return to Gundiah. They gave permission for Bill and Diane to visit the property on the way. Bill arrived in the Brisbane area on Tuesday afternoon, October 9th.
Diane and Bill then travelled to Gundiah, arriving at the Whispering Winds winery property, just after 10 pm. Because of the lateness of the hour, we got the witnesses permission to stay there overnight and to conduct whatever investigation we needed to do. Keith had arranged for a neighbour to regularly check on the two pets left behind, namely a parrot and a kelpie dog. He indicated to us that it would be okay to let the dog off for a run, but warned us it was very friendly but inclined to jump all over people. We let the dog off at some point and observed its behaviour. At one point it did jump up on the window where the damaged screen was located. This gave some support to the possibility that at least some, if not all of the damage, could have been caused by the dog. Some of the damage on closer inspection seemed suggestive of possible dog damage. Our inspection of the plant damage also suggested possible prosaic causes, such as heat stress. A plant at the front of the house had similar damage and a healthy flowering bush of the same species that was at the window, was examined by us at Mount Basset lawn cemetery has similar damaged.
A gardener there we spoke to indicated that the species often had random or more extensive damage of a heat stress nature from hot sunlight. The prosaic possibilities for both the screen and the plant damage are only suggestive at this point and further investigation is required. We undertook extensive investigations at the property and the area. Police were very helpful. Our investigation generated many issues and questions, which we feel need resolution, in order to assist interpretations of these events. Further extensive investigations were undertaken in Mackay, focusing in particular at the area where Amy Rylance returned.
These included attempts to reconstruct the circumstances of Amy's return, through onsite research. The BP petrol service station staff were spoken with and a surveillance video tape that may contain Amy's visit there was provided to us by the station owner. This part of our investigation also generated many issues and questions that need resolution if we are to approach any measure of certainty about the real nature of the events alleged.
Keith Rylance indicated to us he would be available to us when we got to Mackay, but it was made clear to us early on the first day of our investigations there that this wasn't probably going to be the case. When we contacted the motel where they had been the night before, their third motel in Mackay, we learned they had apparently already checked out that morning. We left messages on their phone but didn't hear from Keith until early on the afternoon of our second day, as we were leaving Mackay. In his mobile call, Keith apologised for not being available, but was indicating they had relocated to an unspecified location after having fled the area.
The primary reason for this Keith indicated was that they claimed they had a kind of "men-in-black" experience. In this case Keith was reporting a pursuit of their vehicle by a high powered dark brown 4 wheel truck. The nature of this event apparently frightened Keith, Amy and Petra, prompting Keith to attempt to loose the vehicle and eventually leave the area.
Before the completion of this preliminary report (14th October) we have heard from Keith again. We remain hopeful that they will get into more direct contact with us. This affair is both extraordinary and controversial. Many have rushed to judgement, but given it's complex and evolving dynamics, caution and patience is necessary. We have many issues and questions we would like to try to resolve. Further contact with the Rylances and Petra Heller may help this process. The case is far from closed and requires an objective, open-minded investigation. Only time will give us the possibility of resolution and certainty about this intriguing but controversial affair.
AUFORN: THE AUSTRALIAN UFO RESEARCH NETWORK _______________________________________________
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Ms. Mendoza and her husband were recently attacked by flying lights in Moorpark CA. (northeast of Los Angeles). She testifies that a chupacabra, or a monkey creature was directing the craft.
This is a section of a larger story about the real live events which recently took place in Moorpark, CA. Dr. Daniel Fryye has completed a video study of the strange lights that have assailed this California town in an under reported incident much like the Phoenix lights. _______________________________________________
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The UFO phenomenon never existed in the former USSR, at least in the official records. There were numerous stories about unidentified flying objects which could be heard from susceptible individuals, but Soviet cosmonauts never said anything on the subject, although they had a lot to share.
Former Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok appeared at a press conference devoted to unusual and anomalous phenomena in space. He said that he had witnessed something inexplicable during his work on board the Salyut orbital station. The cosmonaut said that he once saw a strange object on Earth’s orbit. He asked his partner, Viktor Savinykh, to fetch a camera. While Savinykh was trying to find the camera, the object exploded in front of Kovalenok’s eyes. The object split into two parts and had something like a bridge connecting those parts. The dumbbell-like object disappeared before the other cosmonaut was ready to photograph it. A strong radioactive emission was registered on Earth soon after the explosion of the mysterious object.
Kovalenok said that many of his colleagues had witnessed something unusual on a number of occasions, but they decided not to bring those issues to the public attention.
Pilot Pavel Popovich was on a flight from Washington to Moscow in 1978. The plane was flying at the height of about 10,000 meters, when he noticed a triangular luminescent object flying on the same trajectory with his aircraft. The speed of the triangle was higher than that of the plane – more than 1,700 km/h, whereas the jetliner was flying at 1,100 km/h.
Cosmonauts Gennady Strekalov and Gennady Manakov saw a bright spherical object appearing in the cloudless sky above Newfoundland in 1990. The sphere disappeared without a trace ten seconds later.
In 1991, Musa Manarov was observing the module with the new crew nearing the Mir Space Station, filming the process on video camera. He suddenly saw an antenna-like object separating from the module. He informed the cosmonauts inside the module that something had undocked from them. Nevertheless, it never became possible to identify the object, although it was filmed on camera.
It goes without saying that cosmonauts informed their governing bodies of all those and many other strange incidents. All of the stories were most likely documented and subsequently classified.
Cosmonauts may often witness other inexplicable events happening in space, Vladimir Kovalenok said. A tape recorder switched on by itself and started playing the crew’s favorite film on the orbit once, Kovalenok said.
Psychologists often warn cosmonauts prior to their space missions that they may experience a phenomenon known as the altered state of consciousness. A Russian cosmonaut said in 1994 that he and his partner had numerous visions when they were working on board the Mir station for six months. It seemed to them that they were turning into weird creatures – animals and even humanoids of extraterrestrial origin.
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A strange sea monster was cast ashore in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. The partially decomposed monster has 4 paws, a tail and long fur. The scientists who examined the creature said that they had already seen such animals before, but they have no clue to their definition.
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A tiger that escaped from a West Virginia exotic animal farm has been killed.
Snowshoe Mountain Resort spokeswoman Laura Parquette says farm owner David Casell, who works at the ski area, shot the cat Monday in the Monongahela National Forest. Parquette says the tiger was reportedly near Snowshoe, but adds that it was found 6 miles or more away.
Division of Natural Resources Lt. Col. Jerry Jenkins says the agency sent an officer to help find the tiger, which searchers planned to tranquilize. Jenkins isn’t sure why it was killed.
DNR spokesman Hoy Murphy says Casell has a permit for the tiger. And Murphy notes this isn’t the first time Casell’s dealt with an escape: a 400-pound Asian brown bear got loose in May 2006 and hasn’t been seen since.
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In Pure Spirit is a very interesting alternative and esoteric blog. The editor, Andrew, is a diligent researcher and offers thoughtful viewpoints and factual commentary. Check it out In Pure Spirit
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The forces of nature did not keep three members with Iowa Paranormal away from Oakland cemetery Saturday night, and also not five and 50.
The five thrill seekers, none of whom were associated with the paranormal group, waited in the lightly falling snow near the west entrance to the cemetery. The 50 assembled in People's Baptist Church, just a stone's throw west of the cemetery, to pray.
The three paranormal investigators — led by group founder Steven Tracy, of Centerville, Patrick Law, of Centerville, and Tony Brozovich, of Numa — arrived at 7 p.m. and started their testing near the west end of the cemetery at the Oakland Cemetery Chapel and receiving vault. They brought a video camera wrapped in plastic to protect it from the falling snow, three voice recorders and an electronic magnetic field detector. The camera can see in pure darkness and the EMF detector can rule our unexplainable events, Tracy said.
"We go in looking for the natural causes. We take the scientific approach to it, is what we're doing. We try to rule out all the possibilities," Tracy said. "That's why we've got all of this equipment. We want to capture evidence."
Tracy said he and Law thought they might have seen an unexplainable light near the grave of Hon. Harvey Tannehill and were getting ready to walk to that area of the cemetery to investigate. The light was similar to the one he and others think they might have seen while on the Haunted History Tour held at Oakland Cemetery in October.
"We witnessed a few strange things that night that we want to capture, try to see if we can get that again," Tracy said, while pointing to a large evergreen where they were standing less than 30 minutes ago and the same type light was seen in the same area near Tannehill's grave. "And down on the far side where we first witnessed the activity from the Haunted History Tour we've seen the ball of light again, like we've seen the first time. But we do not have it on video tape."
Tracy said they need to capture audio or video evidence, which would be closely and carefully scrutinized, before they would make a judgement or announcement.
"We're going to go down there, turn the video camera on, just kind of sit around, see if anything comes up and hopefully we'll have it on video tape," Tracy said. "That kind of what we're going for. We just can't go on personal experiences. That don't validate anything."
He denied anybody in his group uses anything but scientific means during paranormal investigations.
"We do not deal with psychics. We don't allow any psychics in our group," Tracy said. "Where's the proof? That's what we want."
Tracy said he wasn't aware of the activities at the church. But he was concerned they may have misconstrued their purpose Saturday night in Oakland Cemetery.
"I just don't want people to think that we're satanic worshipers, or something," Tracy said. "That's not what we're about at all. I want people to know that we take this seriously." _________________________________________________
Local Church Leader Speaks Out
People's Baptist Church Pastor Dave Clark said he disagrees with the paranormal activity that took place at Oakland Cemetery Saturday night. The pastor had asked people to come to the church Saturday night from 7 to 10 p.m. to pray the paranormal investigators would not turn up anything that they could point to as success.
"People. They're buried there for a reason, because we know that they're gone. But the bigger thing is, looking for the living amongst the dead, that's kind of the strange part," Clark said. "And to try to find something abnormal in a cemetery in the dark, you know, it's rather strange to me."
Clark expressed his frustration that the Centerville City Council would allow a group of paranormal investigators access to Oakland Cemetery but not allow residents and others the opportunity to place wreaths on graves this Christmas.
"Basically, the bottom line is that we've got a lot of people from the church with past relatives buried and they don't want things to come out of it," Clark said. "We just want everything to be as it was before. We don't want any side upset."
Pastor Clark greeted people at the door of the church, which is just a stone’s throw from Oakland Cemetery. He said 50 people made the trip Saturday night to the church to pray.
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Witness: I recorded this video on Sunday, November 30, 2008 to the north of Mexico City, heading toward the zenith. I only became aware of the object when I checked the images on a TV set. There was a family gathering at my mother's house that day, so I took advantage of this fact to go out and record airliners in flight (around 16:00 hours). From that location they can be clearly seen as they head for the airport. What could this object be? Anything from a UFO to space junk, or perhaps a heavenly body, although it was not visible at the moment that the recording was made. I'm rejecting the likelihood that it could be an artificial satellite, according to the Heavens Above registry, which indicates the time and location of satellites over Mexico City, particularly the International Space Station and the Iridium satellites, which are the brightest in the sky.
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The home at 519 Campbell St. in Joliet is, in many ways, an ideal backdrop for ghost hunting.
Built in 1902, the home, with its dated, ornate style and wrought iron fence in front, could make passers-by think that the spirit world visits the place.
And then there are the owners. Diethard Beyer, Kurt Beyer and Keith Nicholls live in the 25-room home, and every Halloween they transform the front yard into a haunted house attraction, complete with a hearse and a real human skeleton in an antique coffin. What allegedly happens every day in the home, though, is the reason the homeowners contacted Will County Ghost Hunters.
In the main floor's library, the owners have smelled pipe smoke, felt the presence of a man and have found books that do not belong to any of them. They also have sensed the presence of a woman and a small boy.
"We are trying to get an answer to who is here with us," Diethard said.
The homeowners have their own stories as to why otherworldly beings may inhabit the home. One of them lost a sister at a young age and another lost a partner.
The current homeowners' experiences notwithstanding, the history of the home and the homes around it could explain the activity the three men have experienced but cannot explain.
The home was built in 1902 by A.C. Clement, who bought the land from his father, Charles. A.C. lived with his family on Easter Avenue while 519 Campbell St. was under construction. Although A.C. built the home, he never lived in it. He committed suicide in the basement of his Eastern Avenue home before the Cambell Street one was finished.
A.C.'s daughter, Laura, moved into the house with her family. In 1922, the house was converted into Resthaven Retirement home.
In the late 1950s, it became Blackburn Funeral Home and remained so until the mid 1970s. The current homeowners bought the house in 2000.
The homeowners unearthed numerous items in the house, such as the original arts and crafts style painted walls in the dining room that they are restoring.
Although it is not known if anyone died in the house, Will County Ghost Hunter lead investigator Dan Jungles said the building's time as a nursing home could have meant that more than one death occurred within its walls.
In addition, some hauntings are more about trapped energy than trapped beings. The building's time as a funeral home meant than there was a lot of grief felt there.
Will County Ghost Hunters went out to the house on Oct. 10. During the investigation, a ghost box was used, which essentially is a radio that scans through the stations without stopping. The idea is that ghosts can use the white noise to answer questions in real time (the investigation concluded that they did).
The clearest communication came in a second-floor bedroom to the question, "Did you have children?" The response was "two boys."
In addition to that, ghosts seem to call the names of two of the investigators, Jeri (Fulan) and Sunnie (Boland).
In addition, a voice called out the name Peggy. The homeowners did not have an explanation for that.
In previous investigations at the home, the investigators caught what appears to be the shadow of a figure who would stand more than 7 feet.
Jungles said the house is definitely haunted.
But the homeowners don't really mind. They would like to know who shares their space with them, but they don't necessarily want the entities to leave.
"We want them to stay," Kurt said. "They haven't thrown knives or anything."
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Researchers have uncovered what may be a universal cause of aging, one that applies to both single cell organisms such as yeast and multicellular organisms, including mammals. This is the first time that such an evolutionarily conserved aging mechanism has been identified between such diverse organisms.
The mechanism probably dates back more than one billion years. The study shows how DNA damage eventually leads to a breakdown in the cell's ability to properly regulate which genes are switched on and off in particular settings.
Like our current financial crisis, the aging process might also be a product excessive deregulation.
Researchers have discovered that DNA damage decreases a cell's ability to regulate which genes are turned on and off in particular settings. This mechanism, which applies both to fungus and to us, might represent a universal culprit for aging.
"This is the first potentially fundamental, root cause of aging that we've found," says Harvard Medical School professor of pathology David Sinclair. "There may very well be others, but our finding that aging in a simple yeast cell is directly relevant to aging in mammals comes as a surprise."
These findings appear in the November 28 issue of the journal Cell.
For some time, scientists have know that a group of genes called sirtuins are involved in the aging process. These genes, when stimulated by either the red-wine chemical resveratrol or caloric restriction, appear to have a positive effect on both aging and health.
Nearly a decade ago, Sinclair and colleagues in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lab of Leonard Guarente found that a particular sirtuin in yeast affected the aging process in two specific ways—it helped regulate gene activity in cells and repair breaks in DNA. As DNA damage accumulated over time, however, the sirtuin became too distracted to properly regulate gene activity, and as a result, characteristics of aging set in.
"For ten years, this entire phenomenon in yeast was considered to be relevant only to yeast," says Sinclair. "But we decided to test of this same process occurs in mammals."
Philipp Oberdoerffer, a postdoctoral scientist in Sinclair's Harvard Medical School lab, used a sophisticated microarray platform to probe the mammalian version of the yeast sirtuin gene in mouse cells. The results in mice corroborated what Sinclair, Guarente, and colleagues had found in yeast ten years earlier.
Oberdoerffer found that a primary function of sirtuin in the mammalian system was to oversee patterns of gene expression (which genes are switch on and which are switch off). While all genes are present in all cells, only a select few need to be active at any given time. If the wrong genes are switched on, this can harm the cell. (In a kidney cell, for example, all liver genes are present, but switched off. If these genes were to become active, that could damage the kidney.) As a protective measure, sirtuins guard genes that should be off and ensure that they remain silent. To do this, they help preserve the molecular packaging—called chromatin—that shrink-wraps these genes tight and keeps them idle.
The problem for the cell, however, is that the sirtuin has another important job. When DNA is damaged by UV light or free radicals, sirtuins act as volunteer emergency responders. They leave their genomic guardian posts and aid the DNA repair mechanism at the site of damage.
During this unguarded interval, the chromatin wrapping may start to unravel, and the genes that are meant to stay silent may in fact come to life.
For the most part, sirtuins are able to return to their post and wrap the genes back in their packaging, before they cause permanent damage. As mice age, however, rates of DNA damage (typically caused by degrading mitochondria) increase. The authors found that this damage pulls sirtuins away from their posts more frequently. As a result, deregulation of gene expression becomes chronic. Chromatin unwraps in places where it shouldn't, as sirtuin guardians work overtime putting out fires around the genome, and the unwrapped genes never return to their silent state.
In fact, many of these haplessly activated genes are directly linked with aging phenotypes. The researchers found that a number of such unregulated mouse genes were persistently active in older mice.
"We then began wondering what would happen if we put more of the sirtuin back into the mice," says Oberdoerffer. "Our hypothesis was that with more sirtuins, DNA repair would be more efficient, and the mouse would maintain a youthful pattern gene expression into old age."
That's precisely what happened. Using a mouse genetically altered to model lymphoma, Oberdoerffer administered extra copies of the sirtuin gene, or fed them the sirtuin activator resveratrol, which in turn extended their mean lifespan by 24 to 46 percent.
"It is remarkable that an aging mechanism found in yeast a decade ago, in which sirtuins redistribute with damage or aging, is also applicable to mammals," says Leonard Guarente, Novartis Professor of Biology at MIT, who is not an author on the paper. "This should lead to new approaches to protect cells against the ravages of aging by finding drugs that can stabilize this redistribution of sirtuins over time."
Both Sinclair and Oberdoerffer agree with Guarente's sentiment that these findings may have therapeutic relevance.
"According to this specific mechanism, while DNA damage exacerbates aging, the actual cause is not the DNA damage itself but the lack of gene regulation that results," says Oberdoerffer. "Lots of research has shown that this particular process of regulating gene activity, otherwise known as epigenetics, can be reversed—unlike actual mutations in DNA. We see here, through a proof-of-principal demonstration, that elements of aging can be reversed."
Recent findings by Chu-Xia Deng of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, has also found that mice that lack sirtuin are susceptible to DNA damage and cancer, reinforcing Sinclair's and Oberdoerffer's data.
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research. David Sinclair is a consultant to Genocea, Shaklee and Sirtris, a GSK company developing sirtuin based drugs.
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