Phantoms and Monsters

Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy - Attempts to Kill Bigfoot

The premise for Operation Endurance was based on evaluations of previous experiences indicating that prolonged stays in an area occupied by one or more sasquatch creatures could result in expressions of animal behavior of a more overt nature than shorter visits of, say, one to three days. Plans were devised to test this proposition.

From 4 June to 20 August 2011, teams of two to five members of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy spent from several days to weeks in a near continuous visitation within a location thought to represent occupied sasquatch habitat. Generally speaking, teams went in for one-week periods, at which point another team relieved them. Twenty-three members took part in the operation.

Teams and team members were free to be as active or passive as they preferred. Teams had access to several third-generation night vision units and eight or more Reconyx game cameras, as well as, on a more limited basis, high quality sound recording equipment and thermal imagers. Cameras were positioned and repositioned in response to suspected patterns of activity noted by team members. Observers were also positioned in what were considered strategic vantage points, based again on reviews of suspected activity noted by current or previous teams. Departing teams met with newly arriving teams for briefings and recommendations....

The first creature, observed on 3 July 2011 at approximately 7:15 PM, was described by the TBRC observer as a smoothly walking brown-colored upright figure approximately 6.5 feet tall or taller. The observation lasted about two or three seconds and was made at a distance of about thirty yards. Team members subsequently observed tracks and foot imprints, one displaying what appeared to be toe impressions. Heel-to-heel distances between some of the prints varied from 52 to 64 inches. One print was seen to have crushed a limb that remained unaffected when stood on by a team member weighing 200 pounds, an indication that the print maker was very heavy.

The TBRC investigator fired upon the animal with an auto-loading shotgun in an attempt to collect a specimen. The creature ran off and no blood was found before the loss of daylight. Additional teams returned to the area in the following days to continue the search for evidence. Stones with apparent blood stains were subsequently discovered a short distance east of the original sighting location in the dry creek bed that is adjacent to the cabins. Several, but not all, of the rocks were collected. Another team was sent to collect the remaining rocks, but a hard rainfall took place on the day of their arrival, and the team was unable to locate any more of the rocks....

Events experienced by team members produced an overall perception that the creatures were extremely intelligent, wary yet curious. For example, by all appearances, sasquatches definitely take notice of the presence of cameras, approaching with circumspection, if they approach at all. Such behavior is not at all far-fetched; indeed, wildlife biologists have recently noted similar cautious behavior among alpha coyotes in relation to camera traps (Sequin, Brussard, Jaeger, & Barrett, 2003). Members believe we have come very close to obtaining images; we will continue to employ cameras for documentation purposes, in spite of the noted limitations. - Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy

Supposedly True Stories Of Bigfoot Sightings

**********

The Long Mynd UFO

Church Stretton, Shropshire still remains one of the highest activity areas for UFO sightings and encounters in the UK with reports going back over 50 years, detailing encounters with UFO crafts and occupants. Why should such high UFO activity be focused on this idyllic little Shropshire town is anybody’s guess but growing evidence might suggest a link to the ancients sites and a geological fault lines running from Much Wenlock through Church Stretton into Wales.

The incident reported here took place approximately 21 years ago around 1990, and related to encounter with a UFO by Tony Foster, who at the time lived just outside Church Stretton.

Tony had been to a party in Church Stretton and felt he had had one too many drinks to still be legal to drive so decided to take an alternative route home away from the main roads. It was about 12.30 to 1am in the morning, the isolated route over the “Burway” is a narrow road that meanders over “The Long Mynd” hills to the other side of the valley. This route is all open country and very dark with no street lights just hills, lonely lanes with the odd farmhouse doted every few miles.

As he was driving on the top of “The Long Mynd” Tony saw a glowing light that came down from the sky, then all of a sudden a beam of light shone on to his car and the engine cut out! Tony was very perturbed by this, he was in the middle of nowhere with no other people and no torch! He decided to get out of the car; as he did he noticed the body of the car felt affected by a very high electrical static charge (which is very commonly reported during these encounters). The light that was hovering above him, it was the size of a house in circumference and about 150 feet above the ground, the light was absolutely dazzlingly bright especially as it was so dark all around him. As he looked at the light he could just make out other coloured lights that reminded him of rainbows emanating from the middle of the object. After approximately 30 seconds of watching the light hover above him he got back in the car and desperately tried to restart the engine – the car was dead. Tony looked back up at the light and then in the blink of an eye the light was gone – he had never seen anything move so quickly in his life before. A few seconds later the car started again and he drove home as quickly as he could.

The next day Tony felt he had to tell somebody about the previous night’s experience and called on his old friend David Williams . Tony told David the whole story and asked if him if he should contact any of the authorities like the police. David advisied him not to call the local police, in case questions were asked about him taking this unusal route!

Tony Fosters worked as a car mechanic in Wellington and about 10 days after the encounter he phoned David and asked him to keep some information confidential, he went on to explain that he had contacted someone in Birmingham regarding the encounter. He had spoken to a man who asked for more information, such as where he lived and worked, the man told him that he and a colleague could be at his place of work in about two hours time and would it be convenient to interview him? Being at work it was not convienient with such short notice, but the man insisted and was rather abrupt, apprehensively Tony agreed and awaited their arrival.

Two men arrived at his place of work and immediately reaffirmed that he must not discuss the incident with anyone and asked Tony to accompany them to a local pub to discuss the experience in more detail. The three men chatted for a while and it was explained that what Mr Fosters had seen that night was a UFO and they would explain more if he agreed to accompany them to a goverenment building in Birmingham in the next few days. A week or so after the initial meeting Tony travelled over to Birmingham to meet the two men, a few days after the meeting Tony called on David again and told him of his visit and what had happened.

David explained how Tony was very excited the next time they met but swore him not ever to tell anyone about their conversations. He explained how the two men, dressed in plain clothes, had shown him films and photographs of UFO’s and of aliens and even items obtained from them. He had spent the whole day there going through books and other UFO related material, they also went over his own experience very methodically and noted all the details. He was told he had to sign the “Official Secrets Act” regarding his experience and what he had just been shown by the two men. He was also sharply told not to divulge any of the information and there would be consquences if he did ! They explained to him that many people were having the same type of experiences as he had encountered all over the country, and that Church Stretton was not only a hot spot in Shropshire but also in the country.

This whole incident was related to me by David Williams, Tony Fosters best friend as Tony had died some years before in tragic circumstances. - shropshirelive

**********

NASA admits to losing 500+ moon samples

It was clever enough to send men to the Moon - yet Nasa has managed to lose track of many of the samples it brought back from there, it admits.

Since 1970, more than 500 pieces of moon rock, meteorites, comet chunks and other space material have been stolen or lost, an audit found.

Nasa, which has lent out more than 26,000 samples, needs to keep better track of what is sent to researchers and museums, the report by its inspector general warns, or it ‘increases the risk these unique resources may be lost’.

The audit, of a quarter of the loaned samples, found 19 per cent of researchers could not account for samples, or held items that Nasa records showed were on loan to someone else.

One researcher still had nine lunar samples he borrowed 35 years ago and had never worked on them. Another still had 36 moon samples he has finished studying 16 years earlier.

* The main repository for the Apollo moon rocks is the ultra-secure Lunar Sample Building at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

* There is a smaller collection at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

* The samples are stored in nitrogen to mimic conditions on the moon and keep them free of moisture.

* The Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions brought back 2,415 samples weighing 382 kg.

* The three Russian Luna spacecraft returned with an additional 0.32 kg of samples.

* In 1972, President Richard Nixon sent moon rocks to 135 foreign heads of state, the 50 U.S. states and its provinces as a goodwill gesture

* In 2002 three young Nasa interns stole dozens of samples from the Houston repository but were arrested as they tried to sell them to an undercover FBI agent

The audit also unearthed records that listed hundreds of samples that no longer existed.

In last year's Delaware case, Nasa loaned the Mount Cuba observatory a disk of moon rocks and moon dust in 1978 with the loan expiring in 2008.

According to the report, Nasa contacted the observatory in 2010 to learn that its manager had died and the observatory couldn't find the sample.

However according to the astronomers the samples had been returned to Nasa.

University of Delaware physics professor Harry Shipman, a trustee of the observatory, claimed that while it was true that the manager had died, the sample had been returned.

He said: 'We didn't lose it.

'We returned it to Nasa. We don't know what Nasa did with it.'

Nasa told the auditors that the observatory returned meteorites, but not the lunar sample which is still missing, said inspector general spokeswoman Renee Juhans.

Nasa spokesman Michael Cabbage said the agency will continue to loan out material to scientists and for educational display, but will adopt the specific recommendations the inspector general made to improve its tracking.

'Nasa does not consider these national treasure assets to be at high risk,' he said.

The report concluded that the lack of sufficient controls 'increases the risk that these unique resources may be lost'. - dailymail

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program: NASA's Management of Moon Rocks and Other Astromaterials Loaned for Research, Education, and Public Display (NASA Inspector General Report 2011)

**********

Coca-Cola secret recipe revealed....kinda

The secret recipe for Coca-Cola, the world's best-selling soft drink, has stayed under lock and key in a bank vault in Atlanta since 1925. That is, until today (Dec. 8), when the priceless list of ingredients was carefully moved to a new vault that is now on display at the World of Coca-Cola Museum in downtown Atlanta.

"The time has come for our secret formula to come back home," The Coca-Cola Company's chief executive officer, Muhtar Kent, said at the unveiling of the new exhibit, according to the Associated Press.

While visitors to the beverage company's corporate museum will now be able to experience the titillation of being near the coveted recipe, which dates back to 1886, they won't be able to jot down any notes: It will remain hidden from view, contained in a giant metal vault that can only be accessed by keypad and hand-imprint scanner. As both a marketing ploy and a clever business measure, the Coca-Cola Company makes much ado about the secrecy surrounding the drink's formula, especially the ingredients of a flavoring called "secret 7X." It is said that only a handful of people in the world know what's in it.

The new museum exhibit plays on this secrecy.

However, what will surely get no mention in the museum placards is the fact that the secret Coca-Cola recipe, at least as it was originally formulated by the drink's inventor, John Pemberton, has already been leaked. A handwritten copy of the recipe was found in the back of a druggist's record book in Georgia more than half a century ago, and was later printed in a 1979 issue of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

**********

Islamic Cleric Bans Women from Touching Bananas, Cucumbers to Avoid ‘Sexual Thoughts’

In a ridiculously repressive and absurd proposal, an Islamic cleric residing in Europe has said in a ruling that women should not touch or be anywhere close to bananas and cucumbers, in order to avoid "sexual thoughts".

An unnamed sheikh was quoted in a religious publication, el-Senousa News, as saying that if a woman wished to eat cucumbers or bananas, it should be sliced into pieces, preferably by her husband or father, before she eats them. Egyptian English news site Bikya Masr reported the proposal. According to the report, the sheikh has also added carrots and zucchini to the list of apparently immoral and blasphemous fruits and vegetables.

The sheikh was also asked if simply holding these vegetables, while out shopping, would be "harmful" for women. He replied that it was a matter between God and women.

Unsurprisingly, the sheikh's comment has become a target of online mockery, with a flurry of comments denouncing the Islamic repression of women. Many of the commentators are Muslims themselves, who have expressed their anger against the cleric for making Islamic religious practices appear unreasonable.

Islamic clerics of Saudi Arabia have been in the headlines recently when they spoke out against lifting the driving ban on women. The argument in that case suggested that "all women will lose their virginity" by indulging in pre-marital sex due to the mixing of genders (which, it is feared, will occur if women were allowed to drive).

The "scholarly" report by the clerics of Majlis al-Ifta al-Aala, the country's highest Islamic council, warned there would be "no more virgins" in the country within 10 years of lifting the ban because driving will lead to a "surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce."

The declaration urging the driving ban on women was closely followed by another ludicrous proposal - one requiring women to cover their eyes.

According to existing Sharia laws, Saudi women are required to cover themselves from head to toe, with a long black cloak called the "abaya", except for their eyes.

However, Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice found that even women's eyes could sometimes be too attractive for men and drafted a new proposal, which states that women with "tempting" eyes need to cover them. - ibtimes

Labels: alternative news, bizarre, breaking news, fortean, oddball, UFO