Chinese Media To U.S. Regarding UFO Coverage: Grow A Pair!
technorati - China's People's Daily Online, the official news agency of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in China (CPC), is reporting that two students photographed a UFO above the city of Pingyao September 22 while taking nightscape photos during the 10th Pingyao International Photography Festival.
Over a 40-minute period, the students snapped roughly 200 pictures of the UFO, which they described as "a sphere with two flickering columns on its two sides," but which could not be seen with the naked eye.
The only published image, shown here, does not impress. Grainy and indistinct, it's typical of the vast majority of UFO photos.
But the real story here isn't the photo. It's People's Daily's persistent willingness to report UFO sightings without flip comment, specious hypothesis, de rigueur debunker counterpoint, or meteorological speculation.
The People's Daily headline is straightforward: "UFO photographed over ancient Chinese city. " Not "Purported UFO..." Not even "Suspected UFO..."
There's no reference to Little Green Men and no evidence of any invitation extended to air traffic controllers, military spokespeople or government officials to make official non-statements.
It's just so ... so ... Un-American.
If two students attending a photography festival in the United States were to tell the local media that they'd photographed a UFO, it's a virtual certainty that they'd be either ignored or made a laughing stock. Substance abuse, at a minimum, would be assumed and implied.
So why does China handle the topic so differently?
And why don't we?
Maybe it's because, when you get right down to it, we really do know everything worth knowing.
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White Elephant Discovery Seen As Positive Omen In Burma
telegraph - The seven foot tall beast was captured on Thursday in Rakhine state in the northwest, and is the fifth white elephant caught in a decade. The elephant is estimated to be 18 years old.
The newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling junta, hailed the elephant's capture as a sign the country will be peaceful and free from all dangers, and its people will enjoy greater prosperity and progress.
"It is auspicious that a rare white elephant emerged at a time when Myanmar was going through a democratic transition and the elections will be held peacefully and successfully," it said.
White elephants, actually albinos, have for centuries been revered in Burma, Thailand, Laos and other Asian nations.
They were normally kept and pampered by monarchs and considered a symbol of royal power and prosperity.
Burma's military rulers, like many of the country's citizens, are said to be particularly superstitious.
The Nov 7 general elections will be the first in 20 years.
The National League for Democracy party of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won the last polls but was not allowed to take power by the military. It is boycotting this year's vote, charging that the election rules are unfair and undemocratic.
The New Light of Myanmar said the elephant's capture will ensure that peace, stability and prosperity will continue under the new elected government, explaining that white elephants only emerge in places where the practice of Buddhism flourishes and rulers govern justly.
It said that according to ancient treatises, it is hard to find even a single white elephant among a thousand, but five of the rare beasts have emerged from 2001 to 2010, and the latest discovery is a matter of "national pride."
The country's fourth white elephant, a 38-year-old female captured in the jungles of Rakhine state in June, was given a lavish welcome ceremony when it was taken to the administrative capital of Naypyitaw.
Three other white elephants caught earlier are kept in a special park in Yangon, where they live in an enclosure with spiralled pavilions, a man-made waterfall, ponds and trees.
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South African Poacher Killed, Eaten By Great White Shark
telegraph - A poacher in South Africa has been eaten by a great white shark during an illegal fishing trip. Khanyisile Momoza, 29, was attacked as he harvested valuable perlemoen shells in the waters near Gansbaai in South Africa. The fisherman was among a group of 12 poachers who had tried to swim to safety after spotting the shark in shallow waters. A friend of Mr Momoza, who witnessed the attack, said: "There was screaming and crying. We just swam, we didn't look back. We were swimming in a group but he was a bit behind us.
"It jumped out of the water with him and then it took him down." The attack took place on Tuesday between Dyer Island and Pearly Beach, east of Cape Town. In an interview, the victim's friend told how the poaching group had left the beach at 6am and swum for two hours before reaching the island three miles offshore, where they began hunting for perlemoen shellfish. The men were swimming back to shore with their catch when the great white approached.
The survivors admitted they had been too scared for their own lives to help the stricken swimmer and raced back to dry land. Once ashore the group alerted authorities to the tragedy. Illegal harvesting of perlemoen is big business in South Africa, where the valuable shellfish are common along coastal areas. The molluscs' fleshy insides are considered a delicacy similar to oysters, and either served raw or cooked in seafood dishes.
But widespread farming of the shells has sparked fears the population could plummet. In 2007 South African authorities listed the species, also known as abalone, as endangered with the global wildlife protection body CITES. The restrictions were loosened in July this year, although it remains illegal to harvest perlemeon without a licence. However hundreds of local fishermen are believed to continue to work in the illegal trade. Many poor workers risk arrest or injury to hunt for the wild shells, whose meat can be worth up to £25 a kilo.
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Loneliness Sucks...Vampire Seeks Mates
SMH - Morpheus knew he was a vampire from the age of three.
''When all the other kids wanted to be Luke Skywalker, I wanted to be Dracula,'' he said.
Morpheus, 34, a law student from Bronte who does not want his identity revealed, believes drinking blood will prepare him for a better afterlife. ''I don't believe my body is immortal but I believe my soul is,'' he said.
''I believe that by drinking blood, I imprint my consciousness, so that in the next life I will remember who I am now.''
He first tasted blood in primary school, having bitten a fellow student in a fight.
''It almost tasted like I had done that before,'' said Morpheus, although he now exclusively drinks the blood of women with whom he is romantically involved.
Despite the resurgence of vampire tales in popular culture, Morpheus said it had not translated into an increase in ranks.
''I'm quite lonely; I used to have a circle of people but most of them moved to Melbourne - Sydney really doesn't have any vampires left,'' he said.
''I'm more than happy to teach anyone who is interested about vampirism.''
Drew Sinton, 48, a self-styled vampire who owns the Haunted Bookshop in Melbourne, said it did not surprise him that blood believers were moving south as ''Melbourne is much murkier''.
Mr Sinton worked in advertising before studying to become an Anglican priest. He left the church after a research trip to Nazareth left him disillusioned.
''I was always a bit of an outsider but then I swapped advertising, a blood-sucking career, for a blood-sucking lifestyle,'' he said.
A girlfriend with a taste for being bitten was his first foray. ''That was just her fetish … I would bite harder and harder until there was blood,'' he said.
Popular culture's fascination with vampires was not new. ''Since Bram Stoker's Dracula [1897], each generation invents the vampire it needs. Usually it is at a time of crisis, when young people are looking for identity.''
Fortean / Oddball News - 9/26/2010: White Elephant, Lonely Vampire and 'Grow a Pair!'
