Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fortean / Oddball News: UFO Landing, John Paul II Sainthood and Book-Burning Vampires

UFO Pacing Missouri Highway...Alien Craft Landing in Louisiana

MUFON CMS - near St.Louis, Missouri - Thursday October 14th, 2010, driving home from Des Peres to St. Louis, after interchanging from I-270 S to I-44 E, I rounded a bend after about a half-mile and saw what seemed like an extremely bright star low in the horizon, but a bit bigger than stars. I realized that it seemed to be slowly moving alongside westbound I-44 similar in height and distance off the highway as a traffic helicopter might be. I knew it wasn't a star but had never seen a light on a helicopter so bright before. It was moving much too slowly to be a plane, I thought it might be about 300' off the ground and 300' to the opposite side of the westbound lanes, I now slowed down and rolled my window down in the eastbound lanes.

As it got close the light appeared to be more elliptical in shape, longer horizontally. I started to notice a small red light just to the right of the big white light as it got closer. I am driving on a 4 lane interstate highway, but I get into one of the rightmost lanes and slow down to about 50, glancing at it while I'm realizing I want to try to take note of what I see. When it was exactly perpendicular to me it definitely had three sets of three balls of light. Each set emitted a particular color. Two of the sets stayed the same color and never change intensity, one set white with green balls and the other red with red balls. The trailing set as regularly changing. They would go off for a second or two and come back on, usually red with red balls, but sometimes white with white balls. I couldn't keep looking as I passed it, and lost it that way. I saw it for a least a minute, and a good 15 seconds where the three sets of three balls were quite distinct, and fascinating.

The balls where solid circles of their color, although the green circles in the front where very light green inside and light green at the circumference, but strangely emanating a white shimmering light. The green balls were a bit smaller and set further apart from the other sets. The other sets were solid circles emanating shimmering light. I was fascinated with the lighting configuration where it was similar to lights seen in the sky at night on conventional craft, but distinctly different. I am quite sure of these details as I have never seen anything like this in my 50 years, seeing lights in they sky, at least what I remember. I've never seen pictures of anything conventional like it at all. Anyone, please contact MUFON and reference this case if you can send them a picture of a craft that this could have been, with this lighting capability. I could not hear a helicopter, but there was highway noise, but it didn't appear to be far away, and was moving far too slow to be a plane. Please see the attached created image for the lighting configuration and pattern.

When I had been on I-270 approaching the interchange, I did notice a bright star. It was a few times brighter than any other star I could see in the sky, about 30 degrees off the horizon but just a pinpoint of twinkling bright white light, not seeming to move. So, after the, whatever it was, flew by me I started to tremble uncontrollably a little, it was obviously something very different than usual, and was a bit disconcerting to me. "It" seemed like it was wanting my attention, that it wanted to make sure that I saw it, but maybe it was just coincidence. It was definitely going slower than the traffic on the westbound side of the road that it was on. There were others on the road and someone looking up on that side at that time could have seen even more detail than I did, but would have come up to it and passed by it. Based on how fast the traffic was passing it going in the same direction it was, it was going perhaps 30 mph. It would have been almost the length of my thumb in relative size if I had stuck it out while driving and glancing at it, but glancing at it more than several times while still driving safely.

So, I exit I-44 about 5 minutes later at Laclede Sta. Rd. and take a few turns and about 2 minutes later I enter one end of the River Des Peres parkway at the Shrewsbury Metro Link station. As soon as I take a right on to it there almost straight ahead at treetop level I see a very bright white elliptical shimmering light, about the relative size of a thumbtack head. The parkway is a bit curvey and has some trees though sparse in places. The light seemed to be getting closer as I drove on, but I'd loose it it the tree tops. When I'd loose it in a group of trees it would sometimes come out the other side than I expected, and this happened a few times. By the time I had reached a longer straight stretch of road, it was just to my right, slowing moving right at about 15 high, still a a clearly elliptical shimmering white light but having moved off a distance, about half a thumbnail size from the half a thumb size when it was getting closer while I was winding through the parkway. I noticed that I had started to shake at that point, but I had calmed down when I saw it further away. As I was nearing the end of the straight, it passed behind a large tree in the distance. I expected it to come back out from the right having entered from the left, but a small red light with a while strobbing light came back out from the left where the elliptical light had entered. It continued at the same pace, like a helicopter about 1 mile away at 500' feet, moving left. Small white lights seemed to become apparent as it moved, similar to seeing the lights turned on in an airliner cabin close to the ground at night. I turned left onto Gravois from the parkway and glanced two more times to my right at the object as it seemed to be going in a northeast direction, moving diagonally away from me. I glanced two times and each time it seemed to strobe a red light that created a red "halo" around it. I lost site of it in the trees and buildings.

Last, then went to the supermarket and was walking back out to my car about 8 minutes later, about 100 yards from where I'd last seen the object, if it was the same object I'd been seeing along the parkway anyway - a helicopter flew directly over my head, perhaps 200' feet, and was far quieter than the helicopters I hear land at the hospital facility where I work. The helicopter had one red steady light and a strobbing white light that seemed to be on top that was perhaps reflecting off the rotating rotors. The helicopter was in the process of slowing down, and was heading exactly towards where I'd seen the object leaving. The helicopter seemed to be slowing down as it continued on that direction when I got in my car and left for my house.

ALIEN CRAFT LANDING

MUFON CMS - Louisiana - 10/16/2010: I have never believed in UFO's. I've always thought it was nonsense. The other night though,when I got home, becuase it was is the weekend, I decided to bring out my telescope and do a little star gazing. I had been observing for about probably 30 minutes or so when I noticed something in the sky that appeared to be an orange egg shaped object making no noice maybe about a quarter of a mile away. It was extremely low. It got closer and closer and I begin to freak out. I ran in my house and looked for my camera but could not find it. When I returned out, the object was actually hovering above my yard about 30 feet in the air. I have no idea how it was able to fly. It then proceeded to hover into my back yard and land. I thought maybe I should dial 911 but did not due to the fact that I may have not been believed. I ran into my backyard after debating whether I should approach the object or not. I went into the back and stood crouched down by a large bush for the next five minutes or so. The object did not move. It had no windows on it, but had two orange lights on it. One light on either side of the spacecraft. The object had four (metal Im assuming) legs that it had used to land on. It was about 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. After watching it for 5 minutes it slowly lifted of the ground. I watched it take off and then go down in a nearby field. I assumed it had landed again, so I went back inside to search for my camera which I still could not find so I got my cell phone out of my truck, but by the time I got to the field, the object was no where in sight. There is no evidence that the craft landed. It was just a very odd, surreal experience. I'm just very shocked.

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John Paul II on 'Fast Track' to Sainthood

afp - The process leading to sainthood for late Polish pope John Paul II has recently been accelerated, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Saturday after talks with Pope Benedict XVI.

"We expressed our hope for a continuation of the process and the latest signals show that this process has been recently speeded up," Komorowski told reporters after the talks on the 32nd anniversary of John Paul II's election.

Komorowski also attended a mass in honour of John Paul II in the Vatican.

Italian daily Il Giornale this week reported that initial medical confirmation of John Paul II's first miracle -- a vital step towards beatification and eventual canonisation -- could come "in the next few weeks."

A spokesman for the Vatican declined to comment on the report.

There had been speculation in Poland earlier this year that Saturday's anniversary could see the beatification of John Paul II -- the first step toward formal recognition as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

The procedure leading up to sainthood usually takes many years.

Benedict also congratulated Komorowski ahead of the canonisation of Stanislaw Soltys, a 15th-century Polish priest who is to be recognised as saint at a ceremony on Sunday with five others including Australia's first saint.

"Tomorrow Poland will have a new saint," Benedict told the president.

Komorowski is set to attend the ceremony on Sunday on the square in front of Saint Peter's basilica where around 50,000 faithful are expected.

The two leaders also discussed collaboration between church and state "for the common good," as well as European affairs, the Vatican said.

Komorowski said he also informed Benedict about Poland's reconciliation with Germany and about the "dialogue to bring about reconciliation with Russia too."

He said the dialogue with Russia "will be long and difficult but possible and the Holy See is obviously looking on it with favour."

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Ten People Killed During Goat Sacrifice

oneindia - At least ten persons were killed and several others injured in a stampede that broke out at Tildiha village of Bihar's Banka District on the occasion of 'Navratri' festival.

It has been reported that the stampede took place inside the jam-packed temple premises on Saturday after a portion of the sacrificed body of the goat fell on some devotees, which created a scare further leading to a mad rush among the people present.

"More than 45,000 devotees had thronged the temple at Tildiha village under Sambhuganj police station area for offering prayers and sacrificing goats when the stampede occurred," said Director General of Police (DGP) Neelmani, while addressing the media persons in Patna.

The injured are being treated at hospitals in Tarapur and Banka.

"Ten deaths have been confirmed so far, while four are stated to be in critical condition," said District Magistrate Aadesh Chitarmare.

Eyewitnesses here said that the temple was over-crowded when the stampede took place.

"Yes, it was very much over-crowded. The people died due to the stampede," said Usha Rani, an eyewitness who also got injured and is admitted to a hospital.

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'Twilight' Book Burning by Vampires

katu - Saturday night on the commons of the Portland Memorial Coliseum, a group calling themselves Bloodsuckers Against Twilight (B.A.T.) say they'll hold a book burning of Stephenie Meyer’s "Twilight" book series.

The 8:30 p.m. event, held in the Rose Quarter Exhibit Hall, is the brainchild of the FrightTown chain of West Coast haunted houses.

"But soon they’ll be known for something else: taking a stand against the unfair stereotyping of vampires," reports a news release on Saturday's book burning distributed by Rose Quarter PR.

There is a FrightTown going on now at the Rose Quarter, co-produced and performed by 1031 Community Theatre.

“[The 'Twilight' author] ... is creating a destructive stereotype," said FrightTown spokesman Baron Von Goolo in a prepared statement Saturday. "Even before Bram Stoker was born, vampires were feared as demonic beasts of the night, preying on unwary milkmaids and causing entire duchies and fiefdoms to tremble at sundown. Now, thanks to the runaway popularity of the 'Twilight' books and films, when people think of vampires they think of a klatch of sullen poster-boys that look like they should be opening for 'Depeche Mode.'”

Von Goolo claims B.A.T. was created "out of necessity," to "reverse Stephenie Meyer’s blasphemous opportunism and restore the image of vampires to what it should be: that of savage, unrelenting monsters."

“Real vampires would fall in love with an annoying high school girl no sooner than you or I would fall in love with a ham sandwich,” Von Goolo said. “...Personally, I just hope the books sparkle when they burn.”

Information on FrightTown’s "Twilight" book burning declares it is "open to the public."

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Car Vandals Manhunt Turns 'Nutty'

swns - A man-hunt was launched after seven cars had their ABS brake cables cut or damaged and several homes had their phone cables severed.

Officers issued a public appeal on October 1 and made house-to-house enquiries urging residents to report anyone seen ”acting suspiciously” in a bid to capture the sabotuers.

But they were forced to abandon the operation after ‘fur-ensic’ tests revealed the culprits were in fact – mischievous squirrels.

Police today admitted the crime was more ”whodun-nut” than a ”whodunit”. yesterday.

A force spokesman said: ”It is now apparent that the damage to the ABS cables and the domestic telephone wires was caused by squirrels and not as the result of deliberate criminal damage.

”High visibility police patrols were carried out, and many local residents spoken to, and those residents have confirmed a recent increase in squirrel activity in those areas.”

Officers were also forced to urge angry car drivers not to take matters into their own hands against the ravenous rodents.

Insp Pete Chamberlain, from Swindon Police, said: ”We are looking to work with Swindon Borough Council’s Pest Control officers to try and deal with this issue.

”It is not only ABS cables that the Rodents have attacked but several telephone wires in the area so people’s lives have been affected in many ways.”

A spokesman for the RSPCA added: ”Squirrels do have a tendency to chew through wires of all sorts.

”It is important however that members of the public do not try to catch the squirrels and take the law into their own hands.

”Squirrels may well bite if cornered which may result in a hospital visit or at least a tetanus jab.”