Saturday, November 13, 2010

Fortean / Oddball News: Thylacoleo Roadkill, Exorcists Wanted and Turkey Terror in NYC

Thylacoleo Roadkill In New South Wales?

From cfzaustralia - 20100807 - Pearson's Lookout (NSW) Sighting - December 2008 around 4:00 pm Reported 07/08/2010

Subject: Thylacoleo sighting

In December 2008, I was travelling south on the Castlereagh Hwy near Pearson's Lookout between the towns of Capertee and Ilford on the way back to Sydney after an overnight delivery trip through Orange, Dubbo and Mudgee in an 8 tonne rigid truck. No bonnet so I have unobscured vision. This is on the edge of the Capertee Valley and is about 900 - 1000 metres asl. The dropoff to the LHS (east) is steep to the valley. Late in the afternoon, say around 4.00 pm and about 200m south past the lookout, I noticed 2 X roadkill's on the southbound side just on the shoulder of the road.

Doing about 80km/h, I had a 5 or 6 second look at a small dead roo and something else. The markings on the torso of the other animal were dark brown / black and the main colour was tan. The markings made me look closer and the carcass was intact. The ears were rounded, the head was stout and like a lion cub and the front paws were huge in comparison to it's body size. The back paws and tail were obscured because of the position it landed in after being run over. (probably feeding on the small roo). My first thoughts were of a small lion, but the dark marking's threw me. It was a thick set animal about 500 - 600mm long. For the rest of the trip to Sydney (2.75 hrs) I couldn't stop wondering what this thing was, and having told the story to several people, I still couldn't come up with a logical explanation.

The story in today's Daily Telegraph regarding the Blue Mountains Panther made me check out for more info on the net regarding Australian big cat's / feral's, and my wife and I came across your page and pics of the Thylacoleo model at the Mt Isa Riversleigh Fossil Centre. This is what I believe to be the same animal, however it may have been juvenile due to it's proportions. If this was an Australian Marsupial Lion, believed to be extinct for how many years, how many similar species are out there that are belived to be mythical? The abundance of roos and wallabies in this area is phenomenal, so a foodsource for a carnivorous predator to thrive in the Capertee Valley is probably salubrious.

As I was driving on a log book, I couldn't stop as I would have ran over my driving hours, and didn't really consider the possible importance of the sighting. In hindsight, I wish I had turned around and stopped at the lookout and walked down to have a better look and at least taken photo's or thrown the carcass on the truck for an expert to identify.

Author / Witness - Jennifer
Reported Saturday 07/08/2010 - 4:16 pm

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Turkeys Terrorize New York Neighborhood

UPI - Residents of a New York neighborhood said aggressive turkeys are terrorizing the area.

Locals in the Ocean Breeze neighborhood said the fowl have been blocking traffic, filling their yards with droppings and even trapped resident Gina Guaragno in her car for a short time before she splashed them with window washing fluid, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

Residents said the turkey trouble began about 10 years ago after a woman released her nine pets, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation estimates there are now about 100 of the wild birds in the neighborhood.

City Councilman James Oddo said many area seniors have told him they are afraid to leave their homes. He said officials balked at a plan he forwarded two years ago to move the turkeys upstate.

"How are people supposed to have faith that their government can deal with problems like terrorism when we can't even deal with turkeys?" Oddo said.

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Polish Exorcists Gather In Warsaw

telegraph - Since 1999 the number of Polish exorcists has surged from 30 to over a 100, despite the influence of the Catholic Church waning in an increasingly secular Poland.

Exorcists attribute the increase in their numbers to growing scepticism in psychology in the wider Polish population, and people looking for spiritual reasons for mental disorders.

In recognition of modern science, however, exorcists now work in tandem with psychologists in order to distinguish between psychiatric problems and the work of the devil.

But while some cases of Satanic work are difficult to diagnose others manifest themselves in shocking circumstances explained exorcist Father Andrzej Grefkowicz.

"An indication of possession is that a person is unable to go into a church, or, if they do, they can feel faint or breathless," he said.

"Sometimes if they enter a church they are screaming, shouting and throwing themselves on the ground."

The national congress comes as part of a policy by Poland's Catholic Church to lift the veil on what was once a secretive practice. Frustrated by the Hollywood image of cross-wielding exorcists engaged in dramatic conflicts with demons the Church intends to show the complicated and often more mundane world of exorcism.

Father Grefkowicz stressed that the most of the time exorcism required quiet prayer.

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Exorcists Wanted: Apply To Catholic Church

Yahoo - Wanted: a few good men to cast out devils.

Overwhelmed with requests for exorcists, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are holding a special training workshop in Baltimore this weekend to teach clerics the esoteric rite, the Catholic News Service reported.

The church has signed up 56 bishops and 66 priests for the two-day workshop that began on Friday, seeking to boost the small group of just five or six American exorcists that the church currently has on its books.

"There's this small group of priests who say they get requests from all over the continental U.S.," Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, was quoted as saying.

"Actually, each diocese should have its own" exorcist, he added.

Paprocki did not say why there was increased demand for exorcisms, which he noted were rarely performed.

While solemnly regarded by the Catholic Church, exorcism is a staple of Hollywood fright films -- most notably the 1973 film "The Exorcist" -- and regarded by many as superstition that lends a chill frisson to festivals like Halloween.

Catholic Church law stipulates that only properly trained priests can perform the rite -- and then only with the permission of their bishops.

Possible signs of demonic possession include scratching, cutting, biting of the skin; profound displays of strength; and a strong or violent reaction to holy water.

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Yeah...that's a horse in a car


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