Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Fortean / Alternative News: Group Claims UFO Proof, Lab-Grown Meat and Noah's Ark Search

Group Claims Stunning UFO Proof

Group spokesman, Stephen Bassett, expected to release undeniable evidence of "the worldwide extraterrestrial presence", "millions of UFO contactees on the planet" and "alien-human hybrid babies" in coming appearance in Los Angeles.

Playa Del Rey, CA (PRWEB) February 1, 2011

It's reported that Stephen Bassett, the spokesman for the Exopolitics UFO group, will present "undeniable evidence" to prove that extraterrestrials are contacting millions of people on Earth, and even abducting and impregnating women with "alien-human hybrid babies" - and that our government knows about it.

The groundbreaking proof will be the highlight of Bassett's second presentation on the topic at the aptly named Flying Saucers Cafe in Santa Monica, Friday, February 4.

Michael Horn, the American Media representative for Swiss UFO contactee, Billy Meier, will be on hand to help facilitate and examine the evidence. "I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Stephen and his group will present, since I have been openly critical of their so far unsubstantiated claims for years. It may sound funny for me to say it but I'm a 'UFO skeptic' about such things as scores of so-called 'aliens' just walking around, shaking hands with everyone and getting overly friendly with our female population.

"Stephen was unable to present any actual, verifiable evidence to support his claims at the first presentation so this should be the moment that everyone's been waiting for. I think that Ryan Morris, the owner of the cafe, also wants him to have a second chance to put the evidence on the table and answer the tough questions he couldn't last time.

"Since he's already privately acknowledged that the Billy Meier UFO contact case is authentic, I expect Stephen to reveal proof comparable to Meier's voluminous, scientifically authenticated evidence. And maybe he'll also explain why he's never openly acknowledged, let alone investigated and publicized the Meier case, the only one I do know to be an authentic, still ongoing UFO contact case.

"The exopolitics group has been at the center of some controversies before, so I'm sure that Stephen will welcome a vigorous, long overdue debate between us. I guess if things get dicey on Friday night a convenient sighting or two - of the secret military craft UFOs that masquerade as 'alien' UFOs - could conveniently occur," said Horn.

**********


Thousands of sharks spotted off Palm Beach, Florida

wptv - Pilot Steve Irwin has quite a fish tale, and he wasn't even fishing.

Irwin is a pilot with "Island Marine Services" based in Fort Pierce.

He said he was flying about 100 yards off of Palm Beach, at 80 mph, when he spotted thousands of sharks.

He pulled out his iPhone 4 and began taking pictures. He recorded the spectacular sight and wanted to share it.

This is the time of year when sharks migrate and head for warmer waters. They also typically swim close to the shore while chasing after bait fish.

**********

South Carolina scientist works to grow meat in lab

yahoo - In a small laboratory on an upper floor of the basic science building at the Medical University of South Carolina, Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D., has been working for a decade to grow meat.

A developmental biologist and tissue engineer, Dr. Mironov, 56, is one of only a few scientists worldwide involved in bioengineering "cultured" meat.

It's a product he believes could help solve future global food crises resulting from shrinking amounts of land available for growing meat the old-fashioned way ... on the hoof.

Growth of "in-vitro" or cultured meat is also under way in the Netherlands, Mironov told Reuters in an interview, but in the United States, it is science in search of funding and demand.

The new National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, won't fund it, the National Institutes of Health won't fund it, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded it only briefly, Mironov said.

"It's classic disruptive technology," Mironov said. "Bringing any new technology on the market, average, costs $1 billion. We don't even have $1 million."

Director of the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Center in the Department of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology at the medical university, Mironov now primarily conducts research on tissue engineering, or growing, of human organs.

"There's a yuck factor when people find out meat is grown in a lab. They don't like to associate technology with food," said Nicholas Genovese, 32, a visiting scholar in cancer cell biology working under a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals three-year grant to run Dr. Mironov's meat-growing lab.

"But there are a lot of products that we eat today that are considered natural that are produced in a similar manner," Genovese said.

"There's yogurt, which is cultured yeast. You have wine production and beer production. These were not produced in laboratories. Society has accepted these products."

If wine is produced in winery, beer in a brewery and bread in a bakery, where are you going to grow cultured meat?

In a "carnery," if Mironov has his way. That is the name he has given future production facilities.

He envisions football field-sized buildings filled with large bioreactors, or bioreactors the size of a coffee machine in grocery stores, to manufacture what he calls "charlem" -- "Charleston engineered meat."

"It will be functional, natural, designed food," Mironov said. "How do you want it to taste? You want a little bit of fat, you want pork, you want lamb? We design exactly what you want. We can design texture.

"I believe we can do it without genes. But there is no evidence that if you add genes the quality of food will somehow suffer. Genetically modified food is already normal practice and nobody dies."

Dr. Mironov has taken myoblasts -- embryonic cells that develop into muscle tissue -- from turkey and bathed them in a nutrient bath of bovine serum on a scaffold made of chitosan (a common polymer found in nature) to grow animal skeletal muscle tissue. But how do you get that juicy, meaty quality?

Genovese said scientists want to add fat. And adding a vascular system so that interior cells can receive oxygen will enable the growth of steak, say, instead of just thin strips of muscle tissue.

Cultured meat could eventually become cheaper than what Genovese called the heavily subsidized production of farm meat, he said, and if the public accepts cultured meat, the future holds benefits.

"Thirty percent of the earth's land surface area is associated with producing animal protein on farms," Genovese said.

"Animals require between 3 and 8 pounds of nutrient to make 1 pound of meat. It's fairly inefficient. Animals consume food and produce waste. Cultured meat doesn't have a digestive system.

"Further out, if we have interplanetary exploration, people will need to produce food in space and you can't take a cow with you.

"We have to look to these ideas in order to progress. Otherwise, we stay static. I mean, 15 years ago who could have imagined the iPhone?"

**********

'Baywatch' Star to Climb Mount Ararat in Search of Noah's Ark

aolnews - Former "Baywatch" star Donna D'Errico has enjoyed a pretty amazing career arc.

But the 42-year-old actress, who recently turned down a spot on "Dancing With the Stars," is now focusing on Noah's ark.

D'Errico, 42, is in training to fulfill a lifelong dream of climbing Mount Ararat in Turkey to search for the frozen remains of Noah's ark.

According to Biblical legend, the ark was built centuries ago to protect Noah's family and two of every kind of animal during a flood lasting 40 days and 40 nights.

After the great flood, the ark supposedly landed atop the mountain. Many believers have been looking for the remains ever since.

D'Errico is the next explorer who hopes to make what would be one of the greatest discoveries in human history.

"This has been a dream of mine since I was 9 or 10," D'Errico told AOL News. "I went to Catholic school and was fascinated by Noah's ark. I would do class projects based on the ark."

D'Errico's fascination with the biblical tale wasn't just a childhood passion. As she grew older, she continued to study and research the ark, especially stories suggesting that it was close to being found.

"I'd read different stories about how people thought they found the cages and I was completely intrigued," she said. "I decided that someday I'd go to Turkey, climb Mount Ararat and search for Noah's ark."

According to legend, the ark is located on Mount Ararat, a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in the easternmost part of Turkey that has two peaks: Greater Ararat, with an elevation of 16,854 feet, and Lesser Ararat, which is 12,782 feet above sea level.

Over the centuries, there have been many claims that the ark is still there in three big frozen chunks.

However, despite numerous sightings and expeditions, no solid proof of the ark has ever been found.

D'Errico would like to be the person who changes things and makes one of the biggest historical finds in human history.

"I've been studying this for years and know where the sightings have been," she said. "According to my research, the ark lays broken into at least two, but most likely three, pieces. I believe that one of those pieces is in the uppermost Ahora Gorge area, an extremely dangerous area to climb and explore."

But research alone isn't enough. D'Errico is training to get her stamina up enough to handle a climb nearly three miles high.

"It's not a technical climb," she said. "Many inexperienced climbers have done it, but you do need stamina and, obviously, a crew."

She is targeting August as the month she starts her ascent, and her trip is being sponsored by Bukla, a tour guide company in Turkey that's offering to provide transportation from Istanbul to Ararat and back, all equipment, mules, guide services and permits.

Now that her plans are set, D'Errico is swimming and running to build up her endurance.

What about running in slow-motion, a la "Baywatch"?

"Not doing that," she said with a laugh. "But I'll probably be climbing in slow motion when I start."

The decision to finally make the climb came after an intense few months.

First, she was traumatized after Transportation Security Administration officials singled her out for a body scan while she was on a plane flight to visit a sick relative. Then, she became infected with MRSA -- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- and spent a few weeks in the hospital recovering.

"The doctors told me afterwards that I was very close to death when I came in," she said.

It was there that she decided to make a personal covenant to search for the lost ark.

"I have spent a lot of my life living for a lot of other people, whether it be because of my job or my family," she said. "My kids are almost grown up and I have fulfilled one dream of coming to Hollywood to become an actress. Now it's time to fulfill another."

D'Errico says her kids are supportive, but worried.

"My oldest son is excited, but his father has passed away, so I'm his only parent," she said. "He knows the climb can be dangerous -- especially when you're standing on a glacier."

Although there have been rumors that D'Errico turned down "Dancing With the Stars" to work on the climb, she says the two are not connected.

"I am working on a cooking show, which is also a longtime dream," she said.

D'Errico is making all the necessary plans but is aware that some things are left up to fate -- and the Turkish government.

"I don't think you need any official permission, but I've heard officials can be finicky and decide at the last minute whether to let you go," she said.

Still, if signing a few autographs or pictures helps grease any bureaucratic wheels, she's open to it.

But whatever happens will not be coming to a TV screen near you anytime soon.

"I am not doing a reality show," she insisted. "I will document this for myself and my family."

If D'Errico is the person who finally locates the ark, it will probably be more remembered than even her marriage to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx or her photo spread in the September 1995 issue of "Playboy."

Some would argue that such a discovery might put the ark in jeopardy from poachers, but D'Errico believes the public has a right to know.

"It's a biblical relic, so if I find it, I'll photograph it extensively," she said. "Because it's so difficult to get to it and it's frozen, I don't see what people could do to it."

Although this expedition will require D'Errico to possibly go through another TSA scan at the airport, that's a risk she's willing to take.

"I will be traveling with photography and video equipment and intend to have someone videotaping as I go through security at the airport this time," she said. "I also will be carrying a copy of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution with me, as well as a printout of TSA regulations in case they attempt to prevent the videotaping of me going through security. I'll be better prepared this time."

**********


Australia's 'glow-in-the-dark' lake

dailymail - Swimming is supposed to give you a healthy glow, but these swimmers weren't quite sure what was going on when they took a late-night dip and turned a fluorescent shade of blue.

'It was like we were playing with radioactive paint,' said photographer Phil Hart who snapped the bizarre sight as his friends emerged from a lake in the dark of night.

The light is created by a chemical reaction called bioluminescence, which happens when a naturally-occuring micro-organism in the water is disturbed.

Phil, 34, put his camera on a very slow shutter speed and threw sand and stones into the water to cause the reaction and capture as much of the blue haze as possible.

These images are particularly stunning because the concentration of the micro-organism 'Noctiluca Scintillans' was abnormally high when he took the photos at Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, Australia.

Phil said: 'To be there watching this bioluminescence is spellbinding and to see it like this is very rare.

'I am a program director with an organisation that has been running canoeing camps on the Gippsland Lakes for 50 years. Nobody can remember the bioluminescence ever being as bright as this.

It is believed the combination of bushfires and floods created the high levels of nutrients in the lakes for the organisms to feed.

'It may not happen again in my lifetime,' said Phil. 'I feel fortunate to have been there to see it and to have had my camera gear there to record it.'

Phil, from Melbourne, added: 'While the luminescence was obvious to the eye, the bright blue colour is only apparent in photos.

'When the first photo I took appeared on screen I could hardly believe it - the people in the water looked freakish.