Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Fortean / Alternative News: Dreams/Predictions, Death By Gaming and Greater Manchester Mutilations

Can dreams predict the future?

Aberfan is a small village in south Wales. In the 1960s, many of those living there worked at a nearby colliery that had been built to exploit the large amount of high-quality coal in the area. Although some of the waste from the mining operation had been stored underground, much of it had been piled on the steep hillsides surrounding the village. Throughout October 1966 heavy rain lashed down on the area and seeped into the porous sandstone of the hills. Unfortunately, no one realised that the water was then flowing into several hidden springs and slowly transforming the pit waste into soft slurry.

Just after nine o'clock on the morning of 21 October, the side of the hill subsided and half a million tonnes of debris started to move rapidly towards the village. Although some of the material came to a halt on the lower parts of the hill, much of it slid into Aberfan and smashed into the village school. A handful of children were pulled out alive during the first hour or so of the rescue effort, but no other survivors emerged. One hundred and thirty-nine schoolchildren and five teachers lost their lives in the tragedy. Continue reading at Can dreams predict the future?

**********


MUFON CMS - Mendoza, Argentina - 5/3/2010 - unedited: I was driving the route 101 of Mendoza, Argentina, with 2 friends, near a town called Pareditas (8 miles away), the moon was rising so we stopped to take some pictures of it. I took 4 or 5 pictures and then we get back on the road. When we arrived home, we saw a green shape almost the size of the moon, near it, in the first photograph. It was very noticeable, and with good quality, a shadow slashing the green bulbs in halfs. In all the pictures the bulb appears in different positions. We couldnt find any explanation for that, not a flearing, a reflection or object created from the human being could show such colors and shape, over a huge field were no one lives.
I didnt contact anyone else about this, and don´t know exactly what to do as I believe my pictures are a valuable source of information to share with the world.
Looking forward for a response, so i can send you the photographs.
Photographer Fernando Demian Arcuri.
San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina.

**********

Chinese man dies after 3-day web gaming binge

A Chinese man in his 30s has died after a three-day gaming binge at an Internet cafe outside Beijing, during which he did not sleep and barely ate, state-run media reported Tuesday.

The incident highlighted the country's ongoing battle to stamp out Internet addiction, which affects tens of millions of Chinese, according to researchers.

The man, who was not identified, slipped into a coma this week in the cafe on the outskirts of the capital and was rushed to a nearby clinic, where he died shortly after, the Beijing Times said.

He had spent more than 10,000 yuan ($1,500) over the past month on Internet gaming, and had barely moved from his computer for a three-day period, the report said.

Police confiscated several computers as part of their investigation but have ruled out murder and thus far have not detained the operators of the small cafe, which only had about a half-dozen terminals, it added.

The number of teenage Internet addicts in China has risen to 33 million, according to state media reports citing Chinese researchers.

Concerns over Internet addiction have spurred a new industry, with unlicensed web "boot camps" springing up around China.

The government has also taken a series of measures to cope with the problem. Authorities recently ordered online video game operators to allow parents to monitor their children's playing sessions or even put in place a total ban.

**********

Big Cat Fears in Greater Manchester

wigantoday - Police are investigating a series of animal mutilations, which could be the work of a panther.

The partially-eaten bodies of three adult swans and two dead lambs were found at Three Sisters Recreation Area on Golborne Road, Golborne, and at an adjoining farm.

The discovery comes a fortnight after at number of civil servants from the DWP’s benefits call centre at nearby Griffin House, in Bryn, told of seeing a panther-like animal sunning itself in a tree, and on the roof of a building from their office windows.

Police today would not comment directly on the claims that a potentially dangerous wild animal is stalking the site.

However, officers from Bamfurlong Police Station are known to have interviewed Julie Fairclough, who first spotted the big cat, specifically about her shock sighting.

A spokesman for Wigan Police said: “On Friday, February 11, police were called to Golborne Road, Wigan, following reports two lambs had been found dead.

“At just after 10am on Sunday, February 13, police were called to the Three Sisters Recreation area following reports three swans had been found dead.

“Officers from the Ashton-in-Makerfield Neighbourhood Policing Team, the Hindley Neighbourhood Policing Team and the division’s wildlife crime officer are supporting inquiries being made by the Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust Ranger Service.”

A spokesman for Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, which manages the Three Sisters site, said: “We can confirm that three swans have been found dead since Sunday. We have been liaising with the police and are investigating the matter.

“We have contacted experts to help us identify the type of animal that may have carried out these attacks.”

Mrs Fairclough, who has completed 30 years service for the DWP, said today that she was pleased that the police were taking the issue seriously.

But she made a plea that if a big cat is at large on the sprawling Three Sisters site, it must not be shot.

She wants experts to mount a humane operation to have it captured safely, and then released into a zoo park.

Mrs Fairclough, of Hindley, plus half a dozen of her colleagues at the DWP, spotted the mysterious black beast from their office windows.

The creature was observed for some time at about 150 yards away, at one point climbing a tree and settling in to survey its unlikely territory.

It then jumped on to a wall and a roof, before disappearing into the undergrowth.

Three Sisters, formerly a colliery site named after three now-flattened volcano-shaped pit rucks, connects with open land as far away as Bickershaw and Abram.

Mrs Fairclough said: “I’ve got a tom cat called Oliver who weighs in at a stone and four pounds, so I know the difference between a big pet and this amazing animal.’’

But Wigan Leisure Trust’s countryside manager Graham Workman, who was once called out by police after reports of a lion stalking through the undergrowth of Worthington Lakes, still believes the six benefits staff were mistaken.

Three Sisters wardens fear that the attacks could be the result of lurcher-owners illegally training their dogs to hunt – or a large dog fox.

Mr Workman warned: “Animals seen at that type of range with the naked eye can be very difficult to identify accurately.’

“Animals like this have to be registered with the local authority under the Dangerous Wild Animals legislation, but there are none registered here, so there are none that were living legally in captivity here in the borough or the surrounds.

“I believe that the staff have seen, literally, a big domestic black cat, and the perspectives have been playing tricks on them.

“I have been over there in the snow many times this winter.

“I have never seen any tracks that could suggest we have a creature anywhere near that size ranging around Three Sisters.”

**********


"Why haven't we been back?"

MTV - Everybody knows that man last set foot on the moon in 1972. The brand-new trailer for "Apollo 18," which premiered Friday on Apple.com, asks the question: "Why haven't we been back?"

From director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego and producer Timur Bekmambetov, the trailer for "Apollo 18" mixes what appears to be archival footage of early space shuttle launches with "Paranormal Activity" -style "found footage" of a secret 1973 mission to the lunar surface, supposedly kept hidden from the public because of what the astronauts discovered.

"In the years following [Apollo 17] there was unconfirmed intelligence of an 18th mission," the trailer reads. "No evidence has ever been found. Until now."

Although not made explicit, the "Cloverfield" -style flick showcases several alarming incidents in its trailer, including a number of shots where it's clear the astronauts are not alone on the seemingly barren and deserted satellite. One particularly jarring shot shows one of the astronauts infected to the point of possession; another shows several non-human footprints in the gray lunar dust.

Conspiracy theories aside, and depending on your perspective, there actually was an Apollo 18 mission. Launched in 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was a joint mission between US and Russian forces, officially and symbolically ending the great space race of the preceding decade.

The alternate history story is the English language debut of Spanish auteur Lopez-Gallego. Released by Dimension Films, "Apollo 18" will hit theaters April 22.



**********

200 Years In 4 Minutes

Hans Rosling takes a massive amount of data on the correlation between income and lifespan over 200 years and manages to make it come to life in a way that is way more interesting than that description sounds.


Click for video