The Bluegrass Bigfoot / More 'Sierra Kills' Conjecture

Click for video - The Bluegrass Bigfoot

Myth?

Monster?

Misidentification?

The search for the elusive beast known as Bigfoot spans decades.

And some believe it lives right here in Kentucky.

Phillip Spencer, known as the "Wildman of Kentucky" counts among the true believers.

"I know it is here. No question."

Blame Daniel Boone for starting the Kentucky Sasquatch rumor mill. The American pioneer once bragged of killing a 10-foot hairy giant he called Yahoo, possibly a nod to Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.

"When you grow up in rural Kentucky, you know the land. You know the animals. And that was something that didn't fit," Spencer said.

The Kentucky native says his interest in Bigfoot finds its roots in a personal experience. He claims he saw the creature in Anderson County as a little boy back in 1970.

"Approximately 8-feet tall, bulky arms. It was out in the field with deer," he said. "It just walked away into the darkness and left us sitting there, not sure what to think."

Spencer's research documents nearly a dozen Bigfoot sightings deep in the Anderson County woods, in a 6,000 acre area known as the Frazier Land.

"This land has so many stories, so many tales," Spencer said.

Legend has it that the Frazier family caught the first glimpse of the beast in the late 1700s. Soon after the family arrived in the area, it abruptly left.

"Why would someone leave their home, huge amount of land with the opportunity to make money?" Spencer asked.

The area might have proved unfit for the Fraziers, but Spencer calls it Bigfoot heaven.

"It is everything Bigfoot could ever dream of. It is away from people and it has everything it needs here."

Lynn Hutton says he also came face to face with the beast some 25 years ago.

"It was standing like a person with its arms down, about 7-foot tall, long matted brown hair all over it," he recalled.

Of course, not everybody believes.

"I'm very skeptical," Tim Farmer said.

The Kentucky outdoorsman cites a lack of physical evidence for his skepticism.

"If there was something out there, we would have found some trace by now. Hair covering a fence. I haven't seen any documented proof of the huge bones or huge skull that anyone has found," he said.

But Spencer contends new evidence will soon come to light, turning even the most skeptical into true believers.

"The world is getting ready to see a lot of footage they have never seen before."

The Erickson Project spent the last five years searching for Bigfoot across North America. The $1 million project embedded scientists in Kentucky. Researchers claim they will soon release DNA evidence that will make Bigfoot a recognized species or sub-species.

"This is really going to impact Kentucky," Spencer said.

The documentary "Sasquatch: the Quest," part of the Erickson Project is set for release later this year. - lex18

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NOTE: More conjecture from Robert Lindsay at Latest News From the Bigfoot World. Like I stated before, he may have a few of the facts but presenting it out of context...thus, this sensationalizes the story. I also want to state that the overall criticism of Dr. Melba Ketchum is unwarranted. The facts will come forward at the proper time. Below is part of Lindsay's recent post...Lon

Ketchum DNA report delayed again. The Ketchum DNA report was sent out for peer review in early January. It was accepted for peer review about one month later. This means that the journal felt that the science behind the paper was basically sound and the paper would not be rejected, although it could be sent back for a rewrite ranging from minor to major. The paper was supposed to be through peer review first in late spring. Next it was said that the paper would be done by July.

The latest from Ketchum herself is that the paper will not be done until November or at the latest, the end of the year. I’m sick and tired of waiting for this paper, and I am starting to wonder if it is ever coming out.

Ketchum Project a one woman show? Richard Stubstad has argued on this site that Ketchum’s report is a one woman show. He suggested that the paper would have only one author, Ketchum, and no co-authors. This view has now been shown to be incorrect. The latest news is that Ketchum’s paper is authored by her and six co-authors.

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Possible Bigfoot Detected - Yadkin River, Davie County, NC

I received the following inquiry on Wednesday. The witness is asking for an explanation:

I live in west-central North Carolina. I live at a location that is very close to the Yadkin River in Davie County. The river’s flood plain comes to my property line in a valley with no houses and heavily wooded – however two roads to cross to get to my house. The river’s edge is primarily undeveloped, with almost a 300 yard flood area clearance on both sides for miles and miles. This river floods regularly, but not very muck lately. There are high voltage power lines running across the area as well. Now that the stage is set, let’s go. We have also put a game camera out to see if we could catch anything on is. We so far have caught a fat pregnant deer, several raccoons and a grey fox. That pregnant deer has twins now have been in our garden. The deer are pretty thick around here.

This is not a hot bed of Bigfoot sightings. But I have been hearing something very large walking in the woods beside my house. My dog has been kicked by something and knocked out for a few seconds. All we heard that night was a thud as it sounded like he was kicked in the side. We saw nothing as it was around 11:30 pm on a moonless night. A few moments later, he was up chasing a scent down the neighbor’s field. My son grabbed his flashlight and looked around down at the wood line and caught a pair of large red-orange eyes reflection. We went down later to investigate where they were. There is an opening right where he saw the eyes. We determined that whatever it was had to stand about 4 feet tall or so if it was standing in the field and 9 feet tall if it was standing in the woods as the opening has a steep drop off to the tree he used as a reference spot. The last explanation is that whatever it is was in the tree at that level. We are hunters and spend time in the woods often. We have never seen a pair of red-orange eyes around here. Not sure what a bear’s eyes look like, but we have no bear population around here.

I often stay up very late and go outside to look around with the flashlight around 3 or 4 in the morning. I have heard on three occasions a very loud knock following my spotlighting around. It sounds like two large rocks being hit together, not like a rock hitting a tree. They have come from three different spots down in the back yard in the woods. The knock sounds are only heard about once every 8-12 days. Kind of like what ever it is only passes through this area on some kind of schedule. Not sure if that sounds logical? I have only on one occasion heard what I would call a howl. It was in the distance and was NOT a coyote. Not even close. It was a different tone and lasted too long.

I would love to hear a logical explanation for all of this.

Ken

**********

Possible photo of juvenile Bigfoot taken in Arkansas, October 2009

This email was in reference to a photograph (above) I posted with another anecdote:

Hello Lon, my name is Louisa Clingan and my cam captured that pic back in Oct of 09. Thank you for posting it on your website. I am including in this e-mail attachments of the enhanced photo using only hue and contrast to bring out more definition. In the inverted pics you can see more structure, ear, hands, fingers and toes. The cam was set in that location to try and catch what was killing the barn cats, chickens and stealing the eggs.

Don't know if you know the background, but the pic was not taken seriously because our bird was in the following pics. You can see that it's not a bird lol. Also I really think that people think that these animals are born 9 feet tall, lol. This is a small juvenile, from what we figured using the reeds, fence line and bottom of the power box for height comparisons, we believe it is no taller than 18" from the top of the head to the ground in the sitting position, hypothetically it would be roughly 36" or 3' in the upright position. The visual that myself and son had on this same property back in 06 was no more that 3 1/2' to 4'.

My thanks to Louisa!

Just the Facts? - Massive Meteorite Found and Snake Detected In Woman's Abdomen

Massive meteorite found in China

A massive space rock – one that could rank as one of the largest meteorites ever recovered – has been found in a remote and mountainous region in northwest China, according to news reports.

The huge and oddly-shaped rock was found in the Altai mountains in China's Xinjiang Uygur province, according to Sky and Telescope magazine. Earlier this month, Baolin Zhang, a meteorite specialist at the Beijing Planetarium, led a small team up a 9,500-foot (2,900-meter) summit to investigate reports of the supposed meteorite.

"This is a huge iron meteorite," Zhang said in footage from China Central Television. "It may be the second largest iron meteorite, which can cause a sensation in China and also attract attention from [the] world's meteorite fields. It comes from outside solar system and it is of great appreciating value and of more scientific value."

The large brown stone juts out from beneath a larger granite slab and the portion above ground measures about 7.5 feet (2.3 m) long and half as wide, reported Sky and Telescope.

Zhang estimates that the meteorite's mass could range between 25 to 30 tons, which would make it one of the largest meteorites known. If so, this space rock would surpass the current largest one in China, a 28-ton meteorite that was discovered in 1898 in the same region, reported Sky and Telescope.

The Xinjiang discovery could represent a very exciting find for the scientific community, if the rock can be confirmed as a meteorite, said Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University.

"If this can indeed be verified as a bona fide iron meteorite, then it would certainly be an important find," Wadhwa told SPACE.com in an email interview. Since most meteorites were formed close to [about] 4.6 billion years ago, when the solar system was formed, any newly discovered meteorites (regardless of their size) have the potential to provide scientists with some unique insights into the formation and earliest history of our solar system."

Wadhwa added that the pictures of the Xinjiang rock that have been released so far appear to show good promise of it being an iron meteorite.

And while the Xinjiang finding is quite large, the largest known meteorite to date has a mass of roughly 60 tons and was found in Namibia, Wadhwa said. Other larger specimens include a 37-ton piece from Argentina and a 30-ton meteorite that was discovered in Greenland.Zhang and his team also found names scratched into the stone's surface, indicating that some people in the area were likely aware of the unusual rock's existence. The etchings also expose the iron-nickel composition, Zhang said.

Further analysis should help determine whether this iron meteorite and the one found in 1898 are related, or if it is merely a coincidence that they were both found in this remote region of China. It is also unknown when or how the massive rock will be removed from its current location to be studied, reported Sky and Telescope. - mnn

**********

Biologist says cancers might actually be newly-evolved species inside your body

We think of cancer as a disease, a form of runaway cell growth within an organism. But we might not have realized what cancers really are: separate, brand new parasitic species that evolve from and prey upon their human hosts.

That's the theory put forward by UC Berkeley biologist Peter Duesberg, who argues that the very act of carcinogenesis - the formation of cancer - is itself a form of speciation, in which distinct new species evolve. That may seem a little far-fetched, so let's take a look at Duesberg's precise reasoning to see exactly what's going on here.

A key idea for Duesberg and his team is that cancer is the result of chromosome disruption, rather than the current scientific consensus that they are formed by genetic mutations. If the researchers are correct, an actual change in the nature of cancer's chromosomes would be far more drastic than just some simple mutations - basically, if something inside you has a totally different chromosomal makeup than you do, then it kind of has to be its own separate species.

That's part of the argument. Duesberg has more:

"Cancer is comparable to a bacterial level of complexity, but still autonomous, that is, it doesn't depend on other cells for survival; it doesn't follow orders like other cells in the body, and it can grow where, when and how it likes. That's what species are all about.

This isn't just a pedantic argument about what does and does not constitute a new species. If Duesberg is correct, then medical treatments that focus on blocking mutations are on the wrong track. This new theory holds that it isn't simply a few mutated genes that initiate cancerous cell growth; instead, when the chromosomes themselves are disrupted, some of them are deleted, others are broken or truncated, and some are even duplicated.

The end result is a cell that's completely different from those around it. The question then is if it's viable enough to survive inside its host body. In most cases, the chromosomal damage probably destroys the would-be cancer. But every so often, it survives, as Duesberg explains:

"If humans changed their karyotype — the number and arrangement of chromosomes — we would either die or be unable to mate, or in very rare cases become another species...You start with a chromosomal mutation, that is, aneuploidy perhaps from X-rays or cigarettes or radiation, that destabilizes and eventually changes your karyotype or renders it non-viable. The rare viable aneuploidies of cancers are, in effect, the karyotypes of new species."

So if this does replace the established mutation view of cancer, what's the upshot? One intriguing possibility is that these cancerous species may be configured for cellular flexibility and immortality, but they're also still very fragile, and their fundamentally damaged chromosomes means they exist right on the very brink of viability. If that's the case, then all we need to do is figure out a way to force cancer to keep evolving, shredding its chromosomes still further until it's no longer able to survive. - io9

**********

Monster threatens Auckland rail project

A mythical swamp monster "hiding" under Auckland is threatening to derail a project to improve the New Zealand city's traffic gridlock.

The North Island city is trying to move ahead with a multibillion-dollar railway tunnel project to improve the minimal train network and free up its car-filled streets.

But Horotiu, a mythical monster, put the $NZ2.6 billion project in doubt after an indigenous Maori board protested that it would destroy grounds once patrolled by the make-believe taniwha, pronounced tani-fa.
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Glenn Wilcox, a member of the Maori Statutory Board, which protects Maori interests, complained that the plan did not take into account the monster, which "was here first".

The taniwha is a mythical protector with a powerful role in Maori folklore, but get it angry and you're in trouble, Mr Wilcox said.

"As kaitiaki, or guardians, they protect people, but they also get up and bite you if they do not like what you are doing," he said.

The local council has since convinced the board that the correct consultation had taken place, putting the popular project back on the table.

The board accepted its needs had been met but not before it was invoiced thousands of dollars for public relations advice relating to the monster.

Surprisingly, its not the first time a taniwha has threatened to upend a council project.

In 2002, construction of a stretch of road between Auckland and Hamilton was halted after protesters complained that it was cutting through the domain of a revered one-eye taniwha.

The taniwha was thought to be responsible for a number of deaths on the stretch of road.

Ranginui Walker, a respected Maori elder, said at the time: "You have to placate local demons, deities, taniwha. Don't tempt fate." - smh.com.au

**********

Snake detected in woman’s abdomen

A 50-year-old local woman with a gigantic snake in her body has called upon the authorities to help her undergo surgery.

An unforgettable incident happened with a 50-year-old Rasheedan Bibi, a resident of Chora Saggar, a suburban area when an ultrasound test detected a gigantic snake in her body. Reportedly, a very small snake entered her body when she drank water from a pitcher in her house. After two months, she felt progressive increase in belly size but she supposed it to be pregnancy. After 7 months, her entire body has swollen to its maximum and suffered from severe illness. She was taken to hospital where they were shocked when ultrasound test reported a coiled massive snake in her abdomen. Rasheedan Bibi is taking 14 breads three times a day. She belonged to a poor family and appealed to Punjab CM to help her undergo surgery. - nation.com.pk

**********

Chinese Couple Sells All Three Kids to Play Online Games

A young Chinese couple has sold all three of their children in exchange for money to play online games at Internet cafes, reports a southern Chinese newspaper.

According to Sanxiang City News, the couple met in an Internet cafe back in 2007 and bonded over their obsession with online video games. A year later, the parents -- who are both under 21 -- welcomed their first child, a son. Days after his birth, they left him home alone while they went to play online games at an Internet cafe 30 km away.

In 2009, Li Lin and Li Juan welcomed their second child, a baby girl, and came up with the idea to sell her for money to fund their online game obsession. They did so, receiving RMB 3,000 (less than $500), which they spent entirely shortly after. The couple then proceeded to sell their first child and got 10 times as much for him -- RMB 30,000, or about $4600.

Upon having their third child -- another boy -- the parents followed in their previous footsteps and also got RMB 30,000 for him.

They were finally turned into authorities when Li Lin’s mother found out what her son and his girlfriend had done.

When asked if they missed their children, the parents answered, "We don’t want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money.”

Sanxiang City News reports the couple didn't know they were breaking the law. - abcnewsradioonline

Close Encounter on I-105

The following was forwarded by the witness a few days ago:

I've told this story many times and no one every believes that what I say is what I KNOW I saw. Let's start off with me answering what is always asked after the story. NO, I was not drinking, on drugs or sleep deprived. Let me also state that I was not the only one in the vehicle at the time, my boyfriend at the time and our daughter we're also in the car and witnessed exactly what I'm about to tell you.

This happened about 3 years ago - we were traveling on the 110N merging onto the 105E. Now anyone living in California traveling on these freeways will tell you that it's very common to see airplanes. Well, we were on the turn slowing down to make a stop at the light that's on the ramp (it's suppose to help control traffic merging) and as we're making the turn I see an airplane that has the landing gear down - it is a huge plane (I know what your thinking!). It was not the normal size airplane coming into LAX. I point it out to my boyfriend and ask "Do you see that?" he replies "is it coming for landing on the freeway?!" Then we notice it's not moving! So now we're confused.

I start looking around to see if anyone else is noticing this. No one appears to be seeing the same thing. So back and forth we're saying "you see that, right!?" "why is it not moving?" "can you hear it?" my daughter starts saying "I can see" "where are the people?" That's when we notice the landing gear is down and there's no one in the windows (this is how close it is, we can see into the windows), you can't hear a thing (if you have been anywhere near an airport, you always hear something) and IT'S NOT MOVING! As if it were hovering but you couldn't even notice it moving up/down or a slight wiggle. I continue driving and we pass it, now I can't see it any longer but my boyfriend and my daughter are looking through the back window stating that it's still there and has not moved. I keep trying to move my rear view mirror but it's no where in sight! So I keep asking "are you sure you can still see it?" they state "yes, it's huge, how do you not see it?"

This plane appeared to be getting ready to land on the freeway - that's how close to the ground it was. It was not moving, making any form of noise, had no identifying marks on it to tell which airline it belonged to, and you could not see anyone in the windows. If I didn't know any better I could of swore we were on the landing strip at an airport. I thought if anywhere, here is where I'd be believed or possibly hear of someone who witnessed this too. If you were heading east on the 105 you'd be facing the airplane. If you were headed west on the 105 you'd be seeing the back end of the plane and it would be so close you'd swear it was getting ready to land on you. But then you'd notice you were driving fast with it being in non-motion.

Now, I've lived in L.A. my whole life and have never witnessed an airplane that close with the exception of when I've dropped family off at the airport. This was around the time when you'd be able to stand at the window and wave goodbye. I've heard planes passing by and have been on the 405 freeway when planes were flying over coming into LAX and have NEVER been that close while in a CAR to an airplane. I mean this plane appeared to be 200 yards off the freeway as if getting ready to land on the road or the city next to the freeway. I know what I saw and everyone in the car with me knows what they saw too. Did anyone else witness this?

Thanks for listening,
May

NOTE: is this a case of a time-slip or seeing into another dimension? I have read and heard similar scenarios but never a huge airliner ready to land. Is this possibly connected to why people see spacecraft up close or a glimpse into why there are close encounters with other beings? Your thoughts...Lon

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The White Room

In 2006 an associate forwarded the following inquiry for my opinion. It had been directed to them by an 'experiencer' name Melody. As far as I know this incident has not been published previously. I have recently received permission to post after a follow up statement was provided directly to me by Melody. Here is the original inquiry:

Sir - what I am about to reveal to you is an absolute true event. I will describe only what I can recall. I have told my story to two people other than my Mother and Father. One day I hope to be able to remember all of my experience.

I have read several stories of alien abduction and missing time - I would have never believed these recollections before I went through my own ordeal.

In the Summer of 2004 my family (my Mother, Father and I) took a trip to the Bahamas. It was going to be a three-day jaunt to Nassau and a few other spots. I was 17 and was looking forward to my senior year in high school.

We were staying at a beachfront hotel in Nassau which was a large suite with separate bedrooms. We arrived mid-afternoon and started to take in the scenery as soon as we were done checking in. After a long evening of sightseeing, I was totally exhausted and decided to go to bed at about 10:30 pm. No sooner had I laid down I was fast asleep (at least that is what I think happened).

After awhile I was startled by a loud humming sound that was coming from outside. I was curious so I started to get out of bed to investigate when suddenly a bright blue light hit me in the face. I was very warm but soothing. I don't know what happened right after that.

I woke up much later when, in fact, it could not have been more than a few minutes. I laid back down in the bed and went to sleep, like nothing had happened. I still don't know why I didn't alert my parents. I started to hear the loud humming again and started to feel like I was a passenger in an airliner. I opened my eyes, looked around but could only see large high back flight chairs arranged in several rows. I was the only person seated in my row.

I must have went back to sleep because the next thing I remember I was sitting in a large brightly-lit white room that was completely bare except for 5 metal chairs and four other people sitting. These people were not human in my estimation and seemed to be there to monitor me. They were dressed in white smocks and looked human-like but had a few irregularities, for example slightly larger heads, no hair anywhere on the exposed body and a strong antiseptic odor. They didn't talk but you felt like you knew what they were saying when they would look directly at you. After several minutes each of these 'people' got up in unison and walked through a sliding door that quickly disappeared. I was completely alone, just waiting - but I never had any apprehension or fear.

All I remember after that is hearing my Mother screaming.

You see, I had been missing for over 40 hours. My Mother screamed when she discovered me laying on my bed in the hotel room almost two days after I was reported missing.

That is all I remember. I have been to psychiatrists and have been taken regressive hypno-therapy but I can not recall any further details.

I suppose that I was abducted by someone or something. Why else would I be physically missing for almost two days? When I 'reappeared' I had on the same night clothes - nothing was different. I have had no ill effects since.

Could you offer an explanation?

To be honest I had forgotten about this incident. I had never conversed with Melody and had never received any direct contact from her. On Tuesday I received an email from her that included the following statement:

Mr. Strickler - My name is Melody (redacted). I was given your email address from (redacted). I have included a copy of an email I sent to (redacted) several years ago that described an incident I had. I would like to provide an update to you.

Since my first email to (redacted) I have endured a few events that I feel may tie into my abduction. Yes - I am positive at this point that I was actually abducted by unknown beings. It took me a long time to accept that fact. Unfortunately my parents, especially my Mother, never got over the incident. My parents divorced in 2009 and my Mother subsequently took her own life not long after the divorce. I am just starting to face facts and learning to deal with what happened to me.

My recollection of the event is still not totally accessible to me. I have had many hypnosis sessions with several doctors - it's just the same. None of my recall is any different.

A recent occurrence is the reason why I am contacting you at this time. My Husband (we were married this past Spring) mentioned that I occasionally talk in my sleep - to the point where it seems I am having a conversation with someone. A few weeks ago, I was talking in my sleep and my Husband heard 'replies'. These 'replies' were part of the conversation and where coming from another part of the bedroom. He could not see anything unusual but sensed that 'something' was there while carrying on a conversation with me.

There have been bits and pieces of other strange activity over the years but I am quite bowled over by this revelation. Who could I be talking to? I don't usually dream while asleep and I have no memory of conversations. Could I still be in contact with my abductors?

I hope you are well and thank you for reading my email - Melody

I replied to Melody and received permission to edit and publish her account and emails. I really could not give her a definitive answer as to what she is experiencing. I have offered her the services of Spirit Rescue International...this may be the only option that she currently has in order to find answers. SRI has worked abduction, non-terrestrial and interdimensional scenarios in the past. What are your thoughts? Lon

Just the Facts? - Probability of ET Small, Daytona Beach Sighting and Unknown Beings

Probability of ET Life Arbitrarily Small, Say Astrobiologists

The Drake equation is one of those rare mathematical beasts that has leaked into the public consciousness. It estimates the number of extraterrestrial civilisations that we might be able to detect today or in the near future.

The equation was devised by Frank Drake at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1960. He attempted to quantify the number by asking what fraction of stars have planets, what fraction of these might be habitable, then the fraction of these on which life actually evolves and the fraction of these on which life becomes intelligent and so on.

Many of these numbers are little more than wild guesses. For example, the number of ET civilisations we can detect now is hugely sensitive to the fraction that destroy themselves with their own technology, through nuclear war for example. Obviously we have no way of knowing this figure.

Nevertheless, many scientists have attempted to come up with a figure with estimates ranging from a handful of ET civilisations to tens of thousands of them.

Of the many uncertainties in the Drake equation, one term is traditionally thought of as relatively reliable. That is the probability of life emerging on a planet in a habitable zone. On Earth, life arose about 3.8 billion years ago, just a few million years after the planet had cooled sufficiently to allow it.

Astrobiologists naturally argue that because life arose so quickly here, it must be pretty likely to emerge in other places where conditions allow.

Today, David Spiegel at Princeton University and Edwin Turner at the University of Tokyo say this thinking is wrong. They've used an entirely different kind of thinking, called Bayesian reasoning, to show that the emergence of life on Earth is consistent with life being arbitrarily rare in the universe.

At first sight, that seems rather counterintuitive. But if Bayesian reasoning tells us anything, it's that we can easily fool ourselves into thinking things are far more likely than they really are.

Spiegel and Turner point out that our thinking about the origin of life is heavily biased by the fact that we're here to observe it. They point out that it's taken about 3.5 billion years for intelligent life to evolve on Earth.

So the only way that enough time could have elapsed for us to have evolved is if life emerged very quickly. And that's a bias that is entirely independent of the actual probability of life emerging on a habitable planet.

"In other words, if evolution requires 3.5 Gyr for life to evolve from the simplest forms to sentient, questioning beings, then we had to find ourselves on a planet on which life arose relatively early, regardless of the value of [the probability of life developing in a unit time]," say Spiegel and Turner. #

When you strip out that bias, it turns out that the actual probability of life emerging is consistent with life being arbitrarily rare. In other words, the fact that life emerged at least once on Earth is entirely consistent with it only having happened here.

So we could be alone, after all.

That's a sobering argument. It's easy to be fooled by the evidence of our own existence. What Speigel and Turner have shown is the true mathematical value of this evidence.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we are alone; only that the evidence can't tell us otherwise.

And if the evidence changes then so to will the probabilities that we can infer from it.

There are two ways of finding new evidence. The first is to look for signs of life on other planets, perhaps using biogenic markers in their atmospheres. The capability to do begin this work on planets around other stars should be with us in the next few years.

The second is closer to home. If we find evidence that life emerged independently more than once on Earth, then this would be a good reason to change the figures.

Either way, this debate is set to become a major issue in science in the next few years. That's something to look forward to. - technologyreview

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Click image for larger version

Unexplained sighting at Daytona Beach, FL

I was vacationing in Daytona Beach sitting on the shore of the ocean July 24th 2011 at 3 in the morning. I started getting a creepy feeling about being in the ocean with sharks and stuff at night and was trying to figure out if they would be more active at night. After a lot of deliberation I decided to get out and go sit with the other people I went to the beach with. I was with my sister Rachel, her friend Kenley, and someone that was a friend of a friend named Jess who lived an hour from this spot. All of us saw this. After I sat down with them, my sister started freaking out because a huge roach was running all over her legs. We were all laughing at here and I looked out over the ocean as we had been doing prior to that and noticed what at first appeared to be a lantern. It was a distant bright orange light that was pretty far off in the distance over the ocean. I thought it was some boat that was coming up closer to shore because a storm had just went through. I said out loud to everyone else, "What the hell is that?" and everyone just sat there staring at it. It slowly moved across the ocean and lined up straight with us which would have made this thing if floating on the ocean go against the current. It wasn't bobbing so it would had to have been a massive boat. But someone said something about how bright it was and almost as if on cue it seemed to get brighter. It started getting bigger and by the end of this part of the sighting it almost looked like the moon fell and started floating on the ocean. It was crescent shaped and had another piece right above it and looked like something was in front of it but it was fairly bright outside for it to be as late as it was and I didn't see anything near this thing. I attempted to take a picture of it but this thing wasn't picking up on my camera. It sat in front of us for quite some time before it started to lift in the air very slowly. When it lifted (about an inch from my perspective) off the water line it started shrinking rapidly and ended up the size of a star that you would normally see on a clear night. Then in the blink of an eye it shot up into the sky. By the end of all this I was so overwhelmed that my eyes started watering and I couldn't say anything but, "What the hell was that!". All the ladies I was with started screaming and were as excited as me. - MUFON CMS

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Close encounter of the unknown beings

March 1979: Arrived at Joshua Tree National Monument on a Friday evening to camp and do some rock climbing for the weekend. It was very windy and cold and the sun had set. We set up camp with a small 2-man tent (without windows)and were sitting inside discussing what to do about dinner since it was too windy to light the camp stove.

We had only been in the tent about 10 minutes when a soft whirring (hard to describe) sound flew directly over the tent and stopped what sounded like 20 to 25 feet away. As we looked at each other, asking simultaneously "did you hear that", we could hear foot steps approaching from the direction the strange noise had stopped. They were clearly discernible as bipedal walking on the decomposing granite as it came toward the tent. The foot steps circled the tent twice and stopped at the zipper door and proceeded to sniff the entire zipper (the door was an inverted T). Then nothing. I probably don't need to say we were thoroughly frightened out our wits.

Not exactly sure how long we sat listening but seemed like forever that we sat waiting for that door to open or at least hear more footsteps but we heard nothing. Finally whispering to each other we decided to make a run for the car which was only 10 feet away.

We unzipped the door and ran on the count of three, jumped in the car and locked the doors. We turned on the lights and looked around and saw nothing. After we calmed down, we got out the flashlights and started looking around for anything including footprints, there were only ours from setting up the tent. We headed out the direction that the sound came from and the only thing we found was a set of three round depressions in the gravel approximately 10-12 feet apart in a triangular pattern, also with no footprints around them.
Don't really know what to think. - MUFON CMS

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Man attempts DIY hernia surgery using butter knife and lit cigarette

A man is recovering in hospital after attempting surgery on himself using a butter knife.

Police say the 63-year-old Glendale man cut into himself with a six-inch butter knife in an attempt to remove a protruding hernia from his stomach.

The unnamed man was found on Sunday and taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

According to Sargent Tom Lorenz, Police who arrived at the man's house came across a gruesome scene.

The man was found lying naked outside on a lounge chair with the handle of a knife protruding from his stomach.

Amazingly, as they waited for paramedics to arrive, the man pulled the knife out and shoved a cigarette inside the open wound.

Speaking to the Glendale News Press, Sargent Lorenz said the man's wife told him her husband had 'become frustrated' with the hernia and 'wanted it out'.

He added: 'Out of frustration, he tried to cut it out.'

Speaking to the paper, surgeon Sam Carvajal said the DIY surgery had probably caused more harm than good.

He said: 'It is absolutely impossible for someone to fix their own hernia.'

Dr Carvajal said most hernia patients don't actually suffer that much pain, leaving him to conclude the patient was suffering, 'some amount of psychosis.' - dailymail

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'St. Croix Cougar' Traveled From South Dakota to Connecticut

Need more proof that mountain lions / cougars are moving into the eastern US? The following is an amazing account:

In what’s being called the longest journey a mountain lion has ever taken in the United States, a cougar killed in Milford, CT, six weeks ago—believed by some to be the same cougar sighted June 5 in Greenwich, CT—traveled 1,100 miles from South Dakota to get to New England, Connecticut officials said Tuesday.

According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, collected analyst data shows that the feline known in South Dakota known as the “St. Croix Cougar” journeyed from that state’s Black Hills, through Minnesota and Wisconsin (see attached map) and across the Midwest—likely southern Ontario, Canada—eventually to Greenwich, where it met its end after colliding with a SUV on the Wilbur Cross parkway in Milford.

“This is an incredible journey, nearly double that of any mountain lion [ever recorded],” Connecticut DEEP Commissioner Dan Esty said during a press briefing.

Though the first confirmed sighting occurred in Minnesota, officials believe the mountain lion likely was born in South Dakota, meaning a total distance traveled of closer to 1,800 miles is possible.

Scat samples, including those found in Greenwich, as well as sightings across the nation dating back as far as Dec. 2009, snow tracks, photos from trail cameras, tissues collected for genetic testing and the young male’s unmanicured condition, led analysts—including in a lab in Rocky Hill, CT—to the conclusion mountain lion had not been held in captivity, according to Paul Rego, a supervising wildlife biologist with the DEEP.

Esty touted the cougar's ability to traverse so far in the wild as a testament to efforts from conservationists and environmental protection groups.

“Although this is the story of the first recorded example of a mountain lion sighting in Connecticut in more than 100 years, there is no evidence of a mountain lion [in Connecticut] beyond this single individual,” Esty said.

The findings mark the latest chapter in a story that’s captured the attention and imagination of residents throughout Fairfield County and Connecticut—the gregarious “Greenwich Mountain Lion” on Facebook last week notched her 3,000th friend—as a species said to be extinct in the Nutmeg State appeared to have reemerged.

Within days of the mountain lion’s death on a highway in Milford (see photo), state DEEP officials launched an investigation into whether that cougar had been held in captivity illegally.

In Greenwich and throughout the state, the dual sightings sparked debate over whether mountain lions were present in greater numbers than state officials had acknowledged. In Fairfield, police were given the green light to kill mountain lions that couldn’t be contained.

As investigators searched for answers, including in neighboring states, residents in Greenwich and other Connecticut towns, including Fairfield, began reporting sightings of their own, at least one of which was found to be inaccurate. - newrochelle

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