Rotorua a 'Hive of UFO Activity'

A surgeon hailed a pioneer in the removal of devices implanted into humans by aliens is headed for Rotorua.

Dr Roger Leir won't be performing surgery when he visits in September but will speak at a conference, hosted by Ufocus New Zealand, which will focus on UFO sightings and other extraterrestrial-related phenomena.

Although Rotorua was chosen to host the conference for practical reasons, it is coincidentally part of a triangular section of the Bay of Plenty - between Waihi Beach, Whakatane and Rotorua - which is a particular hotspot of UFO activity, according to Ufocus founder Suzanne Hansen.
"There is also a pattern of increased sightings whenever there is seismic activity. It may be that the UFOs are tracking what is happening with the tectonic plates."

Ufocus treasurer and conference facilitator Graeme Opie, who is also the senior air traffic controller at Hamilton Airport, said in the past year there had been about 12 "credible" UFO sightings in the skies over New Zealand.

"A lot of people don't report them because they are scared of being labelled kooks ... or they report them directly to the police or the defence force and we never get to hear about them."

Between 150 and 250 people are expected at the conference in Rotorua with Dr Leir as a keynote speaker.

While his resume sounds like part of a script from an episode of The X Files, the organisers of the Future Perspectives conference, at the Rotorua Convention Centre in September, insist the American is the real deal and they want to be taken seriously.

Dr Leir, who holds qualifications as a foot surgeon, is touted as a world pioneer in the surgical removal of devices planted into people, supposedly following alien abductions.

According to the biography posted on the Ufocus website, Dr Leir has performed 12 separate operations to remove implanted objects from people, the most recent in September. As with the other 11 cases, the patient was an abductee who had "a lifetime of close encounter experiences".

The website claims the objects he removed, some of which look similar to small metal pins, had been tested in some of the world's most prestigious laboratories and baffled scientists, in part because "some of the tests show [radioactive] isotopic ratios not of this world ... comparisons have been made to meteorite samples".

Ms Hansen, who lives in Tauranga, said she was certain Dr Leir was "on the level ... he has spoken at hundreds of conferences and is very credible".

"He began as a non-believer [in extraterrestrials] but he became fascinated with these objects that showed up on x-rays with no point of entry or exit on the body.

"I can only surmise that they might be some kind of tracking device or something that monitors aspects of a person's health."

Ms Hansen said she expected the conference to generate a lot of interest.

"People have a great fear of being ridiculed if they come forward [with stories of UFO sightings]."

Dr. Roger Leir
Alien Implants

Mothman, Garuda and Indonesian Air Crash

When discussing the strange episodes of interactions between humans and that winged weirdie seen in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966-1967, John A. Keel didn’t carry around in his head the psychological icon of Mothman, which, of course, didn’t exist yet. No, his concept of what was the source of the foreboding and tragedy was much more ancient.

A detail often forgotten is that John A. Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies was initially to be entitled The Year of the Garuda. The title Keel wanted was his way to connect the ancient Indian legends of the Garuda, an unknown flying cryptid, with the modern Mothman events.

For Keel, his sense of the underlying weirdness, subtle spookiness, dramatic danger, covert sightings, plus the sinister Fortean reality of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, were linked in his mind to the image and idea of Garuda, more so than any realization of what Mothman was or was becoming. To Keel, Garuda was the key.

Now comes a startling reminder of that name for it is being noted in the news that the tragic crash in Indonesia was of a Boeing 757, an aircraft of the Garuda Airlines:

Indonesia jet explodes on landing

An Indonesian jet has crashed and burst into flames on landing at Yogyakarta airport in Java, killing 22 people. The state-owned Garuda Airline, which operated the Boeing 737-400, confirmed that 118 people had survived. Indonesia’s president immediately announced an investigation into the crash in Yogyakarta, 440km (270 miles) south-east of Jakarta….

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said there were nine Australians on board, four of whom were missing. They included officials and journalists covering his planned visit to Java for a counter-terrorism conference. Prime Minister John Howard said the country should be “prepared for bad news” as there could well be Australian fatalities….

BBC News, March 7, 2007

What is the Garuda? The Garuda is a large legendary bird or bird-like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a cryptid to many. Garuda is usually described as having a golden body, white face, red wings, and an eagle’s beak and wings but a man’s body. The Garuda is the national symbol of both Indonesia and Thailand.

For those that own the rare Saturday Review Press first edition (1975) of The Mothman Prophecies, the creature depicted on the white dust jacket is a Garuda, not a Mothman.

Source: Cryptomundo

Mothman Garuda
Cryptozoology Ghosts Paranormal Bigfoot Thylacine Tasmanian Tiger MySpace YouTube

German Tourist Vows to Film an Australian Tiger

CANBERRA, March 2 (Reuters) - A German tourist who claims to have photographed a Tasmanian tiger, solving one of Australia's enduring wildlife myths, said on Friday he had returned to the country to video the animal and end doubts over his find.

The Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine, was a striped, wolf-like native mammal which was hunted to extinction by European settlers. The last one died in a zoo in 1936.

But stories of surviving animals persist and yearly unconfirmed sightings have turned the tiger, whose scientific name means pouched dog with a wolf's head, into a holy grail for mystery hunters from across the globe.

In February 2005, German tourists Klaus Emmerichs and Birgit Jansen said they had captured two digital photos of the animal in Tasmania's rugged forests while on holiday.

"I came from high, and he can't see me. He had his nose down and was snuffing," Emmerichs said on Friday.

"I want to prove that it is not extinct, like the people think and the world thinks," Emmerichs told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The couple, he said, had no idea the tiger drinking at a creek was extinct and the animal just loped away.

Experts initially believed the night photos showed portions of a Thylacine obscured by foliage, but later examinations led to accusations of a set-up, ending a bid to sell the pictures for A$25,000 ($19,600).

Emmerichs said he had returned to Tasmania, joining up with long-time tiger believer Paul Bailey, to capture the elusive animal on video. Bailey said he saw a tiger in 1967.

"I'm convinced that they are still here," Bailey said.

Thylacine
Tasmanian Tiger
Cryptid
Cryptozoology

Large Footprints Found in Northern California

<--Click image for video feed

MARYSVILLE, Calif. There's a big mystery in the Northern California woods. Is a Bigfoot living in a national forest? John Iander of CBS station KOVR-TV in Sacramento, Calif., reports that a California couple has found big prints in the woods and experts are saying it may not be a hoax.

It was just after a rainstorm, a great time for hunting deer. It was a perfect place, high up in the dense woods of the Plumas National Forest.

Chuck and Michelle Padigo had been down the logging road lots of times, including just a few days earlier.

Past two gates, about three miles from the highway, in a recently logged area, Michelle looked down and spotted something very strange.

What the Padigo's say they encountered was more than three dozen huge footprints spread out over a hundred yards or more.

“I swear the hair on my arms stood up,” says Michelle.

The couple recorded their discovery with photographs and returned to take more pictures.

Joining the Padigos now was Scot Woodland, a Nevada County search and rescue team member and a certified expert tracker.

Scot says he's got an open mind but when he first saw the tracks he figured here's another hoax.

"The closer I got and looked at the prints, the more I could see the detail and the movement in the foot. As a tracker you see how things move the weight and all that stuff. The complexity of the footprint made me go whoa!” he says.

What really impressed Scot was the force of the Bigfoot print which rippled the ground around it. Scot's footprint next to it hardly moved the earth.

“If it's a hoax, somebody really did a good job, if it's not, then there's a big creature that lives among us," says Woodland.

All the prints appear to be from one animal walking slowly but with a stride twice that of a human.

“We measured from heel of the left foot to heel of left foot, 56 inches," says Scott.

The footprint was gigantic. It was seven-and-a-half inches wide. The tape measure shows the impression is nearly double the length of an adult human foot.

In Humboldt County, in the tiny town of Willow Creek, there's a Bigfoot museum run by Al Hodgson. Decades ago, he had a similar experience when he found what he believed were the footprints of a mother and child Bigfoot.

Ever since the scratchy film of an alleged Bigfoot spotting was taken in 1963, a growing amount of potential evidence has been reported.

From a distant picture of a possible big foot, to plaster impressions of some very big feet. Compare them with the plaster cast Chuck Padigo made and you’ll see the same basic shape, same size. Almost square toes with little or no arching.

If there is a big foot living in the woods, it wouldn't be the first time somebody has reported the evidence. KOVR-TV checked the records over the past decade.

In both 1997 and 1998, a science researcher found possible Bigfoot tracks and feces in the same Plumas Forest Area.

And again in 1998, a veteran forest service employee found footprints fourteen inches long by six inches wide.

KOVR-TV checked with residents of the small towns near where Michelle and Chuck found their footprints. Store owner Peggy Pope says she's a believer.

“I've never heard of anybody up here saying they've seen one, or any evidence? Or any evidence, but I believe there is such a thing," says Pope.

Other locals say they have either heard or smelled what might be a Bigfoot, but they also tell of some big bears living in these woods.

But pictures of bear paws, while certainly very large, clearly show big claws.

The footprints Chuck and Michelle found show no sign of any claws, just clean imprints of five toes.

The Padigos found the footprints four months ago and didn't publicize it until now.

They do not seem to seek notoriety and appear to be genuinely and deeply affected by the incident but still, we had to ask if they were playing a hoax on us.

“No sir, I wouldn't do that, I'm not that smart, I couldn't make something like that," says Chuck.

Photos and measurements of those big footprints have been sent to a renowned scientist who is researching Bigfoot sightings. No word yet on whether he thinks those prints are made by man or by a lot bigger and more secretive creature.

Footprints Marysville California

Suspected Monster Spotted in Lake

Monday, 26th February 2007 - Windermere, UK - Sightings of a suspected monster in Windermere have prompted claims that it could be the English equivalent of Nessie.

The 50ft long "creature" was snapped by photographer Linden Adams, 35, who was out walking with his wife near the lake recently.

They were at a secluded spot more than 1,000ft up a mountain when they spotted a dark shape moving in the water.

"It just came out of the blue," said Mr Adams. "The water was incredibly peaceful and then this huge thing appeared, diving and thrashing around."

He thought it was 50 ft long when compared to boats nearby.

He said it had a head like a labrador, only "much, much bigger".

'Serpent-like'

Mr Adams, from Bowness-on-Windermere, said he knew the lake well and what he saw was not a freak wave or boat. His sighting comes just months after scientists visited Windermere to examine claims by a tourist that they saw a 20 ft "serpent-like" creature.

A team of scientists visited the site last October to interview eye-witnesses and sent divers to Coniston Water to investigate reports of similar sightings there.

Mr Adams has christened his find the Bowness monster. "When I looked at my pictures on my computer I realised I had something," he added.

He sent his picture to a forensic photographer who confirmed it had not been digitally enhanced.

Richard Freeman, of the centre for Fortean Zoology which researches mystery animals, said the sightings could be giant sterile eels which, unlike normal eels, stay in fresh water and "get bigger and bigger".

Lake Monster Windermere UK

Strange Lights Over Somerset County, Maine

Somerset County, Maine - February 22, 2007 - Callers from four southern Somerset County towns reported seeing strange lights in the sky Wednesday night.

Though activities that night by the Vermont Air National Guard might provide an explanation, some sightings were close to the ground.

From 7:35 to 8:12 p.m., the Somerset County Communications Center took calls from Anson, Fairfield, Norridgewock and Skowhegan.

The Anson call came from 42 Hilltop Road, not far from town. The caller told dispatchers she saw reddish-orange UFOs through the trees. She said she saw three diagonal lights, then two and then one, before it “burned up like a comet.”

A spokeswoman from the Vermont Air National Guard confirmed that the unit was conducting training missions through that area Wednesday night. An F-16 flying overhead, the source said, would cause considerable noise.

A caller from Skowhegan Road in Fairfield reported seeing strange lights in the sky, heading south. A Norridgewock caller said he saw lights, called the Brunswick Naval Air Station, which told him they were not aware of anything going on. The caller from Norridgewock Avenue in Skowhegan reported seeing yellow lights in the sky over Skowhegan.

Lights Over Somerset County Maine

Chupacabra Spotted in Chile

Santiago, Chile - February 16, 2007 - One week after Chile’s Armed Forces released photos and videos of UFO activity around the country, Chile’s mainstream media has once again gone extraterrestrial with various Chupacabra sightings reported throughout the country.

Chupacabra – literally translated as goat sucker – is the name for a mythical creature known for sucking the blood out of farm animals throughout Latin America and the southern United States. Many enthusiasts speculate that Chupacabras are aliens – or escaped alien pets – as evidence of the creature is frequently reported in tandem with nearby UFO sightings.

While UFO activity is typically reserved for Chile’s tabloid press, Chupacabra sightings make big news in Chile, and the countries principle newspaper, El Mercurio, reported Wednesday that Chupacabras are once again causing a stir in the southern cone country.

According to the daily, a Chupacabra attacked a henhouse in San Antonio Tuesday evening, leaving every chicken dead, without blood, and with a mysterious orifice on their spines.

Flor Vásquez, 73, told police that she could not believe what she saw when she entered her henhouse. “All the chickens were dead and were sucked completely dry of blood,” she said. “But the animal that did it did not eat a single on of my birds. It’s really strange.”

One of Vásquez’s daughters, who did not want to identify herself to the press, said that she heard dogs barking wildly that night, but did not see anything abnormal after rising several times throughout the night.

Vásquez also told police that she found strange footprints on her patio with only three toes, two facing forward and one backward.

The same night, another Chupacabra sighting occurred in Curicó. Samuel Saavedra told reporters that he heard a loud noise, “as if something had jumped off the large wall surrounding the house.”

Saavedra said he saw a creature that was approximately 1.20 meters in height, furry, and with a round, bald head. The creature apparently had large eyes and an intense stare and gave Saavedra a “defiant glare.”

Saavedra said he called police and then went to spend the night at his mother’s house, being so scared that he refused to return home for 48 hours.

The last Chupacabra activity in Chile occurred in 2000, when the creatures caused widespread panic and interest in Calama after 120 sheep were killed in the course of one week.

The Internet is full of websites dedicated to the Chupacabra. The most common theory speculates that the creature is extraterrestrial, but other conspiracy theories suggest the creature to be a product of a genetic experiment carried by the U.S. government. Most scientists say the creature could be similar to a bloodsucking raccoon species found in Africa.

The first Chupacabras were reported in Puerto Rico in 1987 after farm animals around the country began dropping dead. While none of the animals were eaten, all were drained of blood and had two puncture holes in their necks.

Chupacabra Spotted in Chile