gazettextra - Milton residents Kalen Marsden and Chad Lovelace were in a canoe, fishing a bend on the east end of Rice Lake near Hickory Hills Campground. It was a mid-June day. The fish were biting.
The friends paddled along an open hillside near the edge of the small lake north of Edgerton, past a Sandhill crane that was by the water. Startled, the bird flew.
That's when they saw it.
Without warning, a huge, tan-colored cat exploded across the hillside. It streaked up the hill and vaulted into the crook of a tree about 120 feet away.
Marsden said the cat was as big as a large dog, with a long tail and a strong, angular body. He and Lovelace watched it for about five minutes.
"We were sort of drifting past, and you could see it moving around in the tree. It was making a bunch of weird, loud cat sounds. It sounded like it didn't like us around," Marsden said.
Marsden tried to photograph the big cat, but it was too far away. He said it eventually jumped from the tree and ran away. They didn't report the encounter.
"The fish were biting good, and we didn't want to get interrupted," Marsden said.
It sounds like a campfire story, but Marsden's claim represents a growing trend.
In recent weeks, the Gazette has had several unconfirmed reports from residents who believe at least one cougar—alias Mountain lion or puma—is roaming the tangled hills, swamps and fields near Edgerton.
Some have heard blood-curdling screeches in the night. Some report missing or injured livestock. Others say they've found suspicious tracks, or claim they've seen big cats flashing through the woods.
Can it be? Are cougars lurking in southern Wisconsin?
It's Possible
Doug Fendry, a biologist and wildlife supervisor with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the DNR gets about a dozen unconfirmed reports of cougar sightings a week throughout southern Wisconsin.
"They seem to be coming through Wisconsin with more frequency. It's going to continue to happen," he said.
Fendry said the local habitat could support cougars, which gravitate to thick tree growth and hilly areas. The Rock River Valley has both. Cougars also need a steady source of food, and Fendry said the area teems with their favorite dinner: deer.
Regional wildlife experts already know that a cougar population in the Black Hills region of South Dakota is growing and expanding its territory into Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.
Officials believe male cougars from the Black Hills are moving through wooded river corridors in Wisconsin, in search of possible mates, Fendry said. They're known to travel up to 800 miles.
Fendry said the DNR hasn't confirmed a female cougar in Wisconsin, and it's unclear whether the cats have set up a breeding population in the state.
"It's too early to tell," he said.
Amid scads of reports, the DNR has confirmed only four cougars statewide since 2008—all males. One was confirmed in Milton in January 2008, when a trapper followed big cat tracks into a barn near Milton and came face to face with an adult male cougar with an injured paw.
The 125-pound cat ran off, but left bloody tracks in the snow, DNR officials said.
In April 2008, the cougar turned up in Chicago, where police shot it. The DNR said blood samples proved it was the Milton cougar, and tests showed the cat was genetically similar to cougars in South Dakota.
Big cat attack?
Rural Edgerton resident Sandy Simerson said in early June, an animal attacked two horses at her farm on West Stone Farm Road, just east of Rock River and four miles south of Edgerton. Something jumped the horses from behind, "scratching" their hindquarters enough to strip away hair, she said.
The horses have healed, but Simerson said a few weeks ago her friend saw an enormous dark tan cat standing by a field along West Stone Farm Road.
Keith Warnke, director of endangered resources and non-game species for the DNR, said cougars usually leave livestock alone, but attacks aren't unheard of.
Fendry said based on Simerson's description of her horses' injuries, it's possible dogs or coyotes, which typically attack from behind, were the culprits.
"A cougar wouldn't waste time. It would go straight for the back of the skull or the throat," he said.
Reports of a possible cougar attack that killed a horse in Juneau County earlier this month sparked concerns over whether cougars could pose risks to the safety of animals and people.
State and federal wildlife officials are investigating the attacks, officials said, and the DNR is forming a plan to handle cougar reports statewide.
Cougars are currently protected in Wisconsin, but the DNR is considering protocol for control and possible euthanizing of problem cougars, Warnke said.
Proof in the mud?
In mid-July, Kathy Rudnitzki noticed she had a few chickens missing from the open-sided livestock shed at her Graf Road farm north of Edgerton. Around that time she said she'd heard loud, catlike noises coming from a hillside at night.
"It was like a hissy roar, a growl and a shriek at the same time," Rudnitzki said.
The noises and the missing chickens came a few months after Rudnitzki's brother, Edgerton resident Doug Graf, reportedly saw a large tawny-colored cat bound past him while he was riding a four-wheeler through woods that border the farm.
Rudnitzki found tracks, too—huge, clawed paw prints—in her vegetable garden. She photographed the prints, using a soda can for scale.
The Gazette asked officials from the DNR to analyze the photographs. Their prognosis: Probably not cougar tracks.
"This (track) definitely looks canid (very large dog) to me," DNR Operations Supervisor Don Bates said in an e-mail.
Bates said unlike dogs, cougars have retractable claws that don't show up in tracks.
"There are definite claws on this photo," Bates said. He noted the prints are large enough that they could have come from a wolf.
Adrian Wydeven, a mammal ecologist for the DNR and the state's leading cougar expert, said the Rudnitzkis were right to get pictures of the prints. He said it also helps to protect and preserve droppings, urine or blood by covering them with a coffee can.
He said people should contact a DNR biologist if they think they've spotted a cougar.
Bates said it's interested observers like the Rudnitzkis who could lead to the next confirmed cougar sighting.
"We take citizen observations seriously and value their input. They are our eyes and ears for some of the most interesting animal experiences," he said.
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The following are the Mothman humanoid / cryptid encounter reports collected by ufologist John Keel (The Mothman Prophecies) two years prior to the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967. The bridge connected the towns of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio River. Some of these reports are not from the area of the bridge collapse but seem to describe a similar entity. As well, some of the reports are from the general area of the bridge collapse but describe entities other than a Mothman-like being. Not all of these accounts were contained in The Mothman Prophecies. Can these reports be related to the Mothman phenomenon?
- Gallipolis, Ohio - early 1966 - night: A woman who lived in a farm had reported her cattle being mutilated by unknown assailants. One night she went out armed with a shotgun to investigate and encountered several tall men wearing white coveralls. She chased them but they ran very fast and were able to easily jump over the fences.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - March 1966 - daytime: A "reliable woman" said that she had observed a silver disc hovering above a Point Pleasant school. A male figure in a tight fitting silver coverall was "standing" (floating) outside the open door of the object in midair, gazing intently into the school playground. He had pointed features and shoulder-length hair. A similar object, she said, landed sometime later in the yard behind her home, and was witnessed by her teenaged children. A similar being was seen in this occasion as well.
- Salt Lake City, Utah - July 18, 1966: Residents of this Mormon community reported seeing a bird "about as big as a Piper Cub airplane" circle the area. Some people ran for cover while others ran for their telephones.
- Scott, Mississippi - September 1 1966 - 2:00pm: Mrs James Ikart reported seeing what looked like a man fluttering about the sky. Several other people also said they had seen it. No other information.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 1 1966: A national guardsman saw a large brownish man-shaped figure on the limb of a tree. No other information.
- Gallipolis, Ohio - November 2, 1966 - 8:00pm: The witness was out behind her building getting ready to go home when there was a sudden flash directly above her. A large cylinder shape object then appeared and landed on the nearby parking lot. The object was completely silent and the witness was unable to move as two men descended from the object and walked towards her. The men were normal looking but heavily tanned with pointed noses, pointed chins, and high cheekbones, they wore coverall like uniforms. They asked the witness several mundane questions using a singsong high-pitched voice; they then walked back to their craft, which took off at high speed. The witness lived in a farm and had been having problems with missing cattle around the same time.
- Near Parkersburg, West Virginia - November 2, 1966 - night: Two men traveling by car on highway 77 watched an elongated object descend from the sky directly in front of their vehicle. They stopped the car and saw a man emerged from the object and walk over to them. The man was human looking and was grinning broadly. He was wearing a black coat and kept his arms folded out of sight under his armpits. The black-garbed stranger asked them several pointless questions before returning to the dark cylinder shaped craft, which quickly rose and disappeared into the sky. This incident occurred on the same night as the Woodrow Derenberger contact-landing case in the same general area.
- Clendenin, West Virginia - November 12, 1966 - daytime: Five men were digging a grave in a cemetery near Clendenin when something that looked like "a brown human being" fluttered from some nearby trees & maneuvered low over their heads. It was in sight for about a minute.
- Salem, West Virginia - November 14, 1966 - 10:30pm: Newell Partridge was sitting at home when suddenly the TV blanked out. A real fine herringbone pattern appeared on the tube, and at the same time the set started a loud whining noise, winding up to a high pitch, peaking and breaking off, as if you were on a musical scale. It sounded like a generator winding up. Outside on the porch, his dog Bandit began wailing. Partridge picked up a flashlight and went outside to investigate. The dog was sitting at the end of the porch, howling down toward the hay barn in the bottom. Partridge shined the light in that direction, and it picked up two red circles, or eyes, which looked like bicycle reflectors. There was something about the eyes that was difficult to explain. The eyes were huge, plainly visible at a distance of 150 yards. As soon as the flashlight picked out the "eyes" Bandit snarled and ran toward them. A "cold chill" swept over the man and he felt a wave of fear, which kept him from following the dog. That night he slept with a loaded gun beside his bed. The next day he went looking for his dog. They found tracks. At the approximate position of the "eyes" he found a large number of dog tracks. The tracks were going in a circle, as if the dog had been chasing his tail. Then the tracks vanished, the dog was never seen again.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 16, 1966 - 9:00pm: Mr. & Mrs Raymond Wamsley & Mrs Marcella Bennett were driving to the house of Ralph Thomas, they saw a big red light maneuvering over the TNT dump area. When they arrived & gout out, a "big gray thing bigger than a man, with glowing red eyes" rose up from the ground. They ran into the house, but the creature shuffled onto the porch & peered into windows. It was gone by the time police arrived.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 16, 1966 - midnight: Mr. & Mrs Steve Mallette & Mr. & Mrs Roger Scarberry reported that their car was followed about midnight by a gray "bird like creature" 6-7 ft tall with a 10 foot wingspan. When the car headlights struck, its eyes, 2" in diameter, glowed red. It finally scurried into a field and disappeared.
- Cheshire, Ohio - November 17, 1966 - night: On Route 7, a gray man shaped creature with red eyes & a 10-foot wingspread pursued a boy's car. No other information.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 18, 1966 - night: Capt. Paul Yoder & B Enochs saw a huge bird like creature, with big red eyes, in the TNT dump area. No other information.
- Campbell's Creek, West Virginia - November 20, 1966: Six teenagers saw a gray man sized creature with red eyes flying over the area. No other information.
- Charleston, West Virginia - November 21, 1966 - 10:15pm: Richard West called police to report that a "batman" was sitting on a roof next to his house. "It looks like a man 6 ft tall & has a wingspread of 6-8 ft," he said. "It had great big red eyes. It flew straight up like a helicopter.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 24, 1966 - 7:15am: Mr. Thomas Ury was driving home in daylight when the "Mothman," a bird-like creature 6 ft tall and with a 10 ft wing spread, circled over his car. He speeded up to 70-75 mph, but it kept up with him. He had been in the area of the TNT dumpsite.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 24, 1966 - night: Mary Myer, a reporter, saw the glowing red eyes of the "Mothman" when she visited an abandoned power plant in Point Pleasant, where it had been seen before.
- St. Albans, West Virginia - November 26, 1966 - evening: Mrs Ruth Foster saw the "Mothman" standing on her front lawn. It was about 6 ft tall and had a "funny little face" with "big red eyes that popped out." She screamed and ran into the house.
- New Haven, West Virginia - November 27, 1966 - 10:30am: Miss Connie Carpenter saw the "Mothman," a tall figure in gray, standing on a golf course. It unfolded 10-foot wings & flew directly at her windshield; she saw its red eyes; then it veered off & disappeared. Her eyes were red, swollen, & itchy for 2 weeks afterwards.
- St. Albans, West Virginia - November 27, 1966 - night: 13-year old Sheila Cain and her sister were walking home when they saw a being standing by the road; it was 7 ft tall, and gray & white with big red eyes. They screamed & ran home; it flew low over them.
- Gallipolis, Ohio - December 4, 1966 - 3:00pm: At the Gallipolis Airport, 5 pilots saw what at first they took for an airplane. It was a winged form about 300 ft up, traveling at 70 mph without flapping its wide wings; it had a long neck & was turning its head from side to side.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - December 6, 1966 - night: Two adults, one a high school teacher, were driving near the local TNT dump site when they saw a giant gray man like figure with glowing red eyes.
- Near Gallipolis, Ohio - December 7, 1966 - night: Four women driving on Route 33 saw a brownish silver man-shaped flying creature with glowing red eyes. No other information.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - January 11, 1967 - daytime: Mrs Park McDaniel was outside her home when she saw what she first took to be a small plane approaching; as it drew closer she saw it was man-shaped and had wings. The creature swooped low over the witness and circled above a nearby building before going out of sight.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - Spring 1967 - various: Several local residents saw three very tall, dark complexioned men in the area. These men knocked on doors late at night, purportedly selling magazines. They spoke fluent unaccented English and were described as "good-looking" with heavily tanned skin. Their height and broadness impressed the witnesses the most. These men were always on foot; apparently they did not have a car.
- Bogle Ridge, West Virginia - March 1967 - late night: A man and a woman were out parked in an isolated area "sky watching" when they saw a group of red, green and white lights descend from the sky and land in a nearby gully. Moments later there was a bright flash of light and the man's face began tingling. He then heard voices outside the car and there was a sudden knock on the car window. Outside they both saw a man holding a red light standing by the car. Using mental telepathy the strange figure asked the male witness several questions then told him to leave the car, the witness was then led off into the darkness. Several personal items were missing from the witness upon returning to the vehicle.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - March 1967 - late night: 16-year old Linda Lilly woke up one night and saw a large figure towering over her bed. "It was a man," she said. " A big man. Very broad. I couldn't see his faced very well but I could see that he was grinning at me." Linda got up from bed with a terrible scream. She cried out there was a man in her room. "He walked around the bed and stood right over me". Linda declared, "I screamed again and hid under the covers, when I looked again he was gone." She then ran into her mother's room. When asked for a full description of the man, Linda said she thought he had been wearing "a checkered shirt". Around the same time, her mother, Doris Lilly began to receive strange phone calls at home. Each evening around 1700 her phone would ring, and when she answered she heard only a bizarre metallic voice speaking in an incomprehensible language. It was guttural and rapid. These calls came only when she was alone.
- Near Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, West Virginia - April 1967 - night: On a rainy night a man was driving along Route 2 when a large black form rose from the woods and flew over his car. "It was at least ten feet wide," he claimed. He stepped on the gas but it kept right up with him at about 70 mph. It then moved ahead of him and turned toward the river.
- Near Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia - April 7, 1967 - 11:15pm: Mabel McDaniel, John Keel, and two other women went to a hill, when they spotted the usual reddish glow on a nearby hill. A second one popped up a short distance from the first. Keel flashed his light at them but nothing happened. So he climbed a fence and walked into a field to try to get a closer look. As he crossed the field he suddenly noticed a pale bluish ball of light hovering high in the trees of an orchard behind the nearby farmhouse. The light moved about from tree to tee as though it were following Keel's movements. He flashed his light at it and it flared with a dazzling brilliance, dimmed, and vanished. The lights on the southern ridge also brightened for a moment and then went out. Coming back to the car, Keel found all three women in a very frightened state. Later they related how they had seen a very tall man in the field, which climbed over a fence then crossed behind their vehicle. Terrified they locked the doors and ran the windows up.
- Near Point Pleasant, West Virginia - October 1967 - night: Three men driving along Route 2 sighted a tall broad shouldered dark caped man walking besides the road. They stopped and looked back but the figure had disappeared. There were open fields on both sides of the road.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - November 2, 1967 - late night: A woman working in her kitchen heard a loud squeaking sound coming from outside, she looked out and saw a huge shadow spreading across the grass, and then a figure described as tall, man-shaped, and gray in color appeared. It glided quickly across a field and disappeared into the woods.
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia - December 22, 1967 - late afternoon: Soon after the local Silver Bridge had tragically collapsed killing dozens, Mary Hyre, a local newspaper stringer sat in her office sifting through the list of casualties, when two strangers walked in the office. They seemed almost like twins, both were short, with dark complexions, & somewhat Oriental in appearance. Both wore black overcoats. They seemed only interested on the UFO activity in the area and asked several peculiar questions, including: "What would you do if someone did order you to stop writing about flying saucers?" Mrs Hyre did not see them leave. Later that afternoon another stranger walked into the office. He was slightly built, about five feet-seven inches tall, with black piercing eyes and unruly black hair. His complexion was even darker that the previous two visitors & he also looked Oriental. His hands were especially unusual, with unduly long tapering fingers. He wore a cheap looking ill-fitting suit, and his tie was knotted in an odd fashion way. He did not wear an overcoat, despite the fierce cold outside. He spoke in a peculiar stammering monotone and argued with Mrs Hyre about UFO's. He soon left and later visited the home of several local witnesses.
NOTE: What is the Mothman? Is it a terrestrial being...a hybrid...an alien...or an angel? Were the point Pleasant sightings a form of mass hysteria? Who were the strange men roaming around the town? I have my theory but I hesitate to state it...at least for now. Lon
whtimes - The pen is mightier than the sword – an iconic proverb coined by Victorian novelist, poet and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839.
It’s a phrase which makes regular appearances to this very day; just like its creator, the ghost of whom is said to haunt the gothic Times Territory stately home where he once lived.
Lord David Cobbold, the great-great-grandson of Bulwer-Lytton, made the revelation about Knebworth House on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.
The 73-year-old told how he hears the whispers of his ancestor and other spectres on the estate, which has been home to the Lytton family since 1490.
“I hear them and feel their presence but my wife sees them,” he said.
“I have the feeling that Bulwer-Lytton is still there.”
Lord Cobbold, who established Knebworth’s tradition of hosting rock concerts back in the 1970s, added: “It’s the spirit of the house.
“You just feel that this is a rather special place to be.”
Born in London in May 1803, Edward Bulwer-Lytton attended Cambridge University before becoming a Member of Parliament and a prolific novelist.
His many popular books include The Caxtons and The Last Days of Pompeii.
He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866 and died at Torquay, in Devon, in 1873.
********** The Legends of Knebworth House, Hertfordshire
Victorian novelist, poet and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Knebworth has a number of legends and ghost stories, it was home to Sir Bulwer Lytton, the Victorian author with an avid interest in the occult. He was certainly involved with many people who were major players in occult thought from that time, including Eliphas Levi, the famous French Magus who visited Knebworth on several occasions. Bulwer invited the famous medium Daniel Dunglass Home to Knebworth, they held a séance with a group of friends, which is said to have resulted in some strange phenomena.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton had strong ties with the house so it is not surprising to find that his presence is still felt there. His study remains much as it was when he was alive and visitors speak of strange uneasy feelings when they are in there. This feeling pervades both the study and the adjoining drawing room and is so strong that cleaning staff refuse to work there on their own.
An older tradition suggests that the house is haunted by a radiant or yellow boy, a spirit attached to the Lytton family and a relatively common ghost of old families and family castles. The appearance of the boy is said to foretell a rise to power but a violent death. Lord Castlereagh is said to have been the last one to see him, the spectre drew its fingers across its throat in front of him. In 1822 Lord Castlereagh committed suicide by cutting his own throat.
The house is also said to be haunted by the noise of spinning, said to originate from a spirit called Spinning Jenny who was locked away in a room to keep her from a lover of low birth. According to Jennifer Westwood in her scholarly book 'Albion' Paladin, 1987, the story was invented around 1800 by a Miss James, a guest at a Christmas party. As the story goes, Jenny Spinner was a young girl who was working on the estate in the 18th Century. For reasons unknown she was imprisoned in Knebworth House's east wing (no longer standing) with nothing to do but spin yarn for cloth. The grounds for her imprisonment are unclear but it is popularly believed in the village that one of Lytton's wily forebears locked the girl up after she fell pregnant with his child. The scandal that a love child would have caused was enough to ensure that poor Jenny Spinner was locked away. Ask a local and they will tell you that Jenny went mad and died in her room.
The story, as with all good tales of ghouls and goblins, does not end there. Since her death, the sound of a spinning wheel can sometimes be heard throughout the halls of Knebworth House. The news the spinning portends is not good, for it is said that when spinning is heard the death of a Lytton is imminent.
Other ghosts include a girl with long blond hair who haunts the Queen Elizabeth room. Recently an American guest woke to find the girl leaning over her. She may be the same ghost that haunts the picture gallery and has occasionally been seen though no one knows who she is.
The house and the grounds are well worth a visit, a nearby wooded area has some Bronze Age round barrows, evidence of older occupation in the area.
nytimesThe prehistoric monument of Stonehenge stands tall in the British countryside as one of the last remnants of the Neolithic Age. Recently it has also become the latest symbol of another era: the new fiscal austerity.
Renovations — including a plan to replace the site’s run-down visitors center with one almost five times bigger and to close a busy road that runs along the 5,000-year-old monument — had to be mothballed in June. The British government had suddenly withdrawn £10 million, or $16 million, in financing for the project as part of a budget squeeze.
Stonehenge, once a temple with giant stone slabs aligned in a circle to mark the passage of the sun, is among the most prominent victims of the government’s spending cuts. The decision was heavily criticized by local lawmakers, especially because Stonehenge, a Unesco World Heritage site, was part of London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
The shabby visitors center there now is already too small for the 950,000 people who visit Stonehenge each year, let alone the additional onslaught of tourists expected for the Games, the lawmakers say.
“It’s a disgrace,” said Ian West, a Wiltshire councilor. “The visitor facilities are definitely not fit for purpose.”
Alan Brown, who was visiting from Australia this week, agreed. “They should really treat this site as the best prehistoric site,” Mr. Brown said. “There is so much more they could do to improve it.”
Stonehenge is the busiest tourist attraction in Britain’s southwest, topping even Windsor Castle. But no major improvements have been made to the facilities there since they were built 40 years ago.
For now, portable toilets lead from a crammed parking lot, via a makeshift souvenir shop in a tent, to a ticket office opposite a small kiosk that sells coffee and snacks.
The overhaul was scheduled for next spring. Plans by the architectural firm Denton Corker Marshall would keep the stone monument itself unchanged. But the current ticket office and shop would be demolished and a new visitors center would be built on the other side of the monument, about two and a half kilometers, or 1.5 miles, from the stones.
The center would include a shop almost five times the size of the current one, a proper restaurant, three times as many parking spots and an exhibition space to provide more information about Stonehenge’s history.
A transit system would shuttle visitors between the center and the stones while footpaths would encourage tourists to walk to the monument and explore the surrounding burial hills. The closed road would be grassed over to improve the surrounding landscape.
Last year, the £27 million project won the backing of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. After more than 25 years of bickering with local communities about how and where to build the new center, planning permission was granted in January. Construction was supposed to start next year and be completed in time for the Olympics — but the economic downturn has changed those plans.
The new prime minister, David Cameron, has reversed many of his predecessor’s promises as part of a program to cut more than £99 billion annually over the next five years to help close a gaping budget deficit. The financing for Stonehenge fell in the first round of cuts, worth about £6.2 billion, from the budget for the current year, along with support for a hospital and the British Film Institute.
“We are frustrated and disappointed,” Peter Carson, head of Stonehenge, said, standing in a windowless office at the site surrounded by boxes filled with toys and other souvenirs from the gift shop. It is now unclear whether someone else may step in to pay for the new visitors center.
English Heritage, a partly government-financed organization that owns Stonehenge and more than 400 other historic sites in the country, is now aggressively looking for private donations. But the economic downturn has made the endeavor more difficult.
Gary Norman, a tourist from Phoenix, said it was obvious that the visitors center was too small, but he acknowledged that “right now, with a global recession, £10 million is a lot of money.”
Hunched over architectural renderings of the new center, Loraine Knowles, Stonehenge’s project director, said she was disappointed that the government had withdrawn money while continuing to support museums in London, like the Tate and the British Museum.
But Ms. Knowles said she was hopeful that English Heritage could raise the money elsewhere. Stonehenge, she said, could then also become “a shining example of how philanthropy could work.”
**********
Oregon's Monster Mushroom Is World's Biggest Living Thing
independent - The largest living organism ever found has been discovered in an ancient American forest.
The Armillaria ostoyae, popularly known as the honey mushroom, started from a single spore too small to see without a microscope. It has been spreading its black shoestring filaments, called rhizomorphs, through the forest for an estimated 2,400 years, killing trees as it grows. It now covers 2,200 acres (880 hectares) of the Malheur National Forest, in eastern Oregon.
The outline of the giant fungus stretches 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) across, and it extends an average of three feet (one metre) into the ground. It covers an area as big as 1,665 football fields.
The discovery came after Catherine Parks, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in La Grande, Oregon, in 1998 heard about a big tree die-off from root rot in the forest east of Prairie City.
Using aerial photos, Ms Parks staked out an area of dying trees and collected root samples from 112. She identified the fungus through DNA testing. Then, by comparing cultures of the fungus grown from the 112 samples, she determined that 61 were from the same organism, meaning a single fungus had grown bigger than anything anyone had ever described before.
On the surface, the only evidence of the fungus are clumps of golden mushrooms that pop up in the autumn with the rain. "They are edible, but they don't taste the best," said Tina Dreisbach, a botanist and mycologist with the US Forest Service in Corvallis, Oregon. "I would put lots of butter and garlic on them."
Digging into the roots of an affected tree, something that looks like white latex paint can be seen. These are mats of mycelium, which draw water and carbohydrates from the tree to feed the fungus and interfere with the tree's absorption of water and nutrients. The long rhizomorphs that stretch into the soil invade tree roots through a combination of pressure and enzyme action.
In 1992, another Armillaria ostoyae was found in Washington state covering 1,500 acres, near Mount Adams, making it the largest known organism at the time.
"We just decided to go out looking for one bigger than the last claim," said Gregory Filip, associate professor of integrated forest protection at Oregon State University, and an expert in Armillaria. "There hasn't been anything measured with any scientific technique that has shown any plant or animal to be larger than this."
He said scientists want to learn to control Armillaria because it kills trees, but they also realise it has served a purpose in nature for millions of years.
**********
Silk 'Invisibility Cloak' Created By Scientists
telegraph - At the moment the cloak only works for light outside the visible spectrum, in the terahertz band between radio and infrared. But its developers, at Boston University and Tufts University, believe that it could be made to work at far smaller wavelengths, possibly even including visible light, according to Discovery News.
The researchers hope it will have applications in medical science, as well as opening the possibility of making people or objects invisible.
The "metamaterial" is made of silk covered in tiny gold structures, each a tiny spiral known as a "split ring resonator" or SSR. SSRs have fascinating effects on light - they can absorb, or reflect, all the light at a given wavelength, or bend that light around an object. The silk metamaterial has 10,000 SSRs per square centimetre.
Normally, terahertz waves would pass through silk unaffected. But the new meta-silk resonated when the light struck it.
Since silk is "biocompatible" - it doesn't spark an immune reaction when implanted in the human body - the meta-silk can be used widely in medicine. Fiorenzo Omenetto, one of the Tufts researchers, told Discovery: "This is an unusual angle for a metamaterial because of silk's ability to interface with the human body."
While the researchers say it could be used for Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks for whole people, the medical angle is its most promising one. Radiologists could cloak organs in the material, allowing them to see past to the hidden parts behind. It could also be used as a blood glucose sensor for diabetes sufferers: as the levels of glucose change, so will the metamaterial. The change can be transmitted as radio (or other) waves and detected by a mobile phone.
Last year, British researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Southampton were given a £4.9 million grant to investigate metamaterials and their possible applications in medicine, defence, security and communication.
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Thousands Of Dead Fish Line Jersey Shore
nbcphiliadelphia - Tens of thousands of dead fish are lining the Jersey Shore -- as far as the eye can see -- beginning at High’s Beach along the Delaware Bay in Middle Township Wednesday.
“Once you figured out what it was, the smell hit you,” Flavia Scotto of Burlington, N.J. said about the bizarre fish kill.
Believed to be peanut bunker fish -- a bait fish -- each measures about three-inches long and they all appear to be the same species.
“It looked like a foam coming in and then I said, ‘Oh, a few fish,’ then, ‘No! It’s all fish,’” Christine Cummings said about her 7 a.m. walk on the beach Wednesday.
The thousands of stinky corpses washed up over night, as there was no sign of them Tuesday.
“It’s scary,” Cummings said. “We were swimming in this since last week and it was wonderful. Nice and clean.”
The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection has launched an investigation into the kill. Officials say initial water tests show no sign of toxic phytoplankton like red tide. They are still measuring oxygen levels.
While the DEP investigates, area residents and renters wait to see what explanation officials will have for them. But until then, they must hold their noses.
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California Surfer Films Great White Sharks Circling His Board
With a video camera attached to a 9-foot pole, surfer Chuck Patterson filmed two huge great white sharks measuring 9-fet and 7-feet, respectively, circling beneath his surfboard in the waters off San Diego.
In 2008, BBC cameras filmed two Swedish sisters throwing themselves into traffic on the M6. When it was shown on BBC One, nearly 7 million viewers were glued to their screens, and millions more watched it later on YouTube.
The footage was shocking. One previewer wrote "On no account miss this documentary. It opens with what is perhaps the most extraordinary footage I've seen on TV".
But this amazing footage was only part of an even more incredible story, one which could not be told at the time for legal reasons.
Now, two years later, this documentary reveals the full story of the hours just before the cameras captured that motorway footage, and the even more chilling story of what happened over next 72 hours, which left one of the sisters fleeing the scene of a crime, after she had stabbed a man through the chest.
Those who were at the centre of this fascinating legal case, including the police and Crown prosecution service, reveal the complex issues involved in both bringing charges and taking this disturbing case to trial.
A leading criminal psychiatrist, Dr. Nigel Eastman, explains the difficulties the judicial system has in achieving justice and deciding punishment when dealing with mental illness.
NOTE: On the most recent 'Fact or Faked: The Paranormal Files' the team investigated the 'Paulding Light' phenomenon near Watersmeet, Michigan. They concluded that there is no explanation for the light. I have posted some information below as well as an update to a reader's experience at the location...Lon
There are many popular explanations for the cause of the phenomenon. Theories range from radioactive gas, anomalies in the earth's magnetic field, glowing plasma, or swamp gas. Skeptics assert that the light is nothing more than headlights in the distance. Others believe that the paranormal has a hand in the lights origin. One popular paranormal tale describes the ghost of a brakeman killed in the nineteenth century as the cause. Alternative paranormal theories include UFO's and other ghosts.
Several amateur studies have been conducted, all of them concluding that the lights are indeed the result of the mid-1960s rerouting of US 45, giving the viewing spot a slightly angled view of sporadic traffic along the new highway. The colors then match headlights, tail lights, and the warning lights of the occasional emergency vehicle. Proponents of supernatural explanations discount these studies, claiming that the lights studied in these cases are not, in fact, the actual Lights of Paulding.
Another popular paranormal explanation is the ghost of a mailman, who was carrying out the mail about 60 years ago in the northwoods with a dogsled. Because the mail was running late public authorities were looking for the missing mailman and found him and his dogs dead on the spot where nowadays the Paulding Light is observed.
********** 'Paulding Light' Excursion Results in Another Discovery
MUFON witness report: My son and I wanted to investigate the Paulding Lights Mystery. So the morning of March 1, 2009, after I had gotten off work, we took an Northwest Airline flight from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Iron Mountain, Michigan. We landed about 4:30PM and I think we left Iron Mountain's airport, called Ford Airfield, about 5:30PM. We rented a car and drove to Paulding. It was about +2 above zero when we left the airport. We drove from Iron Mountain MI and Paulding MI via State Road 2 to Watersmeet then State Road 45 to Paulding. We made one stop for coffee (but I would have to go back and re-due the route to remember which gas station we stopped at). The sun was starting to set low and I told my son that he should do an intro to our video explaining what and where we where going to investigate. As he turned on the camera, the camera filmed something in the back seat of our car, however, we never had time to review the film until three months later. I have asked the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota to see if someone there might have an idea on what this might be. I also posted the video on YouTube to see if anyone else might of filmed or seen the same thing. YouTube post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YVObeD6qGI
Here are Your Following Points:
1. We were driving to Pauling Michigan from Iron Mountian Airport. 2. Reviewing the film we took looking for the Paulding Lights. 3. Dimensional Person. 4. We did not noticed anything while we where driving. Not until I reviewed the film 3 months later did we see the thing in the back seat. 5. Describe your feelings, reactions and actions, during and after sighting the object. Normal 6. How did you lose sight of the object? Only the camera saw it.
We were using a JVC compact camcorder model GR-AXM17U, it uses VHS-C tapes. I really would like someone to take a real good look at this film.
Sincerely,
SFC Luis J. Soria (ret)
NOTE: You don't normally see a spirit anomaly report at MUFON. I don't really know what to make of this but there is probably a plausible explanation, though, the glowing of this anomaly is very interesting...Lon
UPDATE: I received the following from our spiritual adviser and clairvoyant 'SW':
Male child spirit, connected to a particular spot in the area where video was taken, near (or on) a curve in road. There are the letters "D" and an "L" that are important but don't know if that is from a name, location, etc.
Child sits in back seat like he did before his death, over and over. Child is very sad. He rides in many cars though most all never know he is there, always going the same direction, to the same place he died.
UPDATE: Hello everyone on Phantoms & Monsters! We appreciate you guys for posting our video here on your site.
In our continuing exploration of The Paulding Lights and this new Spirit Anomaly/Alien type Being we filmed in the back seat of our car, I present to all for their studies, an digital remastered film of this Blue Alien.
This film has been studied by The University of Minnesota,The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) offices in Minnesota and Texas, The Tesla Society, Jose Escamilia, Ed Grimsly and NASA. At this time, NO ONE knows what the blue object is.
If anyone has any comments please feel free to email me at ljsoria@yahoo.com
Soon we will travel back up to Paulding for an extended stay and try to see what we capture on film again. Any advice is highly welcomed.
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The Frederick Valentich Incident is probably the most significant UFO encounter in Australia. This account involves a young 20 year old pilot, Frederick Valentich, who filed a flight plan at Moorabin for a night flight to King Island where he was to pick up some friends and then fly back. King Island is in the Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania.
On October 21st 1978 at 1819hrs, Frederick Valentich took off in his single-engined Cessna 182 from Moorabin Airport, Melbourne, Australia. As he was flying along the Bass Strait at about 5000ft altitude he told Air Traffic Controllers in Melbourne that he could see a large aircraft below him and wanted to know if they were aware of any aircraft in the area. Melbourne ATC said there were no known aircraft in the area and asked if he could identify it. Frederick said he couldn't identify it but it had four bright lights. The UFO then passed over him and appeared to be playing some sort of game with him. He said that the object was a long shape, very fast with a green light and sort of metallic, and that it was not an aircraft. The object was orbiting him and then just vanished. The UFO then reappeared approaching from the south-west. Fredrick reported that his engine was rough-idling and coughing. Melbourne ATC asked what his intentions were and he replied ' My intentions are - ah - to go to King Island - ah - Melbourne. That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and it's not an aircraft.'
Valentich filed a flight plan to take off from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and to land at Kings Island, Bass Straits, Tasmania
The last transmission from Frederick Valentich was at 1912hrs and an alert was immediately declared. When at 1933hrs it was evident that the Cessna 182 (Delta Sierra Juliet) had not arrived at King Island a full scale Search and rescue operation was launched. After five days of searching no sign of the pilot or aircraft was found despite the fact that the Cessna was equipped with a radio survival beacon.
The weather at the time of this incident was clear with a trace of Stratocumulus cloud at 5000-7000ft, excellent visibility with light winds. The aircraft was fully refuelled with approximately 5hrs of flying time and was equipped with 4 life jackets. There had also been many UFO sightings from people before and after this incident. Whatever the truth may be, the fact remains that Frederick Valentich vanished in mysterious circumstances, possibly UFO related, and that the mystery lingers to this day.
Transcript of transmissions between Melbourne ATC & Frederick Valentich (Delta Sierra Juliet)
1906:14 DSJ Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand? FS Delta Sierra Juliet, no known traffic. DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, I am, seems to be a large aircraft below five thousand. 1906:44 FS Delta Sierra Juliet, What type of aircraft is it? DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, I cannot affirm, it is four bright, it seems to me like landing lights. 1907 FS Delta Sierra Juliet. 1907:31 DSJ Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet, the aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above. FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, and it is a large aircraft, confirmed? DSJ Er-unknown, due to the speed it's travelling, is there any air force aircraft in the vicinity? FS Delta Sierra Juliet, no known aircraft in the vicinity. 1908:18 DSJ Melbourne, it's approaching now from due east towards me. FS Delta Sierra Juliet. 1908:41 DSJ (open microphone for two seconds.) 1908:48 DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, it seems to me that he's playing some sort of game, he's flying over me two, three times at speeds I could not identify. 1909 FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what is your actual level? DSJ My level is four and a half thousand, four five zero zero. FS Delta Sierra Juliet, and you confirm you cannot identify the aircraft? DSJ Affirmative. FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, stand by. 1909:27 DSJ Melbourne, Delta Sierra Juliet, it's not an aircraft it is (open microphone for two seconds). 1909:42 FS Delta Sierra Juliet, can you describe the -er- aircraft? DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, as it's flying past it's a long shape (open microphone for three seconds) cannot identify more than it has such speed (open microphone for three seconds). It's before me right now Melbourne. 1910 FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger and how large would the - er - object be? 1910:19 DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, Melbourne, it seems like it's stationary. What I'm doing right now is orbiting and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also. It's got a green light and sort of metallic like, it's all shiny on the outside. FS Delta Sierra Juliet 1910:46 DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet (open microphone for three seconds) It's just vanished. FS Delta Sierra Juliet 1911 DSJ Melbourne, would you know what kind of aircraft I've got? Is it a military aircraft? FS Delta Sierra Juliet, Confirm the - er ~ aircraft just vanished. DSJ Say again. FS Delta Sierra Juliet, is the aircraft still with you? DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet; it's (open microphone for two seconds) now approaching from the south-west. FS Delta Sierra Juliet 1911:50 DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, the engine is rough-idling. I've got it set at twenty three twenty-four and the thing is coughing. FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what are your intentions? DSJ My intentions are - ah - to go to King Island - ah - Melbourne. That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and it's not an aircraft. FS Delta Sierra Juliet. 1912:28 DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet. Melbourne (open microphone for seventeen seconds).
AUSTRALIAN PILOT DISAPPEARS AFTER REPORTING CHASE BY UFO'S:
Boats and aircraft have found no trace of the 20-year old Australian pilot who disappeared with his plane on Saturday night after radioing that he was being chased by a UFO. Frederick Valentich was on a 125 mile training flight in his single engine Cessna 182 along the coast of Bass Strait when he told air traffic controllers in Melbourne that he was being buzzed by a UFO with 4 bright lights about 1000 feet above him.
Controllers said his last message was taped and was: "It's approaching from due east towards me. It seems to be playing some sort of game... flying at a speed I can't estimate. It's not an aircraft. It's...It is flying past. It is a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It's coming for me right now." A minute later: "It seems to be stationary. I'm also orbiting and the thing is orbiting on top of me also. It has a green light and a sort of metallic light on the outside." Valentich then radioed that his engine was running roughly. His last words were: "It is not an aircraft."
The Australian Air Force said it had received 11 reports from people along the coast who said they saw UFOs on Saturday night, but the Transport Department was skeptical. Ken Williams, a spokesman for the department, said, "It's funny all these people ringing up with UFO reports well after Valentich's disappearance. It seems people often decide after the event, they too had seen strange lights. But although we can't take them too seriously, we can never discourage such reports when investigating a plane's disappearance."
Some Transport Dept officials have speculated that Valentich became disoriented and saw his own lights reflected in the water, or lights from a nearby island, while flying upside down.
Valentich's father, Guio, said his son used to study UFOs "as a hobby using information he had received from the Air Force. He was not the kind of person who would make up stories. Everything had to be very correct and positive for him. The fact that they have found no trace of him really verifies the fact that UFOs could have been there." Guio Valentich said he hoped his son had not crashed but has been taken by a UFO. NOTE: if this account wasn't already strange enough, there was another bizarre incident five years later in the Soviet Union that pertains to this case (posted below):
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Five years after:
One evening in August 1982 near the village of Iman, Primorskiy krai, Far East, Russia Lieutenant Colonel Igor Valerianovich Kazantsev, Commander of a frontier guard detachment near the hamlet of Iman, received a report of a suspicious man arrested by soldiers from his unit near the Soviet-Chinese border. One of the soldiers, Nikolay D (later to become a resident of Sevastopol, Crimea) in 2003 wrote to the Simferopol based “Secret Doctrine” Newspaper, confirming that he took over the watch on that date to watch over the Russian-Chinese border.
Approaching evening near the foot of one of the hills they saw smoke from a fire and soon detained a man about 40-years of age, dressed in a cowboy shirt, thick wide trousers, outfitted with “complete tourist gear”. The man assured the KGB sergeant that he had the necessary permission from local authorities of Primorskiy kray to do some prospecting in the area. Orders were given to detain the mysterious “geologist”. He was taken to the unit duty officer. During a search the soldiers found a very powerful searchlight and a strange dark elongated object, like a small flask with two dozen dots printed on its upper section without any visible pattern. The dots formed a strange image. Nikolay D paid special attention to the strange dot-like markings on the object.
The stranger showed a document indicating that his name was Sarychev (possibly an AKA, real name being possibly V. Sosnin). He also showed a letter from Academician Vsevolod S Troitskiy, correspondent-member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Chairman of the Commission for Study of Anomalous Phenomena. (Such a commission did truly exist). The man stated that he was engaged in prospecting in the area, but soon admitted under the pressure of interrogation the he was indeed involved in “UFO research”.
The strange black flask or capsule attracted everyone’s attention. The man stated that he found the capsule at an altitude of 1204 (m over sea level). Inside the capsule a plate rolled like a tube was found. When the KGB officer extracted the plate, it immediately straightened up emitting a slight rustling sound. The plate had an English text, written with a substance bright orange in color. The text was later translated to Russian and following is an approximate translation: “I am Frederick Valentich, Junior, pilot. I was captured together with my plane Cessna-182 by a UFO on October 21 1978 145 miles south of Melbourne. Because of very limited time and of extreme danger to my state, here is what is most important.
What was proposed to me was beyond my imagination. Later I came to the conclusion that several factors influenced my psyche, at first, the reality of the UFOs and their pilots, and secondly, their proposal for me to become the pilot of one of their aircraft(!).
Here is proof of contact with another civilization and the man who achieved this is I, Frederick Valentich. That was what I thought. But the most tempting was their fantastic proposal for me to stay in my same physical body, so I have not aged over my current 25 years of age (my age when I signed such a “contract” with the aliens). This proposal “eclipsed everything” even those few purely human affections I’ve had. At the moment of the deal I remembered only that my mother had died, I am single with no children. I didn’t even remember my aunt and two of my ex girlfriends I have been close with, this is additional evidence of a strong psychological influence put upon me.
The giant UFO I have to work in is a “cargo ship”. The crew, except those humans which were captured just like me, are 2-3 aliens. All belong to a civilization located in the Pleiades constellation and represent an interplanetary organization with 6 civilizations from Orion, Swan and the Big Dog constellation; our Solar system is also part of it.
Like us they’re also albumen organic entities, breathing oxygen and of similar body build.
Answering such questions like, what are they doing here, they stated on numerous occasions that they were engaged in research work. But according to my own observations that is only a mere screen covering their “real” activities and to calm the conscience of other earthlings who signed such compelling contacts like mine.
Our basic load from Earth---is liquid oxygen obtained from plants installed onboard the ship. These “researchers” impudently steal the most valuable part of Earthly atmosphere. And idiots like me are actively helping them in this. The main route of our craft—Earth and Jupiter’s satellite Callisto where a huge constantly operating base is located.
Oxygen is loaded into balloons made of plastic-metal. Volume can be estimated in weight---the large balloon weighs no less than 110 pounds, the smaller ones—2 times less than that. The maximum quantity of balloons that our ship has taken for one flight to Callisto is more than 12,000 large and 5k small balloons. Imagine how much oxygen they take from Earth! We make 2 flights per week sometimes. God help me and those who find this letter! Russian or Chinese---I ask to give this capsule to the Australian embassy and to the representatives of our embassy, give it to scientists for further study!!!”
To establish the authenticity of this material evidence, it was sent to several scientific research laboratories of the USSR for secret analyses. Results of the research exceeded all expectations. Documents with the results of the study were compiled, stamped and signed by the expert laboratory of KGB USSR, document dated September 29 1982. Institute of Astronomy of USSR dated October 10 1982. Institute of the Technical Physics USSR, Chelyabinsk-40 (nuclear military industrial center), and dated November 12 1982, all the documents were classified TOP SECRET.
Here is the opinion of a member-correspondent of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Dr. Nechai PhD, addressed to the special expert commission in the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. “The amazing physical and mechanical characteristics of the materials, their uncommon chemical compound and structure allow to make the following conclusions:
- …materials obtained by the technologies, unknown yet to humankind and apparently outside the Earth. The plate is the source of unknown radioactive emanation of colossal penetrating ability and spoils all other types of cinema and photo films…
- Many other facts, described by Valentich were summoned to the systematic analyses according to modernized authorship-detection program created in our institute. The result, the author, Frederick Valentich couldn’t invent all of that alone and even to extract that from known science fiction literature, actually being taken onboard a UFO in 1978…”
What happened to the material evidence next is the following. The mysterious plate was transferred to the Australian embassy. A special commission was created there; a graphic, logical study was made. Style and grammar of the letter was compared with other material written by Valentich, obtained from the Melbourne Air Club (like flight records written by Valentich). The Australian commission came to the conclusion that the text on the plate and the records in the flight journal from the Melbourne aviation club belonged to one and the same person---none other than Frederick Valentich. The evidence was so strong that it was ready to go to court.
Unfortunately for humanity the cover up was effective and everything was classified TOP SECRET, possibly with the participation of the American CIA. Where the alien capsule with the letter is now, is not known, possibly in the USA (in a deep basement under the Pentagon?).
Perhaps even more alarming is a case investigated by Spanish researcher Manuel Carballal. According to the testimony of a number of witnesses, a young man who identified himself as Frederick Valentich, the Australian pilot who mysteriously disappeared in 1978 was alive and well in 1990 at Plaza del Charco, a seaport square on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Displaying an Australian passport to prove his claim, Valentich told those with whom he spoke on several occasions that he now belonged to a group of humans who had been “recruited” by extraterrestrials. It is also worth noting that the supposed Valentich showed no signs of aging, and resembled the photos circulated around the time of his disappearance at the age of 20.
Sources: www.militaryairshows.co.uk Yuriy Belikov - Pravda - Moscow January 17 1998 www.skycontrol.ne Scott Corrales - “Human-Like Ufonauts Reported in Many Countries” - MUFON Journal #405, January 2002 ufos.about.com www.ufoinfo.com historicmysteries.com www.ufologie.net "The UFO Coverup" - Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood.
Every once in a while, the third rock from the Sun gets buffeted by a storm originating from its solar guardian. Energized particles rain down upon the Earth, and like water down a hill, flow down the planet’s magnetic field lines toward the Poles. As this deluge of particles collides with atoms in our atmosphere, light energy is released, and a rainbow of shimmering colors hangs over the ends of the Earth
Last week’s northern lights—which lasted a few days—were products of a large burst of plasma, or charged gas, from the sun known as a coronal mass ejection. A NASA orbiter called the Solar Dynamics Observatory saw last Sunday’s eruption, which was aimed directly at Earth and sparked predictions of a shimmering sky show.
Now it seems aurora fans may be in for another treat: A solar flare spotted Saturday by NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory was even more powerful than the previous eruption. Although this time the bulk of the plasma burst isn’t aimed right at Earth, scientists say it could still trigger another round of colorful auroras.
In the Northern Hemisphere, auroras are more commonly seen at high latitudes near the Arctic Circle, such as northern Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia.
But scientists predicted that last Sunday’s strong burst would bring the light show to slightly lower parts of the globe. In fact, sky-watchers were snapping pictures of auroras as far south as Oslo, Lake Manitoba in Canada, and Lake Superior (map) in the United States.
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Factual Nazi Plot To Unleash Demonic Forces Inspire New Film
For a film about Nazi demons battling the Allies in World War II, The Devil's Rock contains a surprising amount of fact.
Director Paul Campion's first feature film is being shot in Wellington until August 21 at locations in Island Bay and Wrights Hill.
In the film, two Kiwi commandos, sent to the Channel Islands to destroy German gun emplacements and distract Hitler's forces away from Normandy, discover a Nazi occult plot to unleash demonic forces to win the war.
Campion said his script was inspired by real historical events.
"It is contrived around real events. The Channel Islands were the only British territory occupied by the Germans ... so the fortifications actually exist.
"And the book of black magic actually exists in the Channel Islands ... I found it in a vault, this gigantic 250-year-old book of black magic. But the demon's not real."
Campion said more witches were hanged in the Channel Islands than in any other part of Europe in medieval times, so the area had a supernatural heritage.
Neither Campion nor the New Zealand Film Commission would disclose the film's budget, saying only that it was a "low budget" production.
Campion has secured well-known Kiwi actors for the four lead roles, including Outrageous Fortune's Craig Hall, and Matthew Sunderland, who played mass murderer David Gray in Out of the Blue.
Weta Workshop has created the film's gory props, including half-devoured corpses. "There are not many extras because most of them are dead," Campion said.
Directing has been his dream career for years, but he said he was feeling the pressure over the movie's debut.
"It's definitely more nerves than excitement at the moment – I'll be excited when I'm sitting in the cinema."
His next project is a British sci-fi film called Further Instructions, about a family who wake on Christmas Day to find their house boarded up with steel, trapping them inside.
Campion is a former illustrator and effects artist who moved from London to Wellington to work for Weta Digital on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
He stayed on and has since become a New Zealand citizen.
He has directed two award-winning short films, Night of the Hell Hamsters and Eel Girl. The Devil's Rock is scheduled for release early next year.
NOTE: 'Hellboy' anyone? Lon
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New Bearded Monkey Species Discovered
treehugger - Scientists Thomas Defler, Marta Bueno and Javier García have discovered a new species of monkey in the Caquetá region of southern Colombia. The region, which is part of the Amazon rainforest, had been inaccessible for years due to a violent insurgence.
The violence subsided three years ago, allowing García--a native of Caquetá--to explore the Colombian Amazon. Using a GPS to traverse the upper Caquetá River, García found 13 different groups of titi monkeys, which have a very complex call.
"This discovery is extremely exciting because we had heard about this animal, but for a long time we could not confirm if it was different from other titis. We now know that this is a unique species, and it shows the rich diversity of life that is still to be discovered in the Amazon," said Dr. Defler.
The Callicebus caquetensisis is about the size of a cat with grayish-brown hair, but is missing the white bar on its forehead common to other titis. It's most distinct feature is its bushy red beard. Unlike most primates, but common to all titis, they are monogamous with tightly knit families.
However, the news of this discovery is tarnished by the fact that the titi faces extinction. It is estimated that less than 250 Caquetá titi monkeys exist. A healthy population would be in the thousands. The dwindling population is due to deforestation as their habitat has been turned into agricultural land.
"This discovery is particularly important because it reminds us that we should celebrate the diversity of earth but also we must take action now to preserve it," said José Vicente Rodríguez, head of science at Conservation International in Colombia and president of the Colombia Association of Zoology. "When world leaders meet later this year in Japan for the Convention on Biological Diversity, they must commit to the creation of many more protected areas if we want to ensure the survival of threatened creatures like this in the Amazon and around the world."
With an extremely low population, the monkey should qualify as a critically endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
********** Four Sisters Deliver Four Babies In Four Days
They call the maternity ward at Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park "The Family Birthplace" — and now for especially good reason. Three sisters delivered their babies at the hospital within hours of each other on Friday and Saturday, under the care of the same physician.
"It was a surprise for everyone," said Saby Pazos of Bellwood, who gave birth on Friday to a 7-pound, 8-ounce son, Abel Brian, a couple of hours before her sister, Leslie Pazos of Stone Park, delivered a 7-pound, 1-ounce girl, Ashley Mishell. The next day, third sister Lilian Sepulveda of Franklin Park joined her family at the hospital for the scheduled caesarean section birth of 8-pound, 3-ounce daughter Emily Marie.
"It's very unusual, but wonderful at the same time," said Dr. Jean Alexandre Jr., who saw each of the sisters from prenatal care to delivery. The triple family birth is a first for the 58-year-old community hospital, where 1,200 babies are delivered each year, said spokeswoman Molly Gaus.
At a news conference on Tuesday, the beaming sisters, who each have previous children, said they weren't trying to get pregnant at the same time but are delighted that the cousins will grow up together. The sisters' maternal connection is not limited to Melrose Park, either. A fourth sister, who lives in California, also had a baby on Monday — a boy, Jonathan, delivered by doctors there. "I couldn't make it to California," Alexandre joked.
sky - A psychic trying to find a missing six-year-old girl in Australia has discovered a woman's torso in bushland.
The woman alerted police to the area in Sydney's west because she had a premonition about Kiesha Abrahams - the youngster who was reported missing 12 days ago.
A dismembered body was found near the edge of Eastern Creek at Doonside. The head, arms and legs are still missing.
The psychic told officers she had a feeling they would find something of interest in the area, especially relating to Kiesha.
"It's quite interesting that there's a woman and she had a sense or feeling it was worth her while to come to this particular part of the park," said Detective Chief Inspector Pamela Young.
"We're still exploring that, it's certainly an interesting proposition of hers."
A post-mortem investigation on the torso is under way and police believe it could be that of a woman missing for almost two months.
Officers are said to be contacting the relatives of Kristi McDougall, missing since June 19.
She vanished after telling friends she was on her way to the Ermington area of Sydney.
Kiesha was last seen by her mother Kirsti at the family home in Mount Druitt, western Sydney.
Mrs Abrahams and her partner Robert Smith have both been interviewed by police and deny any involvement in her disappearance.
Detectives investigating the case have said they were treating all the young girl's immediate family as suspects.
gazettextra - Milton residents Kalen Marsden and Chad Lovelace were in a canoe, fishing a bend on the east end of Rice Lake near Hickory Hills Campground. It was a mid-June day. The fish were biting.
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