A decade of clinical animal mutilations in Wales is being investigation by pathologists who suspect aliens may be to blame.

The organisation, called the Animal Pathology Field Unit (APFU), was set up in 2001 to investigate after sheep and cattle were discovered dead with strange, surgical-style injuries. Reports have since been produced on mutilated lambs in Beddgelert, Gwynedd, slaughtered texel rams in Plwmp, Dyfed, and a farm in Bleddfa, Powys, where it is claimed 20 ewes go missing every June.

And in a plot twist worthy of Steven Spielberg-produced summer blockbuster Super 8, it is also claimed the military has moved in to find out what is going on. In the Ohio-set blockbuster the US army imprisons a confused extraterrestrial that has crash-landed on Earth before it eventually gets out on the loose.

The APFU concentrates most of its resources in the Rea valley near the border and in towns including Knighton and Llandrindod Wells, where mutilations are said to be rife.

It claims the injuries are too “sophisticated” to have been caused by predators and animals have been killed in locations which are difficult to reach without being detected.

And Phil Hoyle, of the APFU, says the curious lack of blood or footprints at the scene – despite the surgical removal of large amounts of tissue – means extraterrestrials can’t be ruled out as the cause of the attacks.

He said: “We are looking to the UFO connection and things people are describing, unconventional things entering the sea and leaving the sea.

“We have some farmers that have seen unusual lights and found animals killed in an extremely surgical way.

“These are not done by satanic cults. These are very sophisticated – whether done by aliens, military or some clandestine monitoring, something unusual is going on.”

John Duggan, a farmer with more than 700 acres of land from Monaughty near Knighton, where one of the mutilations is alleged to have taken place, said: “We do find sheep dead, usually when we find them they have been killed by wildlife, like birds.

“We haven’t seen anything surgical – it is just something dead or carved up and you might not be able to find it for two or three days.”

Mr Hoyle – who has been investigating UFOs since 1983 – said Wales, alongside the US, is one of the world’s hotspots for the mutilation phenomenon.

“We don’t know what has the ability to do this: literally to walk into an isolated area, surgically remove tissue, walk out and not leave a footprint or anything,” he said.

He said activity in the past six months had increased significantly, and claimed the military had moved in to monitor the situation.

The Ministry of Defence denied it had any personnel in Wales looking for UFOs.

A spokesman said: “There is no benefit in such investigations.”

Beddgelert, Gwynedd, 2001: A lamb was found on a small farm a few miles outside of Beddgelert. A large, oval-shaped hole had been made through its left hip bone. It was roughly an inch-wide and there was a 45-degree-angled smooth “trepanning” of the bone. The field notes ask: What sort of mechanism could have achieved that?

Brook Farm, Plwmp, Dyfed, 2002: According to field notes a farmer found mutilated texel rams in the morning having inspected the animals the night before when there was no sign of anything unusual. A week before the ram attack the farmer had lost six ewes to what the APFU describes as the “usual modus operandi” which includes a jaw strip, missing tongue and hardly any blood.

Woodside farm, Monaughty, Bleddfa, Powys, 2009: Four dead ewes were found with facial strips. According to field notes there were “a number of other odd incidents down the years including an annual instance of 15 to 20 ewes disappearing without trace.” Notes state: “It should also be noted that the SAS are known to conduct training exercises in this area, again a common denominator, could they be monitoring the situation?” - walesonline

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It seems as though the world has been mildly obsessed with the idea of an alien invasion ever since the Discovery Channel aired a documentary in April 2010 entitled “Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking,” in which renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking cautioned against attempting contact with extraterrestrials, who he suggested are likely hostile. His daughter Lucy, however, ignored this warning.

In February 2011, Lucy Hawking, writer-in-residence for Arizona State University’s Origins Project, launched a writing contest called “Dear Aliens,” which asked students to answer the following questions: What would you say to extraterrestrials if earthlings are contacted from outer space? If you had to speak for humanity, what would you say?

According to the Arizona Republic, nearly 1,000 messages were submitted to the contest. Benjamin Lee, a seventh-grade student from Mesa, Arizona won the contest. At a ceremony in early April 2011, Stephen Hawking was present to read Lee’s message:

Dear Aliens, Please help us save our world. Not from you, from ourselves. We are destroying our planet and need help from more technologically advanced beings. Our planet is polluted, many nations are at war, there is civil unrest, and our economy is in turmoil.

And despite Stephen Hawking’s grim warning against attempting alien contact, Lee’s message was beamed into space, where is was bounced off the moon.

Professor and theoretical physicist Paul Davies was also involved with the “Dear Aliens” contest. Davies is head of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Post Detection Task Group, which means that, when contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is Davies’ responsibility to determine what message to send back to the extraterrestrials.

Another message to extraterrestrials was recently sent to space–cyberspace that is. Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers (Hank and John Green, a.k.a. the Vlogbrothers, are two of the most successful YouTubers) just posted a video to YouTube titled, “A Letter to the Aliens.” According to Ology.com, this video gives extraterrestrials “a crash course in human biology and society.” - openminds

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In reference to the Windsor, Ontario rumble, several readers have forwarded links to videos that include strange unexplained sounds:

Strange sound in Kiev (Ukraine).

Strange sound in Kiev again Aug.11.11

From our reader Will: "David Wilcock believes that they are the noises from the construction of underground tunnels and some believe it is the testing of the Project Blue Book scenarios, powered by our friend, HAARP. Others think it may have something to do with comet Elinin."

Strange sound in Lviv Aug.17.11

Strange Noise in the skies of Jersey City, New Jersey

The Hum - weird noise plaguing village

Strange Noise In Georgia

Strange Sound in the Sky

WHAT THE HELL? Florida March, 2011-EERIE SOUND From Sky!

More strange sounds from 08.2011, near Homel, Belarus

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It looks a bit like silver bird. It probably was used to spy on insurgents. And now it’s in the hands of the Pakistanis.

WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson flags pictures of an unusual, unfamiliar drone that reportedly crashed crashed over southwestern Pakistan late last week. It’s a surveillance drone, with a camera attached — recovered from the crash but not apparently visible in this photo — rather than the larger, deathly flying robots that shoot missiles. This one looks tiny, with a wingspan not much longer than a man’s outstretched arms, and clearly light enough for a grown man to carry.

The Pakistani Frontier Corps in Baluchistan province recovered the drone. And they confidently declare it to be an “American surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle.” But as Anderson points out, it doesn’t look like anything the U.S. flies — or at least acknowledges flying. What’s the deal? - wired

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A young Russian man who was curious about the taste of human flesh stabbed a man to death and then made meatballs and sausage out of his corpse, the Ria Novosti news agency reported.

"The accused stabbed the man a few times, and after having assured himself that the man was dead, he cut up his body and ate him," an official told Ria Novosti.

If that weren't wicked enough, the 21-year-old cannibal, a chef in the Arctic city of Murmansk, made sick videos of himself turning his victim's flesh into meals and then posted them online, the Daily Mail reported.

But cops quickly took them down from the Internet.

The killer, who was not named in news reports, confessed after cops tracked him down earlier this month.

He told police that he had plans to kill and eat at least 10 more people.

He also told investigators he found his victim on a gay website. He said he chose to target a gay man because he believed gay men are more discreet about online relationships, Ria Novosti reported.

Authorities were led to the killer by the victim's mother, who reported her son missing and instructed police to look into his circle of online partners.

If convicted of murder, the man faces 15 years in prison. - nydailynews

Recently, I have had several inquiries about nature/weather manipulation and/or the HAARP experiment. I posted the following in 9/2009 and have included a few other bits and pieces:

HAARP: Fooling With Mother Nature

HAARP, or the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, supposedly is an investigation project jointly funded by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which provide a research facility to conduct pioneering experiments in ionospheric phenomena. HAARP is a bed of 48 - 72 foot tall antennas. These antennas which lie in Gakona, Alaska in the Copper River valley are on land owned by the Department of Defense and are located about 260 miles Northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. It's used to analyze basic ionospheric properties and to assess the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for communications and surveillance purposes. That's the official United States government description.
Here is an informative video on HAARP and it's capability of creating weather like hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and earthquakes. It is also capable of altering peoples moods. From WETA TV, a PBS station. Click for the video
This documentary is a visual accompaniment to the book by Dr. Nick Begich, 'Angels Still Don't Play This HAARP: Advances In Tesla Technology'

The Chengdu, China Earthquake


HAARP ceased activity at 22 UTC on May 11, 2008. The China earthquake struck a little more than eight hours later at 6:28 UTC on May 12. In the days and minutes before the quake, there were reports of strange phenomena including bizarre toad behavior and iridescent clouds. Earthquakes are typically “in the works” days or weeks before going off, and animals, sensitive people, and scalar detectors can sense the nonphysical precursors to these quakes.

If earthquakes generate and are preceded by scalar waves, could scalar waves likewise trigger earthquakes? If so, the phased array of various ionospheric heaters around the world may be capable of doing this for political and military purposes. The quake was certainly convenient for western military factions:

Earthquake Destroyed China’s Largest Military Armory, Says Source

A high-level Chinese military source secretly disclosed that the earthquake in Sichuan Province caused a chain-reaction of explosions in the Sichuan mountain areas. The explosions destroyed Chinese army’s largest armory, new weapon test bases and part of nuclear facilities including several nuclear warheads. This information is considered China’s top military secret.

After carefully analyzing seismic data, military experts in southeast Asia confirmed a non-geological shock had occurred at the earthquake epicenter. The energy released was equivalent to that of an underground nuclear explosion.

There is not enough actual energy being outputted by ionospheric heaters to directly power an earthquake, but they don’t need that much power if they merely act as nonlinear imbalancers, triggers, or redirectors of existing large natural energy flows.

Was the earthquake just a random natural event? Or was it strategically and intentionally created?

Hurricane Katrina

Did elements within the U.S. or other governments have a role in creating, enhancing, or steering Katrina toward her Gulf Coast target, using advanced military technology?

If so, was Katrina at least in part an act of mass murder and treason, perhaps by rogue elements within the Pentagon or its private contractors...or was it, possibly, a stealthy act of war against the U.S.?

A 2001 FEMA report identified the THREE likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country": A terror attack on New York, a major hurricane’s direct hit on New Orleans, and a major earthquake in Northern California. Is it two down, one to go?

World renowned scientist Dr. Rosalie Bertell confirms that "US military scientists ...are working on weather systems as a potential weapon. The methods include the enhancing of storms and the diverting of vapor rivers in the Earth's atmosphere to produce targeted droughts or floods."

Already in the 1970s, former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski had foreseen in his book "Between Two Ages" that:

"Technology will make available, to the leaders of major nations, techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised...techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm."

Marc Filterman, a former French military officer, outlines several types of "unconventional weapons" using radio frequencies.

He refers to "weather war," indicating that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had already "mastered the know-how needed to unleash sudden climate changes (hurricanes, drought) in the early 1980s."

These technologies make it "possible to trigger atmospheric disturbances by using Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) radar [waves]."

A simulation study of future defense "scenarios" commissioned for the US Air Force calls for:

US aerospace forces to 'own the weather' by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications...

From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns to complete dominance of global communications and counterspace control, weather-modification offers the war fighter a wide-range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary...

In the United States, weather-modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications. Our government will pursue such a policy, depending on its interests, at various levels.

Fully Operational

While there is no concrete evidence of HAARP having been used, scientific findings suggest that it has been fully operational in various locations worldwide since 2007...and more are being built.

Climatic manipulations under the HAARP program (whether accidental or deliberate) would inevitably exacerbate these changes by weakening national economies, destroying infrastructure and potentially triggering the bankruptcy of farmers over vast areas.

Surely national governments and the United Nations should address the possible consequences of HAARP and other "non-lethal weapons" on climate change...though, the cat may be too far out of the bag.

NOTE: here are a few other posts and links - The Death of Earth by the Hand of Man - Chavez Asserts U.S. Spawned Haiti Earthquake With HAARP - Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake - Are We in a HAARP "Earthquake War"?...Lon

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The US government continues to sink hundreds of billions into the development of highly secretive weapons programs. One recently disclosed program is laser weaponry. Another, all the more guarded and insidious, is the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), an array of microwave antennas located in Alaska that produces an impressive one billion watts, for the purpose of fomenting unusually violent and destructive weather patterns. (It bears noting that Russia also owns several such machines).

HAARP functions by warming the ionosphere, which permits it to control the jet streams that cause weather. Contrary to naturally induced weather patterns, HAARP initiates quick and violent weather changes: tornadoes, hurricanes, and winds that change direction rapidly, creating destructive mayhem. HAARP also focuses violent weather upon particular or unexpected regions over elongated periods of time, which is not characteristic of naturally formed weather patterns, which remain in one particular area for only a brief period of time.

A record number of Americans died this year from tornadoes, which struck unusual areas, including Massachusetts. Storm patterns e.g., record snowfalls and cold throughout America, especially in the North—impacted certain regions with a frequency defying natural probabilities, as noted by meteorologists. Heavy rains also pounded the Mississippi River region for an unusually extended period of time, producing record floods.

By focusing a series of low 5 Hz, harmonic frequencies on a specific area, HAARP can also produce earthquakes at will. However, this process leaves behind telltale signs:

1) it emits various colors resembling an Aurora Borealis in the sky, a byproduct of when the microwaves ionize the air, and

2) wavy lines in the clouds, as produced by the same frequency patterns. HAARP was responsible for the recent earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, China, as well as the massive 9.0 in Japan. This may be confirmed in part by the widespread accounts and pictures of the telltale aurora borealis immediately prior to each quake.

HAARP also destroys nature: the microwaves and electromagnetic radiation have killed birds, fish, and bees in large numbers. In addition, various animals and insects have become disoriented, an effect that is jointly attributable to HAARP as well as to global cell phone usage, which also involves microwaves.

Linking HAARP to these irregular weather patterns and destructive effects is difficult to prove scientifically...though not impossible. The key is to carefully evaluate historical weather trends as well as to analyze the behavior of current weather patterns. Some meteorologists, for instance, have blamed the unusually cold weather upon various oscillator highs over Greenland. However, it is relatively easy to manipulate even these weather currents by using HAARP to move jet streams in waves.

"It is essential that the general public demand that the existence of this ultra-sophisticated weather machine be publicly acknowledged and that its true purpose be publicly revealed: information which would undoubtedly result in HAARP’s abrupt termination. The lack of any organized grassroots movement to pull the plug on HAARP is a direct result of the fact that its very existence been carefully shrouded in (ultra-top) secrecy. Internet articles focusing on HAARP are commonly removed, while no mention of it is permitted in the mainstream press. Alarmed Americans must work quickly and feverishly to prevent this destructive technology from being used any further upon our own nation." - usa.mediamonitors.net

Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
j_kidd.tripod.com/
whatdoesitmean.com/
montalk.net/
www.haarp.net/
www.earthpulse.com/
www.cuttingedge.org/
usa.mediamonitors.net/

By Alejandro Rojas - Britain's Ministry of Defence ceased to collect UFO reports as of December 2009, because, as they put it, "...in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom." However, the UFO files being released by the British National Archives contain cases that clearly should be of concern, and I am not alone in this opinion. In fact, the last batch of files includes correspondence between the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and two high level military officials who were adamant that UFO cases should be taken more seriously.

The highest ranking among those hounding the MOD about UFOs was Baron Hill-Norton, former Admiral of the Fleet (1970-71), Chief of the Defence Staff (1971-73), and head of NATO's military committee (1974-77). Two years after his retirement in 1977, Peter Hill-Norton was made Baron and a member of the House of Lords. As you can see, Lord Hill-Norton was quite an impressive chap and known as a tough and aggressive leader. In other words, he didn't take no crap.

At some point Lord Hill-Norton took an interest in UFOs, and was unsatisfied with the MOD claiming that they were of no concern. He badgered the MOD with questions, trying to get them to actively investigate important cases. There are over 300 pages of correspondence between Lord Hill-Norton and the MOD in the latest batch of UK UFO files.

Lord Hill-Norton took a particular interest in the Rendlesham forest case. In late December of 1980, several US servicemen witnessed UFO activity over a two day period near the bases of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, both on lease by the US from the UK. The Rendlesham forest surrounds the bases. One of the witnesses included Deputy Base Commander, Charles Halt, who was ordered to forwarded a memo on the incident to the MOD.

In a response dated October 22, 1997 to Minister of State for Defence, Lord Gilbert, who claimed the Rendlesham sightings were not of interest, Lord Hill-Norton wrote:

My position both privately and publicly expressed over the last dozen years or more, is that there are only two possibilities, either:

a. An intrusion into our Air Space and a landing by unidentified craft took place at Rendlesham, as described.

or

b. The Deputy Commander of an operational, nuclear armed, US Air Force Base in England, and a large number of his enlisted men, were either hallucinating or lying.

Either of these simply must be 'of interest to the Ministry of Defence', which has been repeatedly denied, in precisely those terms. They, or words very like them, are used again in your letter and I believe, in the light of the above, you would not feel inclined to sign your name to them again.

Further, Lord Hill-Norton pushed Lord Gilbert on the sensitive question of whether there were nuclear arms on the base, which would have been against their agreement with US. Lord Hill-Norton asked Lord Gilbert, "Whether they are aware of reports from the United States Air Force personnel that nuclear weapons stored in the Weapons Storage Area at RAF Woodbridge were struck by light beams fired from an unidentified craft seen over the base in the period 25-30 December 1980, and if so, what action was subsequently taken."

Lord Gilbert responded, "There is no evidence to suggest that the Ministry of Defence received any such reports." He continued that he intended "neither to confirm nor to deny where nuclear weapons are located either in the UK or elsewhere, in the past or at the present time."

In 2001, Lord Hill-Norton asked that the MOD reopen its investigation into the Rendlesham forest incident. He was told, "No additional information has come to light over the last 20 years to call into question the original judgment by the Ministry of Defence that nothing of defence significance occurred in the location of Rendlesham Forest in 1980. Accordingly there is no reason to hold an investigation now."

Clearly upset with this response, Lord hill-Norton replied, "I have now had time to have a proper look at your letter dated 22nd March, and I find it not so much disappointing as absurd. This for various reasons but mainly because you seem unable to grasp what we are arguing about." Lord Hill-Norton continued, "There is a great deal more, now in the public domain which makes it beyond any possible doubt that the incident most certainly was of considerable Defence interest, and it is absurd of you to pretend otherwise."

Ralph Noyes, who retired as the Undersecretary of State in 1977, was another British government official whose letters petitioning that the UFO matter be taken serious can also be found in the UK UFO files. In 1969 he was head of Defense Secretariat 8 (DS8), and one of his responsibilities was to answer public questions about UFOs. He says he was not able to share his true opinions on the subject. In the files he states, "It is only since I left the MOD (in 1977) that I have seriously tried to consider what may possibly lie behind the 'UFO phenomenon'. It was impossible to discuss it seriously within the Department: I would merely have 'rubbished' my working relationship with the RAF and scientific colleagues if I had disclosed the interest I felt in the better reports which reached us. What I retain from my MOD experience -- greatly reinforced by much that I have since read -- is that the 'phenomenon' is veridical and important"

There is one more British official of note in the files, who also disagrees with the stance that UFOs pose no concern. Nick Pope ran the MOD's UFO desk from 1991 to 1994. In a recent article by Lee Speigel of the Huffington Post, Pope actually apologized for having to play down the importance of UFO sightings when responding to public inquiries on the matter while manning the MOD UFO hot seat.

In a recent Open Minds article on Ralph Noyes, Antonio Huneeus, suggested that some of the responses Noyes received from the MOD might have actually been authored by Pope. I emailed Pope to inquire about Huneuus' suspicions, which Pope confirmed. He went on to write:

I had tremendous respect for Ralph Noyes, who I met on several occasions. He briefed me about his earlier UFO-related work at the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Defense. In many ways, we grappled with the same problem, albeit several years apart: we had official responsibility for a phenomenon that defied conventional explanation, but we faced a situation where we had to follow the official line that UFOs were of no defense significance. But this was Orwellian doublethink. How could it not be of defense interest, when our own radar systems were picking up these things, when jets were being scrambled and when both pilots and radar operators confirmed that these objects -- whatever they were -- were capable of speeds and maneuvers that defied conventional explanation? So we had a bizarre situation where we were telling the public that we weren't interested, but behind the scenes, our scientific and technical intelligence specialists were desperate for data, hoping that solving the UFO mystery might enable us to make a quantum leap breakthrough in propulsion system technology, aerodynamics or a related field.

Pope continued to explain, "The ultimate irony was that it wasn't just the public who were out of the loop. There were factions at the MoD on this issue. I was involved in work that led to the setting up of a highly classified study into the UFO phenomenon, codenamed Project Condign. But my successors didn't enjoy the close relationship with the Defense Intelligence Staff that I'd had, and weren't briefed on the study. When the final report was issued in 2000, it wasn't copied to Directorate Air Staff, despite their being the division with the policy lead for UFOs! When the report was declassified and made public under the Freedom of Information Act, there was a farcical situation: it emerged that the people who had been sending out letters to the public saying that MoD didn't investigate UFOs hadn't been aware that, behind their backs, intelligence staffs had been doing the very thing that the civil servants had been telling parliament, the media and the public that we didn't do." - HP

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A gigantic, white rat was killed after being speared with a pitchfork at the Marcy Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Jose Rivera, a Housing Authority worker, was clearing a rat hole last week when three of the mutants popped out, The New York Daily News reports, but he was only able to nab one. It appears to be almost three feet long, including the tail.

Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, told the News there have been sightings of the humongous rats for at least six years.

Residents described some horrifying confrontations with the rodents to BlackandBrownNews.com:

"In one day eight big size rats were killed," said a Marcy Houses resident who declined to be named for fear of reprisal from city or property management. They were found in and around the buildings of the Nostrand-Myrtle avenue section of the property and have been seen on the playground. "They come out at night and the daytime," said another resident who also did not want to provide a name.

Even before the mega-rats appeared, residents say the infestation of average rats was a problem. One resident recently described a frantic scene in which rats began scrambling across the nearby playground: "Adults had to grab children and run because a lot of rats came on the playground. The kids were screaming."

An expert at the Wildlife Conservation Society told the News the slain monster was likely a Gambian pouched rat, and was probably an escaped or discarded pet.

Importing Gambian pouched rats to the United States was banned almost a decade ago after they caused an outbreak of monkey-pox that sickened 100 people.

Even the normal, Norway rats are huge at the Marcy Houses, where Jay-Z was famously "raised in the projects, roaches and rats."

Pam Davis, 43, told the News, "They're here day and night. We don't dodge bullets. We dodge rats. They're so big, they should charge them rent."

Earlier this summer, pest control experts warned staff cuts to the Pest Control Bureau would cause a "rat epidemic" in the city. - HP

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This 1938 photo shows one of the treasure dig pits on Oak Island, N.S. A group is using technology on the island to locate secret underground tunnels that may lead to fabled pirate's treasure [Credit: Archives of Nova Scotia]

In a renewed bid to uncover the elusive treasure believed by many to be buried deep within Oak Island off Nova Scotia's South Shore, a group of treasure hunters have used electrical currents in a bid to detect secret underground tunnels.

For the past six years, Rick Lagina and four others — including Dan Blankenship, whose lifetime dedication to the island is almost as legendary as the place itself — have been searching for the hidden treasure.

This summer, they put their hopes in technology.

On a hot, cloudless day in early July, in the middle of the island, they placed a device that miners, archeologists and environmentalists often use to map underground structures.

Powered by a car battery, the square, greyish-green box zapped 800-volt bursts of energy through attached cords to various points on the island, to depths sometimes the length of a football field.

The method, called electrical resistivity, pulsed electric currents through the earth and recorded how much each area repelled the charge.

Lagina said he hoped to pinpoint spots that were particularly resistant or unexpectedly conductive compared to their surroundings — anything out of the ordinary.

Lagina has been dreaming about the fabled Nova Scotia island ever since he was an 11-year-old living in Michigan. He read a magazine article about the 200-year-old search for the money pit some believe was buried on Oak Island by pirates.

Now 59 years old, Lagina is still dreaming.

After two weeks of gathering data, the team sent the numbers to a geological analyst in Montreal. Lagina said he got the results back three weeks ago.

When asked if there was anything interesting, he paused.

"There are interesting anomalies, yes," he said. He later added, "There are more than several sites that we are very excited about."

But the island has a well-documented history of thwarting discovery efforts, Lagina said.

While they were cutting through the brush to make way for their line grid, everything that could go wrong did, he said. The truck's engine blew, tools went missing, and the resistivity device itself stopped working more than once.

When they phoned the manufacturer in France, the woman on the line said, "'Can't happen, never happened, not in the history of the instrument. The unit is incapable of shutting down.'

"Five times it shut down," Lagina said.

Legend has it that the Oak Island treasure will not be found until seven humans have died trying to find it and all the oak trees on the island are gone. So far, the island's native umbrella oaks have all wilted away, and the treasure hunt has claimed six lives — none of them from Lagina's crew.

Ever since a teenage Daniel McGinnis came across a curious depression in the ground in 1795, there have been many excavations of the Money Pit — all of which have been fruitless except for the discovery of various booby traps and suggestive bits of metal.

Theories abound as to what might be hidden there, from pirate booty to knights Templar treasure to Shakespeare's manuscripts.

But Lagina said that for him, it's more about filling in the blanks of the story and solving the mystery.

"What really happened on Oak Island?"

For the rest of the summer, Lagina said he and the others will assess which anomalies show the most promise and warrant further investigation with drilling. They have to be selective because wherever they drill needs to be worth the cash, he said.

They've already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, exploring Oak Island (Lagina's brother Marty — who's also in on the search — did well in the oil and gas industry).

They must do the drilling soon, though; their government-granted treasure trove licence expires in December.

"I wish I had an X-marks-the-spot, but alas, I have no 'X.'"

While Lagina acknowledged they might not find anything, he said they're excited about their chances.

"I believe that it will be a fairly rich, to use the word, story of what happened there."

However, not everyone is so sure.

Alex Storm got into the Nova Scotian treasure hunting business in the 1960s and has had substantial success, finding famous wrecks, such as the French treasure ship Le Chameau. He said he bases all his searching on documentation and verifiable data — something he said Oak Island lacks.

"I don't think it will work out to anything. It's just people keeping busy and trying to keep a dream alive."

But that hasn't stopped people from trying. - motrealgazette

NOTE: the is more information at The 'Money Pit' Enigma...Lon

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Shortly after returning from work here in Italy, 4 aircraft mechanics witnessed a triangle craft or 3 separate crafts fly over our hotel at 12:51 AM. The triangle was transparent as we could see stars from the big dipper through the triangle shape. The triangle passed over the hotel and through the big dipper heading north in a straight line, then it banked to the left and shot out of sight heading in a north west direction. We observed this triangle for approximately 10 seconds. My account is that it is 3 separate lights that make up the triangle, but they fly as if they are one object. Having been in the Airforce for 15 years, I have never seen anything that could fly like or resemble this shape. NOTE: The above image is a rendering. - MUFON CMS - Ken Pfeifer


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Click for video

Odd video surfaced recently that reportedly shows two aliens hiding among the rocks on Ilkley Moor. Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. The area is known for strange paranormal activity including a famous encounter in 1987:


A compelling account of alien abduction that took place in 1987 in the Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire, U.K....a unique case which may include one of the very few photographs taken of a live alien being. The main character and only witness of a UFO and alien being is one Philip Spencer, a retired policeman. He claims to have been taken aboard an unidentified flying object, and captured one photograph of an unknown being.

The Ilkley Moor:

Ilkley Moor is the highest part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. The peat bogs rise to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level.

Ilkley Moor is very much like you would expect: a place of mystery and intrigue, and full of legends. There have been a number of reports of UFOs over the area, along with odd lights that seem to come and go. The lights, shining through the dense fog, can play tricks on the mind. There are two places where planes come and go-Menwith Hill Military Base, and Leeds Bradford Airport. Some of the strange sightings in the moor may be attributed to plane lights, but they will not explain what happened to Philip Spencer.

Spencer had worked as a policemen for four years in another location, but to fulfill his wife's wishes to be closer to her family, he had moved the family to Yorkshire. Spencer was taking a walk across the moor one December morning to his father-in-law's house, and was hoping to take some photographs of the strange lights on the moor. He had loaded his camera with ASA rated film to get the best quality pictures he could in the less than perfect lighting conditions. He could not imagine what was to soon befall him.

A Strange Looking Creature:

Spencer also brought along a compass to help find his way in the early morning hours before sun up. He was attempting to get some good angles for his photographs, when he saw a strange-looking being through the fog. The small being was on the slopes of the moor. Spencer took aim and photographed the small creature. He felt that the being was attempting to wave him away from the area. Whatever the being was, it ran away.

UFO Leaves Moor:

Spencer wanted to know more about what this strange being was, and what it wanted. He took off trying to catch up to it. Later, he would state that he must have just acted on impulse, as he had no fear of the unknown entity at the time. As he ran toward the being, he was stunned to see an unknown flying craft with a dome on top rising up from the moor grounds. It soon disappeared into the sky. He was not quick enough to photograph the UFO.

The photograph that Spencer took of the creature on the moor was very blurry, but it is still quite evident that there is some type of being present. The being very much resembles the so-called "grays" of UFO legend. Spencer waited for a time to see if the UFO or the alien creature might return, but all was quiet across the moor. He began to make his way to the nearest village, to get his photograph developed, and as he did, he noticed that his compass was pointing south instead of north. Arriving at the village, he noticed that his watch was an hour behind.

Photographic Analysis:


The photograph that Spencer took was first analyzed by a wildlife expert. He concluded that whatever was in the photograph was not any known animal. There was no way to ascertain if the subject of the photograph was a living creature or not just by looking at the picture. A recreation of the setting of the photograph was undertaken, and it was estimated that the creature was about four feet tall. An analysis of the photograph was done by Kodak laboratories in Hemel, Hempstead. They concluded that the object was indeed part of the original shot, and not added later.

The photograph was then shipped to America to be enhanced by computer, and analyzed. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, optical physicist with the United States Navy gave his expert conclusion:

"I had great hopes that this case would prove definitive. Sadly circumstances prevent it from being so."

Spencer made no money from his photograph, and relinquished all rights to the photograph to UFO investigators.

Further Information and Conclusions:

There have been numerous theories and much speculation about the Ilkley Moor photograph. Because of the poor lighting conditions present on the moor at the time the picture was taken, it was not possible to get a complete and definite conclusion. But with Spencer being a well respected man, and not given to making up stories, it can be said with certainty that Spencer lost about an hour in the moor, saw an unknown flying object of some type, and took a photograph of some unknown creature on December 1, 1987.

As Spencer regained his missing memories through hypnosis (read transcript below), he gave a fascinating tale of alien abduction. He was taken aboard the craft that he had seen lifting up from the Ilkley Moor. He was given medical-type examinations before being released. He could now remember that it was after his release from the UFO that he took the picture.

Climatic information gathered about the conditions of December 1, 1987, made it almost impossible for Spencer to have taken his picture at the time he had stated. However, if the regressive memories are accurate, the conditions would be right to duplicate the lighting conditions of the photograph, which was taken at least an hour after Spencer thought.

The witness of a UFO/alien event is as important as the report itself. The case of Ilkley Moor rides high on the character of Spencer. Through the years, Spencer and Hough became good friends, and still see each other from time to time. There has been no change in Spencer's account of what he saw that day.

He has sought no money from the case, and signed over all copyright privileges to Hough in early 1988. Spencer desires no fame from his account. Is the picture of the Ilkley Moor alien real or was it staged? There is no way to say, as the search for more information continues.
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CONTROVERSY and HYPNOSIS TRANSCRIPT


The case of the Ilkley Moor alien is one of the most controversial cases of alien abduction ever recorded in the U.K. because of the circumstances surrounding the event. At odds is the wide spread disbelief in alien abductions and the two very damning facts purporting it: the Ilkley Moor abductee was a police officer, expected to be an expert eyewitness, and the photograph of what he claims is the entity he encountered. Police officer Alan Godfrey claimed that he came across the being while crossing the Moor, in the county of Yorkshire on the morning of December 1st, 1987. He described the being as small, humanoid and green. He seemed to have startled the creature, for it took off running before halting at a safe distance and perhaps signaling him by bending it's right arm and raising it. Godfrey was carrying a camera and snapped a photo of the being, which seemed to have caused it to run off again, this time behind a large rock formation.

Godfrey gave chase, and as he rounded the rock formation he stopped dead in his tracks amazed at what was before him. A large gleaming silver domed metallic disc shaped craft stood in the clearing before him, and in an instant it shot off at incredible speed into the sky. Godfrey was unable to account for two hours after the encounter. Secondly, the photograph of the alien was badly blurred. Yet both the photo and the negative were examined by Kodak Film, which subsequently declared that the images had not been tampered with. Also, the officer noticed that his compass had switched polarity, it now pointed south instead of north.

The compass was examined by the University of Manchester's Institute of Science and Technology. Their conclusion: there were only two ways that this could have happened. Either the compass was inside a very strong magnetic field from a magnet, or had been subjected to a rapidly applied magnetic field or "pulsed" magnetic field generated by enormous amounts of electricity.

Godfrey decided to under go hypnotic regression to try and recount the missing time. Under hypnosis he was able to recount now that when he had come upon the silver craft in the clearing it had levitated him up inside of it. He described his captors as being about four feet tall "with big pointed ears and large black eyes....with three big fingers, like sausages." After apparently being examined by some type of "illuminating device" Godfrey was shown harrowing images of the earths environmental destruction. He was also shown another series of images which he absolutely refused to discuss, saying that he'd been sworn to secrecy.

Here is a transcript of the session:

JS- I want you to cast your mind back to the 1st December last year when you set off across the moor. I want you to clear your mind back to that and I want you to re-experience that. I want you to tell me what you experienced.

Spencer- I'm walking along the moor, oh! its quite windy. There is a lot of clouds. Walking up towards some trees. I see this little something, can't tell, but he's green it's moving up towards me. (We later found out that Jon had took the photo after his abduction and the creature was waving goodbye) Oh! I'm stuck I can't move and the creature still coming towards me. I'm stuck and everything gone fuzzy. I'm, I'm floating along in the air I want to get down! (He later told us he was levitated 2 feet off the ground and the creature was in front of him like a child pulling a balloon on a string). I still can't get down and I don't like it. I'm going round this corner and this green thing is in front of me. Oh God! I want to get down! (long pause) (breathing faster) There's a there is a big silver saucer thing there's a door in it. And I don't want to go in there. (worried sound in his voice) (sigh) Everything gone black now. (pause).

JS- you say everything gone black?

Spencer- Mmm! I can't see anything like I'm asleep, can't hear anything. (short pause) There's a bright light now. Can't see where it's coming from? I'm in a funny sort of room I can hear this voice saying don't be afraid. I don't feel afraid anymore. I can still see this green thing but I'm not afraid anymore of it. I'm being put on a table. I can move now if I want to, but I don't feel frightened any more and there's a beam like a pole it's above me it's moving up toward me. It's got a light in it like a fluorescent tube. It's coming up from my feet I can hear that voice again saying "we don't mean to harm you and don't be afraid." Makes me feel warm as it moves up me it's coming up over my stomach towards my head. Close my eyes I don't want to look at it in case it hurts my eyes. It's gone! (pause) there is something my nose feels funny (shows movement of nose) that's gone as well, I'm standing up now I don't know how I got stood up? I can see a door there is one of these green creatures motioning for me to come with him. Don't really want to go with him. I'd rather stay here I don't feel afraid in here (pause).

JS- Can you tell me what's happening now?

Spencer- I'm walking towards a door there is still a bright light there is light all around want to know where its coming from its just bright all around. Walking down a corridor there is a window. Oh! God!(sounds shocked)is that real? (deep sigh) (pause) (sounds afraid) don't want to be up here want to be down there? I can hear that voice again saying you've got nothing to fear. Its pretty though didn't realize it looked so pretty. (What Jon was looking at through the window was the earth seen from high in space just like the Apollo astronauts saw. Iv gone past the window now I'm walking down a corridor. (long pause)

JS- What's happening now?

Spencer- Come to the end of the corridor. There's a hole opened in it so I can walk through. I'm in a big room-a big round room, I'm on a raised platform against the wall. My camera and compass are trying to get away from me. Going towards the ball. It's difficult to pull them back down again, and this balls moved round with strange its got some blocks on it he says we cant stay in here to long he wants us to go out again the holes closed in the wall its gone strange he says I've got nothing to fear but Id still like to go home (pause) its got such big hands.

JS- What's happening now?

Spencer- Going down a corridor again. its very bright still I wish I knew where the light was coming from. And there is another door, going through a door it's an empty room two of those green creatures have come with me. there's a picture ,it's starting to move on the wall wonder how they get the pictures?

JS- Can you tell me what's happening at this point?

Spencer- I'm looking at the pictures on the wall. (long pause)

JS- Pictures on the wall?

Spencer- Mmmm. Creatures seem concerned at the damage that its doing. Picture changing now there's another picture, another film he's asking me a question he says do you understand? I said yes. It's time to go. Everything gone black. I'm walking up the moor again, I'm walking near some trees. Some movement - I can see something. A green creature. I've shouted to it. It's turned round. I don't know what it is. I'll photograph it it's turned around now. It's moving quick want to know what it is. I'm running after it, it's gone round a corner, I can't see it now. There's ... There is a saucer (laughingly), big silver saucer! It's disappeared? I'm walking on down gone past the trees.

JS- What's happening now?

Spencer- I'm going home. It's ten o'clock on the town hall clock. Can't really understand it was only eight o'clock.

JS- You mentioned some green creatures. Would you try to describe them to me?

Spencer- It's quite small. He's got big pointed ears, it's got big eyes. They're quite dark, he hasn't got a nose he's only got a little mouth. And his hands are enormous. And his arms are long. He's got funny feet.

JS- Funny feet?

Spencer- They're like a V shape like two big toes. Must be difficult to walk like that. He shuffles rather than walks. I don't feel afraid of him although he looks odd.

JS- You mentioned big hands? Can you say anymore about the hands?

Spencer- It's got three big fingers, like sausages. Big sausages. They're just very big. Bigger than my hands.

JS- About how tall would you say these creatures are?

Spencer- It's about four foot. Comes to the lump on my stomach. He's about as high as - just a bit bigger than my stomach is.

JS- Okay. Now I wonder if I can ask you another question? you mentioned a film?

Spencer- There were two films.

JS- Two films?

Spencer- One was lots of scenes of destruction like on the news. Can see lots of waste going into the river, and people like Ethiopians who are starving. It's not very good, it's not very nice.

JS- Want to say anything more about that film?

Spencer- It's much of the same thing, only different.

JS- What about the other film then? Do you want to tell me about it?

Spencer- I'm not supposed to.

JS- I'll leave that up to you entirely, do you want to say anything about that?

Spencer- I'm not supposed to tell anyone about the other film, it's not for them to know.

JS- Is there any thing more?

Spencer- No.

NOTE: over the years I have talked to several investigators about this case and the theories are all over the spectrum. The most prevalent thought is that this was not an actual alien and simply an anomaly caused by conditions on the moor. Though Spencer never sought compensation and was well regarded by people who knew him, the consensus is that overall, the story just doesn't add up. I have seen witnesses undergo hypnotic regression with a fair degree of success when a competent professional is running the session. If Spencer's regression session was legit, then I have to give his account the benefit of the doubt...Lon

Sources:
www.ilkley-online.co.uk
www.subversiveelement.com
ufos.about.com
ufocasebook.com
www.abovetopsecret.com
www.iwasabducted.com
VZMEDY385YCK

I actually did not see this creature until later when I took the memory stick out of my camera & put on my computer. And even then I didnt notice it but an old school chum noticed it on the photo on my Facebook page. I never even was sure I really believed in aliens. It looks like a gargoyle to me almost. It is facing a fire we had built between our families 2 travel trailers & we did compare against the flames & its is NOT the flames. This things was right next to me but I did not see it. When we arrived at the Sand Lake Dunes in Tillamook there was an odd noise that started that everyone thought was a cat. It was the weirdest experience as all my family & friends have really been unsettled by this photo. I might still have it on the original memory stick if it needs to be analyzed. I have photos of the exact area taken in daylight with nothing there. There is also a blue orb in the photo but orbs are often in my photos. This evening my boyfriend did some photoshopping playing with the lights of the photo & it appears to be solid as the light reflects off of it. There also appears to be some sort of symbols/insignia on the metallic part of the garmet this "alien" is wearing. I am not into aliens at all. In fact, my boyfriend watches so many programs about aliens that Im fairly weary of anything having to do with aliens. This is not my field of interest at all. I kept thinking of it as a demon. But in the interests of science & because this does appear to be a genuine...otherworldly creature, I thought perhaps I should share it. This happened in October of 2010 when I was attending the jeep club races of my boyfriends family. - MUFON CMS

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They call him "Twenty-Four." Yoandri Hernandez Garrido's nickname comes from the six perfectly formed fingers on each of his hands and the six impeccable toes on each foot.

Hernandez is proud of his extra digits and calls them a blessing, saying they set him apart and enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs in Baracoa, an eastern Cuban city popular with tourists. One traveler paid $10 for a picture with him, Hernandez said, a bonanza in a country with an average salary of just $20 a month.

"It's thanks to my 24 digits that I'm able to make a living, because I have no fixed job," Hernandez said.

Known as polydactyly, Hernandez's condition is relatively common, but it's rare for the extra digits to be so perfect. Anyone who glanced quickly at his hands would be hard-pressed to notice anything different unless they paused and started counting.

Hernandez said that as a boy he was visited by a prominent Cuban orthopedist who is also one of Fidel Castro's doctors, and he declared that in all his years of travel he had never seen such a case of well-formed polydactyly.

"He was very impressed when he saw my fingers," said Hernandez, who is the only one in his family to be born with extra digits.

In a part of the world where people's physical traits are often the basis for nicknames — even unflattering ones like "fatty" or "shorty" — "veinticuatro" ("twenty-four" in English) is not an insult but rather a term of endearment, and Hernandez, now 37, said his uniqueness has made him a popular guy. He has a 10-year-old son with a woman who now lives in Havana, and his current girlfriend is expecting his second child.

"Since I was young, I understood that it was a privilege to have 24 digits. Nobody has ever discriminated against me for that," he said. "On the contrary, people admire me and I am very proud. I have a million friends, I live well."

Nevertheless, it occasionally caused confusion growing up.

"One day when I was in primary school, a teacher asked me how much was five plus five?" Hernandez recalled. "I was very young, kind of shy, and I didn't say anything. She told me to count how many fingers I had, so I answered, "12!"

"The teacher was a little upset, but it was the truth," he said.

Hernandez said he hopes he can be an example to children with polydactyly that there's nothing wrong with them.

"I think it's what God commanded," he said. "They shouldn't feel bad about anything, because I think it's one of the greatest blessings and they'll be happy in life." - nola

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Covering more than 7 million square kilometres in South America, the Amazon basin is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world. But it turns out we have only known half the story until now.

Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the Amazon basin – around 4km underneath the Amazon river. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon river but up to hundreds of times wider.

Both the Amazon and Hamza flow from west to east and are around the same length, at 6,000km. But whereas the Amazon ranges from 1km to 100km in width, the Hamza ranges from 200km to 400km.

The underground river starts in the Acre region under the Andes and flows through the Solimões, Amazonas and Marajó basins before opening out directly into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon flows much faster than the Hamza, however, draining a greater volume of water. Around 133,000m3 of water flow through the Amazon per second at speeds of up to 5 metres per second. The underground river's flow rate has been estimated at around 3,900m3 per second and it barely inches along at less than a millimetre per hour.

The Hamza was located using data collected inside a series of 241 abandoned deep wells that were drilled in the Amazon region by the petrochemical company Petrobras in the 1970s and 1980s. Elizabeth Tavares Pimentel and Valiya Hamza of the Department of Geophysics at Brazil's National Observatory led the work and presented their results last week at the International Congress of the Society Brasiliera Geophysical in Rio de Janeiro.

The researchers used a mathematical model to predict the presence of the underground river, based on the measured changes in temperature down the wells. In the presentation, Piementel said that the flow of groundwater was almost vertical through the rocks to depths of around 2,000m. After this, the water flow changes direction and becomes almost horizontal.

According to the researchers, the presence of the Rio Hamza river might account for the relatively low salinity of the waters around the mouth of the Amazon.

Professor Hamza said Piementel's measurements represented preliminary work on the discovery of the new river, but Hamza said he expected to confirm the existence of the flow with additional measurements within the next few years. - guardian

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Some people believe the world revolves around them — and their belief is born not of selfishness but of faith.

A few conservative Roman Catholics are pointing to a dozen Bible verses and the church's original teachings as proof that Earth is the center of the universe, the view that was at the heart of the church's clash with Galileo Galilei four centuries ago.

The relatively obscure movement has gained a following among those who find comfort in knowing there are still staunch defenders of early church doctrine.

"This subject is, as far as I can see, an embarrassment to the modern church because the world more or less looks upon geocentrism, or someone who believes it, in the same boat as the flat Earth," said James Phillips ofCicero, Ill.

Phillips attends Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Church in Oak Park, Ill., a parish run by the Society of St. Pius X, which rejects most of the modernizing reforms made by the Vatican II council from 1962 to 1965.

But by challenging modern science, proponents of a geocentric universe are challenging the very church they seek to serve and protect.

"I have no idea who these people are," said Brother Guy Consolmagno, curator of meteorites and spokesman for the Vatican Observatory. "Are they sincere, or is this a clever bit of theater?"

Those promoting geocentrism argue that heliocentrism, or the centuries-old consensus among scientists that Earth revolves around the sun, is a conspiracy to squelch the church's influence.

"Heliocentrism becomes dangerous if it is being propped up as the true system when, in fact, it is a false system," said Robert Sungenis, leader of a budding movement to get scientists to reconsider. "False information leads to false ideas, and false ideas lead to illicit and immoral actions — thus the state of the world today.… Prior to Galileo, the church was in full command of the world, and governments and academia were subservient to her."

Sungenis is no Don Quixote. Hundreds of curiosity seekers, skeptics and supporters attended a conference last fall titled "Galileo Was Wrong. The Church Was Right" near the University of Notre Dame campus inSouth Bend, Ind.

Astrophysicists at Notre Dame didn't appreciate the group hitching its wagon to America's flagship Catholic university and resurrecting a concept that's extinct for a reason.

"It's an idea whose time has come and gone," astrophysics professor Peter Garnavich said. "There are some people who want to move the world back to the 1950s when it seemed like a better time. These are people who want to move the world back to the 1250s."

Garnavich said the theory of geocentrism violates what he believes should be a strict separation of church and science. One answers why, the other answers how, and never the twain should meet, he said.

But supporters contend there is scientific evidence to support geocentrism, just as there is evidence to support the six-day story of creation in Genesis.

There is proof in Scripture that Earth is the center of the universe, Sungenis said. Among many verses, he cites Joshua 10:12-14 as definitive proof: "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, while the nation took vengeance on its foe.… The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it resume its swift course."

But Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., said the Bible is silent on geocentrism.

"There's a big difference between looking at the origin of the planets, the solar system and the universe and looking at presently how they move and how they are interrelated," Ham said. "The Bible is neither geocentric or heliocentric. It does not give any specific information about the structure of the solar system."

Just as Ham challenges the foundation of natural history museums by disputing evolution, Sungenis challenges planetariums, most notably the Vatican Observatory.

But Consolmagno said the very premise of going after Galileo illustrates the theory's lack of scientific credibility.

"Of course, we understand the universe in a far more nuanced way than Galileo did 400 years ago," he said.

"And I would hope that the next 400 years would see just as much development." - latimes

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The belief is more common among younger people, with a quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds subscribing to the theory

One in seven people are convinced that the U.S. government was involved in a conspiracy to stage the September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.

A survey, which interviewed 1,000 people in the UK and the same number in the U.S., found that 14 per cent of Britons 15 per cent of Americans think the past administration was involved in the tragedy.

They were asked: 'It is generally accepted that these attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda. However some people have suggested there was a wider conspiracy that included the American government. Do you, yourself, believe that there was a wider conspiracy, or not?'

The belief that there was a conspiracy was more common among younger people, with a quarter (24 per cent) of 16 to 24-year-olds subscribing to the theory.

About two thirds of those polled - 68 per cent - said they didn't think there was a conspiracy.

The survey was carried out for a BBC documentary which examines why so many people believe there is a darker truth behind the attacks.

The survey was carried out by Gfk NOP as part of a BBC Two programme, The Conspiracy Files - Ten Years On.

Telephone polls in the UK and the US were carried out last month.

American radio host and actor Alex Jones is a vocal advocate about the conspiracy theories.

BBC Radio 2 quoted him as saying this morning: 'Private, corporate, world networks working in US, British, Israeli intelligence - all three groups - have been found to have fingerprints but the main driver was rogue networks at the top of the US Government.

'The Government admits they've staged events before. The official story doesn't add up.'

The view is taken despite a series of official inquiries which have found no evidence to support the claims.

Emergency workers look for debris in Shanksville, near Pittsburgh, where the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, killing all 45 people on board

TOP 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

1. Why did the world's most powerful airforce fail to intercept any of the hijacked planes?

What the conspiracists say: The US Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the military to stand down and not intercept the planes.

Official reports say: The transponder, which provides the exact location of the plane, had been turned off or changed.

There was a lack of communication between the civilian air traffic control (FAA) and the military and the military's equipment was outdated, designed to look out over the ocean to deal with a Cold War threat.

2. Why did the Twin Towers collapse so quickly, imploding without damaging surrounding buildings, after short fires on a few floors?

What the conspiracists say: The Twin Towers were destroyed by controlled demolitions.

Official reports say: The planes severed and damaged support columns and dislodged fire-proofing. About 10,000 gallons of jet fuel drenched the towers, starting the fires. Temperatures of up to 1,000C caused the floors to sag and the perimeter columns to bend, causing the sounds of explosions.

Controlled demolition is carried out from the bottom floors whereas this collapse started at the top.

3. How could an amateur pilot fly a commercial plane in a complicated maneuver, crash it into the Pentagon, 78 minutes after the first report of a possible hijack and leave no trace?

What the conspiracists say: The aircraft was not under the control of al-Qaeda but the Pentagon itself.

Official reports say: There is a large amount of video and still photography showing the plane wreckage and evidence of its flight path, such as broken lamp posts.

4. Why was the United Airlines flight 93 crash site at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, so small and why was the aircraft debris not visible?

What the conspiracists say: The plane was shot down by a missile and disintegrated in mid air, scattering the wreckage over a large area.

Official reports say: There are clear photographs showing aircraft wreckage and the cockpit voice recorder proved passengers had revolted and the hijackers had deliberately crashed the plane.

Another theory was based on a quote from the local coroner, Wally Miller, who said he stopped being a coroner after about 20 minutes because there were no bodies. But he also said he quickly realised it was a plane crash and there would have to be a large funeral service for the many victims.

5. How could the World Trade Centre 7 building, which was not hit by a plane, collapse so quickly (2.25 seconds) and symmetrically, when no other steel-framed skyscraper has collapsed because of fire?

What the conspiracists say: The building was destroyed by a controlled demolition using both explosives and incendiaries.

Owner, Larry Silverstein, was heard saying 'pull it' in a TV interview but he was talking about pulling firefighters back.

Some scientists examined four dust samples from Ground Zero and claim to have found thermite, a material which reacts when heated up, and that had been explosives rigged inside.

Official reports say: The building collapsed because of uncontrolled fires, started by the collapse of the nearby North Tower, which burnt for seven hours.

The mains water feeding the emergency sprinkler system was severed.

The thermitic material is a type of primer paint. - dailymail

The following, Christopher Columbus’s Origins, posts the various countries suggested to be the real birthplace of explorer Christopher Columbus, AKA Cristóbal Colón, Cristoforo Colombo, Christoffa Corombo or Cristofor Colom.

1) Genoa

2) Small towns just outside Genoa: e.g. Savona and nearby Albisola

3) Piacenza (in northern Italy)

4) A Catalan-speaking territory

5) Extremadura (today Spain)

6) A Greek Islander

7) A Byzantine noble

8 ) A Mediterranean Jew

9) A Portuguese/Galician Jew

10) Portugal

11) Galicia

12) English

13) Scottish or Irish

14) Polish

15) Swedish

For example:

Historian Claims Christopher Columbus Was Scottish

Alfonso Ensenat de Villalonga has disputed conventionally-accepted narratives on the explorer's origins - that he was the son of a weaver in Genoa, Italy, or that he was from Catalonia or Galicia in Spain.

In fact, he was from Genoa, but he was "the son of shopkeepers not weavers and he was baptised Pedro not Christopher," Mr Villalonga told Spain's ABC newspaper on Sunday.

And his family name was Scotto, and was not Italian but of Scottish origin.

"He had light-coloured eyes and freckles. He also had blond hair even though it quickly turned white. That's how his contemporaries described him. Nothing like the traditional images (of him), which are totally invented," the historian said.

Mr Villalonga cited a chronicle of Catholic kings written by Lucio Marineo Siculo, who referred in his writings to "Pedro Columbus", not Christopher.

The historian has also claimed that the navigator once worked for a pirate called Vincenzo Columbus, and adopted that family name in order not to "expose" his relations.

Mr Villalonga said his research involved combing the archives in the Genoa region along with those in the Spanish history academy and national library.

Also...

New Evidence: Christopher Columbus Possible Son of Vladislav III, Exiled King of Poland

He is celebrated as the humble Italian weaver who ended up discovering the Americas.

But the conventional wisdom relating to Christopher Columbus is under threat after academics concluded the explorer was actually a Polish immigrant.

An international team of distinguished professors have completed 20 years of painstaking research into his beginnings.

The fresh evidence about Columbus’ background is revealed in a new book by Manuel Rosa, an academic at Duke University in the United States.

He says the voyager was not from a family of humble Italian craftsmen as previously thought - but the son of Vladislav III, an exiled King of Poland.

‘The sheer weight of the evidence presented makes the old tale of a Genoese wool-weaver so obviously unbelievable that only a fool would continue to insist on it,’ Rosa said.

The academic argues that the only way Columbus persuaded the King of Spain to fund his journey across the Atlantic Ocean was because he was royalty himself.

For some reason he hid the true identity of his Polish biological father from most people during his lifetime, and history books have been none the wiser.

‘Another nutty conspiracy theory! That’s what I first supposed as I started to read... I now believe that Columbus is guilty of huge fraud carried out over two decades against his patrons,’ said US historian Prof. James T. McDonough.

Other historians first doubted Columbus’ Polish roots, but Rosa’s findings have been steadily gaining followers as the evidence comes to light.

‘This book will forever change the way we view our history,’ said Portuguese historian Prof. Jose Carlos Calazans. National Geographic is reportedly interested in making a documentary.

Until now, it was believed that Columbus, who was born in the Italian city of Genoa in 1451, was the son of Domenico Columbo, who was a weaver and had a cheese stall in a market in the city.

At the age of 22 Columbus started working for Genoese merchants trading throughout the Mediterranean, and three years later took part in a special trading expedition to northern Europe, docking at Bristol before continuing to Ireland and Iceland.

Throughout the 1480s, when Columbus was in his 30s, he traded along the African coast.

Historians say it is a myth that navigators thought the world was flat before Columbus sailed west – they had been using the stars at night as a primitive navigation system that assumed the earth was a sphere.

What sailors including Columbus didn’t know is how big the earth was, and how long it would take to sail round it.

When he persuaded financiers to back his voyage west in 1492, he had completely miscalculated the distances and thought that Asia would be where America is: he arrived in the Bahamas, thinking he was somewhere off the coast of China.

Columbus undertook three more return journeys across the Atlantic Ocean, each time hoping that he had found another part of Asia.

He set up Spanish colonies and became governor of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but was later put on trial in Spain for alleged abuse of power.

After Columbus’ death in 1506, European explorers continued to set up colonies and eventually empires in north and south America.

NOTE: for one famous individual to have so much controversy as to their origin is very uncommon...even though he lived over 500 years ago. In fact, one gentleman (who, by the way, is a college professor) attempted to explain to me that Columbus was most likely an alien hybrid who was genetically engineered by a group of non-human beings living in present day Turkey. I tend to believe that Columbus was of Catalan-Genoan descent and most likely born and raised in Spain. But my guess is as good as any other...Lon

Columbus DNA Tests

Christopher Columbus writings prove he was Spanish, claims study

But American researchers say the mystery over the explorer's true origins has finally been solved after a thorough investigation of his writings.

A study of the language used in the official records and letters of the Great Navigator apparently proves he hailed from the Kingdom of Aragon in northeastern Spain and his mother tongue was Catalan.

Since his death in 1506 debate has raged over the true nationality of the man credited with discovering the Americas.

It was widely believed that he was the son of a weaver born in the Italian port of Genoa, but over the centuries he has been claimed as a native son of Greece, Catalonia, Portugal, Corsica, France and even Poland.

According to one theory, he may have been Jewish and another more recent account traced his origins to Scotland.

But a linguistic professor at Georgetown University in Washington has published new findings following an exhaustive study of documents written in his hand.

Estelle Irizarry studied his language and grammar and concluded that Columbus was a Catalan speaking man from the Kingdom of Aragon, an inland region of north-eastern Spain at the foot of the Pyrenees.

The findings published this month in a new book "The DNA of the writings of Columbus" explain that although he wrote in Castilian it was clearly not his first language and his origins can be pinpointed to the Aragon region because of the grammar and the way he constructed sentences.

"He didn't express him correctly in any written language," said the professor. "His Spanish was notoriously incorrect yet at the same time efficient, poetic and eloquent."

A scientific project launched three years ago to discover his true origins using DNA comparisons between his family and possible descendants has so far failed to provide conclusive results.

A team of scientists took samples from the tomb of Columbus in Seville and from bones belonging to his brother and son and compared them to the genetic make-up of hundreds of people living across Europe with surnames believed to be modern day variants of Columbus.

Swabs were taken from the cheeks of Colom's in Catalonia, Colombo's in Italy and even members of the deposed Portuguese royal family, who argue that Columbus was the product of an extramarital affair involving a Portuguese prince.

Scientists had hoped to establish a common ancestor using standard Y-chromosome tests but they have yet to find a link.

They study may be in vain, however, as there is evidence to suggest that Columbus, who first crossed the Atlantic in 1492, may have adopted his surname later in life to disguise his true origins.

One theory claims that he once worked for a pirate called Vincenzo Columbus, and adopted that name in order not to embarrass his relations with his new profession.

Columbus himself, when asked about his origins, used to shrug off the questions. "Vine de nada" – "I came from nothing", he said. - telegraph