; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Monday, December 31, 2012

Yowie: Australian Wildman


The most recent episode of 'Finding Bigfoot' took place in the Gold Coast region of Queensland, Australia. The 2-hour presentation was fairly interesting and included what may have been actual audio evidence of the elusive Yowie. The general physical description of this creature is very similar to our North American Sasquatch or Bigfoot. The Yowie does seem to show more aggression toward humans.

I've included bits & pieces of information that I have presented previously along with a few new details:


Australian Yowie Hunter Attacked


More graphic photos Cryptomundo.com - It never rains but it pours - in this case, improbable events.

Hot on the heels of last week's wild weather in southeast Queensland comes a hunter of mythological beasts - Tim the Yowie Man.

Tim - who uses no surname and can be almost as elusive as his quarry - says there is a direct correlation between significant rain events and sightings of the yowie.

"The soaked soil and muddy bogs created by the heavy rain are more conducive to animals, including yowies, leaving their footprints,'' Tim said.

He said last week's rain could make "a large hairy bipedal hominoid creature'' uncomfortable and force it from deep jungle canyons into the open.

So Tim has rushed from that other capital of strange mysteries - Canberra - to Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland, a village he describes as the yowie capital of Australia for its many sightings.

So far he's seen nothing - but that hasn't put him off.

"I'm quietly confident of finding some sort of evidence such as hair or footprints of the mystery beast,'' he said.

"If I'm really lucky I may even get to see one.''

Dean Harrison of Australian Yowie Research says he has just returned from Springbrook, bearing photographs of footprints he believes are of a female yowie and her young trailing along behind.

"They seem to be quite passive around that area compared to other areas that we've been to,'' Mr Harrison said.

He said tales of yowies near Springbrook date back to before European settlement.

Mr Harrison said on his latest expedition he was rugby-tackled by a yowie at 3am near Gympie.

"This one knocked me flying backwards. I landed in a rockpool,'' he said.

Australian Yowie Research has been nominated for a Bent Spoon Award on the website of Australian Skeptics, a group that investigates paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. - 5/2/2009

*****

Yowie Sighting Reported - Mount George, NSW, Australia


manningrivertimes.com.au - 7/08/2009 - Last Friday night, Faye Burke and her cousin Alana Garnett left their homes in Wingham with a trailer attached to the car.

They were driving towards Cundle Flat to load the trailer with fresh pumpkins from Faye's brother's home.

"It was half moonlight, the stars were out and it was a beautiful night," Faye said.

But oddly enough there was not a car on the Nowendoc Road. "I have been driving that road all my life and that's unusual," she said. Driving steadily the pair were approaching Connelly's Creek Gap "just on the other side of Mt George".

"We were about 200 metres from the top of the hill when I clearly remember looking down at the car clock and it was exactly 7.30pm," Faye said.

"I looked back up at the road and I saw ahead in the headlights this big hairy animal thing on the side of the winding road.

"It was about eight foot tall and four foot wide."

Alana said they yelled out "holy hell" along with a list of other unmentionable words. "We panicked," they said.

"I couldn't turn the car around because I had the trailer and the road was too narrow," Faye said.

"I was s**t-scared and thought I better not mess with this thing in case it lifts the trailer up and tips us over the bank edge."

Keeping her foot on the accelerator and speeding past the thing, Faye said she turned to Alana and said: "Did you see that? She said in a scared voice: 'Do you mean that thing that looked like a Big Foot?' I said: No it was a Yowie."

And Alana screamed back: "Same thing!".

"After we reached the top of the hill I wanted to turn around and get a photo with my mobile phone," Faye said.

But Alana was too scared to go back. She said if the passenger window had been wound down she could have reached out and touched it. Faye and Alana said the hairy thing stood perfectly still "like it was at attention".

"Its back was facing us and it was looking into the embankment next to the road and it had dark chocolate brown hair which was all matted," Alana said.

"The breeze of the car made the hair around its neck flick up as we drove past."

Neither Alana or Faye believe it was a person dressed up or a ghost. "It was real," they said.

"And I am absolutely convinced it was a yowie."

Faye just wishes she had gone back and taken a photo.

"I knew people wouldn't believe us and I didn't phone the police because I thought they would think we were loopy."

Faye said: "I am not a drinker and I hadn't been drinking but I did have a beer when I got to my brother's house that night.

"When we arrived at my brother's house we almost fell out of the car," she said. "He told us we both had white faces and we were both trying to tell our story at the same time."

They returned to the exact location the next morning to attempt to find hair samples and footprints and take photos.

"We didn't find any hair but we found an indentation in the ground resembling a giant footprint and a big spot of urine."

She said the urine had stripped part of the bark near a tree and looked like oily spots - "and it stunk".

"I will never forget what we saw," Faye said.

And it is an image neither can take out of their mind.

"I can't sleep at night because I can't stop thinking about it," Faye said.

And Alana said she still sees it when she closes her eyes and tries to go to sleep.

Miraculously when Faye was printing out her photos of the footprint at Big W in Taree, with her daughter, a woman next to her heard her conversation and said she saw a Yowie in Grafton.

"The goose bumps came all over me, up from my heel right up to my head, and I thought thank God for the confirmation that there are other people who have seen one too," Faye said

"I will never stop looking for it." But Alana believes "it is something they will never see again".

On the evening of 31 July this year, two Wingham (NSW) women sighted an eight foot tall hairy creature standing motionless beside Nowendoc Road, about 6 kilometres outside the township of Mount George. On 30/31 August I visited Wingham, interviewed both women and found their stories impressive.

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Continued Controversy Over Yowie Sighting in Pilliga Forest, NSW


coonabarabran - A recent sighting of what appeared to be a hairy creature lurking in the Pilliga has Baradine residents wondering if there is some truth to the primeval legend of the yowie. Although the image was fleeting and nobody could describe exactly what they saw, the incident adds mystery to a story that has its roots in Aboriginal folklore. The contentious and potentially scary incident occurred late in the evening of Wednesday, 26 August, when two buses containing high school student members of the Regional Children’s Choir were returning to Baradine from a camp-fire evening at Odell’s Crossing.

Coincidentally, the youngsters had been listening to some hair-raising Pilliga tales related to them by local residents, Roy Matthews, Ronnie Magann and Pat Madden. The purpose of the excursion, organised by National Parks & Wildlife, was to give the Moorambilla choir group a feel for the forest. Composer and musician, Dan Walker, has been working with the kids preparing music and song based on the yowie legend.

After enjoying the camp fire stories and billy tea and damper in the heart of the forest, the group set off on the return drive. As the first bus approached Odell’s Crossing, driver Daisy Matthews was startled to see something she believes resembled a strange human moving between the trees. She reports that she had a brief glimpse of a ‘wild looking’ hairy figure running towards the bus. “It seemed to be confused and dazzled by the headlights,” commented Mrs. Matthews. “We were travelling very slowly, but it all happened so quickly and I still wonder if I was seeing things!

“However, most of the kids said they had seen something, but there was such a lot of commotion and noise which really must have scared the creature away.” The driver of the second bus, Cliff Matthews, said that he really could not make a comment other than there was definitely something or someone on the track. He says that a heavy thump against the side of his bus as he approached the creek did cause a brief unnerving moment and there was a good deal of excitement amongst his young passengers.

Yowie-type creatures are common in the legends and stories of Australian Aboriginal tribes and the mid to late 19th century saw a wealth of sightings; most describing a large, gorilla-like creature living in mountainous or forested regions. Over the years there have been many stories of yowie sightings in the Pilliga, in fact there have been more reported yowie sightings in the forest than anywhere else in Australia and it is often known as a ‘hot spot’ for yowie hunters.

The choir kids were eager to hear yarns about the yowie and first hand experiences from local residents. “It is interesting to note that people have gone missing out in the scrub and no trace of them has ever been found,” commented Roy Matthews.

Terrible Sight

“I had a man working for me some years ago who said he had seen a yowie out here and there was no way he was staying out in the forest after dark. “Well, after he told me what it looked like, I was quite happy to start work a bit later in the morning and make sure I finished well before dark! “He said it was a terrible looking thing; like a big gorilla with a large head resembling three porcupines tied together. “It was something I did not want to run into, but I have heard about people who have. This would be the first night I have been in the scrub since then.” Pat Madden said that as a child she was told many different versions of the yowie legend. “We would only go to town once a month and we always made sure that we got home before dark,” related Pat.

“One day we were forced to leave the truck and walk back home through the forest. We felt we were being watched and I think we got back in record time!” NPWS ranger and excursion organiser, Montgomery, related the story about a mysterious disappearance of a whole carcass of beef from the butcher’s shop.“The butcher had left the carcass hanging in his shop overnight and locked up gone,” explained Polly.

“The 500 kilo animal had been carried out of the shop by something with enormous strength. “The incident was reported in the local newspaper at the time.”

Primitive humanoid

Well known yowie hunter Rex Gilroy, has been to the Pilliga Forest, the Warrumbungles and Mt Kaputar National Park in search of the primitive humanoid. On his website he reports that stories of yowie sightings in the Coonabarabran district date back to the 1800's. Just a few years ago a group of tourists reported finding giant ape-like footprints in road side bush in the Pilliga just off the Newell Highway.

Then there is the more recent report from a Sydney motorist who had stopped his car in the Pilliga for a rest and sighted a hairy ape-like creature about 10 feet tall watching him from nearby bush. Whether or not there is a such a creature as a Yowie in the Pilliga Forest has always been a hot topic for controversial debate in Baradine. But, although the infamous creature has successfully hidden for thousands of years, it should be remembered that the Pilliga Yowie, whether fact or fiction, is certainly doing its bit towards putting the forest on the tourist map. Apparently some are hoping that it becomes a major tourist attraction akin to Scotland's Loch Ness monster - believe it or not.

NOTE: a reader in Australia forwarded this article from August 2009 and states that the controversy over this sighting has increased to the point where some people are implying that this was a stunt to draw Yowie hunters and tourists to the area. I don't know the particular Yowie legend for the Pilliga Forest...maybe someone can give us an update...Lon

UPDATE: I received this email from Sharon in Australia...

About a week after this story broke, apparently one of the guys who was telling the kids the Yowie stories admitted to dressing up and pretending to be a Yowie. The driver of the bus and the other guy were in on it too. They didn't mean for it to become such a big deal, they just wanted to give the kids an 'experience'. This particular story was discussed on the Australian Yowie Research forums in October this year, however I've not been able to find the link....the link to the article in the local town paper has disappeared from the site I had bookmarked... I believe the writer was a Sue or Susan Cutts if you want to give digging in the internet files a go. Kind regards,

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Former Queensland Senator Recalls Yowie Encounter


barossa-region - Bill O'Chee can remember it like it was yesterday. It was the day the former Queensland National Party senator came face to face with a creature straight out of a nightmare.

A young O'Chee was with a group of 20 fellow TSS students returning from a two-day camp near Springbrook when they saw what they described as a 3m tall hair-covered creature.

To this day, Mr O'Chee is certain what he saw was the mythical yowie.

He told The Gold Coast Bulletin on November 17, 1977 that the animal approached the boys' camp on several occasions, at one stage coming within 10m of their cabins.

"About 20 of us saw it," he said then.

"It was about 3m tall, covered in hair, had a flat face and walked to the side in a crab-like style.

"It smashed small saplings and trees like matchsticks as it careered through the bush, we spotted it several times and once watched it through binoculars. It definitely was there.

"We first saw it just before we returned back to Southport on the afternoon of October 23."

Contacted this week, Mr O'Chee was happy to confirm the story and said his memory of what he saw was as clear to him today as it was 27 years ago.

"I still remember it, I can still see the damn thing," he said.

"The majority of my school chums still remember it, it was such an amazing experience.

"It was a big thing, about 8ft tall through the binoculars, it moved in a crab-like fashion.

"We saw where it had been lying on the grbutt and the impression it left was about 8ft long.

"That night it just ripped up whole shrubs between the creek and where our camp was, right out of the ground, - roots and all. A bloke can't do that, it was quite incredible."

Mr O'Chee said his experience had left him with the certainty that yowies do exist.

"I do believe it. Nothing that has happened since has made me believe otherwise, all I can say is that it did exist when I saw it," he said.

"Stranger things have happened. In the last couple of years they have discovered animals in the South-East Asian jungle that are new that survived the Vietnam War. And Australia has a history of supporting large fauna.

"I know the school (TSS) never went back there (Springbrook).

"Some of us got into trouble for mentioning it but I'm not sorry because it's true.

"I hope it's still out there and if they are we would be wise to just leave them well alone."

Mr O'Chee's sighting is the most famous of reported incidents involving yowies, but there have been thousands of cases around the country of alleged contact with the famed mythical beast.

And yowie hunters say the Gold Coast is is a hot spot.

Tim the Yowie Man said the legend was alive and well in the Gold Coast Hinterland. He said the Gold Coast was 'the Bermuda Triangle of Australia', and Springbrook, a yowie 'hot spot', was known as the heart of yowie country.

Over the past decades, there have been numerous reports of the hairy creature around Springbrook, but the late 1970s were the most prolific period for sightings.

Within a period of five months from October 1977, at least five separate yowie sightings were reported either in, or on the edges of, Lamington National Park, near Springbrook.

In January 1978, a Sydney tourist reported what was believed to be the second sighting of a yowie at Springbrook in as many months.

"It was horrible. A great big hairy beast about 9ft tall, with no neck, and giving off a terrible smell," said the woman. She was with her boyfriend checking out the view from the Best of All Lookout when she saw the creature crashing through the undergrowth.

"If I had been in Africa I might have thought it was a gorilla. In the American Rockies it could have been a bear," said the woman, who wanted only to be known as 'Helen Smith'.

"But really it was none of those things. It seemed to lumber along crabwise and made funny grunting noises. It was hard to see its face but it was certainly flat.

"There didn't seem to be any prominent nose but its eyes had a wicked gleam."

In August 1978, a shy schoolboy reported a strange encounter with a hideous 8ft monster that looked like a baby King Kong.

A then 13-year-old Shaun Cooper said he was terror stricken after sighting 'a dark hairy thing' using its long arms to strip the bark off a tree in bushland near his home at Yakkayne Street, Nerang.

"It was about 2.30pm on a Sunday," he said.

"I had gone for a ride on my bike when I saw it up the hill a bit. It looked real to me and it was clawing the tree.

"Bark was falling down around its body. Then suddenly it turned and looked at me, putting its arms by its side.

"It looked at me from about 50 yards away for no more than three seconds. I turned and just went for my life."

Shaun and his mates later led a hunt for the creature and said they found footprints that closely resembled giant footprints more than 1ft long.

Photographed at the time by The Bulletin, they did resemble large footprints with three or more claw-shaped toes on each foot. The reporter also noted a tree that had bark torn from it as if it had been clawed by an animal.

Other reported sightings from that time included a man who said he saw a yowie peering in at the front door of a Springbrook house in January 1978.

In February that year, a National Parks and Wildlife worker reported seeing a Yowie near the Antarctic Beeches at Springbrook. He said another Springbrook resident had also seen a female yowie with pendulous mammaries.

These were followed by another spate of sightings in the 1990s.

In March 1990, Sydney tourist Craig Turnbull discovered 40cm long, 17cm wide footprints in a creekbed in the Numinbah Valley.

He sent plaster castings to yowie hunter Rex Gilroy, who then mounted an expedition to check on these and other reported sightings and footprint finds in the Lamington Plateau, Woodenbong and Kyogle areas.Australia's answer to Tibet's abominable snowman or yeti and North America's bigfoot, the yowie is the subject of myth and legend.

Despite thousands of reported sightings from around the country, the fact that no one has ever snared even a hair from a yowie's head has never dulled the thrill of the chase for yowie hunters.

And Tim the Yowie man, who has been hunting yowies for the past decade, said the huge number of sightings over the years had led him to believe that the yowie, like the truth, was out there.

"Thousands of people have reported seeing these creatures, right back to the Aborigines, and there is no doubt that they have seen what they believe is a yowie," he said.

"That many sightings can't all be hoaxes and they go back well before gorilla suits existed."

Tim said the yowies described in each of the sightings contained plenty of similarities.

The creature often reeks, it lopes sideways like a crab, it grows to 9ft tall, it makes strange grunting noises and when provoked or alarmed gives a high-pitched shriek.

"Most of the sightings are fairly similar although the height can change," he said.

"In north Queensland they are called Quinkins and can reach 2m tall, but in central Queensland they are much shorter."

Tim said the Springbrook yowies were renowned for one very prominent feature - they stink.

"There is a report of a ranger there in the early 90s at the Best of All Lookout who vomited at the terrible smell soon after seeing what he claimed was a yowie," he said.

"They have been reported to smell like rotten eggs, probably because they live in the rainforest where they are constantly damp."

But Tim himself was mystified that the number of reported sightings have dwindled to virtually nothing in the past few years.

"The biggest thing to happen in yowie sightings was back in 2000 when a businessman in Canberra managed to get video footage of a black hairy ape-like creature about 50km west of Canberra," he said.

"I went to the location and we were unable to rule it out as a hoax. It is the best evidence we have seen in years.

"But yes, I have started to wonder myself what has happened to the yowies. What happened to all the sightings?

"They seem to have vanished into thin air."

Tim said he believes prolonged drought and development, esp-ecially in areas like the Gold Coast, may have wiped out many yowies or driven them deeper into less developed areas like the mountains in the Border Ranges around Kyogle and Woodenbong.

"Yowies are traditionally said to be shy creatures and they wouldn't like being confronted by a bulldozer moving in on their space," he said.

"But where they have gone is a mystery, just like the yowies themselves are."

And one person who has finally 'fessed up to a fake sighting, 25 years after the event, is Sean Pask. He told The Bulletin in January 1979 that he and three mates saw a yowie in swampy bushland at Hollywell.

"We've seen a horrible hairy thing down in the bush at Hollywell and it grunted and it smelled like yuk," the boys told a Bulletin reporter over the phone.

"And no one believes us and we're sick of people laughing at us and this morning we saw it again - well not exactly saw it, but we did hear it. Honest."

Sean, then 11, his brother Paul, 12, and mates Tyson Franklin, 12, and Peter Loh, 12 lured a Bulletin reporter out into the 'bush' to tell the story of their amazing sighting of the Hollywell Horror, and get their picture in the paper.

But Sean, now 36 and a construction worker living in Brisbane, this week admitted, 'we made it up'.

"I'm the only one who will admit it, the others won't talk," he said.

"It was just four boys mucking around in the bush.

"In those days it was forest all around, we thought we heard something, scared ourselves stupid and the story just grew from there.

"We thought we'd have a bit of a lark and we rang the paper.

"It didn't take much to get our imaginations going in those days. It was a good story at the time."

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The Wild Hairy Man of the Blue Mountains

Encounters with the “hairy man” of the rugged Blue Mountains just west of Australia’s largest metropolis, Sydney, have been recorded from the time colonial settlers first appeared in the area. While long before the settlers’ arrival, the original inhabitants always feared and respected the elusive, hairy hominid, often referred to as the yowie or yahoo.

Here we look at some of those early reported encounters, but first some personal experiences with what might just be the legendary hairy man of the Blue Mountains.

Near my home in the Blue Mountains is a fire trail that winds down towards a creek flowing through a steep gully thick with rainforest-like vegetation. While close to civilisation, it is rugged bushland. I half-jokingly refer to this as the “Yowie track”. Why? Because I’ve had a number of unnerving encounters while walking my dog along that track.

At one point during that first trek along the Yowie track, I suddenly heard a loud snapping sound. I stopped walking. It sounded all too close. Seconds later, I heard three or four heavy (make that very heavy) footsteps in the nearby scrub. I’ve heard many kangaroos and wallabies hop through the bush in my time, but this was different. These sounded distinctly bipedal with a huge gait. Although only a short distance away, the bush was thick and I couldn’t see what had taken those steps. I didn’t want to. But I knew something was there, and that after taking only a few steps it had stopped. I suddenly felt an eerie sensation of being watched. My dog, a young pup at the time, was oblivious. I quietly made an about face and we quickly got out of there. Continue reading at weirdaustralia

NOTE: My friend David has lived in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales near Katoomba for over 25 years. He and his wife have a large garden and patio in back of their house which is surrounded by heavy forest. Neither have ever witnessed a Yowie...but on several occasions (while they were away) something with significant strength has come onto the property and thrown large heavy objects all about...including 200 lb flower pots and a medium sized lawn tractor. They have now setup security cameras...but the being hasn't been back. Several residents near him have reported similar activity including a woman who caught a glimpse of the being. The description fits that of a Yowie. I need to have David write up an article...he's had a few interesting encounters over the years. Lon

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Just the Facts?: Welch Witchcraft Thriving -- UFO Observed Near Area 51 -- Top 2012 Science Breakthroughs


Witchcraft 'thriving in the Welsh countryside'

Rev Felix Aubel claims occult practices in rural Wales have been increasing during the two decades he has been working in the area.

The minister spoke out after latest figures in the 2011 census has revealed 83 witches and 93 satanists are living in Wales.

He said there was an "unusual connection" between Christianity and witchcraft in some chapel circles in Wales.

Rev Aubel, who is the minister of five Congregational chapels in rural Carmarthenshire, said he has called out an exorcist after a witch placed a curse on one of his parishioners.

He said: "This is not a joke and I would warn people not to get involved in the occult.

"I have been told that a coven of witches still meet locally. There is also a witch living in a nearby village who advertises her services in the local paper."

He revealed in his autobiography that a curse on a parishioner had to be lifted by an exorcist.

He said: "In folk-magic and witchcraft, a poppet is a doll made to represent a person, for casting spells on that person.

"A poppet or effigy would be used with very sharp needles stuck into its 'heart' as a way of doing evil to an enemy.

"It was this 'evil' type of poppet that was used on a chapel member of mine in the Aberaeron area in 1994.

"It took an experienced Anglican exorcist to 'raise' this curse, which had been placed by a witch on the instruction of another former church member.

"The motivation behind this 'evil' was envy that had turned into jealousy."

The Carmarthenshire church minister, who has preached in West Wales for over 20 years, said witches and curses weren't simply the stuff of fairy stories.

He said he had also battled a case of the "evil eye" during his ministerial career.

Rev Aubel said: "This is an ancient belief in the existence of a malevolent power in the glance of some people, which is almost invariably provoked by envy or jealousy.

"In this instance, a lady who had given birth to a baby boy was apparently wished bad luck by the "evil glance" in the eye of a childless spinster neighbour.

"Both mother and child were subsequently taken ill due to acute breathlessness for no apparent medical reason and had to be hospitalised.

"The spinster even visited the mother and child in hospital while I was speaking to them.

"It became obvious to me that the spinster was praising the baby to its mother in a very false and patronising way.

"This is one of the most noticeable characteristics of the utilisation of the "evil eye".

"Realising this, I asked the spinster to say "God bless you" to the baby, having just said what a beautiful child the mother had.

"After that the spinster immediately walked away without uttering another word.

"As a precautionary measure, the mother later placed a horse shoe amulet in the porch of her home in order to protect her baby son and herself from the malevolent effects of the spinster's "evil eye"."

He added: "A witch who lived in the Pennant area of Ceredigion in the early 1990s would occasionally attend the local chapel.

Rev Aubel said he hoped his autobiography, called A Rebel's Story, acted as a warning to people not to get entangled in the occult. - Telegraph

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UFO observed near Area 51

A contact of mine who is a local resident of Alamo, Nevada was walking near to the Windmill Ranch Hotel just outside Alamo when he spotted this sphere moving towards the west and the mountain range which you can see in the picture. Behind the mountains is Area 51 and on this particular day there had been no aircraft activity out of Nellis AFB or Groom Lake. The sun was behind the person who took this picture and you can clearly see this from the shadows on the ground in the picture. The contact had forgotten this image until he recently went through some old SD memory cards and came across it just before Christmas. He contacted me immediately and we cannot find any conventional explanation for this sphere. He does recall seeing flashes in the sky which were also witnessed by staff from the hotel, in total 3 other persons. He cannot find any conventional explantion for this sphere and satelites and astronomical objects have been ruled out. The contact has asked me to share this image and I will respect their wishes by not naming them. None the less this is certainly a decent image and one that should certianly be shared with the public. - MUFON CMS

Click for photo

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base

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Top 2012 Science Breakthroughs

The observation of an elusive sub-atomic particle, known as the Higgs boson, has been heralded by the journal Science as the most important scientific discovery of 2012. This particle, which was first hypothesized more than 40 years ago, holds the key to explaining how other elementary particles (those that aren't made up of smaller particles), such as electrons and quarks, get their mass.

In addition to recognizing the detection of this particle as the 2012 Breakthrough of the Year, Science and its international nonprofit publisher, AAAS, have identified nine other groundbreaking scientific achievements from the past year and compiled them into a top 10 list that will appear in the 21 December issue.

Researchers unveiled evidence of the Higgs boson on 4 July, fitting into place the last missing piece of a puzzle that physicists call the standard model of particle physics. This theory explains how particles interact via electromagnetic forces, weak nuclear forces and strong nuclear forces in order to make up matter in the universe. However, until this year, researchers could not explain how the elementary particles involved got their mass.

"Simply assigning masses to the particles makes the theory go haywire mathematically," explained Science news correspondent Adrian Cho, who wrote about the discovery for the journal's Breakthrough of the Year feature. "So, mass must somehow emerge from interactions of the otherwise mass-less particles themselves. That's where the Higgs comes in."

As Cho explains, physicists assume that space is filled by a "Higgs field," which is similar to an electric field. Particles interact with this Higgs field to obtain energy and—thanks to Einstein's famous mass-energy equivalence—mass as well. "Just as an electric field consists of particles called photons, the Higgs field consists of Higgs bosons woven into the vacuum," he explains. "Physicists have now blasted them out of the vacuum and into brief existence."

But, a view to the Higgs boson did not come easy—or cheap. Thousands of researchers working with a 5.5-billion-dollar atom-smasher at a particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, called CERN, used two gargantuan particle detectors, known as ATLAS and CMS, to spot the long-sought boson.

It is unclear where this discovery will lead the field of particle physics in the future but its impact on the physics community this year has been undeniable, which is why Science calls the detection of the Higgs boson the 2012 Breakthrough of the Year. The special 21 December issue of the journal includes three articles written by researchers at CERN, which help to explain how this breakthrough was achieved.

Science's list of nine other pioneering scientific achievements from 2012 follows.

The Denisovan Genome: A new technique that binds special molecules to single strands of DNA allowed researchers to sequence the complete Denisovan genome from just a fragment of bone from an ancient pinky finger. The genomic sequence has allowed researchers to compare Denisovans—archaic humans closely related to Neandertals—with modern humans. It also revealed that the finger bone belonged to a girl with brown eyes, brown hair and brown skin who died in Siberia between 74,000 and 82,000 years ago.

Making Eggs From Stem Cells: Japanese researchers showed that embryonic stem cells from mice could be coaxed into becoming viable egg cells. They clinched the case when the cells, fertilized by sperm in the laboratory, developed into live mouse pups born of surrogate mothers. The method requires female mice to host the developing eggs in their bodies for a time, so it falls short of scientists' ultimate goal: deriving egg cells entirely in the laboratory. But, it provides a powerful tool for studying genes and other factors that influence fertility and egg cell development.

Curiosity's Landing System: Though unable to test their rover's entire landing system under Martian conditions, mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, safely and precisely placed the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. The 3.3-ton rover entry vehicle was too massive for traditional landings, so the team took inspiration from cranes and helicopters to create a "sky crane" landing system that dangled Curiosity, wheels deployed, at the end of three cables. The flawless landing reassured planners that NASA could someday land a second mission near an earlier rover to pick up samples the rover collected and return them to Earth.

X-ray Laser Provides Protein Structure: Researchers used an X-ray laser, which shines a billion times brighter than traditional synchrotron sources, to determine the structure of an enzyme required by the Trypanosoma brucei parasite, the cause of African sleeping sickness. The advance demonstrated the potential of X-ray lasers to decipher proteins that conventional X-ray sources cannot.

Precision Engineering of Genomes: The revision and deletion of DNA in higher organisms has generally been a hit-or-miss proposition. But, in 2012, a tool known as TALENs, which stands for "transcription activator-like effector nucleases," gave researchers the ability to alter or inactivate specific genes in zebrafish, toads, livestock and other animals—even cells from patients with disease. This technology, along with others that are emerging, is proving to be just as effective as (and cheaper than) established gene-targeting techniques, and it may allow researchers to determine specific roles for genes and mutations in both healthy and diseased individuals.

Majorana Fermions: The existence of Majorana fermions, particles that (among other properties) act as their own antimatter and annihilate themselves, has been debated for more than seven decades. This year, a team of physicists and chemists in The Netherlands provided the first solid evidence that such exotic matter exists, in the form of quasi-particles: groups of interacting electrons that behave like single particles. The discovery has already prompted efforts to incorporate Majorana fermions into quantum computing, as scientists think "qubits" made of these mysterious particles could be more efficient at storing and processing data than the bits currently used in digital computers.

The ENCODE Project: A decade-long study that was reported this year in more than 30 papers revealed that the human genome is more "functional" than researchers had believed. Although only two percent of the genome codes for actual proteins, the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, or ENCODE, project indicated that about 80 percent of the genome is active, helping to turn genes on or off, for example. These new details should help researchers to understand the ways in which genes are controlled and to clarify some genetic risk factors for diseases.

Brain-Machine Interfaces: The same team that had previously demonstrated how neural recordings from the brain could be used to move a cursor on a computer screen showed in 2012 that paralyzed human patients could move a mechanical arm with their minds and perform complex movements in three dimensions. The technology is still experimental—and extraordinarily expensive—but scientists are hopeful that more advanced algorithms could improve these neural prosthetics to help patients paralyzed by strokes, spinal injuries and other conditions.

Neutrino Mixing Angle: Hundreds of researchers working on the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment in China reported the last unknown parameter of a model that describes how elusive particles, known as neutrinos, morph from one type or "flavor" to another as they travel at near-light speed. The results show that neutrinos and anti-neutrinos could possibly change flavors differently and suggest that neutrino physics may someday help researchers to explain why the universe contains so much matter and so little antimatter. If physicists cannot identify new particles beyond the Higgs boson, neutrino physics could represent the future of particle physics. - Eurekalert

The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World

Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the God Particle


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Argentina: Alleged UFO Photographed Over Tucumán

Source:Tucumán a las 7 and Planeta UFO
http://www.tucumanalas7.com.ar/nota.php?id=75405
Date: 12.28.2012

** Highway worker was performing his duties in Yasyamayo Valley. Hugo Cesar López was engaged in his daily routine when he saw a UFO and photographed it**

A strange object appeared in Valle de Yasyamayo and Hugo César del Valle López was able to photograph it.

The man works for the local Highway Authority (Vialidad Provincial) and was working in the area. He took the photos which he inevitably associates with an unidentified flying object.

As Valle López explained, the photo was taken on 20 December 2012 at 16:30 hours. While it is hard to state that what he photographed was indeed a UFO, the image invites us yet again to wonder if we are alone in this world.

[Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO]

Thanks to Scott Corrales - click for UFO photo

Friday, December 28, 2012

Reader Submissions: More Unexplained Experiences


The following anecdotes were selected from various emails received over the years. Some have been previously posted:

"What's unusual?"

"I ask the question because I feel that so-called paranormal experiences become normal if you treat them as being normal.

I don't really know where to start as this is the first time I've tried to put things on paper as a timeline. I guess I'll start with my first experience.

When I was 8 or 9 living on a farm in Hunua, South Auckland, NZ, I was walking down the gravel road that ran alongside the farm with a friend. It was just after dark when we both stopped and witnessed a cigar shaped object in the sky in front of us. It didn't make a sound and was moving away from us slowly. It was hard to tell how big or how far away it was since it was dark and the object was totally black. The only way we could see it was the fact that the stars were disappearing behind it.

A couple of years later I had another sighting, or at least I think it was. I was 11, we'd moved to a place called Paparimu. It's just south of Hunua but still in the Hunua rangers. At the back of the house was a farm that had some hills. Some were quite steep. One in particular was very steep and almost perfectly round and had a commanding view. One day while sitting on top admiring the view, I saw an airplane flying in a valley below me. The funny thing is it was a 747. I had just finished reading a book on new aircraft and one of them was a 747. I didn't think much of it at the time, just a plane flying around in a valley. But as time went by and the more I thought about it, there's no way a small aircraft, let alone a passenger jet, could have been flying around in that valley. As I said, I think it was a UFO.

Years later, I saw another one. I had moved to Motueka, on the western side of Nelson Bay in the South Island. I was managing a dairy farm at the time. It was early one morning about 4-4:30 am and I was getting the cows in for the morning milking. Following them on the track sitting on my ATV looking up at the stars, I noticed a bright light amongst the stars. It was as bright as a welding light, purple, orange and yellow. At first it didn't move but after a couple of minutes, it started to zigzag up and down and side to side at great speed then it shot away, out of sight in a split second. I only told the farm owner about what I'd seen, no one else knew.

That afternoon my niece came to stay with my family for a couple of days. She had traveled up from Reefton which is about 200 km south of Mot. That night she told me how her and the rest of her family were outside the night before and had seen a bright light, like a welding light in the sky that moved very fast.

A couple of years later I had another experience. My wife was a paramedic and attended all sorts of situations. One night she was called out to an old ladie's home but by the time she got there the woman had passed on. My wife helped her by tidying her up and resting her in her bed. The next night I woke up and could smell a very strong perfume in the room. I woke my wife and she informed me that it was the ladies perfume from the night before??? The following night I woke again only this time she was there on the bed beside me, laying beside me. I panicked. I wish I hadn't.

Later I had moved to Western Australia. I met a woman who was very special. I was staying at her house for the weekend. She had new neighbors who had moved in that Friday. We welcomed them to the neighborhood and they invited us over to their place the next afternoon. We were sitting, having a drink and a chat when my friend, out of the blue, asked the woman about her father and if she minded talking about the barrier that was between them. The woman was both shocked and amazed by the question but she also seemed relieved to be asked. The conversation went on for a while between the two with my friend talking mainly about the woman's childhood and different parts of her life. There were tears and laughter, from both of them, and more importantly there was an understanding between them. Sadly my friend passed on not long afterwords, she is missed dearly.

People who think the same and feel the same are drawn together and see these things not as unusual but as normal.

This is the first time I've sat and thought about things all at once, it's only a small part of my experiences and I'm sitting here shaking like a leaf." SL

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Several years ago, I used to walk to the Fashion Valley Shopping Center during my break from the Union Tribune newspaper. One morning, while walking in the shopping center, I noticed a short man, maybe no more than 4'11" walking with 2 men, maybe 6' tall or more. The short man was walking between the two tall men. The 3 were wearing very neatly pressed blue work clothes with caps. The short one had a big head, and odd development around the upper eye bones. Each man on either side 'escorting' the short man was a very clean cut, healthy, attractive black and white man. For some weird reason, I mentally told him welcome. I don't understand why I didn't walk up closer to the 3 men but did walk by them and they were no more than 6' away. I always remembered this experience though everyone thinks I'm nuts. I got the impression that the 2 men were showing the short man some of human civilization in a relatively safe environment.

LO

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I've always believed in and been interested in the paranormal. I live in Southwestern Pennsylvania and have been a firefighter for over five years.

We have a ghost in our fire department. It's an old member who died many years ago and many of our members, myself included, have had experiences with "Uncle Al" as we call him. There have been many times where someone has experienced sounds, noises and just odd feelings while being in the fire department. We have had a game room added onto our department after our member had already died, so he cannot pass into the new room, but you can feel his presence in the doorway.

One of the most memorable experiences I have had with Uncle Al was one day when I was in the engine bay office with 2 members, Ken and myself (this has occurred before when I was alone). We could hear chairs being knocked off of the tables in our social hall. We went upstairs to investigate, and all the chairs looked like they were pushed off the tables.

Ken and I went back downstairs and left everything as is and not long later (maybe 10 mins) we hear the chairs moving again. We went back upstairs and all the chairs were set back up onto the tables. I am not making this up.

Another experience with Uncle Al occurred when I was standing in the bathroom, which is in the social hall (the part where Al can roam around). It was about midnight and I looked out the window at least 5 mins previous and noticed no members cars except mine were in the lot. Soon, I heard someone calling my name. The sounds were coming from the doorway to the stairwell. I can also hear people walking around in the bays again and people stepping on the grates on the floor. I went downstairs to investigate, looking out the window again...no cars in the lot. I go to the door to the engine bays and see that the lights were off. There is always the sense of being watched by Uncle Al, be it one person, or 10 people in the fire house...you can always feel a presence of someone or something watching you. Jeff

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In July, 1976 a friend and I, who is now a dentist and a no nonsense kind of guy, were cruising between Lincoln and Auburn, CA on a quiet country road. We drove over the top of a hilly road and we were descending I noticed a bright bluish-white light shining down on the road about 200 yards in front of us. It was coming from a point over a large group of scrub oak trees. The trees came to a point over the road creating a canapé effect over the road. What was strange is there were no street lights and none of the light shining down on the road was being blocked out by the trees.

As we approached the light my car began to sputter and lost power, then the headlights went out. As we were approaching the light I was flashing my bright lights on and off before the car shut down. As soon as the car rolled to a stop, I opened the door to step out... the light disappeared while leaves were floating down below where the light had been falling onto the road in front of us. During July in the Sacramento valley it is still about 80 degrees with no wind. It gets very hot here in the summer.

The thing that really shocked me was 4 days later we took 2 of our cats to the vets, which was about 3 miles out of town. When the vet drove up he was acting confused and was stuttering, which he did when he got excited. He had been called out to a ranch to look at a dead cow. He explained to me and my mom that the cow had been cut up in a very strange way with a missing eye ball, utter and entrails. It's hind quarters had been drilled or board out. He also said therewere no flies, no bugs and no predator bite marks anywhere on the cow. The cow was located 50 yards from the very spot we saw the lights over the trees. My doctor friend said his mother was upset with him for getting home so late the night we saw the lights. However we were only out there in the country for an hour and a half. He claims it was 4am when we got home.

After dropping him off that night, I was really tired and just went home to bed and didn't pay any attention to the time. He claims we lost 3 hours. To this day I have no idea what we saw or what happened. He refuses to talk about it with me or to anyone else. I have seen other lights and strange things over the years but this situation has always made me scratch my head and I wonder what really happened that night to us and that poor cow. Nothing was ever said to the police or to the news media regarding the mutilated cow or the lights we saw.

After years of hearing about abductions and cow mutilations, I believe we may have been part of something that cannot be explained with science or rational thought. My interest in UFO's has been very strong for years and I am sure there are other things going on around us that we cannot explain or can we make sense of them because we are not allowed to by those conducting such intrusive examinations of humans and animals.

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it because I can remember it like it happened yesterday. We were not drinking, smoking or doing any drugs as my doctor friend was always against such activities due to his medical training and personal beliefs. On the other hand, I know something happened beyond the norm and will take it to my grave as a real and unexplained experience.

Thanks...MR

Unexplained: An Encyclopedia of Curious Phenomena, Strange Superstitions, and Ancient Mysteries

Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena

The World's Weirdest Places

Just the Facts?: Pentagon Prepares For China -- Saudi Police Foil Christmas Celebration -- Woman Assaults TSA Agents


Pentagon prepares to contain China by 2017

Shifting its military power to the Asia-Pacific region, the United States has started a five-year process of deploying its three types of stealth warplanes to bases near China.

Air Force F-22s and B-2s and Marine Corps F-35s will be stationed at bases around China as Beijing tests its own radar-evading jet fighters, Wired magazine reported Dec. 26. Earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration unveiled a new defense strategy that envisages a shift of focus from Iraq and Afghanistan toward the Pacific while addressing the increasing threats from China. Washington also announced in June the repositioning of its Navy fleet with the majority of its warships, 60 percent, to be assigned to the Asia-Pacific by 2020.

The announcements of new Pacific deployments of three warplanes have come in recent weeks starting with the 8th Air Force Cmdr. Maj. Gen. Stephen Wilson’s remarks on redeployment of B-2s, most probably to the Guam air base of the Pentagon.

‘Guam as strategic hub’

Wilson, who controls the Air Force’s 20 B-2 fleet normally based in Missouri, said “small numbers” of B-2s would begin rotating into the Pacific and other regions starting next year, speaking to Air Force magazine in early November. “Our B-2s will rotate to forward operating locations all over the world in small numbers for a few weeks at a time, a couple of times a year,” Wilson said in a Nov. 7 interview.

F-22s, normally based in Florida, Virginia, Alaska and Hawaii, are already regular visitors to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and, more frequently, the Pentagon’s Kadena base in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, the report said. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also said recently there would be “new deployments of F-22s … to Japan.”

“Over the past year, we reached major agreements with Japan to realign our forces and jointly develop Guam as a strategic hub,” Panetta said. Panetta announced the first planned overseas basing of the still-in-development F-35 in the same speech. The Defense Department is “laying the groundwork” for F-35s to deploy to Iwakuni, Japan, in 2017, Panetta said.

Obama held his first foreign trip since his re-election to the region in November, saying the region was critically important.

“As the fastest-growing region in the world, the Asia-Pacific will shape so much of our security and prosperity in the century ahead, and it is critical to creating jobs and opportunity for the American people. That’s why I’ve made restoring American engagement in this region a top priority as president,” Obama told reporters during his visit to Bangkok. - Hurriyet Daily News

Obama and China's Rise: An Insider's Account of America's Asia Strategy

Red Star over the Pacific: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy


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Woman hit 2 TSA agents during security checkpoint

An American Airlines passenger was arrested at Orlando International Airport on Wednesday after police say she hit two Transportation Security Administration agents while going through a security checkpoint.

According to the police report, Hyunjoo Kim, 39, of South Korea, was coming through the west passenger screening checkpoint at OIA on Wednesday morning when she became upset that she had to be patted down during the screening process.

When she was told she had prohibited items, she became enraged, swinging several times at a TSA officer and slapping her on the face, according to the report. Kim then shoved another TSA officer in the chest several times in an attempt to get her bag, police said.

Kim was yelling profanities at the TSA officers when police arrived and denied hitting anyone, despite multiple witnesses telling police they saw the incident. She was booked into the Orange County Jail on two counts of battery on transit agents.

TSA released a statement on Thursday, saying, “TSA takes the safety of our Officers very seriously and any physical assault on our Officers will be referred for criminal prosecution."

This incident marks the fourth time a passenger has assaulted a TSA agent. Back in April, a Bonita Springs woman angered by a pat-down she received assaulted an officer at the security checkpoint at Southwest Florida International Airport. She was convicted in July of battery against a TSA employee.

In July 2011, a passenger flying out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport refused a TSA screening and groped the female supervisor. The 61-year-old woman pleaded guilty to assault and disorderly conduct last week. - Click Orlando

Permanent Emergency: Inside the TSA and the Fight for the Future of American Security

TSA and Me: A Light-hearted Look at Travel Today


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Amazing Christmas Daytime UFO Video In Pennsylvania

Rick Phillips offers an interesting video at UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock. Apparently, similar objects have been seen at other locations nationwide.

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Englishman wakes up from stroke speaking fluent Welsh

Alun Morgan, 81, was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War but left 70 years ago.

During his time there he was surrounded by Welsh speakers but never learned the language himself.

He left the country aged 10 and lived his life in England and recently suffered a severe stroke.

But when Mr Morgan regained consciousness three weeks later, doctors discovered he was speaking Welsh and could not remember any English.

It is thought that the Welsh Mr Morgan heard as a boy had sunk in without him knowing and was unlocked after he suffered the stroke.

Mr Morgan, who is retired and lives with his wife Yvonne in Bathwick, Somerset, is now being taught to speak English again.

"I'd not lived in Wales since I was evacuated there during the war. Gradually the English words came back, but it wasn't easy,'' he said.

Mr Morgan had been watching the lunchtime news when his wife noticed he was not responsive and called an ambulance.

He was rushed into hospital where he spent three weeks being stabilised and assessed.
Doctors diagnosed Mr Morgan with aphasia, a form of brain damage which causes a shift in the brain's language centre.

He was helped by the Communication Support Service, run by the Stroke Association in Bath.

In 2012 grandmother Kay Russell, 49, of Bishop Cleeve in Gloucestershire, suffered a migraine and began speaking in a French accent.

Sarah Colwill, 35, of Plymouth, Devon, also suffered a migraine and began speaking with a Chinese accent.

Doctors say they suffered Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition which damages the part of the brain that controls speech and word formation.

More than 150,000 people have a stroke every year in the UK, and a third end up with aphasia as a result.

Chris Clark, Stroke Association’s UK Director of Life After Stroke Services said:
“Stroke can have a big affect on individuals and lead to personality and physical changes. With a stroke, blood supply to the brain is cut off and in the areas starved of oxygen, brain cells die and damage can be caused.

“Aphasia is caused by damage to the areas of the brain responsible for language.

"As a result, individuals who were previously able to communicate through speaking, understanding, reading and writing become more limited in their ability to do so." - Telegraph

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Saudi police foil plot to celebrate Christmas

The religious police in Saudi Arabia have raided a house in the Al Jawf Province and arrested 41 people, who were “plotting to celebrate Christmas,” a police statement said.

The police said that the detainees were Christian guests of an Asian diplomat, reports the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

There were also a Saudi Arabian and an Egyptian, both Muslims, present at the gathering. The police account says the host and the two Muslim guests were “severely intoxicated.”

It is unclear whether or not the people detained in the Wednesday night raid were released or face further prosecution.

Saudi Arabia outlaws any religious practice except those in line with a strict version of Sunni Islam, the state religion in the theocratic monarchy. The authorities usually turn a blind eye to private ceremonies, but this policy is neither set in law nor observed at all times.

The “virtue and vice” police, which enforce religious norms in the country, regularly launch crackdowns on Christians and Hindus living in Saudi Arabia.

The attitude is encouraged by religious leaders, who justify the persecutions. Saudi Arabia's head mufti Sheikh Abdel Aziz bin Abdullah had previously condemned “invitations to Christmas or wedding celebrations,” the newspaper says. - RT

The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims

Islam Vs. The United States

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Reader Submissions: Russian Chupacabras? / Witness Updates Bigfoot Audio


I received this report from Georgi Bonchev in Bulgaria:

Traces of Chupacabras in the Russian city Emanzhelinsk

In the early morning Nafiya Suleymanova went into the garden to feed the dog. There she noticed odd steps. It seems they were left by an animal with long legs with four fingers. Judging by the tracks it looks like the beast is armed with impressive claws. Surprisingly, tracks starts from the middle of the garden, go through the fence and go to an abandoned house. Similar traces exist in a vacant lot. According to the lady, her garden is visited by chupakabra. Her daughter, however, believe that their guest was an ancient reptile.

- "I have no explanation for this. Clearly visible tracks and nails in them. As if someone had jumped, maybe a dinosaur" - said Elvira Suleymanova.

A series of attacks by chupakabras took place about a year ago. The terrible beast was seen in Emanzhelinsk, Karabash, Kopeysk, Korkino, Verhneuralsk and other cities. According to people the predator is interested in rabbits and chickens living in cages. After the November 2011 attacks stoped, but traces still can be found in the local forests.

Video - Traces of Chupacabras in the Russian city Emanzhelinsk

Source: 1obl.ru
Date: 25 December 2012
В Еманжелинске обнаружили следы чупакабры

Georgi's comments: I am not surprised that one of the women thinks that this is chupakabra and the other one compares it with a dinosaur. In March 2012 I translated the following material:

Was there really a vampire who fed on dinosaur blood?

Back then a reader of MISTERIKA assumed that chupakabras may be descendants of these small dinosaur-vampires who survived to the present day. This theory seems more likely now.


Публикувано от Георги Бончев в 22:27

Wild and Weird; or, Remarkable stories of Russian life.

Heroes, Monsters and Other Worlds from Russian Mythology (The World Mythology Series)


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Ben H. forwarded audio from an encounter he and his wife had in Clipper Mills, CA.:

My wife and I had an encounter that I captured on audio its on youtube here is the link if you have any questions ask away enjoy!

I had posted a piece about this incident this past Summer at Recent Bigfoot Audio Releases


Bigfoot Screams ( Longest audio in the world) Wave Sound

Comments with video: This is an audio from July 8, 2012 near Clipper Mills, CA. It is 100% real as it happened. It has improved sounds and wave sound visualization patterns have been added.

Phantoms & Monsters: Cryptid Encounters

The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Television

Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting

Just the Facts?: Lake Kariba Monster Sightings Continue -- Mayan Temple Damaged -- New MRSA Superbug Strain


Lake Kariba Monster Sightings Continue

A MYTHICAL serpent-like creature who lives in the murky depths of a lake and is the subject of countless childrens’ stories. Sound familiar? Meet Nyaminyami, Zimbabwe’s very own Loch Ness monster.

He has the head of a fish and a snake’s body. He lives in Lake Kariba, a magnificent man-made dam in the northwest of the country, studded with hippos and the eerie skeletal tops of long-dead trees. And for the first time in more than a decade, Zimbabweans living on the shores of Kariba are reporting a mysterious sighting on the River God.

State media is reporting that fishermen and residents of Mahombekombe, a suburb of Kariba town, saw Nyaminyami earlier this month.

“We were anchoring our boat near the District Development Fund harbour when we saw a large group of people rushing to the harbour. We quickly roped in our boat and rushed to where the group had gathered.

“I saw, with my own eyes, a monster snake that was almost two hundred metres long,” said fisherman Tapera Siyungungura. “Ask anyone who lives around this area and you will get confirmations of the story.”

“The truth of the matter is that Nyaminyami revealed itself to the people recently,” a second fisherman, Masenzi Dube Zimbabwe newspaper the Sunday Mail.

After the claims, the Mail sent a news crew on the long five-hour drive to Kariba to investigate the claims. The paper reported the beast took 45 minutes to ‘snake’ across the harbour in broad daylight – giving ample time to villagers to watch him and marvel. Eyewitnesses claimed Nyaminyami was so big that a truck would not have killed him if it had run him over.

Bite

Nyaminyami’s name is a corruption of a phrase in the local Tonga language that means “pieces of meat”. It’s a reference to Nyaminyami’s selfless character: apparently during times of drought Nyaminyami would let villagers cut pieces of his body to eat. And though you could take a bite out of him, no matter how many bites you took you’d never finish eating the creature up, say locals.

Nyaminyami was separated from his ‘wife’ during the construction of the Kariba dam wall by the colonial authorities during the 1950s, so the story goes. There is a belief that the beast is forever trying to get over the wall to be reunited with her – and those frenzied attempts are what cause the frequent earth tremors in the area.

But not everyone is buying the story that Nyaminyami caused a few houses to fall down in Kariba when he made his surprise appearance this month.

“I can confirm that [he] did not destroy any buildings...It is true that Nyaminyami was sighted here but some residents are just spicing up the story,” fisherman Lovemore Sibanda told the Sunday Mail.

The paper reported on Nyaminyami’s “reappearance” as if it were entirely credible. Some Zimbabweans believe in goblins and mermaids -- and the press regularly reports on their appearances too. Earlier this year Water Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo claimed that mermaids in two dams in eastern Zimbabwe were preventing the installation of water pumps there. Special rites had to be conducted to appease the mermaids.

Some have tried to offer evidence for Nyaminyami’s existence. One theory is that he may bea giant African catfish. Others are more sceptical.

“This is just a python,” says one local journalist, who has reported on the story for more than 15 years. - Scotsman

Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures

Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep


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Mayan temple damaged by end-of-world tourists

Tourists who flocked to Guatemala for end-of-the-world parties have reportedly damaged an ancient Mayan stone temple.

UNESCO declared Tikal, the largest archaeological site and urban centre of the Mayan civilisation, a world heritage site in 1979.

"Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damage," said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the site, 550 kilometres north of Guatemala City.

"We are fine with the celebration, but (the tourists) should be more aware because this is a world heritage site."

Mr Gomez did not specify what was done, although he did say it was forbidden to climb the stairs at the site and indicated the damage was irreparable.

Temple II, which is about 38 metres high and faces the central Tikal plaza, is one of the site's best known structures.

Friday marked the end of an era that lasted 5,200 years, according to the Mayan long count calendar.

Some believed the date also marked the end of the world as foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs.

More than 7,000 people visited Tikal on Friday to see native Mayan priests hold a colourful ceremony and light fires as the Sun emerged to mark the new era.

Critics complained the event was really for tourists and had little to do with the Mayans.

About 42 per cent of Guatemala's 14.3 million residents are native Mayans and most live in poverty and endure discrimination.

The ancient Mayans reached their peak of power in central America between the years 250 and 900. - abc.net.au

Tikal: The Center of the Maya World (Wonders of the World Book)

Tikal: An Illustrated History of the Ancient Maya Capital


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New MRSA superbug strain found in UK milk supply

A new strain of MRSA has been found in British milk, indicating that the superbug is spreading through the livestock population and poses a growing threat to human health.

The new strain, MRSA ST398, has been identified in seven samples of bulk milk from five different farms in England.

The discovery, from tests on 1,500 samples, indicates that antibiotic-resistant organisms are gaining an increasing hold in the dairy industry.

The disclosure comes amid growing concern over the use of modern antibiotics on British farms, driven by price pressure imposed by the big supermarket chains. Intensive farming with thousands of animals raised in cramped conditions means infections spread faster and the need for antibiotics is consequently greater.

Three classes of antibiotics rated as “critically important to human medicine” by the World Health Organisation – cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and macrolides – have increased in use in the animal population by eightfold in the last decade.

The more antibiotics are used, the greater the likelihood that antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as MRSA, will evolve.

Experts say there is no risk of MRSA infection to consumers of milk or dairy products so long as the milk is pasteurised. The risk comes from farmworkers, vets and abattoir workers, who may become infected through contact with livestock and transmit the bug to others.

The discovery was made by scientists from Cambridge University who first identified MRSA in milk in 2011. They say the latest finding of a different strain is worrying.

Mark Holmes, of the department of veterinary medicine, who led the study, published in Eurosurveillance, said: “This is definitely a worsening situation. In 2011 when we first found MRSA in farm animals, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [Defra] initially didn’t believe it. They said we don’t have MRSA in the dairy industry in this country.”

“Now we definitely have MRSA in livestock. What is curious is that it has turned up in dairy cows when in other countries on the Continent it is principally in pigs. Could it be in pigs or poultry in this country? We don’t know.”

The MRSA superbug can cause serious infections in humans which are difficult to treat, require stronger antibiotics, and take longer to resolve. Human cases of infection with the new strain have been found in Scotland and northern England according to Defra, but no details are available.

Dr Holmes said supermarket pressure on farmers to hold down prices was leading to the overuse of antibiotics to prevent cattle getting mastitis, an infection of the udder, that might interrupt the milk supply.

“If farmers were not screwed into the ground by the supermarkets and allowed to get a fair price for their milk they would be able to use fewer antibiotics,” he said.

“Common sense tells us that anything we can do to reduce use of antibiotics will reduce the growth of resistant bugs. We want to wean our farmers off antibiotics and the only way we can do that is with better regulation.”

Vets in Norway and Denmark had much more limited prescribing powers than in the UK, he added. - Independent

Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA

Surviving MRSA: Learn How to Protect Yourself


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OUTBREAK! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior

Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior - This looks to be a very interesting title...definitely going to pick this one up!

From fads, crazes, and manias to collective delusions, scares, panics, and mass hysterias, history is replete with examples of remarkable social behavior. Many are fueled by fear and uncertainty; others are driven by hope and expectation. For others still, the causes are more obscure. This massive collection of extraordinary social behaviors spans more than two millennia, and attempts to place many of the episodes within their greater historical and cultural context.

Perhaps the most well-known example of unusual collective behavior occurred in 1938, when a million or more Americans were frightened or panicked after listening to a realistic radio drama about a Martian invasion of New Jersey, based on an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel War of the Worlds. Less known but equally remarkable scares based on Wells’ book occurred in Chile in 1944 (when Army units were mobilized), in Ecuador in 1949 (when riots broke out, leaving more than a dozen dead), as well as in Buffalo in 1968, Rhode Island in 1974, and Europe in 1988 and 1998.

The modern civilized world is by no means immune to such peculiar episodes. In the late 20th century, scores of people in the U.S. and Europe were wrongly incarcerated following claims of Satanic ritual abuse by authorities untutored in False Memory Syndrome. This episode recalls the European witch terror of the late Middle Ages, when innocent people were tortured and executed for consorting with the Devil based on the flimsiest of evidence.

This Encyclopedia is an authoritative reference on a broad range of topics: collective behavior, deviance, social and perceptual psychology, sociology, history, folklore, religious studies, political science, social anthropology, gender studies, critical thinking, and mental health. Never before have so many sources been brought together on the mesmerizing topic of collective behavior. More information at Anomalist Books

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Humans could contact aliens within 12 years, says UFO expert

Humans could make contact with alien life within 12 years, with the aid of the world's largest radio telescope, a leading UFO expert has claimed.

One of the key questions, whether extra-terrestrial life exists, could be answered by 2024 with the development of a supersized 1.3 billion pounds radio telescope, the Daily Express reported.

The development of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope will unleash "new and exciting possibilities", according to former UK ministry of defence UFO Project leader, Nick Pope.

"I will be controversial and give you an exact year of when I believe first confirmation of contact will be made - and that is 2024, the year in which if everything goes according to plan the Square Kilometre Array will be fully operational," Pope, who studied UFO sightings at the MoD for 21 years, said.

The SKA, to be started in 2016, is set to be the world's largest radio telescope and will answer some of the fundamental unanswered questions of our universe.

Made up of thousands of radio wave receptors covering 4,921 square km of the Earth's surface in the Australian outback, scientists have claimed it will provide alternative views of the universe than those seen with optical telescopes.

Scientists leading its development have suggested the SKA will be 50 times more sensitive, and will survey the sky 10,000 times faster, than any other telescope.

"It will give astronomers insight into the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies after the Big Bang, the role of cosmic magnetism, the nature of gravity and possibly even life beyond," a spokesman for the SKA said.

"If there is a civilisation within 100 lightyears this telescope could find it. We are now beginning to have the technology whether it's the SKA or maybe other telescopes that are being developed that will allow these possibilities. We are searching all the time for a shadow earth," Pope added.

Recent research suggested that nearly 10 per cent of the population has seen a UFO, equally more than 6 million people just in the UK.

"When I was investigating UFOs, I investigated 2-300 reports each year. 10 per cent is an absolutely astonishing figure," Pope added.

The UFO expert also speculated as to how the extra-terrestrial life could make contact.

"The old fashioned idea was that there would be this landing on the White House lawn. First contact might just happen via email, but more likely it will be through radio signals," Pope said. - Times of India

NOTE: It's interesting when these experts (including Nick Pope) make these type of statements when they know full well that contact has been made...Lon

A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact

Extra-Planetary Experiences: Alien-Human Contact and the Expansion of Consciousness