Mile-Wide UFO Sighted

Do you believe in UFOs? Though I’ve never seen one myself, I’ve always thought it to be a rather arrogant view to think that we’re the only beings in an entire universe that we have barely even begun to explore. My father and sister swear they’ve seen one, and given the hundreds of thousands of other people who have said the same, I think it’s a highly plausible claim.

A UFO about a mile wide was recently spotted by two separate aircrafts flying over the Channel Islands. Both crews and passengers report seeing the object. It’s one of the largest UFOs ever seen.

Ray Bower, 50, captain of the Aurigny Airlines flight, said that the UFO looked like “a cigar-shaped brilliant bright light.” He went on to say “It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.”

The object is said to have been about 2,000 feet up off the ground. It was not moving, stationed 40 miles away from the flight. Bower said that at first, it seemed about the size of a Boeing 737; later, he realized that to be as far away as it was, it would have to have been about a mile wide.

Bower also said that he’d never seen anything like it in all of his years flying. Moments later, Bower spotted a similar object to the west of the first one.

An official air-miss report was filed on the incident, though parts of the report have not been made public.

So what do you think? Is this the real deal? With so many witnesses, it had to be something.

Here are some fun UFO facts to get your Monday off on a freaky foot:

  • Unlike many strange somethings, UFOs are pretty universal. They’re spotted all over the world.
  • A sighting happens every three minutes. At this rate, we’ll be able to start hopping on board all of these UFOs and take vacations with whomever’s driving them. Europa, here we come!
  • Also unlike a lot of other mysterious phenomena, UFO sightings are often accompanied by a photo, providing further proof of their existence.
  • There was actually a UFO sighting in the Bible! It’s even considered the first recorded sighting. According to the prophet Ezekiel, there was a “great cloud with fire enfolding itself, a wheel in the middle of a wheel that descended and fired lightening bolts into the earth.” War of the Worlds, anyone?
  • I can’t even believe this one myself, but according to a 1991 Roper poll, 4 million Americans think they’ve been abducted! That is a heckuva lot of abductions. You’d think we’d start missing people now and again…
  • If you think your Uncle Ralph (or my dad) isn’t such a reliable source, consider that both Alexander Hamilton (in 1897) and Winston Churchill (in 1912) both claimed to have seen some kind of unidentified airship. In Hamilton’s case, the UFO was kidnapping a cow! Maybe South Park was onto something? Churchill’s report is considered to be the first official UFO report.

Kid Hit By Meteor Lives to Tell the Tale

Most parents tell their children that they’re one in a million—and they are, at least, to their parents. But 14-year-old Gerrit Blank of Essen, Germany is the real deal. Gerrit was hit by a falling meteorite and did not die—a chance of one in a million.

The pea-sized rock was burning hot and hurdled straight from space right onto Gerrit’s hand, where it proceeded to bounce off onto the ground—creating a foot-wide crater. Luckily, Gerrit did not suffer the same fate as the ground, but was left with a scar three inches long.

Gerrit said that after he was hit, he suddenly felt intense pain followed by a bang of a sound, like thunder—which caused his ears to ring for hours afterward.

It’s definitely not a teenage prank, either: scientists have proven that it’s from outer space through chemical testing.

The only other person known to survive a meteor hit wasn’t really even hit by a meteor; in 1954, a sleeping woman was hit by the rock’s ricochet in Alabama.

Sort of makes you think about the whole “being killed by a penny being thrown off the Empire State Building” theory all over again, doesn’t it?

 

Time Travel Through Wormholes

I'm a little late to the game, but I just finished reading Michio Kaku's great book, Parallel Worlds, which discusses the Physics of many strange things, including Time Travel. Einstein was apparently the one to open the door to time travel by allowing for the possibility that traveling in wormholes  through folds in space and time would allow us to  hypothetically escape to not only another  place but another time as well.

For those of you itching to get into the garage to start making you own Time Machine, I wouldn't start gathering components just yet, however. The scientists who are dedicated studying time travel are finding out that there are more problems than solutions with actual Time Travel, mostly revolving around the wormholes themselves.  In order to stabilize the wormholes, negative energy is needed to counteract the light energy given by the light rays at the entrance of a worm hole to keep the wormhole from collapsing. The other problem is finding the wormholes, which are located in space-foam. Physicists including Stephen Hawking have conducted numerous mathematical and thought experiments to determine if time travel is really possible.  Sadly, Steven Hawking himself believes that time travel is high improbable at best after he conducted some thought experiments.

Despite this, many physicists are still interested in the paradoxes of time travel itself. According to Kaku, there are four types of paradoxes which I will attempt to paraphrase here:

1.  Grandfather Paradox. If you kill your Grandfather, (or do something to prevent him from being born), you cannot be born.  This also refers to any action you might make in the past that would prevent your own birth.

2.  Information Paradox. This is a little tricky, but goes something along the lines of this, if your future self gives you specific information or technology from the future, it doesn't really exist because it has no origin. (sounds a little flimsy to me, but then again I didn't even take high school Physics so have nothing to say about this.)

3. Bilker's Paradox.  Let's say you know that you are going to work at Microsoft in the future. If you choose instead to work for Apple, you are then making your own future impossible. 

4. The Sexual Paradox. This is the ickiest one in my opinion. In this case, you become your own Dad, which is almost what happened to Marty in Back to the Future when he traveled back in time to meet his mother.

Can you make freaky phenomena happen? Prove it.

Freaky phenomena like aliens and superpowers are well within the world of the paranormal and arguably the paranoid schizophrenic, but one James Randi has provided the chance for any aspiring psychic, teleporter or ghost hunter to prove their stuff. Randi founded the James Randi Education Foundation, dedicated, simply enough to the promotion of critical thinking. As a beneficial side to that the Foundation also dedicates itself to the investigation of the paranormal, defense of those being attacked or pilfered by phonies and to demonstrating the dangers of blindly accepting paranormal claims without proof. Randi has made several notable public appearances, including a visit to the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson where he publicly debunked well known psychic Uri Geller. Johnny, a former illusionist, was skeptical of Geller and ambushed him with the help of Randi, on the show. Presented with modified versions of his tricks, Geller could not perform his feats, saying he felt "weak" and "pressed". He also tracked down the con artist faith healer Peter Popoff, who was hearing the voice of his wife in an earpiece instead of the voice of God like he claimed. In following his mission statement, Randi developed the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. The challenge offers one million dollars to anyone with proof, in a scientific environment, of their paranormal powers. People try to earn the money too. Among some of the more notable claimants is a woman who says she possesses the remarkable ability to make people wet themselves with only the power of her mind. She failed her first attempt, which was broadcast live and the terms of which were agreed upon by both parties. For those of you with mutant powers out there speaking to the dead, there is one million waiting for you, it'll be there, trust James Randi. Nobody has won it in its 12 year history.

 

 

Cat Chat Likened to Horse Whispering

It’s true: cat chat is likened to horse whispering. The rumors that you have heard for years and years about people being able to communicate with cats are not farce. Cat chat is actually a language that exists amongst cats as they try to convey a variety of communications with us. Contrary to popular belief, cats are actually trying to tell us something with all those meows, huffs and puffs. For those who have the gift of being able to ‘whisper’ to their cats, they enjoy the gift of what we like to call Cat Whispering. This can allow owners to train their cats to use a human bathroom and flush afterwards, and even play piano (albeit not that great of a piano tune, but still).

Can Cats Really Understand us?
Indeed, cat chat is not a one way street. Our cats are truly trying to tell us things from time to time, and we need but only lend an ear and our mental prowess to decipher their wants and needs. Have you ever noticed when you discipline a cat that you merely need to speak with a low tone, and add some disappointment to the vocalization to immediately correct your cat’s misdeeds? The same notion is true when you coddle your furry feline. Soothing overtones and undertones with loving words will make a kitty purr louder than a lawn mower. So in answer to this pondering, yes, cats do really understand us, more than we think at times.

This Cat Chats by Playing the Piano (No Kidding, This is for Real)
If you thought that cat whispering was a folly notion, think again! Cat chat can exist in a variety of ways. Check out this video (imbedded below) if you think we are talking out of our pie holes. This famous cat named Norah is just like the famous singer and songwriter Norah Jones. She can actually play the piano, and she does so frequently. This cat has figured out that when she pats the keys with her paws, a sound comes out. She will even stand up and play with both paws like Elton John. While a few piano lessons are still in order, one thing is for sure: Norah the piano playing cat is awesome, if you search for her on Youtube.com or Metacafe.com you can find a few other great videos that will make you chuckle.

Spontaneous Human Combustion

One of the most fascinating unexplained phenomena’s is spontaneous human combustion. The idea is that a human being can just burst into flames and burn away without an external source of ignition. The most common theory is that the heat is internally generated by a chemical reaction however many scientists deny the phenomena exists suggesting we simply haven’t found the right explanation. Many cases of spontaneous human combustion have been reported over the years and in fact you can find references to it as far back as medieval times. Victims are generally entirely burned away, sometimes portions of their clothes or individual limbs are left behind and the surrounding furnishings are always left unscathed as though the person combusted from the inside with a fierce intensity. The idea has been used extensively in fiction throughout the years and various people have attempted more serious studies but there is no concrete proof that it can occur and it seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom. The majority of cases have occurred when the victim is alone and only ashes have been found later, sometimes with a single limb or head still intact and occasional burnt patches on the ground around the body and greasy soot deposits on the walls or ceiling. There have been occasions when witnesses have seen a person burst into flames before their eyes but they are often poorly documented. One of the most famous cases occurred in 1951 when Mary Reeser, dubbed “The Cinder Lady” by the press was found burned to death in her chair. There was little evidence of fire in the room beyond her charred remains which included part of her left foot still in the slipper and her shrunken skull. Some objects which had been close to her were melted as though from heat damage. The FBI investigated and suggested she had fallen asleep while smoking and fallen victim to the wick effect whereby the fat in the human body starts to burn and can cause total combustion. In 1966 a doctor named John Bentley was found burned to death in the bathroom of his house in Pennsylvania. A meter reader noticed a strange smell and discovered his charred remains. All that was left of the doctor was ashes and the lower half of his right leg with a slipper still on it. The coroner reported a death from asphyxiation and 90 percent burning of the body. In 1967 a homeless man named Robert Bailey was witnessed by a fireman as he burned to death. The fireman reported a flame shooting out from the man’s abdomen and suggested that heavy alcohol consumption may have somehow led to the combustion. The London house that Bailey died in was derelict and so had no electricity or gas supply, he was also not a smoker. The autopsy found that he asphyxiated after inhaling fire fumes. In 1982 a woman called Jeannie Saffin combusted in her London kitchen before her father’s eyes. He shouted to his son-in-law for help and they both report seeing flames pouring out of her, she actually survived for eight days after with severe burns before she passed away. The police found no evidence of fire in the kitchen and were at a loss to explain the death; even the chair she had been sitting in was not burnt. The coroner recorded it as a death by misadventure. There have been several other unexplained cases although sceptics point out that in the majority there was a fire source nearby. Various theories have been proposed to explain the phenomena including excess alcohol consumption, freak electricity and gas accidents, dietary intake causing a chemical reaction, a build up of methane gas in the body or even a raging bacterial infection. Of course there are always simple and rational explanations for these occurrences and the principle of Occam’s Razor suggests it far more likely there were external causes in each case.

Aliens at Area 51?

Area 51 sits on the southern shore of Groom Lake in the Nevada desert and it is easily the most famous military base in the world. It must also be the least secret base in the world and it has long been suspected by UFO enthusiasts to be the location that alien spaceships are whisked away to. The US military have always rubbished claims that there are any aliens or alien technology at the base insisting that it is a location for aircraft and weapons development and testing. They tested the B-2 stealth bomber here amongst others and unsurprisingly they denied the existence of the base for years. They eventually admitted there was an “operating site” there but added that “the work is classified”. Aerial shots of the base taken by a Russian satellite were released back in 2000 and revealed little beyond some buildings, a hangar and a runway. Area 51 has spawned countless conspiracy theories about alien technology, spaceships, aliens, teleportation and time travel devices. Some people claimed the wreckage from the Roswell incident was taken there and that fake tape of the alien autopsy was supposedly smuggled out of Area 51. Of course there is no evidence that it has anything to do with aliens and UFO sightings could more easily be explained by the testing of new experimental fighter jets. In fact back in 2006 there were rumours about an Aurora aircraft; supposedly an unmanned fighter capable of incredibly high speeds and sharp manoeuvres because it could operate without a pilot onboard. The US Air Force is certainly doing something there and they’ve spent a lot of money on the area over the years leading to speculation about a massive underground base. Of course once again it is far more likely that they are working on new spy planes or fighter aircraft than alien technology so why do people think otherwise? Well the main reason is that several people have come into the public eye with claims that they worked at Area 51. The most famous was Robert Lazar who came forward in 1989 and claimed to have worked on reverse engineering a flying saucer. He’s not the only one to claim strange things are going on there, in 1996 a mechanical engineer claimed to have worked with an alien on a similar project and in 2004 Dan Burisch claimed to have worked on cloning alien viruses at Area 51. Plenty of people believe the base is used for alien investigations and there are countless websites on the subject. The idea has definitely filtered through to the public with a number of references in popular books, movies and TV programmes. In the USA the majority of people believe alien life is likely according to polls but there is still no hard evidence that they ever visited our planet. A poll in the UK just last year found that 48% of Brits believe that Area 51 exists to investigate aliens. Despite the lack of hard evidence the idea that Area 51 has some connection to aliens won’t go away and theorists discount faked evidence and daft stories as disinformation or merely attempts by individuals to make a quick buck. We may never know what is really going on at Area 51. The idea that the US Government has managed to cover up alien contact seems extremely unlikely to me but what do you think? Post a comment and let us know.

The Bermuda Triangle vs. Lloyd's of London

As most people know, dozens of spectacular disappearances have occurred in the Triangle that is located off the southeast coast of the United States. The actual area of the triangle is controversial, but most authors agree that it includes at least the area between Miami, Bermuda, and San Juan. Not only the number of disappearances, but their mysterious natures have impressed paranormal buffs. Wikipedia has an interesting mini-catalogue of some of the most bizarre anecdotes: In 1881, the Ellen Austin came across an "abandoned" ship in the Triangle -- abandoned why? Because abducted by UFO? Because so terrified, the crew hurled themselves into the water? -- and put some of its own crew on board to sail it to New York. This "cursed" ship then disappeared completely. In 1945, the Flight 19 bombers all disappeared -- a group of them together -- and reported seeing strange phenomena and instrument readings, despite clear weather. When a search-and-rescue airplane was sent to find them, it too disappeared. The Navy stated that they all disappeared for "reasons unknown." In 1918, the USS Cyclops disappeared with a full crew of 309 (!) men. Is this unusual? It's the largest loss of life in US Navy history, and apparently no rescue signals were sent. And like that. . === Some Non-Paranormal Problems === It is a fact that the Bermuda Triangle is one of only two places on earth, from where a compass does not point toward magnetic north. From the Bermuda Triangle, a compass points towards true north! The difference between these two directions is known as compass variation, and it can be very large -- as much as 20 degrees on a long voyage. If the error is not adjusted for, a navigator could and would find himself far off course -- and sometimes in dire peril. .......... The Caribbean weather patterns are exceptionally volatile. Have you ever scheduled a cruise there? Hurricane warnings are day-to-day business there, and cruise ships routinely sail far off plan in order to avoid severe weather. .......... The Gulf Stream is powerful and turbulent. It might not sink many ships, but it certainly can and does quickly bury the remains of oceanic catastrophes. The contours of the ocean floor in the Caribbean are also volatile: there are some of the deepest trenches on the planet, and there are far-ranging, shallow shoals. Navigational hazards abound. ........... Adding to the above, Methane hydrates are a fascinating theory also noted by Wikipedia. Because of these rising underwater gases, water can become less dense -- so much so as to sink a ship. ............ Personally, I (jemanji) am not a "skeptic" in the sense that I have ruled out the ideas of those who disagree with me. I don't feel that I have the right to assume that my non-paranormal explanations are correct until proven otherwise. But in the case of the Bermuda Triangle, the above non-paranormal problems -- along with a dose of good ol' human embellishment -- appear to be sufficient to explain for the legend of the Burmuda Triangle. . === We Rest Our Case === Lloyd's of London set its mathemeticians about the task of researching the inherent risk of sailing the Bermuda Triangle. At present, Lloyd's charges no premium for (a) sailing through the Triangle or (b) staying in it during a ship's entire career. This obviously reflects their own research conclusions that ships disappear no more frequently in the Triangle than they do in other parts of the sea. The Bermuda Triangle is a fun legend, but we don't think you have to worry about sailing in it. :- ) Cheers, jemanji ................ image: http://z.about.com/d/paranormal/1/0/z/U/1/bermuda-triangle-nightmare.jpg

The Piri Reis Map

The oldest known human civilization is by general consensus thought to be the Sumerians. It is roughly 4,000 BC and they have no cultural heritage to speak of. However, in high regard they hold an ancient race that some call the Nefilim. To the Sumerians, these beings were as Gods. Is it not possible, that there was once a time far beyond our reckoning in which civilizations were well beyond advanced? Many have attempted to present such a case to the scientific community at large and are, unsurprisingly, not taken too seriously. Regardless, when presenting such theories, one piece of evidence that tends to b e used is the Piri Reis Map, a map said to be produced in 1513 by famous Turkish Admiral and cartographer of whom the map is named after. It was discovered in 1929 when Topkopi Palace was being converted into a museum. It was printed on gazelle skin and had noted scribbled on it by Reis himself. The odd thing about this particular map is that it shows in incredible detail various islands in the Atlantic, such as the Canary Islands and depicts the coasts of South America and Antarctica in a detail that should not have been possible in the 16th century. And the weird thing about Antarctica being in such a map was twofold: one, the continent was not officially discovered until the mid-1800's. Until then, it was simply assumed that there was such a continent; mostly because it seemed logical that one would be needed to balance out the landmass in the north. Most maps produced before the modern 'discovery' of Antarctica often included this theoretical land mass, called the Great Southern Land. So in that regard, the Piri Reis Map was not all that odd. But as far as Latitude and Longitude, the map is far more accurate than anything from that era. The second aspect of this oddity, far more strange than the first, is that it seemed to depict the continent as it would have been without ice. Now as far as science is concerned, the last time the landmass of Antarctica was free of ice was somewhere around 6,000 years ago. Far before any known nautical culture existed. Even stranger still, was the inclusion of rivers, plateaus, deserts and bays that modern sonar research has indeed confirmed to be in existence, nearly one mile below the ice. And how does this prove helpful in deducing that there may have been ancient cultures far more advanced than we give them credit for? Piri Reis himself admitted to basing his work on the maps on far older documents. Notes written by Reis himself on the document tell that he was not responsible for the cartography and the exploration, but was rather a compiler using a large number of sources. Some were maps drawn by contemporaries of his time, but some, he said, were much older, with some dating back to the days of Alexander the Great. There are also techniques present in the map that should not have been available to Reis for hundreds of more years. For one thing the detail of the map on every level suggests the use of spherical trigonometry is it's making. This suggests that the mapmakers whom Reis researched new quite well that the earth was indeed round and what is more when the map is transferred to a globe, it matches up perfectly. Arlington Mallery, an authority on ancient maps who had studied the map in the 1950's, once said that the only way to get such accuracy would have been to conduct surveys from the air. The map has its doubters to be sure, the most famous of whom being Gregory McIntosh who published a work about the map in 2000. McIntosh is of the opinion that the map is no more detailed than any other map from it's era and that the claims of its history and accuracy have been somewhat exaggerated. Nevertheless, The Piri Reis Map has intrigued many of varying viewpoints with its mysteries and its possibilities and maybe, just maybe, it is another piece in the puzzle to discovering that mystical and advanced ancient culture.

The Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is without a doubt the 'holy grail' of cryptographers and linguists around the globe. Produced likely in the late 15th century, it is an illustrated collection of approximately 246 pages written in some unknown language or script, the papers have become an enigmatic bane to those who call historical cryptography their discipline. Since its introduction into the mainstream of the scientific community roughly around 1915, attempts to translate the manuscript have proved fruitless. Priests, historians, linguists and even code breakers from World War II, all of whom were eventually defeated by the mysterious manuscript, have studied it vigilantly. But that is not to say that their have not been numerous theories and alleged 'solutions' to the document with the earliest modern of these dating back to 1919, with claims that it was actually the work of 13th century empiricist Roger Bacon, who was well versed in the fields of languages and astrology. But alas, such theories have been proven and disprove countless times over and it is likely that the document will forever remain shrouded in mystery. And what of it do we know? Unfortunately, the history of the manuscript is filled with several holes, and it is even more than evident that there are also pages missing from the document itself. The best place to start, however, is with its introduction to the world at large by a Polish book-dealer and antiquarian named Wilfred Voynich of whom the manuscript gets its name. Acquired along with thirty other manuscripts and documents, the piece quickly became a jewel in his collection, passing to his widow after his death. The Voynich Manuscript now lies in the possession of Yale University and summaries of each page can be found here. The language that is written within the document is said to be alphabetical in nature, containing anywhere from nineteen to twenty-eight characters, none of which bear any resemblance to the European lettering system. It appears, by all accounts, to also follow the principles of Zipf's Laws regarding natural language, and also seems to adhere to some sort of phonetic law as well. This has led many proclaim that it is proof of the manuscripts authenticity but again, nothing has been proven. Only a handful of the pages contain solely the mysterious text, the rest being filled abundantly with odd drawings and illustrations: unidentified plants, charts containing objects that seem to be things that should require telescopes and microscopes to be seen, herbal recipes, etc. Judging from the placement of such pictures, scholars on the subject have divide the manuscript into six distinct 'chapters,' one of the oddest, in my mind, being the section dubbed 'Biological.' Within it, the illustrations mostly show series of naked women bathing in tubs of a sort that are connected by plumbing that resembles, in most cases, organs in the human anatomy. As of yet, there have been no definitive translations of the Voynich Manuscript, though claims certainly have been made but the lack of any sort of progress has led many to dismiss it as an elaborate hoax, either being a 16th century forgery or by Voynich's own hand. The latter of these has more or less been disproved by expert dating of the document and letters from the 17th century that reference it. This much, however, is certain: hoax or not, the power that this collection of pages has held over the cryptographic community has been staggering. One would be a fool to think that the possibility of unlocking the potential mysteries they possess will be drawing code breakers and linguists of all kinds to it's alluring scripts and illustration for years to come.

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