Russia's Mysterious Lake Baikal devours Vessels

Another vessel with people on board disappeared in Lake Baikal. Now a search and rescue team is looking for a pleasure boat "Yamaha" that went into the lake with four men on board on 16 June and still has not returned. Everyone says that the men were experienced sailors. However, some do not believe that the crew will return as it disappeared in the most mysterious area of ​​Lake Baikal.

The boat left a village in Kabansk area of ​​Buryatia with four men on board. They were supposed to return soon, as they went to try a new motor for a small boat, but all contact with them was lost almost immediately after their departure. As reported to "Pravda.ru" by the Main Emergency Center in Buryatia, on Monday the search was conducted by seven rescuers with seven pieces of equipment, on Tuesday the search was continued by a different party near Cape Saint Nose and in the bays of Barguzin Chivyrkuy; searches are conducted by Mi-8 helicopter.

The age of the missing men is from 35 to 63, they are experienced people, and a short way out into the lake should have been easy for them. Why are they gone, and without a trace? Their phones are out of the network (although the reception within the area of ​​the lake is perfect for all mobile operators). The local press has already voiced a theory that they were lost in the fog that came in after their departure.

In any event, the fog has already burnt down, and there were no storms on Lake Baikal since their departure. They could have crashed against the shore because of the thick fog, but it is also unlikely as there is no wreckage on the banks for dozens of kilometers. The boat sank as if in the Bermuda Triangle.

Sea Monsters, Aliens,  And Ghosts have been speculated as the causes of these deaths on the lake & the fresh water lake itself is an oddity. It is the largest by volume and the deepest (5370 feet at its deepest point), in the world, as well as one of the oldest at around 25 million years. 

Finally, recently a theory of the missing boat emerged that actually fits the circumstances. The ship might have sunk in the anomalous zone of Lake Baikal, as have many other small vessels. The locals lost count trying to figure out how many people were lost in the mysterious depths of Lake Baikal. 

This is not including those who perished drifting away on the ice, or fell through the ice on cars or snowmobiles.

Fishermen from Lake Baikal often tell stories about seeing trains and ancient castles, historic ships and boats over the transparent surface of the lake - something scientists call a mirage.

Often, when mirages appear in different parts of the lake, they are accompanied by disturbances in the magnetic fields that lead to failures in the ships' equipment, especially the navigation.

Igor Janushev, PhD., a participant of the annual expeditions to Lake Baikal organized by the sport-tourism group "Slavs" commented on the situation for "Pravda.ru."

"Every year I hear plenty of mysterious stories about the Lake. I usually serve as a doctor in our expeditions, but often have to serve as a psychologist and a psychiatrist: the secrets of the lake can bring a person into a very peculiar state.

Mysterious Ice Circles spotted by the International Space Station in 2009

For example, Lake Baikal has ideal conditions for mirages created by warm air over the chilled water in summer, and clear atmosphere and extreme cold in winter. In the layers of air of different density, the light rays are refracted, distorted, and produce fantastic forms. This could bring the missing men from "Yamaha" God knows where - Baikal mirages are very realistic.

For years there have been rumors and legends about the incredible mirages on Lake Baikal. They are often observed by local fishermen and researchers in such famous places as near the island of Great Ushkan'i, near Cape Sun and the famous island of Olkhon.

In recent years, many famous scientists got engaged with the study of Lake Baikal. They are still in disbelief: how can these numerous unexplained phenomena occur in one place? Near the place where the boat has disappeared, a few dozen kilometers southeast of Olkhon, in the deepest part of Lake Baikal, there is a place called the Devil's crater.

Normally unremarkable, no more than once or twice a year this area of ​​the lake covering two square kilometers becomes unruly. This is when small vessels with crews disappear there.

Lake Baikal "swallows" ships along with people. In good weather and a dead calm, incredible rotation of the water begins here, and soon in the midst of it a large crater emerges, engulfing everything around. Locals claim that this is the opening of a chasm through which the souls of dead sinners go to hell.

The most interesting thing is that this phenomenon has been documented - there are movies, videos, numerous photographs, and eyewitness accounts. Several years ago, some skippers offered to completely close the area of the lake to the boats, but for some reason it has never been done."

It is hard to predict what would be the end of "Yamaha's" story with the four crew members. There were times when the fishermen would disappear for a week, but then suddenly return as if nothing had happened, convinced that it has only been a few hours.

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Scientists Say Alien Encounters "Within Twenty Years"

Russian astronomers hope to find extraterrestrial civilizations in 20 years, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute Andrei Finkelstein told a Monday press conference.

"The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms ... Life exists on other planets and we will find it within 20 years," he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Speaking at an international forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, Finkelstein believes that aliens will look like earthlings: they will have two legs, two arms and a head. "Possibly, they will have a different color skin, but the same happens here. While we have been searching for extraterrestrial civilians, we have been waiting for messages from space, not the other way," he said.

About 1,000 exoplanets, i.e. planets circling around stars like the Sun, have been found, and 10% of them resemble the Earth, researchers said. There will be life on such planets if there is water.

Finkelstein's institute runs a programme launched in the 1960s at the height of the cold war space race to watch for and beam out radio signals to outer space.

"The whole time we have been searching for extraterrestrial civilizations, we have mainly been waiting for messages from space and not the other way," he said.

In March a Nasa scientist caused controversy after claiming to have found tiny fossils of alien bugs inside meteorites that landed on Earth.

Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at the US space agency's Marshall space flight centre in Alabama, said filaments and other structures in rare meteorites appear to be microscopic fossils of extraterrestrial beings that resemble algae known as cyanobacteria.

Writing in the Journal of Cosmology, Hoover claimed that the lack of nitrogen in the samples, which is essential for life on Earth, indicated they are "the remains of extraterrestrial life forms that grew on the parent bodies of the meteorites when liquid water was present, long before the meteorites entered the Earth's atmosphere."

Bigfoot Press Conference Seeks DNA Test To Answer Bigfoot Mystery

Bigfoot or bear? Impression on Jeffrey Gonzalez's car window.

A DNA test could prove the one thing that decades of grainy videos, mysterious footprints and unverified eyewitness accounts haven't -- the existence of Bigfoot.

Bigfoot researchers in California say they've obtained startling evidence, and are now trying to raise money for genetic testing on an oil residue purportedly left behind by the elusive hairy beast.

At a press conference today in Fresno, Calif., the Sanger Paranormal Society reached out to the public to help come up with the needed funds to pay for a thorough analysis of DNA from the alleged Bigfoot creature.

Sanger founder Jeffrey Gonzalez presented photographs taken of strange impressions left on the windows of his pickup truck that was temporarily abandoned in a snow storm when he and several others were on a Bigfoot expedition over Memorial Day weekend in California's Sierra National Forest.

When the men returned to retrieve Gonzalez's truck, they were startled to discover the window markings -- including a large paw-like image -- and what they first thought was evidence of hair on two of the truck windows.

Gonzalez called in forensic/law enforcement photographer Mickey Burrow,  who has spent 14 years as a qualified court photographic expert and crime scene processor.

"I immediately started wondering if there could be some DNA left behind, because if this thing put its face on the window, I thought there was probably DNA on there," Burrow told AOL.

Footprint found Memorial Day weekend, 2011, near Fresno, Calif. 

"I've got the know-how. I've done it more than 5,000 times on crime scenes. In this case, I treated it like it was a vehicle that got burglarized.

"As I was looking at the windows, I told Jeff it looked like something came up to the truck, rubbed up against it, swiped along the side of it, and then just put its face up on the window and looked in -- that's what it looks like."

Burrow photographed the images left on the truck windows and collected some DNA swabs. While Gonzalez suggested one of the impressions shows a hand print, Burrow isn't convinced.

"I'm very iffy on it. To me, it looks like a paw print," he explained. "I don't think it was a primate or a biped, because it looks too much like a paw. But then again, we don't know what Bigfoot is.

"I was just looking at what I could find off the truck. I didn't find any hair or blood or prints, so we really don't know what we have that touched it. We don't know if it's a bear or a Bigfoot or a mountain lion."

Bigfoot is a legendary tall, hairy ape-like creature that has somehow defied capture and identification. Also known as Sasquatch, Abominable Snowman and Yeti, it supposedly lives in heavily forested or snow-capped mountainous regions of the world.

While most scientists deny Bigfoot's existence, decades of huge numbers of eyewitness reports, pictures and films have kept the legend alive.

Previous attempts to analyze potential Bigfoot DNA haven't resulted in anything that could be considered as the scientific find of the ages. That's why Gonzalez is being very careful about who he'll turn over his reported Bigfoot DNA to.

"We need somebody to come forward to take this DNA and get it mapped," he told AOL. "Since nobody knows what a Bigfoot is, there's no available DNA for it. But by testing this DNA, by process of elimination we can find out if it was a bear, gorilla, baboon or something else.

"If it's not any of those, and you've eliminated all the possibilities, and it's not human, then what's left?"

Burrow is looking for an objective, science-based truth.

"I would like to just find out, because it's got my interest piqued," he said. "I believe Bigfoot exists, but I don't believe it has mystical powers like many people say it does. I think it's just an unknown species that hasn't been discovered or hasn't fully evolved."

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:

55 Foot Sea Monster Washed Ashore in China

From MSNBC.com

A massive sea creature has washed up on a beach in Guangdong, China. So badly decayed it cannot be positively identified, the "sea monster" is 55 feet long and weighs approximately 4.5 tons, according to The Sun.

Upon seeing the photo of the beast three marine biology experts — Scott Baker of Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute; Bill Perrin, senior scientist for marine mammals at the National Marine Fisheries Service; and Bob Brownell, senior scientist for international protected resources with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's Fisheries Service — all think it's a whale.

Based on its throat grooves, "[we agree] that it's a balaenopterid," Baker told Life's Little Mysteries. "Judging from the reported size of 55 ft., maybe a fin whale. From the photo, however, it does not really look to be 55 ft., and so might be a smaller balaenopterid, like one of the 'Bryde's' whales."

"We all hope somebody collects the bones and a tissue sample for genetic analysis as recovery of whale carcasses is rare along the coast of China," he added.

The beast is tangled in ropes, and locals theorize that area fisherman once caught it but could not haul it in owing to its gargantuan size. According to The Sun, people have flocked to see the sea creature despite its foul stench.

Gettysburg Attraction Explores Paranormal Past

It's the little things that  make me miss the East coast, especially it's history. So if I am ever back there I would love to go check this out. This article is from the Carroll County Times. At the very bottom of this page you'll find the link for this attraction, check it out.

During his 14 years as a ghost tour guide at the Historic Farnsworth House Inn property in downtown Gettysburg, Pa., he said he's experienced enough peculiar events to believe that otherworldly beings are present. He's smelled the scent of blooming flowers in February, listened to screaming women who could feel the presence of ghosts nearby and watched surveillance videos indicating the presence of spirits.

Staub is also a realist. He knows many of his Historic Farnsworth House Inn ghost tour guests do not believe in ghosts and no amount of evidence will convince them. And that's why he said he's so excited about the grand opening of Gettysburg's Haunted Address from 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday.

Regardless of whether his visitors believe in ghosts or not, he said the new indoor attraction he designed will help educate those who pass through it. Gettysburg's Haunted Address is located next to the Historic Farnsworth House property, where ghost tours have been taking place for 25 years.

"This was the battlefield," said Staub while standing outside along the sidewalk next to Gettysburg's Haunted Address. "On the first day of the battle, Union soldiers were pushed right up through here. ... A lot of soldiers were stuck in backyards."

Staub created Gettysburg's Haunted Address in a 20th century building that used to house shops. The walk-through attraction features scenes from past haunting events and uses mannequins, sounds and special effects to tell the stories.

York, Pa.-based theater technical director Joe Kress used hydraulics and electronics to make the exhibit's mannequins seem more lifelike.

Gettysburg's Haunted Address features rooms dedicated to historical accounts, with no gory detail left unturned.

One exhibit tells the story of an injured soldier, assumed to be dead, who awoke in a pile of bodies. Another portion of the house discusses how Confederate soldiers, accused of desertion, were hanged.
In between, visitors are jolted to attention by moving mannequins and sound effects designed to scare visitors who pass through the dimly lit rooms.

Gettysburg's Haunted Address is located just a few feet away from the Historic Farnsworth House, which is now a restored restaurant and inn. One of the Farnsworth House exterior brick walls is riddled with bullet holes, a testament to the blood shed in the town during the July 1863 Civil War battle.

"It's history in full view," Staub said. "It's a real testimony of what happened here."

When Loring and Jean Shultz purchased the property in 1972, their daughter Patti became so convinced that otherworldly beings were present that she became the first ghost tour guide in Gettysburg, Pa. She told stories in the cellar of the Farnsworth House along Baltimore Street, where the Battle of Gettysburg waged.

Loring Shultz said most of his family members have encountered spirits.
"Everybody except for me," he said.

Shultz, much like Staub, is a history buff who relishes finding Civil War-era bullets and telling stories about the battle.

"They don't know the stories," Shultz said of tourists who pass through. "That's what we try to do is to educate them on what happened here."

LINK TO ARTICLE

          The ‘residents' of the Farnsworth House Inn

When Patti O'Day's parents purchased the Farnsworth House Inn property in 1972, she immediately started sensing that ghosts were nearby. Her belief that the Farnsworth House Inn was haunted led her to start offering ghost tours at the property in 1986. Here's a look at some of the spirits who have been spotted at one of the most haunted inns in America:

• Mary: A matronly woman that keeps the other ghosts in line.
• Walter: A red-bearded Confederate Civil War soldier.
• Nan: A nurse midwife.
• Billy: A little boy from the 1950s.
• Jeremy: A little boy tragically killed by a horse-drawn carriage in the 1800s.
• Cissy: A little girl from the early 1900s who died of respiratory failure.
• Florence: A 19-year-old woman who gave birth to a stillborn baby.
• Elizabeth: The ghost who moved into the house with her mortal family.
• Lt. Jackson: Cared for a mortally wounded comrade in the cellar.
• Dying comrade: Painful cries can be heard in the cellar.
• William: Jeremy's grief-stricken father.
• Jennie Wade: Gettysburg woman believed to have been killed by a sharpshooter from The Farnsworth House.

  

www.gettysburgshauntedaddress.com 

 

The Tinley Park Lights UFO Mystery

I never heard of this unexplained phenomenon, called  "The Tinley Park Lights", that happened over the Chicago area a few years back. But I found this article with interesting eyewitness accounts. 

Article by Leslie Fuller Knox.

This summer, some Tinley Park residents will be watching the night sky for Unexplained Flying Objects, and say others in the Southland should too.

After all, the communities of Tinley Park, Orland Park, Frankfort, and Mokena hold bragging rights for one of the most well-documented, unexplained UFO events in the nation: the "Tinley Park Lights."

Tinley Park Patch interviewed local eyewitnesses and experts about this phenomenon, which includes several sightings of three lights in a triangular pattern, dating from Aug. 21, 2004.

Sam Maranto, State Director of Illinois MUFON said the first in the series of the Tinley Park Lights events had optimum conditions for eyewitnesses.

"The night of the 21st was beautiful, people were outside, there were parties all over," said Maranto, who lives near Orland Park.

Traffic was jammed up outside Tinley's Tweeter Center (now known as First Midwest bank Amphitheater, where Ozzfest had just ended, and thousands of concertgoers were headed home.

"There were a lot of people outside that night, hundreds if not thousands," said Maranto. "People were able to see and record what was going on."

Tinley resident Bill Dooley, 48, said he recalls that evening vividly. He's the former owner of Alsip-based Fine Oak Furniture.

It was a great August evening, with a lot of people who were out in my neighborhood; we were watching the Bears preseason game on TV," Dooley said, noting that it was about 10 p.m. "My neighbor yelled to look up."

Dooley pulled his attention away from the game, and said he was stunned by what he saw. "If you can imagine three bright lights coming at you, in single file, for about 20 minutes."

Dooley said he and several others living near the Tinley Downs Shopping Center watched the mystery lights hover together in one place despite the wind, and made no audible sound.

"Our houses are backed up to each other, and they were coming right down the middle," he said. "They seemed to have stopped, they went to a single-file line to stacked up on top of each other, then they went into a triangle form," said Dooley.

"There was absolutely no sound. They formed their triangle and started to move away again, stacked on top of each other, they turned white and were gone," he said.

After they disappeared, about 45 minutes later, a single very bright light came by itself, said Dooley.
"Once they were gone, everybody was trying to figure out what we just saw," he said. "A red light came down the same path and did the same thing."

"It made no noise, it floated very slowly right over the tops of all our houses," Dooley said. "It appeared to stop and start again, turned right and disappeared."

Eyewitness T.J. Japcon said he and his two young sons, Justin and Jake, were at a neighborhood block party that night on Dorothy Lane, not far from the 174th and Harlem intersection.

Justin, then 8, urged everyone to look up, recalled Japcon.

"I was just in awe, you've never seen anything like it before," he said. "It shuts you up. You know it's not a helicopter, you know it's not an airplane.

Like Dooley, Japcon recalled the event as quiet and still.

"You could hear dogs barking," he said. "There were three lights out of the southwest, moved northeast, stopped literally right above us in a triangle pattern," Japcon said.

At one point, a Tinley Park Polica officer in a marked squad drove by, and neighbors asked him about the lights, recalled Japcon.

"He just said he didn't know what was going on, but he was keeping his radio open because dispatch was getting calls," he said.

Japcon ran inside and grabbed his Samsung camcorder. The footage he shot that night would be shared with Sam Maranto of MUFON, and eventually featured on the History Channel in episode 201 of UFO Hunters: "Invasion Illinois."

Second Sighting that Halloween

Yet, the sightings weren't over.

About two months later on Halloween night, 2004, Japcon again saw the same set of lights, which were once again witnessed by many residents, from parents running errands to tardy trick-or-treaters.

"I thought it was pretty cool, it was something you thought you were never going to see it again, and all of a sudden, they're back," recalled Japcon.

As time goes by, this interesting chapter in Southland history is fading for some, said Japcon.

"It's falling through the cracks, just like all other sightings, it just fades like a ripple on  a pond," said Japcon. "It's probably the neatest thing I've seen."

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:

Sea Captain Ghost of St. Martins Cave, New Brunswick, Canada

There is something odd to me about this photo while it may just be a trick of a flash camera, it doesn't make sense. So on this one I am up in the air, but I thought I would share this article anyway, from timestranscript.com

When Moncton resident Craig Wood tried to snap a quick picture of his daughter Abby, her sister Jenna and some other tourists exploring one of the caves in picturesque St. Martins last summer, he captured someone else in the shot - a pale apparition of a man who Craig says just wasn't there when he snapped the photo with his cellphone.

Craig Wood says he doesn't believe in ghosts, but he has no idea how the mysterious image appeared on his cellphone camera. 

 

Craig says he doesn't believe in ghosts, but he has no idea how the image appeared. And what the heck's that blue orb glowing over there at left edge of the frame? He's curious to hear what others think.

"At first I thought I took a reflection of myself somehow," he says. Indeed, the silhouette does bear some resemblance to the man who took the photograph, but it's not conclusive by a long shot.
In the old days of photography on film, it would simply be some kind of classic double exposure, but in a digital pic taken on a mobile phone?

Also, there's no other photo of Craig or anyone except Abby in any of the other pictures on the phone.
Of course, the apparition doesn't turn up in any of the more mundane places he took photos of Abby in the days before - parks and playgrounds and the like.

Instead, in classic ghost story fashion, it shows up in a cave in a picturesque coastal fishing village that drips with history the way water drips from the ceiling of the cave itself.

According to information provided by the village, St. Martins was first settled in 1783 by a group of loyalist soldiers known as the King's Orange Rangers. The original name of the community was Goolwagagek, a Mi'kmaq word meaning "haunt of the hooded seal," according to the DeMoulles map of 1686.

From the looks of things, the place may be haunted, but that's no hooded seal in the photo.

"I hate calling it a ghost, but the farther I go with it ..." Wood says, the thought trailing off.

"Maybe I got a shot of Elvis in his fat years," he says with a laugh, at a loss for any other way to explain it.
 
Craig has been back to St. Martins five or six times since, talking to locals and trying to learn about local ghost lore.

"In St. Martins nobody knows me by name. They know me as 'the ghost guy,'" he says.

The key ghost story from the area is The Burning Ship of St. Martins, essentially the same phenomenon sometimes seen on New Brunswick's Northumberland coast, what appears to be a burning sailing ship with people aboard who can be heard screaming for help.

It's said to appear every few years, usually on or about July 1. Craig snapped his shot last July 3.
That's enough to get folks in the seaside community talking about the possibility the figure is the ghost of a ship's captain, perhaps looking for survivors after his ship has wrecked. Possibly, whatever that thing is that is in his hand is a lantern from a bygone era.

Others think it's the ghost of the pirate Captain Kidd, said to have explored the Fundy coast. Is the ghost looking for treasure left in the cave years ago?

That camp says the figure in the photograph is wearing a coat from that era and the rear leg of the figure is a peg leg.

Still others say it's just some contemporary dude wearing shorts.

Craig says he's found in some ways the spectral image is a form of Rorschach inkblot test. What you see might say more about your own interests than anything about the image. He's found a local historian in St. Martins who's convinced it's a sea captain from the glorious era when tiny St. Martins was the third-largest shipbuilding community on the east coast. Craig's brother says it's clear the figure's holding a bag of money. A woman he knows says the man is carrying a small child.

The television show Ghost Hunters doesn't know what to say about the photograph, but its producers are interested. The problem is the production costs that would be involved in shipping a film crew from the Seattle-based show out to the Bay of Fundy. Possibly, the producers haven't looked at the Village of St. Martins website and realized what a videographer's dream Canada's most picturesque village is.

At any rate, they wanted Craig to ship the phone to them for analysis, but he's refused for fear of it being lost in shipping.

Craig doesn't even use the phone anymore for fear he will somehow accidentally erase the image, now carrying one phone for calling people and the other just to share his mysterious story. He won't even take the smart card out of it in case that somehow breaks the spell - be that spell either the hocus-pocus kind to the technical gremlin kind.

"I don't know what to do with the picture next," he says.

But of one thing Craig Wood is certain.

"I've had a ball with it."

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Georgia has it's own Lake Monster

This is a fun article I found written by Curt Holman, from the Atlanta Creative Loafing website

An alligator spies on my family as we stand on a midden heap on a muddy bank of the South Altamaha River. Our flip-flops crunch on the jagged oyster shells and pottery shards cast off by Native Americans a couple of centuries ago. Our guide points out their importance to the history of coastal Georgia, but I can't pay proper attention. I've brought my family to Darien in search of a monster.

Squinting in the midday sun, I can see the alligator's eyes and snout protruding from the water about 50 yards away. Our guide, Danny Grissette, says it's 8 to 9 feet long, making it no match for my potential prey, an aquatic beast alleged to be at least 20 feet in length. Wait, could that be the creature's famed ridged hump? No, it's just a stump sticking out of the brown river water. What about that mysterious turbulence about 25 yards away? It could be the wake of an unseen ship or a school of fish. But can we prove that it's not the tell-tale sign of the legendary entity known as the Altamaha-ha?

The Altamaha-ha, known more casually as "Altie," defies scientific explanation. Even before European settlement, the Tama tribes people told stories of a giant, snake-like river animal that hissed and bellowed. Over the past century, fishermen, lumberjacks and boy scouts have reported sightings of a creature in the tributaries and marshes of the Altamaha River, which feeds one of the largest river basins on the Atlantic Coast. The eyewitness consensus holds that the Altamaha-ha has a dark, smooth hide, apart from the tire-tread-like ridges on its back, as well as a narrow neck, prominent snout and flat, porpoise-like tail.

Could it be a sturgeon on steroids? A throwback to marine reptiles like the toothy plesiosaur? Maybe the Loch Ness Monster's cousin from across the pond? I'm skeptical about cryptids, the kind of famous beings like Bigfoot unrecognized by the scientific establishment, but the Altamaha-ha called me with a siren song, despite the likelihood of a search turning into a snipe hunt. But even if the Altamaha-ha isn't real, it could still have significance.

I grew up in Georgia and totally dug on Leonard Nimoy's "In Search of...," The Legend of Boggy Creek, and Sasquatch's guest appearances on "The Six Million Dollar Man." Somehow, I missed the Weekly World News story from 1981, "Monster Serpent Lurks in Murky American River." I never dreamed that a monster reportedly lived in our backyard — or at least a five-hour drive from our backyard.

I first heard of the Altamaha-ha earlier this year, when my daughter checked out the library book Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist. There, alongside the likes of Bigfoot, Mothman and the Chupacabra, was Altamaha-ha. The "Reality Index" declares the native creature as "Leaning Toward Real," as opposed to being real, like the rediscovered prehistoric fish the coelacanth, or a hoax, like P.T. Barnum's Fiji Mermaid, which turned out to be a monkey's torso attached to a fish carcass.

Founded in 1736, Darien, population 1,719, turns out to be a nexus of Altamaha-ha hot spots. The relaxed little town, 30 miles north of Brunswick on the South Georgia coast, boasts considerable history as the state's second-oldest planned city and the location of Fort King George. During a visit in early May, I also found Altie's flippered likeness all over it. A dinosaur-like creature paddles gracefully across a billboard that reads, "Welcome to Darien & McIntosh County: A Certified Work Ready Community." In the business district, several large murals feature the familiar twisty sea monster unobtrusively among historical tableau and images of local flora and fauna.


READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

The Possession of Anneleise Michel

This is a very creepy audio recording of a actual exorcism of Anneliese Michel.

Two movies, "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "Requiem", available on Netflix streaming, are loosely based on this story. 

Anneliese Michel was a German Catholic woman who was said to be possessed by demons and subsequently underwent an exorcism.

Michel experienced what is recognized by medical professionals as severe psychiatric disturbances from the age of 16 to her death, at age 23 from malnutrition secondary to mental illness. She apparently intended her death by starvation to “atone for the wayward youth of the day and the apostate priests of the modern church”.

After several years of ineffective psychiatric treatment, she refused any form of treatment and requested an exorcism. Both priests who performed the exorcism and Michel’s parents were convicted of negligent manslaughter because they did not seek medical treatment (for her refusal to eat) on her behalf and over her objections.

The Roman Catholic Church, which had authorized the exorcism, later declared Anneliese Michel a case of mental illness.

Center of Disease Control: Zombie Apocalypse Prepardness

Who says the Government isn't watching our back.

The following was originally posted on CDC Public Health Matters Blog on May 16th, 2011 by Ali S. Khan.

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

A Brief History of Zombies
We’ve all seen at least one movie about flesh-eating zombies taking over (my personal favorite is Resident Evil) but where do zombies come from and why do they love eating brains so much? The word zombie comes from Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. Although its meaning has changed slightly over the years, it refers to a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Through ancient voodoo and folk-lore traditions, shows like the Walking Dead were born.


In movies, shows, and literature, zombies are often depicted as being created by an infectious virus, which is passed on via bites and contact with bodily fluids. Harvard psychiatrist Steven Scholzman wrote a (fictional) medical paper on the zombies presented in Night of the Living Dead and refers to the condition as Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome caused by an infectious agent. The Zombie Survival Guide identifies the cause of zombies as a virus called solanum. Other zombie origins shown in films include radiation from a destroyed NASA Venus probe (as in Night of the Living Dead), as well as mutations of existing conditions such as prions, mad-cow disease, measles and rabies.

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”

Well, we’re here to answer that question for you, and hopefully share a few tips about preparing for real emergencies too!

Better Safe than Sorry

Some of the supplies for your emergency kit.

So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored). Below are a few items you should include in your kit, for a full list visit the CDC Emergency page.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)

Once you’ve made your emergency kit, you should sit down with your family and come up with an emergency plan. This includes where you would go and who you would call if zombies started appearing outside your door step. You can also implement this plan if there is a flood, earthquake, or other emergency.

Family members meeting by their mailbox. You should pick two meeting places, one close to your home and one farther away.
1. Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.
2. Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.
3. Identify your emergency contacts. Make a list of local contacts like the police, fire department, and your local zombie response team. Also identify an out-of-state contact that you can call during an emergency to let the rest of your family know you are ok.
4. Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

Never Fear – CDC is Ready

Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Prepared

If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak. CDC would provide technical assistance to cities, states, or international partners dealing with a zombie infestation. This assistance might include consultation, lab testing and analysis, patient management and care, tracking of contacts, and infection control (including isolation and quarantine). It’s likely that an investigation of this scenario would seek to accomplish several goals: determine the cause of the illness, the source of the infection/virus/toxin, learn how it is transmitted and how readily it is spread, how to break the cycle of transmission and thus prevent further cases, and how patients can best be treated. Not only would scientists be working to identify the cause and cure of the zombie outbreak, but CDC and other federal agencies would send medical teams and first responders to help those in affected areas (I will be volunteering the young nameless disease detectives for the field work).
To learn more about what CDC does to prepare for and respond to emergencies of all kinds, visit:
http://emergency.cdc.gov/cdc/orgs_progs.asp

To learn more about how you can prepare for and stay safe during an emergency visit:
http://emergency.cdc.gov/

To download a badge like the one above that you can add to your social networking profile, blog, website, or email signature visit:
http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies.asp


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The Enfield Poltergeist Documentary

I found this article written by Javier  Ortega@ GhostTheory and the documentary that follows is pretty creepy.

The “Enfield Poltergeist” is a well known and well documented poltergeist case that took place in Enfield, London in the late 1970s. This poltergeist case surrounded the Hodgson family, which consisted of the mother (Peggy), 2 daughters (Margaret, Janet) and 2 sons (Johnny, Billy). As usual, the focus of the activities was around the prepubescent girls. The entity that was stalking the Hodgson’s was that of a supposed “Bill”. A previous owner of the house.

I remember reading about the Enfield Poltergeist case way back in 1993 for the first time. I always assumed that this was a hoax perpetrated by the Hodgson girls. The evidence that was taken from this case, albeit there being a lot of it, was not very useful to the scientific community. When I read about this case I assumed that there might have been some unexplained noises or raps heard, maybe even some spirit communication established. Reading up on it further, it is just as inconclusive today as it was back 30 years ago. People can’t either disprove or prove that any paranormal events happened.

What I do consider very tantalizing evidence is the recording done by the paranormal investigator
Maurice Grosse. The investigator’s son was able to get the spirit of Bill to tell of how he had died. The ungodly voice then is heard telling of how it died:

“I went blind…. Then I had an Haemorrhage, and I fell asleep and I died in a chair in the corner downstairs…”

When Maurice Grosse located the previous homeowner’s son, he played the tape for him. Bill’s son confirmed the story. Stating that it was exactly how his father died.

To me, that is very good evidence. Although, one can argue that it could possibly be that one of the girls some how, overheard a neighbor perhaps telling of how Bill died. Interesting nonetheless.

To this day I still am on the fence about this case. The fact that the girls were caught manifesting some of the activities at times is a big red flag, but the fact that they admit that not all of it was faked, or the creepy revelation of Bill’s death sways me back and forth on the fence.

Check out “Interview with a Poltergeist”. A very well made documentary of this case. It’s a non-biased look at the Enfield case.

 Interview with a Poltergeist  - Part 1

  Interview with a Poltergeist  - Part 2

  Interview with a Poltergeist  - Part 3

  Interview with a Poltergeist  - Part 4

  Interview with a Poltergeist  - Part 5

  Interview with a Poltergeist  - Part 6

Visit GhostTheory Article Here 

Spirits Haunt Texas Jail says Judge

Medina County Jail, Hondo, Texas

Laugh if you please, but Medina County Judge Jim Barden, isn't joking when he says an other-worldly spirit has made its presence known in the former jail building that now houses his staff.

He recently was spooked into leaving by the sound of unexplained footsteps as he worked alone, after hours.

“I walked all over the building and there wasn't anything there,” Barden, 74, said Wednesday. “I wouldn't have gone home if I hadn't felt something weird and uncomfortable.”

He and co-workers report repeatedly experiencing unexplained phenomena since early 2010 when they moved into the former lockup upon completion of a $1.2 million conversion into offices.

Beside hearing “footsteps” and other noises in a vacant stairwell, reports among the building's six workers include catching glimpses of shadowy figures moving about, hearing voices, even being touched.

“There's something here,” Jennifer Adlong, Barden's administrative assistant, says matter-of-factly. “I could have sworn yesterday I saw something dart in the bathroom.”

Co-worker Laryssa Leyva, theorizes that former inmates are haunting the fortresslike limestone
building, built in 1893, that housed county prisoners until a new 96-bed jail opened in 1999.

“I'm not scared because they never come close to me,” said Leyva, 23, on Wednesday. “I don't feel spirits. I just hear noises.”

The county's human resource director, Stacey Cameron,  has developed a more personal relationship with the spirit(s).

Besides hearing strange noises, she's said she's seen a dark shadow the height of an adult in her first-floor office. She initially attributed it to tricks of the mind. But then she had the distinct feeling of being touched and poked, forcing her to confront the ghosts directly.

“I just told them not to touch me anymore, and it hasn't,” said Cameron, 38.

Her assistant, Yvonne Garcia, has grown used to unusual events, like hearing a woman's voice when no one else is in the 1,900-square-foot building.

“Lately I've seen shadows, but I don't know if it's just me,” she said.

Although eager for an explanation, Barden has no plans to hire professional ghost hunters to investigate the mystery.

“We don't want to spend taxpayers' money on that,” said Barden, a retired telephone corporate attorney and executive. “I accept the fact that there are spirits, and we have had unexplained phenomena in this building.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Mysterious Hum Haunts Village

Now a tiny English village is the latest community to claim to be being hit by the phenomenon known as "the hum".

Residents of Woodland, in County Durham, claim that every night a noise permeates the air similar to the throb of a car engine.

It is sometimes so strong that it even shakes the bed of one of the householders.

But no matter how hard they look, the community cannot find the source of the problem and, at their wits end, have called in the council to investigate.

The 300-strong population is the latest around the world to be hit by the rumble which has in the past led to wild conspiracy theories blaming it on UFOs, government experiments and abandoned mine shafts.

It is so widespread that it has even featured on the television show The X Files.

It's most famous occurrence was in Bristol in the 1970s when more than a thousand people complained of the consistent drone causing nosebleeds, sleeplessness and headaches.

It vanished as mysteriously as it arrived and was never explained.

Residents of Woodland, a community consisting of one main street surrounded by farmland, claims their version of "the hum" is constant from midnight until 4am every night and stops them sleeping.

There are no pylons, factories or abandoned mines nearby.

The noise started about two months ago and has been plaguing the isolated village every day since.

Marylin Grech, 57, a retired store detective, said: "In certain areas of the house you can hear it more loudly. It is definitely from outside, it's in the air, all around, very faint.

"It vibrates through the house. We've turned all the electricity off in the house and we can still hear it, so it's not that.

"Sometimes we'll be in bed and it vibrates right through our bed, like a throbbing.

"It's not tinnitus, that's a high pitched sound and this is very low. If I put my fingers in my ears it stops, so I know it's not in my head.

"At 4am it's so clear, because we live in such an isolated place with no traffic, it's heaven.

"But it leaves a buzzing in your head for the rest of the day."

Gary Hutchinson, an environmental protection manager at Durham County Council, said: "I can confirm that we received a call regarding a humming sound in the Woodland area earlier on June 1 and we will now make further enquiries before deciding what action we will take."

READ ARTICLE HERE

792 Foot Monster Skeleton Found

Now don't be pissed but I thought this old article was pretty funny, but it would have been pretty cool, if it were true

SAN JOSE NEWS - August 16th 1928

UFO sighting over California

I must admit I have honestly seen some odd lights in the sky, north of Los Angeles, in the high desert. Especially while working on film "Army of Darkness",  in Stockton, during the night shoot.

This guy actually gave me a great idea &  I am going to try this out one night if the air becomes clear out in smog.., I mean sunny Los Angeles.

You have to be pretty arrogant to believe that "there's nothing out there". mwa hahaha

Enjoy this article:

A short night-vision video posted on YouTube depicting three lights in the night sky over California has been getting attention on the Web. The video was allegedly recorded in Oakland a few days ago by someone using the handle "KevinMC360."

Was it a UFO?

Almost certainly, since KevinMC360 was unable to identify the flying objects.

Was it an alien spacecraft?

Probably not.

A careful examination of his methods suggests why the flying objects he spotted remain unidentified. In another video of the sky over Oakland recorded on June 11, 2010, KevinMC360 begins by videotaping airplanes for "reference." Later in the video (it's not clear whether the recording was edited or otherwise manipulated), he records other lights in the sky and concludes that they must be "a squadron of spacecraft."

Adding to the mystery, "You cannot see these in normal visible light, only in infrared," KevinMC360 can be heard reporting in a voice-over. Lights in the sky that emit only infrared waves might be quite mysterious.

 

And how does this experienced UFO investigator know that the lights are invisible? His wife told him. KevinMC360 narrates, "My wife is standing behind me, I'm asking her, Can she see them, she's responding to me and telling me no. So only in I.R. (infrared)."

 

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The Sea Monster of Brooklyn

I love the idea that there are things on this planet, that have yet to be discovered. And for anyone to not believe the same is crazy. 

So I found this article for your viewing pleasure.

You might expect a cement-shoed mobster in the waters off New York -- but a sea monster?

Local newspapers and blogs have been consumed with the news that a "sea monster" has washed up at the foot of the famed Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The seven-foot long beast, dubbed the East River Monster, was found on the Manhattan side of the bridge on May 21. 

And was it ever ugly.

"It had the scales of a fish, body of a serpent, head of a pit bull and was the size of a large alligator," wrote Maureen O'Connor, a blogger on the Gawker website.

Theories ran the gamut from horse to alligator to Loch Ness beast -- or even a relative of the Montauk Monster

Marine biologists cut through the rumors, however, calling it nothing more than a common Atlantic fish. "We could tell it was an Atlantic sturgeon right away," said Kim Durham, a rescue program director and biologist for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation in Riverhead, N.Y.

"They have bony plates all over their bodies. There's no mistaking a sturgeon," she said.
Easy for you to say, especially when the carcass is fresh. But the East River Monster was never removed, instead remaining beneath the bridge rotting away. And several days later, the beast looks more like a monster than ever before.

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