Håkon Robertsen has refused to tear down a condemned barn for fear of reprisals from 'little people' and is ready to sue local authorities to protect the building. Robertsen continues to resist a local order to tear down the derelict structure, and is currently being fined NOK 300 (US $47.50) a day until he flattens the barn. Local authorities first ordered the barn demolished in February 2005 after complaints from Robertsen's neighbors and a new order was passed this autumn. Robertsen fears the consequences of tearing the building down."I don't believe in ghosts, but underworld creatures have taken up residence in the building," Robertsen told newspaper Nordlys, referring to a term used for the fairies and goblins of Norwegian folklore. Robertsen would not go into detail about his experiences, but said he was convinced that to comply with the order would have serious consequences for his life and health. "A while back I removed the top of the building and that is an experience I will not repeat," he said, and points out that the barn is built on an old Viking site. He has offered to build a solid fence around the ramshackle building so that it no longer poses a danger to anyone. The head of the local building policy department, Mette Mohåg, told Nordlys that there was as yet no deadlock in the matter.
Paranormal Investigators Spend Night In Hanging Jail
A few dusty bare bulbs did little to dispel the eerie shadows of the 92-year-old Beauregard Parish jail for a group of paranormal investigators. The building, known as the ‘‘hanging jail'' because two men were executed there in March 1928, was closed in 1984. The years have not been kind. The walks are crumbling, the paint is peeling, and the iron bars and doors are covered with a thick coat of rust. Despite the less-than-perfect conditions, members of LA Spirits, a group of paranormal investigators, set up their cameras in the jail, running hundreds of feet of video and power cables from the basement to the third floor. ‘‘This is so great to be here,'' said Brad Duplechien, founder and director of the group. ‘‘We are ready to get to work and see what we can find.'' In October, the group was given permission by the Police Jury to look for paranormal activity in the old jail.Shelly Mills, an investigator with the group, said they considered access to the old jail ‘‘an honor.'' She said her personal experiences there this month included an electromagnetic field spike and an infrared camera that ‘‘jiggled'' and then fell over. Also, one bedded-down member reported smelling pipe smoke and hearing footsteps and what sounded like a running shower. ‘‘We cannot post this as evidence,'' Mills said. ‘‘Only personal experiences.'' Originally, the investigation was to last five hours, but the group opted to spend the night monitoring their surroundings. To collect evidence, the group uses an assortment of high-tech gear - infrared cameras, hand-held video cameras, digital cameras, digital voice recorders, infrared thermometers and electromagnetic field meters. Members generally take three to four weeks to review their findings and issue a report. The group and parish officials believe the investigation will boost publicity for the old jail and increase tourism - especially if the group reports paranormal activity. Among the other famous Louisiana landmarks investigated by the group are Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium, home of the Louisiana Hayride, and the Oak Alley Plantation, Restaurant & Inn in Vacherie. Mills said the group's goal is the scientific study of paranormal activity, including attempts to debunk positive findings. On March 9, 1928, Joe Genna and Molton Brasseaux were hanged for the Aug. 28, 1926, robbery and slaying of 45-year-old DeRidder taxi driver J.J. Brevelle.
The weird and wonderful creatures living by methane vents in the southwest Pacific have been photographed for the first time. The deep-sea communities live around methane seeps off New Zealand’s eastern coast, up to 1 kilometre beneath the sea surface. The team of 21 researchers from the US and New Zealand, who spent two weeks exploring the area, have just returned to shore. “It's the first time cold seeps have been viewed and sampled in the southwest Pacific, and will greatly contribute to our knowledge of these intriguing ecosystems,” says Amy Baco-Taylor from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US. Cold seeps are areas of the seabed where methane or hydrogen sulphide gas escape from stores deep underneath. Like hydrothermal vents, the gases support unique life forms that can convert the energy-rich chemicals into living matter in the absence of any sunlight.Animals living around methane seeps off Chile and Japan have been observed before, but not near New Zealand. “The seeps here are remarkable in the sheer extent of their chemosynthetic communities,” says Baco-Taylor, whose team visited eight such sites between 750 and 1050 metres beneath the surface. They used sonar to map the seafloor and to detect plumes of water rich in methane, then lowered a video and stills camera system over each site. This allowed them to record images of tube worms between 30 cm and 40 cm in length as they emerged from beneath limestone boulders. They also recorded corals, sponges and shell beds covered with various types of clam and mussel. The expedition was led by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the US, and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
Lightning Likely Reason Behind Spokes On Saturn's Rings
Scientists speculate the smudges that sometimes appear in Saturn's rings, then quickly disappear, could be caused by massive strokes of lightning or meteor strikes. The idea was proposed by Geraint Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany. The report says "If the theory is right, these faint features are the signature of awesome events: lightning strokes ten thousand times more energetic than those on Earth, releasing beams of electrons that surge up from Saturn's surface to whack into the rings and blast out jets of electrically charged dust." As for the smudges being the result of meteor strikes, Jones says: "It's implausible that several meteorites would strike the rings in the same place in close succession." The reports are very speculative because no one has seen the types of storms on Saturn. But the idea of massive electron beams rising from the planet's surface is reminiscent of science fiction novels and would be truly amazing to see.
Wife Goes To Court To Stop Husband's Scary Stories
A Taiwanese woman has taken out an injunction against her husband to stop him telling her ghost stories. The woman, named only as Mrs Chen, complained he was giving her nightmares. She first filed a complaint with police, then applied for a personal protection order which was approved by a district court in Taichung. The couple have been married for 20 years and have two daughters. They separated a few years ago but never divorced. Mr Chen found work away from home, at an orchard, but returned every few months to visit his daughters for a few days.In her complaint, Mrs Chen claimed her estranged husband often returned home in the dead of the night in a drunken stupor. He would then go on to tell her ghost stories for at least an hour, despite her repeated pleas for him to stop. He would tell her stories of seeing 'figures clothed in white floating around in the orchard', of people hanging themselves, and of the discovery of human bones near the orchard. In his defence, Mr Chen claimed he was only sharing work stories with his wife. But his daughters told the judge their father frequently traumatised their mother with his macabre tales.
For months, villagers in the Kampung Tawas area of Malaysia had lived in fear of the Orang Minyak, a dread creature from Malay folk tales who was terrorising their town. But now police have caught the demon – and it turns out that it was a naked bloke covered in engine oil. The Orang Minyak – Malay for 'oily man' – is one of the best known and most feared folk tales in Malaysian culture: a naked, supernatural being covered in oil, who would go around raping virgins.The fake Orang Minyak, on the other hand, was an unemployed man in his twenties who would strip naked, cover himself in engine oil, and break into houses. Police believe he may have been responsible for around 20 burglaries in the past two months. He was eventually caught by a police surveillance operation, after locals had tol authorities of their fears about Orang Minyak. Supt Lai Yong Heng of the Ipoh district police said: 'We are puzzled why the suspect would cover his whole body with engine oil.'
What possible artistic pleasure can one get in looking at a dead foetus, a close-up of a pregnant woman’s abdomen or a leaf that has lost its green colour to autumn. Put this question before a scientist or an artist, and their answer will be that inspiration can be drawn from anything, even a dead foetus or the mating ritual of an insect. A photo-exhibition, which many say is unique in its own way, displays exhibits that include a photograph of seed dispersal, a courtship ritual of damsel flies, a mosquito oozing blood after a full meal (blood) and a dead foetus in an abnormal location in the body. The ongoing exhibition, aptly titled Lights and Shades of Science, organised by an education trust in collaboration with the department of science and technology (DST), while trying to capture art through science, displays synergy between science and the art of photography.The exhibits are award winning entries of the National Science Photography Contest, and give a chance to onlookers to look at their surroundings through a different perspective, taking into account the fact that science can also inspire many artistic creations. The general notion that science and art are two different worlds and have their own expression, can completely change after looking at these exhibits, which have induced a synergy between these two seemingly different worlds. DST secretary T Ramasami, who was present during the inauguration of the event, said that the exhibits will not only be seen as an art form, but will present a chance for many to look at science in an aesthetic way. One of the award winning entries for the science and society category showcases the literacy drive among rural women in Madhya Pradesh. Dressed in traditional attire, these rural women represent a perfect example of how science can be truly artistic. A photograph of a water strider (an insect), taken while the insect was on the surface of a rivulet in Purulia in West Bengal, gives an illusion of the vastness of the insect, which otherwise measures less than an inch.
Imagine a pristine mountain stream that turns on and off every few minutes, all by itself. Believe it or not, there is such a Mystery River not far from here, one of only two in the entire world. Now, University of Utah scientists have new evidence that may explain how the phenomenon works. It's not a big river. It's an icy mountain stream. But a few minutes later, it's gone. And a few minutes after that, it's back. Gerald Vanbrunt, Arkansas Tourist: "This is just as good as Old Faithful." But it's not a geyser; it's fed by a cold-water spring. In fall and winter it has a natural cycle, about 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. The only other spring like it in the world is in France. It's a point of pride in nearby Afton, Wyoming. Al Hale, Afton, Wyo. Resident: "Well the folklore is that the Indians were the first ones to see this phenomenon." Just before it erupts, the spring emits a deep gurgling noise. A rising puddle quickly becomes a surprisingly vigorous roaring creek.Kip Solomon, University of Utah Hydrologist: "Well, everything about this spring is somewhat surprising. It's an extremely unusual occurrence." The town of Afton built a structure to protect their water supply. It's very cold, very pure, and it tastes good. It's won national awards. Rulon Gardner, Olympic Gold Medalist: "Of course! You know, Star Valley water. It's the best in the world." Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner's great-great grand-dad is credited with the discovery. Rulon Gardner, Olympic Gold Medalist: "He was up there logging. He went up and found a nice little place to get some fresh water. It was intermittent. It went, and stopped. So it was pretty amazing." In late summer, scientists collected water samples. They're exploring an old theory involving a mysterious underground chamber. Prof. Kip Solomon: "We can't think of another explanation at the moment." Here's the theory: As groundwater flows continuously into a cavern, it fills a narrow tube that leads out. As it pours over the high point of the tube, it creates a siphon effect, sucking water out of the chamber. Eventually air rushes in and breaks the siphon.Gerald Vanbrunt, Arkansas Tourist: "It's kind of like a toilet flushing. All the water goes out, it fills back up, and goes back out." The spring water's gas content has now been tested at the University of Utah. The data strongly suggests the water was exposed to air underground; strong support for the siphon theory. Prof. Kip Solomon: "Yeah, I think that we're a step closer to the answer." Someday, science may have a definitive answer. For now, we can just enjoy the natural wonder of an on-again, off-again, mystery river. The intermittent spring is at the end of a half-mile hike, in a canyon straight east of Afton, Wyoming.
Brazil's cat-puppy mystery has been solved. Blood tests refute a Brazilian woman's claim that her cat had given birth to three puppies, geneticist Adil Pacheco said. Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, from a poor neighborhood of Passo Fundo in southern Brazil, said last Friday that her cat Mimi had given birth to the three puppies as well as three kittens, which did not survive."People who aren't experts often imagine things," said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. "All the facts contradict her." Pacheco, who was asked by a local newspaper to conduct a chromosome test to check the spectacular claim which gained wide media attention, said mammals sometimes nursed the young from another species.
A Danish artist has been branded 'Evil and Satanic' after bribing African villagers with livestock to adopt his name. Kristian von Hornsleth offered Ugandan villagers free goats, sheep and pigs on condition they take his surname. He says it's to highlight the perils of aid given with conditions to African countries, but his project has been denounced by Ugandan authorities. Uganda's ethics and integrity minister, James Buturo, said: "It's illegal and insulting. "He claims one animal can get them out of poverty, which is a lie. Then they have to take his name? But these methods are evil and satanic."
Kristian Von Hornsleth
Mr Hornsleth launched an exhibition in Copenhagen with 108 photographs of people holding up 'identity cards' in the red, yellow and black of Uganda's flag with the name 'Hornsleth'. "It's a remark about hypocrisy, about western and third world relations," Mr Hornsleth said. George Sabadu Hornsleth, 46, said he was grateful for the pig he got. "I never had a pig, I was jobless apart from some land," he said. "Africans adopting European names for gifts - that's nothing new. We've been doing that since colonial times. Why do you think I'm called George?"
To some people this image may just look like a badly taken photo. But to regulars at the Wellington Inn, this whispy, ghoulish shape is proof that their watering hole is haunted. And they're not the only ones, for years the landlords have been convinced they are not alone.Things go bump in the night, glasses fly off shelves and corkscrews have even been seen shooting across the room. It sounds unbelievable but a punter at the Welly in Glovers Court, in Preston city centre, thinks she has actually captured the ghost on camera. Pete Bony, part of the paranormal activity research team of Lancashire, said there are many things the shape could be but he believes it could be related to the paranormal. "What I can see looks like a face - we would love to go down to the pub one night and do a full investigation."
A 57-year old man who killed his girlfriend 27 years ago and ate her body parts is being allowed out on overnight release, despite doctors saying that he is still dangerous. The man was convicted in 1979 of killing his partner. He cut up her body, dumped some parts in the harbour in Malmö and ate the rest with a glass of wine. He has now been granted an extra 24 hours release every week by the county administrative court and spends "several nights" in his apartment in Malmö, reports Sydsvenskan. This is despite the fact that according to the latest ruling, the man is still sick and considered dangerous. He was diagnosed in 1980 with Schizophrenia and Aspergers Syndrome, a neurobiological disorder closely related to Autism, that affects mainly the patient’s communications skills.The man's doctor wrote in a opinion two years ago that he is fundamentally the same person he was when he committed the murder, despite the fact that he had acquired a "pleasant and polished surface." The man lacks empathy, but is very intelligent, doctors say. The man was 31-years old at the time he committed the murder. He was found guilty and put into institutional care. The police initially arrested the man on suspicion of theft. Hundreds of books belonging to his mother and Malmö public library were found in his apartment. But in a later visit to his apartment, police also uncovered packs of meat wrapped in fabric in his refrigerator, which later turned out to be human flesh. The man confessed during questioning that he had killed his girlfriend. The reason he gave the police was that her “friendly manners” were tiresome. He has many times during his treatment been granted parole. Around 1990, he studied for a while in Lund but the parole was later revoked when he was suspected of threatening another student. The new decision means that while he will still spend most of his time at the institution, he will be a free man a couple of days every week, and will be allowed to stay in his Malmö apartment. He has been ordered to keep away from alcohol and strictly follow the doctor’s orders. His doctors have said that the man has an extremely good memory and could easily kill a person twenty years after an insult.
The last 280 UFO sightings in Shanghai and its surround areas -- including one in Baoshan on Oct. 31 -- have all been proven false, says to a report in the Labor Daily (via Shanghai Daily). But "acknowledged" UFOs did indeed hover over the city in 1987, 1990, 1991 and 1999. This is all according to Wu Jialu, a director with the Shanghai's newly established UFO Research Center: They were acknowledged as UFOs as no physics theory could explain their actions in the air, Wu said. The center, a non-government organization, has videos and recordings of the four UFO incidents and reports from thousands of witnesses. "They were not performances or illusions," Wu said.Wu said he could still clearly recall the flying object he saw seven years ago, which were moving in a way that couldn't be explained by aviation technologies. "It was visible for about 10 minutes," Wu said. We wonder if there would be more UFO sightings if we could actually see the sky more than six-and-a-half weeks out of the year
This is Mimi, the first cat to give birth to puppies, her owner claims. Brazilian Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, says three of the cat’s six offspring, which were born three months after Mimi mated with a neighbour’s dog, have canine traits. A geneticist from the Passo Fundo University plans to take blood samples from the animals to verify the claim.
A Team of paranormal experts will investigate the spooky goings-on in a Stoke-on-Trent hotel. The Staffordshire Paranormal Group is to have its post-Halloween and pre-Christmas dinner at the Haydon House Hotel in Basford on November 18. According to hotel legend, 70-year-old house owner Mr Cowlishaw died in 1921 after an emergency operation was performed on its billiard table to treat his appendicitis.The paranormal group, which has about 23 members, hopes to investigate any unexplained phenomena and communicate with any person who is in spirit in the main function room. Marjorie Machin purchased the house with her husband Arthur and has lived and worked in there since the 1950s.
Is it Big Foot? A mysterious creature? A large bear? Whatever it is, it seems to be on the move. Last week a man who saw a strange creature near Holy Hill in Washington County. Now a Waukesha family has come forward, claiming they saw something in the woods. David Radeztsky and his friend Dillon were out jumping on the trampoline a week ago Sunday when they saw something scary."We saw just a hairy monster on the corner of the woods," said David. "I saw it leaning on a tree," added Dillon. At first David's mom brushed the boys off, thinking they saw some sort of animal. "I said 'Oh that's nice,' just trying to be a good mother but not believing it," said Kris Radeztsky. Five days later she heard about the sighting in Washington County. "Then I saw your newscast and I thought that was interesting because it's not too far from Holy Hill where we live. If Big Foot was in the area maybe he did stop by our backyard." David and Dillon are sticking to their story. "I think that he was in Wisconsin, and that he is real," said David. A group out of Florida that investigates Big Foot sightings is coming to Washington County this week to check out the Big Foot story.
Caldwell man has been sentenced to at least eight years in prison for dressing in black "Goth" clothes to have sex with teenage girls who wore a similar style. This summer, 24-year-old Christopher Dean pleaded guilty to one felony count of lewd conduct with a minor under the age of 16. He wept in a Canyon County courtroom yesterday as the judge sentenced him to a maximum sentence of 18 years in jail.
Christopher Dean
He is not eligible for parole before serving eight years. Dean was arrested in Caldwell on March 14th for investigation of having sex with three 14 and 15-year-old girls. Boise Police say Dean sought to meet girls at the Boise Town Square Mall. They say he dressed himself in black, "Goth" clothing and tried to hit on girls dressed in similar fashion.The victims told police that during sex, Dean would bite their necks and drink their blood and he forced them to drink his blood, too.
Unexolained giant paw prints have today left an Ipswich couple speculating over whether a wild animal is stalking the neighbourhood. Jacqueline and Richard May, of Foxhall Road, are baffled by a series of prints - seeming to have been made by an animal with claws or toes - left in their garden. The couple leave their front gates open at night and the mystery marks appeared some time before 3.30pm. Mrs May, 64, said: “You can clearly see toes but I'm at a loss for what it is. “They are far, far too big for a cat. It's more like a horse. “We have had foxes in the garden and even seen a muntjac deer before but you can tell it's not them. It's something heavy as it has squashed the mud. Mr and Mrs May, who live opposite St Elizabeth Hospice, have put buckets over the marks to preserve them.
The worryingly large paw prints
They have a quarter of an acre of land but the marks, around 7ins in diameter, are all in one area, near some parked vehicles. There are 11 clear footprint marks and other ambiguous ones. Mr May, 75, said: “I've never seen anything like it before. “It looks like something heavy has made it but it's not a car or vehicle because it isn't one continuous mark. “They are fairly wide apart so maybe it's something which jumped.” The footprints are situated in a relatively small area of the May's garden large garden. Nine of the marks are in between two vehicles, on a patch of grass with a fence on one side and a concrete drive on the other. They are scattered in a space of around 5m by 5m. The two other clear prints are about 20ft away, just metres away from the road, behind the garden wall. Suffolk has a history of strange animal sightings - usually with people reporting they have spotted big cats.
Jacqueline and Richard May with the giant pawprints in their garden at Foxhall Road, Ipswich
The most high-profile case in Ipswich was in 1996 when there were many sightings of what looked like a panther in the Foxhall Road area. In October 2003, June Fooks, of Eye, saw a cat bigger than her Labrador prowling in her garden and in 2000 horse rider Suzanne Wallace saw a panther walking by the side of the road while she was out riding in Thorndon. Previously, in 1999, A Capel St Mary couple saw an animal they could not identify running between Hadleigh and Raydon. In 1998, two wildlife watchers at Holton St Mary saw a black cat running across the A12 and in 1992 a puma-like creature was reported in Brandon and a large cat was spotted in Debach. Earlier this year a panther like cat was spotted near to Rushmere Heath and a few days later in the Foxhall area.
A man in Washington County said he saw something he couldn't explain -- something that may have resembled a yeti or Big foot. Around 1 a.m. Steven Krueger, as part of his job, was picking up a deer carcass on the side of the road. After loading the deer onto the truck, Krueger said he saw what he described as a "large black animal, at least 7 feet tall and larger than a bear." The beast took the deer. Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene but haven't located the missing deer or mysterious creature.
A former senior officer of Britain's ministry of defense says aliens could exist and they could come to planet Earth. Nick Pope, who headed the UFO program at the directorate of defense security at the ministry of defense, says he is worried that the government's X-files have been closed down and "the consequences of getting this one wrong could be huge." Pope, who left the ministry of defense job recently says he now feels free to discuss the views he had formed as he headed the UFO project between 1991 and 1995, and which has since been disbanded. He told a British newspaper, "Frankly we are wide open -- if something does not behave like a conventional aircraft now, it will be ignored."Pope said he was convinced after studying the files that UFOs are credible, including the one reported in 1993 by civilians and RAF personnel in the Midlands. He has no evidence to show of any hostile intent by UFOs, but he is sure the planet is being covertly reconnoitered. He says while most of the UFO sightings can be explained away, there are a few that cannot be explained. The 1993 sighting was one among these. Again there was the 1980 report at a Royal Airforce base in the east of England about bright lights emanating from a wood. The RAF staff which went to investigate, found "a kind of lunar landing module" which flew off. Pope claims the craft had left imprints in the ground that were found to have ten times more radiation than normal.
They may be more used to dealing with superannuation than the supernatural, but a Scottish financial advice firm has been forced to call in a priest after being targeted by a suspected ghost. Several of the 40 staff at Alan Steel Asset Management in Linlithgow say they have witnessed an elderly man wandering around or heard a male voice when no-one is there, and books have fallen off shelves. They say such incidents have become more frequent in recent months, which is why Alan Steel, the company chairman, brought in a local historian and a priest, believing an exorcism could be the answer. The firm is built on the site of a former explosives factory which produced dynamite. During the First World War there was an explosion at the Nobel factory, and two women workers and the foreman are thought to have been killed. Staff think the poltergeist may be the ghost of the foreman.Leslie Dick, Mr Steel's personal assistant, said: "I was typing the code into the keypad to open the main office door and heard a man saying, 'Excuse me' - but no-one was there. Another time books had fallen off a shelf and been scattered around the office." Receptionist Elaine Henderson said: "I can definitely feel a presence when I'm sitting in reception - not a nasty one, but something is there." Local historian, Bruce Jamieson, and the priest visited the office and spoke to staff yesterday afternoon. They were unable to confirm if there is a presence but will review the situation in a month before deciding whether or not to refer the mystery to someone who can perform an exorcism. Mr Steel said: "I think it could be the ghost of the bull market. I haven't checked with the Financial Services Authority to check if my ghost is compliant." In recent years, Scotland has become a centre for psychologists attempting to explain what causes people to report paranormal experiences. Last year a team launched a massive experiment to investigate Mary King's Close in Edinburgh, the notorious scene of reported hauntings.
A doctor told a patient seeking contraception advice to go and see an exorcist, it was claimed today. Dr Joyce Pratt, who works at several London family planning clinics, allegedly told the woman she "had something awful inside her" and was under a black magic spell.The General Practitioner, from Birmingham, is said to have ordered the woman to have the ritual, believing she was possessed by an evil spirit. Dr Pratt faces a General Medical Council disciplinary hearing tomorrow and could be struck off if found guilty. She is also accused of refusing to co-operate with an investigation last year.
Two teams of scientists at Britain's University of Newcastle and King's College have said they plan to create embryos that are part human and part animal. The University of Newcastle scientists have requested permission to carry out the procedure from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.Their experiment is aimed at creating stem cells without the use of human eggs. The scientists' plan involves replacing the nucleus of a cow's egg with a cell -- such as a skin cell -- taken from an adult human. Meanwhile, a separate team at King's College has said they plan to mix human cells with eggs from other mammals."We are concerned that the current state of the technology means that hundreds of eggs from young women will be required to generate a single human embryonic stem cell line," said lead King's College researcher Stephen Minger. "Therefore we consider it more appropriate to use non-human eggs from livestock as a surrogate to generate these disease-specific cell lines until the efficiency of this procedure is improved."
Scenes for a television documentary about a major UFO incident were filmed at the Lakenheath American Air Force base. The massive triangularshaped UFO was reported by police and military personnel on two days in March 1993. It featured in Channel Five's Stranger than Fiction. Although many of the sightings were over RAF bases at Cosford and Shawbury in Shropshire, the Lakenheathbased television production company, Steel Spyda, used the Lakenheath base for "generic" shots.Kay Hill, the show's producer, said: "The Americans at Lakenheath were absolutely super. They couldn't have been more supportive." The programme was based on a UFO file obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Nick Pope, who used to run the British Government's UFO project, said the UFO was believed to measure several hundred feet across and was estimated to have accelerated away at more than 1,000 mph.He said: "This is the most convincing UFO incident I've ever come across. It raises serious defence and national security issues. This is the case that turned me from sceptic to believer." Kay Hill said: "We got all the documents on this incident except the MoD's letter to the American Embassy. They said it had gone missing. It is a genuinely mysterious case and one I was unaware of until making this film."
Japanese researchers said that a bottlenose dolphin captured last month has an extra set of fins that could be the remains of back legs, a discovery that may provide further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once lived on land. Fishermen captured the four-finned dolphin off the coast of Wakayama prefecture (state) in western Japan and alerted the nearby Taiji Whaling Museum, according to museum director Katsuki Hayashi. Fossil remains show dolphins and whales were four-footed land animals about 50 million years ago and share the same common ancestor as hippos and deer. Scientists believe they later transitioned to an aquatic lifestyle and their hind limbs disappeared.
Divers hold a bottlenose dolphin which has an extra set of human palm-sized fins near its tail
Though odd-shaped protrusions have been found near the tails of dolphins and whales captured in the past, researchers say this was the first time one had been found with well-developed, symmetrical fins, Hayashi said. "I believe the fins may be remains from the time when dolphins' ancient ancestors lived on land ... this is an unprecedented discovery," Seiji Osumi, an adviser at Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research, said at a news conference.The second set of fins "much smaller than the dolphin's front fins" are about the size of human hands and protrude from near the tail on the dolphin's underside. The dolphin measures 8.92 feet and is about five years old, according to the museum. A freak mutation may have caused the ancient trait to reassert itself, Osumi said. The dolphin will be kept at the Taiji museum to undergo X-ray and DNA tests, according to Hayashi.
Jeffrey Meldrum holds a PhD in anatomical sciences and is a tenured professor of anatomy at Idaho State University. He is also one of the world's foremost authorities on Bigfoot, also known by the native name Sasquatch, the mythical smelly ape-man of the Northwest woods. And Meldrum firmly believes the lumbering, shaggy brute exists. That makes him an outcast -- a solitary, Sasquatch-like figure himself -- on the campus, where many scientists are embarrassed by what they call Meldrum's "pseudo-academic" pursuits and have called on the university to review his work. One physics professor, D.P. Wells, wonders whether Meldrum plans to research Santa Claus, too. Meldrum, 48, spends most of his days in his laboratory analyzing more than 200 jumbo plaster casts of what he contends are Bigfoot footprints. He has added his scholarly research to a field full of sham videos and supermarket tabloid exposes. And he is convinced he has proven there is a Bigfoot.
Jeffrey Meldrum displays what he describes as a casting of a footprint from a 'Bigfoot' creature, taken in the Blue Mountains of eastern Washington, in his laboratory at Idaho State University in Pocatello
"It used to be you went to a bookstore and asked for a book on Bigfoot and you'd be directed to the occult section, right between the Bermuda Triangle and UFOs," Meldrum said. "Now you can find some in the natural-science section." Martin Hackworth, a senior lecturer in the physics department, called Meldrum's research a "joke." "Do I cringe when I see the (cable television) Discovery Channel and I see Idaho State University, Jeff Meldrum? Yes, I do," Hackworth said. John Kijinski, dean of arts and sciences, said there have been "grumblings" about Meldrum's tenure but no formal request for a review. "He's a bona fide scientist," he said. "I think he helps this university. He provides a form of open discussion and dissenting viewpoints that may not be popular with the scientific community but that's what academics is all about." On campus, Meldrum receives funny looks from other scientists and is not invited to share coffee with them. In the summer, more than 30 professors signed a petition criticizing the university for hosting a Bigfoot symposium with Meldrum as the keynote speaker. He pays for his research with a donation from a Bigfoot believer. Still, Meldrum has a distinguished supporter in Jane Goodall, the world-famous authority on chimpanzees. Her blurb on the jacket of Meldrum's new book, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," lauds him for bringing "a much-needed level of scientific analysis" to the Bigfoot debate.
A Martin County man indicted on two counts of capital murder yesterday has at times "mentally devolved into a wolflike state," according to testimony at previous mental health hearings. Witnesses said a naked William "Billy" Sartin, 47, of Inez "would run free in the woods, not necessarily at a time he was being chased by law enforcement," said Stephen N. Frazier of Paintsville, who heard several cases involving Sartin before he retired. Sartin, who has a long history of criminal and mental health problems, was charged yesterday by a special Martin Circuit Court grand jury with murdering two Inez men, Jeffery L. Mattox, 53, and Billy Proctor, 41, and wounding Mattox's live-in girlfriend, Geraldine "Sue" Litton, 43, on Sept. 18. When he was arrested at home two days later by Martin County Sheriff Garmon Preece, family members said Sartin had been hiding in the woods and came home to take a bath.He was charged with two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and kidnapping. Sartin is being held without bond in a Paintsville jail. An employee at the office of Commonwealth's Attorney Anna Melvin said he will be arraigned Nov. 20. The murder charges carry potential death sentences, the indictments said, but law requires the prosecutor to file a notice if she intends to seek the death penalty. "It's premature to start talking about this being a death-penalty case," Sartin's attorney, Assistant Public Advocate Theodore Shouse, said yesterday. Sartin twice has been found incompetent to stand trial on solicitation-of-murder charges. Prosecutors once had him involuntarily committed to a mental institution for three consecutive years. At one point, he walked out of a Central Kentucky mental institution where investigators said they discovered a "hit list" containing the names of people he wanted to kill when he got out. Frazier, the chief regional circuit judge in the mountains at the time, was on Sartin's list, along with several lawyers and some law enforcement officers.
William "Billy" Sartin
Sartin, on foot, was captured on his way home, Frazier said. "The heck of it is that where you or I would have gotten tired, he would have walked here and never stopped," Frazier said. "If he'd reached this area ... " Frazier recalled hearing a mental-health witness using the word "lycanthropy," defined in dictionaries -- but not in the mental-health manual used in court -- as "a mental illness in which one imagines oneself to be a wolf." Sartin is not a werewolf, Frazier said, but his strength and stamina always provided a problem for police. "I'm telling you, he was the fastest thing on two, or four, feet, whichever way you want to say it," Frazier said. "You couldn't catch him with a car, or a four-wheeler, if he was in the woods." If he was very fast, he also was very ill, the former judge said. "There was so much," Frazier said. "He had these motor skills -- he could sit perfectly still, not moving -- and then this sort of split-second, instant adrenaline. And whatever impulse came into his mind, he would act on it." Frazier ruled Sartin was incompetent to stand trial in two murder-solicitation cases. "He obviously couldn't," Frazier said. "He was so delusional."Sartin's mother, Tora Ann Bowen, 70, of Inez, said in an interview recently that her son was "smart as he could be when he was a little boy," but was forced to live with relatives after her house burned. Growing up among relatives who drank and abused him "put a mark on him," she said. "He took spells," she said. "He'd talk in circles and you couldn't make no sense out of it. He started hearing things. When he got older, about 14, his uncles would get drunk and he'd have to hit the hills." Bowen said she never saw her son run naked in the hills, "but when he got scared and was afraid, he'd take spells where he'd stay in the woods. He'd take out running as hard as he could run -- take out just a'flying." Before the slayings, her son had missed two counseling appointments at a mental health facility, but he was taking his medication, Bowen said. He told his mother that about two weeks before the shootings, Mattox and Litton put something in his coffee and he believed they had tried to poison him. "He was as sick as I'd ever seen him -- he had green foam coming out of his mouth -- but, no, I have no idea why he shot those people," she said.
“Water dowsing has been done for over 5,000 years,” Sue Chrisco said to the Izard County Historical and Genealogical Society recently, “but only recently have people begun to recognize the important of dowsing for graves.” She was speaking to members of the the society at Mayfield Cemetery in Melbourne. About 21 people attended. Chrisco, who is secretary of the Izard County Cemetery Association, said she can’t explain how grave dowsing works. “You don’t have to believe in it. People who were doubters have tried it and felt the vibrations.” Holding two metal divining rods pointing out, she walked slowly over an area of unmarked graves. The rods moved toward each other until they crossed.“Some people have the gift, and others don’t. It may have something to do with chemicals in a person’s body,” she added. “Once a woman asked me to dowse a particular area. I told her, ‘I think there are at least three graves here.’ The woman said, ‘There are no graves here. There used to be three graves, but they were moved.’ I don’t know how to explain this, maybe that the ground had been disturbed.” Richard Fischer, an archeologist who had been a doubter until he “felt the vibrations” for himself, said, “I agree with you. This might be a sensing that the ground has been disturbed.” But does the dowser just expect the rods to move because he or she is walking around a cemetery? “I’ve tried it blindfolded,” Chrisco said. “I’ve had someone guide me over places with graves and without. The rods still cross when I walk across a grave.” The cemetery association works to discover, clean up, and make accessible abandoned cemeteries throughout the county. The dowsing technique helps them establish the boundaries of the cemetery.“Sometimes unmarked gravestones sink until only a little shows above ground,” Chrisco said. “Or stones get moved by farmers plowing. Dowsing lets us know exactly where the graves are so we can restore the stones or put up new ones.” Chrisco also demonstrated dowsing using a forked peach tree branch. She walked along with the branch pointing upward. When she crossed a grave, it moved downward. Juanita Stowers, editor of the Izard County Historian, demonstrated how the rods show if the person buried is male or female. As she walked across a marked grave holding only one rod, it pointed straight ahead indicating a male. When she walked across a female grave, the rod turned inward. After the demonstration, several people tried dowsing for themselves, and most were successful. Chrisco said her primary interest is in preserving these old cemeteries. “Many property owners object to our coming on their land. They want to keep the cemetery locked so no one can visit.” She said she’s had a great deal of help from District Judge Connie Barksdale in enforcing the law that prevents property owners from bulldozing cemeteries.
Forget where you left your glasses? Did those keys go missing again? A virus may be to blame. Viruses that cause a range of ills from the common cold to polio may be able to infect the brain and cause steady damage, a team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota reports. "Our study suggests that virus-induced memory loss could accumulate over the lifetime of an individual and eventually lead to clinical cognitive memory deficits," says Dr Charles Howe, who reports the findings in the latest issue of the journal Neurobiology of Disease. The viruses are called picornaviruses and infect more than 1 billion people worldwide each year. They include the virus that causes polio, as well as colds and diarrhoea. People contract an average of two or three such infections a year. "We think picornavirus family members cross into the brain and cause a variety of brain injuries. For example, the polio virus can cause paralysis," Howe says."It can injure the spinal cord and different parts of the brain responsible for motor function. In the [mouse] virus we studied, it did the same thing and also injured parts of the brain responsible for memory." The researchers infected mice with a virus called Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus, which is similar to human poliovirus. Infected mice later had difficulty learning to navigate a maze. Some were barely affected, while others were completely unable to manage. When the mice were killed and their brains examined, a correlating amount of damage was seen in the hippocampus region, related to learning and memory. One virus particularly likely to cause brain damage is enterovirus 71, which is common in Asia, the researchers say. It can cross over into the brain and cause encephalitis, a brain inflammation that can lead to coma and death. "Our findings suggest that picornavirus infections throughout the lifetime of an individual may chip away at the cognitive reserve, increasing the likelihood of detectable cognitive impairment as the individual ages," the researchers write. "We hypothesise that mild memory and cognitive impairments of unknown aetiology may, in fact, be due to accumulative loss of hippocampus function caused by repeated infection with common and widespread neurovirulent picornaviruses." Other viruses kill brain cells, including the herpes virus and HIV.
A Loch Ness Monster theory which suggests the creature is a living dinosaur has been dealt a blow by scientists. Many believe that Nessie is a plesiosaur, a long-necked marine reptile which sought refuge in Scotland's second-largest freshwater loch when most of the species died out 160 million years ago. But Dr Leslie Noe, a palaeontologist at Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum, discovered that the plesiosaur would have been unable to lift its head up, swan-like, out of the water. Most scientists believe the creatures became extinct with the other dinosaurs, but some insist it is possible that after the last Ice Age, some plesiosaurs may have been stranded in the 23-mile-long loch, which was connected to the sea.The plesiosaur has a prominent small head on a long neck and a round body, and is the most popular explanation for mythical Nessie. Dr Noe, whose findings are reported in this month's New Scientist, told experts at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology in Canada, that plesiosaurs used their long necks to reach down and feed on soft-bodied animals living on the sea floor. By examining fossils of a plesiosaur, Muraenosaurus, and by calculating the articulation of the neck bones, Dr Noe concluded the neck was flexible and could move most easily when pointing down. Dr Noe said: "The neck was a feeding tube, collecting soft-bodied prey. The osteology of the neck makes it certain the plesiosaur could not lift its head up, swan-like, out of the water."However, the findings did not surprise George Edwards, one of the world's foremost authorities on the monster, who took a photograph of a unknown "creature" with a black hump he spotted on the loch in June 1986. Mr Edwards, from Drumnadrochit, who runs Loch Ness cruises on his boat, the Nessie Hunter, said: "Most people don't support the dinosaur theory. The creature is some entirely new species. When you consider that every year in the open seas thousands of new species are discovered, this is the most likely explanation. But there's no doubt that a creature, one with a single hump, which most people report, does exist." The earliest reference to Nessie was in the life story of St Columba who, in August 565, apparently fought off a monster from Loch Ness that was attacking a Pict. The first modern sighting was on 2 May, 1933, when the Inverness Courier reported a couple seeing "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface". The London newspapers sent reporters to Scotland and a circus offered a £20,000 reward for the capture of the monster.
A mysterious gelatinous ball has puzzled and fascinated researchers after undersea photographer Rudolf Svensen spotted it while diving at the mouth of the Matre fjord in Hordaland, western Norway. "It was 50-70 centimeters (19.5-27.5 inches) in diameter and looked like a huge beach ball. It was transparent but had a kind of thick, red cord in the middle. It was a bit science-fiction," Svensen told reporters. The Svensens contacted associate professor Torleiv Brattegard at the University of Bergen, and other experts were notified to try and solve the mystery. Brattegard was convinced the object was organic, and possibly a species unknown to Norway. "It might be an animal, the remains of algae, something which has been alive, or a mysterious accumulation of microorganisms," were some of Brattegard's initial theories.
This photograph sparked intense curiosity and fascination amongst Norwegian scientists.
On Friday Brattegard told NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) that the mystery may have been solved. Colleague Arne Fjellheim, who works with Stavanger Museum, tipped off Brattegard that the organism resembled a photograph from New Zealand that he had seen. A zoology professor and squid expert in New Zealand corroborated by email - the peculiar gelatinous ball was a large squid egg sack. "The gelatinous lump contains several fertilized eggs. This is not at all a common sight, because squids are some of the most inaccessible animals known," Fjellheim told reporters. Fjellheim said that squid are found in such numbers along the Norwegian coast that they are a commercial catch, and used mostly as bait. Despite this, extremely little is known about their biology.
CRUEL KEV: A Third Class Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy during the Cold War. Presently a member of the Navy League. A Republican with Libertarian leanings. (South Park Republican) My goals for the several blogs that I am involved with is to find and post Interesting News including occasional Criticism, Comments & Analysis
"I don't believe in ghosts, but underworld creatures have taken up residence in the building," Robertsen told newspaper Nordlys, referring to a term used for the fairies and goblins of Norwegian folklore. Robertsen would not go into detail about his experiences, but said he was convinced that to comply with the order would have serious consequences for his life and health. "A while back I removed the top of the building and that is an experience I will not repeat," he said, and points out that the barn is built on an old Viking site. He has offered to build a solid fence around the ramshackle building so that it no longer poses a danger to anyone. The head of the local building policy department, Mette Mohåg, told Nordlys that there was as yet no deadlock in the matter.
"I don't believe in ghosts, but underworld creatures have taken up residence in the building," Robertsen told newspaper Nordlys, referring to a term used for the fairies and goblins of Norwegian folklore. Robertsen would not go into detail about his experiences, but said he was convinced that to comply with the order would have serious consequences for his life and health. "A while back I removed the top of the building and that is an experience I will not repeat," he said, and points out that the barn is built on an old Viking site. He has offered to build a solid fence around the ramshackle building so that it no longer poses a danger to anyone. The head of the local building policy department, Mette Mohåg, told Nordlys that there was as yet no deadlock in the matter.
