wivb - A bunch of Brooklyn bees have been coming home looking flushed.
New York City beekeeper Cerise Mayo was puzzled when her bees started showing up with mysterious red coloring. Their honey also turned as red as cough syrup.
She tells The New York Times a friend joked that the bees were imbibing on the runoff at Dell's Maraschino Cherries Company, in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. Mayo — whose first name means "cherry" in French — raises bees in that neighborhood and across the water on Governor's Island.
Tests confirmed the bees were riddled with Red Dye No. 40 — the same food coloring found in the cherry juice. Bee expert Andrew Cote tells the newspaper that bees had been creating a big nuisance at the factory.
The solution? Put up screens or provide a closer source of sweet nectar.
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There Are Red Bees in Red Hook
NYMag - For the life of Cerise Mayo, a beekeeper with hives in Red Hook and on Governor's Island, she could not figure out why her bees were returning home to their honeycombs colored red. Or why, when they began producing honey, the sweet stuff itself was also scarlet-tinted. Was it a bee disease? Some obscure hipster air pollution? Were they buzzing on Robitussin like all the cool kids back behind Steve's Authentic?
A brief investigation turned up the most likely suspect: Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Company on Dikeman Street in Red Hook. Apparently, the bees were flying over there and engorging themselves on the sugary, red syrup that's used to make the neon cherries that adorn so many trendy Brooklyn beverages these days. Then they'd return home to rest and make honey. "When the sun is a bit down, they glow red in the evenings," said amateur beekeeper David Selig, who was definitely not stoned at the time. "They were slightly fluorescent. And it was beautiful."
Unfortunately, beautiful or not, the red honey they produced was loaded with Red Dye No. 40 and also tasted metallic and gross. Perhaps unsurprisingly, what works so well in a Manhattan does not work in nature.
Source: www.zoopedia.blogspot.com and IIEE
Date: 11.29.2010
In Spain, Extremadura’s beastiary is both rich and extensive. Creatures of unknown nature, having grotesque or chilling shapes, have terrorized witnesses and entire towns, in some cases. Beings and humanoids form part of the Extremaduran folklore, and one of the first articles of this space deals with José Pancho Campo’s encounter with a strange entity, claiming to be the devil, and displaying hooved feet. This incident resulted in the witness’s untimely death under strange circumstances: similar events have occurred in other nearby locations in Las Hurdes, La Vera and other places in Extremadura, where diabolical apparitions have been reported. The entity or being of Saucedilla, as we have mentioned earlier, is a cassocked being standing some three meters tall, appearing to float in the air. There are direct eyewitness reports of “ojos rojos” (red eyes), a roadside apparition that cannot be explained, or of the Entiznau, a typical supernatural being from the folklore of Las Hurdes.
This region of Spain has not eluded news items on curios subjects, such as the reports published in Karma-7 Magazine #24 (Year 3), November 1974, mentioning that in late August of that year, in the town of Moraleja, a village in Caceres Province, not far from the Borbollón Reservoir, a large number of people witnessed a large animal crossing the lake’s waters. A sailboat regatta was taking place on the day that the “monster” made its appearance on the resevoir’s waters, making it visible to a considerable number of onlookers, some of them using binoculars.
The monster had a length of some four meters and a thickness of 20 centimeters. It traversed the lake at high speed, moving along the surface, and accompanied by another creature of similar characteristics, although smaller.
By the next day, the news had reached local residents and those from nearby. Hundreds visited the lake, without the strange animal ever being seen again. What did people actually see? Was it a prank?
The story is all that remains for curiosity seekers and residents of Extremadura interested in the legends of their region.
Source: Criptozoología en España (blog)
Date: November 4, 2010
By Javier Resines
The twentieth anniversary of an unusual and highly original case within Spanish cryptozoology took place a few months ago. In June 1990, a giant bird decided to frighten—with its imposing presence and unpleasant crowing—a sizeable number of Barcelona’s residents.
What was extraordinary, aside from the apparition in itself, was the way it became known through a series of letters to the editor of a renowned Spanish newspaper. We must bear in mind that this phenomenon goes beyond the purely cryptozoological to go into the field of anthropology or social psychology.
On the morning of June 10, 1990, readers of Barcelona’s “La Vanguardia” had the chance to read a brief missive sent to the paper’s editor by Pere Carbó, a resident of the city. The anonymous citizen said: “I cannot help but to make known my surprise at this unusual event: on the evening 28 May, some residents of the Les Corts district were awakened by the unbearable crowing of a bird. It wasn’t just any bird. Our astonishment was immense when we stepped out to the balcony to see the black silhouette of a bird of tremendous size. It perhaps measured between 3 and 5 meters, and I am not exaggerating. Numerous residents saw it and numerous comments were made the next day. We assume that others must have seen it other neighborhoods. What was it? And what’s stranger still, why hasn’t it been mentioned in the press?”
This letter became the starter’s pistol that unleashed a veritable flood of letters from readers who claimed having seen the animal in various locations and under various circumstances.
Thus, during the following weeks, the creature was seen (day and night) in various parts of the Catalonian capital and in locations such as Gavá, Sant Joan Despí, Salou, Bellvei del Penedés and the region of Empordá. According to eyewitness accounts, the bird ranged as far away as 100 kilometers distant from Barcelona.
According to witnesses, the animal was dark (mainly black or grey) with a wingspan of between 3 and 15 meters, making loud crowing sounds in three different tones, and whose membranous wings were reminiscent of a prehistoric pterodactyl. In other cases, however, it was classified as a “mutant pigeon” or a black crow, naturally. As we can see, the descriptions were so wide-ranging as to preclude an identikit drawing of the bird.
A few days after the apparition, the Police acknowledged in a story published in El Periodico de Cataluña that it had received hundreds of calls reporting the presence of the gigantic being, while the citizen hotline crashed as a result of the event.
The most unusual hypotheses on the nature of the uncanny bird were put forward. Thus, Xavier Tutusaus (a reader who signed his letter as “botanist”) suggested that it was a specimen of Avis Cervus, a mythical species described in real in the 16th century (half deer, half bird) which – according to his theory – was passing through the city during its “customary” journey to Madagascar.
Moreover, Santiago Mayosa, officer in charge of the ornithology service of the Barcelona School of Biology, was unable to put forth a scientific explanation to the existence of an animal with these characteristics, theorizing that it could be an albatross, a species from the southern hemisphere whose wingspan can reach three meters, but completely unknown in the Catalonian littoral. The Department of the Environment of the Generalitat, on the other hand, offered a laconic solution: the bird in question was nothing more than a mere vulture.
In spite of this, the bird paraded through the Catalonian skies for three months, although several cases collected by local researcher Jordi Ardanuy lead us to believe that the bird (or birds, as the case may be) was not passing through the city, but rather had or has a local habitat. Let us see some of the cases compiled by Ardanuy: in the summer of 1991 or 1992, eyewitness J.A. Pérez was driving his car in the company of his wife near the El Prat airport when he saw a bird six times larger than his car. The animal, which looked prehistoric, made no noise whatsoever.
In early 1996, in Girona, a family was able to see a bird measuring some 5 or 6 meters. It was dark, silent, motionless wings and thick legs.
On April 14 of that year, Lluis Villamaría and a group of friends envisioned an immense black bird in broad daylight near Montseny. The bird flew by beating its wings barely three meters over the ground.
As we can see, we are faced by a curious phenomenon within domestic case histories. The apparently numerous witnesses made the fact known through editorial pages in a newspaper. This in turn caused the reaction of other readers who decided to share their experience, offer an explanation, give an opinion or, as was the case with some letters, add a humorous tone to the entire matter.
As a result of this initiative (let us call it a grass roots initiative), other dailies such as El Periodico de Cataluña, Avui and the Europa Press agency (as well as mystery magazines) decided to give a certain credibility to the story that became the talk of the streets of Barcelona for a long time, and collect reports to which they had access.
But what were the citizens of Barcelona facing back then? Several hypotheses have been put forth to explain the giant bird. The one that gathers the most supporters considers a voluntary or involuntary hoax that may have started with a malicious letter, followed by others who “thought” they had seen something or heard something. Errors of perception and a desire for celebrity, or to feel part of an extraordinary event, could lead a mystifying event to become real for many citizens.
The fact is that this animal (or whatever) became rara avis (pun intended) within cryptozoology at the international level.
So that all readers of our blog may have access to the full information on the case, the Criptozoología en España team has compiled the documents published by La Vanguardia. These are the letters, surveys, opinion pieces and editorials that the paper devoted to the bird.
New Evidence: Christopher Columbus Possible Son of Vladislav III, Exiled King of Poland
dailymail - He is celebrated as the humble Italian weaver who ended up discovering the Americas.
But the conventional wisdom relating to Christopher Columbus is under threat after academics concluded the explorer was actually a Polish immigrant.
An international team of distinguished professors have completed 20 years of painstaking research into his beginnings.
The fresh evidence about Columbus’ background is revealed in a new book by Manuel Rosa, an academic at Duke University in the United States.
He says the voyager was not from a family of humble Italian craftsmen as previously thought - but the son of Vladislav III, an exiled King of Poland.
‘The sheer weight of the evidence presented makes the old tale of a Genoese wool-weaver so obviously unbelievable that only a fool would continue to insist on it,’ Rosa said.
The academic argues that the only way Columbus persuaded the King of Spain to fund his journey across the Atlantic Ocean was because he was royalty himself.
For some reason he hid the true identity of his Polish biological father from most people during his lifetime, and history books have been none the wiser.
‘Another nutty conspiracy theory! That’s what I first supposed as I started to read... I now believe that Columbus is guilty of huge fraud carried out over two decades against his patrons,’ said US historian Prof. James T. McDonough.
Other historians first doubted Columbus’ Polish roots, but Rosa’s findings have been steadily gaining followers as the evidence comes to light.
‘This book will forever change the way we view our history,’ said Portuguese historian Prof. Jose Carlos Calazans. National Geographic is reportedly interested in making a documentary.
Until now, it was believed that Columbus, who was born in the Italian city of Genoa in 1451, was the son of Domenico Columbo, who was a weaver and had a cheese stall in a market in the city.
At the age of 22 Columbus started working for Genoese merchants trading throughout the Mediterranean, and three years later took part in a special trading expedition to northern Europe, docking at Bristol before continuing to Ireland and Iceland.
Throughout the 1480s, when Columbus was in his 30s, he traded along the African coast.
Historians say it is a myth that navigators thought the world was flat before Columbus sailed west – they had been using the stars at night as a primitive navigation system that assumed the earth was a sphere.
What sailors including Columbus didn’t know is how big the earth was, and how long it would take to sail round it.
When he persuaded financiers to back his voyage west in 1492, he had completely miscalculated the distances and thought that Asia would be where America is: he arrived in the Bahamas, thinking he was somewhere off the coast of China.
Columbus undertook three more return journeys across the Atlantic Ocean, each time hoping that he had found another part of Asia.
He set up Spanish colonies and became governor of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but was later put on trial in Spain for alleged abuse of power.
After Columbus’ death in 1506, European explorers continued to set up colonies and eventually empires in north and south America.
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Scientists Reverse Ageing in Mice
guardian - Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.
The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.
An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population.
"What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
"This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer."
The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.
The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.
At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing.
"These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho.
Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar.
DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies.
David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells."
Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function."
DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age.
Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, said: "The key question is what might this mean for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers."
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Pit Stop for UFOs in Colorado
NYTimes - “I like humans, they’re fun,” Judy Messoline said as she showed a visitor through her vortex garden, which psychics have said contains not just one, but two separate portals to a parallel universe.
Many of the humans who come to Ms. Messoline’s U.F.O. Watchtower, hard by the dueling vortexes, may be fun, but they are also wounded. About 95 percent, by her estimate — and she makes a point of asking — have experienced something, a shudder in the fabric of the ordinary, the sighting of an unidentified flying object that to one degree or another has haunted them and drawn them to this otherwise empty spot in south-central Colorado. Having fun in thinking about extraterrestrials, she said, is usually bound up with something deeper right here on the home planet.
“The world needs a place where people can go to talk about their experiences and not be laughed at,” she said.
People do laugh here. One of Ms. Messoline’s principles in building the Watchtower a decade ago, in an attempt to raise cash as her cattle ranch collapsed in economic ruin, was that U.F.O.-spotting should be a hoot, and whenever possible, a party.
“The best sightings have been when people are just out enjoying the evening,” she said. Fifty-nine events — lights that move erratically or, during the day, objects that defy explanation in shape or movement — have been witnessed from the tower since 2000, Ms. Messoline said, sometimes by dozens of people at the same time.
No one knows the count before that, since no local institution existed for counting. Many residents, though, say the San Luis Valley, just north of the New Mexico state line, has been a hotspot for decades. U.F.O. reports reach all the way back to the early settlements of the 1600s, with a particularly noted wave in the late 1960s.
The turmoil of modern life is also in evidence near the tower, at the house once occupied by Ms. Messoline’s son and his family, now vacant and in foreclosure since the couple’s divorce.
“Broke my heart,” she said. Adding to the pain, she said, is that the house will probably never sell. “Who wants to live next to a U.F.O. Watchtower?” she said.
Truth be told, the Watchtower — really just a framed metal platform perhaps 10 feet off the ground — is not much of a moneymaker at $2 a head for admission. Ms. Messoline, 65, a former housecleaner from the Denver area who moved to Hooper in the mid-1990s, still needs the paycheck from Miss Deb’s, a convenience store down the road, identified by the giant chicken out in front, to make ends meet.
But that is the interconnection of a lot of things in Hooper, a dot of perhaps 100 souls in a vast and lonely place. Harsh realities in economics and climate — high poverty rates and brutal winters — are interlaced with vistas of breathtaking beauty and a local culture that has long prized and cultivated the offbeat.
Ms. Messoline furthered that spirit by encouraging visitors to leave something in her vortex garden. One recent offering: a two-foot-tall Superman doll with one hand extended, holding a bottle of hot sauce, perhaps in greeting or in supplication.
Another visitor left a primer for extraterrestrials who might find themselves confused about human tableware. A folding knife-and-spoon was marked with text and helpful arrows pointing in the direction of each object: “This is a knife and a spoon, alien,” it said.
Even the winds are strange. One corner of the San Luis Valley, banked on all sides by mountains, somehow became a collecting spot for blown sand over the past few thousand years, since the drying up of an ancient lake bed. The result: a little bit of the Sahara in Colorado at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, about 15 miles from here.
The sky, with barely a town to break the landscape, is black at night — a riot of stars not visible from the big city — and huge at all hours. And people here are used to being out and aware of their surroundings, which makes them perhaps more likely than city folk to see things in the great Out There.
“There’s not a lot of activity, so people have more opportunity to be watching what’s around them,” said JoDene Newmyer, 64, who works with Ms. Messoline at the convenience store.
Ms. Newmyer’s own U.F.O. story — and most people here seem to have one — occurred on the Friday morning of Memorial Day weekend, 1972. She was driving her daughter to the baby sitter at 7 a.m. when she stopped cold at the sight of a huge angular silver object just above the horizon.
“Flying saucer? I will not say that,” Ms. Newmyer said. “But unidentifiable it definitely was, because I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ms. Messoline says the years of scanning the sky and of meeting people who are drawn to her and her tower have changed her.
She decided recently to put the patch of ground under the tower and the vortex garden in her will, donating it to a U.F.O. research group in Denver to continue the work, or the fun, after she’s gone, even though she knows that a tower in perpetuity will probably doom any chance of a sale of her son’s former home.
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Shock in Ghana over gruesome death of 'witch'
BBC - There has been widespread shock in Ghana over the death of a 72-year-old woman accused of being a witch.
The woman, who lived in the port city of Tema, near Accra, was allegedly set on fire by a group of five adults, one of whom is believed to be a pastor.
The suspects say her death was an accident, and deny committing any crime.
The BBC's David Amanor in Accra says belief in witches is common among both educated and uneducated Ghanaians.
Three women and two men have been arrested, aged between 37 and 55.
Police say the suspects tortured the woman, Ama Hemmah, until she confessed to being a witch, before dousing her with kerosene and setting her on fire.
She died from her injuries the following day.
According to reports, the suspects say that they poured anointing oil on the woman which caught fire as they were trying to drive out an evil spirit.
Our correspondent says newspaper pictures showing the woman's injuries have caused revulsion in Ghana, and the incident has been condemned by human rights and women's activists.
Our correspondent says there have been other cases of violence against women accused of being witches, and a government-backed commission has urged religious and civil society groups to help tackle the problem.
I received the following email from Mike on Saturday. He describes a recent encounter with an unknown creature in an undisclosed area near Cheboygan, Michigan (northern Michigan):
Artwork by Linda S. Godfrey, reprinted with permission
Hey, I'm Mike from the Cheboygan, MI area. This is true what I am about to describe. On November 24, 2010 me and two of my friends went out at night around 12 am. We were not hunting but had weapons. We were looking for a spot to set up our blinds for the muzzleloading season when we crossed from a field with tons of deer beddings. We came into another field with none whatsoever. We continued through this field and came across some kind of game trail. We decided to venture down this trail into the woods.
We got maybe 300 yards back in it and started hearing heavy breathing and snapping sounds in the thick brush to our right. We thought maybe coyotes but we got to a corner and were stopped in our track. In front of us, maybe 60 yards away, was something blacker than the woods standing on two feet and stood between 6'8" and 7'4". We slowly turned away and back tracked. Before we got to the field the same thing was in front of us again. We turned around for a second and then turned back...it was gone.
When we got into the field we noticed there were four or more of these creatures, one on each corner of the field just standing there. We saw one move halfway behind a tree. At this point we were freaking out. We made our way through the field and got to the edge and there was one standing directly in the middle of the trail entering the woods. We hauled butt back home and the whole way we felt like we were being watched and stalked.
We have been out every night since then. We have learned do not use lights because it comes closer than 60 yards. The closest it has been to me was maybe 25 yards and was moving closer. At that point I shot at it. There were five total that we saw the fist night and after I shot at one. We went out last night and there were only four and they seemed more aggressive. In the field, it seems they tried herding us into a corner.
You can believe this or not, but I am in the Michigan National Guard and I put what I saw on my warrior ethos and army values.
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Back in July 2009, I received the following emails in reference to at least 2 sightings of a supposed 'Dogman' in Baraga County, Upper Peninsula, Michigan. I contacted the witness who seemed very truthful and credible:
Last fall, my son and I were driving on US-41/M-28 towards Three Lakes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (where I live). The beast ran across the highway near Tioga Creek. I had not heard of this before reading Phantoms and Monsters, but this is exactly what we saw. We are familiar with all animals living here. Moose regularly cross in front of drivers, so we watch the sides of the roads carefully. We were very puzzled and thought it might be some mutant wolf and could not figure out what we witnessed. It ran fairly fast about 50 feet in front of our truck. It was so strange because the front of it was much higher up than the back, larger than a wolf. Very strange to see it on your website.
NOTE: I contacted the witness and asked for any further detail of the sighting. This is what I received:
It did not look exactly like the video or drawings I saw, but VERY close. The side view shape of the animal was almost like an ape shape, with the front legs longer than the back legs which made it run funny. It ran like a bear runs, with the exception of the back legs being shorter if you can picture that. The front, from the angle I saw, looked like it must of had a wide chest. The head appeared wolf-like, but it definitely was NOT a wolf. The color was brown and black mixed. The hair seemed med-long, like a wolf, and I remember thinking it might of had mange, must of had patches of hair missing.
I was telling my son, who is 13, about what I had found on your site and asked him what he remembered. He gave the same description, how very strange and out of place it was. He said that this spring he saw the same type of thing on a logging road near our house (I do remember him telling me that at that time) and it was the same thing. He was riding his dirt bike (we live in an extremely remote area) and it ran across the trail. I know where he is talking about because I pick berries there and do get a weird feeling like something is watching me. A neighbor told me that area is "Bigfoot Central", which I did not know or believe. But after doing further research today, there are a lot of reports of strange creatures in this area that go back many, many years.
Who knows what it is, but as long as it's not hurting anything, I hope it is left alone. I am very familiar with the wildlife. I do hunt and know my tracks. I have not seen any strange tracks, but now will really keep my eyes open. Please keep me informed if you get any other reports from my area. Rhonda
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In April 2009, I also read about an account in Wisconsin, but with a different twist:
My girlfriend and I went out to feed deer for the hunting opener on Nov. 22, 2008. We were in the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin. It was November 21, 2008 and the time was 12:10 AM, it was totally dark out and light snow was falling with an accumulation of about 1 inch covering the roads. The Temperature was 11*F and the wind was blowing from the northwest with a wind chill of 0*F. We made a U-turn to the left onto an unfinished ATV trail in one of our 4X4 Pickups heading towards last years feed pile.
I got to the bottom of the hill and backed in and parked. I got out my pistol and loaded it, I then put it in my holster, I grabbed my headlight with 3 LED bulbs and secured it on my head, I handed her a shaker LED flashlight and proceeded to the back of my truck where I had a 5 gallon bucket with just under 2 gallons of corn and 3 apples in it strapped down with 2 of my ATV straps. I put the tailgate down, unstrapped the bucket and put the tailgate up. I walked around my side and then in front of the truck to her passenger side as she was putting mittens on. We both started to walk together, her just behind and to my right side when we both noticed a fresh set of tracks in the snow heading down wind of us in the same direction we where walking.
At first it was not the size that caught my attention, it was "WHAT IN GOD'S CREATION MADE THESE TRACKS" immediately my skinned crawled as I looked around with my head to see if what we just had come up on was in sight. I glanced back down in disbelief at the tracks. I was in a slight stage of shock as I looked at her she looked at me and we both looked down at 4 well-formed footprints of some kind of scary tracks that either of us had ever seen before. I sized my shoe beside one of the tracks and realized it was about 3 inches longer than my shoe which measures 12 inches heel to toe, and about 1 inch wider than my shoe which measures 4 inches at it's widest width. Whatever we witnessed the foot prints of has 2 pointed talons on the end of it's foot that are isometrically the same with a rectangle shaped heel. The talons joined on the outside and at the same length in between the talons on each foot. They are 15 inches long and 5 inches wide with 64-inch strides. I have a 36-inch stride at 5'10" tall to give an idea of the possible size of this creature, running or not we do not know.
I believe we just missed seeing what caused these tracks and what ever made the tracks was still in the area and possibly watching us. My girl told me to load my pistol and keep it out, I did not argue. At first she wanted to leave right away but the sheer adrenaline and interest of what caused the tracks I believe is what kept us there. I said "okay let's get out of here" but again, interest kept us there looking at the tracks. My fear slightly subsided enough to think about the upcoming deer opener and decided I have the pistol and we will be okay. I started to walk the same way the tracks went up a hill on the trail when I stopped and looked back at her while she was still staring down at the prints. I said "come on lets get this over with" she caught up to me as we walked together, she said to me, "if this thing gets a hold of me put a bullet in my head" I thought about that as we kept walking. We went deep into the woods down a steep hill where I new the feed pile was from last year. We got to where I wanted the pile to be, I took the lid off the bucket and dumped the corn and apples out and stepped on the apples, I snapped the lid back on the bucket and said "let's go" We started to climb the hill when I realized we where off track and had to walk left to reach the trail to get back to the truck. I started to think that this was the scariest thing I have ever encountered and felt panic over coming me. I new where I was and finally we got back on the trail and walked down to where we could see the tracks of the creature again. We both stared at them for about 5 minutes. When we got back to the truck just 20 yards from the prints, she got in and closed her door. I went behind the truck, opened the tailgate and re strapped the bucket down and closed the tailgate. I got to my side of the truck and took the clip out of my gun and got in. I threw my head light off my head as we drove away thinking and then I said, "I am not coming back here" and she agreed. We where both scared and could not believe what just happened.
It was a month earlier and 1.1 miles walking through the woods from where we witnessed the tracks that a different friend and I where camping. I went to bed early and fell into a deep sleep. I woke up to the sound of my friend walking behind the tent and my first reply was "what are you doing back there?" I woke up a little more and realized my friend was sleeping, breathing kind of loud next to me. I sat up against my gear and grabbed my pistol and flashlight and sat there cold and scared in the dark. I woke my friend up and told him what I could hear and he said, "Ah it was probably a deer or something" The temperature was around 26*F. I looked out the flaps of the tent and could see the fire had died down and it was dark out there. I stood up and told my friend that I was going to the truck to warm up and get some sleep. I asked him if he wanted me to leave the pistol and he said, "no I'll be alright". I left the tent and walked to my truck about 80 yards away and started it up to get warm. I turned my lights on a few different times to see if what had walked by the tent was in sight. I did not see anything; I turned my truck off and fell asleep.
Whatever walked by the tent was bipedal and made 2 steps into my sound range and out again. I did not hear any other noise from what ever walked by. I looked around the next morning for footprints but leaves covered the ground and I did not detect anything. A little more than 2 years earlier. It was summer and I was at this same location riding my ATV alone, I stopped and got off walking down to a near by lake and was looking at the water and how clear it is when I could hear up on the hill above the camp ground we had stayed at a huge tree snap and hit the ground with a big thump as branches snapped off it and other trees as it fell. I got back to my ATV quickly at the time thinking a bear or buck was up there and I was not sticking around to find out. 2 months later that summer I returned to this spot again riding my ATV, I shut off the wheeler and stood around close by thinking about the last time I was there I was scared off by something. I was there about 5 minutes when all of a sudden I could hear branches snapping off of trees as what ever was breaking branches was coming down the hill closer to where I was. I got on my wheeler never to return until my friend and I camped there a little over 2 years later in October. My first 2 experiences with this creature while I was alone made me think it was possibly a bear or a buck deer, trouble with this theory is that I have come up on bear a dozen or so times and every time, the bear is running as fast as it can in another direction and what ever was making the tree sounds was not running any where. A deer also runs away at the first presence of a human. Now that we witnessed these creatures’ footprints I put the puzzle pieces together and realize that this creature is living in this area and it has probably been there for a long, long, long time. I have learned it means us no harm (yet). It only makes a sound when I am alone (tree breaking). It is always down wind of me (us). It is out in the day and or night. It can see in the dark. It uses the wind to it's advantage every chance it gets. It can hear well. It can smell good. It waits until we are vulnerable to approach us when 2 of us are together. I could possibly have smelled it and did not know what I smelled. I (we) have put 4,000 miles in this forest on my Grizzly ATV through deep desolate, thick wooded, swamp, lake areas and have now proved to ourselves that this undocumented at this time creature is in fact out there.
I know where this creature is living and plan on an expedition to prove its existence. I want to document this creature because I feel everyone that enters the forest has a right to know it is there and for other various reasons. I am open to any and all that would like to comment or ask questions in discussing my encounters with this creature(s).
NOTE: Approximately a year ago, the 'Michigan Dogman' film was proven to be a hoax but there have been several sightings of this cryptid nonetheless. Is this a werewolf like species? A Bigfoot or Sasquatch? Something completely different perhaps? What are your thoughts? Lon
couriermail - Could this be Normanton's own "Loch Ness Monster", an elusive 8m giant that has residents in the Gulf thinking twice before taking out the tinnie?
Rumours of a massive croc lurking near the township of Normanton have revived memories of the famed 8.6m monster shot in the Norman River in 1957, and claimed as a world record.
Local pastor Elton Thompson sparked a frenzy last week when he produced photographs of a croc slide about 1km from town, which indicate the presence of a huge animal with a girth of up to 2m.
Now fisherman Clint Spry has revealed photos he took of a huge croc in the Norman River with a tail "as long as my boat".
"It had locked jaws with an albino crocodile and was just throwing it around like a rag doll," Mr Spry told The Sunday Mail.
"The tail on it alone was as long as my whole boat . . . 3.8 metres."
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Pastor Thompson started a sensation when he put his photos of huge slide marks and claw prints on his Facebook page and relayed a story of a crocodile recently spotted at the same location that was "at least as big, if not bigger" than the legendary 8.6m Savannah King, that has a life-size replica in Normanton.
As national media outlets picked up the story, locals debated whether the croc really was that big or, well, just a crock.
One publican insists: "It's a wives' tale. There are no crocs that big near Normanton."
Others are adamant an oversize croc has been in the area for some time, growing bigger every year since Queensland banned commercial hunting in the '70s.
Long-time local Terry Cummings didn't hesitate when asked if he thought an 8m croc could be lurking in the area.
"I was here in the '50s and saw them that big," he said.
Herbie Harold, 52, who found the original slide marks and alerted his pastor, said he had seen a massive croc in the same spot once before.
The Sunday Mail enlisted Mr Harold's expertise last week in a bid to find the monster.
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Farmers in West Wales Terrified of Big Cat Attacks
walesonline - Farmers in rural West Wales say they are terrified of a suspected big cat on the loose following a spate of attacks.
At least nine confirmed sightings of the beast, described as a huge jet-black cat, have been made in Pembrokeshire in the past few days.
Livestock has also been reported missing.
Members of the local community have been put on high alert after the savage killing of a pedigree sheep in Princes Gate which experts say could not have been caused by a large dog or similar predator.
The mysterious animal has even been spotted leaving a farmyard carrying a lamb in its mouth.
Others say that a cub has been spotted with the beast, suggesting there may be at least two adult predators prowling the Pembrokeshire countryside.
Farmer Malcolm MacPhee, of Great Redford Farm, said he was convinced the most recent attack, which took place on his land last Wednesday night, was the work of the panther-like creature.
The Suffolk sheep was found by its owner torn to shreds.
Mr MacPhee said: “What we didn’t realise at first is that the sheep’s neck was broken.
“Experts have now pointed out to us it was a clean kill, not something synonymous with a fox, dog badger or any other predator.
“The sheep had its shoulder ripped off, with the flesh stripped off to expose its ribcage, while claw marks could be seen along its carcass.”
He said his neighbours had spotted big cats at least six times in recent years in the area south of Narberth.
“There have been two seen on different occasions – the larger one is about four feet long with a long, thick tail curved at the end,” he said.
In recent weeks, the killings of two calves, a heifer and two sheep have taken place in Princes Gate.
Now farmers are adamant that the attacks are linked with the sightings of a big cat.
Farmer John Mathias, of Parcsaison, Princes Gate, said he had seen the beast twice.
“A couple of years ago, I saw it carrying a big lamb in its mouth across my yard. It left a paw print in the slurry, and it was the width across of my glasses,” he said.
“I’ve seen it a couple of times recently as well.
“About 100 yards away from me, I could see its green eyes, there was no mistaking it for another animal. It looked like pictures I’ve seen of panthers in the wild.
“There was one morning as well when the fields were covered in snow, and it ran across – it stood out a mile on the white backdrop.”
The latest incident has been reported to police, the Farmers’ Union of Wales and Pembrokeshire Council.
A senior animal health inspector from the council visited Mr MacPhee’s farm last week.
Council spokesman Len Mullins said: “He examined the carcass and took photographs which have been sent to a unit of the Welsh Assembly in Aberystwyth for further investigation.”
The last cluster of big cat sightings reported in Pembrokeshire was in 2006, with reports coming in from as far afield as Johnston, Clynderwen, Newgale, St Florence and Steynton.
Big cats are known to have a hunting range of 50 miles in one night.
Big cat consultant and expert tracker Danny Nineham said: “It’s impossible to say whether a black cat has taken these animals in Pembrokeshire without investigating the land, carcass, environment, looking for faeces, etc.
“But I can say that there are a lot of big cats in West Wales, I’ve seen them myself, and investigated a number of sightings in Pembrokeshire.
“We’ve got leopards, black leopards or panthers, pumas, American bobcats, you name it.”
Another Princes Gate farmer, Alan Williams, was adamant that Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire were rife with big cats.
“The last time I saw one was probably a fortnight ago,” he said. “I’ve seen big black panther-like cats and brown ones.
“We’ve lost seven ewes – we just find them with broken necks and sometimes all we find left of them is a skeleton and a rug-like carpet of skin.
“I know farmers who have found carcasses up trees where the animal has dragged it up to eat.
“We even had one in one of our sheds once, although we didn’t hang around to check.
“If you see one of those, you get out of there.”
Cats such as leopards and pumas were popular fashion accessories in the 1960s and 1970s and could be purchased legally in Harrods.
In 1976 the Dangerous Animals Act made keeping big cats illegal without an expensive licence, driving some exotic cat owners to dump their prized pets in the wild.
Due to a loophole in the law, it was not illegal until 1981 to release a big cat into the UK countryside.
According to Mr Nineham, it is a combination of those factors which has led to the recent sightings.
“These animals are not indigenous to this country, but the reason why they’re so elusive is because they are adaptable, they’re survivors,” he said.
“In the Victorian age, these animals became common pets with the rich and elite.
“Travelling circuses would use them and of course many would have escaped.
“But in my opinion, the Dangerous Animals Act, which was introduced in 1976, has been a huge factor.
“One thing is for sure about these cats, they are very good at finding each other.
“And although they don’t officially exist according to the police or wildlife records, I can tell you they are certainly around.”
I was driving doing some shopping and saw this object in the sky. I thought it was strange so I filmed it from a shopping plaza in Austintown, Ohio. The video title is the same as the short description on here.It appeared to be an oval shaped fiery object hovering in the Southern skies. This happened at around 5:oopm EST. I looked at my cell phone time to confirm it. I really didn't know what to make of the object.
I tried to find a closer location to the object but it appeared (can't be positive) to be moving slowly away once I was at the 2nd location of filming. The second location was just a little further down the road at a bigger shopping plaza.
At this point I lost sight of the object in the trees. I again tried to find a 3rd location but the object was no where to be found and there were many trees obstructing the skyline.
I then went back to the original location to see if it was still there, it was not. I do not know what this was. I have gotten several emails already by folks swearing this is a portal to another dimension. Not sure what I believe.
Yahoo - Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer.
Later, the predators will come — Siberian tigers, wolves and maybe leopards.
Russian scientist Sergey Zimov is reintroducing these animals to the land where they once roamed in millions to demonstrate his theory that filling the vast emptiness of Siberia with grass-eating animals can slow global warming.
"Some people have a small garden. I have an ice age park. It's my hobby," says Zimov, smiling through his graying beard. His true profession is quantum physics.
Climate change is felt most sharply in the Arctic, where temperatures are warming faster than anywhere else on the planet. Most climate scientists say human activity, especially industrial pollution and the byproducts of everyday living like home heating and driving cars, is triggering an unnatural warming of the Earth. On Monday, negotiators representing 194 countries open a two-week conference in Cancun, Mexico, on reducing greenhouse gases to slow the pace of climate change.
Zimov is trying to recreate an ecosystem that disappeared 10,000 years ago with the end of the ice age, which closed the 1.8 million-year Pleistocene era and ushered in the global climate roughly as we know it.
He believes herds of grazers will turn the tundra, which today supports only spindly larch trees and shrubs, into luxurious grasslands. Tall grasses with complex root systems will stabilize the frozen soil, which is now thawing at an ever-increasing rate, he says.
Herbivores keep wild grass short and healthy, sending up fresh shoots through the summer and autumn. Their manure gives crucial nourishment. In winter, the animals trample and flatten the snow that otherwise would insulate the ground from the cold air. That helps prevent the frozen ground, or permafrost, from thawing and releasing powerful greenhouse gases. Grass also reflects more sunlight than forests, a further damper to global warming.
It would take millions of animals to change the landscape of Siberia and effectively seal the permafrost. But left alone, Zimov argues, the likes of caribou, buffalo and musk oxen multiply quickly. Wherever they graze "new pastures will appear ... beautiful grassland."
The project is being watched not only by climate scientists but by paleontologists and environmentalists who have an interest in "rewilding."
"This is a very interesting experiment," said Adrian Lister, of the Natural History Museum in London. "I think it's valid from an ecological point of view to put back animals that did formerly live there," he told AP Television News. He disapproved of suggestions to rewild nonnative species — for example, relocating elephants and rhinos to the American plains.
Zimov began the project in 1989, fencing off 160 square kilometers (40,000 acres) of forest, meadows, shrub land and lakes. It is surrounded by another 600 square kilometers (150,000 acres) of wilderness.
It is an offshoot of the Northeast Science Station, which he founded and where he has lived for 30 years. Already icebound by October, the park is 40 kilometers (25 miles) inland from the station, accessible only by boat in summer and by snow vehicles after the rivers freeze.
A 32-meter (105-foot) tower inside the park gives constant readings of methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor. The data feeds into a global monitoring system overseen by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Zimov's research on permafrost, greenhouse gas emissions and mammoth archaeology has attracted world scientists to his laboratories, a small cluster of cabins and a tiny chapel on a rocky bluff above a channel of the Kolyma River. A 20-bed barge is used for field trips in summer, and a $100,000 hovercraft is on order. Zimov sometimes uses an old Russian tank to bring supplies from the Chinese border, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away.
Part of the station's attraction — and deterrence — is its remoteness. It is 6,600 kilometers (4,000 miles) and eight time zones east of Moscow. The nearby town of Chersky, with some 5,000 people, has few amenities, and the nearest city, Yakutsk, is a 4-1/2 flight. Many researchers, particularly Americans, prefer to work in Alaska or northern Canada, which are more accessible.
"Most of the Arctic is in Russia, and yet most of the Arctic research isn't," said Max Holmes, of Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, director of the Polaris Project, which has sent undergraduates to the station for the last three summers.
Zimov started the park with a herd of 40 Yakutian horses, a semi-wild breed with a handsomely long mane that is raised by Yakuts and other native people for their meat. Short, sturdy and broad-backed, they survive harsh Siberian winters with the help of a furry hide, thick layers of fat and the ability to paw through a meter (3 feet) of snow to forage.
Of his first herd, Zimov said 15 were killed by wolves and bears, 12 died from eating wild hemlock that grows in the park, and two slipped through the perimeter and made their way back some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to their original pastures.
But he bought more. Now the horses have learned to avoid poisonous plants and to resist predators. Over the last three years, more colts were born and survived than horses lost.
The challenge is to find the right balance between grazers and predators, and how to help his animals get through their first winters.
His workers still give occasional buckets of grain to the horses to supplement their diet with salt. About half the horses come regularly to the cabin where a caretaker stays year-round. The other half are rarely seen except for their tracks.
Zimov also has had problems with the moose that he brought inside his enclosure. Moose still live in small numbers in surrounding forests, and the males jump back and forth over the 6-foot-high fence.
In September he traveled to a nature reserve on Wrangel Island, about five hours by boat across the East Siberia Sea, and brought back six 4-month-old musk oxen. One died a few weeks later. The others are kept in a small enclosure and fed hay until they can fend for themselves.
His objective is to see whether a thriving population of grazing animals will regenerate grasslands that disappeared long ago, which would slow and even halt the accelerating pace of permafrost thaw. So far, he says, the results are encouraging.
Today he has 70 animals in the park. He wants thousands to restock Siberia. To bring 1,000 bison from North America would cost $1 million, Zimov says, a small price to pay.
"If permafrost melts, 100 gigatons of carbon will be released this century," he said. "What's $1 million? One regular grant."
Arguments can be made that the evidence for ancient astronauts comes from supposed gaps in historical and archaeological records, and they also maintain that absent or incomplete explanations of historical or archaeological data point to the existence of ancient astronauts. The evidence is said to include archaeological artifacts that are beyond the presumed technical capabilities of the historical cultures with which they are associated. This also includes artwork and legends that are interpreted as depicting extraterrestrial contact or technologies.
Notwithstanding these contentions, let us say that there is an axiom to the ancient astronaut theory. Then we need to ask, who were these beings? What did they represent to the inhabitants of earth? Where these beings the ancient Gods of antiquity?
I would like to periodically chronicle my speculation of how the native people interpreted these unknown entities. This edition describes Krishna, The Divine Source.
Krishna is usually regarded as an avatar of Vishnu and in some traditions considered the Supreme Being. Lord Krishna is the embodiment of love and divine joy, that destroys all pain and sin. He is the protector of sacred utterances and cows. Krishna is an instigator of all forms of knowledge and born to establish the religion of love.
Tradition holds that Krishna saw Vishnu in a vision in which the former deity told Krishna to destroy Kamsa son of a demon, a tyrannical ruler of the world. Krishna's mother, Devaki, was Kamsa's half-sister. Kamsa already killed her first six sons because he had been told one of her sons would kill him. Krishna' elder brother, Devaki's seventh child, Balarama was miraculously saved by Vishnu.
Krishna was also saved when exchanged by his parents for the daughter of a herdsman Nanda and his wife Yasoda (the daughter was also a divine being, an incarnation of Maya). With his foster parents Krishna spent a happy life playing boyish pranks and seducing the gopis (cow girls) and other rustic maidens. They found his flute playing irresistible. Legend has it he may have had 16,000 wives. But his favorite was Radha, daughter of his foster father, and his childhood lover, although they did not marry.
According to legend Krishna was not only divine, but heroic as well. He is alleged to have defeated numerous dragons and monsters, and eventually as predicted, killed his half-uncle the tyrannical king Kamsa.
It was said that demi-gods or devas use to appear frequently to people and gave them technology and knowledge, they also interbred with the population. The Rishis were the keepers of the highest science and knowledge and they learned this from a "divine source".
Some examples of mortal and gods interaction:
Kunti got all her sons from the gods. She learnt how to summon these gods from a Rishi who gave her a mantra for each god. Also, Kunti's fathers grand father was actually a naga (shape shifting serpent)
Krishna's city of Dwarika and Ravans city of Lanka was built by Vishwakarma, who was the chief architect and engineer of the demi-gods. Vishwakarma was also to transport entire land masses. He also revealed the art of mechanical engineering and architecture to humans. And made the weapon "Agneyastra".
The demi-god Indra was where Arjuna (who was his son) obtained all his celestial futuristic weapons and his vimana (aeroplane).
Krishna, was "not of this Earth" and he knew all the demi-gods very well and they all revered him. In fact Krishna was implanted into the womb of mother of Krishna by a ray of light from the sky (virgin birth).
The story of Krishna also narrates the tale of how Shalva attacked the city of Dwarka with what appears to be a flying saucer.
On learning of Shishupala’s death, his friend, Salva, invoked Shiva and secured from him a flying saucer, a vimana that could travel anywhere in the world, in air, on the ground, under the sea. Using this vimana, Salva launched an attack on Dwaraka determined to avenge his friend’s death. Both Krishna and Balarama were in Indraprastha attending Yudhishtira’s coronation when this happened. So the defence of the city was left to the other Yadavas. Dwaraka was pounded by missiles from the skies. Krishna’s sons and grandsons put up a brave fight but were no match for Salva. When news of the aerial attack on Dwaraka reached Krishna, he hurried home and entered the battlefield immediately. First he shot an arrow with the Sharanga bow and brought Salva’s vimana down as if it was a bird. He then hurled the Kaumodaki mace and smashed the vimana to dust. Then raising the Nandaka sword, he beheaded Salva. The Yadavas were jubilant in victory.
Even the Ramayana talks about a flying chariot called pushpaka-vimana. To many the account of this chariot is not poetic imagination but historical evidence that airplanes existed in Vedic times. The chariot belonged to the yaksha-king Kubera. Ravana took it by force after driving Kubera out of Lanka. Ravana used the chariot to abduct Sita. After killing Ravana and rescuing Sita, Rama returned to the city of Ayodhya on this flying chariot.
Dwarka is a city and a municipality of Jamnagar district in the Gujarat state in India. Dwarka is rated as one of the seven most ancient cities in the country. The legendary city of Dvaraka was the dwelling place of Lord Krishna. It is believed that due to damage and destruction by the sea, Dvaraka has submerged six times and modern day Dwarka is therefore the seventh such city to be built in the area.
Krishna was the charioteer during the War of Kurukshetra. While the war was on swing, Krishna was a witness to the death of Duryodhana (the eldest son of the blind king Dhritarashtra by Queen Gandhari and an avatar of the demon Kali). Immediately after, Krishna received the curse of Duryodhana`s mother, Gandhari for not rescuing his son. She was an ardent worshipper of Lord Vishnu and recognised Krishna as his incarnation. She equally believed and revered Krishna, but on seeing her son die she could not find any justification as to why Lord Krishna allowed such a thing to happen.
Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna that he would perish after thirty-six years, all alone and in a miserable state. All his followers, devotees, relatives and loved ones will also die simultaneously. When this time arrived in Krishna`s life; a madness seized the inhabitants of Dwaraka in such an extent that the people started to kill one another. All sons and grandsons of Krishna were also dead in the massacre. Only the women, Krishna and Balaram were alive in Dwaraka.
After a while Balaram isolated himself in a dense forest. Lord Krishna then went to his father, took blessings and left for the forest, where Balaram awaited him. He saw that his elder brother was sitting under a mighty tree on the fringes of the forest. Balaram was sitting in a posture of a Yogi, eventually a thousand headed snake, `Ananta naga` came out from his mouth and glided its way to the ocean. Soon, the ocean and other holy rivers came together to welcome Anant Naga into their realm.
Lord Krishna saw his brother depart from the real world and he started to wander in the forest. Finally he sat on the ground, started to think of Gandhari`s curse, and realized that the time for his departure has already arrived. He self-possessed his senses and concentrated on his Yoga. A hunter approached that spot of the forest and from a distant saw him and thought to be a deer. He loosed his shaft, took out the arrow, and mistakenly pierced Lord Krishna`s foot. He came hurried near to the Lord and saw him to be a man wrapped in yellow robes practicing yoga. The hunter immediately touched the feet of Lord Krishna and asked for apology.
Lord Krishna opened his eyes and comforted the hunter, then ascended towards the heaven, thus filling the whole sky with glory. After passing through Indra`s paradise, he reached his place at even higher strata. Krishna wives; including Rukmini became Sati and burned themselves on pyre. The rest of the women of Dwaraka became ascetics and nuns. After each and every living being of Dwaraka moved away to other places, the ocean came about and engulfed the city, thus leaving no trace of the land of Lord Krishna.
telegraph - Tests found that the DNA of some villagers in Liqian, on the fringes of the Gobi Desert in north-western China, was 56 per cent Caucasian in origin.
Many of the villagers have blue or green eyes, long noses and even fair hair, prompting speculation that they have European blood.
A local man, Cai Junnian, is nicknamed by his friends and relatives Cai Luoma, or Cai the Roman, and is one of many villagers convinced that he is descended from the lost legion.
Archeologists plan to conduct digs in the region, along the ancient Silk Route, to search for remains of forts or other structures built by the fabled army.
"We hope to prove the legend by digging and discovering more evidence of China's early contacts with the Roman Empire," Yuan Honggeng, the head of a newly-established Italian Studies Centre at Lanzhou University in Gansu province, told the China Daily newspaper.
The genetic tests have leant weight to the theory that Roman legionaries settled in the area in the first century BC after fleeing a disastrous battle.
The clash took place in 53BC between an army led by Marcus Crassus, a Roman general, and a larger force of Parthians, from what is now Iran, bringing to an abrupt halt the Roman Empire's eastwards expansion.
Thousands of Romans were slaughtered and Crassus himself was beheaded, but some legionaries were said to have escaped the fighting and marched east to elude the enemy.
They supposedly fought as mercenaries in a war between the Huns and the Chinese in 36BC – Chinese chroniclers refer to the capture of a "fish-scale formation" of troops, a possible reference to the "tortoise" phalanx formation perfected by legionnaries. The wandering Roman soldiers are thought to have been released and to have settled on the steppes of western China.
The theory was first put forward in the 1950s by Homer Dubs, a professor of Chinese history at Oxford University.
The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent under the Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD, just as the Han empire was beginning to decline.
Most historians believe that the two empires had only indirect contact, as silk and spices were traded along the Silk Road through merchants in exchange for Roman goods such as glassware.
But some experts believe they could instead be descended from the armies of Huns that marauded through central Asia, which included soldiers of Caucasian origin.
Maurizio Bettini, a classicist and anthropologist from Siena University, dismissed the theory as "a fairy tale".
"For it to be indisputable, one would need to find items such as Roman money or weapons that were typical of Roman legionaries," he told La Repubblica. "Without proof of this kind, the story of the lost legions is just a legend."
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Man Killed by Golfball
ninemsn - A US golf course groundskeeper was killed after a ball travelling 200km/h struck him in the temple.
Maurice Hayden was carrying out landscaping work on the par 5 second hole at the Mayfair County Club in Florida when the ball hit him, the Orlanda Sentinel reports.
Police said Brian Donohue was teeing off when the incident happened. They said the golfer will not be charged.
Paramedics performed CPR on Mr Hayden on a golf cart and he was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
The 42-year-old moved to the area from Jamaica three years ago.
"He was a very, very hard-working man," Elonda English said of her step-father.
"He was pretty much an all-around kind of guy."
Investigators said the accident was "unfortunate".
"[The golfer] just didn't see the worker, and the worker didn't see him," Sergeant David Morgenstern said.
Mr Hayden died after his family decided to take him off life support yesterday.
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Facebook looks to trademark the word 'face'
BBC - The social networking giant Facebook is a few steps away from trademarking the word face, online documents reveal.
The site has been asked to detail a "statement of use" by the US Patent and Trademark Office, explaining how it intends to use the word.
If granted, the trademark will only apply to online sites and services used to exchange messages.
It could limit the use of the word in other social networks and services, such as Apple's Facetime, lawyers said.
Trade mark specialist Fiona McBride, from law firm Withers and Rogers, said the move was "not as unexpected as it may sound ".
"Facebook is right to lay legal claim to use of the word 'face' in the context of social networking sites and other specific computer-linked activities because they have built up a reputation in the name Facebook, of which arguably 'face' is the dominant element," she said.
The social network's ambitions were first reported by technology blog TechCrunch.
It highlighted a document that showed the social network had applied for the trademark for use in "telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users".
Facebook is currently the largest social network, with nearly 600million users.
Facebook declined to comment on the story.
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Scientists solve mystery of pulsating star
sify - Astronomers have measured the mass of a Cepheid with accuracy far greater than any earlier estimates - allowing them to immediately see which of the two competing theories predicting the masses of Cepheids is correct.
Grzegorz Pietrzynski Pietrzynski (Universidad de Concepcion, Chile, Obserwatorium Astronomiczne Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Poland) led the study.
Classical Cepheid Variables, usually called just Cepheids, are unstable stars that are larger and much brighter than the Sun. They expand and contract in a regular way, taking anything from a few days to months to complete the cycle. The time taken to brighten and grow fainter again is longer for stars that are more luminous and shorter for the dimmer ones.
This property makes them one of the most effective ways to measure the distances to nearby galaxies and from there to map out the scale of the whole Universe.
Unfortunately, despite their importance, Cepheids are not fully understood. To resolve this mystery, astronomers needed to find a double star containing a Cepheid where the orbit happened to be seen edge-on from Earth.
In such pairs astronomers can determine the masses of the stars to high accuracy.
"Very recently we actually found the double star system we had hoped for among the stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The other star is slightly bigger and cooler, and the two stars orbit each other in 310 days. The true binary nature of the object was immediately confirmed when we observed it with the HARPS spectrograph on La Silla," said Wolfgang Gieren.
The mass of the Cepheid is now known to about 1percent and agrees exactly with predictions from the theory of stellar pulsation. However, the larger mass predicted by stellar evolution theory was shown to be significantly in error.
The team hopes to find other examples of these remarkably useful pairs of stars to exploit the method further. They also believe that from such binary systems they will eventually be able to pin down the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud to 1 percent, which would mean an extremely important improvement of the cosmic distance scale.
The study appears in the 25 November 2010 edition of the journal Nature.
In yet another twist in the ongoing investigations into the incidents on the M6 and in Paris the detective leading the investigation in the UK has confirmed that the police are now desperately trying to crack what they believe is a secret code.
PRLog - Nov 25, 2010 – Also that the main suspect has been using this code to communicate with their co-conspirators.
It is the latest in a set of bizarre facts to emerge since the arrest of the suspect in Manchester just over two weeks ago. Detective Silverton has also confirmed that the suspect remains in custody of their own volition but refuses to comment on their identity.
As with the previous interview I was able to conduct with Detective Silverton, I was driven to what I believe is a disused underground bunker in the Cheshire countryside and allowed to ask a limited amount of questions; the interview was then vetted and approved for release.
Further revelations have also emerged about one of the bodies discovered in Paris.
Detective Silverton confirmed that both he and the lead investigators in Paris are pooling what they know and that one of the autopsies on the victims in Paris showed a 'considerable difference in the accepted chemical makeup of blood normally found in a person who has lived and breathed this atmosphere'
When pushed to confirm what this meant Detective Silverton said that he was not going to suggest any medical interpretation for this and that there were 'several possibilities' currently being reviewed.
I then returned to the code and the alleged 1of26 document that had been circling the investigation from the start.
Detective Silverton confirmed that this was document they are investigating, 'initially we thought this was part of a scam, a way to create the illusion of paranormal or supernatural activity and then go on to sell artifacts on the black market based on it, but we now believe this is not the case as there seems to be no apparent motive to its existence'
He also stated the evidence for this was the dramatic change in the content of the document and also confirmed that two of their most experienced code crackers were now investigating the document.
Asked if they were nearing any solution to the code Detective Silverton commented that, 'we are still looking at it and are confident that we will be able to interpret what is being said. However we are also scouring many of the forums that have reported this case in search of clues and would ask anyone who has come into contact with these people or has knowledge of the code to put any suggestions they have onto the relevant forums and mark them 1of26. By doing this we can track these posts and see if they are useful to the case. I must also state that we are not interested in any person who places these posts, we're only interested in anything that will help us crack the code; we are confident that we have our main suspect and are currently following up a specific lead they have given us'
I asked Detective Silverton if this was the new way for the police to ask for witnesses and was told that given the sensitive nature of this enquiry they felt that any other mechanism they could use could see them becoming overwhelmed by the resultant influx of information.
NOTE: go to the follow link for previous updates on this incident - Paranormal Crash Updates...Lon
"When provoking a war of aggression, we will hit back, beginning with the US!"
Sabre rattling on the Korean Peninsula has once again started...this time resulting in artillery fire by the North Koreans. So, what is the mindset of North Korea, the most isolated and most bizarre country in the world? The following are examples why tangling with this bunch can have unpredictable results.
#1 The first "Great Leader" of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, is deeply revered in North Korea. In fact, there are over 500 statues of Kim Il-sung scattered throughout the country. Many Koreans apparently believe that Kim Il-Sung actually created the world.
#2 It is said that hanging up pictures of Kim Il-Sung is compulsory for every household in North Korea.
#3 Millions of North Korean citizens have literally starved to death over the past 10 years.
#4 The North Korean constitution actually guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
#5 It has been reported that during times of extreme hunger in North Korea, cannibalism is quite common. Several years ago the Washington Post shared what one 29-year-old female defector told them about what is going on inside the country....
"When one is very hungry, one can go crazy. One woman in my town killed her 7-month-old baby, and ate the baby with another woman."
The sad thing is that the 29-year-old female defector didn't even consider what she had seen to be wrong....
"I can't condemn cannibalism. Not that I wanted to eat human meat, but we were so hungry. It was common that people went to a fresh grave and dug up a body to eat meat. I witnessed a woman being questioned for cannibalism. She said it tasted good."
#6 In 1987, North Korea began construction on the Ryugyong Hotel, which would have been the tallest hotel in the world if it had been finished on schedule in 1989. Instead, construction of the bizarre 105-story skyscraper that somewhat resembles a pyramid was suspended in 1992, and the unfinished structure was just a massive concrete shell towering over Pyongyang completely empty for the next 16 years. Work began once again on the project in 2008, and it is anticipated that it will finally be completed in 2012.
#7 One of North Korea's greatest "tourist attractions" is the Pueblo - a U.S. naval vessel that the North Koreans captured from "the imperialist Americans" back in 1968.
#8 According to North Korean media, Kim Jong-il is a phenom at just about everything. It is claimed that he shot 38 under par (including 11 holes-in-one) the first time he ever played golf.
#9 Christians are slaughtered in some of the most brutal ways imaginable in North Korea. The following is just one example.....
"While Interviewee 17 was in the North Korean Army, his unit was dispatched to widen the highway between Pyongyang and the nearby port city of Nampo. They were demolishing a vacated house in Yongkang county, Yongkang district town, when in a basement between two bricks they found a Bible and a small notebook that contained 25 names, one identified as pastor, two as chon-do-sa (assistant pastors), two as elders, and 20 other names, apparently parishioners, identified by their occupations. The soldiers turned the Bible and notebook over to the local branch of Department 15 of the Korean Workers Party (KWP), but the Party officials said it was up to the military police unit, Bowisaryungbu gigwanwon, to investigate. Tracked down at their place of work through the listing of occupation in the notebook, the 25 persons were picked up without formal arrest by the military bowibu. The interviewee was not aware of any judicial procedures for those seized. In November 1996, the 25 were brought to the road construction site. Four concentric rectangular rows of spectators were assembled to watch the execution. Interviewee 17 was in the first row. The five leaders to be executed - the pastor, two assistant pastors, and two elders - were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller. This steamroller was a large construction vehicle imported from Japan with a heavy, huge, and wide steel roller mounted on the front to crush and level the roadway prior to pouring concrete. The other twenty persons were held just to the side. The condemned were accused of being Kiddokyo (Protestant Christian) spies and conspiring to engage in subversive activities. Nevertheless, they were told, “If you abandon religion and serve only Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, you will not be killed.” None of the five said a word. Some of the fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller. Interviewee 17 thought, at the time, that these church people were crazy. He thought then that religion was an “opiate,” and it was stupid for them to give up their lives for religion. He heard from the soldiers who took away the other twenty prisoners that they were being sent to a prison camp."
#10 A few years ago when China was sending humanitarian aid into North Korea the North Koreans decided that they would just start keeping the trains as well. The Chinese crews were sent back over the border on foot.
#11 A song entitled "No Motherland Without You" was written specifically for Kim Jong-il and is one of the most popular songs in North Korea. It is regularly sung by the North Korean military.
"Do not forget the US imperialist wolves!"
The west is in a no-win situation here. Right now the rest of the world is getting quite nervous, because a war between nuclear powers could get out of hand very quickly. If North Korea hits South Korea with nuclear weapons, it seems almost certain that the U.S. would hit North Korea with nukes. The death and destruction that would result would be unprecedented.
So what does China think about all of this? Well, North Korea would not be acting so belligerent right now if they did not have permission from China. Perhaps China is trying to send a message to the West.
On the other hand, there are others that believe that it could go a lot deeper than that. The regime in North Korea is on the verge of collapsing in on itself. Even the Chinese are getting tired of propping up their government and dealing with their nonsense. The truth is that a new Korean war could benefit the Chinese in several ways.
First of all, South Korea (the biggest U.S. ally in the region) would be absolutely devastated even if they "won" the war. That would cripple an incredibly important geopolitical chess piece.
Secondly, the U.S. would be embroiled in yet another costly conflict and would undoubtedly suffer some costly losses as well. The opinion of the rest of the world toward the United States would darken even more - especially if nuclear weapons were used.
Thirdly, China could gain a ton of "leverage" by stabbing North Korea in the back after the conflict had started. In return for supporting the U.S./South Korean coalition, China could ask for all kinds of things that they wouldn't even dream of getting right now. In fact, it is not unthinkable to imagine China walking away with a significant chunk of North Korea in the aftermath of the war. The Chinese government is regularly involved in "border disputes" (just Google it), and China would never pass up a chance to pick up a big slice of new territory.
In the end, the "winner" of any new war on the Korean peninsula would probably be China. The U.S. would get rid of the "North Korean problem", but it would come at a great cost. It is hard to imagine any scenario that would end up greatly benefiting the United States.
Let us hope that a new all-out Korean war does not erupt. North Korea is ruled by delusional leaders who are insane enough to actually use nuclear weapons.
Are you convinced yet? The truth is that North Korea is very, very dangerous and they should not be underestimated. Let us hope that the United States never has to fight another war with them. - www.bezinga.com
