'Balls of Fire' Seen Over Doylestown, PA
MUFON CMS - On the night of January 1, 2011 I picked up my girlfriend from her place of work, off of S. Clinton St. across from the Doylestown train station. The time was approximately 10:25pm EST. We proceeded to drive south on Clinton street making our way towards Hart Ave. While continuing down the hill I noticed numerous bright objects in the eastern sky. It was immediately evident that this was at the least something uncommon or unusual. We made a left turn at Hart ave. and pulled into a parking lot behind a bank. At this point we both exited the vehicle and stood in the parking lot to get a better look. The time at this point must have been about 10:27pm EST.
Initially we saw about twenty of these objects moving relatively slow from south to north across the eastern sky. They were following a semi circular trajectory, appearing out of the dark in the southeastern sky, moving towards our position slightly while continuing north. After covering much the length of the sky, they began gaining altitude and moving away from us before disappearing again into the darkness. They continued in a constant stream like this for about ten minutes, with new ones appearing in the south east as they disappeared to the northeast. For the most part, at any point in time there was somewhere between 15-20 of these in the sky at once. They all followed the same general trajectory but individualy they carried there own paths(almost as though they were travelling in formation and connected by a string). As they made their way across the sky, most of them maintained their relative positions to each other. However some of them were bobbing around. They all seemed to maintain a constant speed the entire time. At 10:36 a placed a phone call to mother for her to meet me in town and bring a camera. At about this time the lights started to appear in fewer numbers. Eventually dwindling to about 2 or 3. Finally the last one went across at about 10:40. Of interested note, shortly before the last one went across the sky my girlfriend and I heard the sound of a jet, but did not visualize any planes.
At no point in time did the objects make any type of noise, additionally, they moved unlike any aerial manned objects I have ever seen.
The objects themselves looked like balls of fire. Some were slightly larger and brighter than others. They ranged in color from a deep red to bright yellowish-orange. However all had an appearance similar to that of a campfire at a distance. They almost looked like bio-luminescent deep sea creatures moving in the pitch dark of the ocean.
It is difficult for me to judge the altitude of these objects, I can say they appeared to be flying much lower than a typical commercial liner.
Initially when we first exited the vehicle, I freaked out on my girlfriend because she didn't know how to use her crummy camera phone(blackberry), however we did get it working and managed to snap a couple pictures. The pictures by no means do justice to what we saw, and the actual objects appeared much brighter, larger, and in greater numbers.
I have read stories and seen videos of the Chinese lanterns, and though they look similar, I struggle to understand how they would appear/disappear, change color/size, and follow a semi circular trajectory. I am also unaware of any local group that releases such lanterns.
Additionally, there was some light fog with an overcast sky. It was difficult for me to tell how low the cloud cover was. About 30 minutes after arriving back home it began to rain.
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More Than A Thousand Dead Birds Fall From Sky
npr - Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area.
Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."
The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.
Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.
Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive." She said she doubted the birds were poisoned.
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Fortune-Telling Now Legal in Romania
news.com.au - Clairvoyants and astrologers can legally practice in Romania this year after fortune-telling was officially recognized as a profession.
The government this week adopted a bill listing fortune-tellers, astrologers and "similar practitioners" along with butlers, embalmers and driving instructors in the "personal services" category.
The move drew scathing comments on the internet with some querying if fortune-tellers would now have to declare revenues and pay taxes.
"Will they have to issue bills which will then act as a warranty certificate?" Benjib, an internet user, asked.
If so, "just imagine the number of complaints over unfulfilled predictions lodged with the consumers' protection office", he said.
In September, several MPs of the ruling Liberal-Democrat Party had proposed a bill aimed at taxing fortune-tellers but they reportedly backed down after threats of being cursed.
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'Stick Up' With Big Stick
ktla - Police in Virginia are searching for a man who held up a convenience store with an unusual weapon -- a very large stick.
Surveillance video shows the suspect bursting into the store in Manassas just after 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and threatening the clerk with the giant stick.
The clerk grabbed a hammer, sparking a 2-minute standoff of sorts.
The suspect eventually won the fight and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The clerk was knocked down and struck several times in the face.
His injuries were said to be minor.
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German Archeologists Uncover Celtic Treasure
spiegel - Archeologists in Germany have discovered a 2,600-year-old Celtic tomb containing ornate jewellery of gold and amber. They say the grave is unusually well preserved and should provide important insights into early Celtic culture.
German archeologists have unearthed a 2,600-year-old Celtic tomb containing a treasure of jewellery made of gold, amber and bronze.
The subterranean chamber measuring four by five meters was uncovered near the prehistoric Heuneburg hill fort near the town of Herbertingen in south-western Germany. Its contents including the oak floor of the room are unusually well preserved. The find is a "milestone for the reconstruction of the social history of the Celts," archeologist Dirk Krausse, the director of the dig, said on Tuesday.
The intact oak should allow archeologists to ascertain the precise age of the tomb through tree-ring dating. This is rarely possible with Celtic finds because the Celts left behind no writings and their buildings, usually made from wood and clay, have long since crumbled away.
A Vital Trading Center
Krausse said the artefacts found suggest that a woman from the Heuneburg aristocracy was buried there, but added that laboratory tests will need to be conducted to be certain. Only a small part of the chamber has so far been examined.
The entire room weighing some 80 tons was lifted by two cranes onto a flatbed truck and taken to a research facility in Ludwigsburg on Tuesday. The results of the analysis will be presented in June 2011, researchers said.
Heuneburg is regarded as one of the most important Celtic settlements and was a vital trading center during the period between 620 and 480 BC. Intensive excavation has taken place at the site since 1950. Other tombs found at Heuneburg over the decades had already been plundered.
The tomb and the objects are to go on show in an exhibition in Stuttgart in 2012.