Two Suns in the Sky
Footage from Taiwan's CTV.
Reportedly seen from Peng-hu Islands.
Explained as an instance of sundog.
Some fear that this is a bad omen heralding "the end of the world."
NOTE: Here's a link for more information on this phenomena...Lon
**********
'Massive' sharks reported near Port Canaveral, Florida
floridatoday - Fishermen always like to share fish tales. The past few weeks, some have been telling a great white one.
Perched atop the 36-foot "Relentless," a charter boat out of Port Canaveral, Derek Redwine saw a dark shape come into view while scanning the green waters for fish seven miles off Cocoa Beach.
While searching for cobia last Sunday -- a large fish that spends much of its time swimming alongside manta rays -- Redwine hollered for Capt. Scott Bussen to slow down.
"I thought I saw a ray with a big cobia swimming above it," said the Merritt Island artist who owns BoldWater graphic design. "As we got closer, a shark came into focus."
A big shark.
So big, in fact, that what Redwine thought was a fish hovering above a manta was actually the long shadow cast on the approximate 15-foot great white shark by its own dorsal fin, he said.
"The girth was unbelievable to me," Redwine said.
Captain Bussen slowed the Relentless to a halt above the slow-moving shark for a better look. The fish apparently had the same idea.
"He hung around for a good 15 minutes, just slowly circling us," said Redwine. "He was really peaceful and docile."
The shark -- a few feet longer than the boat's 12-foot beam -- did not attempt to devour some fresh catch the fishermen were offering. Instead, it passively swam around the boat before meandering off.
Equipped only with a cell phone camera, the anglers snapped photos and video.
Last weekend, at least a half-dozen boats reported seeing an identical shark off Port Canaveral. In the past month, fishermen from as far south as Islamorada in the Florida Keys have been reporting white shark sightings. Two weeks ago, spearfishermen off Deerfield Beach watched as a white shark mauled an 80-pound amberjack they had speared. The bite marks were nearly two feet across.
"I feel really fortunate to have seen this shark," admitted Redwine, who has fished the waters off Central Florida for two decades. He was glad to share the experience with his 12-year-old son, Alden.
Whether the multiple sightings off Port Canaveral are multiple sharks or just one is still in question.
"There have been a lot of big sharks around," said Captain Scott Bussen, who operates Relentless Offshore Adventures. "I've been seeing hammerheads nearly every trip out, along with blacktips, threshers and even a large mako."
The sharks' appearance is no surprise to George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
"These are animals that prefer cooler waters and they're more likely to be seen off Florida in the winter," Burgess said. "We've had them turn the bend around the tip of Florida and come into the Gulf of Mexico. In years past, they were more common in the Gulf, back when there were monk seals."
Extensively hunted since the 1400s, the Caribbean monk seal once populated the Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico. Declared extinct in 2008, the monk seal was an attractive food source for the giant sharks. When the seals disappeared, the sharks' range shrank.
Not fazed by this fish's reputation, Redwine does not think beachgoers or surfers should head for higher ground.
"I don't think people should be scared. It's such a cool fluke, such a rare occurrence for us," Redwine said.
Burgess agrees.
" 'Scared' is not the word that should be in people's vocabulary, but 'respect' is," said Burgess. "When we enter the sea, we're entering a foreign environment and we need to be aware of the risk. There are small and large things that can cause harm -- jellyfish, stingrays. These are risks we have to accept."
Most surfers probably have a good understanding of how fragile we are as invaders of the sea, they understand that they're going into the shark's world.
"Swimmers should know that they're not going into the neighborhood pool."
**********
Raelian Movement, the World's Largest UFO Religion, Launches 'God is a Myth' Billboard Campaign
goddiscussion - Kicking off the month of March, the International Raelian Movement launched the next phase of its atheistic campaign by purchasing very high profile billboard space on the busy I-15 southbound freeway in Las Vegas. Each month for the next six months, hundreds of thousands of people will see the huge "GOD IS A MYTH" message while commuting or visiting the city.
Ricky Roehr, leader for the North American Raelian Movement, explained why the Raelians plan to make this huge public statement that will possibly upset so many Christians and members of other religious faiths.
"If you drive the freeway between Vegas and Los Angeles, you'll see several signs warning drivers to follow the Bible or else face eternal hell," he said. "Those signs are designed to make viewers feel fear and guilt. We want to counterbalance that fear by letting them know there is no God or Devil. There's no need to live in fear. We should enjoy our precious lives to the fullest while of course giving love all around us. Surely that's a message even Christians recognize as one that Jesus taught. But, whether the source is the Bible, the Koran, or Greek or Roman mythology, all gods are myths, just as there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny etc. What there are, however, are human beings who were advanced scientists who created all forms of life, known as the Elohim. You can read about them in the oldest versions of the Bible, and the oldest versions are always the less polluted versions."
Extraterrestrial Origin of Life.
Founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Rael, Raelism is described in Wikipedia as "the largest UFO religion in the world."
The Raelian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials called the Elohim. Members of this species appeared human and when contacting the descendants of their human creation, they were mistaken for angels, cherubim or gods. Raelians believe that Jesus, Buddha and other avatars are actually messengers of the Elohim.
Roehr said the Raelian explanation about the extraterrestrial origin of life has become more accepted in the United States after the History Channel's "Ancient Astronauts" series.
"Making people live in fear not only greatly diminishes the quality of life; it facilitates intolerance and hate," Roehr said. "But religious leaders know that fearful masses are much easier to control. Humanity is paying a huge penalty for all this fear because when people live in fear, all higher thinking like love and compassion shuts down. That's why violence continues on Earth, and this is why we cannot stay silent like most atheists do when we see god believers maintaining people in fear and promoting their scriptures full of hatred and encouraging so many crimes."
An Atheistic Religion.
"The God of the Koran is mythical to Christians and the Gods of Hinduism are myths to monotheists," Roehr said. "Whether he's a Jew, a Muslim or a Christian, one man's true religion is always another man's myth. We Raelians just deny the existence of one more God than they do. Yet there's a very important difference between most atheists and the Raelians: We're still Creationists! The Raelian Movement is an atheistic religion that is preparing humanity to welcome back its true creators, the Elohim, without fear or guilt."
Raelians are conducting their annual Happiness Academy (seminar) in Las Vegas from March 27 to April 2 at the Alexis Park Hotel.
**********
NASA scientist claims he has a meteorite with evidence of extraterrestrial life
cbsnews - In what's sure to rekindle the debate over the question of life beyond Earth, a scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center says he has fossil evidence of bacterial life inside of a rare class of meteorites .
Writing in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology, Richard B. Hoover argues that an examination of a collection of 9 meteorites - called CI1 carbonaceous meteorites - contain "indigenous fossils" of bacterial life.
"The complex filaments found embedded in the CI1 carbonaceous meteorites represent the remains of indigenous microfossils of cyanobacteria," according to Hoover.
That matter-of-fact sentence also underscores the shout-out-loud implication that the detection of fossils of cyanobacteria in the CI1 meteorites raises the possibility of life on comets. And Hoover does not shy away from offering that very conclusion.
Skeptics will doubtless weigh in soon with questions. Still, Hoover's proposition may have stirred more controversy several years ago. More recently, though, some scientists have suggested that meteors and comets slamming into the Earth brought with them the very integuments of life, including water and a host of complex organic chemicals.
If he's right, Hoover may have evidence to support that theory. He argues that the complex filaments he found embedded in the meteors are micro-fossils of extraterrestrial life forms that existed on the meteorites a long time ago prior to the meteorites' entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
"This finding has direct implications to the distribution of life in the Cosmos and the possibility of microbial life on in liquid water regimes of cometary nuclei as the travel within the orbit of Mars and in icy moons with liquid water oceans such as Europa and Enceladus," he writes.
In an accompanying comment, Rudy Schild, the journal's editor-in-chief and a member of the Harvard-Smithsonian's Center for Astrophysics, announced that the publication has sent out a "general invitation" to more than 5000 scientists to review the paper.
"We believe the best way to advance science, is to promote debate and discussion," he wrote.