Florida's Nile Monitor Lizard Invasion Expanding

Nile Monitors, lizards that can grow up to 9 feet in length but are normally only found in Africa and Asia, are now invading parts of South Florida.

Nine of the formidable looking creatures were recently spotted in Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a group that fears the monitors could undermine the natural ecosystem of the area if they continue to grow in number.

“This is a high-priority species for us,” Scott Hardin, who coordinates nonnative species programs at the commission, said in a statement earlier this week.

People are being warned that the huge lizards — equipped with long tails that they can use like whips, powerful jaws and teeth, and sharp claws — get extremely nasty when threatened, and thus attempts to capture the creatures are discouraged.

“Nile monitor lizards may exceed 7 feet in length and are known to be very defensive when cornered, so the FWC discourages attempts to capture the lizards. They are known to be more active during the hot summer months, explaining why reports have increased.”

What are the FWC’s plans for handling the monitor outbreak?

“We plan to go after them aggressively to either try to eradicate them or suppress their numbers if they are determined to be established.” - palmbeachpost

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Giant lizards being hunted down in South Florida

They're not Godzilla size but large, nonnative lizards in two South Florida counties are being hunted down after alarming humans, including a homeowner who found one that slipped through a doggie door.

Nine of the critters — formally known as Nile monitor lizards — were seen recently in Broward and Palm Beach counties, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warned.

"This is a high-priority species for us," Scott Hardin, who coordinates nonnative species programs at the commission, said in a statement Tuesday. "We plan to go after them aggressively to either try to eradicate them or suppress their numbers if they are determined to be established."

The commission urged residents to report sightings to 888-IVE-GOT1 instead of trying to deal with them personally.

"Monitor lizards may exceed 7 feet in length and are known to be very defensive when cornered, so the FWC discourages attempts to capture the lizards," the statement said. "They are known to be more active during the hot summer months, explaining why reports have increased."

Wildlife officials believe residents of South Florida who collect exotic animals as pets released the animals into the wild, either after the animals got too big or because they just didn't want the reptiles anymore, nbcmiami.com reported.

The commission said it was worried the lizards would undermine the natural ecosystem of the area.

"Nile monitors are large, predatory lizards native to Africa," it stated. "This species nests around water, and the FWC is concerned about potential predation in bird rookeries."

A population of Nile monitors is already established in an area of Cape Coral, on the southwest coast of Florida, it added.

Florida and the commission have their hands full dealing with wildlife issues. Nonnative pythons are spreading across the state and alligator/human incidents increase this time of year. - MSNBC

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Nile monitor lizards invaded Florida and they're winning the battle

The biology professor from the University of Tampa bent down to the floor and pulled out of a black trash bag a fork-tongued, 5-foot-long, flesh-eating African lizard.

It was big, dead and about to be cut open. The professor dropped the lizard on a long plastic tray in the environmental resources building here. The body hit the counter with a thud.

"Welcome to Cape Coral," Todd Campbell said.

These things live here, thousands of them, in this sprawling city in the southwest corner of the state. They're not supposed to live here, of course, which is why scientists like Campbell call them an invasive species.

Invasion implies a war, which is appropriate. That's what this is.

Us against them.

This particular conflict has been going on for almost a decade now. The battleground is the city's more than 400 miles of man-made canals.

The lizards' weapons include: sharp, snake-like teeth, long, muscular tails they use as whips, and claws that look like the sinister pendants of voodoo necklaces. They can run up to 18 miles per hour on land and swim under water for an hour at a time.

What do we have? We've got traps. Metal traps rigged with rancid hunks of chicken backs. And we had vigilance.

Here, though, is the latest development in this ongoing struggle: Cape Coral, so reliant on real estate, has gone in the past couple years from speculative fever to spectacular failure. This is a city in retreat. Water-logged phone books bake in the sun on the stoops of abandoned homes. The signs on the dying lawns say what's gone wrong: FORECLOSURE, SHORT SALE, BANK OWNED.

This just in from the fighting at the front:

"At this point in time," said Campbell, the Tampa professor, "the monitors are winning."

• • •

The story of how they got here starts with how we got here.

Once upon a time this was saw palmettos and slash pines and mangrove swamps. Hardly anyone lived here. Then came air conditioning and two brothers from Baltimore who had made a fortune hawking hair products decided in the late 1950s to start selling subdivided Florida to pasty-skinned Northerners.

Jack and Leonard Rosen turned swaths of acreage into all those canals and marketed their new city as a "Waterfront Wonder­land." The population that was less than 300 in 1960 was more than 30,000 in 1980 and more than 100,000 in 2000.

Around 1990 is when people started seeing … what was that?

The Nile monitors, Varanus niloticus, are here for the same reason the Brazilian pepper trees are here, and the palms from Asia, and the pines from Australia, and the fish from Central America visible in the canals eating the torpedo grass, and also the pastel stucco 3/2 on Surfside Boulevard.

We put them here.

Local legend has it that a pet store went bankrupt sometime in the '80s and the proprietor let loose a gaggle of monitors in an area where, back then, almost nobody lived. Another theory is that wholesale distributors of exotic pets dumped monitors on purpose in the hope that they would procreate and provide a steady inventory to later be caught and sold. A third idea is that a series of owners over the years bought monitors when they were still small and then couldn't or didn't want them anymore when they began to grow into small dinosaurs.

This much is certain: All the canals weren't good just for luring buyers of homes.

They also created a Nile monitor paradise.

• • •

Enter professor Campbell.

The biologist got $50,000 in grants from state and federal wildlife foundations to come to Cape Coral for two years in parts of '03, '04 and '05, to trap the monitors, study the monitors and maybe even eradicate the monitors.

He learned they're not picky eaters. Bugs, frogs, smaller lizards, turtles, birds, rodents, baby alligators, endangered gopher tortoises, endangered burrowing owls, the eggs and offspring of any of these animals, feral cats, domestic cats, possibly even the family dog, road kill, whatever.

They sometimes hunt in packs.

Their disposition is disagreeable.

They live an average of 12 years.

Smaller females, say 3 feet long, once a year produce clutches of six or so eggs. Bigger females, close to twice that size, can lay up to 60.

In their native Africa, where they live in burrows on the banks of rivers, they have a natural predator, but there aren't any crocodiles in Cape Coral — only the occasional gator or metal trap.

But the main thing Campbell learned?

Eradication was an overly optimistic aim.

"Nile monitors," he wrote in his final report in '05, "continue to horrify the residents of Cape Coral by climbing on their houses, attacking their pets and scaring their children. … They have the potential to devastate native fish and wildlife populations."

Monitor stories started to hit the local papers. One couple said they believed a monitor ate their elderly cat, leaving behind on the bank of the canal only his white paws and black tail. Another woman was sitting in her backyard and saw a monitor run by with a dying baby owl jammed in its jaws. She gave chase with a flower pot.

Meetings were had. Citizens talked to state wildlife officials in the hope that state wildlife officials would talk to national wildlife officials in the hope that a chunk of federal money might lead to a more concerted extermination effort.

It didn't happen. What did happen was the economy started to turn.

Over these past couple lean years, the city has had one man in the environmental resources division who devotes approximately 30 hours a week to trying to trap monitors, and two more who help when they can. It's reactive, limited "bait and wait," better than nothing.

But the program relies on calls from citizens.

The eyes and ears of a city that's shrinking.

• • •

We're in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Florida is worse off than most of the rest of the country. Cape Coral is worse off than most of the rest of Florida.

The value of property in Lee County dropped in the 2008-09 tax year by $30 billion. There are still an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 houses in some stage of foreclosure.

The population of Cape Coral, according to the city, peaked a year and a half ago at more than 177,691. It's now almost 10,000 less. The people here say the dip feels steeper than that.

Here's where the lizards come in.

"The less people here," said Harry Phillips, a biologist for the city, "the less sightings we have."

The city in the past couple years used to get about 40 calls a month. Now: more like 18 to 20.

Monitors trapped: 69 in '07, 45 in '08, 17 so far in '09.

"In this economy," Phillips said, "there isn't going to be a widespread trapping effort right now."

"That's kind of been the most frustrating part of this," said Scott Hardin, the exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Tallahassee. "There's no pot of money."

A widespread eradication effort, said Rick Engeman, a biologist at the National Wildlife Research Center in Colorado, might cost $70,000 per trapper, per year, for salary and equipment. And it would require multiple trappers for multiple years.

By now, Phillips said, the city's monitor population could be 1,000.

That's it?

"Maybe 2,000."

Really?

"Could be 5,000."

Or more?

"We really don't know," he said.

• • •

Cape Coral in the summer.

It's ghastly hot and sweat-stain wet. The snowbirds go home. It's no place to be. This is when we slow down and wait for relief.

Not the Nile monitors.

They like it like this, the hotter, the wetter, the better. They're only here because we were here first, but being in this city right now, looking at us, then looking at them, you start to wonder: Do the invasive Nile monitors like living here more than the people who are trying to trap them?

They're down there, in the man-made canals, and you might not see them, but you sure see their burrows, deep holes dug into the dirt on the banks, and if you traipse around all that Brazilian pepper and cabbage palm they'll smell you before you see them.

Splash.

This, for them, is the part of the year when they're most active. They're moving, eating, looking for mates. They're making more babies. - tampabay.com

Fortean / Alternative News: 'Beyond the Edge' Radio, Shakespeare's Reefer Madness and Hawaii Light Burst

This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio: Demonologist and Paranormal Investigators Keith And Sandra Johnson

Tune in this Sunday night at 10:00 pm est as Eric, Lon and the Forkchop welcome Keith and Sandra Johnson founders of NEAR - New England Anomolies Research!

Keith and Sandra are regularly called upon to assist individuals in dealing with alleged malevolent paranormal phenomena or potential inhuman infestation in their homes and together have over 40 years of experience as paranormal investigators.

Keith has had an interest in the paranormal since he was a teenager when he had phenomena occur in his own home. In the seventies, he was a member of the paranormal research group Parapsychology Investigation & Research Organization, out of RI College.

Keith has been featured on the SciFi channel’s Ghost Hunters, as a consulting demonologist, and both he and Sandra are former core members of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS).

They have been featured as demonology consultants in two first season episodes of the A&E series Paranormal State as well as assisting with documentaries dealing with the paranormal including New Gravity Media’s ‘14 Degrees’.

The pair are co-founders of New England Anomalies Research and host a local TV talk show dealing with paranormal topics called Ghosts R N.E.A.R. which airs locally in Rhode Island and can also be seen online.

Keith is the author of the ‘Paranormal Realities’ book series that chronicle his experiences as a paranormal investigator. Books I & II have been published and subsequent books are in the works and due for future release.

You can learn more about them by visiting www.nearparanormal.com.

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Mysterious bubble-like light burst seen over Hawaii

Footage of this incredible bubble-like burst of light in the night sky was captured by cameras at an astronomical observatory in Hawaii.

Sky watchers have been flooding internet forums with speculation about the burst, filmed by a webcam mounted on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea.

Captured in time-lapse footage, the glowing sphere takes several minutes to expand until it virtually fills the frame - then it vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared.

Theories as the cause of the mysterious luminous sphere have ranged from the opening of an inter-dimensional portal to the future to a battle between two alien starships.

But the most likely explanation is that is shows a U.S. Minuteman III inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), ejecting fuel as it enters the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere.

The time-lapse footage shows the night horizon filled with stars, when suddenly an ethereal arc pops into view.

It rapidly expands, forming a circular shell which grows as it travels across the horizon, then fades as it fills the view.

According to Discover Magazine's Bad Astronomy blog, the soap bubble-like characteristics of the light burst indicate that it has been caused by a 'sudden impulse of energy and rapid expansion of material'.

Citing online astronomy forums, Bad Astronomy reveals that a Minuteman III ICBM had been scheduled to launch from Vandenburg Air Force Base, California, three minutes before the burst was observed, at about 3:35am Hawaii time.

The stars of the Cassiopeia constellation are visible in the horizon behind the burst, indicating that the webcam was pointed north-east - towards the base and the missile's probable flight path.

Again citing internet forums, the blog speculates the burst could have caused by a charges in the missile's third stage detonating to kill its thrust as it arcs across the Earth.

At a pre-determined moment, ports in the side of this section of the missile are blown open by explosive charges, allowing remaining fuel to be dumped fast.

This rapid fuel dump cuts the missile's thrust at precisely the right time allowing the warhead to be targeted with devastating accuracy at the right spot back on the surface of the Earth.

As the missile is above most of the Earth's atmosphere at this point, when the fuel gas is suddenly ejected it blows away from the missile in a perfect sphere - which could explain the bubble-like characteristics of the light.

For this explanation, the timing seems to be right. However, it is only a theory and there has not yet been any official confirmation of the claims. - dailymail

Click for video

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Did Shakespeare have reefer madness?

Did Shakespeare smoke weed? University of the Witwatersrand anthropologist Francis Thackeray thinks he did. He'd like a chance to prove that, and also learn more about the Bard's life and death, by digging up his body. (Maybe they'll also determine if Shakespeare was Shakespeare, but that's another story.) In 2001, Thackeray and his colleagues unearthed pipes in Shakespeare's garden that tested positive for marijuana, cocaine, and other substances. From RAW Story:

Wikipedia Commons A A2 Shakespeare "We have incredible techniques," Thackeray told Fox News. "We don't intend to move the remains at all..."

"The pipes we tested still had dirt in them which preserved the residues inside the stem and bowl," Van der Merwe said. "The readings we got were the same as if it had tested a modern-day crack pipe."

Camphor, myristic acid, and quinoline were among other substances detected in the pipes.

"Myristic acid, which is found in nutmeg, has hallucinogenic properties, and camphor, perhaps, was used to hide the smell of tobacco or other substances," Thackeray noted in 2001.

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'Whitebirk witches' given anti-social behaviour orders

Two girls who were known as the "Whitebirk witches" have been given anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) for terrorising their neighbours.

Amanda Holt, 16, and Tori Duxbury, 15, caused problems for people living in the Whitebirk area of Blackburn, magistrates were told.

Police said they received a "catalogue of complaints" about the pair.

They included intimidating people, throwing stones at cars, damaging property, shouting and swearing.

Police said one resident felt like a prisoner in his own home and would keep his lights off after dark so the girls did not know he was home.

He also checked they were not outside before leaving his home.

The Asbos - which are in place for two years - prevent the girls from entering an area of Whitebirk, except when Duxbury is in the company of her mother.

They are also banned from being outdoors in a public place in Blackburn between 2200 and 0500 BST until 31 December.
'Targeted the vulnerable'

The pair cannot see each other or six other youths, nor can they act or incite others to act in an anti-social manner.

Pc Tom Sanford, of Lancashire Police, said: "The behaviour of these two girls has been unbearable for the other people living in the area.

"They targeted many properties and residents, many of whom were vulnerable.

"We are committed to making sure Blackburn is not blighted by this type of behaviour and will continue to use tactics such as Asbos to rid local communities of such nuisance."

Linda Clegg, Blackburn with Darwen Council's director of children's, safeguarding and protection services, said the local authority was working with the girls and their families to ensure they adhered to the orders. - BBC

Fortean / Alternative News: Cyclops Shark Found and Cylinder UFOs Over Indiana / Illinois

Bizarre-looking shark caught in Sea of Cortez baffles scientists

Lots of odd creatures come from the sea, and add to the list a one-eyed bull shark fetus that was removed from the body of its captured mother recently off La Paz, Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez.

A brief story about the shark is on the Pisces Sportfishing blog. Pete Thomas Outdoors shared the top image with two shark experts in California and both were skeptical at first, suggesting it was some kind of hoax.

Ciclope One of them jokingly identified the species as a "Cycloptomus" because of a single eye -- if it is, in fact, an actual eye -- located just above the mouth.

But Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager at Pisces Sportfising, has been in touch with renowned shark expert Felipe Galvan, who has seen the shark and has even produced a paper on the discovery.

The paper is under scientific review. More information will be shared here when it becomes available. - petethomasoutdoors

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Rare Deep-Water Giant Squid Found In South Florida

University of Florida researchers received a rare 25-foot-long, deep-water giant squid Monday, the only one of its kind in the collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Recovered by recreational fishermen who found the creature floating on the surface about 12 miles offshore from Jensen Beach Sunday, museum scientists collected the specimen from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Tequesta Field Laboratory in Palm Beach County and returned to the Gainesville campus late Monday.

"It's so rare to get these specimens and they're such deep-water animals that we don't know much about how they live," said John Slapcinsky, Florida Museum malacology collection manager. "This specimen provides an excellent opportunity to learn things about these creatures we couldn't find out any other way."

Robert Benz, who was fishing with friends Joey Asaro and Paul Peroulakis, said they spotted the giant squid, Architeuthis dux, about 11 a.m. After realizing what it was, the men slid the dying squid onto the back of their 23-foot boat.

"I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one's going to believe us if we don't," Benz said. "I didn't want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it."

Giant squid only reproduce once in their lifetime, and then often die slowly, after becoming lethargic, Slapcinsky said. The animal was likely in that state when the fishermen found it, he believes, because it was barely alive and near the surface in 170 feet of water.

Giant squid are one of the largest invertebrates, growing up to 60 feet long and weighing more than 1,000 pounds, but because they are seldom seen, little is known about their reproduction, ecology and life span. Depicted as sea monsters throughout history, squid are normally deep-water dwellers and some are known to spar with sperm whales, a common predator, Slapcinsky said.

"This is a pretty massive animal," he said. "It took about six people to move it, and it wasn't light."

The animal is white with red skin containing chromatophores, or color-bearing cells. Squid can activate these pigment cells, rapidly changing their color and color intensity for communication and in some species camouflage, Slapcinsky said.

The specimen is from the same genus as the giant squid depicted in the Florida Museum's 2006 temporary exhibit, "In Search of Giant Squid." The exhibit produced by the Smithsonian Institution focused on the fact the creature had never been witnessed alive in its natural habitat — a feat later accomplished by a Japanese film crew.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission scientists extracted genetic samples from the squid, which were brought with the specimen to UF. Scientists injected formalin into the body cavity before submerging the squid in a 10 percent solution of the preservative.

"It looks nice, it's still in fabulous shape and it's big," Slapcinsky said. "It would be really cool to exhibit something like this, if it turns out that it preserves well enough and we can find a way to exhibit it so that it doesn't damage the specimen."

It will take about two weeks to complete the preservation process, after which researchers will further examine the squid to determine its sex and age and compare it with other specimens. Scientists hope to gain a greater understanding of the life of these elusive creatures, including their range, diet and how they reproduce.

The genetic data will be of particular interest to researchers trying to determine if there are one or more species of giant squid, said museum invertebrate paleontologist Roger Portell.

"We don't really have a good handle on the biogeography of these critters, so this will add to that knowledge base," Portell said. "Because they are so rare, we have so few samples where we get a fresh specimen and can actually do genetic work." - underwatertimes

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Cylinder Shaped UFOs Reported Over Indiana and Illinois 6/28/2011

MUFON CMS - 6/28/2011 - Illinois: I was heading North on I57 at the Chebanse 302 exit ramp. There was two of us that seen it at the same time. We parked the car and got out to stare at it. It was climbing higher moving straight up... maybe curving a little tiny bit East. We ruled out an jet due to the odd looking shape. Also, I have never seen a smoke tail look like that. The smoke trail was rather short but, fanned out .. was quite amazing. At first we thought we were looking at the asteroid. After watching it and realizing it was moving UP..and its maneuvers led me to the conclusion it was indeed a UFO.

MUFON CMS - 6/28/2011 - Kokomo, Indiana: While smoking in the parking lot of my business, observed a large dull silver/gray cylinder flying at high altitude from E - W high in the sky. It was a nearly cloudless day, and I was with my co-owner, who also witnessed the craft. She went inside and grabbed binoculars - which I used to observe the craft in more detail. No wings, no tail, no contrail. A large cylinder, at least twice the size of a large jetliner, with rounded ends vs pointy nose and tail. Estimated altitude 30,000 ft. There was no sound, but from that altitude and distance, not surprising. We watched as the cylinder crossed the sky over Kokomo slightly to our North from East to West - a total of maybe two minutes - last seen heading over Burlington due West of Kokomo.

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German Pet Rabbits Fed Cannibis

Police in Brandenburg who discovered a large plot of cannabis called on the neighbouring house only to find an 84-year-old woman who had been feeding her rabbits with the plants. “The rabbits really like it,” the woman told officers who called on her in the village of Golzow near Belzig.

A police officer had seen the healthy, metre-high plants from the road while on his way to work and told his colleagues, who visited the plot’s owner – the elderly woman. She told them that she had not grown the plants herself, but that they had simply started growing there, and had proven to be excellent rabbit food.

Not only did the rabbits love eating the plants, they grew back very quickly after she cut them down, she told the investigating officers. A spokesman for the Brandenburg police said her explanation had sounded plausible, but the officers could not leave her with the plants, rather cut them all down and took them to the forensics laboratory for testing.

The three large plastic sacks of weed will now be tested to determine the level of THC – the psycho-active ingredient in cannabis - they contain. There was no official comment on what the elderly woman was expected to feed her rabbits with now.

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Wildfires threaten Los Alamos nuclear lab

Doug Tucker, fire chief: "We're doing our best to keep it off the lab"

One of the top nuclear weapons research facilities in the US will remain closed until Thursday as fire fighters battle a wildfire raging at its boundary.

Only "essential-duties" staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory will be permitted on site on Wednesday.

Officials at the New Mexico facility have said they detected "no off-site releases of contamination".

The town outside the laboratory in the state of New Mexico was evacuated on Monday as the fire raged nearby.

Officials said the nuclear facilities faced "no immediate threat" but warned of damage to houses.

The lab, opened during World War II, led the development of the atomic bomb.
Possible toxic plume

By midday on Tuesday, the Las Conchas fire had grown to 93 sq miles (241 sq km), burning through forests, canyons, and mesas, fuelled by dry timber and powered by strong winds.

The blaze was said to be as close as 50ft (15m) away from the grounds of the lab on Tuesday afternoon, raising fears it could reach a cache of 30,000 drums, each containing 55 gallons (208 litres) of plutonium-contaminated waste.

The fire had reached the lab's southwestern boundary and leapt a state road onto the land, burning roughly an acre, state fire officials said.

"The concern is that these drums will get so hot that they'll burst," Joni Arends, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, told the Associated Press news agency.

"That would put this toxic material into the plume," she added.

But officials said there was very little risk of the fire actually reaching the lab's facilities and that workers were standing near the waste drums to coat them with fire-resistant foam if the blaze got too close.

Authorities said the fire could triple in size in the coming days, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

The fire blew enormous plumes of black smoke over the town of Los Alamos and forced the evacuation of the entire community, which has a population of roughly 12,000.

"We are throwing absolutely everything at this that we got," Democratic Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico said.

The south-western US has been stricken by giant wildfires this year, with millions of acres scorched in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

To the west of New Mexico, the largest wildfire in the history of the state of Arizona has been burning for nearly a month. - BBC

Typical Monday....

....woke this morning to silence (besides the dogs and cats snoring). The power was off and remained so until late afternoon. Since I have other things to do this evening, I'm afraid the blog would need to wait a day. Thanks for understanding...Lon

Stalked by Shadow People

I received a request from a reader who has an interest in personal experiences with 'Shadow People'. I decided to peruse my archives and post the most interesting accounts I've received from other readers over the years:

Shadow people are some of the most menacing and frightening entities around. I believe they are of a demonic nature. Not only do these dark shadowy figures cause anxiety and terror but often enjoy terrorizing people in their beds. Most shadow people are not alone but have partners in crime. The shadows that terrorized me were never alone. Sometimes my bedroom would be filled with dozens, big and small. Some could touch me. These shadows would pinch me. It wasn't till I was maybe about age 9 that I finally told my parents about these entities and it caused quite a stir in my family. As usual my parents thought I was suffering from nightmares and suggested I eat less before bed time.

Without fail these Shadows returned every night. It wasn't until one night I couldn't stand hearing their laughter that I resisted their powers to make people catatonic or in a paralyzed state that the reality of the situation was no longer a joke to my Mother as my bed began to shake violently as if a giant hand was shaking it. I jumped out of bed and ran so fast that I don't even remember running to my Mom's room. I jumped on her bed in the dark and her bed started shaking too. She held me in her arms as she prayed out loud to God and slowly the shaking resided. By the end of the month we moved out of that home.

Now this is what I gathered from that experience. One; That house was extremely old. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. But there was a bad vibe there from day one. A lot of crazy things happened there with my family fighting all the time. Never in the history of my family had there been soo many arguments and cases of domestic violence and abuse. Two; besides fights and arguments there was a vibe of mischievousness. When I played in that house it was almost as if all of us were in some kind of altered state, like some kind of dimensional trance. A good example of this was the movie ET where the kid gets aroused in the class room and he starts releasing the frogs. Yeah! I can't remember the whole thing. Let's just put it this way, I guess I went through intense puberty there. I remember having bad thoughts all the time. I remember my best friend Diana flirting with me and acting mature, but only in the house. When we played outside she was a normal kid. I swear this house had some effect on people's feelings and whatnot. The strange thing is that I don't remember much of my childhood in the house as I remembered most of my childhood in school or playing outside. I remember being cruel to my pets. I was never like that but I became a bad kid in the house. Outside I was quite normal.

The strange thing is that we moved about 5 blocks away from that house into a new apartment and I thought things were back to being normal for almost half a year with no incidents. No fights between Mom and Dad, when we all got together it was fun again. I noticed it right away the vibe change. I noticed that the old house was really dark inside. Half a year passed when I had my last incident one night.

It was early, maybe 2:30am I had woke up to use the restroom and I was maybe about 10 years old. I remember laying down in the bed and getting comfortable when I felt my bed got shoved from one side. At first I stood still as I thought maybe it was an earthquake. It passed and I played it off as just my imagination. As I began to fall asleep I had the sensation of being cold and clammy so I covered up. I felt feverish and I felt a small pinch on one of my toes. I became frightened as I looked around in the dark and saw 3 black outlines around my bed. The Shadows were back!

I became paralyzed as I screamed for help, I'm still not sure if I did try but nothing came out or if I imagined screaming out. The point is, I was freaking screaming! I felt some cold weight on my chest as I became face to face with one of these entities. Still paralyzed it looked me right in the eye and this is what I saw. It's eyes were black as black velvet and evil looking, but the outside rim of it's eyes was black line yellow line, black line yellow line all around the outside perimeter of it's eye in a pattern and it moved counter clockwise motion. It's two other Shadow friends had red and the other full yellow eyes. It was unreal as they all burst out in this wicked laughter and vanished and never bothered me like that again.

Shadow people can move objects and touch people. I believe they can physically hurt people. There are theories that Shadow people are alien beings. Some claim they are travelers from a different dimensional plane. Professor Stephen W. Hawkings has talked about shadow people being a real possible phenomena. Millions of people have had similar experiences and even video footage, photos of this phenomena. You are not alone, but the best we can do is share our experience and hope to learn as much as we can about this. I'm sorry about the sloppiness of my writing and spelling but hope that you can have a heads up to this strange phenomena. Good luck..Carlos

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Shadow People, Poltergeists or Demons?

My experiences took place in the early 80's in Toronto, Canada, and just like the fellow writing of his experiences on your site, mine also took place in a very old house. The house then was at least 75 yrs old and has since been razed to the ground and a brand new structure built in its place. When my family moved in there we experienced the same sort of events, arguments, abusive situations, strange phenomena but not to the point where we all noticed it right away. In fact my younger brother was a skeptic up to the point where things began happening to him as well. I think he took this attitude to allay the fears he must have had. Our father moved out of the house after the first year and away to another part of the country so just the three of us were left. At one point we had family come and live with us before they too departed.

My experiences began with an event I will never forget when I was 16. It was summer and I had difficulty sleeping. This went on for one month approximately. Then one night I had fallen into a light sleep when I was violently awakened. I recall hearing a sound that I thought was an explosion and thinking that our stove must have exploded in the kitchen below me. I opened my eyes and looked around the room in the darkness but saw nothing to indicate anything was happening. Suddenly my bed began to shake violently up and down and it felt as though I was being electrocuted through my solar plexus. I couldn't move but I could see my feet moving as the bed was jumping up and down. Some objects rose up off my dresser and shot towards the bed I thought they would hit me as they approached with such speed. In fact they stopped suddenly and began to swirl around in a counter clockwise direction above me and from the center of this swirl a bright white light appeared and some voices which were like high pitched shrieks or nails on a black board said quite clearly. "The message we bring is to tell the people he is still alive." And then everything stopped suddenly. I was terrified and basically thought I would end up in a nut house. I remember shaking from fear so much I could barely get out of bed. I made my way to my mom's room to tell her about it at which point she assured me I was having nightmares. Say your prayers and go back to sleep she said. I returned to my room after an hour or more but I couldn't sleep. It was a long time before I could sleep there in fact.

The next event happened the following January. I was coming home very late one night and decided to take the short cut through the alley way by our street. I passed a parked van with windows all around and I saw a movement in the van which made me feel somehow by its shape, size and response that it was doberman someone had left outside in their van. I kept walking but the thought pestered me that someone should leave their dog out in mid winter in the night. So I went back to the van cautiously peering in but there was nothing at all. Not even a cushion or anything hanging from the ceiling. Ok I thought I guess I imagined it. I happily kept walking home and when I was in the alley I suddenly heard footsteps behind me in the snow. I got a little freaked out and when I turned my head I didn't see anyone there. As I got to the end of the alleyway and turned onto my street I looked back to the entrance to see if anyone was following me. What I saw shocked and terrified me. There was a streetlight right at the corner and in the pool of its light was standing this enormous creature. It was at least 8 feet tall and huge. What struck me was that its form was completely black, there were no reflective surfaces on it whatsoever. In fact the light was shining directly on it and it seemed to absorb that light. It had large things on its head which I took to be horns or ears and its fingers ended in points like claws and the feet as well. Its eyes were red completely and staring right at me. I don't think my feet touched the ground I ran so fast.

After that experience I had a few others with the same creature. Another night I came home late again and I fell onto my bed after shutting the door just wanting to fall asleep. My cat was in the bed with me when we both heard a voice laughing in the room. A masculine voice. My cat freaked out and ran to the door scratching and miaowing loudly to get out ,I opened the door and she took off. I just didn't want to believe anything was in there with me so I pointedly turned my back to the rest of the room and went to sleep. Another night I turned over and opened my eyes early in the morning and there was the same creature , smaller though, standing in front of my closet staring at me. I recall I got really mad and told it to eff off and turned around and went back to sleep. Meanwhile my brother had seen the exact same creature but his had yellow eyes. He confided the story to me years later when we had left the house and had no knowledge of my experiences. He told me he had awakened early one morning and found that he had left the light on in his room, thinking that he should get up and turn it off he turned onto his back and opened his eyes and there sitting on his bed's headboard was the same creature, talons on feet and hands, completely black with no reflective surfaces, but his was he said about 4 ft tall and squatting on the headboard staring at him with yellow eyes. He said he was terrified and decided not to turn off the light after all. I don't remember if he said it vanished quickly or if he shut his eyes and when he opened them it was gone. He said he never saw it again but had other strange experiences in that house.

One day we decided that we should trade rooms. So I moved all my stuff out to his room and vice versa. I teased him and said he'd have to share my room with a visitor but he was disbelieving. After I had moved to his room I had my last experience in that house that was in the shadow people realm. I woke up one night to a sound in my room like rustling. I was wide awake because I thought it might be a mouse. I switched on my lamp and looked toward the other end of the room but seeing and hearing nothing I lay down again with the light still on. I turned to look at the clock and saw that it was 2:20 am then I saw these two large globes of light beyond my night stand. I was frozen up on one elbow because I had been about to turn out my light again. They moved in a way that reminded me of balloons falling. The larger of the two was golden yellow in colour and the smaller was blue. They looked like spheres lit from within and emanating a misty light from their forms. I somehow could sense that they were intelligent. They knew that I was looking at them and they wanted me to see. The larger golden one floated almost majestically to the door whereupon it flattened to a pancake shape in under half a second and slipped under the door. The second smaller one followed along and did the same. I was very nervous and scared at that point but only because I had to go to the bathroom and this meant I had to go out into the hallway where they had vanished to. Our hallway was very dark and without a proper light as the house was old and not renovated very well. I waited for as long as I could which was about 15 minutes and then I cautiously opened my door and went. The hallway was pitch black so my plan was to inch my way to the bathroom with my back to the wall so nothing could sneak up on me and once I got there I could turn on the bathroom light to illuminate the hallway. I followed my plan through and as it turned out when I turned on the bathroom light it shone down onto the stairs and the first landing. In the light were two shadow people. I've only ever thought of them that way because there was no other way to describe them. They looked like shadows, only they were in the light. They didn't look like the other creatures I had seen, in fact they looked like people in the sense that they had a head and arms and legs and torso and hands. They threw up their hands as though in surprise, like I'd caught them unexpectedly and then they flew down the stairs without a sound. It took me a long time to come out of that bathroom as I didn't want to encounter any of these things again.

Unlike your other poster, these creatures never touched me, at least to my knowledge and never tried to hurt me. Although they did scare the dickens out of me. I recall telling these stories to people years later in other parts of the world and hearing similar tales and wondering just what they could be. Somehow we don't seem that much closer to knowing. I would conjecture though that as is the case with plant and insect life here we certainly haven't got all the facts in yet. Perhaps these creatures share the world we live in but in a different way and we have learned to ignore them or pretend they don't exist. Maybe they are trying to tell us they do exist. Perhaps like us there are those with good intenetions and those with not so good intentions. Its my opinion that we are getting closer to the truth everyday.

A side note here: I read a book a year ago called 'Initiation' by Elizabeth Haich in which she distinctly mentions the shadow people and the effects they caused in the lives of people she knew including her own son prior to WWII. If this is true then perhaps these are beings who've been with us for a very long time. Then again if they are time travellers then all things are possible.

Sincerely, Pema

This Week on 'Beyond the Edge Radio': Psychic Medium Robbie Thomas

This Sunday night Psychic Medium Robbie Thomas drops by the show again to spend some time with Eric, Lon and Sean. Always a intriguing guest dedicated to helping those in need. Join us live this Sunday night as we welcome Robbie back to BTE Radio.

Robbie Thomas, world renowned Psychic Medium /Criminal Profiler has worked with families and law enforcement on many murder/missing persons cases internationally. One of the very few who are endorsed by law enforcement with documented cases.

Robbie is the creator/host of a new television series in production called ’Psychic Profiler’ that is being filmed with a film crew from Americas Most Wanted and the production company of Lamport and Shepherd. They just finished filming a two part mini series opening segment of a cold case in Kentucky that many are calling, “Unbelievably Chilling”, “Powerful simply Powerful” and “Finally a show that digs deeper Psychically!” Robbie’s work spans throughout the Paranormal with many years of work in film and television having starred in the movies, Dead Whisper and The Sallie House. Being a prolific writer/author Robbie has four books he has written as well as co-contributed to four others such as award winning screen writer Gloria Shepherds best seller, Brian Jones Straight From The Heart, The Rolling Stones Murder. Robbie has been featured in magazines world wide such as Taps Paramagazine, Visions Magazine, Unexplained Paranormal Magazine and more.

Hosting the Canadian-American Paranormal Fest for the third year consecutively, Robbie brings great guest speakers from the Paranormal, Spiritual and Movie industry to Canada each year. You can check out much more on Robbie at www.robbiethomas.net, www.canamparafest.com, www.deathwalkmovie.com



Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and Sean Forker LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go
Beyond the Edge!

Fortean / Alternative News: Ghost Crashes Wedding Reception, Jesus Chair For Sale and Giant Texas Gator

Ghostly image shocks wedding guests

People at a wedding reception at the Newman Wine Vaults in St. John's believe they caught an image of an uninvited and otherworldly guest.

Newlyweds Matt White and Danielle Hann said one of their friends was shocked by the digital image she took at the June 18 event.

"Karen [Hanlon] was staring at this camera and she came running out with the camera saying, 'Look what I just took! Look what I just took! There's somebody in the picture," said White.

On the right-hand side of the photograph, some see a figure that seems to be wearing a white top and floating in the air.

"Somehow it's not as creepy in the daylight," said White.

But it still makes Hann uneasy.

"I don't know, it's still creepy," she said.

St. John's folklorist Dale Jarvis said it might be explained away as a reflection or a light flare, but he added that the Newman Wine Vaults does have a haunting history.

"It is one of those places that continually generates new ghost stories. So, this is part of that tradition for the space," said Jarvis, who has collected many St. John's ghost stories.

Jarvis is the organizer of the city's "haunted hike" – a tour of the downtown area that recounts many of the stories he has been told.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website said the history of the wine vault is unclear.

It's believed to have been built in the early 19th century, and was used by the English mercantile firm Newman and Company to age port wine from Portugal in St. John's – a tradition that began in the late 17th century and continued until the late 19th century.

The building is on a long-term lease from Newman & Company to the Newfoundland Historic Trust.

The Trust has developed the vaults into a museum dedicated to recounting the history of Newfoundland's liquor trade. - ca.msn

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New Comet Found; May Be Visible From Earth in 2013

There's a newfound comet closing in on the sun, and when it gets here in 2013, you may be able to see it with your naked eye.

Astronomers stumbled upon the icy interloper on June 5 while searching for potentially hazardous asteroids.

Equipped with the world's largest digital camera—1,400 megapixels—the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS team snagged a faint image of the odd object while it was more than 700 million miles (1.1 billion kilometers) away, between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. (Explore an interactive solar system.)

"Almost everything we find is an asteroid, but this object was suspicious," said Richard Wainscoat, co-discoverer of the comet and an astronomer at the University of Hawaii.

"Unlike asteroids, which appear point-like in images, the telltale sign that gave it away was its fuzzy appearance."

By March 2013 the comet, named C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS), is expected to come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of the sun—closer even than the innermost planet, Mercury.

When the comet makes its closest approach to the sun, more of its ices will vaporize, adding to its hazy envelope of gas and dust and producing the familiar tail.

This denser envelope, or coma, should boost the comet to peak brightness, making it potentially visible to the naked eye low in the western horizon just after sunset.

While there is no danger of collision with Earth, preliminary calculations of the comet's orbit show that this may be its first and final trip through the solar system.

"It may be coming around the sun for the first and only time, only to be ejected from the solar system, never to return," Wainscoat said.

"Since we don't have a lot of data on it, we really don't know the orbit well enough right now, and it will take up to two months of observations to find out."

Astronomers believe C/2011 L4 may be a runaway from the Oort cloud, a reservoir of billions of hibernating comets that orbits about 100,000 times farther than the distance between Earth and the sun.

"The current path of the comet is typical of those thought to be originating from the Oort cloud, showing it coming up from the south—underneath the Earth—going up the back side of the sun and into the north sky, very nearly perpendicular to the plane of the solar system," Wainscoat said.

The fact that it's going around the back of the sun from our point of view may ultimately affect the comet's visibility, but a lot will depend on how close the body actually gets to the sun.

Also, whether the comet is north or south of the sun when it reaches peak brightness will determine which hemisphere on Earth gets the better view.

For now, "we think it will be an easy binocular target, but it may very well make it to naked-eye level, and there is even a potential that it may be visible during the day," Wainscoat said.

"But it's just really too early to tell. We may not know for sure until only a few weeks before it gets here." - NatGeo

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'Jesus chair' listed on eBay for $25,000

How much would you pay for an old, wooden chair that you can't even sit in? Resident Lou Balducci is hoping at least $25,000.

Balducci has listed an old patio rocking chair, purchased at HomeGoods some 10 years ago, on eBay with a starting bid price of $25,000. But this isn't just any old rocking chair; it's one that bears the image of what Balducci believes to be Jesus Christ.

Balducci first noticed the anomaly in February as he and his wife were preparing to throw away a pair of rocking chairs that had sat in their backyard for years. The chairs' wood was rotting and their supports were broken. White paint flaked off anytime the chair was moved or touched.

His wife had thrown away the chairs' rain-soaked cushions a few days before. Balducci stood outside on the back patio, smoking a cigar and staring at the pair of barren, unusable chairs when something caught his eye. In a paint-chipped, rotting knot of wood near the base of one chair's backrest, Balducci saw the face of Jesus as he knows him to be. - ocregister

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Finding Bigfoot...Isn’t

We watched the purity of ghost research descend into the depths of hell with the deluge of “reality” television like Paranormal State and other “ghost hunter” shows. Now the steady decline of Crytpozoology gets its day. Shows like River Monsters and Destination Truth initially gave us hope that the Crypto world would raise the bar for “reality research” by doing actual field work and seeming not to fake results. The latest entry, “Finding Bigfoot” looked promising as well because it was not only presumably going to contain Canadian Content but also not focussed on handsome hunks with perfect hair. Continue reading at Finding Bigfoot...Isn’t

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Giant Gator Killed In Trinity River, Texas

An episode of 'Swamp People’ inspired Dallas attorney Levi McCathern to go on a hunt for bigger game.

"Something I wanted to do was hunt something that could hunt me and alligators seemed like a challenge,” said McCathern, who has hunted since the age of six.

But huge reptiles are a far cry from hunting dove and quail, which McCathern said he hunts year-round.

As McCathern started looking for places he could hunt the large reptile, he checked the internet and typed two words -- monster alligators. One place that kept showing in the search was the Trinity River. Yes, the Trinity River, which criss-crosses much of North Texas.

Guided by experts two hours outside Dallas in Leon County, McCathern got his shot when a monster gator popped his head up out of the water just long enough for McCathern to pull the trigger.

"It went right in the brain... it was a perfect shot, probably my luckiest shot.”

Weighing a whopping 900 lbs and stretching 14 ft long, McCathern's gator may be the largest ever killed in Texas history.

"They took him to the town square in Crockett and just caused a traffic jam,” said McCathern who admits his testosterone has been "very high" since the kill.

"My wife probably doesn't like it as much as she should, I've been pretty big since I killed this alligator.”

It’s the kind of trophy that makes legends of hunters, though McCathern has proven as a lawyer he’s quite the angler, landing the biggest fish in town as a client, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys.

McCathern said the plan is to have the gator mounted and placed on a wall in his office where other hunting trophies adorn the walls.

Is his conquest of the giant reptile proof positive lawyers are truly sharks?

McCathern laughs at the idea, along with his new nickname.

"My name is Levi G McCathern...and everybody says it's G for Gator.”

It is against the law to hunt alligators along the Trinity River, but McCathern had special permission from a private property owner to go on the hunt after many of the rancher's cattle were gobbled up by the behemoth reptile. - NBCDFW

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Vinny getting ready for his next victim!

'Bigfoot Face Print' Press Conference Falls Short

The much anticipated 'Bigfoot Face Print' press conference called by the Sanger Paranormal Society on Thursday, June 23rd at 4 pm PDT in Fresno, CA was, in fact, a mere whimper in spite of the hype. It wasn't exactly a Biscardi 'Bigfoot in a freezer' production though the overall Bigfoot community will most likely be dealt a another blow in public opinion thanks to the rudimentary display proffered by the Sanger Paranormal group.

It sincerely pains me to make these comments...Jeffrey Gonzalez is a colleague who has supplied leads and stories to me in the past. But I am troubled by what I witnessed. I feel that I need to be particularly honest when it comes to the search for this cryptid...especially since I had a personal encounter with one of these hominids and know that it does exists. Bigfoot could be a terrestrial creature, a supernatural entity or a multidimensional being...it doesn't really matter. But I know it is real and dwells in some capacity.

Part of the presentation by the forensics specialist

The new evidence was touted as "Potentially the Most Convincing Evidence of Bigfoot Since the Patterson Film of 1967". Well...it wasn't. The consensus from Bigfoot researchers I talked to and who watched the press conference is that the creature in question was a California Black Bear. There was no DNA evidence presented because, it was stated, the cost for testing was too high. Gonzalez announced he is seeking donors to supply funds for further examination...though I have been told that at least one research group offered to pay for testing but was turned down by Sanger Paranormal. If this is indeed a fact, then one must wonder if other motives are already in play...for instance; potential investors. This is just speculation but the tone of the press conference sounded very similar to others I have observed.

The media advisory also stated "We have an full upper body impression including half of its face on the passenger side window of a pickup truck. And on the driver's side window, the nostrils, nose and lips of a Bigfoot" Most of the photos were presented at the conference though the better photos were reserved for the media packets...one of which I was able to obtain through another associate.

The 'face plant' image

Part of the presentation by the forensics specialist. Here he compares the smudges with animal facial features

The Sanger Paranormal team was said to consist of:

1. Is an award winning High School Principal with a Masters Degree, Formerly a Science Teacher and a former investigator for www.BFRO.com.

2. Correctional Officer for 19 years and is Employed at a prison in California. Was featured on a Episode of Monster Quest titled” the Sierra Sasquatch”.

3. Is a employee at AT&T Telephone. Associates Degree in Electronics. Founder of the www.SangerParanormalSociety.com (this is Jeffrey Gonzalez)

Also, a 14 year Forensic Specialist who is friends with 2 of the people mentioned above was called out to come and take photos and swab For DNA.

Team member demonstrates how a supposed Bigfoot peered in truck windows

This forensic specialist, in fact, works for the police department. He may have swabbed for DNA but he is not an expert in zoology...in light of the fact that he made comparisons to animal physiology in his presentation. He attempted to line up the evidence with facial features of a black bear, mountain lion and a gorilla in order to make a point that the smudges were that of a hominid species...though he did not discount that it may also be a bear.

Members of the press heading for the exits early

At that point, the credibility of the exhibition started to go south. In fact, the streaming video showed many of the media gathering their equipment and heading for the exits. I stayed online for the remaining portion of the pitch even though it was apparent that there would be no tangible physical or anecdotal evidence.

It will be interesting to read and hear the fallout from this demonstration as it most likely will be remembered as just another chapter in the 'Bigfoot Side Show'.

Photos presented in the media packets

The 'Place of Many Dead' - Devil's Lake, Wisconsin

Devil's Lake of Wisconsin has its share of geological oddities such as glacier scratches on unusual rock formations and petrified sand waves of an ancient sea, but it is the Amerindian mounds that are especially interesting. Three major effigy mounds are located in Devil's Lake State Park. One in the shape of a bear and another, which resembles a lynx, are at the north end of the lake. A bird-shaped mound is at the southern end. Did the moundbuilders wish to acknowledge real animals or phantom creature forms that haunted the shores of Devil's Lake?

From nearby Baraboo (three miles north of Devil's Lake), stories were circulating in the seventies of giant ghost elephants. Or were they mastodons? August Derleth, author and follower of H. P. Lovecraft, likes this area of southcentral Wisconsin because he felt it contains "Cthulhu power zones."

During the summer of 1970, campers at Devil's Lake complained of shadowy "somethings" prowling around their tents. Department of Natural Resources personnel stated that no bears are found in the area. However, Bigfoot accounts are well known from Wisconsin. Devil's Lake is also the location of an 1889 lake monster report. Additionally, the surface of the lake is broken with the ghostly wake of a phantom canoe seen in the mists of cold, still nights. The place does have an aura about it. Folklore tells of an Indian maiden and her lover leaping to their deaths. In general, the site is said to be a "place of many dead."

When the first missionaries arrived in the Devil’s Lake area they where greeted by the Nakota Tribe, who told them about a year in which the area experienced a great drought. During this drought the Nakota Tribe remained near the swiftly drying lake, not only because it was the only source of water for miles, but also because it drew animals from all over to its shores in order to drink, providing the tribe with a stable food source. As the summer drew on and the drought continued to lower the lakes levels it eventually became two lakes, separated by a shallow strip of mud which ran through the middle.

One morning the Nakota people awoke to find what they could only describe as a huge, fish like creature trapped on the strip of mud which now divided the two remaining bodies of water. The tribe described the large creature as having a long neck, small head and wide body that it thrashed and wiggled in an attempt to free its self. After several days the creature was able to free its self and slip into the deeper of the two remaining pools of lake water.

Researchers tend to vary in opinion as to what the Devil’s Lake Monster might be, some have suggested a form of giant fresh water octopus while others have looked to a more familiar face in the lake monster world, suggesting it may be a plesiosaur that found its way into the lake after the last Ice Age. Either way what ever the Devil’s Lake Monster is, or was, there has been no real sightings of the creature for some time, leaving some to speculate what ever the creature was may be long gone by now.

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ADDITIONAL HISTORY - THE DEVIL'S LAKE MONSTER

Some say that this octopus-like beast was responsible for an untold number of deaths, but the Nakota Indians tell a tale about a struggling creature which is uncannily similar to the allegedly extinct Plesiosaur.

Located in Sauk County, Wisconsin, Devil’s Lake is an eerie, mist shrouded, body of brackish water, Carved by glaciers during the last ice age, this bluff quarantined lake could generated a deep-bone chill even if it weren’t the alleged home of a pair of vicious aquatic monsters.

Originally known to the Native American Nakota Sioux’s as “M’de Wakan” — roughly translated as “Mystery” or “bad Spirit” Lake, although some insist that it simply means “sacred” — this stretch of deep, cold, salt-infested water has been known by many names over the centuries But it wasn’t until white settlers finally claimed the land in the middle of the 1800′s that the lake finally gained its current appellation: “Devil’s Lake.” It is a name, which residents claim, the lake lives up to.

One of the earliest legends involving the creature of Devil’s Lake revolves around a Native American Indian chief who assembled an expedition of young warriors to go on a late night hunting trip on the fauna fertile lands across the lake. The full moon reflected off the night blackened waters as the young men and their leader slipped the canoe the water and began their late night trek.

Suddenly, a flurry of tentacles ripped through the surf, capsizing the canoe and pulling the thrashing, terrified men beneath the brackish water. Although no one survived this ill-fated expedition, their screams alerted fellow tribesmen, who rushed onto the beach and were able to bear witness to this horrific event in grisly detail due to the moon’s lingering glow.

The surviving warriors of the tribe, in order to pay homage to their fallen brethren — as well as appease what they believed to be the demon of the lake — held a festival every year, during which gifts and animal sacrifices were thrown into water.

The tradition continues to this day, although nowadays the annual event is treated more along the lines of an annual picnic that celebrates tribal legends and traditions.

As if a colossal octopus-like beast weren’t more than enough monster for one body of water, when the first Christian missionaries arrived on the shores of Devil’s Lake they were greeted by the Nakota tribe who told them about yet another creature that was revealed in the year of the great drought.

The Natkota’s remained near the swiftly drying lake, not only because it was the only water source for miles, but also because the animals upon which they fed were forced to expose themselves in order to drink, providing the tribe with an ample — and relatively simple to hunt — food source. As the summer progressed the lake grew smaller and smaller, until it eventually became two lakes, separated only by a shallow strip of mud, which ran through the center.

One morning the Nakota’s awoke to find what they described as a huge, fish-like creature, which they referred to as “Hokuwa,” trapped on the narrow, muddy strip of exposed lake bed.

The tribe watched as the apparently amphibious animal, which they described as having a large body, long neck and small head thrashed and writhed in an effort to free itself from its drying perch for days.

The sight filled the Nakota with both awe and terror and not even the bravest warrior dared to approach the creature, which they believed it to be an Unktizina — the vile progeny of the evil spirit Unk and the lizard beast known as UNKCEGI — for fear that the spirit’s wrath would bring on even greater hardships than just the drought. Eventually the animal was able to free itself and (presumably) make its way back into the deeper portion of the lake. - americanmonsters.com

Fortean / Alternative News: New Crop Circle, 55ft 'Blob' Washes Up and Woman Wakes / Dies At Own Funeral

Coat of Arms Crop Circle in Wiltshire

An intricate crop circle resembling an ancient coat of arms has appeared in a field overnight.

The remarkable formation was snapped at West Woods, near Marlborough, Wilts, by crop circle expert Lucy Pringle.

Mrs Pringle, of Petersfield, Hants, said: "The area is flown over regularly and this creation was definitely not there the day before I photographed it.

"It has a resemblance to a Cross Clechee with arms spreading out gradually from the centre. This cross denotes knowledge, guardianship, and dominion.

"Similar to the Cross Toulouse, it is assumed that the bearer of this cross was a crusader from the area of Toulouse."

Mrs Pringle said the new formation is the latest in a long line of strange designs to crop up in the UK over the years.

Previous patterns have included stars, triangles, birds, complicated three dimensional shapes and even designs with hidden mathematical codes.

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55ft 'Blob' Washes Up In China

You’d need a big portion of chips to go with this.

A gigantic sea beast measuring 55ft has been discovered washed up on a beach in Guangdong, China.

It was found wrapped in fishing lines, leading locals to suspect that fishermen cut it free from their nets because it was too big to haul in.

The creature is too badly decomposed to be positively identified by sight, but it’s thought to have weighed around 4.5tons.

Despite the carcass’s extraordinary smell, it’s proved to be quite a big draw for people living in the area.

Three marine biology experts — Scott Baker of Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute, Bill Perrin, from the National Marine Fisheries Service, and Bob Brownell, from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's Fisheries Service – were all shown photographs of the creature by Live Science.

Their conclusion is that, based on its throat grooves, the creature is a whale.

Mr Baker told the journal: ‘Judging from the reported size of 55 ft, it’s maybe a fin whale. From the photo, however, it does not really look to be 55 ft, and so might be a smaller balaenopterid, like one of the “Bryde's” whales.’

He added: ‘We all hope somebody collects the bones and a tissue sample for genetic analysis as recovery of whale carcasses is rare along the coast of China.' - dailymail

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The call of the weird: In praise of cryptobiologists

Last December an 8-second amateur video went viral. Shot in remote northern Tasmania, the blurry footage featured a long-tailed mammal trotting across a meadow with an oddly stilted gait. According to the film-maker, Murray McAllister, the animal was a Tasmanian tiger.

The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, is a wolf-sized marsupial predator that has been presumed extinct since the last known specimen died in Hobart zoo in 1936. Yet despite its apparent demise, reports of Tassie tigers refuse to die. Hundreds of sightings, many from seemingly credible observers, have been recorded, both in Tasmania and on the mainland.

When I saw the video there was something vaguely familiar about it. Then it hit me: the animal moved like a red fox. I'd raised a fox as a boy in the western US, and they have a peculiar way of trotting. Soon, others were saying the same thing. Then a faecal sample McAllister collected was analysed for its DNA: it was a red fox.

McAllister has been searching for the Tasmanian tiger since 1998. Though he might not describe himself as such, he is a cryptobiologist, a chaser of mythical, mysterious or supposedly extinct species. Cryptobiologists are a diverse lot, ranging from conventional scientists to eccentrics far from the mainstream. All share a dream of discovering elusive or unknown creatures unrecognised by conventional science - and with it their share of instant fame.

Everyone knows about fabled creatures like Nessie and Bigfoot, but cryptobiologists actually chase a far larger menagerie of exotic beasts which they collectively term "cryptids". Some, like the Tasmanian tiger, clearly once existed. Others, such as giant vampire bats, conceivably might exist, having somehow escaped the attentions of conventional scientists. The third category, oddities such as the Jersey devil and the mothman, are strictly on the fringes.

The more credible side of the cryptobiology crowd can be a pretty serious lot. Some, such as tropical ecologist David Bickford of the National University of Singapore and Aaron Bauer, an evolutionary biologist and herpetologist at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, are respected mainstream scientists. Bickford has discovered a number of previously unknown species, including a bizarre lungless frog that lives only beneath waterfalls in Borneo.

The most committed cryptobiologists spend big sums of their own money to finance their quests. Being outside the realm of traditional science, they don't usually have a choice. For example, the late Grover Krantz, a physical anthropologist at Washington State University, invested around $50,000 for a light aircraft, infrared heat detector and other expensive gear in a decades-long search for Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest.

But for mainstream scientists, being a cryptobiologist isn't easy. Some have paid for their efforts in more than money. Roy Mackal, a dedicated chaser of Nessie and mokele-mbembe, an aquatic dinosaur that supposedly lives in the Congo basin, was booted out of the biology department at the University of Chicago; few if any dispute that his cryptid-seeking was the chief cause. Others endure sneers from their colleagues, a loss of credibility and even academic isolation.

Why tolerate such treatment? "The search for the fringe and fanciful captivates many people," says Mike Trenerry, a biologist with the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management who uses automatic cameras to search for rare beasts. "We want to believe there is more out there than what we already know about."

And the truth, of course, is that even in the 21st century, the natural world is still brimming with mystery. Tropical biologists commonly find that half or more of the insect species they capture in the rainforest canopy are new to science. Undiscovered fish and other species are frequently found in the deep sea. Up to half of all the plant species in the Amazon are still scientifically undocumented.

Not all of the new discoveries are small or obscure. The Mindoro fruit bat, discovered in the Philippines in 2007, has a 1-metre wingspan. The same year saw the discovery of a venomous snakein Australia and a large electric ray in South Africa.

And despite the misfire of the recent Tasmanian tiger video, there are many Lazarus species that have been rediscovered after having been presumed extinct. Until 1951, the Bermuda petrel had not been seen by scientists for 330 years. The Javan elephant, okapi, coelacanth, mountain pygmy possum, venomous Cuban solenodon and giant terror skink were also erroneously consigned to oblivion. The Laotian rock ratMovie Camera, discovered in 1996, is now the sole known representative of a rodent family that was thought to have vanished 11 million years ago. The Wollemi pine - the only known survivor of a 200-million-year-old plant family - was discovered in 1994 just a stone's throw from Sydney, Australia.

It is the Lazarus species, perhaps more than any other cryptid group, that most inspire cryptobiologists. They give them hope by revealing that nature is still very much shrouded in uncertainty. From the coelacanth to the mountain pygmy possum, Cuban solenodon and giant terror skink, even dramatic species are sometimes wrongly presumed to have vanished.

So we should celebrate the intrepid efforts of cryptobiologists. Yes, they chase bizarre creatures and flit around the fringes of conventional science, but we ought to appreciate their adventurous spirit rather than be disdainful. - newscientist

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Dead Buddhist spiritualist in death meditation

Amazing video - Dead Buddhist spiritualist in death meditation - A monk could not be cremated because his followers believed he was still alive.

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Woman dies of heart attack caused by shock of waking up at her OWN funeral

A woman died from a heart attack caused by shock after waking up to discover she had been declared dead - and was being prepared for burial.

As mourning relatives filed past her open coffin the supposedly dead woman suddenly woke up and started screaming as she realised where she was.

Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, had been wrongly declared deceased by doctors but died for real after hearing mourners saying prayers for her soul to be taken up to heaven in Kazan, Russia.

Devastated husband Fagili Mukhametzyanov, 51, had been told his wife had died of a heart attack after she'd collapsed at home suffering from chest pains.

Mr Mukhametzyanov said: 'Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital but she only lived for another 12 minutes in intensive care before she died again, this time for good.

'I am very angry and want answers. She wasn’t dead when they said she was and they could have saved her.'

Hospital spokesman Minsalih Sahapov said: 'We are carrying out an investigation.' - dailymail