This Week On 'Beyond The Edge Radio': Bigfoot Filmography Author David Coleman

Eric & Lon are thrilled to again welcome David Coleman, author of The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Televisionto BTE. Dave will talk with us about Bigfoot and its appearances in film and television...continuing with the fun and fantastic conversation we had a few months ago. You will not want to miss it!

Dave Coleman has written screenplays for such studios as Universal, Sony, and DEG, and Hollywood talent such as Michael Douglas, Phil Noyce, Dan Curtis, Dino De Laurentiis, Irv Kirschner, and many others. He has also previously worked as a story analyst for New World, London Films, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and The New Twilight Zone TV series.

Prior to the start of his professional career, Coleman attended the University of Southern California, where he received a BFA in Filmic Writing. His instructors and mentors included T.C. Boyle, André de Toth, Stewart Stern, and Abraham Polonsky. He also interned on the feature film At Close Range during this time with director James Foley.

As an early internet enthusiast, Coleman created Kudzu New Media, a website design firm, designing and hosting some of the earliest internet-supported studio movies such as Adrian Lyne’s Lolita, Tim Roth’s The War Room, Samuel Goldwyn’s Desert Blue, and many others. He also created BijouCafe.com, one of the first independent videostreaming websites, and wrote a majority of the site’s in-depth cult film reviews. The critical success cited by WIRED, ABC World News, RedFilter, US News & World Report, and many others led to the successful creation of BijouFlix Releasing, which has released independent and classic cult movies worldwide since 1998.

Coleman’s latest non-fiction work, The Bigfoot Filmography, was published in January 2012 by McFarland. An in-depth survey of Cine du Sasquatch, the book includes reviews of every Bigfoot TV and movie, rare photos and poster reproductions, and interviews with key filmmakers in the genre.

About the book:

The “Sasquatch” film genre, devoted to the legendary and notoriously elusive creature also known as Bigfoot, and its Himalayan counterpart, the Yeti, is the focus of this illustrated reference guide. Here is a fascinatingly detailed look at the cinematic history of Sasquatch, from the earliest trick films of Georges Melies to the most up-to-date CGI efforts. Critical insights regarding the genre’s development are offered, along with an exhaustively researched filmography that includes every known film or television appearance of Sasquatch, Bigfoot and Yeti in both fictitious and documentary formats.

Included are in-depth interviews with such filmmakers as Kevin Tenney, Adam Muto, Ryan Schifrin, Tim Skousen and Michael Worth, as well as reproductions of rare movie stills, posters, lobby cards and behind-the-scenes production photos. Renowned cryptozoologist Loren Coleman provides an insightful foreword to the text.

The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and TelevisionISBN-10: 0786448288. 344 Pages.
10.4 x 8.4 in. 1.8 lbs. Over 200 rare photos, posters and other collectible images. Superior, high-quality photographic reproductions on premium paper stock. Softbound.

Reviews:

“[The Bigfoot Filmography] is what we might get for some of our Dread Central staffers for Christmas 2012… pretty cool, right? We say it’s about damn time the Yeti got his due!” ~ Dread Central, “McFarland Unleashes The Bigfoot Filmography”

“It becomes clear the author has left no stone unturned. The detailed, meticulous nature of the author… has produced a winner with an original reference work… the serious student of the subject should eventually aquire this important contribution to Bigfooting, as it is presently peerless… The films in this work is so exhaustively researched in The Bigfoot Filmography, the detail so insightful, one can only give this book two thumbs up.” ~ Daniel Perez, editor of The Bigfoot Times and author of Bigfoot At Bluff Creek.

“This must clearly be regarded now as the most significant book ever authored on the genre of Bigfoot/Sasquatch and Abominable Snowmen/Yeti films! This takes us far beyond Snowbeast and Harry and the Hendersons into the great archives of motion pictures and documentaries known and nearly unknown on hairy hominoids.” ~ Loren Coleman, Cryptomundo.com

To learn more about the author or book visit these websites:

http://thebigfootfilmography.wordpress.com/
http://authordavecoleman.wordpress.com/


Join Eric Altman and Lon Strickler each Sunday at 8 PM ET as we go
Beyond the Edge!
Call toll free 1-877-677-2858 during the live broadcast

Go to our Facebook page at Beyond the Edge - Facebook

Give A Gift They'll Never Forget!

Malignant Kingdom

This post may be a bit more 'preachy' than normal but it concerns a practice that has no tangible basis for existence in our society...regardless of the particular government, customs or laws.

Witchcraft is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. Historically, it was widely believed that witchcraft involved the use of these powers to inflict harm upon members of a community or their property, and that all witches were in league with the devil. The classical period of witch hunts in Europe and North America occurred during the early modern period (1480 to 1750). It is estimated that 40,000 to 100,000 people were executed during this time in history. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century, but the practice continues in many areas of the world. Witch hunts still occur today in societies where belief in magic is practiced, predominately in Sub-Saharan Africa, North India, and Papua New Guinea.

Saudi Arabia has a strong legislation against the practice of sorcery. It is the only country in the world where witchcraft still remains legally punishable by death. In India, labeling a woman as a witch is a common ploy to grab land, settle scores or even to punish her for turning down sexual advances. In a majority of the cases, it is difficult for the accused woman to reach out for help and she is forced to either abandon her home and family or is driven to commit suicide. A 2010 estimate places the number of reported women killed as witches in India at between 150 and 200 per year. Witchcraft or sorcery remains a criminal offense in Saudi Arabia, although the precise nature of the crime is undefined and the frequency of prosecutions is unknown.

So, how do Saudi authorities prove someone is a witch? The government hasn't gone into detail, but a look at the kingdom's past witchcraft cases suggests the bar for proving someone guilty isn't very high. Witch hunting is fairly institutionalized in Saudi Arabia, with the country's religious police running an Anti-Witchcraft Unit and a sorcery hotline to combat practices like astrology and fortune telling that are considered un-Islamic.

But institutionalized is not the same thing as codified. A top official in the kingdom's Ministry of Justice told Human Rights Watch in 2008 that there is no legal definition for witchcraft (Saudi Arabia doesn't have a penal code) or specific body of evidence that has probative value in witchcraft trials.

Instead, judges have wide latitude in interpreting Sharia law and sentencing suspected criminals. And Amnesty International claims these judges use witchcraft charges to arbitrarily "punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion." A Human Rights Watch researcher tells The Media Line that foreigners in particular are often the targets of sorcery accusations because of their traditional practices or, occasionally, because Saudi men facing charges of sexual harassment by domestic workers want to discredit their accusers.

The evidence arrayed against witchcraft suspects typically revolves around statements from accusers and suspicious personal belongings that suggest the supernatural, in a country where superstition is still widespread. In 2006, for example, an Eritrean national was imprisoned and lashed hundreds of times for "charlatanry" after prosecutors argued that his leather-bound personal phone booklet with writings in the Tigrinya alphabet was a "talisman."

A year later, Saudi authorities beheaded an Egyptian pharmacist who had been accused by neighbors of casting spells to separate a man from his wife and placing Korans in mosque bathrooms. "He confessed to adultery with a woman and desecrating the Koran by placing it in the bathroom," the Saudi Press Agency reported, adding that books on black magic, a candle with an incantation "to summon devils," and "foul-smelling herbs" had been found in the pharmacist's home.

The cases against alleged witches also frequently involve sting operations conducted by religious police. According to Amnesty International, a Sudanese migrant named Abdul Hamid bin Hussein Moustafa al-Fakki -- executed in Medina in September for "sorcery" -- was first arrested in 2005 when an undercover agent for the religious police asked him to produce a spell that would cause the man's father to leave his second wife, which al-Fakki allegedly offered to do for $1,600. The Saudi Gazette tells a story of a female religious police agent who entrapped an elusive witch by expressing a desire for her husband to be turned into an "unquestioning obedient man."

There's evidence that the cases may involve coerced confessions and miscarriages of justice as well. Human Rights Watch chronicles the plight of an illiterate Saudi woman named Fawza Falih who was beaten, forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read, tried without a lawyer, and sentenced to death for "witchcraft, recourse to jinn [supernatural beings], and slaughter" of animals after a man accused Falih of rendering him impotent and authorities found a "foul-smelling substance," a white robe with money inside it, and another robe hanging from a tree in or near her home.

The most prominent witchcraft case came in 2008, when a Saudi court slapped a death sentence on Ali Hussain Sibat a Lebanese national and former host of a popular call-in show that aired on satellite TV across the Middle East. On the show, he made predictions and gave advice to the audience. In May of 2008, Ali Sibat was on Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia when he was spotted by religious police in the holy city of Medina. The Saudi police had been advised of Sibat's predictions and popularity. Ali Sibat was arrested on charges of "sorcery" and sentenced to death by beheading. Sibat's fate is common in Saudi Arabia, where the execution of witches is still performed.

Sibat's story has raised an international outcry and many appeals for his life have been made. On March 10, 2010, a court in Medina upheld his death sentence. According to Amnesty International, "The judges said that he deserved to be sentenced to death because he had practiced "sorcery" publicly for several years before millions of viewers and that his actions "made him an infidel." He was scheduled for execution at the end of March, 2010, but as the date neared, widespread media coverage, appeals by international human rights groups and intervention by several Lebanese government officials postponed the event.

Sibat was freed after a protracted international campaign for his release and the intervention of high-ranking Lebanese officials. But Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser wasn't so lucky. The BBC noted that while Nasser was arrested in 2009, Amnesty International didn't hear of her case until it was too late. This BBC report on the case shows clips from Sabat's television show in Lebanon.

NOTE: There is no justification for witchcraft, sorcery or casting spell as a crime. The term, witchcraft, begs for an evidence-based definition and categorization. The crime of witchcraft does not actually refer to any action that can be concretely proven or demonstrated. Due to lack of proper definition and justiciability, enlightened societies decriminalized witchcraft. Anyone knowledgeable of the legal history of Europe and the Americas knows the processes which led to the end of witch hunting and the removal of witchcraft from the criminal code.

Simply stated, Saudi Arabia cannot support progressive changes in other countries (ex. 'Arab Spring') while sitting on their hands and condoning unjust, oppressive and murderous systems at home. Saudi Arabia cannot support the respect for human rights and the rule of law in other countries while denying its people, and visitors, the same.

The United States and other Western nations should, in spite of their strategic, economic, trade and oil interests pressure the Saudi authorities to abandon this interpretation of Sharia law being employed by local authorities to justify the arrest, prosecution and execution of persons in the name of witchcraft, superstition and sorcery...Lon

Sources:
amnesty.com
foreignpolicy.com
Boston.com
New York Post
listzblog.com
voanews.com
bbc.co.uk

Getting God's Ear

Beyond Rationalism: Rethinking Magic, Witchcraft and Sorcery

The Middle East and Islamic World Reader

Just the Facts?: 'Montauk Chronicles' -- Egyptian Pyramids Built In 9200 BC? -- 'Alien Hunter' Retires

'Montauk Chronicles' Claims Time Travel, Mind Control, Aliens At Camp Hero

Click for video - MONTAUK CHRONICLES : MOVIE PREVIEW TRAILER

Montauk, N.Y., is a picturesque, oceanside resort community on the tip of Long Island, where the rich and famous have fun in the sun. Montauk is also known for Camp Hero, a decommissioned Air Force base.

Conspiracy theorists and people who say they have spent time there claim Camp Hero was once used for bizarre, secret experiments that included mind control, time travel and contact with extraterrestrials. All of these claims are presented in "Montauk Chronicles," a new movie that has its world premiere Friday in the resort town.

While the movie features interviews with real people, much of the film centers around dramatic recreations of events they claim happened to them. Continue reading at THP

Phantoms and Monsters - The Montauk Project: Mind Manipulation, Alien Beings and Time Travel

-----

It has been referred to as Area 51 east. Montauk is a remote U.S. town located on the very eastern tip of Long Island, New York. High on a hill above the rocky waters of the Atlantic Ocean looms a giant rusted radar tower. It's a ghost relic of the past that local fishermen use as a marker to help guide their ships safely to shore. The old military tower is also a landmark for what once was an active Camp Hero Air Force Base. The base has a recorded history that dates back to the revolutionary war. During world World War II Camp Hero was used as a defense station and was equipped with giant mark seven cannons that were loaded and ready in the event of a Nazi attack.

There are those who say that in the 1970s the base was used for a much different purpose. Montauk Chronicles is the story of three men who claim they were brainwashed and forced against their will by a clandestine organization to take part in secret experiments. Evil atrocities are said to have occurred deep beneath the surface of the Camp Hero Air Force base. Alfred Bielek, Stewart Swerdlow, And Preston Nichols all tell tales of experiments that were conducted on nearly one hundred thousand people over the course of about ten years. Kidnappings, murder, torture, time travel, mind control, and extra terrestrial contact are all said to have occurred at Camp Hero.

Montauk Chronicles is the very first and honest examination of the Camp Hero Legends.

It raises many questions of our place in the universe and what the future may hold for humanity.
It's an entertaining journey into the unknown and a study of fear, lies, paranoia and the truth. For more information please visit: WWW.MTKCHRONICLES.COM

The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time

Project Montauk: The Time Travel Chronicles

Montauk: The Alien Connection

**********

Body parts turning up in Canada

A festering, stinking foot was mailed in a bloody box to the headquarters of the Canadian Conservative Party in Ottawa, Ontario, on Tuesday morning.

The gruesome discovery came just one hour after police 125 miles away in Montreal, Quebec, found a dismembered, maggot-ridden torso in a suitcase left out for the trash.

A third body part was found in a package at a post office in Ottawa on Tuesday night.

It's unknown whether the three dismembered body parts belonged to the same person, but investigators have ruled that the person in the Montreal case was murdered.

A secretary at the Tories' offices, blocks from Parliament Hill, received the first box and partially opened it about 11.30am before realizing it contained a body part, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

She told police the box was stained with blood and smelled like rotting flesh.

Authorities called in a hazardous materials crew, which took an X-ray of the box and discovered it was a dismembered foot.

Police are still investigating where the foot came from, who mailed it and why.

However, a Tory politician said he believed the package was someone's 'sick idea,' rather than a political statement.

'I don’t think any of us are thinking this necessarily has anything to with politics,' Brad Trost told the Citizen.

About 5.30pm, an officer carried the box out of the office in a yellow HAZMAT bag.

Investigators aren't saying whether the foot and the other body part belonged to the man whose torso was discovered in Montreal.

A janitor in discovered the torso, after he noticed a suitcase that had been sitting outside was beginning to stink and attract flies.

When he cut open the lock, he found a grey, maggot-infested, dismembered body with no head or arms or legs, the Citizen reports. - dailymail

**********

New Evidence Egyptian Pyramids Built In 9200 BC

Click for video

Description: Eight fascinating minutes from Lloyd Pye's friend Roger Cunningham, who has made quite a discovery about the "Star Map" chiseled into the stone above Gatenbrink's door in the airshaft of the Great Pyramid. Pretty much nails it down that the Giza complex could not conceivably be as young as classic Egyptologists suggest. Well worth watching!!!

**********

...they live in the mountains

Ojai, California - 5/28/2012 - unedited: they are here and they are abundent there are many i found the plase were they live in the mountians looking up into the rocks from below in the past 2 days i found a plase were i been looking from above looking down upon then. ontop of the rock formation are plat forms were they are. found a hanger were they work on ships a realy big ship they were unlooding cargo how they move freely in the mountains i found a entrense in the mountain a doorway that conects into ther relm but am afaid to inter cause i dont know what to expect iv seen them they came to me in all forms and creatures it is so amaseing they invite to go with them i dont know what is stoping me from intering there relm i dont know if i can return or if they will let me once i enter they have shone me so of them so far but it is only the begining of all i can learn from them everthing i know so far is that they will not hurt me cause they gould have a long time ago i think they are fasanated by me or my actions cause no other humans are able to be in there presents they serounded me i sat humbely amunst them then 3 elders came to me serounded by there gards they offer me them self to be one with them i responded that after dark my fears are so grate and tearafieing that i cannot stay through time maby i can stay - MUFON CMS

**********

That's the good ole' college spirit!

Students have been criticised in China - for celebrating their graduation day as a huge blaze broke out at their college.

The students - from Dalian, Liaoning province, northern China - had to flee when the fire broke out in a storage warehouse beside their dormitory during the event.

Graduation snaps taken on the day show the smiling students grinning as what looks like their college goes up in smoke behind them.

Angry college officials later uploaded pictures onto the college website showing students tackling the blaze with super-soakers.

"They show the true spirit of the college. Our students shouldn't be celebrating destruction," explained one. - orange.co.uk

**********

Live fish removed from boy's lungs

In one of the rare surgeries, a team of city-based doctors has saved life of a 12-year-old boy who had swallowed a nine-centimeter long live fish while playing on the riverside with his friends.

According to the doctors, Anil Barela, a resident of Khargone district, was playing with his friends on May 23. It was a routine for the kids to swallow live fish but this time when Anil swallowed the fish, instead of going to food pipe it entered the left lung through the wind pipe.

Anil soon started feeling short of breath and his breathing rate was reported 34 per minute while 17 per minute is considered to be normal. He had to undergo X-ray when the oxygen level in blood was measured 80 percent, 18% per cent lower than the normal.

Dr Pramod Jhawar, chest specialist and bronchoscope expert said, "X-ray displayed the left lung completely opaque due to the presence of a foreign object. The fish was live and taking its last breath when the bronchoscopy was done, restricting the functioning of both the longs resulting in low intake of oxygen." He said, "It is the first case of this sort that we have come across in 20 years time."

Dr Jhawar with ENT specialist Dr Nikhil Saxena and anesthetists performed a 45-miutes long surgery to get the fish out of the lungs. Dr Saxena said, "We have come across cases where kids swallow plastic or other materials, but this case was unique in its own way." - indiatimes

**********

'Alien Hunter' retires

Jill Tarter, the world's best-known "alien hunter" who inspired the Jodie Foster film Contact [Blu-ray]is retiring and handing over the baton to a colleague.

Tarter announced earlier this week that she is stepping down as director of the non-profit SETI Institute to focus on raising money to keep the effort going.

The institute, its name an acronym for "search for extraterrestrial intelligence," scours space for radio waves or other signals.

With help from a TED Prize (for technology, entertainment and design) that she won in 2009, a setilive.org website launched in February as a venue for amateurs to scrutinise patches of radio spectrum looking for anomalies worth investigating further.

"We are trying to get citizen scientists to help us look through frequencies crowded with our own communications to filter out our own and see if anything is left over that might be coming from someone else's technology," Tarter said.

More than 58,000 people have signed up website and millions of signals have been scrutinises and classified, according to counters at the website.

SETI was testing improvements to setilive.org that would let professional scientists follow up on people's observations in real time, chasing signals while trails are fresh and telescopes still on targets.

"This is the first time anybody has tried to do this citizen science work in real time," Tarter said. "It is a real challenge."

The website emphasises sifting through radio bands crowded with human-generated transmissions, based on reasoning that aliens might have noticed the chatter and thought to send messages back along the same channels.

Tarter's career will be celebrated at the second annual SETIcon gathering of scientists, artists, and entertainers in the heart of Silicon Valley the weekend of June 22.

Speakers at a gala event planned for Tarter are to include astronaut Mae Jemison; "Star Trek: Voyager" television series actor Robert Picardo; and the author of the Drake equation for estimating the number of detectable alien civilisations in the Milky Way.

Tarter, 68, joined the NASA SETI program in the 1970s as part of a small team of researchers developing ways to look for alien signals in radio waves.

She has championed the effort at the SETI Institute since the plug was pulled on the NASA program in 1993.

Tarter is encouraged by word that NASA's Kepler telescope discovered thousands of new planetary systems.

"It is exciting after all this time to know where to look," Tarter told AFP.

"We are all holding our breath for Earth 2.0, an Earthlike planet," she continued. "Everyone has this feeling it is just around the corner; you can almost taste it."

Planet hunters will be key presenters at SETIcon, details of which are available online at seticon.com.

Tickets to the event range from $65 for a keynote brunch to $1,000 for a "Cosmic VIP" pass promising prime access to all aspects of the three-day gathering. The event raises funds for SETI's work.

Gerry Harp will take over as director of SETI Institute. - telegraph

Just the Facts?: Humans Not On Alien Menu -- More Vatican Hijinks -- 'Baby' Bigfoot Evidence

Aliens don't want to eat us, says former SETI director

Alien life probably isn’t interested in having us for dinner, enslaving us or laying eggs in our bellies, according to a recent statement by former SETI director Jill Tarter.

In a press release announcing the Institute’s science and sci-fi SETIcon event, taking place June 22 – 24 in Santa Clara, CA, Tarter — who was the inspiration for Jodie Foster’s character in the film “Contact” — disagreed with both filmmakers and Stephen Hawking over the portrayal of extraterrestrials as monsters hungry for human flesh.

“Often the aliens of science fiction say more about us than they do about themselves,” Tarter said. “While Sir Stephen Hawking warned that alien life might try to conquer or colonize Earth, I respectfully disagree. If aliens were able to visit Earth that would mean they would have technological capabilities sophisticated enough not to need slaves, food, or other planets. If aliens were to come here it would be simply to explore.

“Considering the age of the universe, we probably wouldn’t be their first extraterrestrial encounter, either. We should look at movies like ‘Men in Black III,’ ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Battleship’ as great entertainment and metaphors for our own fears, but we should not consider them harbingers of alien visitation.”

Tarter, 68, recently announced her stepping down as director of SETI in order to focus on funding for the Institute, which is currently running only on private donations. Funding SETI, according to Tarter, is investing in humanity’s future.

“Think about it. If we detect a signal, we could learn about their past (because of the time their signal took to reach us) and the possibility of our future. Successful detection means that, on average, technologies last for a long time. Understanding that it is possible to find solutions to our terrestrial problems and to become a very old civilization, because someone else has managed to do just that, is hugely important! Knowing that there can be a future may motivate us to achieve it.”

On the other hand, concern that searching the sky for signs of life — as well as sending out your own — could call down hungry alien monsters would make a good case for keeping quiet. And a quiet search may not get the necessary funding to keep going. I can see where Tarter is coming from. - phys.org

Alien Invasion: The Ultimate Survival Guide for the Ultimate Attack

Contact [Blu-ray]

**********

Pope's Butler Leaks Documents

A mysterious source named Maria. A room furnished with a single chair where sensitive Vatican documents are turned over to an investigative journalist at regular meetings. The arrest of the pope’s butler. Perhaps the greatest breach in centuries in the wall of secrecy that surrounds the Vatican.

An on-again-off-again scandal that the Italian press has called VatiLeaks burst into the open on Friday with the arrest by Vatican gendarmes of a man, identified in news reports as Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, who the Vatican said was in possession of confidential documents and was suspected of leaking private letters, some of which were addressed to Pope Benedict XVI.

The arrest follows by a day the ouster of the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, amid conflicts over how to bring the secretive institution in line with international transparency standards and days after the publication of a sensational book, “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI,” in which the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, aided by “Maria,” discloses a huge cache of private Vatican correspondence, many revealing clashes over the management at the Vatican bank and allegations of corruption and cronyism.

The letters, which have made their way into the Italian news media in recent months, draw a portrait of an ancient institution in chaotic disarray behind its high, stately walls, where various factions vie for power, influence and financial control in the twilight years of Benedict’s papacy.

“Of course there are problems, big problems,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert for the Italian daily La Stampa and its Web site, Vatican Insider. “What is happening now shows that there’s a crisis.”

It was not clear whether the bank president’s ouster and the arrest of the man found with confidential documents were directly related, although Mr. Nuzzi’s book includes various memos from Mr. Gotti Tedeschi about the Vatican bank.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, declined to identify the person who was arrested, saying only that he was not a priest or member of a religious order and that he had been detained for further investigation. (This year, the pope called for investigations into the leaks by the Vatican police and a committee of cardinals.)

But Italian news media reported that he was Mr. Gabriele, 40, and a butler in the papal household. Some publications even showed images of him holding a white umbrella above the pope and pouring him wine at dinner.

The twist that “the butler did it” was fully worthy of a whodunit that began earlier this year when documents began appearing in the Italian press. In one, a Sicilian cardinal, writing in German in order to be more stealthy, said he had heard in China about a bizarre plot to kill the pope. At the time, Father Lombardi called the accounts “delirious and incomprehensible.”

In another letter from 2011 that appeared in the Italian press this year and is also published in Mr. Nuzzi’s book, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, then the deputy governor of Vatican City, wrote directly to Benedict. In it, he argued that transferring him to another post would impede his efforts to fight “corruption and abuse” in various Vatican offices, sending the wrong signal about in his efforts to rein in cronyism in the awarding of contracts for construction work at the Vatican.

Nevertheless, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, named Archbishop Viganò papal nuncio to Washington, where he has had to contend with multimillion-dollar lawsuits against American dioceses over the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Roman Catholic Church, according to Mr. Nuzzi’s book.

At a news conference this week, Mr. Nuzzi said he believed that his source had been motivated by “courage, as well as the unbearable complicity with people that are committing the most serious crimes.”

He added: “I think that 20 years ago this book would have never come out. There are documents that hint at relations between states, and that’s why I think they are very relevant; they are not private documents regarding the Holy Father or one of the cardinals.”

The release of documents in which Vatican officials discuss one of the great unsolved mysteries in Italy, the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee led to the reopening of a criminal investigation.

The book also provides a unique window into the nexus between Italian banking and media power and the Vatican. In one letter from last Christmas, Bruno Vespa, Italy’s most well-known television host, sent a check for $12,500 to the pope’s private secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, “a small sum at the disposal of the pope’s charity,” and asked when he could have a private audience. The director of Italy’s Intesa San Paolo bank, Giovanni Bazoli, sent a $32,000 check, “with my most deferential salutations.”

Other letters addressed to Monsignor Gänswein are written in obsequious baroque Italian, in which everyone from Jesuits to officials in the government of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to Mercedes-Benz directors responsible for maintaining the popemobile write seeking favors, recommendations and most of all, the pope’s ear.

But other documents hint at more complex dealings. In one letter, Mr. Gotti Tedeschi defends himself to Monsignor Gänswein after he and another Vatican bank official had been placed under investigation by Rome magistrates in September 2010 for having failed to adequately explain the origins of funds transferred from one account held by the Vatican bank to two others it holds.

Since so many documents have been leaked from the Vatican this year, there were some doubts expressed that the butler arrested on Friday was the true — or only — source. “It doesn’t seem likely that he is the only one responsible for VatiLeaks because many of the documents that came out didn’t ever pass through the pope’s apartment where he works,” said Paolo Rodari, a Vatican expert for the Italian daily Il Foglio. “His arrest seems more the Vatican’s desire to find a scapegoat.”

Cardinal Bertone has emerged as a central, contentious figure in the VatiLeaks drama. Many critics, including some inside the Vatican, see him as a poor administrator who as the Vatican’s C.E.O. has struggled to manage the scandal-ridden papacy of a German intellectual with little interest in day-to-day affairs of state. Vatican observers say that many of the leaked documents are aimed at undermining the cardinal’s influence.

That clash has played out most visibly in the controversy over the Vatican bank, which has struggled to comply with international standards to stop money laundering. Defenders of Mr. Gotti Tedeschi see him as trying to improve the transparency of the Vatican finances, while they see Cardinal Bertone as trying to impede his efforts.

In a statement on Thursday, the Vatican said simply that the five-member board of the Vatican bank had voted no confidence in Mr. Gotti Tedeschi “for not having carried out functions of primary importance for his role.”

Others familiar with the Vatican bank said that Mr. Gotti Tedeschi had not been fully involved in its oversight because he maintained his full-time job as the head of Italian operations for Spain’s Banco Santander in Milan.

On Friday, Reuters reported that Mr. Gotti Tedeschi had said, “I have paid for my transparency,” while the Ansa news agency reported that he was torn between “telling the truth and not disturbing the pope.” - nytimes

NOTE: With all the controversy in the Vatican recently, you'd think that the spirits of the Borgias and the Famiglia de' Medici had reappeared...Lon

The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia

The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431-1519

**********

Farm Animals Attacked, Cut With Unknown Weapon In Virginia

There may be a farm animal attacker on the loose in Virginia, but employees of Frying Pan Farm Park won't let the assailant get their goats.

When workers went to feed the animals of Kidwell Barn early Sunday morning, they found that two goats, a chicken, and a calf had all been cut by an unknown object, according to a statement released by Fairfax County Police Department. The calf and one goat had been slashed on the head. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

The calf and one of the goats are each under three months old, ABC 7 reports, and are bottle-fed. They would have readily approached any person who entered the barn, thinking it was feeding time, according to NBC Washington.

The attack is especially unsettling in light of a similar incident that occurred nearby only a month ago. On April 26, three horses were stabbed multiple times in a barn neighboring Frying Pan Park. The animals, who work as therapy horses for disabled children, were left with large, open wounds, but ultimately survived the attack.

Police do not know whether the two incidents are related, and no arrests have been made. - THP

**********

'Baby' Bigfoot Evidence - Cast Prints from a Sasquatch Toddler

Cast image

The vast ecosystem formed by the Red River watershed on the borders of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana affords a habitat comprised of many micro-climates with an incredible diversity and richness of plant and animal life. In many of the deep ravines where the creeks and waterways have cut through the the limestone cap rock, the vegetation has a nearly tropical aspect. Towering, ancient cypress trees form a canopy above the underbrush and thick hanging vines. These ravines are like a primordial oasis, seldom traversed by humans. Often in remote wildernesses, surrounded by thousands of acres of temperate woodlands and meadows. The ravines are a favored living quarters for the Sasquatch or "Bigfoot"

From one of these ravines, a very significant group of footprints of a "Baby Bigfoot" were cast in plaster, along with a hand- and footprints from a more mature Sasquatch, most likely the juvenile's older sibling or mother. The prints, pressed into the fine clay of the creek bed are rare specimens, since not only are they from a rarely documented young juvenile, but the casts also retain detailed anatomical features that are not generally preserved in other types of soil.

A record of this type of evidence is necessary for a more in-depth understanding of these beings, who are the closest living relatives of humans, as current, in-depth DNA results are expected to reveal. The popular misconception of the Sasquatch is one of a savage "monster"- a giant ape with limited intelligence, motivated by sheer instinct. The Sasquatch are far more complex, intelligent and social creatures, with a family structure and long-term relationships within their extended families and network of friends- which in very rare instances can include humans. Continue reading at "Baby" Bigfoot Evidence- Cast Prints from a Sasquatch Toddler

THE BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK: The True Story of the Fouke Monster

The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Television - The author, David Coleman, will be our guest this week at 'Beyond The Edge Radio'

The Aluminum Wedge of Aiud

Last week I posted Ancient Anomalies vs Accepted Awareness that referenced enigmatic artifacts found worldwide that simply do not fit the accepted geologic or historical timeline. These ancient anomalies, also referred to as ooparts (out-of-place artifacts), are objects that by scientific measure are very old, but in form or construction appear to be quite modern. If our current history of the world is correct, they just should not exist. And there are many examples...many more than geologists, archaeologists, and other scientists care to admit.

One example I want to emphasis is the Aluminum Wedge of Aiud. This particular artifact is a true enigma...and one of many I would like to examine in upcoming blogs.

In 1974, in Romania, East of Aiud, a group of workers, on the banks of the river Mures, discovered three buried objects in a sand trench 10 meters deep. Two of the objects proved to be Mastodon bones. These dating from between the Miocene and the Pleistocene periods.

The third object, the Aluminum Wedge of Aiud, also known as the Object of Aiud, is a mysterious wedge-shaped block of metal similar in some respects to the head of a hammer. The object was sent to the archeological institute of Cluj-Napoca. The examination of this object showed it to weigh about 5lbs. There are two holes of different sizes. The object has two arms. Traces of tool marks can be seen on the sides of the object and at its lowest part. It measures approximately 8″ x 5″ x 3″.

Dr. Niederkorn of the institute for the study of metals and non-metallic minerals located in Magurele, Romania, concluded that the object is comprised of a alloy of an extremely complex metal. Twelve different elements combine to form the Aiud Object. It consists of: 89% aluminum, 6.2% copper, 2.84% silicon, 1.81% zinc, 0.41% lead, 0.33% tin, 0.2% zirconium, 0.11% cadmium, 0.0024% nickel, 0.0023% cobalt, 0.0003% bismuth, and trace of galium.

Furthermore, this strange object is covered with a thick layer of aluminum oxide, which lends credence to its antiquity. After the analysis of this aluminum oxide layer, specialists have confirmed that the object is a minimum of 300 to 400 years old.

The fact that this strange metal object was found alongside Mastadon bones does cause one to wonder and raises many issues. These findings helped to ignite a heated debate within the scientific community.

The results puzzled the researchers because pure aluminum was not readily obtainable until the middle of the 19th century. Aluminum is not found freely in nature, but is combined with other minerals. The manufacturing process requires 1,000 degrees of heat. It has been thought that only in the last 100 years or so has the technology existed to successfully separate the materials from the mineral bearing ore.

Other specialists claim that the object could be 20,000 years old because it was found in a layer with mastodon bone. Perhaps this particular specimen lived in the latter part of the Pleistocene.

Some researchers suppose that this piece of metal was part of a flying object that had fallen into the river. They presume that it had an extraterrestrial origin. Other researchers believe the wedge was made here on Earth and its purpose has not yet been identified.

Not much information can be found on this subject. The lack of data can possibly be explained by the imposed restrictions on archaeology and history by the communist rule of the time.

The Aluminum Wedge of Aiud remains a mystery.

-----

THE AIUD ARTIFACT OVERVIEW

1. The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud (also called the object of Aiud) is a mysterious artifact of uncertain origin in the shape of a wedge, which was found at an archeological site near the Roman town of Aiud, allegedly near by a mammoth skeleton.

It is composed of 89% aluminium covered by a thick oxide layer. The thickness of this oxide layer is said to be confirmation that the object is anachronistic, at least three-hundred or four-hundred years old.

The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud is often cited as "proof" that aliens visited earth at earlier times, because aluminium was difficult to produce in quantity before 1825. Most scientists, however, believe that this object is a fake.

2. The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud (also called object of Aiud) is a mysterious body in form of a wedge, which was found at digging works near the Roman town Aiud. It consists of 89% of aluminium, which is covered by a thick oxide layer.

The thickness of this layer is said to be so strong as it would lay over a million years in the ground. The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud is often citated as "proof" that aliens visited earth at earlier times, because there were no possibilities to produce aluminium before 1825.

Most scientists however, believe that this object, which existence is not clear, is a fake.

Click for video - The Aiud Artifact

Sources:
theepochtimes.com
encyclo.co.uk
forbiddenarchaeology.net
alien-news.org
deletionpedia.dbatley.com
Fischinger, Lars A. - 'Das Rätsel von Aiud' (The Mystery of Aiud)

Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Forbidden Archeology's Impact: How a Controversial New Book Shocked the Scientific Community and Became an Underground Classic

Forbidden Archeologist: The Atlantis Rising Magazine Columns of Michael A. Cremo

The Mysterious Origins of Man (UFO TV Special Edition)

Just the Facts?: Words To Avoid On Social Networks -- MIB Sightings -- Telepathic Bigfoot Research

Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.

Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.

The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.

Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.

However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.

As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.

The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.

In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.

They point out that it includes 'vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters.'

A senior Homeland Security official told the Huffington Post that the manual 'is a starting point, not the endgame' in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats and denied that the government was monitoring signs of dissent.

However the agency admitted that the language used was vague and in need of updating.

Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program.' -

Homeland Security: A Complete Guide to Understanding, Preventing, and Surviving Terrorism

Introduction to Homeland Security, Fourth Edition: Principles of All-Hazards Risk Management

**********

Telepathic Bigfoot Research

Telepathic Bigfoot research is laughable to many Bigfoot researchers. They want to get solid scientific PROOF that Bigfoot exists and don’t see the connection to exploration of telepathy. There are many scientists specializing in the study of telepathy. Do you see the correlation there? The POSSIBILITIES?

There are many non-telepathic Bigfoot researchers on the job, trying to get that physical proof. The Bigfoot research scene resembles a huge tumble-jumble of people racing to be the one great almighty Bigfoot researcher with a gold star, who will go down in history as the discoverer of the Sasquatch species. Continue reading at Telepathic Bigfoot Research

**********

Naked man killed by Police near MacArthur Causeway was ‘eating’ face off victim

It was a scene as creepy as a Hannibal Lecter movie.

One man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked, and his face allegedly half eaten, by a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway off ramp Saturday, police said.

The horror began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building.

According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.

The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.

Miami police were on the scene, which was just south of The Miami Herald building on Biscayne Boulevard. The naked man who was killed lay face down on the pedestrian walkway just below the newspaper’s two-story parking garage. Police have requested The Herald’s video surveillance tapes.

The other man was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, according to police. Their identities were not released.

The incident, which came as crowds descended upon South Beach for the annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival, snarled traffic on the causeway for several hours.

In a text message, Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the officer who fired the fatal shots was “a hero.”

“Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,’’ he said.

Sergeant Altarr Williams, supervisor of Miami police’s Homicide Unit, said a man doesn’t have to be armed to be dangerous.

“There are other ways to injure people,’’ Williams said. “Some people know martial arts, others are very strong and can kill you with their hands.’’

Investigators believe the victim may have been homeless and laying down when the crazed man pounced.

Police theorize the attacker might have been suffering from "cocaine psychosis," a drug-induced craze that bakes the body internally and often leads the affected to strip naked to try and cool off.

Miami Herald writers Alexandra Leon and Curtis Morgan contributed to this report. - miamiherald

Thanks to Bill for the heads up!

An Intellectual History of Cannibalism

Cannibalism, Headhunting and Human Sacrifice in North America

**********

Boy finds decades-old photo of dead uncle inside camera at yard sale

When Addison Logan, 13, saw an old Polaroid camera at a Wichita, Kan., garage sale and thought it looked like a fun relic little did he know it carried a photograph of a dead uncle he never met.

Deciding the camera was "pretty cool" and worth the $1 asking price, he headed home with his grandmother, Lois Logan, and searched the internet to find out how it worked, The Wichita Eagle reported.

When he opened the camera, there was a photograph inside. He showed his grandmother, who was shocked to see her son, Scott, who died 23 years earlier in a car accident.

The photo showed Scott with a high school girlfriend about 10 years before he died. For Lois, it was proof he was still looking down on the family.

Addison's father, Blake, said of the picture, "I'm just shocked. The more time that passes, the more in disbelief I am ... It's almost like he's reaching out to us, saying he's still with us."

The Logan family don't know the family that sold the camera, and the house that held the garage sale didn't exist in the 1970s when the picture was taken, ruling out the chance the camera belonged to the girlfriend pictured with Scott and had been left there.

The family is happy to accept the random nature of the find, with another of Scott's brothers, Jeff, saying, "When you get something like that, that's almost like a sign telling us, 'Hey, everything's all right, I'm still here.'" - foxnews

Thanks to Sharolyn for the heads up!

**********

Do UFO Hunters Still Report “Men in Black” Sightings?

This weekend, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will attempt to conquer the box office yet again with the third installment of the Men in Black franchise. The films, centered on a secret group of dark-suited agents responsible for keeping alien life from the eyes of the public, are based on Lowell Cunningham’s comic book series of the same name. That comic book series was in turn inspired by actual reports of clandestine, black-clad figures, reports that date back several decades and are an integral part of UFO folklore.

The producers of Men in Black III are even attempting to cash in on that folklore through a viral marketing campaign that mimics “men in black” accounts of old. Cheap-looking billboards (which don’t mention the movie at all) declare that “The Men in Black Suits are Real” and direct the curious to call a hotline, which then encourages them to leave a message detailing their own supernatural experiences. (There is also, of course, a blog that further exploits MIB culture in the hopes of a box office bonanza.)

This got us thinking: Given the enormous commercial success of the Men in Black films—as well as the popularity of TV’s The X-Files, which also drew on “men in black” mythology—do UFO seekers still report such sightings? Or has the mainstreaming of this phenomenon rooted it out of the UFO subculture that produced it?

First, a little background. In the summer of 1947, the sighting of “nine shiny discs” by a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold inspired similar accounts around the globe, as eminent ufologist Jerome Clark explains in his detailed book, The UFO Encyclopedia. (The Arnold sighting led to the coining of a new term: “flying saucers.”) That same summer, Harold Dahl claimed to have been visited by a man in a dark suit who promised to harm him if he disclosed his sighting of unidentified flying objects around Tacoma, Wash., the previous day. Dubbed the “Maury Island Mystery,” the incident was later investigated by the Air Force, and is widely regarded as a hoax. But the image took hold in the popular imagination, and accounts of men in dark suits who have some connection to UFOs proliferated.

The most famous such account came from Albert K. Bender, who, in 1952, created the International Flying Saucer Bureau. Soon afterward, he said, he was visited by three men in dark suits who threatened him with imprisonment if he continued his inquiries into UFOs. Bender’s account was featured in They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, a book by IFSB associate Gray Barker, who also mentioned it frequently in his magazine, The Saucerian.

Bender believed that the men who threatened him were part of the U.S. government, but explanations for the men in black vary. And a distinction is made, in UFO literature, between “men in black” and “Men in Black” (note the capital letters). The former are believed to be human agents who cover up government secrets and are said to appear relatively normal. The latter (often abbreviated as MIBs) were described by the late ufologist John A. Keel—author of book-turned-film The Mothman Prophecies—as “demonic supernaturals” who behave in distinctly nonhuman ways. (Keel’s accounts of MIBs, which date to the mid-1960s, have xenophobic overtones: He describes them as having dark skin and/or “exotic” facial features. The first Men in Black movie cleverly inverted this aspect of MIB folklore, depicting aliens as immigrants.)

I asked Clark, an active board member of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), whether the popularization of the MIB has affected the number of visits reported today. Such accounts have tapered significantly in the 15 years since the original MIB was released, he said, but he does not believe the films are responsible. Why the decline, then? Clark didn’t offer a specific reason, but he did suggest that few ufologists pay attention to such matters anymore, particularly since Keel passed away in 2009.

British ufologist Nick Redfern, on the other hand, disputes the notion that sightings have declined. In his book The Real Men in Black, he tells of several reported visits in recent years.

Whether or not the sightings have continued or will continue, Clark cautions against dismissing such stories as the ramblings of crazy people—or to think of them as literal events, like bumping into someone at the grocery store. Rather, Clark said, the direct observation and the event must be separated. Accounts of the men in black represent experiences that, in his words, “don’t seem to have occurred in the world of consensus reality.” - slaye

The Real Men In Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and their Connection to UFO Phenomena

Mystery of the Men in Black: The UFO Silencers

The Demon Cat

The US government has been keeping a secret for the last few hundred years...a demon lives in the sublevels of the US Capitol Building and in the basement of the White House. This demon has spooked security, baffled witnesses, and said to be an omen of terrible tragedy for the United States or a change in office.

The demon comes in the form of a black cat. When sighted, the animal appears to be a normal stray cat but when it approaches, it's said to have glowing eyes and grows larger to the size of a lion or bear. The caterwauling of the demon cat, said to walk the hallways in the basement near the Catafalque Storage Room, can sometimes be hear echoing through the damp corridors. In 1862 and again in 1898, guards shot a black cat that had swollen to the size of an elephant.

The story of the demon cat, nicknamed "DC" by Capitol employees, begins shortly after the capitol building was completed. Washington DC had something of a rat problem and cats were brought into the building to get rid of them. As the rat problem was taken care of, the cats either wandered off or were adopted by people who worked there. It seems that one cat was left behind in order to roam the recesses of the capitol building for a longer period.

“One guard who saw it wants to remain anonymous. It happened on a January night in the 1970s. As he was walking through a passage way, he saw the black cat approach. The phantom appeared to get larger as it walked toward him. Its eyes had a reddish glow. The guard was afraid to move. Finally, the phantom reached the size of a tiger and its meowings changed to roars. It crouched and sprang and all the guard could do was to pray and close his eyes. Nothing happened. When the guard opened his eyes, the cat had vanished.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune of 11/1/1992 stated: "The demon cat would usually meet someone alone in a dark corridor. It had large yellow eyes that seemed to hypnotize, and it would snarl. It would seem to grow larger and larger until it would make a final lunge toward its victim and then either explode or disappear over the victim's head. Historians recorded stories of guards firing guns toward the hissing cat as it disappeared only to find they were shooting into an empty hall. It was said to appear only on the eve of a national tragedy or the change of administrations."

DC has been seen periodically throughout the last 200 years. Reportedly, he was spotted before the assassination of Lincoln and Garfield, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the death of Roosevelt, the assassination of Kennedy, the attempted assassination of Reagan, and there was even an account of the cat being spotted the night of September 10th, 2001. At the White House, it is usually seen during times when the presidency is moving to a new person.

DC's predicting ability isn't the only thing it is known for. It's said to live in a room originally intended to house the body of George Washington after death, a place that would remain empty as Washington was buried at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia. This empty room is one of the many places witnesses have spotted the mysterious creature.

When the subject of ghosts and the paranormal on Capitol Hill is approached, a few incidents are brought to light. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is a firm believer. “In my old hideaway we had ghosts,” Leahy said. “We had a 300-pound table that we’d come in and find in different parts of the room that we hadn’t left it in...it had moved around by itself about every two or three months.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she hadn’t seen any ghosts in her more than 20 years in Congress, but added that “sometimes it feels haunted.”

Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.) agreed, saying that when he presided over the House floor, he sometimes felt another presence in the room. “When I sat in the [House] chair at times, I knew that there were members around me that were not just not in the chamber to vote on something,” he said.

Anthony Wallis, a research analyst with the House historian’s office states, “One soldier is known to have undergone excruciating pain one night during surgery and he died on the operating table. So Capitol Police swear that they hear moaning and see figures walking across the Capitol Rotunda, because it was used as a makeshift hospital during the Civil War.”

Whether real or the result of years of paranoia I cannot say, but if you ever find yourself in the Capitol Rotunda during a tour, take a look at the floor near the old entrance to the Senate Hall. One thing that you cannot deny is the set of cat prints across the stone floor said to be made by the US Capitol's demon cat.

NOTE: Personally, I don't care for the word 'demon'... malevolent is a more suitable description for an evil being or entity in my opinion. Similar to the Mothman, these supposed 'harbingers of death' or 'omens' usually have the 'demon' tag attached to it, even though there doesn't seem to be any malevolent intent. The Capitol Building, built by slaves and with a nucleus of strife and bloodshed over its more than 200-year history, has a rich history of ghosts and mystical folklore. But while some lawmakers embrace, and almost relish, this eerie presence, others deny the existence of ghosts...or, at the very least, have serious doubts of the stories people tell...Lon

"Ghosts: Washington Revisited" (The Ghostlore of the Nation's Capital)

Washington, D.C., Ghosts, Legends, and Lore

The Ghost in the White House

Sources:
rollcall.com
abcnews.go.com
unexplainable.net
thehill.com
slightlywarped.com
unsolved-mysteries.com
paranormala.com
Alexander, John - 'Washington's Most Famous Ghost Stories' - 1988

Just the Facts?: Iran Predicts Christianity's Collapse -- Aliens Abducted Stray Cats -- Navajo Rangers...UFO Hunters

Leather-bound 'gospel' which Iran claims will bring down Christianity and shake world politics

A leather-bound religious text, thought to date from the fifth century but discovered only 12 years ago, will cause the collapse of Christianity worldwide, claims Iran.

The book, written on animal hide, apparently states that Jesus was never crucified and that he himself predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, according to the the Iranian press.

Written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the gospel even predicts the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the report adds.

Turkish authorities believe it could be an authentic version of the Gospel by Jesus's disciple Barnabas, and the Iranian press report has claimed that its contents will trigger Christianity's downfall by proving that Islam is the final and righteous religion.

Others have dismissed the Iranian claims as 'laughable' anti-Christian propaganda.

The Basij Press claims the text was written in the 5th or 6th century and it predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam. It says the Christian world denies the existence of such a gospel.

Basij claims that Chapter 41 of the Gospel reads: 'God has hidden himself as Archangel Michael ran them (Adam and Eve) out of heaven, (and) when Adam turned, he noticed that at top of the gateway to heaven, it was written "La elah ela Allah, Mohamad rasool Allah",' meaning Allah is the only God and Mohammad his prophet.

Turkish authorities seized the text in 2000 in a crackdown on a gang who were charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives.

But excitement at the find only peaked in February this year, when it was reported that the Vatican had made an official request to view the book. It is not known whether the request was granted.

Its origins are unknown, but National Turk reported that the book had been kept in the Justice Palace in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and was being transferred under armed police guard to the city's Ethnography Museum.

Phil Lawler, writing on the Catholic Culture website, described the claim as a 'laughable Iranian challenge to Christianity'.

He said: 'If the document was written in the 5th or 6th century, it couldn’t very well have been written by someone who was traveling with St. Paul about 400 years earlier.

'It must have been written by someone claiming to represent St. Barnabas. Should we accept that claim? Another good question.

'Keep in mind that the dating of the document is critical. By the 7th century it didn’t take much foresight to 'predict' the appearance of Mohammad.'

The Basij report suggests that the discovery is so immense that it will shake world politics.

'The discovery of the original Barnabas Bible will now undermine the Christian Church and its authority and will revolutionize the religion in the world,” it states.

'The most significant fact, though, is that this Bible has predicted the coming of Prophet Mohammad and in itself has verified the religion of Islam.'

Although Turkish authorities believe the text to be genuine, other observers have questioned its authenticity.

Erick Stakelbeck, a terrorism analyst and a close observer of Iranian affairs, told WND.com: 'The Iranian regime is committed to stamping out Christianity by any means necessary.

'Whether that means executing Christian converts, burning Bibles or raiding underground churches.'

Phil Lawler, writing on the Catholic Culture website, described the claim as a 'laughable Iranian challenge to Christianity'. - dailymail

The suppressed Gospels and Epistles of the original New Testament of Jesus the Christ, Volume 7, Barnabas

The Gospel of Barnabas

Ancient Epistle of Barnabas: His Life and Teachings

**********

Moon rock chips returned to NASA

It's been a long, strange trip for what appears to be several tiny chips of lunar rock that found their way into a casino mogul's hands after being collected by the first men on the moon.

If they're real, they were plucked from the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, given by then-President Richard Nixon to former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia, pilfered by a Costa Rican mercenary soldier-turned Contra rebel, traded to a Baptist missionary for unknown items, then sold to a flamboyant Las Vegas casino mogul who squirreled them away in in a safety deposit box.

Now, more than 2½ years after Bob Stupak's death, an attorney for his estate has sent to NASA officials in Houston a tabletop display featuring the four gray chips the size of grains of rice.

They're magnified in a Lucite dome about as big around as a U.S. 50-cent piece set with a small blue and white Nicaraguan flag.

Combined, the chips weigh 0.05 grams.

A NASA spokeswoman, Renee Juhans, confirmed Tuesday that the agency was "taking steps to authenticate" the display it received from attorney Richard Wright. Juhans declined to say what would happen after that.

Wright said he expects that if the chips are authentic, they'll be returned to the people of the Central American country. If not, he said they should be sent back to him.

"I told them it was either Stupak's or Nicaragua's," said Wright, who said he counseled Stupak when ownership questions were raised more than a decade ago not to try to sell or auction the display.

The tiny rocks can be considered priceless or worthless, said Joe Gutheinz, a retired NASA investigator and moon rock hunter who has spent decades on a quest to find 160 missing moon rock samples around the world.

"In a sense, they're worthless because you can't sell them," Gutheinz said by telephone this week from his law office in Friendswood, Texas. "But for people who love space, you can't put a price on it."

They're part of a limited supply of about 842 pounds of rock collected by U.S. astronauts in six missions between Apollo 11 in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972. The Soviet Union collected about 300 grams of rock, or about two-thirds of a pound, during unmanned probes to the moon.

Gutheinz said the U.S. distributed 270 moon rock samples in the 1970s as a goodwill gesture to countries around the world. States received 100 samples and territories received six. The United Nations received a sample from the Apollo 11 mission.

The tiny chips that made their way to Stupak by 1987 apparently came from Nicaragua.

Stupak was a wheeler, dealer and gambler of the first order. He won a $1 million wager on Super Bowl XXIII and a World Series of Poker championship bracelet, both in 1989, nearly died in a motorcycle crash in 1995, and lost a bid in 2006 to become lieutenant governor of Nevada.

For a time, Wright said, the lunar stones were displayed at the Moon Rock Cafe at Bob Stupak's Vegas World casino, which featured a rocket ship logo and big sign declaring "Sky's the Limit." The display went into storage after Stupak replaced the place with the tallest structure on the Las Vegas Strip, the 1,149-foot Stratosphere tower resembling the iconic Space Needle in Seattle.

Stupak bought the rocks for $10,000 and 200,000 shares in his casino from Arizona preacher and businessman Harry Coates, according to documents provided by Wright and the recollections of Coates' widow, Silvina Coates Harry Coates, a Baptist minister and missionary, met his wife in 1985 during a mission to Costa Rica. He died in July 2005 in Arizona at age 85.

Silvina Coates, of Casa Grande, Ariz., recalled Tuesday that her husband had lots of side business deals, including one with a man in Costa Rica for the moon rock display. She couldn't remember what the trade involved.

Wright has a copy of Stupak's $10,000 check to Harry Coates' business, Midway Development Inc., along with an affidavit describing how Coates acquired the display from a man named Bob Stone of Golfito, Costa Rica.

The display had been picked from a pile of looted items by an unnamed Costa Rican mercenary fighting with Nicaraguan soldiers when a Somoza compound dubbed "El Retire" was sacked "at the time of the revolution in Nicaragua," according to the affidavit.

It said the mercenary later switched sides to fight for the Contras, before returning to Costa Rica in 1979.

"Bob bought it in good faith," Wright said. Stupak wanted to sell the display a little more than a decade ago. He offered Wright 10 percent of the proceeds if he could help, then upped the offer to 25 percent.

Wright counseled him that he couldn't auction or sell it, because whether it had been lost or stolen, it wasn't clear that Stupak had any legal right to own it.

After Stupak died, Wright contacted NASA and the Nicaraguan consulate about returning the display.

Wright obtained a written promise in April from NASA attorney Cedric Campbell that if the rock display is authentic, "NASA will return the rock to the people of Nicaragua."

Gutheinz, who teaches an online University of Phoenix course and enlists student sleuths to find missing moon rocks, said the sample sounded authentic. He said he expects an ownership fight in Nicaragua.

But that'll just provide another chapter for one of the many stories Gutheinz tells about moon rock samples. He says his students have helped find the 79 displays since 2002.

Governors took them home in Colorado, West Virginia and Missouri, he said. A display given to then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton turned up in archived materials after Clinton became president.

"Here, the attorney did the right thing," Gutheinz said. "He told NASA and they're in the process of turning it over properly. We can only hope that Nicaragua gets its property back." - cbsnews

**********

UFOs: Abducted stray cats, shopping carts and a Hardees meal

Lake City FL - 5/20/2012 - unedited:....they were practicing a cone like formation, taking turns landing and beaming stray cats. none of the beamed cats were returned and electrical devices and systems were not functioning and it seemed like gravity was really light weight. they had multicolor lights and beam systems that were able to lift objects. they also took a few shopping carts and a Hardees meal. - MUFON CMS

**********

Flying Humanoid / Strange Light Beams

The incredible variety of different types of UFOs reported – from disc shape, spheres and orbs, splitting UFOs, triangular and tubular, plasma and the spectacular cluster sightings – certainly provide any serious researcher an important graphic dossier to make studies and analyses of this phenomenon.

One of the most curious types of sightings – and quite rare – are those of human-like beings that fly.

Is it possible that the dark figure on the photographs taken in the grounds of Balmerino Abbey, Scotland, is a dark Flying Humanoid figure?

Besides this rare Humanoid figure, you see a kind of haze / ghost figure floating among the trees as well as a beam of light (probably caused by the Sun?) - thetruthbehindthescenes

Click for video

Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations, and Beings from Other Worlds (Unexplained Phenomena the Para)

Unearthly Disclosure

The How and Why of UFOs

**********

Navajo Rangers...UFO Hunters

The Navajo Rangers have been modestly performing their duties on the reservation for more than fifty years now. The group has seen their numbers decline due to funding, but have remained dedicated to the needs of their people. Jonathan Dover and Stanley Milford provide law enforcement, public education, preventive patrols, and regulatory enforcement to the reservation as Navajo Rangers. And they keep open minds when unique cases come forward. Their investigations have included UFO sightings, paranormal cases, and big foot. Examining these occurrences has led to an array of skepticism from other law enforcement agencies.

A short time ago, the two Rangers attended the 2012 International UFO Congress and gained attention from a local TV station, which ran a story on what they’ve been investigating. This has sparked more interest in the pair, and how they go about their investigations. Dover and Milford carry on case by case though, listening intently to the witnesses and recording the evidence. Recently, the two presented on their experiences and investigations at a monthly meeting held by the Phoenix Chapter of MUFON. In the future, Open Minds will be travelling north to ride along with the Rangers for a glimpse of their practices, investigation techniques, and the affect this has on their people. - openminds

Click for video

The Book of the Navajo

Diné: A History of the Navajos

Top Secret/Majic: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government's UFO Cover-up