‘Giant serpent’ invades island near Phuket
Mysterious giant tracks appeared overnight on Friday (December 14) on Koh Mai Pai (Bamboo Island, just north of Phi Phi), emerging from the forest, going through the local school and then into the sea, leaving students, parents and teachers worrying that they were made by some enormous serpent.
The monster serpent - if that is indeed what made the tracks - is estimated to be at least 15m long.
The tracks consisted of a long line of pairs of circles, each circle 20 centimetres in diameter. Local experts estimated that the serpent that made the tracks must be at least 15 metres long.
Pannee Atwaree, a teacher at the school, said that the islanders’ fear was ratcheted up by theories that the appearance of the tracks might be an omen of the great disaster some have been predicting for next Friday (December 21) when the Mayan calendar – and possibiy the world – comes to an end.
Mrs Panee alerted Damrong Sinto, President of the Koh Panyee Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor), who went to inspect the tracks, which emerged from the forested hill in front of the school, then wound through the school entrance, across the playing field, through the open ground floor of the school and out into the back, before disappearing into the waters of Phang Nga Bay.
Baan Koh Mai Pai village chief Anan Sansamuth noted that the night before they saw the trace, the sea level was very high. Around 11pm he heard some ducks quacking frantically, but though nothing of it.
He said some goats and ducks on the island had disappeared recently but villagers had thought they were eaten by a python – many years ago an eight-metre python weighing 70 kilos was caught on the island.
After surveyed the tracks, Mr Damrong ordered Mr Anan to run the island’s electricity generator all night and to prepare implements for catching or at least defending against the supposed serpent.
Mr Damrong and Koh Panyee OrBorTor officers, along with Bamboo Island civil defence volunteers, have also established a 24-hour watch until the mysterious animal is found. - The Phuket News
Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizensof the Deep
Cryptids: Yetis, Sea Monsters, and Bigfoot
Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena
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Fireball Plunges Near Black Sea
A big fireball plunged into a body of water near the Black Sea Tuesday last week in the city of Ordu in Turkey. Comments to the video are widely varied. Some people connect it to the Dec. 12 (12/12/12) supposed mysticism, some say it's a UFO, and others refer to other news reports that link the fireball to the meteor shower at the time.
This report shows the security cam footage and says the falling bright object was a meteorite. The scene was uploaded to YouTube with a "boom" sound effect. Naturally, a couple of users noticed the odd sound.
"LOL, I love how these people dubbed the sound in. Terminal flash and sonic booms never happen at the same time. Sonics follow way later. Great video though," writes milkywaypride99.
"Fake!!! The speed of sound is 331.3 meters per second (1,087 feet per second) in dry air at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). At a temperature like 28 degrees C (82 degrees F), the speed is 346 meters (1135.17ft.) per second. As you can see, the speed of sound changes depending on the temperature and the humidity; but if you want a round number, then something like 350 meters per second and 1,200 feet per second are reasonable numbers to use," writes gjonesy9.
"Read about this in an 'SPACE EVENT' in the EDIS emergency reports. S[c]ientists think it m[a]y be part of the [meteor] shower but unsure as of yet," writes Lori RNC Proctor, who also noted the ground shook after the bright object's plunge, promting hundreds of people to call emergency services for inquiries.
"Could this be linked to the asteroid 2012 XE54 discovered on Sunday Dec 9, 2012 that ended up just missing us by 140,000 miles the morning of 12-11-12?" asks LookofLuv.
UFO Sightings Daily picked up the video and noted it "widely believed by UFOlogists in Turkey that there is a very large underwater alien base below the Black Sea."
The video with sound effects was published in the web site of Turkey's government TV channel. - IB Times
Asteroids: A History (Smithsonian History of Aviation & Spaceflight Series)
A UFO Hunter's Guide: Sightings, Abductions, Hot Spots, Conspiracies, Coverups, The Identified and Unidentified, and More
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China detains more than 500 people for spreading doomsday rumors
Chinese police have detained more than 500 people from a fringe Christian group for spreading rumors about the world’s impending end, state media reported Tuesday.
In western China’s Qinghai province alone, police arrested more than 400 members from the religious cult group, state-run China Central Television said Tuesday.
Police seized leaflets, video discs, books and other apocalyptic materials in the recent arrests of more than 500 people across eight provinces and regions, from the prosperous east coast to less developed western China, state media reports said.
The detentions come ahead of Friday, Dec. 21 — a date some say the Mayans prophesized would be the end of the world and which was the subject of the apocalyptic movie “2012.”
Those detained are reported to be members of the group Almighty God, which is also called Eastern Lightning, after a phrase from the Bible’s Book of Matthew. Widely regarded as a heretical Christian sect, the group preaches that Jesus has reappeared as a woman in central China. It has been accused of targeting Christians, kidnapping and beating them to force conversions.
Chinese society has been in tumult as decades of rapid free-market economic growth discredit communist ideology, loosen social controls and pull hundreds of millions from the countryside to the cities. Into the spiritual void have rushed traditional Buddhist groups and Daoist practices, as well as evangelical Christian churches and other spiritual groups, some with unorthodox and apocalyptic visions.
Eastern Lightning first appeared around 20 years ago, and the official Xinhua News Agency said that its members had “recently latched on to the Mayan doomsday prophesy to predict that the sun will not shine and electricity will not work for three days beginning on Dec. 21.”
A public notice on the web site of Qinghai provincial government said local police are waging a “severe crackdown” on the group described as a cult with “strong political penchants.” The government urged the public to inform the police of any illegal propaganda, gathering and preaching by the group.
The CCTV report called the group a cult and accused it of attacking the party and the government, though it did not give any specifics.
The state-run Huashang website last week, citing local authorities, reported that the group is urging followers to “exterminate the great red dragon” — a reference to the Communist Party — “and found a country under the rule of Almighty God.” - Washington Post
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Utah sixth-grader found with gun in class reportedly says parents encouraged him after Connecticut shooting
A Utah sixth-grader, who told classmates he was encouraged by his parents to bring a gun to school after the Connecticut school shooting, was apprehended by teachers after he was found with an unloaded .22-caliber handgun, Fox13Now.com reported.
The unidentified student, described in the report as an 11-year-old boy, reportedly pulled the gun from his backpack during recess Monday at West Kearns Elementary School, which is in a suburb of Salt Lake City.
Isabel Rios, a fellow sixth-grader, said the boy pointed the gun at her head and said he was going to kill her, the report said.
Students did not immediately alert teachers about the gun. A district spokesman told the station that once teachers were alerted, the student was "apprehended in 30 to 45 seconds" and brought to the principal's office.
Some parents were not satisfied with the school's response.
"There was no lockdown. No one was called. Nothing was done. And then we had to hear it from our kids," said John Klaus, a father of a student at the school.
The school administrators, for their part, said there was no lockdown because the situation was resolved quickly and they did not want to startle students.
Police were investigating to determine what role, if any, the boy's parents may have had in the incident. The student was taken to a juvenile hall. He may face criminal charges and/or expulsion from the school. - Fox News
NOTE: Uh...WTF are people thinking?
America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose
Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America
The Logic of Murderous Rampages and Other Essays on Violence and its Prevention
