Sonic 'Booms' in Utah
Good Afternoon Lon,
I am a long time reader of your Phantoms and Monsters site. I throughly enjoy the vast array of material you seem to find for your articles and research. I am writing this in regards to an event that happened here in Utah last week. - USAF says window-shaking booms were B-52s dropping ordnance, more to come
I do not believe this was the result of "B-52's dropping ordnance" at the UTTR (Utah Test and Training Range). This event shook our windows that face towards the west, which is where Hill AFB and further west the UTTR are located. I know the difference between the shock wave from a explosion and the shock wave from a sonic boom. This was a sonic boom sound. It was 9pm when the first one shook our windows and a few minutes later for the second one. I ran out to our back deck that faces Hill to see if I could see anything. It was quiet. Not even engine noise could be heard.
I spoke to a friend of mine that recently retired from the Air Force. He is very knowledgeable with ordnace and agrees it was not caused by the shock wave of a bomb. We both think it was some sort of sonic boom. Maybe something being tested over Nevada or at Area 51. I understand it was heard as far West as LA and as far East as Indiana.
The UTTR has policies in place that prevent them from testing when the conditions are not right. When the clouds are low or the inversion in place, it causes the sound waves to travel to the Wasatch Front and can result in window damage.
I am hoping you may know more. Keep up the great work! Name withheld by request
NOTE: if anyone has more information on this, I would welcome it. Lon
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Lost time or sleep disorder?
South Carolina - 1/13/13 - unedited: This is not a UFO sighting but so strange this was the only place I could think to put it. Early this morning something so strange happened that I cant seem to shake this uneasy feeling.
Last night I fell alseep on the couch, My wife asked me if I wanted to get up and go to the bed. I said how about just a blanket and leave me sleeping here. Sometime if I get up from where I am sleeping I cannot go back to sleep so its better to stay where i am.
I woke up on the couch, it was dark outside and I needed to get up and use the bathroom. My daughters bathroom is not 6 foot from the couch down the hallway. I got up and on my way there glanced over to look at what time it was on the oven clock. It was 2:15. Usually when I get up at this time of night its because something or every once in awhile my 6 year old daughter wakes me up jumping into our bed because of a bad dream which always makes me get up and go to another room. So I go in and use the bathroom which takes only a couple minutes. I walk from there to the kitchen and grab a mountain dew from the fridge, I notice my neck is killing me which is like what i call a CRICK and it hurts like hell. So I go to the couch set the dew on the floor in front of the couch and rub my neck for a moment. I reach down and grab the mountain dew. I pick it up and take a drink and think this is warm, what the heck. I figure something must be wrong with the fridge but thinking it was cold walking over. I noticed i had the use the bathroom and was like what the hell I just went to the bathroom a minute ago. Then I notice that my neck is suddenly feeling alot better, still hurting but not nearly as bad as it was. I keep my laptop on the coffee table and reach over hit the mouse and the computer comes out of sleep mode. This is when I freak the clock say 4:23 am
I look over at the oven clock and it says 4:24 am. All of this happening in less then 6 minutes at the most. I got a creepy feeling and started to get very upset and a little scared. I look out the doors which is next to the couch and out across the back yard, I look and see the motion lights down by the barn some 400 yards away are on. Rarely do we ever see these lights come on and have to be triggered by movment of something. Things get worse for me mentally when I glance down and the door is unlocked and not all the way closed. I cannot explain the way I felt at that moment but I ran to my daughters bedroom and she was not there and turned and ran to ours and hit the light. Both my wife and daughter were in the bed asleep. I came back out to the family room where I was sitting. walked over and pushed the door shut and locked it. Looked out towards the barn and the light was still on, I couldnt see anything except the heavy fog. I had a weird feeling I am not sure if I thought something was at the barn or more that I was so freaked out about what just happened. I sat back down on the couch and spent the next 5 hours thinking about how that could have possibly happened. I still dont know how. Maybe a case of Hypnagogia but I dont think so. I never closed my eyes. Whatever happened to those approx 2hrs, I have no idea. It was totally seamless. I still am baffled how it could have happened, it was 2 something 1 second and 4 something the next second just like that. I have no history of sleep walking, or any other sleeping disorder.I was not asleep I was very much awake. I am trying to figure out how to record from my webcam to my laptop as i will sleep on the couch again tonight to see if anything happens again or to see if I might sleep walk or something. If I do it will be the first time ever. Usually my body is in so much pain when I get up its impossible for me to go back to sleep, I have severe back problems. I have to list this as something and abduction is the only thing I can really put there but I want to make it clear that in no way am I claiming to have been abducted by anyone. One point I forgot to point out is I had both my Schipperkes Sleeping on the back of the couch with me. So if anyone was going to grab me the dogs would have had them for breakfast. Wife said in the morning that when she went to bed all doors were locked up tight. - MUFON CMS
Secret Life: Firsthand, Documented Accounts of Ufo Abductions
Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens
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Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice
Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.
The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.
An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population.
"What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
"This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer."
The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.
The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.
At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing.
"These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho.
Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar.
DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies.
David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells."
Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function."
DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age.
Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, said: "The key question is what might this mean for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers." - Guardian
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Midnight mass and toga party
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FBI's Scientology Investigation: Forced Labor and Human Trafficking
This is Part 1 of a special report on an investigation by the FBI into the Church of Scientology. Read Part 2 and previous coverage at the special report page.
In 2009, the FBI launched a criminal probe into possible human trafficking inside the Church of Scientology. The inquiry focused on restrictive conditions imposed on members of the Sea Org. Were they willing workers? Or victims of forced labor?
Scientology's compound east of Los Angeles was the scene of violence and intimidation among church staffers, defectors say. The building where the abuse happened became known as "the Hole."
A witness emerges with fresh information, often wearing a disguise because he fears the church's spies. But the FBI's investigation hits a serious roadblock after a judge's ruling in a separate case.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
