Unexplained 'Fireballs'
The San Antonio Light - 2 August 1942
For centuries, men have told tall tales of weird and mysterious balls of fire that suddenly appeared–almost always in remote graveyards or on lonely moors–and then vanished. And now, a new case has just come to light on an isolated gravel road just outside the little town of Slidell, Louisiana.
Walking down this lonely road one dark night, Fritz Schaefer, a 17-year-old youth, was swinging past a woods in the direction of Bayou Liberty when suddenly he stopped short for, not a hundred feet down the road, was a tiny ball of fire. It was about two feet off the ground. As he watched, in amazement, the ball grew larger and larger. Then it burst in a great globe of flame and disappeared.
The terrified youth lit out for home. Excitedly, he told his father, Fred Schaefer, all about the strange and luminous apparition he had just seen. The older man. at first skeptical, agreed to return with the boy.
Just as the two approached the spot, another fire-ball appeared in the identical manner. The elder Schaefer ran toward it but the glowing ball burst and vanished.
Schaefer couldn’t explain the phenomenon. He had often heard the old men of Slidell talking about mysterious fireballs that had appeared on the Bayou Liberty road way back in Civil War days, but he had always dismissed such stories as fantastic.
Convinced now that he and his son had seen the real thing, Schaefer went in to the village, rounded up the curious, and the entire party headed back for the lonely road. And they were not disappointed. Just as they approached, the orange-like ball appeared, rose about six feet in the air and blacked out. Before that night was over, excited residents from all over the countryside had come to see the strange apparition and the story of the fire-balls spread rapidly.
The next night, people came swarming into Slidell from as far away as New Orleans. The fire-ball proved to be a tolerant entertainer. It put in an appearance, sending the skeptics scudding for the nearest tavern and a stiff drink, and the devout for the closest church and a prayer.
E. H. Zimmerman, credit manager for a large New Orleans department store, saw the fire-ball on three different occasions.
“It came from the ground,” he said, “like a white burst of flame and rolled itself into a ball of fire–then it disappeared.”
A New Orleans newspaper reporter, who made the trip to Bayou Liberty, described his experience: “I was standing with others, about a dozen persons, when the glow came from the road and lifted to about five feet in the air. It became as large as an automobile headlight and then flickered out like a candle. It remained visible for about two minutes, at least.”
The Schaefers, the Slidell residents, and the New Orleans visitors, all agree that they have seen the fire-ball but none can offer an explanation. The more scientific minded believe the ghostly sight is nothing more than so called fox fires — the burning of swamp gases. Oil men, however, report there are no such gases in that area. There is no doubt that the glowing ball has its explanation, if all the facts were known.
The first fire-ball story in that part of Louisiana appeared 80 years ago–and with the recent interest in the latent strange phenomenon, Mrs. David Bany, 93, a former resident of Bayou Liberty, who now is living in New Orleans, told newspapermen how, when she was a girl, such sights scared the Negroes of the area, and some whites, half out of their wits. The old fire-ball legend of the Civil War days had its setting on the same gravel road.
The fire-ball legends in many different sections of the world lead one to wonder whether they all come from the same natural phenomenon. Scientists explain many of these apparitions as nothing more than unusual kinds of lightning or electricity in the air.
It was a long time before the savants gave any credence to the reports of mariners who described what they called “Saint Elmo’s fires” on their voyages—flickering balls of fire on the tips of masts, yardarms, or other projecting parts of the ship. As soon as static electricity was discovered, it became evident that the reports of sailors were undoubtedly correct, and that fire-balls had formed during a storm at sea or when the air was otherwise highly charged.
It is entirely possible that ball-lightning, swamp gas fire-balls, and other phenomenon explain some of the tales of saints as well. The famous Miracle of Tours, in which a ball of fire is said to have come down from the skies to rest on the head of Saint Martin, can scarcely have been anything else. This probably explains the ancient stories of shining halos around the heads of saintly individuals.
Lightning fire-balls actually have been photographed by Professor J.C.Jensen of the Department of Physics of Nebraska, Wesleyan University. One theory, formulated by Professor W. M. Thornton of Armstrong College, in England, is that such phenomena are composed of ozone, in some peculiar state of high electrification. Still another, based on experiments at the University of Leeds in England, is that they are produced in some unknown way out of highly electrified dust.
Oddball Texas: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series)
Bathroom Book of Texas Trivia: Weird, Wacky and Wild
Hidden Headlines of Texas: Strange, Unusual, & Bizarre Newspaper Stories 1860-1910
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Weird: Scorching Sun To Snow Storm In A Day
Just one day after basking in temperatures of 30C, residents of a Siberian town were shocked to suddenly find themselves in the middle of a snow storm.
Nadym had been enjoying days of tropical weather before people were quickly forced to change their t-shirts and shorts for coats and scarves.
Sub-zero conditions are normal for the region through the long winter but are rare for June, when the sun gives people a brief but hot summer.
Amateur footage filmed in the town showed snow pouring down and covering streets, cars and parks - with people wrapped up and battling with the bitter cold.
Temperatures can drop as low as -50C in a Siberian winter, with the town of Oymyakon often recording the lowest numbers. - oddnews.org
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Gnome ghost?
My mother and grandmother swear this story is true. I found it a bit strange but interesting.
It's the summer of 1969, and my mom is 19 years old. Before I go any further, I know what you might be thinking. My mother doesn't do any drugs. Trust me.
So, anyway, the summer of '69 and my mom is sleeping in her room, which is off the kitchen. She stayed at my grandmothers sometimes while my father served over in Vietnam. She had the window open that night and heard something outside. She sat up and continued to listen. She was about to get up and look when she saw a little man crawl through. It didn't scare her for some reason, which I thought was strange. It walked up to the foot of her bed, climbed up and sat down with his legs hanging over the edge. My mom didn't do anything; she said she just stared at him. He looked like a gnome according to her description. At least that's what I came up with. He sat there trying to get comfortable and when he was finally situated, he reached in a little bag he was carrying and pulled out a pipe. He lit it, took a couple puffs, turned and faced her.
He said that he some bad news about my father, but not to worry, he was okay. He continued on that my father was in terrible trouble and that she will hear more about it in the morning. He tapped his pipe in his hand, jumped off the bed and crawled out the window. That's when it finally sank in my mom's head, of what just happened, and she decided to call out for my grandmother. My grandmother came in turned the light on and asked her what was wrong. As my mom explained, my grandmother, not paying attention to my mother, noticed smoke lingering in the room and asked if she'd been smoking. My mom told her the story again. My grandmother didn't believe her.
The next morning, my mother got a phone call from the Army and said that my father was injured in an attack and would home in about 10 days. My grandmother believed her then.
I asked my mom why she thought it was a ghost. She said that was because she could see through him. I thought ghosts could float or whatever, why did this 'ghost gnome' have to crawl through an open window? She didn't know. - Anonymous
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Daughters-in-law face charges after chopping off would-be molester father-in-law's hands
Enraged over repeated attempts by their father-in-law to sexually assault them, two women in a Bihar village chopped off the man's hands to teach him a lesson he would never forget, police said on Sunday.
"The hands of Radheyshyam Singh, a resident of Bhanas village under Dinara block in Rohtas district, were chopped off by his daughters-in-law after he attempted to molest them," Deputy Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar Singh said.
Another district police official said the daughters-in-law told police that they were fed up with repeated attempts by Radheyshyam Singh to sexually molest them.
Two days ago, Radheyshyam Singh tried to molest one of his daughters-in-law as she was busy cutting vegetables. The woman raised an alarm, and the other daughter-in-law rushed to intervene, and also told the man to keep off. Radheyshyam then tried to molest the other daughter-in-law, police said.
"They overpowered him and chopped off both his hands with a sharp weapon (cleaver)," police said.
Radheyshyam Singh was admitted to a hospital in Varanasi after initial treatment in Rohtas, police said.
Police have lodged a case in this connection on the basis of the statement of both the daughters-in-law. - Times of India
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Himmler's Nazi Rituals: The Secret History Of The Spirit World
Excerpt from Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World
On July 2, 1936, a coterie of high-ranking Nazis, including the national Labor Front leader Robert Ley and Deputy Führer Martin Bormann, descended on the central German city of Quedlinburg as guests of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. They found the streets newly swept and houses freshly painted. Nazi banners hung from the rooftops, and walls along the major thoroughfares were decked with garlands.
The group was greeted by the local chapter of Hitler Youth ranked three abreast with flags hanging from long poles. Accompanying them with lively marching tunes was an SS band. Ranks of steel-helmeted, black-uniformed SS troopers lined their route as Himmler himself led the party through winding cobbled streets to the city’s Castle Hill. The occasion was the one thousandth anniversary of the death of Heinrich the Fowler (876–936 CE), the medieval king who founded the Ottonian dynasty and pushed the Slavic tribes across the River Elbe to establish new boundaries for his budding empire. To the Nazis, he was the most Germanic of all the ancient German kings. For Himmler, there was a more personal interest.
The Reichsführer and his party stopped briefly to admire the city’s magnificent castle, then moved on to their ultimate destination, the medieval Quedlinburg Cathedral. There, in the colonnaded crypt beneath the nave, Himmler laid a wreath on the empty tomb of King Heinrich, praised his courage, and vowed to continue his mission in the east. Continue reading at THP
Nazis and the Occult: The Dark Forces Unleashed by the Third Reich
The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology
Hitler's Master of the Dark Arts: Himmler's Black Knights and the Occult Origins of the SS
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REMINDER: This Week On 'Beyond The Edge' Radio: Stan Gordon - Pennsylvania UFO / Bigfoot / Anomalies Researcher
Join Eric, Lon and Sean as we welcome our close friend and colleague, Pennsylvania UFO / Bigfoot researcher & investigator Stan Gordon to BTE. We invite you to call the toll free number 1-877-677-2858 or simply ask your questions in the chat room. This promises to be a very interesting show!
Stan began in the field investigations of UFOs and other mysterious events in 1965, and is the primary investigator of the December 9, 1965, UFO crash-recovery incident that occurred near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. In 1969, Gordon established a UFO Hot-line for the public to report UFO sightings to him to investigate.
In 1970, Gordon founded the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group (WCUFOSG), the first of three volunteer research groups which he would establish to investigate UFO sightings and other strange occurrences reported in Pennsylvania. Since November, 1993, he continues to investigate and document strange incidents from across the Keystone state as an independent researcher.
Gordon is a former PA State Director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), and was its first recipient In 1987 of the MUFON Meritorious Achievement in a UFO investigation Award. Gordon has been involved with the investigation of thousands of mysterious encounters from across Pennsylvania. He has appeared on numerous local and network news and documentary shows, including the Syfy Channel (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel), Discovery Channel, History Channel, and Fox News Channel. He has been featured on many television shows, including Unsolved Mysteries, Sightings, Inside Edition, A Current Affair, and Creepy Canada.
Stan has been the focus of numerous national and international newspaper stories and magazine articles, some of which include the Pittsburgh Press, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Denver Post. He has been a guest on many national and international radio shows, including the popular radio show Coast to Coast AM. Gordon is also the producer of the award winning 1998 video documentary, Kecksburg - The Untold Story
He is also the author of the books, Really Mysterious Pennsylvania: UFOs, Bigfoot & Other Weird Encounters Casebook One
and Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook
He has written numerous articles about UFOs and strange encounters, and many books and publications have included his research as well. Stan also writes a column for the quarterly magazine, The GATE To Strange Phenomena.Since the late 1960’s, Gordon has been lecturing to the public on the UFO subject presenting illustrated lectures locally and nationally to social and professional groups, schools, colleges, libraries, and conferences. Among others, some of his lectures topics include a synopsis of Kecksburg UFO crash case, UFO and Bigfoot incidents, and mysterious creature encounters.
He was the keynote speaker at the first World UFO and Paranormal Expo in Denver, Colorado in 2004. Stan was a keynote speaker at the 2011 McMinnville,Oregon UFO Festival. He was a speaker at the 2012 East Coast MUFON UFO Conference in Philadelphia and the 2012 Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
Stan will be included in a new 2013 TV series for Discovery Canada called, “Alien Mysteries.” Stan also went to Canada in 2013 to do an interview with Newroad Media for an upcoming TV series called, “Close Encounters.”
Stan has made recent appearances on a variety of radio and TV shows including, Paracast, The Edge of the Unknown, and American Variety Radio heard on some NPR radio stations. He also was interviewed for a program on Croation State Television concerning his research.
Stan is scheduled to speak on the topics of UFOs, Bigfoot, and other Crypto-zoological matters at various conferences during 2013 including the First EERIE Conference, The Kecksburg UFO Festival, Monster Bash, Parafest 2013, The Mothman Festival, and the Pittsburgh MUFON UFO Conference.
He will also have a part in two new Bigfoot film productions scheduled for release in 2013. The first one is a docudrama, “Mountain Devil: The Search for Frank Peterson,” Produced by Ryan Cavalline, of Raw Footage. The second one is called, American Sasquatch Hunters: Bigfoot in America
released by Reality Entertainment. Executive Producer, Warren Croyle, Producer / Director, J. Michael Long.For updated reports on UFO sightings and other strange incidents, as well as upcoming lectures and other events check out Stan’s website: www.stangordon.info
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