Alien-Like Worm Invades US
A bizarre invasive worm with its mouth in the middle of its belly has been found in the United States for the first time, according to new research.
The New Guinea flatworm (Platydemus manokwari) is only a couple of millimeters thick but grows to be up to 2.5 inches (65 millimeters) long. As its name suggests, the worm is a New Guinea native, but it has been spreading across the globe, hitching rides on exotic plants and in soil. The worm wraps itself around snails and ingests them with a mouthlike structure on its underside. As an invasive species, it's a threat to native snails — so much so that the Invasive Species Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it among the 100 worst invasive species in the world.
The flatworm had previously been detected in the wild in 15 countries, as well as in a greenhouse in France, but this is the first time it's been found in North America. A multinational group of researchers, led by scientists at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in France, combed through flatworm specimens and photographs collected by locals around the world. Read more at Alien-Like Worm Invades US
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Alien Implant 10 Years Later
St. Cloud, MN - 10/1/2005: In 2005, 3 Grey aliens entered my bedroom through the doorway and approached my bed. At the time, I was having a seizure due to complications of medicine. I felt one hand on my foot, and telepathically heard "It's ok, she won't feel anything she is having a seizure." I felt pressure on my left large toe. I started yelling "I belong to Jesus, and you have no right to me. Don't touch me. Get out of my room." And I kept yelling as long as I could. The aliens seemed to have an " Oh ****" look on their face. Then one of the aliens touched my forehead and the seizure stopped and I couldn't move or speak. I could still see them in my room and one was holding my foot. At this point my memories stopped. Sometime in the early morning my boyfriend came home and went to sleep. When I woke up the next morning I found a cut on my big toe with dried blood. There was a strong burning sensation to the cut. When my boyfriend looked at it he said "you have been chipped". (Implant) Because he was aware that implants could move around he taped a small magnet to my toe. We discussed what I could remember of the night before.
It is now 10 years later and my toe still hurts. My intent is too get it x-rayed in the future. - MUFON CMS
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Ancient Greeks Were Afraid of Zombies
The concept of the dead rising from their graves is certainly not unique to today's movies and TV shows.
In a cemetery near the coastal town of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily archaeologists discovered several bodies that the ancient Greeks had deliberately pinned down using heavy objects as a way to ensure that they would never be able to rise from the dead.
One of the individuals appeared to have died from a mysterious illness that had worried authorities to such an extent that several large ceramic fragments had been placed on top of the remains.
A second body, that of a teenager, had also been pinned in place by five large stones.
"Necrophobia, or the fear of the dead, is a concept that has been present in Greek culture from the Neolithic period to the present," said archaeologist Carrie Sulosky Weaver.
Strangely there were also indications that some of the local inhabitants had been attempting to accomplish the complete opposite by performing rituals intended to summon the dead.
Tablets ( known as 'Katadesmoi' ) transcribed with spells and curses were also found at the site.
"The tablets contained petitions that were addressed to underworld dieties who would command the spirits of the dead to fulfill the request of the petitioner," said Weaver.
"Although these acts appear to be contradictory, together they provide a powerful testimony to the ways in which the ancient Greeks conceptualized the dead." - Ancient Greeks Were Afraid of Zombies
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Shroud of Turin Mystery Continues
No one witnessed the resurrection of Jesus, the miracle at the heart of the Christian faith. But John Jackson says he's seen the next best thing: a controversial piece of linen cloth called the Shroud of Turin that features a mysterious, photorealistic image of a crucified man.
"Seeing is an act of science," said Jackson at the Fillmore Street office of the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado, a ministry he runs with his wife, Rebecca. "Believing is an act of faith."
The Jacksons recently returned from leading a tour group to Turin, Italy, where the shroud is on display. On Sunday, Pope Francis becomes the latest pontiff to travel to Turin and venerate the shroud.
Last year, the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs endorsed the Jacksons' latest ministry: the American Confraternity of the Holy Shroud.
Anthony St. Louis-Sanchez, the diocese's canon lawyer, says the confraternity is "an association that provides a way for the faithful to gather together and edify each other in their faith through the study of shroud."
But support for the confraternity does not equal affirmation of the shroud's alleged miraculous origins.
"The church is not in any way endorsing the shroud as a scientific object," St. Louis-Sanchez said.
For centuries, European Catholics made pilgrimages to holy sites to venerate relics, including pieces of wood said to be the cross on which Christ was crucified and the bones and blood of saints.
If authenticated, the Shroud of Turin would be the mother of all Christian relics, but proof has been hard to attain.
The Gospel of John describes disciples of Jesus entering the empty tomb and seeing "strips of linen lying there." But are these strips the same cloth that a French knight placed in a monastery in the 14th century, before they were relocated to Turin in 1578?
An April article in National Geographic said the shroud was "among the most fiercely debated subjects in contemporary science." Decades of study have produced "a standoff, with researchers unable to dismiss the shroud entirely as a forgery, or prove that it is authentic."
In 1988, the Vatican allowed researchers from universities in Arizona, England and Switzerland to subject the shroud to radiocarbon dating. The three teams independently concluded that it dated from the 13th or 14th centuries, leading some to conclude it is a medieval forgery. Jackson and other scientists have questioned these dating tests.
The Catholic Church is agnostic when it comes to the shroud's authenticity but endorses veneration of the shroud by believers as a way to deepen their faith through reflection on Christ's death and resurrection.
St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church has a display with a life-size photo of the shroud to help parishioners reflect upon Christ's presence among them.
"The Jacksons have given their lives over to this idea that the shroud can truly be a profound tool for evangelization," said Father Kirk Slattery, pastor of St. Gabriel, "and their work helps us to delve deeper into the story that the shroud tells."
Over the years, the shroud even has touched "good Jewish boys" such as Barrie Schwortz, a commercial photographer from Florissant who documented the 1978 scientific studies.
"The team needed a photographer," recalls Schwortz, who at the time was a nonpracticing Jew. "I said no, but God dragged me along kicking and screaming, saying this is what you need to do!"
As he studied and photographed the shroud, he fell under its sway. "It was the image properties of the shroud that hooked me," he says. "I became convinced that the shroud was authentic, and I felt it was a great privilege to be in that room with that piece of cloth."
Schwortz says the shroud led him "back to my faith in God, but not necessarily in the way my Christian brothers and sisters would prefer."
In 1996, he launched his Shroud of Turin website, shroud.com, which features thousands of articles and photos.
"Leave it to God to pick a Jew to be his messenger," Schwortz says. - Shrouded in mystery: Turin cloth remains object of veneration, investigation
Why Shroud of Turin's Secrets Continue to Elude Science
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