Phantoms and Monsters

Video: Triangular UFO Speeding Over Dublin, Ireland
Coma Berenicid Meteor Shower Results In Spectacular Mid-Atlantic Event
Death Threats Against Hacker McKinnon Alleged
Defeated Romanian Presidential Candidate Declares Supernatural Forces Were Deployed Against Him

Video: Triangular UFO Speeding Over Dublin, Ireland

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 10:40 AM PST

Click for video

thesun - Amazing footage of a UFO has been taken in Ireland - as The Sun re-launches the nation's X-Files.

A triangular formation of lights was filmed flying at night at "incredible speed".

Experts reckon the sighting near the River Liffey in Dublin could be a secret aircraft - or spacecraft.

Nick Pope, who probed mystery sightings for the MoD for three years, said: "The video seems to have been taken through a night scope and presumably shows things not visible to the naked eye.

"It appears to show a structured craft moving at incredible speed. The configuration of the lights is unlike any aircraft I've ever seen.

"It's either some secret prototype aircraft or drone, or something considerably more exotic."

Any sightings in Britain will NOT be officially recorded because the MoD last month axed the department probing mystery threats. Chiefs branded the £50,000-a-year department an "inappropriate use of defence resources". It came despite the near TRIPLING of alleged UFOs between 2008 and last year's 643.

Nick said: "The MoD's decision was bizarre. While I'm sure they'll investigate sightings from pilots and anything unusual on radar, the public had nowhere to go. There's massive public interest in this issue. If there's something unusual in our skies, we need to know or we could be leaving ourselves open to terrorist attack."

The MoD defended its decision to shut the UFO division.

A spokesman said: "We do not feel there is any military value in reviewing the public's sightings."

Coma Berenicid Meteor Shower Results In Spectacular Mid-Atlantic Event

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 10:09 AM PST

There were a bevy of reports sent to The Vike Factor - namely, large falling balls of light or fire seen over Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland on January 18, 2010 at approximately 5:30 pm. This was the result of the Coma Berenicid meteor event which peaked that Monday evening and early Tuesday. I have listed the reports below at well as an account of a meteorite fall/strike in Northern Virginia:

Large Ball Of Fire Falling From The Sky Over New Hope Pennsylvania

Date: January 18, 2010
Time: Approx: 5:40 p.m.

Location of Sighting: New Hope, PA.
Number of witnesses: two
Number of Objects: 1
Shape of Objects: Large Ball of fire falling from the sky.

Full Description of Event/Sighting: Hi Brian, My friend and I were driving South on Route 202 in New Hope on 1/18/10, around 5:40 p.m., when all of a sudden I noticed a large ball of fire falling from the sky directly in front of us. It was moving quickly and seemed to burn out before hitting the ground. At first I thought it was a plane and then I realized it was too small, but definitely too large to be a falling star.

I quickly mentioned it to my friend who said she saw it as well, but wasn't able to get the words out before I did. We couldn't believe what we had seen. A minute later we saw a smoke trail where the ball of fire had been. Was it a meteor? Please let me know if anyone figures out what this sighting was. Thanks.

Huge Ball Of Bright White Light Descended From The Sky In Newark Delaware

Date: January 18, 2010
Time: 5:37 p.m.

My husband, myself and Grandson also saw exactly what you indicated last night at 5:37pm. I live in Newark, Delaware and was on Rt. 4 driving home (right next to the new Barclays Credit Card Center) and out of no where this huge ball of bright white light descended from the sky very quickly and fell south west down. When I pulled up to my sister's house (2 minutes later) we told her what happened and looked outside and could see a smoke trail where this thing traveled.

I've been all over the internet last night, looking for anyone else who witnessed this and this morning I found you. I know others have had to see it and I'd sure like to know what we saw!

Anymore news please let me know.

Falling Ball Of Light Observed From Collegeville Pennsylvania

Date: January 18, 2010
Time: Approx: 5:30 p.m.

Brian, I saw the falling ball of light too on January 18th. I thought it was closer to 5:30 PM, but I'm not sure. I didn't have any timepieces on me. I live in Collegeville, PA, and I saw it fall from the sky west of me. It happened so fast, and no one else was around. I started to doubt my own eyes. I waited to hear a sound, and I heard nothing.
I kept checking the news and I saw nothing about it.

I've never been on your website before. When I didn't see anything on the news I began doing internet searches, and then your website came up with a sighting.

Since nothing seems to have hit the ground I wonder if it was space junk burning up.

Blue And Green Ball Of Light Over Six Mile Run Pennsylvania

Date: January 18, 2010
Time: Evening.

Mr. Vike, My fiancé and I were walking Monday evening and saw the ball of light that you described. My fiancé saw it a few seconds before I did and he said he saw blue and green colors before it turned a yellow color. I saw the yellow ball of light before it disappeared. We couldn't believe our eyes and I wondered if anyone else saw it. When I got to work I told a friend and she looked on the internet and found your article.

We live in Six Mile Run, PA. It's about 10 miles from the town of Saxton and approximately 15 miles from Breezewood. According to the Baltimore Sun, there were several sightings in Maryland. It's amazing to think we were in the right place at the right time to see a rare occurrence such as this.

Ball Of Light Seen Falling Out Of The Sky Over Manchester Pennsylvania

Date: January 18, 2010
Time: Approx: 5:15 p.m.

Location of Sighting: Southern skies Manchester, PA.
Number of witnesses: 3
Number of Objects: 1
Shape of Objects: Ball.

Full Description of Event/Sighting: I'm not sure what this was, or if it is even a UFO parse. I had my kids with me sitting at the Giant parking lot, my oldest (9) in the front seat. I see a falling ball of light to the south and just that second, my son sees it too. He asks me if I seen that "planet fall from the sky?" I told him I saw it too. Basically this huge ball of light came out of nowhere in the middle of the sky, fell very quickly to the Earth, then just vanished. My friend who lives adjacent to York College in York City seen this as well. I recently started inquiring if anyone else was witness. I'm hoping I can figure something out soon.
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Meteorite Hunters Converge On Area After Fall In Virginia

baltimoresun - Meteorite hunters are descending on Washington's Virginia suburbs this week, drawn by news of a space rock that lit up the night sky on Monday and drilled through the roof of a Lorton doctors' office.

Steve Arnold, co-star of the Science Channel's TV series "Meteorite Men," grabbed an early-morning flight Thursday from Arkansas to Baltimore to launch a search for fragments of the meteor.

He was joined by Michael R. Hankey, an amateur astronomer from Freeland who was bitten by the meteorite-hunting bug last July after he snapped a photo of a fireball meteor that fell over the Maryland- Pennsylvania state line.

Both men searched in vain for that "Mason-Dixon meteorite." But this time is different.

"In this case, we've got a building with a hole in the roof. There goes all the guess work," Arnold said via cell phone as he followed Hankey's car toward Lorton. "I'm driving to the hole in the roof right now."

That roof was supposed to shelter the offices of the Williamsburg Square Family Practice, where Marc Gallini and Frank Ciampi see patients every day. They were still at work at about 5:45 p.m. Monday when they heard a crash in an empty examining room.

"The first thing I thought of was that Dr. Gallini's bookshelf fell on him," Ciampi told a WUSA9 TV crew. The fist-size rock had crashed through the roof, a fire wall and the room's ceiling tile before it hit the floor and shattered.

It was the first known meteorite fall in Virginia since 1924, according to the Smithsonian Institution, and the first meteorite to strike a building in the U.S. since September 2003, when a 44-pound rock smashed from the roof to the basement of a home in New Orleans. No one was hurt.

The Channel 9 TV crew took the Lorton meteorite to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Linda Welzenbach, the museum's meteorite curator, said it weighed in at slightly more than two-thirds of a pound. She identified it as a stony "ordinary chondrite."

"It's 'ordinary' because 85 to 90 percent of everything that falls is this type," she said. "It has a light gray interior with little, tiny iron, nickel metal particles," all covered by a black fusion crust that melted as the rock entered the atmosphere.

Its spectacular arrival Monday evening was witnessed by hundreds of people from southern New Jersey to southwestern Virginia. More than 120 reported the event in comments to The Baltimore Sun's online WeatherBlog.

They described a brilliant, colorful fireball that broke into several pieces as it fell through the twilight, leaving a sinuous trail of smoke glowing in the sunset.

"Ken," in Baldwin, wrote: "It appeared to break up slightly as it fell and almost seemed to sparkle like a firework would. It was an awesome sight between the orange/pink color of the horizon, the navy blue of the sky and the moon. The trail stayed in the sky for a number of minutes and seemed to have a slight crook or bend to it."

Reports that the meteor split up as it fell are heartening to Arnold, Hankey and other meteorite hunters. "This definitely has the potential of rocks landing on rooftops, on streets, in yards and ballparks," Arnold said.

A meteor fall in the Chicago suburbs in March 2003 produced scores of meteorites along an 11-mile swath. "I found 113 pieces in 44 days of hunting up there," he said.

The incentive is money. Arnold said a meteorite the size of the Lorton stone could be worth as much as $10,000 to the owner of the property where it's found. But Welzenbach scoffed.

"Oh, that's too much," she said. Fortunately for the museum, the Lorton doctors and their landlord have donated their meteorite to the Smithsonian. "We hope to have it on display very soon so the general public can come and see it."

But if others turn up, Arnold said, "then I'll get in a buying mode." He won't be alone.

Eric Wichman, meteorite hunter, collector and dealer at MeteoritesUsa.com, is also on the hunt, urging residents to report any new finds to his Web site, where he said the Lorton stone "probably has baby brothers and sisters."

"People should be on the lookout for black rocks, with fusion crust," he told WeatherBlog readers. "Check yards, roads, sidewalks, baseball fields, farm fields or anywhere else meteorites could have fallen."

Death Threats Against Hacker McKinnon Alleged

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 09:16 AM PST

whtimes - The mum of an autistic man wanted in the US on computer hacking charges has been sent emails threatening to kill her son.

Janis Sharp, from Brookmans Park, disclosed that journalists and MPs have also been targeted over their involvement in her high profile campaign to prevent her son Gary McKinnon from being extradited.

In a series of emails seen by the Welwyn Hatfield Times, an American known only as Jerry describes Asperger's sufferer Gary as a "legitimate target".

He also threatens that "future unpleasantness and the death of annoying MPs and journalists… will have been no accident."

Janis admitted that receiving the threatening emails had saddened her.

But she vowed: "I refuse to be intimidated and will continue to fight for my son to be tried in the UK.

"If any British person was issuing death threats against American politicians, journalists and members of the public they would probably be charged with terrorism and extradited to America to face a lengthy prison sentence."

The threats are currently being investigated by both the Hertfordshire and Metropolitan police forces.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary authorities have also been informed after a message was sent to Hertsmere MP James Clappison.

Security at the House of Commons may now be stepped up as a result.

Mr Clappison said: "MPs should not be threatened for doing their jobs."

Another prominent MP has also been targeted, along with journalists from three national newspapers.

Det insp Chris Wright, investigating, said: "Hertfordshire Constabulary takes all allegations of crime seriously and this case is no different.

"The origins of these threats are being investigated and we are currently following a number of lines of enquiry into the matter."

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman added that detectives were "liaising with US law enforcement agencies" after a number of "malicious emails" were sent to various media agencies.

Prosecutors in America allege Gary, 43, caused nearly £500,000 worth of damage to military computers in 2001 and 2002.

If convicted in a US court, he could face up to 60 years in jail.

Gary, of North London, admits hacking but maintains he was looking for evidence of alien life.

NOTE: I have not commented on this incident previously but, honestly, if Gary McKinnon would have been charged with crimes other than hacking into US government computers, he would have been extradited long ago. The medical excuse, IMO, is lame at best. If he had the ability to hack into the system then, frankly, he knew that what he was doing was wrong. Crimes against national security, either in the United Kingdom, United States or anywhere else, are subject to prosecution. The punishment for federal crimes against the United States may seem harsh to foreigners, but the statutes have been implemented for a reason. Just my 2 cents...Lon

Defeated Romanian Presidential Candidate Declares Supernatural Forces Were Deployed Against Him

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 08:39 AM PST

yahoo - Was a top contender for the Romanian presidency zapped out of the race by a shadowy parapsychologist enlisted by his rival?

The claim might be dismissed as preposterous in most other EU countries. But here in Romania, home of Dracula and other occult traditions, Mircea Geoana's assertion that a "negative energy attack" led to his narrow loss to re-elected President Traian Basescu has been the talk of the nation.

"The Evil Witch defeated Geoana," wrote the daily Evenimentul Zilei in a recent commentary typical of the buzz. "Romanian politicians really believe that magic forces can make you president or can destroy you.

"May the Force be with us!"

Like most former Soviet bloc nations, Romania is used to rough and tumble politics and the first claims and counterclaims after Basescu's narrow Dec. 6 runoff victory were nothing out of the ordinary, with Geoana's people complaining of massive fraud.

Then came the startling allegation: Geoana, in media interviews last week, asserted he was targeted by waves of negative energy during a key debate just before the runoff that was won by Basescu.

"People who were working for Basescu in this domain were present to the right of the camera," Geoana told Antena 3 Television. His wife, Mihaela said Geoana "was very badly attacked, he couldn't concentrate."

At first Romanians mocked their ex-foreign minister saying he was a bad loser. Basescu himself jokingly dismissed the allegations. But the recent publication of photos showing well-known parapsychologist Aliodor Manolea close to Basescu during the campaign has caused Romanians to ask whether the president really did put a hex on his rival.

The photos show Manolea, a slightly built, bearded man with a round face and cropped receding hair, walking yards (meters) behind Basescu ahead of the debate. Manolea's specialties include deep mind control, clairvoyance and hypnotic trance, according to the Romanian Association of Transpersonal Psychology.

Manoela's alleged role in the elections evokes age-old Balkan rituals where the evil eye, witch doctors and other mysterious forces were used to launch mystic energy attacks on opponents and sap hapless victims of their vital strength.

While such superstitions are now usually found only in the most backward rural pockets of the Balkans, belief in the paranormal spawned some unusual practices up to recent times.

Former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was so terrified of even traditional psychologists he feared were a threat to communism that he abolished psychology departments across the country and banned the word from the official dictionary.

In 1982, he staged a crackdown against people who were allegedly practicing transcendental meditation, purging the interior ministry and dismissing scores of officials who were allegedly involved, including a deputy interior minister.

In neighboring Serbia, Col. Ljubodrag Stojadinovic, a former army spokesman, was discharged after divulging that the military had a parapsychology unit in the 1990s under ex-President Slobodan Milosevic that launched psychic attacks on the United States and other enemies.

"Group 69," which Stojadinovic said included publicly known fortune tellers and witches, claimed to have inflicted "heavy losses" against the enemy with its tactics, including downing aircraft. He said one of the group's main tasks was to capture at least one senior "enemy of the Serbs" — the U.S. president, for instance.

Neither the Serbian government nor the military has issued a denial of Stojadinovic's claims.

Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was said to have believed in witchcraft and actively participated in paranormal activities. Now on trial for at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, he was arrested in July 2008 in Belgrade disguised as a New Age guru.

To the south, former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski employed a parapsychologist and medium known simply as Mina, as an official Cabinet adviser. Some Macedonians — who widely consult fortune tellers and astrologists — believe Mina helped Georgievski avoid full-blown civil war between Slavic Macedonians and the nation's ethnic Albanians.

"It is not strange in Macedonia for people to have their alternative personal advisers," said Mirjna Stojanovska, a 28-year-old German language teacher. "It is part of our mentality and culture to call upon a higher power to help people cope with the problems in life."

In a further twist to Romania's presidential intrigue, photos reveal Manolea amid Geoana's entourage during a 2007 electoral campaign, suggesting the clairvoyant may have been inclined to offer his services to anyone willing to pay the fee.

There has been no comment from Geoana, who in recent days has moved to distance himself from the topic in an attempt to limit dents to his credibility.

Basescu's office also has declined to comment on Manolea, with officials referring inquiries to the Liberal Democratic Party that supported the president. Officials there have given evasive answers — but not outright denials.

Basescu's campaign spokesman Sever Voinescu declined to say whether he knew Manolea — the author of several books on energy auras and other esoteric topics — but blasted Geoana, accusing "the loser in the election of thinking he was bewitched with toads like in medieval Africa."

An e-mail to the reclusive parapsychologist was not answered.

Reputed Romanian psychologist Aurora Liiceanu says the region remains a fertile breeding ground for such superstitions even while seeming to adopted an outward veneer of cynicism more in keeping with the rest of Europe.

"This society is inclined to the irrational; it is a culture of superstitious people," said Liiceanu. "Luck has a great role here, it is a force.

"Luck and destiny."
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ESCAPING THE JAWS OF DEATH

I realized this video has been around awhile but it is, by far, the most amazing animal attack ever capture on video.

Click for video

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