Phantoms and Monsters

NASA Balloon With Telescope Crashes In Australian Outback
Reader Mail: Ghost at 30,000 Ft. - The Red Man
Man Claims No Food / Drink For 70 Years
Russian Hunter Claims He Saved Bigfoot From Drowning
This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio - Sunday, May 2nd - 9:00 PM ET

NASA Balloon With Telescope Crashes In Australian Outback

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 10:17 AM PDT

VIDEO LINK

yahoo - A huge NASA balloon loaded with a telescope painstakingly built to scan the sky at wavelengths invisible to the human eye crashed in the Australian outback Thursday, destroying the astronomy experiment and just missing nearby onlookers, according to Australian media reports.

In dramatic video released by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the giant 400-foot (121-meter) balloon is seen just beginning to lift its payload, then the telescope gondola appears to unexpectedly come loose from its carriage. The telescope crashes through a fence and overturn a nearby parked sport utility vehicle before finally stopping.

The attempted balloon telescope launch took place at the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Centre, near the town of Alice Springs, in the northern territory of Australia.

The wayward balloon overturned one car, but missed another parked nearby with local Alice Springs couple Stan and Betty Davies, who had come to watch the launch, still inside.

"We were sitting in our car and preparing to move it out of the way and we were actually about a foot of being wiped out," ABC quoted Davies as saying.

The balloon was carrying the Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT), a gamma-ray telescope built by astronomer Steven Boggs and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, California to study astrophysical sources in space.

"Today was a terrible day for a lot of people," wrote Eric Bellm, a graduate astronomy student at the UC Berkeley, in a blog chronicling the science mission. "For the NCT team, we've poured our hearts into this instrument for years. It was an almost unfathomable shock to find ourselves cleaning up the wreckage of our gondola rather than watching it lift off towards space."

The unmanned research balloon was built by NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas and expected to haul its two-telescope payload up to an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36,576 meters). That's about 23 miles (37 km), though smaller home-built balloons have been built to reach high altitudes as well.

In his account of the crash, Bellm said an investigation into the balloon's launch failure will be performed, though a first glance found that at least some of the components for the Nuclear Compton Telescope appear to have survived relatively intact. The science team has cleaned up the wreckage and returned it to a staging hangar, he added.

Ravi Sood, director of the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Centre and a professor at Australia's University of New South Wales, said no one was hurt in the incident, but sometimes balloon launches can go awry.

"Ballooning, that's the way it happens on occasions but it is very, very disappointing. Gut-wrenching actually," he told ABC.

The failed balloon launch in Australia marked NASA's second balloon science campaign this month at the remote site. On April 15, NASA's balloon science program launched Tracking and Imaging Gamma Ray Experiment (TIGRE), a gamma-ray telescope, to search the galactic center of the sky for emissions from radioactive materials, NASA officials said.

That launch, which sent the telescope and its balloon to an altitude of 127,000 feet (38,709 meters), went according to plan, the space agency said.

The balloon's next payload to fly, an X-ray telescope called HERO aimed at mapping the galactic center for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, was targeted for May, Australian officials added.

Thanks to Brandy for the heads up!

NASA Balloon With Telescope Crashes In Australian Outback

Reader Mail: Ghost at 30,000 Ft. - The Red Man

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT

The following are some of the more interesting emails I have received lately:

GHOST AT 30,000 FT

I would ask my colleagues if they had a ghostly experience or anything related to it. This is one of my favorites...

Chona, a senior flight attendant at that time, was standing by her door in first class. The steward and the other flight attendant had gone on their first shift of their crew rest. The purser decided to turn off the video in the main screen because there was only one passenger and he requested not to be disturbed...he wasn't interested in the movie. The aircraft was a 747-200 series and we had 18 seats in first class.

The cabin was dark and Chona was enjoying her alone time staring at the darkened cabin when someone stood up from the front row. A steward! But...no one asked if they could sleep in front. So she waited as the steward turned and walked away from his seat...and through the fuselage into open air at 30,000 feet!

Without thinking, she ran towards business class to look for real humans. They never found out who the steward was and they left it at that.

Dawn
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THE RED MAN

Being the only girl in the family, at the time, I had a bedroom all to myself. I was just a teen in junior high and was interested in witchcraft. (I guess I was watching too much 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' or something). I was spoiled with a computer and a TV in my room. Back in the day, kids having a computer in their own bedroom wasn't very common. I would go online trying to find spells that I could do, stumbled across this one website that had an ouiji board online. I hear stories of how the board is the devil's game, I figured since this was online it wasn't the same.

The website had a prayer or a chant that I remember I had to say to have God protect me from whatever may happen. I asked a simple question "is anyone here"...I thought..."ok now whats suppose to happen...is the mouse suppose to move around?? how do I get an answer?" it just came to a point where i thought it was ridiculous and shut off my computer. A couple of nights later, I noticed my teddy bear missing from my bed. (I sleep alone but I've always slept with a bear because it brought comfort like someone was there with me). I bent down to go pick it up, and staring at me was a red man standing half way through my door. I looked at him and froze. He just smiled at me, not moving. I left the bear and pulled the blanket over my head and trembled...terrified that the thing would come over and just rip the blankets away from me. I was too scared to sleep so I waited until the morning, when I can see some sort of light in my bedroom.

I was eating breakfast at the table with my two younger brothers and my dad and I told them what I saw. My dad overhears me and goes "oh dont worry, that was me". I didnt say anything because I didnt want to freak him out if he couldn't explain it, but how could it be him if I locked the door? I am the only one who has the keys to my door (like I said I was pretty spoiled, I changed the locks myself and had both the keys that came with the door knob). I lock my door every night, I hate the feeling of someone, anyone...that can just burst into my room in the middle of the night.

That house terrified me. Late at night I could hear creaks and banging noises. I'm now 26 and no longer live in that house. I truly cant explain what I saw. My eyes don't play tricks on me, when I'm up...I'm up, even if its going to the washroom at 2 am or even 5 am.

I've told this story to my friends and co workers but they laugh at me like I'm messing around. It's gotten to the point where, I'd rather not say anything at all because they are non believers.

V
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NOTE: I received a Bigfoot encounter report from nearby Frederick County, Maryland today (sighting was approx. 2 weeks ago). I am in the process of gathering further information...hopefully, the witness will allow me to post her experience. If you have an extraordinary encounter/sighting/anecdote, please feel free to contact me...Lon

Reader Mail: Ghost at 30,000 Ft. - The Red Man

Man Claims No Food / Drink For 70 Years

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 08:34 AM PDT

news.com - Scientists are studying an 82-year-old man who claims he has not had any food or drink for 70 years.

Prahlad Jani's claims are being put to the test at a hospital in Ahmedabad, where he is being closely monitored and studied by India's Defence Research Development Organisation, which believes he may have a quality which could help save lives, The Telegraph reports.

He has so far spent six days without food or water under the strict observation of doctors who say his body is yet to show any signs of hunger or dehydration.

Mr Jani is regarded as a "breatharian" who can live a "spiritual life-force" alone. He believes he is sustained by the "elixir" of a goddess.

The research organisation believes Mr Jani could hold the key to helping soldiers or disaster victims survive without food for longer periods in times of crisis.

"If his claims are verified, it will be a breakthrough in medical science," said Dr G Ilavazhagan, director of the Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences.

"We will be able to help save human lives during natural disasters, high altitude, sea journeys and other natural and human extremities. We can educate people about the survival techniques in adverse conditions with little food and water or nothing at all."

However, others have dismissed Mr Jani as a "village fraud".

Leading Australian nutritionist, Dr Joanna McMillan Price, said the study was a dangerous and pointless exercise.

"What's the point? To show spiritual strength? You would struggle to go for more than a week without water and without food, your body starts to break down muscle, eventually attacking the heart muscles needed to provide energy to the brain until ultimately you have a heart attack and you die," she said.

Dr McMillan Price says Mr Jani's beliefs probably helped him overcome basic survival instincts but would not physically sustain him.

"Your spiritual beliefs can give mental strength but the idea that spirituality can replace food and water is ludicrous," she said.

"He would certainly be fighting strong physiological responses. Your body starts getting pretty strong hunger pangs after a few days because your brain is telling you that you need to eat or you'll die."

Dr McMillan Price said she couldn't see Mr Jani lasting any more than a few extra days without water and she said his fasting gave the wrong message.

"The determination he's showing is certainly a nice message but I really think it could be put to better use than to go without food and water," she said.

Man Claims No Food / Drink For 70 Years
___________________

WTF!!!

Click for video

Yeah, this kid clearly popped out of someone's chest...

Russian Hunter Claims He Saved Bigfoot From Drowning

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 08:10 AM PDT

A Russian hunter claims he has saved something that can only be described as Bigfoot from a frozen river in central Siberia.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted a source in the administration of the Tashtagol district of the Perm Region as saying that the incident took place in April this year near the village of Senzaskiye Kichi. The village is located 140 kilometers away from the nearest human settlement and the only connection with its residents is by helicopter. The latest flight to the village brought back a written report about the encounter with the so-called Bigfoot.

The letter read that professional hunter Afanasiy Kiskorov together with several other hunters was fishing when they heard a loud cracking of ice and a howl. When they approached the source of the noise, the hunters saw an unusual creature described as "like a huge man covered in dark brown fur." The creature was in the river, about 10 meters from the bank and it unsuccessfully tried to get out of the water and stand upright.

Kiskorov rushed to the rescue and reached out for the drowning creature with a dry tree branch. "Bigfoot" then grabbed the branch, got onto shore, and walked away.

Authorities in the Kemerovo Region have repeatedly released stories of Bigfoot sightings over the past few years. According to them, those interested in cryptozoology could help to develop the Siberian tourism industry.

Thanks to Billy Green for the heads up!

Russian Hunter Claims He Saved Bigfoot From Drowning

This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio - Sunday, May 2nd - 9:00 PM ET

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 07:56 AM PDT

This week on Beyond the Edge Radio - Sunday, May 2nd at 9:00 pm ET
Hosts: Eric Altman & Sean Forker

* * * * * *
Special Guest: Keith Johnson - Paranormal Investigator, Demonologist and Author

Keith, along with his wife Sandra, are regularly called upon to assist individuals in dealing with alleged malevolent paranormal phenomena or potential inhuman infestation in their homes, and together have over 30 years of experience as paranormal investigators.

Keith has had an interest in the paranormal since he was a teenager when he had phenomena occur in his own home. In the seventies, he was a member of the paranormal research group "Parapsychology Investigation & Research Organization", out of RI College.

Keith has been featured on the SciFi channel's "Ghost Hunters", as a consulting demonologist, and both he and Sandra are former core members of "The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS)".

They have been featured as demonology consultants in two first season episodes of the A&E series "Paranormal State" as well as assisting with documentaries dealing with the paranormal including New Gravity Media's "14 Degrees". The pair are co-founders of "New England Anomalies Research (NEAR)" and host a local TV talk show dealing with paranormal topics called "Ghosts R N.E.A.R." which airs locally in Rhode Island and can also be seen online.

Keith is the author of the 'Paranormal Realities' book series that chronicle his experiences as a paranormal investigator. Book 1 has been published and subsequent books are in the works and due for future release.

* * * * * *

Weekly Segment Host:
James Baker - "The Bake Shop"

This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio - Sunday, May 2nd - 9:00 PM ET

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