Phantoms and Monsters

Legendary Humanoids - Basajaun, the Lord of the Forests
Pentagon Flying Submersible Project in the Works
Fortean / Oddball News - 7/6/2010
The Ghost Hunt of 1943 - Sahuarita, Arizona

Legendary Humanoids - Basajaun, the Lord of the Forests

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 04:25 PM PDT

Some mythical creatures have their origin in tradition and tales from the distant past. However, each culture is associated with a multitude of interesting and odd creatures, many of these beings are humanoids. One of these legendary humanoids is the Basajaun.

In Basque mythology, the Basajaunak are a spirit that dwells in caves or in the woods who protects flocks of livestock and teaches skills such as agriculture and ironworking to humans. They are collectively known as the 'Basajaun, the Lords of the Forests.' Fifteenth-century carvings depicting the Basajaunak can be seen in Burgos Cathedral and in the monastery of Santa María la Real in Nájera. The Basajaun also exists in Aragonese mythology in the valleys of Tena, Ansó, and Broto. There are writings about these 'simiots' of Spain's Catalunya and Upper Aragon - creatures that may well find their U.S. counterparts in the Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

These creatures are of various height (though most are very tall), completely covered in hair with a long mane that falls to the knees, and wander the Pyrenees with incredible agility. They were said to be megalith builders and became known as rural genies.

The legend says that long ago, only the Basajauns knew how to plant, harvest and mill wheat to make flour. The Basajauns kept this knowledge to themselves, but one Basque man worked out a plan to steal the secret and give it to the human race. The Basque man made a bet with the Basajauns to see who could jump over the heaps of wheat they had harvested.

The Basajauns laughed at the Basque man, because they knew that a mere human would be no competition for them, and they laughed at his big floppy shoes. They all jumped over the wheat easily, but when the Basque man tried, he landed on top of one of the heaps, and the Basajauns laughed again.

Then the Basque man laughed, and he laughed last and best, but quietly, because his trick had worked. Now, the Basajauns are big and slow-witted, but when they saw the Basque man walking away home, with his big, floppy shoes full of grains of their wheat, they realized that they had been tricked. When they stopped laughing, the Basque man began to run for his life, and it's a good thing that he did. He was already a far away when one of the Basajauns threw a hatchet. The lords of the woods may be slow, but they are strong.

The Basque man saw the hatchet coming, and he ducked behind a chestnut tree just in time, because the hatchet struck the tree and split it in half. Now the Basque man had the seeds, but he didn't know when was the right time of the year to sow them. Fortunately, a man was passing by the cave of one of the Basajauns, and he heard him singing:

"If the humans knew this song
They'd be well informed.
When the leaf is in the bud
Then you sow the corn.
When the leaf falls off the trees
Then you sow the wheat.
When the February feast comes round
Sow the turnip in the ground."

The man told the Basque man what he heard, and the Basque man told all the humans, and that is how cultivation spread through the world.

Another part of the legend states that the Basajaun is the protective spirit of the flocks. It shouts in the mountains when a storm approaches so that the shepherds may withdraw their sheep. By lurking around a pen or its surroundings, it keeps the wolves from approaching. The Basajaun's presence is announced by the sheep who, shaking, and ring the bells around their necks. Thus the shepherds can go to sleep in peace, knowing that during that night or that day the wolves, great enemies of the flocks, will not come to bother them.

An undated screen capture from a video depicting a supposed Basajaun fleeing a cave in the Catalonia Pyrenees. My guess is that this image was from of a staged video...though I can't confirm that.

Modern day livestock farmers in Valcarlos and Ondorrola are fully convinced of this creature's existence. In testimony from an interview, an elder stated that he would receive visits from the Basajauns at his homestead, but never knew why. They had not visited him for a long time. Another eyewitness account mentions a sighting of a young Basajaun basking in the sun at the opening to the Mailuxe cave, and then added description of this creature as being blond.

In June 1993, a group of cave explorers allegedly encountered a Basajaun-like creature in the ruins of a church in the Catalan Pyrenees of Spain. The 'wild man' was described as standing 5 ft. tall and bulky, covered in shaggy hair and made a sound that resembled an enraged cat. A few months later, two paleontologists were reported to have been jumped by two large, hairy humanoids while conducting research
in the Ripoll forests of Gerona Province, Catalonia region of Spain.

Sources:
www.monstropedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
www.buber.net
Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque (1883)
J.M. Satrústegui of Barandiarán, Eusko-Folklore (1922)

Legendary Humanoids - Basajaun, the Lord of the Forests

Pentagon Flying Submersible Project in the Works

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 02:39 PM PDT

telegraph - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US military science and technology department, has set about creating an aircraft that can fly low over the water until near its target before disappearing under the sea to avoid detection.

It would then creep closer in submarine form before attacking its target, probably a ship or coastal installation, and fly home.

New Scientist reports that the project, which has been in development since 2008, has reached design proposal stage, and several outside developers have submitted designs. DARPA could start allocating funding to developers in as little as a year.

While the principles of hydrodynamic and aerodynamic flight are similar, the technological challenges are profound. Aircraft need to be as light as possible, so that they can use a minimum of power to get airborne, while submarines need to be dense and strong to withstand water pressure. Heavier-than-air aircraft get their lift from airflow over their wings - submarines simply pump water in and out to change their buoyancy.

One method of getting around the latter problem is to design a submarine that is lighter than water, but - like an upside-down aeroplane - uses lift generated by its wings to force it away from the surface. Then, after surfacing, the wings' "angle of attack" would be changed to generate upwards lift instead, allowing it to fly.

Graham Hawkes, a submarine designer, believes that modern lightweight carbon fibre composites could be used to build a craft that is both strong enough and light enough to fly above and below the water. He has already designed and built a submersible craft called the "Super Falcon" which uses stubby wings to "fly" down to 300 metres. He says that if it were given jet engines and larger wings, it could fly at up to 900kph (560mph) in the air, while still being capable of underwater travel at around 18kph (11mph). At these speeds, the behaviour of water and air over the control surfaces is similar. "Think about it as flying under water," says Mr Hawkes. "It can be done. It just needs a lot of work."

One problem could be overcome in a dramatic fashion - in order to get the wings to start generating downward lift, the craft would have to get underwater; but a lighter-than-water vessel would struggle to do so. Mr Hawkes suggests copying birds: "You might have to put the nose down and literally dive, smack, into the water. It would certainly be spectacular."

There are a variety of other design problems to overcome. Ordinary batteries capable of giving the craft a 44km (28 mile) range - as specified by DARPA - would weigh more than the rest of the vessel, but running it on ordinary fuel would require a supply of air, meaning a snorkel and a maximum depth of just a few meters.

Also, jet engines - which run at several hundred degrees celsius - would most likely explode from the sudden change in temperature if they were rapidly submerged after airborne use, but piston engines would not survive being immersed in water. Jim McKenna, an engineer at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, says: "You can't let cold seawater get at a hot engine because the thermal shock will blow it apart." The Pentagon's dream of a flying submarine is still some way away yet.

NOTE: This project has 'Skunk Works' written all over it. Below is an article from 2006 referencing plans by the U.S. Navy to build the 'Cormorant' system, a flying submarine. There have been other designs from what I can gather but the 'Cormorant' design seems close to what is envisioned. The whole concept sounds like reverse engineering of alien technology, if that's what you choose to believe...Lon

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Navy Plans Flying Submarine

livescience - Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, famed for the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes that flew higher than anything else in the world in their day, is trying for a different altitude record: an airplane that starts and ends its mission 150 feet underwater.

The Cormorant, a stealthy, jet-powered, autonomous aircraft that could be outfitted with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment, is designed to launch out of the Trident missile tubes in some of the U.S. Navy's gigantic Cold War–era Ohio-class submarines. These formerly nuke-toting subs have become less useful in a military climate evolved to favor surgical strikes over nuclear stalemates, but the Cormorant could use their now-vacant tubes to provide another unmanned option for spying on or destroying targets near the coast.

This is no easy task. The tubes are as long as a semi trailer but about seven feet wide—not exactly airplane-shaped. The Cormorant has to be strong enough to withstand the pressure 150 feet underwater—enough to cave in hatches on a normal aircraft—but light enough to fly. Another challenge: Subs survive by stealth, and an airplane flying back to the boat could give its position away.

The Skunk Works's answer is a four-ton airplane with gull wings that hinge around its body to fit inside the missile tube. The craft is made of titanium to resist corrosion, and any empty spaces are filled with plastic foam to resist crushing. The rest of the body is pressurized with inert gas. Inflatable seals keep the weapon-bay doors, engine inlet and exhaust covers watertight.

The Cormorant does not shoot out of its tube like a missile. Instead an arm-like docking "saddle" guides the craft out, sending it floating to the surface while the sub slips away. As the drone pops out of the water, the rocket boosters fire and the Cormorant takes off. After completing its mission, the plane flies to the rendezvous coordinates it receives from the sub and lands in the sea. The sub then launches a robotic underwater vehicle to fetch the floating drone.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is funding tests of some of the Cormorant's unique systems, including a splashdown model and an underwater-recovery vehicle. The tests should be completed by September, after which Darpa will decide whether it will fund a flying prototype.

Pentagon Flying Submersible Project in the Works

Fortean / Oddball News - 7/6/2010

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 02:47 PM PDT

'Twilight' Vampire Robert Pattinson Related to Dracula - Vlad IV Prince Draculaea of Walachia

Forget about Bela Lugosi. "Twilight" biter Robert Pattinson might be an actual blood relative to Dracula.

A new twist provided by the tween-scream flick's promotion machine says researchers at Web site Ancestry.com claim to have discovered that the 24-year-old British actor is related to the 15th-Century ruler Vlad IV Tzepesch, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. that crazy killer freak who inspired Bram Stoker's classic novel, "Dracula."

If that's not quite enough to get your blood pumping, the good people at Ancestry.com also say the Pattinson-Dracula connection extends to the British royal family. Yep, Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson's distant cousins, and Vlad, they claim, was their distant uncle.

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BP Oil Slick Predicted in Rare 70's Board Game

SWNS - A rare BP board game was unearthed which chillingly warns of oil slicks with $1million clean up costs – one per cent of the amount now being spent every day. The 1970s set 'BP Offshore Oil Strike' promises all the "thrills of drilling" in the North Sea with the first person to make £120 million dollars crowned the winner. But players are also warned of potential oil spills caused by rig damage in 'hazard' cards, which would cost '£1m dollars' to clear up.

The petrol giant is currently shelling out £100 million (£67m) a day to try and stem oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico following an explosion aboard its Deepwater Horizon rig. Recent estimates show that BP have already spent £1.9billion (£3billion) clearing up the spill since April 20 when a blast killed 11 people. The hazard card in the two to four player game reads: "Blow-Out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay £1,000,000′.

Players compete at exploring for oil, building platforms and laying pipelines to bring offshore oil back to the their home country. The rare mint condition set, made by Scottish manufacturer Printabox, was donated by a private collector to The House on the Hill Toy Museum in Stansted, Essex, last week. Museum owner Alan Goldsmith said he was bowled over by the similarities between the "very obscure and hard to find" game and BP's current crisis.

He said: "The parallels between the game and the current crisis out in the Gulf of Mexico are so spooky. The picture on the front of the box is so reminiscent of the disaster with the stormy seas, the oil rig and an overall sense of doom. I was just knocked over by how relevant this game is, despite being made some 35 years ago, to BP's troubles today. It's amazing when you think that their own game predicted this big oil slick – although sadly not the extent of the cost involved."

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Convicted Felon Arrested For Buying Rifle to Stop Alien Invasion

courant - A Fairfield man was arrested on Thursday morning after buying a high powered rifle to stop an alien invasion, police said.

Fairfield Police Sgt. James Perez said Dane Eisenman, 57, responded to a classified advertisement for a .30-06 rifle about a month ago. While filing out the paper for the rifle, police said, he mentioned to the seller what he would be using the weapon for. "He said he was going to use the weapon to kill aliens," Perez said.

The seller was unsure if Eisenman was referring to space aliens or illegal aliens, Perez added. Sgt. Perez said Eisenman told the seller of the rifle every 36,000 years, aliens who live under the sun come to Earth to kill humans, and he needed to be prepared because "They're going to be coming soon."

After the sale of the rifle, the man reported Eisenman to police. Sgt. Perez said Eisenman, who is a convicted felon, is legally prohibited from buying or owning a hand gun or rifle. Eisenman turned himself into police on Thursday morning and was charged with charge of criminal possession of a firearm. He will be arraigned in Bridgeport Superior Court on July 9.

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Too Much 'Beaver'?

UPI - A scene painted on a beaver statue struck some observers as female genitalia, prompting its removal from a public art walk in Bemidji, Minn., an organizer said.

Deborah Davis of Blackduck says her piece of art, one of nine fibreglass beaver sculptures painted by area artists, was meant to portray a praying woman's hands.

But about 20 people who sized it up as they took in downtown Bemidji's Sculpture Walk called city officials to say they saw something entirely different when they looked at the beaver's belly. And so the offending statue disappeared from the public space on Thursday by order of City Manager John Chattin.

Al Belleveau, president of the Bemidji Sculpture Walk, said he transported the sculpture to his yard until the City Council rules on its future on Tuesday.

But removing the beaver stirred emotions in others who are upset the sculpture was removed. Davis said a group of people had gathered at the spot where her statue had stood carrying signs that read "Censored" and some of the other beaver artists covered up their own works in solidarity with her.

"My intent was to paint Mother Nature, Mother Earth," said Davis, a former kindergarten teacher. "I didn't understand that some people saw genitalia. ... I understand people see different things in art, and they need to be free to do that. ... My intent was to paint a praying woman."

NOTE: Praying hands? I'll leave it at that...Lon

Fortean / Oddball News - 7/6/2010

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The Ghost Hunt of 1943 - Sahuarita, Arizona

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:59 AM PDT

tucsoncitizen - The residents of Sahuarita, Arizona lived in fear and terror during the Fall of 1943.

Paranormal activity plagued the area 20 miles south of Tucson, with most of the activity focused on the home of a 70-year-old woman. Bricks were tossed down her chimney. Rocks frequently pelted her roof in the dead of night. She would routinely find sand mixed in with her coffee.

Not long after the rumors of the haunted house began to circulate throughout the community, a man was robbed. The man could not see his assailants in the pitch black darkness of the night. Two other men were beaten on different nights. Residents started to carry guns, fearful that the ghosts appeared to be multiplying. The residents acknowledged that their bullets were useless against the ghosts, but they didn't know what else to do.

When the news of the robbery and assaults reached the 70-year-old woman and she made the decision to abandon her home.

Deputy Sheriff Ben Mariscal also had enough of the paranormal activity in Sahuarita. Mariscal wasn't afraid of no ghosts and was determined to put an end to it.

Over the course of his (paranormal) investigation, he suspected that several area youths were up to no good in the neighborhood. He targeted two boys, in particular, as the "ghost chiefs" of the bunch. One of the boys, a 15-year-old, was the grandson of the 70-year-old woman who abandoned her home.

Mariscal arranged a "ghost hunt" with the two boys at the abandoned home. He told the boys that he wanted to witness the ghostly activity for himself. The boys agreed to participate . On the night of the paranormal investigation, Mariscal arrived at the home with an innocent 15-year-old boy. The boy would be used as a decoy, according to his plan to nab the "ghosts" that evening. The deputy told all three boys to sit on a bench, with the decoy seated between the two suspected ghost boys. Mariscal turned off the lights. They all waited for the midnight hour, which was just moments away.

Through the darkness came the sound of a blood curdling scream. Mariscal turned on the lights to find the decoy with blood pouring out of his busted nose. Mariscal demanded to know which of the boys was the ghost. The two suspected ghosts immediately turned around and accused the decoy of attacking them with a metal instrument. The decoy protested, saying that he felt one of the boys' arms move just before he was hit in the face. When Mariscal revealed that the bloody-nosed boy was a "plant", the ghost boys ended their charade.

The boys were put in front of Judge William G. Hall in juvenile court. The "chief ghost" was given a year probation with the guarantee of being shipped off to reform school at Fort Grant, if even the slightest "ghosting" occurred again. The second boy received a slap on the hand.

Judge Hall said about his ruling: "If they had stayed with their pranks and let it go at that, I would have been inclined to show leniency, but when they began knocking down people and robbing one, it was going too far. This one boy is without doubt the leader of the little gang and supplied most of the ideas, I believe, and for that reason the terms of his probation are rather severe. The other lad was not involved to the same extent and I thought if we took care of the chief ghost the difficulty would be solved."

The 70-year-old grandmother of the heavily reprimanded chief ghost returned to her home. From that point forward, no rocks showered her roof. No bricks dropped down her chimney. No coffee was tainted with sand.

It is assumed that the decoy's nose healed nicely, though there is no record of what happened to him after the ghost hunt. It is due to him, and Deputy Sheriff Mariscal, that the streets of Sahuarita became safe, once again.

The Ghost Hunt of 1943 - Sahuarita, Arizona

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