Phantoms and Monsters

Legendary Humanoids: Banshee, Harbinger of Death
Fortean / Oddball News - 8/1/2010
Unfamiliar Howling Recorded in Kanawha County, West Virginia

Legendary Humanoids: Banshee, Harbinger of Death

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 01:43 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 Banshee.

The Banshee, from the Irish bean-sídhe ("woman of the síde" or "woman of the fairy mounds") is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. Her Scottish counterpart is the bean shìth.

According to tradition, the Banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list. The Banshee can appear in a variety of guises, most often as an ugly, frightening hag, but can also appear as a beautiful woman of any age. In some tales, the figure who first appears to be a Banshee is later revealed to be the Irish battle goddess, the Morrígan. The hag may also appear as a washer-woman who cleans the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. Although not always visible, her mourning call is heard, usually at night when someone is about to die and usually near woodlands. The Banshee may also appear in a variety of other forms, such as that of a crow, hare and weasel, most any animal associated in Ireland with witchcraft. Banshees are frequently described as dressed in white or grey, often having long, fair hair which they brush with a silver comb.

In 1437, King James I of Scotland was approached by an Irish seeress or banshee who foretold his murder at the instigation of the Earl of Atholl. This is an example of the banshee in human form. There are records of several human banshees or prophetesses attending the great houses of Ireland and the courts of local Irish kings.

In Welsh folklore, a Banshee-like entity is referred to as the Hag of the Mist (Gwrach-y-Rhibyn or the Cyoeraeth). Like the Banshee, the Hag of the Mist is portrayed as an ugly woman, whose shriek or cry is said to forewarn of misfortune or death. Often invisible, she can sometimes be seen at a crossroads or stream when the mist rises. If it is death that is coming, the name of the one doomed to die will be heard in her "shrill tenor". The misfortune may be coming to the person hearing her voice, or to someone in their family.

There are also tales of a Banshee in the Badlands of South Dakota. Thought to have been either a white victim of a red man's jealousy or an Indian woman who was killed there, the Banshee's cries have chilled the blood of many cowboys and prospectors. By moonlight, when the scenery is most suggestive and unearthly, and the noises of wolves and owls inspire uneasy feelings, the Banshee is seen with her hair blowing, her arms tossing in strange gestures.

If war parties, emigrants, cowboys, hunters, any who for good or ill are going through haunted country, the rocks are lighted with phosphor flashes and the Banshee sweeps upon them. As if wishing to speak, or as if waiting a question that it has occurred to none to ask, she stands beside them in an attitude of appeal, but if asked what she wants she flings her arms aloft and with a shriek that echoes through the blasted gulches for a mile she disappears and an instant later is seen wringing her hands.

Sometimes the Banshee is accompanied by an unfleshed skeleton that trudges about the ash and clay and haunts the camps in a search for music. If he hears it he will sit outside the door and nod in time to it, while a violin left within his reach is eagerly seized and will be played on through half the night.

Legendary Humanoids: Banshee, Harbinger of Death

Fortean / Oddball News - 8/1/2010

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 10:22 AM PDT

Ambitious Venus Mission Ideas Include Robots, Planes, Humans

After more than 20 years of neglect, the planet Venus is once more drawing NASA's eye for ambitious new missions.

A Venusian dream expedition for some scientists would include nothing short of an exploration flotilla – a ground robot, planetary airplane and orbiting manned spacecraft. The potential mission to Venus could investigate its surface from up-close for the first time in several decades, a NASA scientist said. [Photos: The surface of Venus.]

"Recently there has been a renaissance in looking at proposals to study Venus," researcher Geoffrey A. Landis at NASA's John Glenn Research Center in Ohio told SPACE.com. "One very good reason is that there has been a renewed interest in study of the atmospheres and climates of planets, and – being the planet that is most like the Earth in size – learning more about the atmosphere of Venus may help us learn more about the atmosphere (and climate) of the Earth." Continue reading at Ambitious Venus Mission Ideas Include Robots, Planes, Humans

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Idiot Attempts to Cash Forged $1 Million Check

gcdailyworld - A rural Bloomfield man who went to the drive-through window of the Eastern Heights branch of the Bloomfield State Bank early Friday morning, and tried to cash a check for one million dollars, didn't drive off with any cash.

Later the same day, Lt. Bryan Woodall of the Greene County Sheriff's Department gave the man a ride to the county jail.

Justin S. Johnson, 21, who resides in Lawrence Hollow Estates, appeared in Greene Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon and was charged with one count of forgery, a class C felony.

A call came in to the sheriff's department from the bank around 8:45 a.m. on Friday. The complaint was that Johnson was attempting to cash a check for one million dollars by handing the check through the window to a teller.

Lt. Woodall was dispatched and spoke with the teller who said it was not a valid check and she did not cash it. Woodall said the teller kept the check. And she obtained Johnson's driver's license and made a copy of it before Johnson left.

The deputy located Johnson at his residence.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Johnson said a blank check was given to him the day before by a man he had done some work for.

Johnson allegedly filled the check out, knowing it was not supposed to be written for one million dollars, signed the man's name and attempted to cash it.

The check was written on an account at Hoosier Hills Credit Union located in Bedford, in the name of a company located in Bloomington.

Johnson's bond has been set at $10,000 according to the standard bond schedule.

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Radioactive Wild Boars Plague German Forests

io9 - It's been 25 years since Chernobyl fallout contaminated flora and fauna in Europe, but German hunting officials are still dealing with rising numbers of radioactive wild boars. But why?

This burgeoning boar population munches on radiation-absorbing truffles and mushrooms, and because of an overall increase in wild boars, the number of radioactive boars has gone up as well. The German Atomic Energy Law requires Berlin to reimburse hunters who bag radioactive boars. In 2009, the government paid out approximately €425,000 — or $555,000 — for polluted piggies. According to Der Spiegel, the contaminated boar population has been the most problematic in southern Germany:

Many of the boar that are killed land on the plates of diners across Germany, but it is forbidden to sell meat containing high levels of radioactive caesium-137 — any animals showing contamination levels higher than 600 becquerel per kilogram must be disposed of. But in some areas of Germany, particularly in the south, wild boar routinely show much higher levels of contamination. According to the Environment Ministry, the average contamination for boar shot in Bayerischer Wald, a forested region on the Bavarian border with the Czech Republic, was 7,000 becquerel per kilogram. Other regions in southern Germany aren't much better.

Rising numbers of radioactive wild boars plague German forests Hunting officials have been experimenting with Giese salt (a cesium-binding chemical mixture that's been used to facilitate the excretion of radiation in farm animals), but the radioactive boars aren't going away anytime soon. According to Joachim Reddemann of the Bavarian Hunting Federation, "The problem has been at a high level for a long time [...] It will likely remain that way for at least the next 50 years."

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British MoD Blocks Release of UFO Files

ukpressThe release of files about a Ministry of Defence civil servant-turned-UFO expert has been blocked.

Nick Pope has drawn on his experiences working for Britain's official UFO investigation unit for a number of books about aliens and strange sights in the skies.

Fellow UFO researcher David Clarke made a Freedom of Information request in 2007 for internal MoD documents about Mr Pope's decision to speak publicly about his conversion from sceptic to believer in the possibility that extra-terrestrials are visiting Earth.

But more than three years later, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has upheld the department's refusal to publish the files because they contain personal information.

Mr Pope worked on the MoD's UFO desk from 1991 to 1994, dealing with possible sightings sent in by the public. He published his first book about the phenomena - Open Skies, Closed Minds - in 1996, although he continued working for the MoD until November 2006.

The MoD's official line is that it has no opinion on whether or not aliens exist but 50 years of UFO reports uncovered no evidence of a potential threat to the UK.

Dr Clarke asked the department to release records of its internal discussions about how to respond when Mr Pope began talking to the media about UFOs in 1995-96.

He obtained an April 1996 memo written by a senior officer in defence intelligence, who said the matter should be approached "very delicately".

But the MoD refused to release other papers about Mr Pope, including some which contain "free and frank advice" from defence officials about how to handle the situation.

The ICO said in its ruling on Dr Clarke's request: "The commissioner feels that this is a finely balanced case and that the complainant has provided well reasoned arguments to support his case. However, in this particular case the commissioner does not believe that release of the information concerned would further the legitimate public interest in any significant way."

Fortean / Oddball News - 8/1/2010

Unfamiliar Howling Recorded in Kanawha County, West Virginia

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 01:53 PM PDT

wowktv - Is it a wolf, an owl or the second coming of the Mothman, no one knows for sure.

"I don't know. I don't have any idea so I don't whether to be worried or not," said Joyce Harrison.

"It doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard," said her husband James Harrison.

A loud screeching noise has been periodically heard in the mountains near Goldtown in Kanawha County.

"I called the sheriff's department and the secretary told me she thought it was a ghost ... but no one knows ... its one of those deals where one opinion gives into another one," said James.

The Harrison's used a microphone to record the sound and it sounds much like a wolf or coyote, but nearby neighbors say they have heard those noises before, and this certainly isn't it.

"This is pretty unique we heard coyotes and turkeys and foxes and all that type of thing but this is something we've never heard before," said Mark Harrison.

The family has made contact with the Division of Natural Resources and have been told it may be an owl or loon, but for now the mystery remains, buried deep in the woods.

Thanks to Eric Altman from the Pa. Bigfoot Society for the heads up!

NOTE: Eric states that Goldtown is north of Charleston, WV. in Kanawha County. Listen to the video...sounds familiar to Bigfoot howls that I've heard several years ago in Garrett County, Maryland and the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania...Lon

Unfamiliar Howling Recorded in Kanawha County, West Virginia

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