Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- New Mexico 'Furry Ones', 'Skin-Walkers' and 'Shadow Man'
- Legendary Humanoids: Ebu Gogo, The Flores Island Hobbit
- Seal 'Corkscrew' Deaths Mystery Continues (Graphic)
- Fortean / Oddball News - 8/19/2010
- The Unknown: Why Are We So Lost?
| New Mexico 'Furry Ones', 'Skin-Walkers' and 'Shadow Man' Posted: 19 Aug 2010 05:25 PM PDT   J.C. Johnson at Crypto Four Corners has been busy documenting hominids, legendary Skin-Walkers and a 'Shadow Man' at a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. Below are a few of his videos: Click for video Our witness describes a Shadow Figure that has been around since she was five years old. Captured in night time video, is what we believe to be a "Shadow Man"   Click for video Our investigation at a farm where a family has had many encounters with the "Furry Ones" Click for video We interview a woman who witnessed a small hairy homonid on a country road. Nick Redfern posted an interesting write-up in reference to the Navajo Skin-Walkers in February 2009 and Johnson's research into the phenomenon. New Mexico 'Furry Ones', 'Skin-Walkers' and 'Shadow Man'  |
| Legendary Humanoids: Ebu Gogo, The Flores Island Hobbit Posted: 19 Aug 2010 10:01 AM 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 Ebu Gogo.Ebu Gogo are a group of human-like creatures that appear in the mythology of the people of the island of Flores, Indonesia. In the Nage language of central Flores, ebu means 'grandmother' and gogo means 'he who eats anything'. The Ebu Gogo are described as small, nasty people with a voracious appetite that sometimes included the devouring of the occasional human baby. Ebu Gogo have hair covered bodies, longish arms, big bellies and protruding ears. They were said to walk awkwardly and could be heard murmuring in their own language and were said to be capable of mimicking human speech. When they could tolerate the Ebu Gogo no more the Flores islanders drove the small people in the direction of the caves, perhaps near Liang Bau or perhaps they burned the survivors alive. In any case, these stories were probably told to keep truculent Flores children in line in much the same fashion as some western fairy tales are told. Indonesian culture just like any other has folklore about ghosts, little people and mysterious beings. Word of mouth folktales are handed down from generation to generation. Indonesian village people would talk of an ape-like creature that walks like a man. Some scientists believe that the Ebu Gogo folklore maybe a shared cultural memory of Homo floresiensis but there is no solid evidence to support that theory. However, legends have the Ebu Gogo disappearing about 400 years ago at the time of the arrival of the Dutch and Portuguese explorers. Scientists working on the Homo floresiensis find have also referred to the Ebu Gogo as 'Hobbits'.  From October 2004 - telegraph - Richard Roberts, discoverer of the 'Hobbit', says local tales suggest the species could still exist. When I was back in Flores earlier this month we heard the most amazing tales of little, hairy people, whom they called Ebu Gogo - Ebu meaning grandmother and Gogo meaning 'he who eats anything'. The tales contained the most fabulous details - so detailed that you'd imagine there had to be a grain of truth in them. One of the village elders told us that the Ebu Gogo ate everything raw, including vegetables, fruits, meat and, if they got the chance, even human meat. When food was served to them they also ate the plates, made of pumpkin - the original guests from hell (or heaven, if you don't like washing up and don't mind replacing your dinner set every week). The villagers say that the Ebu Gogo raided their crops, which they tolerated, but decided to chase them away when the Ebu Gogo stole - and ate - one of their babies. They ran away with the baby to their cave which was at the foot of the local volcano, some tens of metres up a cliff face. The villagers offered them bales of dry grass as fodder, which they gratefully accepted. A few days later, the villagers went back with a burning bale of grass which they tossed into the cave. Out ran the Ebu Gogo, singed but not fried, and were last seen heading west, in the direction of Liang Bua, where we found the Hobbit, as it happens. When my colleague Gert van den Bergh first heard these stories a decade ago, which several of the villages around the volcano recount with only very minor changes in detail, he thought them no better than leprechaun tales until we unearthed the Hobbit. (I much prefer Ebu as the name of our find but my colleague Mike Morwood was insistent on Hobbit.) The anatomical details in the legends are equally fascinating. They are described as about a metre tall, with long hair, pot bellies, ears that slightly stick out, a slightly awkward gait, and longish arms and fingers - both confirmed by our further finds this year. They [the Ebu Gogo] murmured at each other and could repeat words [spoken by villagers] verbatim. For example, to 'here's some food', they would reply 'here's some food'. They could climb slender-girthed trees but, here's the rub, were never seen holding stone tools or anything similar, whereas we have lots of sophisticated artefacts in the H. floresiensis levels at Liang Bua. That's the only inconsistency with the Liang Bua evidence. The women Ebu Gogo had extremely pendulous breasts, so long that they would throw them over their shoulders, which must have been quite a sight in full flight. We did ask the villagers if they ever interbred with the Ebu Gogo. They vigorously denied this, but said that the women of Labuan Baju (a village at the far western end of Flores, better known as LBJ) had rather long breasts, so they must have done. Poor LBJ must be the butt of jokes in Flores, rather like the Irish and Tasmanians. A local eruption at Liang Bua (in western Flores) may have wiped out local hobbits around 12,000 years ago, but they could well have persisted much later in other parts of the island. The villagers said that the last hobbit was seen just before the village moved location, farther from the volcano, not long before the Dutch colonists settled in that part of central Flores, in the 19th century. Do the Ebu Gogo still exist? It would be a hoot to search the last pockets of rainforest on the island. Not many such pockets exist, but who knows. At the very least, searching again for that lava cave, or others like it, should be done, because remains of hair only a few hundred years old, would surely survive, snagged on the cave walls or incorporated in deposits, and would be ideal for ancient DNA analyses. Interestingly, we did find lumps of dirt with black hair in them this year in the Hobbit levels, but don't know yet if they're human or something else. We're getting DNA testing done, which we hope will be instructive. Click for video  From December 2004 - smh - Chief Epiradus Dhoi Lewa has a strange tale to tell. Sitting in his bamboo and wooden home at the foot of an active volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, he recalls how people from his village were able to capture a tiny woman with long, pendulous breasts three weeks ago."They said she was very little and very pretty," he says, holding his hand at waist height. "Some people saw her very close up." The villagers of Boawae believe the strange woman came down from a cave on the steaming mountain where short, hairy people they call Ebu Gogo lived long ago. "Maybe some Ebu Gogo are still there," the 70-year-old chief told the Herald through an interpreter in Boawae last week. The locals' descriptions of Ebu Gogo as about a metre tall, with pot bellies and long arms match the features of a new species of human "hobbits" whose bones were recently unearthed by Australian and Indonesian researchers in a different part of Flores in a cave known as Liang Bua. The unexpected discovery of this tiny Homo floresiensis, who existed until at least 12,000 years ago at Liang Bua, before being apparently wiped out by a volcanic eruption, was hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds in decades when it was announced in October. The chief adds that the mysterious little woman in Boawae somehow "escaped" her captors, and the local police said they knew nothing of her existence when he quizzed them. The prospect that some hobbits still exist in pockets of thick, fertile jungle on Flores is extremely unlikely, says Douglas Hobbs, a member of the team that discovered Homo floresiensis. But it is possible they survived near Boawae until 300 or so years ago, when the chief's ancestors moved into the area, he says. The detailed stories that the villagers tell about the legendary Ebu Gogo on the volcano have convinced the Australian and Indonesian team to search for bones of hobbits in this cave when they return to the rugged island next year, says Hobbs, an emeritus archaeologist with the University of New England, who discussed excavation plans with the chief last week. Getting to the cave on the 2100-metre-high Ebulobo volcano, however, will be no simple matter for the team led by Professor Mike Morwood of UNE. The blood of a pig must first be spilt in this society where Catholic faith is melded with animist beliefs and ancestor worship. The sacrifice and the feast will please the ancestors and bring many villagers together to talk about the cave, says the chief, whose picture of his grandfather, the king, in traditional head-dress, sits framed on the wall next to images of Jesus. If the right rituals are followed, "then we will be able to find the road to the hole again", he says. A Dutch palaeontologist, Dr Gert van den Bergh, a member of the team, was first shown the cave at a distance more than a decade ago, after hearing folk tales of the Ebu Gogo, which means "grandmother who eats everything". People living around the volcano told him a consistent story of the hairy creatures that devoured whatever they could grasp in their long fingers. The villagers tolerated the stealing of food until the Ebu Gogo began to snatch babies and eat them too. They then set upon the little people, forcing them out of the cave with bales of burning grass. Van den Bergh dismissed the tales as akin to those of leprechauns and elves, until the hobbit bones were found. While the search for more bones is being planned, a political furore has broken out after a leading Indonesian palaeoanthropologist - with no connection to the find - last week "borrowed" all the delicate remains from six hobbits found at Liang Bua against the wishes of local and Australian team members. Professor Teuku Jacob, of Gadjah Mada University, who has challenged the view that Homo floresiensis is a new species, had previously taken the skull and bones of the most complete specimen, a 30-year-old female hobbit, from the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology in Jakarta, where they had been kept. Professor Morwood said it was wrong that the team who found the remains were unable to analyse them first. "It is not good for the Indonesian researchers nor their institution." However, he said Professor Jacob had signed an agreement to return all the bones by January 1. Legendary Humanoids: Ebu Gogo, The Flores Island Hobbit  |
| Seal 'Corkscrew' Deaths Mystery Continues (Graphic) Posted: 19 Aug 2010 09:25 AM PDT  thesun - Researchers are trying to discover why dozens of mutilated seals are washing up on British beaches with their skin horrifically ripped off. All the seals suffer the same wound — a single deep cut from head to stomach — but the top scientists can't work out what's behind the damage. Science sleuths have been hunting for the 'murder weapon' since the first seals started dying last year, but they are still clueless. Now they are appealing to Sun readers to see if you can solve the mystery. Horrified scientists have found around 60 carcasses so far. Most of the seals were spotted off the Norfolk coast, but ten more have been discovered at St Andrew's on the east coast of Scotland. The cut goes all the way around the seals' bodies from head to stomach like a CORKSCREW. Professors have so far eliminated sharks, tidal power generators and ordinary boat propellers from the list of suspects — but they have no idea what else could have caused the injuries. The search is now on for a mystery vessel that could have inflicted the mechanical wounds. Top mammal scientist Callan Duck told The Sun: "It's a very clean cut - it looks like one single cut. If you're cutting a loaf of bread, there's a sawing action and you leave jagged edges, but there are none of those, so it looks like one continuous movement. "The skin has been ripped clean off the seals' jaws. It would take hours to do that with a scalpel yourself." The clever animals have learnt to avoid swimming too close to ships, leaving Mr Duck's team puzzled that they seem to have swum into the blade HEAD FIRST. He added: "Seals are pretty savvy creatures and they won't approach an obvious threat, but very suddenly they're being dragged head first into a rotating blade." The Scottish killings have already hit ten per cent of the breeding population of seals — and scientists are worried that the species could soon be wiped out entirely. The seal team at St Andrew's University has already asked the RSPCA, the National Trust and even the Scottish Government to solve the mystery — with no luck. The baffled experts are now hoping Sun readers can piece together the puzzle for them. Mr Duck said: "It's a good mystery. We do believe it's solvable. Once we find out where, we can move on to why and what. "We'd like to encourage members of the public to call in and make suggestions." Experts are also keen for any snaps of the dead seals. Mr Duck added: "They can be smelly but please take a picture."  ********** Sharks Ruled Out In Mystery 'Corkscrew' Deaths Of Seals stv - Sharks were ruled out as the killer of dozens of seals found in and around Scotland with unexplained "corkscrew" injuries. Around 50 carcasses of both common and grey seals have been washed up in the past three years with a single, smooth-edged cut starting at the head and spiralling around the body. The injuries were not consistent with any known to be potentially caused by fishing nets of boat propellers leaving marine experts still baffled by their mystery deaths. In the past three years, 38 seals on the Norfolk and North Lincolnshire coast and a further 12 around the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth have been found with the deep, deadly wound. The issue was publicised at the weekend and since then Callan Duck, of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University, has been following up possible leads raised by members of the public. One theory was that a species of shark not usually seen around Britain could be the culprit. But Mr Duck said he had now heard from experts at the International Union for Conservation of Nature who have ruled out sharks. He believed the cause was mechanical, but remained baffled by the nature of the machine which killed the mammals. "We have had a lot of suggestions from a lot of different people for which we are really grateful and we would like them to keep coming," he said. "We are biologists, we are not forensic scientists. It's all under water, out of sight, so how do we find out what's happening? We are pretty flummoxed." Mr Duck, a senior research scientist, said that once the cause has been determined, tests would be carried out in labs on dummies to see if the problem could be avoided. As it is, the corkscrew cuts are having a serious effect on the tiny Firth of Tay colony, with around 10% of breeding females being killed by the mystery. Seals, though inquisitive when they are young, have a canny sense of danger, Mr Duck said, so the way they were dying was even more puzzling. "Almost all the injuries we have seen have started on or close to the head. The seals must be attracted to whatever it is that proves fatal to them. "Seals are very canny and know what's bad for them. They don't go near things that are questionable or could be dangerous and they are very aware of propellers. "Why are seals going to something that could kill them, perhaps sucking them in and leaving them unable to get away?"  NOTE: I read the following today: The cuts on the seal are spiral in nature as if it has passed through the center of cutting blades? There is a system under design that is called a "Rim Driven Propulsor" and the word "propulsor" is correct not a "propeller" before pedantic souls start trying to correct me. If you can imagine a rim like a wheel with the blades pointing inwards and a hollow space in the center no hub, this design is possibly more efficient with less cavitation effect on the blades e.g. less noise. I would think it feasible for certain navy's to be testing this system on submarines or surface vessels hence no one owning up to the mysterious seal deaths please see the following link for an article about "Rim Driven Propulsors".I made a few inquiries and was told that these systems are used on some newer yachts. As well, the U.S. and Russian Navies have been testing this design for a few years...Lon Seal 'Corkscrew' Deaths Mystery Continues (Graphic)  |
| Fortean / Oddball News - 8/19/2010 Posted: 19 Aug 2010 08:30 AM PDT  Fungus Turns Ants Into Zombies guardian - The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists. The gruesome hallmark of the fungus's handiwork was found on the leaves of plants that grew in Messel, near Darmstadt in Germany, 48m years ago. The finding shows that parasitic fungi evolved the ability to control the creatures they infect in the distant past, even before the rise of the Himalayas. The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today, latches on to carpenter ants as they cross the forest floor before returning to their nests high in the canopy. The fungus grows inside the ants and releases chemicals that affect their behaviour. Some ants leave the colony and wander off to find fresh leaves on their own, while others fall from their tree-top havens on to leaves nearer the ground. The final stage of the parasitic death sentence is the most macabre. In their last hours, infected ants move towards the underside of the leaf they are on and lock their mandibles in a "death grip" around the central vein, immobilising themselves and locking the fungus in position. "This can happen en masse. You can find whole graveyards with 20 or 30 ants in a square metre. Each time, they are on leaves that are a particular height off the ground and they have bitten into the main vein before dying," said David Hughes at Harvard University. The fungus cannot grow high up in the canopy or on the forest floor, but infected ants often die on leaves midway between the two, where the humidity and temperature suit the fungus. Once an ant has died, the fungus sprouts from its head and produces a pod of spores, which are fired at night on to the forest floor, where they can infect other ants. Scientists led by Hughes noticed that ants infected with the fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, bit into leaves with so much force they left a lasting mark. The holes created by their mandibles either side of the leaf vein are bordered by scar tissue, producing an unmistakable dumb-bell shape. Writing in the journal, Biology Letters, the team describes how they trawled a database of images that document leaf damage by insects, fungi and other organisms. They found one image of a 48m-year-old leaf from the Messel pit that showed the distinctive "death grip" markings of an infected ant. At the time, the Messel area was thick with subtropical forests. "We now present it as the first example of behavioural manipulation and probably the only one which can be found. In most cases, this kind of control is spectacular but ephemeral and doesn't leave any permanent trace," Hughes said. "The question now is, what are the triggers that push a parasite not just to kill its host, but to take over its brain and muscles and then kill it." He added: "Of all the parasitic organisms, only a few have evolved this trick of manipulating their host's behaviour. Why go to the bother? Why are there not more of them?" Scientists are not clear how the fungus controls the ants it infects, but know that the parasite releases alkaloid chemicals into the insect as it consumes it from the inside. Click for video **********  Manipogo Provincial Park Named After Local Lake Monster winnipegfreepress - Lake Manitoba teems with fish. Anglers can pull out large numbers of Walleye, Northern Pike, and Yellow Perch. One species of marine life that no one has managed to catch is the elusive Lake Manitoba monster – Manipogo. Like the Loch Ness Monster, in Scotland, and Ogopogo, in Lake Okanagan, B.C., Manipogo is a large, serpent-like creature that some have claimed to have seen swimming in Lake Manitoba. Sightings have occurred throughout the last century, mainly in the Toutes Aides area, north of Ste. Rose du Lac. Eyewitnesses have claimed the monster to be anywhere between 12 and 45 feet in length. Some have said it looked like it had the head of a horse, some say the head of a sheep. With the majority of sightings happening around Toutes Aides, the Manitoba government decided to name the area's provincial park after the mythical beast. Manipogo Provincial Park is roughly 330 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 55 kilometres north of Ste. Rose du Lac, on Provincial Road 276. The park sits on the far north-western shore of Lake Manitoba, close to where the lake almost meets Lake Winnipegosis. The park has a full service campground, a small convenience store, and a long strip of beach. Unfortunately, with rain coming down in sheets when we were there, we didn't get to enjoy any of the amenities of the park. The weather seemed to have scared everyone else off as well, as the park was largely deserted. I can't blame them: The wind was howling off the lake at gale-force strength. Not surprisingly, we didn't spot Manipogo while staring out from the beach, but there have been roughly a dozen documented sightings of the lake monster since the late 1950s. Of course, like the Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo, and Sasquatch, no one has been able to conclusively capture Manipogo on film. The two most intriguing sightings occurred in 1962 and 1997. The first sighting was during a fishing trip. Dick Vincent of KCND Television (later CKND, now Global) and his television colleague, John Konefell, spotted a serpent-like creature and chased after it in their boat. They were unable track down the mysterious animal, but were able to take a blurred photograph. The photograph showed a large, dark object rising two feet out of the water. In subsequent years, Vincent denied that it was Manipogo, claiming he wasn't sure what it was. The 1997 sighting attracted national media attention. The Globe and Mail reported, on June 12 of that year, "People in communities around Lake Manitoba are buzzing about a 15-metre snake-like creature, with a head like a horse, that was supposedly shot and spirited away under cover of darkness recently." The story goes something like this: A man from the Sandy Bay First Nation, north of Portage La Prairie, had claimed to come across Manipogo, while harvesting hay from his lakeshore property. He said that he grabbed a rifle, shot and killed the creature, and then dragged it to a nearby barn. The RCMP was called and they loaded Manipogo on to a flatbed truck, covered it with a tarp, and drove off towards Winnipeg. The story quickly unravelled though, when the RCMP denied any knowledge of the incident. Stories told by alledged witnesses contradicted each other and some denied the killing occurred. In the end, the story was deemed a hoax, the result of stories told at a party that were spread around the community. This event was the last supposed sighting of Manipogo. We left Manipogo, travelling next to Margaret Bruce Provincial Park, located on the west shore of Lake Manitoba, 140 kilometres south of Manipogo Provincial Park. Interestingly, the mysterious lake creature has never been spotted in this area. The park includes a privately operated campground and beach. Again, the driving rain prevented us from fully checking out the area. The final provincial park we visited on this trip was Rainbow Beach Provincial Park, located on the south shore of Dauphin Lake. This campground and beach is adjacent to Highway 20, roughly 18 kilometres east of Dauphin. The beach looked like it would be a nice place to relax on a sunny afternoon, but with the wind driving the rain off the lake, it was a desolate place when we visited. This was the first weekend journey that was completely rained out. With the weather looking a lot better for next weekend (if one can trust the forecast), we're going to make our way west to Duck Mountain and that area's provincial parks. Click for video ********** BC Pot Farm Guarded By Black Bears calgarysun - Smokey the bear is guarding more than old-growth forests. Mounties in B.C. were stunned to discover a platoon of bruins standing sentinel on a huge garden of illicit smoke in sight of southeastern B.C.'s Christina Lake. After acting on a tip reporting an outdoor marijuana grow-op, RCMP officers descended on the remote site, about 700 km southwest of Calgary, only to be greeted by up to 14 black bears that Sgt. Fred Mansveld is convinced were there to ward off pot bandits. "They wanted to intimidate people — we do experience rip-offs around there," said an astonished Mansveld of the Nelson RCMP. "In 30 years working in these mountains, I've seen a lot of bears but I've never seen that ... there were big bears, little bears, groups of bears. "It just goes to show you what length people will go in this business to secure their operation." The bruins, he said, were extremely friendly and accustomed to surroundings made more comfortable by a steady diet of dog food. "The bears weren't aggressive to the police officers who worked very close to them," he said. One of the animals even climbed atop an RCMP cruiser to get a better view of the bust, said Mansveld. The Mountie didn't rule out marijuana being fed to the hairy sentinels found around a field of 1,000-1,200 pot plants. "Maybe they mixed some pot into the food — it's possible it's why they were so laid-back...they were just lolligagging around," he said, adding the bears had made friends with a racoon and pot bellied pig also found on the property. But Mansveld said the plight of the bears is no laughing matter, given their habituation to being fed by humans. They've now been trapped by B.C. conservation officials who'll decide what to do with them. "The ultimate fate of these bears is that they might have to be destroyed," he said. "If you're really an animal-lover, you don't kill the animal with kindness." Police say it appears the bears have been a fixture at the wooded farm for some time. It's an extreme example, said Mansveld, of an underground industry with deep, widespread roots in the area. "It doesn't do the area any good — we want to be on the map for the lake, hiking, golfing and fishing," he said. A man and woman present when police arrived are facing charges related marijuana cultivation. There's no word if they'll also be facing animal abuse charges. **********  Cryptid Cat Roaming Harrison County, Kentucky kentucky - A Harrison County restaurant owner said she's heard people describe the mysterious creature as everything from "a lion to a cougar." Others think it might be a bobcat. A Kentucky Tech teacher who lives in Harrison County said her students refer to the movie Napoleon Dynamite, in which the title character sketches his favorite animal: a "liger," which might have magical powers. MDGC0025 Harrison County residents think this creature, spotted on a surveillance camera, killed a large dog last month. The teacher, Tina Swinford, said she doesn't know what's prowling around Tim Humphries' home about five miles west of Cynthiana. Like many others in the area, she's seen the pictures in the local newspaper and on television. Her conclusion: "I don't think it's a kitty cat." Humphries, who lives on Ky. 32 West, said something attacked his dog twice, July 13 and July 26. The dog, a full-blooded, 85-pound collie named Apollo, died nine days after the second attack. Humphries said Apollo never left his yard and an area behind his barn. Humphries said he saw a large animal on July 31, about a week after the second attack, as he waited with a rifle. But the animal was spooked after a dog howled. Humphries said the large cat's body resembles a lion, although its head does not. He said he thinks the animal might be some type of "hybrid." "I know it's still out there," Humphries said. "Some child is going to get attacked and killed." But law enforcement officials have declared that the animal, caught on video and in still pictures, is a domestic cat. "We've been confident of that for about a week," Harrison County Sheriff's Detective Paul Olin said. Olin said a Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources expert looked at the photos and agreed that the animal in question was a domestic cat. The fish and wildlife official could not be reached for comment. Humphries' story has found its way into restaurants and cafes across Harrison County and traveled across county lines. For about a week, Olin said, the sheriff's office received two or three calls an hour about the animal, and people were invited into the office to view the pictures themselves. Olin said 95 percent of the people who saw the pictures "had the same conclusion we did." If that's the case, Mary Todd, owner of Biancke's restaurant, might count herself in the minority. "I just don't think a regular cat can do something like that to a dog," Todd said. Todd said a lot of diners have laughed about the mysterious animal. But others, especially those who live near Humphries, are concerned. Swinford said she wasn't worried about the cat, but she would be anxious about her children's safety if she lived in the area. "I would not want them out," Swinford said. The sheriff's office does not plan to pursue the cat anymore, but Humphries said he will search every day until he finds and kills the animal that attacked Apollo. "They don't want to alarm the public," Humphries said of police and fish and wildlife officials. "But I want to alert the public." ********** Mindset Most young Americans entering university this year can't write in cursive, think email is too slow, that Beethoven's a dog and Michelangelo a computer virus, according to an annual list compiled by two academics at a US college. To students who will get their bachelor's degrees in 2014, Czechoslovakia has never existed, Fergie is a pop singer, not a duchess; Clint Eastwood is a sensitive movie director, not Dirty Harry; and John McEnroe stars in TV ads, not on the tennis court, Beloit College's "Mindset" list says. The Mindset list was first compiled in 1998, for the class of 2002, by Beloit humanities professor Tom McBride and former public affairs director Ron Nief. It was intended as a reminder to faculty at the university that references quickly become dated, but quickly evolved to become a hugely popular annual list that gives a snapshot of how things have changed, and chronicles key cultural and political events that have shaped a generation. In the first Mindset list, McBride and Nief found that youngsters born in 1980 had ever known only one pope - Polish-born John Paul II, who was elected to the papacy in 1978 and died in 2008. For the class of 2003 -- born in 1981 and featured on the 1999 Mindset list -- Yugoslavia never existed and they were puzzled why Solidarity was sometimes spelled with a capital S. Solidarity with a capital S was the first and only independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. It was created in 1980 and went on to negotiate in 1989 a peaceful end to communism in Poland, making the country the first to escape Moscow's grip. Nief and McBride take a year to put the list together, gathering outside contributions and poring over journals, literary works, and the popular media from the year of the incoming university students' birth. "Then we present the ideas to every 18-year-old whose attention we can get and we wait for the 'mindset moment' -- the blank stare that comes back at you that makes you realize they have no idea what you're talking about," Nief told AFP. Those moments make it onto the list, alongside interesting historical snippets like the fact that since the class of 2004 was born in 1982, all but one national election in the United States has had a candidate in it named George Bush. The list also chronicles geopolitical changes, and sometimes depressingly highlights how little progress has been made on key issues, such as the fight against AIDS. The class of 2004, for instance, "never referred to Russia and China as 'the Reds'", and in the year they were born, 1982, "AIDS was found to have killed 164 people and finding a cure for the new disease was designated a 'top priority' for government-sponsored research." The class of 2005 -- born in 1983 -- thought of Sarajevo as a war zone, not an Olympic host, and had no idea what carbon paper was. Apartheid never existed in South Africa for the class of 2006, and for the class of 2007, "Banana Republic has always been a store, not a puppet government in Latin America." The list is a mirror of how rapidly perceptions can change: to the class of 2013, boxer Mike Tyson was "always a felon" but to students who graduated five years earlier, Tyson was "always a contender." The list makes some people feel old, like those who remember what Michael Jackson looked like when he was singing in the Jackson Five or recall the days when there were only a handful of channels on television. But they're not the only ones who get the blues over the list. "There are 25- and 26-year-olds that tell us they feel old when they read the list," Nief said. "Just two years ago, there were some students who learned to type on a typewriter," but others in the graduating class of 2012 didn't know that IBM had ever made typewriters, said Nief. Few students in the class of 2009 knew how to tie a tie and most thought Iran and Iraq had never been at war with each other. And for US students who got their bachelor's degrees this year, Germany was never divided, professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics, there have always been reality shows on television and smoking has never been allowed on US airlines. Fortean / Oddball News - 8/19/2010  |
| The Unknown: Why Are We So Lost? Posted: 19 Aug 2010 07:49 AM PDT  Chris Holly's Paranormal World - Recently I have been listening to the Internet radio shows available concerning the subjects of the paranormal.One of the shows I listened to was about Nazi scientists who left Germany after WW2 to continue working on many sinister experiments. The show also talked about the connection to the German scientists UFO's and aliens. The radio show had a chat area to ask questions of the guest who was supposedly an expert on the subject. This allows you to interact with other listeners or ask questions while the radio show is live. Plum Island is located off of the east end of Long Island New York where I grew up and now live. Until recently Plum Island was a secret lab filled with post German scientists hired by the government after WW 2. Since this sinister place is in my neck of the woods I was interested in what this show had to say on the subject. I listened to the show for awhile without hearing any mention of this famous government lab. I decided to text in the chat room a few questions asking the guest about his thoughts concerning the infamous Plum Island Lab and the large group of German Scientists hired to work on top secret experiments there since the 1950's. Since the guest was discussing the 1960's and UFO sightings connected to Nazi scientist involvement I was sure he would have a great deal to say about this lab. The fact that Long Island was a hot bed of UFO activity during that time period made me sure he would have information on this area. I wrote my questions in the chat room that was linked to the radio show concerning the topic as I was anxious to hear what the expert would have to say about this well known secret lab on the end of Long Island. I received a short one sentence answer from the guest. His answer was-- he never heard of it! I was stunned. How could anyone become an expert on a subject and not know about a German scientist packed lab that was known for top secret sinister experiments in an area that has been plagued with UFO sightings and located near a highly suspect military base to boot? I immediately lost interest in this show as the realization was clear to me that the subjects of the paranormal are a huge mess that has no focus or connection. Those who try to understand the subjects of the unknown are lost in a convoluted mess of parts and pieces disconnected and tortured by the constant interference of frauds and fantasy seekers which derails those trying to figure it all out. I think a great deal of this confusion is produced on purpose by controlling powers and the greedy who profit and succeed by keeping us dumb about the unknown. The subjects of the paranormal are one huge flawed confused mess. We simply are lost when it comes to real facts and real knowledge about everything considered paranormal. How could anyone be an expert on German scientists after WW2 s relocating all over the world to continue their sinister experiments and research yet not know about Plum Island? I turned off the show disgusted and depressed at the sad state of the paranormal world . How will we ever learn or understand the unknown if we refuse to join our knowledge in a focused fashion to find answers to so many questions. The fact that an expert knew nothing at all about the secret experiments and research of the 1950 right up to the late 1990's taking place on Plum Island was flabbergasting to me. UFO sightings were frequent as well as abduction and lost time events during that period of time on Long Island. It was known all over the east that Plum Island was dangerous, deadly and top secret. How he missed it was beyond me. The period of time that Plum Island was in its working prime is also the time Montauk Point housed the infamous Camp Hero base that housed a secret underground complex that has been accused of all kinds of paranormal activities. Plum Island and Camp Hero are located near each other off of the end of Long Island. Rumors have long been told on Long Island that both of these places were thought to be working not only with the German scientists but actual aliens. How can it be that a show represents the topic to be about German scientists brought to other countries after WW2 and not hear a thing about one of the biggest and most active places filled with German scientists not even mentioned? How is it that Americans are interested in what took place in South America with German scientist imported after WW 2 yet deaf dumb and blind to the fact we had a haven full of them right here living and working on the end of Long Island a few hours outside of New York City? How did we become so lost to what is going on and so numb to those who try to inform us? It is as if we have been trained or brainwashed to reject most of the information available concerning the paranormal. We have been forced by way of media nonsense and need to be cool groups plus lots of denial to limit our thinking to small boxes of small thinking with selected ideas while rejecting the truth that hangs all around us. Before I tuned out of that radio show I gave one last try to bring the subject of Plum Island in to the conversation about German scientists but of course received the typical ignored response from all involved as my information was outside of their box of knowledge and of course ignored. I find it frightening that we are controlled so easily with subjects considered paranormal or unknown. Our chances of ever understanding what now is unexplained seems very remote by way of our own actions. How can things unknown ever become things we understand if we walk around with fingers in our ears, blinders on our eyes and a large 'do not enter' sign hung on our brains? I have to admit there are other radio shows on the paranormal available on the Internet that have been enlightening and filled with interesting speakers and wonderful insight concerning many unknown subjects of our time. I have been a guest on a number of shows myself. I only wish everyone would take the same interest as the good show hosts and continue on a path of intent to learn and understand the unknown. I had a two sided example of this dilemma in one night of radio listening . I tuned in to two different radio shows on the same night. The subject on both shows was the Big Foot issue. One of the shows was ridiculous. They had a few guests on that were playing sound clips of what they were presenting as a Big Foot they heard while parked along side of a country road. I listened and immediately recognized the first clip as a Eastern Screech Owl. It is a haunting sound in the middle of the night but it was without question an owl. I know I live in the country and hear them nearly every night. The second clip was even funnier . The radio show host, his so called Big Foot expert guest as well as the people texting about the show in the attached chat area were seriously considering that these common sounds of the forest were the howl of a big foot. The second sound clip was the distinct loud howl of a coon hound in chase of most likely a raccoon. Once again I instantly knew this sound as I own coon hounds. I could have taken my four hounds out back of my barn and set them loose and produced the same exact sound clip. They are loud with a certain tone to their howl and can heard for miles. I was listening to this show with a good friend who works for the State Forestry Department who also instantly recognized the animal sound clips being played on the radio show. He knew what the animals were making the sounds. None were a Big Foot. My friend texted into the radio show chat area what animals were making the sounds they were presenting as a Big Foot. He also asked if the people making the claim of having a Big Foot sound clip had a local wild life expert from the area they were taping listen to the tape before claiming it was a Big Foot? The guest on the show refused to answer the question at first. The host asked him a few more times until he admitted he had not. This so called Big Foot expert then went about the business along with another speaker on the show of insulting and name calling my friend the Forestry expert. The chat room people also started to text very nasty things to him as well. We thought it was pathetic behavior by a group of adults and moved on to the other show. With this bad experience behind us we were a bit concerned the next show we were planning to listen to live would be of the same caliber. It too was on the subject of the Big Foot issue. The second show was incredible. The guest speaker was well informed and equipped with top notch research. He was extremely interesting to listen to as he had many credible reports of unexplained events that were thought of as real Big Foot encounters. He too had a sound clip however his clip was that of a sound I have not heard before in my neck of the woods but more impressive a sound my forestry expert had not heard before either. This second show was well done, informative and kept our interest to the very end. The problem of course is that this good show surely suffered by way of the other one by way of destroying the subject with nonsense and fraud . Many spending a few minutes listening to the foolish show may walk away and never get to hear the real expert being interviewed on the second show we tuned in to. This is a constant struggle in the paranormal and exactly the scenarios that make it impossible for those working in it to find answers or to get a footing to move ahead. I think I finally have come to the point that I have given up that during my lifetime we will gain any new knowledge, discover any real truths or get anywhere close to ever reaching a level of disclosure on any paranormal subject. Until we form some kind of new thinking about things unknown we will forever stay locked in the dark ages while the rest of the universe spins quickly away from our primitive close minded ignorant civilization. We are clearly trained to stay disconnected and separate when it comes to paranormal research . We do have good people trying to do research however they are swimming against a very stubborn difficult tide. It is difficult enough to try to work in an area many reject. It makes it nearly impossible when those in the same field continue to remain unwilling to connect with others working on the same material or subject. I understand there are many views on the same subject however there needs to be some sort of data base for the world to find out what work is being done on which subject and what theories are being tested , talked about or researched. It is the only road to figuring out all that we consider para -normal to making them normal and understood. We have those doing serious detailed worthwhile research who are scorned by those who simply want to write garbage and feed it to a overly eager public who will believe anything- but the truth. We have frauds mixed with people who are confused along with those who are involved in the paranormal for no other reason but to have a really good time. We have all of that as well as those trying hard to understand the unknown who have had incredible encounters with strange events all trying to work in the same pot. What you end up with is a hug chaotic mess called the paranormal. It is impossible to find a path to any truth or any answers to what has been and still is going on out there as long as we stick to this approach. It makes it impossible to move forward as those here for a good laugh muddy the road and block those trying to find answers. For those wanting truth it becomes frustrating and discouraging. I think it can also have the potential of being extremely dangerous. Obviously society has been trained to react this way. Obviously those running the show , those responsible for the world of the paranormal have us all exactly where they want us. They can do as they please and we stay blind, deaf and dumb while they step all over us and do as they wish. Silly dumb humans - so easy to control. I had a very unique being tell me once that aliens are the ones keeping us confused. It is a simple way to control us and they feed the frenzy with ease as they continue on as they please. I do not know what can be done if society has given in and allows it to be trained controlled and herded with such ease. I do know that outside of the paranormal anyone who claims to be a expert on any subject usually has answers to simple questions concerning that subject. I wish it could be that way in the world of the paranormal. It seems obvious that as long as we stay disconnected on these subjects we stay ignorant . As long as we stay ignorant we stay easily controlled. Simply keep us apart and close minded and we are simple to handle and no one needs to give us real answers. I have no idea how we got so lost or so controlled . I have no idea how to end it. I can only hope one day all of you will want more. Trust me when I tell you that a day may come when you find yourself completely alone in the dead of night looking straight into the eyes of the unknown. The fear you will feel the terror that will run through your veins will clearly remind you that you would have been far better off being educated about what you are about to face instead of the hours spent on having a giggle about it all. Paranormal events are on the increase and happening to many all over this planet. Who knows which one of us will be the next person to experience a life changing event? I do know that this subject soon loses it laugh when that encounter is yours. Think about these things and try to understand unless we stop the madness we will be left in the insanity of the dark ages of the unknown. Thanks to Chris Holly at Chris Holly's Paranormal World Copyright © 2008-2010 Chris Holly - all Rights Reserved chrishollyufo@yahoo.com NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by guest authors are not necessarily shared by me. Please direct inquiries to the specific writer...Lon Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  Spirit Rescue International Providing professional spiritual help, support and guidance worldwide SPIRIT RESCUE INTERNATIONAL - HAUNTED HELP FORUM We created this community for people from all backgrounds around the world to discuss Spiritual, Paranormal, Metaphysical, Philosophical, Supernatural, Complementary Therapies, and Esoteric subjects. From Astral Projection to Pranic Healing, Angels to Reiki, all topics are welcome. 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