Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Phantoms and Monsters

Phantoms and Monsters

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Astrophysics: Red Rain 'Shower of Alien Life'

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:19 PM PDT

Panspermia is the idea that life exists throughout the universe in comets, asteroids and interstellar dust clouds and that life of Earth was seeded from one or more of these sources. Panspermia holds that we are all extraterrestrials

technologyreview - For years, claims have circulated that red rain which fell in India in 2001, contained cells unlike any found on Earth. Now new evidence that these cells can reproduce is about to set the debate alive.

While this is certainly not a mainstream idea in science, a growing body of evidence suggests that it should be carefully studied rather than casually disregarded.

For example, various bugs have been shown to survive for months or even years in the harsh conditions of space. And one of the more interesting but lesser known facts about the Mars meteorite that some scientists believe holds evidence of life on Mars, is that its interior never rose above 50 degrees centigrade, despite being blasted from the Martian surface by an meteor impact and surviving a fiery a descent through Earth's thick atmosphere.

If there is life up there, this evidence suggests that it could survive the trip to Earth.

All that seems well established. Now for the really controversial stuff.

In 2001, numerous people observed red rain falling over Kerala in the southern tip of India during a two month period. One of them was Godfrey Louis, a physicist at nearby Cochin University of Science and Technology. Intrigued by this phenomena, Louis collected numerous samples of red rain, determined to find out what was causing the contamination, perhaps sand or dust from some distant desert.

Under a microscope, however, he found no evidence of sand or dust. Instead, the rain water was filled with red cells that look remarkably like conventional bugs on Earth. What was strange was that Louis found no evidence of DNA in these cells which would rule out most kinds of known biological cells (red blood cells are one possibility but ought to be destroyed quickly by rain water).

Louis published his results in the peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space in 2006, along with the tentative suggestion that the cells could be extraterrestrial, perhaps from a comet that had disintegrated in the upper atmosphere and then seeded clouds as the cells floated down to Earth. In fact, Louis says there were reports in the region of a sonic boom-type noise at the time, which could have been caused by the disintegration of an object in the upper atmosphere.

Since then, Louis has continued to study the cells with an international team including Chandra Wickramasinghe from the University of Cardiff in the UK and one of the leading proponents of the panspermia theory, which he developed in the latter half of the 20th century with the remarkable physicist Fred Hoyle.

Today Louis, Wickramasinghe and others publish some extraordinary claims about these red cells. They say that the cells clearly reproduce at a temperature of 121 degrees C. "Under these conditions daughter cells appear within the original mother cells and the number of cells in the samples increases with length of exposure to 121 degrees C," they say. By contrast, the cells are inert at room temperature.

That makes them highly unusual, to say the least. The spores of some extremophiles can survive these kinds of temperatures and then reproduce at lower temperatures but nothing behaves like this at these temperatures, as far as we know.

This is an extraordinary claim that will need to be independently verified before it will be more broadly accepted.

And of course, this behaviour does not suggest an extraterrestrial origin for these cells, by any means.

However, Wickramasinghe and co can't resist hinting at such an exotic explanation. They've examined the way these fluoresce when bombarded with light and say it is remarkably similar to various unexplained emission spectra seen in various parts of the galaxy. One such place is the Red Rectangle, a cloud of dust and gas around a young star in the Monocerous constellation.

It would be fair to say that more evidence will be required before Kerala's red rain can be satisfactorily explained. In the meantime, it looks a fascinating mystery.

NOTE: go to this reference as well - Growth and replication of red rain cells at 121 oC and their red fluorescence...Lon


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Posted April 28, 2008

The 'Red Rain of Southern India' Mystery


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The 'Red Rain of Southern India' anomaly mystery. The living cells in the rain had strange properties and some considered it extraterrestrial. Conventional wisdom suggests that it was nothing more than a type of red algae though it could not be proven either way.

Astrophysics: Red Rain 'Shower of Alien Life'

Fortean / Oddball News - 9/6/2010

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 11:30 AM PDT


Busy Weekend of UFO Sightings in North Central Texas


lightsinthetexassky - Labor Day weekend has been one sighting after another, for this investigator and spouse. It seems that all you have to do is 'look up' and pay attention.

It started Friday (09/03/2010), at exactly 16:18 hrs. As we were driving down I-20, headed west from Fort Worth towards Weatherford, Texas I noticed a tiny, perfectly square-shaped white cloud in the sky. It was the only cloud in the entire western area of sky. If held at arms length, a pencil eraser would just cover the whole cloud, it was that small. After noticing the cloud, my spouse mentioned it saying, "Look at that tiny square cloud. It must be a UFO."

We continued to watch the cloud and it began to morph into an oval shape. It held that shape some 5 minutes and then morphed again into what looked like a kidney bean, hanging perpendicular to the ground. For the next 10 minutes that we could still see the cloud, it held that same shape, never dissipating, or growing. Once we passed below it, it was no longer in our line of sight. We continued on home. I did take 2 photos but you can barely see anything through the bug guts on the windshield.

Later that night, at 21:00 hrs., I was outside with a friend when I noticed a light off in the southeastern sky. I would estimate this light to be at 110-115 degrees ESE, 10 degrees AGL.

As I watch the white light it appeared to twinkle, much like a star, therefore I assumed that is what it was. A few minutes later I turned my attention to my friend with whom I was conversing, then moments later when I looked back at the "star", it was gone. There were no clouds.

At 10:45 I was texted by a friend, that 5-6 double-bladed helicopters were seen in Comanche, Texas, flying approx. 300 feet AGL, with no lights on (except for 1 chopper), headed north towards my location. My spouse and I immediately stepped outside, to watched for these 'unlit' helicopters. At one point I thought I heard helicopters in the distance (ESE) but could see nothing, then very quickly the sound of choppers was drownd out by the traffic noise of Hwy 180 (North of my location).

I didn't see or hear anything else that evening but I wonder if the object I saw had anything to do with those military craft in stealth mode.

The temperature at 22:00 hrs, was 68 degrees, dew point- 48 degrees, humidity- 47% ,Barometric pressure- 30.18", winds- 0 mph, clear sky, visibility- 10 miles, ceiling- unlimited. Perfect for an evening watching the stars and 'other things'.

Then on Saturday, 09/04/2010 at 21:25 hrs, I stepped out my back door and my attention was drawn to a bright orange light in the WSW sky. The object was just a few degrees above the horizon, which would put it right at the tops of the distant trees (900 ft. away).

At first I assumed it was Venus but the object began to rise in elevation, approximately 2 to 3 degrees. The object stopped it's ascent and I reach in the door and grabbed my camera, taking two shots. I then got my binoculars and looked at the light.

The object was a bright white orange light and for all appearances I would have dismissed the object as Venus. However, Venus does not ascend from the West, nor does it move 2 degrees or more in 3 seconds. I also know what Venus looks like, with the naked eye and through both binoculars and telescope. This did not look like Venus. I called to my spouse who also looked at the light, saying "it's Venus." After saying that, within seconds the light turned red and disappeared completely.

I went back inside, pulled up an astronomy website, checked and saw that Venus had set an hour earlier. I wrote a short report, attached the original photo and sent it off to MUFON's Director of Research. He did not know what the object is either and confirmed that it wasn't Venus.

I must add that my digital still camera will not focus on anything at night, unless the subject is unusually large and bright. It had no problem focusing on this light.

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MUFON CMS: On Saturday, 09/04/2010 at 21:25 hrs, I stepped out my back door and my attention was drawn to a bright orange light in the WSW sky. The object was just a few degrees above the horizon, which would put it right at the tops of the distant trees (over 900 ft. away).

At first I assumed it was Venus but the object began to rise in elevation, approximately 2 to 3 degrees. The object stopped it's ascent and I reach in the door and grabbed my camera, taking two shots. I then got my binoculars and looked at the light.

The object was a bright white orange light and for all appearances I would have dismissed the object as Venus. However, Venus does not ascend from the West, nor does it move 2 degrees or more in 3 seconds. I also know what Venus looks like, with the naked eye and through both binoculars and telescope. This did not look like Venus. I called to my spouse who also looked at the light, saying "it's Venus." After saying that, within seconds the light turned red and disappeared completely. Total viewing time: 10 minutes.

I went back inside, pulled up an astronomy website, checked and saw that Venus had set an hour earlier. I wrote a short report, attached the original photo and sent it off to MUFON's Director of Research. He did not know what the object is either and confirmed that it wasn't Venus.

Attached photo is a cropped version of the original I sent to *(Name deleted--SGonzalez/CMS).

I must add that my digital still camera will not focus on anything at night, unless the subject is unusually large and bright. It had no problem focusing on this light.

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Spanish Officials Confiscate UFO Evidence From Majorca Sightings

telegraph - On a cold November night in 1979, Josep Climent was leaving the local cinema in Soller when he and others noticed strange lights circling the Ofre, a peak of more than 3000 ft in the Tramuntana mountain range. Grabbing his old Minolta camera, Climent took a black and white image of what he saw. Within days it had been circulated around the world as proof of UFO activity in Majorca.

Did Josep Climent and other local Soller residents really see a UFO or OVNI, the Spanish equivalent, that night or were they just witnessing a natural astronomical phenomenon of some kind? As it happened, at the same time as Climent claimed to have seen abnormal activity in the sky, a commercial plane leaving Palma for Tenerife was forced to make an emergency landing in Valencia apparently because airborne unidentified objects were interfering with its route. Spooky stuff and yet some would say the whole story was exaggerated and perhaps even manipulated by Climent.

Only the other night, IB3, one of Majorca's main television channels again broadcast the testimony of Josep Climent relating to his supposed sighting of UFOs. Many eye witnesses in Soller corroborated his story. Since the airing of the programme I have spoken with various locals in the town of Soller. To my surprise most have backed the concept of UFOs, some explaining that strange vibrations have even been recorded on the sea bed about 1000 metres off the coast of Port Soller giving possible proof to Climent's long held theory that there is a hidden UFO base there. Several people claimed to have filmed or photographed strange objects on the horizon but had chosen not to release them to the media for fear of ridicule.

One elderly woman told me that in her youth she and her father had seen a piercing light emanating from a remote area of the Tramuntana mountains. They had been on foot accompanied by a donkey which, she said, grew agitated and refused to budge when it neared the site.

As for Josep Climent, he is still disgruntled that the negatives from his Minolta camera, requisitioned by the Spanish army at the time, have never been returned despite repeated requests. Just as the British Army has relaxed the rules on the release of such historical data so too has the Spanish Army and yet curiously there seems to be no trace of the negatives.

Perhaps when Josep Climent witnesses his next UFO, he will be canny enough to squirrel away the negatives, not in the hope of material gain or personal notoriety of course but purely for the sake of posterity.

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World's Shortest Man


"The world record for the world's shortest man has been claimed by a 24-year-old Colombian named Edward Nino Hernandez – who is just 27 inches tall. Nino has been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's shortest man, after the previous record holder – China's 22-inch-high He Pingping – sadly died in March. Nino, who weighs just 22lb, has recently embarked on a career in acting – playing a tiny drug thug who gets killed in a shootout. Nino, who says that he loves dancing, previously earned money by dancing in department stores."

However, his time as the world's shortest man is unlikely to last long, according to Guinness World Records officials. His crown is expected to be snatched from him by Nepal's Khagendra Thapa Magar - who, at 22in (56cm), currently holds the title of the world's shortest teenager - just as soon as he turns 18 on October 14.

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Dead Join the Living in a Family Celebration


With fanfare befitting a parade, the shrouded remains of 17 bodies were removed from the family crypt, some sprayed with expensive perfume, others splashed with sparkling wine. Five brass bands took turns belting out cheerful melodies, and each emerging corpse was lifted onto the shoulders of its own set of revelers. The celebrators then joyously trotted about, dancing with the bones of the dead.

"It is good to thank the ancestors in person because we owe them everything," said Rakotonarivo Henri, 52, an out-of-breath farmer who had just set down his dead grandfather and was moving toward the remains of his aunt. "We do not come from mud; we come from these bodies."

Every society has its own customs regarding the deceased, an interplay between those who are and those who were. In many countries, a visit to the cemetery commonly satisfies an urge to be near a buried loved one. Flowers may be placed on the grave. Words may be whispered.

Here in the central highlands of Madagascar, that practice is taken much further. Ancestors are periodically taken from their tombs, and once the dancing stops and the bundled corpses are put on the ground, family members lovingly run their fingers across the skeletal outline protruding through the shrouds. Bones and dust are moved about in an effort to sustain a human shape. Elders tell children about the importance of those lying before them.

The ritual is called a famadihana (pronounced fa-ma-dee-an), and in this nation, a huge island in the Indian Ocean, millions practice it, often in conjunction with their various religious faiths, though not always with the same understanding of what it means to be dead. Continue reading at Dead Join the Living in a Family Celebration

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Shroud a 'Radiation Photo' of Resurrection?

WND - Scientists are building the case that the image of a crucified man on the Shroud of Turin was created by radiation that emanated from the body itself, a theory remarkably supportive of the traditional resurrection account that is central to Christian theology.

A scientific paper co-authored by attorney and historian Mark Antonacci and physicist Arthur Lind argues that the image of the crucified man in Shroud of Turin might constitute what amounts to a photograph taken at the instant Jesus' body transformed as he rose from the dead.

Jerome Corsi's "The Shroud Codex" is a thriller of faith and action. Get it autographed at WND Superstore!

In the paper, "Particle Radiation from the Body," Antonacci's and Lind's argument centers around the 29 unique or unusual features that scientists over the past four decades have found on the Shroud's body image and fiber.

Among the 29 features are the following:

* Lack of fading of the image;

* Uniform coloring around each fiber of linen;

* All fibers collectively colored with the same intensity;

* Oxidation and dehydration of fibers;

* Stability of the body image to water and heating;

* Insolubility of the body image to acids, redox and solvents;

* Equal intensity of the body image for frontal and dorsal views;

* Negative images of the body with left/right and light/dark reversals that develop into highly resolved, photographic quality images;

* Three-dimensionality encoded through the space between the body and the cloth.

"All of these features can be accounted for by radiation, and only radiation will account for them all," the authors conclude.

For instance, the authors noted the Shroud's frontal and dorsal body images are "encoded with the same amount of intensity, independent of any pressure or weight from the body," such that the bottom part of the cloth that bore all the weight of the crucified man's supine body is not encoded with a greater amount of intensity than the frontal image.

"Radiation coming from the body would not only explain this feature, but also the left/right and light/dark reversals found on the cloth's frontal and dorsal body images," the authors note.

In arguing that the source of light that created the body image on the Shroud came from within the body, the authors observed that "neither the outside or inside of the tomb, nor the outside or inside of either the front or back sides of the cloth" are found on the Shroud's image.

"This means that the source of light does not originate outside of the body, the cloth or the tomb, but with the body itself," they write. "The weave of the inner part of the cloth containing the frontal and dorsal images is not even part of the distinctive images, which they too, would have been, if the light came from anywhere outside the body."

Antonacci and Lind ask, "What if the man's body became insubstantial or dematerialized instantly leaving behind some energy in the form of the basic particles of matter, such as protons, neutrons and electromagnetic waves, such as gamma rays?"

They answer that the part of the cloth that was originally closest to the body would have received the most radiation, while the part originally farthest away would have received the least – a phenomenon that "would result in true three dimensional information being encoded onto the two dimensional cloth," precisely as is found on the Shroud.

"The evidence acquired from more than a century of scientific, medical, archaeological and historical examination of the Shroud is not only consistent with its authenticity as the burial garment of the historical Jesus Christ, but with every element of his passion, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection as described in the Gospels," they concluded.

WND previously reported on the work of graphics artist Ray Downing to produced a computer model of the face imprint on the Shroud of Turin, leading to a two-hour History Channel special presentation, "the Real Face of Jesus?"

Mark Antonacci is the founder and president of the non-profit Resurrection of the Shroud Foundation and author of the book "The Resurrection of the Shroud."

Arthur C. Lind, Ph.D., is a physicist who created Lind Scientific after retiring from the Boeing Co. in 1998; he obtained a doctorate in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1966.

Fortean / Oddball News - 9/6/2010

Video: Shape-Changing UFO - Haiyan, Zhejiang Province, China

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 09:54 AM PDT





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Unedited description: UFO found in Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province of China tuesday night, disappeared after nearly 3 hours. This is already the second time occurred UFO in China eastern city. August 31 night eastern, Chinese city of Zhejiang Haiyan southwest sky , there is a bright luminous object in the sky. The object moved to westward slowly. It stayed nearly 3 hours to disappear. Witnesses said the object was a round and blue objects can light. It is more larger and bright than the surrounding stars, and the circle shape sometimes become into a rectangle. A lot of people saw this UFO. The evening of July 7 this year, Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport near also found UFO, it was the fast-moving , airports were closed, nearly 20 flights were delayed.

NOTE: this seems to be a legitimate sighting. The shape change to a rectangle object is intriguing. Your thoughts? Lon

Video: Shape-Changing UFO - Haiyan, Zhejiang Province, China


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