Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- Recent UFO Sightings / Reports / Events
- Fortean / Oddball News: Neil Armstrong Responds, Voyager I Continues and Happy Festivus!
- Videos: UFOs / Explosions - Sakurajima Volcano, Japan
- 3 Million Site Visits....4.4 Million Page Views! Thank You!
| Recent UFO Sightings / Reports / Events Posted: 14 Dec 2010 11:44 AM PST   MUFON CMS - Mesa, Arizona - December 13, 2010 - unedited: For past 2 days in Mesa, AZ which today will make it the third day, I been observing this faint white and round object that seemed to just appear in the sky around 1315 hours. The object could easily be overlooked especially with sunglasses on or if you were directly in the sun. Once your eyes has adjusted, the object can be seen and sometimes with no difficulties. The object from my prospective seemed to just be hovering although it is moving extremely slow. What seems always, the object would appear while looking almost Southwest in direction (compass bearing 244 degrees) from Power Rd. and Hwy 60, and between 30 to 45 degrees above the SW horizon at an altitude estimated to be about 3,000 feet (or near high air traffic route height). The object appears to be traversing West (270 degrees) from the East direction (90 degrees). And for the past two days, I been also trying to get additional picture of it using the tripod and remote. Today, I managed to set my camera on the tripod, locate, and keep track of the object. I used 2 different lens: a 300mm lens 4.5G and a 500mm lens with a 2X telo-converter (1000mm) with built-in darken lens. Have lots of picture of it with the 300mm unfiltered. When I used the 1000mm, the object was about 22 to 30 degrees above the horizon. The camera was set to manual mode and focus set to manual mode. I set the film speed to ISO400 (because of the object dimness), pixels to RAW, F-stops "0", and I bracket the shots between 1/30sec to 1/800sec in the beginning. In that way, I was guarantee at least one picture being good. In the beginning, I focused the lens by focusing on a jet near the same distant in order to locate the object. Working with a set-scope can prove challenging when trying to locate a small and sometimes dim object in the far distant with a darken lens. 3/4 of those pictures taken are salvageable; the others are white washed beyond fixing, and the darken pictures seems to show more object details and color rather than just white. Tomorrow I'll be watching for it again starting at 1300 to see if it passed over me, or it just appear where I been seeing it appearing. Absolutely not a jet, helicopter, or bird. Possible balloon, however that's unlikely since the object was spotted at a distant of 3 to 8 miles at extreme altitude. It don't look to be a weather balloon neither since weather balloon I seen and captured on film usually has something hanging below the balloon (like it was two separate objects). The object been seen South of Gilbert, Southwest of Mesa. No guarantees that it will repeat its pattern tomorrow, but I'll be waiting for it with my camera in hand. **********  MUFON CMS - San Angelo, Texas - 12/8/2010 - unedited: The wife and I had driven to San Angelo from Brownwood that day to find some good food we'd read about on the internet. We were just a mile west of Santa Ana on our way home and it was just now becoming completely dark. I observed the object just 15 degrees to the right of the road from my point of view in the passenger seat. At first I thought it was a really low plane but there's no airport for quite a while, and it was a quiet night with no sounds at all but the car running. I watched the object which seemed to be just a hundred feet up hovering and turning clockwise. I could tell it was turning because it had three very bright white lights, and I could see the round shape, but there were no blinking lights and the lights weren't pointed down like any plane light I'd ever seen. It was a perfectly clear night too. At first I thought it was a plane turning, but the lights kept coming around the object, two lights showed and then three as one would rotate out of view and another would appear from the other side. It made about ten revolutions and disappeared completely.. no more lights, no more dark spot. I might have blinked! 5 seconds later my wife said, "did you just see that?" And I said, "Yes, I did, but kept silent from the awe." She said the same. We slowed and looked around. The only other traffic was an 18-wheeler behind us and he slowed too and seemed to be looking for the object also! We pulled over to let him pass but he just waved and pointed up, so we knew he had seen it too! I didn't even try for the camera since it was so dark it would have never made a decent photo or video. It took me almost a week to report because I thought "nobody would believe this" and I probably listened to way too much Art Bell in the 90s, but I checked the time before and after and wrote down where we were as soon as we started moving again. ********** MUFON CMS - Highway 70 between Boswell and Soper, Oklahoma - 12/13/2010 - unedited: After dark - my wife and I were driving east on highway 70 between Boswell and Soper Oklahoma. We noticed ahead in the eastern sky, two very bright lights close together, about 30-deg above horizon. The lights alternated blinking out and reappearing several times - then the visible one initiated what appeared to be three successive and distinct "shooting" forward of new objects with bright tails - but with the each new object originating from the previous. The object(s) then simply disappeared. Approximately 5 minutes later, four dimmer objects were noticed in the NE and Northern sky. We pulled over to the side and got out of the car and observed the objects moving east-to-west, and west-to-east by making erratic changes in direction and speed. One of the objects appeared to be coming toward us (became much brighter) and then again it began the "shooting" process with each new streak ending in a new light and then shooting out again. This event included four distinct "shootings" - and then the light disappeared. The initial feeling was we were observing a fireworks and/or flares display. This feeling changed to thinking we were watching a modern day dogfight. This excitement was fortified by the sound of jets overhead - but the sounds did not seem to correspond to the location of the lights. I seemed as if the jets were attempting to intercept the objects. At this point I called 911 on my cell and reported the sightings to the Hugo, Oklahoma 911 operator. I explained that there was a light show going on in the northern sky and that she would probably be getting some additional calls. Overall, we observed the lights and listened to the jets for 15-20 minutes. The lights eventually disappeared (dimmed out) but in different quadrants of the northern sky. ********** Unprecedented UFO Wave in Victoria, Argentina - Scott Corrales, Inexplicata Source: Diario Junio Digital http://www.diariojunio.com.ar/noticias.php?ed=1&di=0&no=42568 For over a month, the department of Victoria has experienced an unprecedented wave of sightings involving unidentified flying objects and lights. According to reports, lights of various sizes are reported practically every night, following different directions and having varying intensities, and others that vanish suddenly. As if this wasn't enough, there is now an eyewitness account from an inspector with the city's office of natural resources, who saw a strange creature on the evening of Wednesday the 8th in the municipal campgrounds while conducting a routine tour of the area. Silvia Pérez Simondini, a specialist in the investigation of prodigies and unconventional events, and the director of the Victoria UFO Museum, said that "the number of things appearing in the sky is impressive. We have never had as many sightings as in 2010, especially concentrated in this last month." She said that it is very hard to keep statistics on the amount of sightings of such phenomena, as they are a permanent feature in Victoria. She did say that "we are experiencing an intense wave of sightings, and its occuring not only in Victoria, but elsewhere in the world, such as Mexico and Brazil, for instance." Upon being consulted about the reason for which the department of Victoria is so prone to UFO sightings, as opposed to other localities, the researcher from Victoria opined that sightings always occur where there is raised ground, whether mountains, hills, summits or bodies of water concentrated in seas, rivers, lakes and even water tanks. Apparitions occur where both elements are found, and Victoria has them. Perez Simondini insisted that "about a month ago, sightings increased in Victoria. We have received reports practically every night, or else we've seen them ourselved. It's permanent." She explained that what people have seen are lights of various colors and sizes, taking off in different directions. "It's evident that something's watching us. We don't know from where and how they're coming, or what for." Unquestionably, the most shocking account comes from an inspector of the offfice of natural resources, who said that on 8 December at 21:30 hours he was engaged in a routine tour of the area with a co-worker, and came across a creature with very strange characteristics. After hearing the story, Perez Simondini and her team immediately reported to the site, keeping a watch over night to see if video or photo evidence could be secured. "[...] when creatures appear in a pre-determined location, we have to go to that site to see if we can obtain some kind of evidence, whether its photographic or film." The researche states that the entity seen by the inspectors has also been witnessed elsewhere in the world, mentioning Brazil among them. "In Brazil they call it the chupa-chupa, not chupacabras, and the difference between both is that the latter has wings like a bat, and the former doesn't. Here in Argentina it is incorrectly termed the Chupacabras," she said. Aside from this case, which shook the "City of the Seven Hills", the VisionOvni team is having photos analyzed in both La Pampa and Mexico showing three-UFO formations over the city. "All researchers ask me about the case histories in Victoria. We have no case histories – this is something that happens on a permanent basis. Sometimes waves of these sightings in the sky occur in winter. In this case they're occuring during this time of year, and for that reason we cannot have given pattern to say if they are going to appear now or when." Perez Simondini further remarked that lights emerge every year from a place known as Laguna Grande. They start appearing after December 20 and extend through the first days of January. "Sometimes we see up to nine lights coming out by one. This year, the manifestations came into view much earlier, and have been visible for at least 20 days now." At Rincón de Nogoyá Rincón de Nogoyá (Department of Victoria) faces Laguna del Pescado, one of the sites where most sightings occur. Lately, the place has become an ideal scenario for seeing UFOs. A bricklayer took a photo of one of these objects in the sky. The construction worker stated that on 19 November, only minutes before 1:00 a.m. and while he was in the rural area of Rincon de Nogoya, he decided , as he did nightly, to drink some mate before going to bed. Then he sat down a few meters from a shed that was being refurbished at a ranch. That's when he saw a light in the sky that grew larger and larger. The worker said that the light was approaching his position, illuminating him completely. He managed to take a photo, and the light vanished moments later. Another sighting occurred on Sunday in the Arenal/Cerro de la Matanza region, where residents claimed seeing a light in the sky. They could not identify it. The Department of Victoria and city of the seven hills are an energy point to some. Others say that its topography and location make it a suitable spot for landings, but without question, and in view of the documents and witnesses that have emerged over time, it is the place in Argentina that boasts the largest number of unidentified lights and objects. ********** Le Brezou, Aveyron, France - Abandoned Village in French Pyrenees  (Translation) - Surrounded by the pylons, the town of the Brézou is the victim of an unexplained phenomena. One relates that in the 1980's, the rate of abnormally high suicide, the rate of very high rate cancer to the regional average, and strange paranormal phenomena forced the closure of the town. NOTE: Odd story...this was forwarded to me today. I received an email from a former resident who now lives in the United States. He states that there was a supposed UFO landing near the village in 1981 and that 3 people went missing, including the sister of a friend. He says the problems in the village are the result of this event...Lon  |
| Fortean / Oddball News: Neil Armstrong Responds, Voyager I Continues and Happy Festivus! Posted: 14 Dec 2010 10:43 AM PST  NPR - In yesterday's post, I talked about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's walk across the lunar surface back in 1969 and wondered, how come they walked such a modest distance? Less than a hundred yards from their lander? Today Neil Armstrong wrote in to say, here are the reasons: * It was really, really hot on the moon, 200 degrees Fahrenheit. We needed protection. * We were wearing new-fangled, water-cooled uniforms and didn't know how long the coolant would last. * We didn't know how far we could go in our space suits. * NASA wanted us to conduct our experiments in front of a fixed camera. * We [meaning Neil] cheated just a little, and very briefly bounded off to take pictures of some interesting bedrock. But basically, he says, we were part of a team and we were team players on a perilous, one-of-a-kind journey. Improvisation was not really an option. But, reading between the lines, I kinda think he wanted to do more, go further. Anyway, read for yourself: Dear Mr. Krulwich I was delighted to read your December 7 column on the the Apollo 11 lunar surface traverses, The NASA maps do accurately portray the locations of the pathways used to complete the myriad of tasks we were assigned. And, although I have not checked, I believe the comparison with the size of athletic fields is reasonably accurate. You asked: "Who knew?" The answer to that question is: Just about anyone who had any interest in learning the answer. The plan for the lunar surface work was widely distributed and we even did a full dress rehearsal for the press at the NASA Johnson Space Center. It is true that we were cautious in our planning. There were many uncertainties about how well our Lunar module systems and our Pressure suit and backpack would match the engineering predictions in the hostile lunar environment. We were operating in a near perfect vacuum with the temperature well above 200 degrees Fahrenheit with the local gravity only one sixth that of Earth. That combination cannot be duplicated here on Earth, but we tried as best we could to test our equipment for those conditions. For example, because normal air conditioning is inadequate for lunar conditions, we were required to use cold water to cool the interior of our suits. We did not have any data to tell us how long the small water tank in our backpacks would suffice. NASA officials limited our surface working time to 2 and 3/4 hours on that first surface exploration to assure that we would not expire of hyperthermia. After returning to and repressurizing the Lunar Module, we were able to drain and measure the remaining water in the backpacks to confirm the predicted. There was great uncertainty about how well we would be able to walk in our cumbersome pressurized suit. My colleague demonstrated a variety of techniques in view of the television camera that I had installed in a position predetermined to be in the optimum spot for coverage of all of our activities. Preflight planners wanted us to stay in TV range so that they could learn from our results how they could best plan for future missions. I candidly admit that I knowingly and deliberately left the planned working area out of TV coverage to examine and photograph the interior crater walls for possible bedrock exposure or other useful information. I felt the potential gain was worth the risk. It is true that we would have liked to stay on the surface longer and traveled further away from the Lunar Module and the television camera. But we had a number of experiments to install, samples to document and collect, and photographs to take. The time available was fully allocated and we were working diligently to complete our assigned tasks. The Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector we installed is still in use today in a variety of scientific experiments. Later Apollo flights were able to do more and move further in order to cover larger areas, particularly when the Lunar Rover vehicle became available in 1971. But in KRULWICH WONDERS, you make an important point, which I emphasized to the House Science and Technology Committee. During my testimony in May I said, "Some question why Americans should return to the Moon. "After all," they say "we have already been there." I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th century monarchs proclaimed that "we need not go to the New World, we have already been there." Or as if President Thomas Jefferson announced in 1803 that Americans "need not go west of the Mississippi, the Lewis and Clark Expedition has already been there." Americans have visited and examined 6 locations on Luna, varying in size from a suburban lot to a small township. That leaves more than 14 million square miles yet to explore. I have tried to give a small insight into your question "Who knew?" I hope it is helpful. Sincerely, Neil Armstrong Commander Apollo 11 ********** Voyager I Continues Journey to Interstellar Space discovermagazine - Voyager 1 is one of the most successful space missions of all time. Launched in 1977, it visited Jupiter and then Saturn, providing better close-ups of the two planets than had ever been seen before. But it sailed on, crossing the orbits of both Uranus and Neptune (a sister craft, Voyager 2, actually flew by the two planets). Over all those years, there has been one constant in the Voyager flight: the solar wind blowing past it. This stream of subatomic particles leaves the Sun at hundreds of kilometers per second, much faster than Voyager. But now, after 33 years, that has changed: at 17 billion kilometers (10.6 billion miles) from the Sun, the spacecraft has reached the point where the solar wind has slowed to a stop. Literally, the wind is no longer at Voyager's back. There is gas between the stars, which astronomers call the interstellar medium. The solar wind blows out into it, slowing. There is a region, over a billion kilometers thick, where the solar wind plows to a halt, creating a roughly spherical shell around the solar system. That's called the heliosheath, and it looks like Voyager 1 is now solidly inside it. In fact, it's been there for four months or so; the scientists measuring the solar wind speed noticed it dropped to 0 back in June, but it took a while to make sure this wasn't just some local eddy in the flow. It's not. Voyager 1 now has calm seas ahead. But the probe is still moving outward at 60,000 kph (38,000 mph). In a few more years it'll leave the heliosheath behind, and when that happens it will truly be in interstellar space, the vast and nearly empty region between the stars. At that moment it will be the first human device ever to truly leave the solar system and enter the great stretches of the galaxy beyond. Imagine! It was launched before personal computers were everywhere, before cell phones, before the internet! But it was given a powerful boost by its rocket, and another by the two largest planets in the solar system as it swung by them. And now, in just a few more years, it will have left our nest forever. ********** Happy Festivus!  Battling to keep its food costs down, the sheriff's department argued that King himself admitted "healthism" was the so-called religion justifying this request. But Johnson wasn't daunted, calling a sidebar with King's lawyer, Fred Thiagarajah, and the county prosecutor and asking for suggestions about a religion he could cite in the kosher-meal order to nail the issue down once and for all, reports the Orange County Register. "I said Festivus," Thiagarajah tells the newspaper--and Festivus it was. The holiday (Festivus for the rest of us) was created by the writers of the popular Seinfeld television show, county counsel argued to no avail. King, however, has now served out his sentence, so further argument over the issue may be mooted. ********** Chinese 'Science Cop' Attacked For Skeptic Views of Traditional Beliefs chinadaily - Fang Zhouzi, known as a "science cop" for his battles against pseudoscience and academic misconduct, pledged on Monday to continue exposing academic frauds after being attacked and slightly injured on Sunday afternoon. "I will not be frightened and will stick to what I have been doing," Fang told reporters on Monday afternoon. He said he had received threatening calls over the past 10 years. "I will not stop battling pseudoscience," he said, while adding that he will be more careful about his personal safety in the future. Fang said he was attacked by two men in the street after he finished a TV interview near his home at about 5 pm on Sunday afternoon. One of the men sprayed a pungent liquid on his face and another man hit his waist with a hammer, Fang said. When Fang ran into his residential area, the two men stopped chasing him and threw the hammer at him, causing minor injuries. The plotted attack must have been organized by someone who wants revenge for his disclosure of some misconduct, Fang said. "I've told everything to the police. I hope the police will investigate and discover the identity of the criminals soon," Fang said in his blog. Calls to the Shijingshan police bureau of Beijing, which Fang said is in charge of his case, went unanswered Monday afternoon. Fang said he believes that the attack against him is related to a recent one against his friend, Fang Xuanchang, a journalist from Caijing Magazine, who was also attacked last month in Beijing in a similar way. "I was also attacked by two men who came out unexpectedly and started to beat me with sticks," Fang Xuanchang was quoted by ifeng.com as saying. "The police haven't found out who they are." Fang Xuanchang, however, doubts that the two attacks were plotted by the same person, because he and Fang Zhouzi worked together to disclose the misconduct of more than 10 people. The attacks could have come from any of those people, Fang Xuanchang said. Fang Zhouzi, who was born in Southeast China's Fujian province in 1967, is well known for disclosing bogus research and academic frauds in China, including the latest case of Li Yi, a Taoist priest in Chongqing who has been accused of faking his credentials and promoting himself as a health guru. Last month Fang Zhouzi also accused Tang Jun, former CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region, of fabricating his academic credentials in the United Sates. ********** El Caganer - The Catalan Christmas Crapper  In Catalonia, as well as in the rest of Spain and in most of Italy and Southern France, the traditional Christmas decoration is a large model of the city of Bethlehem, similar to the Nativity scenes of the English-speaking world, but encompassing the entire city rather than just the typical manger scene. The Catalans have added an extra character that is not found in the manger scenes of any other culture. In addition to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds and company, Catalans have the character known as the Caganer. This extra little character is often tucked away in some corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene, where he is not easily noticed. There is a good reason for his obscure position in the display, for "caganer" translates from Catalan to English as "pooper", and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating. Possible reasons for placing a man who is in the act of excreting waste in a scene which is widely considered holy include:*Tradition. *Perceived humor. *Finding the Caganer is a fun game, especially for children. *The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth. However, this is probably an a posteriori explanation, and few cite this reason for including the Caganer in the Nativity scene. *The Caganer represents the equality of all people: regardless of status, race, gender everyone defecates. *Increased naturalism of an otherwise archetypal (thus idealised) story, so that it is more believable, taken literally and seriously. The exact origin of the Caganer is lost, but the tradition has existed since the 17th century. An Iberian votive deposit was found nearby Tornabous in the Urgell depicting a holy Iberian warrior defecating on his falcata. This started a short lived series of polemics between the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and the Departament d'Arqueologia in the Conselleria de Cultura of the Generalitat de Catalunya as to whether that can be regarded as a proto-caganer (which would draw the origins of this tradition far before than it is thought) or just a pre-combat ritual. Originally, the Caganer was portrayed as a Catalan peasant wearing a traditional hat called a barretina — a red stocking hat with a black band. The practice is tolerated by the local Catholic church. Caganers are easiest to find before Christmas in holiday markets, like the one in front of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, which has tables and tables of caganers. Caganers have even been featured in art exhibits. The caganer is not the only defecating character in the Catalan Christmas tradition—another is the Tió de Nadal, which also makes extensive use of the image of human waste production. Other mentions of feces and defecation are common in Catalan folklore, indeed, one popular Catalan phrase before eating says "menja bé, caga fort i no tinguis por a la mort!" (Eat well, poop strong and don't be afraid of death!).  |
| Videos: UFOs / Explosions - Sakurajima Volcano, Japan Posted: 14 Dec 2010 09:51 AM PST  UFOs and what seems to be unidentified 'explosions' near Japan's Sakurajima Volcano. The video footage recently recorded by several weather cams. What's worth noting, the 'explosions', at times, are seen behind the mountain to the right of the volcano. Click for video - UFOs OVER SAKURAJIMA JAPAN Click for video - UFOs OVER SAKURAJIMA JAPAN 2 NOTE: Volcano eruptions seem to attract UFO phenomena as evident in previous posts - Video: UFO Captured Near Eyjafjoll Volcano, Iceland - 4/2/2010, UFO / OVNI Sightings - Popocatepetl Volcano, Mexico / Turrialba Volcano, Costa Rica and a pre-eruption sighting at Video Capture: Triangle Shaped UFO Before Aquila Earthquake - Italy...Lon  |
| 3 Million Site Visits....4.4 Million Page Views! Thank You! Posted: 14 Dec 2010 09:14 AM PST  Well, we've reached a milestone...so to speak. I started keeping tabs on site traffic in August 2007. As of today, Phantoms and Monsters has received just over 3 million visits and 4.4 million total page views! That's a remarkable number for a simple blog that was started in order to record a few of my personal paranormal experiences. Our current daily subscribers number well over 5500 currently! That doesn't include daily feed subscribers and those new readers who find us. When it is all said and done, I estimate 11,000 people read Phantoms and Monsters each day. I want to sincerely thank all of you for your support. Regardless of the praise and opportunities that the blog has brought my way, I still have the readers to thank for it...Lon Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "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 no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind Phantoms & Monsters Wiki A NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS, ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH THROUGH PARANORMAL EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION  Astral Perceptions - Discussion of interterrestrial and multidimensional phenomena including conversations on the proficiency of remote viewing SUPPLY BASE Buy alternative supplies and gifts CLICK HERE!   |
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