Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- Inexplicata: Cryptids of Spain
- Fortean / Oddball News: Christopher Columbus Was Polish, UFO Pit Stop and Organ Regeneration
- The Night the Boom Went Off in Georgia
| Inexplicata: Cryptids of Spain Posted: 29 Nov 2010 03:46 PM PST  Spain: An Extremaduran Mystery Beast (1974) Source: www.zoopedia.blogspot.com and IIEE Date: 11.29.2010 In Spain, Extremadura's beastiary is both rich and extensive. Creatures of unknown nature, having grotesque or chilling shapes, have terrorized witnesses and entire towns, in some cases. Beings and humanoids form part of the Extremaduran folklore, and one of the first articles of this space deals with José Pancho Campo's encounter with a strange entity, claiming to be the devil, and displaying hooved feet. This incident resulted in the witness's untimely death under strange circumstances: similar events have occurred in other nearby locations in Las Hurdes, La Vera and other places in Extremadura, where diabolical apparitions have been reported. The entity or being of Saucedilla, as we have mentioned earlier, is a cassocked being standing some three meters tall, appearing to float in the air. There are direct eyewitness reports of "ojos rojos" (red eyes), a roadside apparition that cannot be explained, or of the Entiznau, a typical supernatural being from the folklore of Las Hurdes. This region of Spain has not eluded news items on curios subjects, such as the reports published in Karma-7 Magazine #24 (Year 3), November 1974, mentioning that in late August of that year, in the town of Moraleja, a village in Caceres Province, not far from the Borbollón Reservoir, a large number of people witnessed a large animal crossing the lake's waters. A sailboat regatta was taking place on the day that the "monster" made its appearance on the resevoir's waters, making it visible to a considerable number of onlookers, some of them using binoculars. The monster had a length of some four meters and a thickness of 20 centimeters. It traversed the lake at high speed, moving along the surface, and accompanied by another creature of similar characteristics, although smaller. By the next day, the news had reached local residents and those from nearby. Hundreds visited the lake, without the strange animal ever being seen again. What did people actually see? Was it a prank? The story is all that remains for curiosity seekers and residents of Extremadura interested in the legends of their region. Spain: An Extremaduran Mystery Beast (1974) ********** Spain: Barcelona's Giant Winged Cryptid (1990) Source: Criptozoología en España (blog) Date: November 4, 2010 By Javier Resines The twentieth anniversary of an unusual and highly original case within Spanish cryptozoology took place a few months ago. In June 1990, a giant bird decided to frighten—with its imposing presence and unpleasant crowing—a sizeable number of Barcelona's residents. What was extraordinary, aside from the apparition in itself, was the way it became known through a series of letters to the editor of a renowned Spanish newspaper. We must bear in mind that this phenomenon goes beyond the purely cryptozoological to go into the field of anthropology or social psychology. On the morning of June 10, 1990, readers of Barcelona's "La Vanguardia" had the chance to read a brief missive sent to the paper's editor by Pere Carbó, a resident of the city. The anonymous citizen said: "I cannot help but to make known my surprise at this unusual event: on the evening 28 May, some residents of the Les Corts district were awakened by the unbearable crowing of a bird. It wasn't just any bird. Our astonishment was immense when we stepped out to the balcony to see the black silhouette of a bird of tremendous size. It perhaps measured between 3 and 5 meters, and I am not exaggerating. Numerous residents saw it and numerous comments were made the next day. We assume that others must have seen it other neighborhoods. What was it? And what's stranger still, why hasn't it been mentioned in the press?" This letter became the starter's pistol that unleashed a veritable flood of letters from readers who claimed having seen the animal in various locations and under various circumstances. Thus, during the following weeks, the creature was seen (day and night) in various parts of the Catalonian capital and in locations such as Gavá, Sant Joan Despí, Salou, Bellvei del Penedés and the region of Empordá. According to eyewitness accounts, the bird ranged as far away as 100 kilometers distant from Barcelona. According to witnesses, the animal was dark (mainly black or grey) with a wingspan of between 3 and 15 meters, making loud crowing sounds in three different tones, and whose membranous wings were reminiscent of a prehistoric pterodactyl. In other cases, however, it was classified as a "mutant pigeon" or a black crow, naturally. As we can see, the descriptions were so wide-ranging as to preclude an identikit drawing of the bird. A few days after the apparition, the Police acknowledged in a story published in El Periodico de Cataluña that it had received hundreds of calls reporting the presence of the gigantic being, while the citizen hotline crashed as a result of the event. The most unusual hypotheses on the nature of the uncanny bird were put forward. Thus, Xavier Tutusaus (a reader who signed his letter as "botanist") suggested that it was a specimen of Avis Cervus, a mythical species described in real in the 16th century (half deer, half bird) which – according to his theory – was passing through the city during its "customary" journey to Madagascar. Moreover, Santiago Mayosa, officer in charge of the ornithology service of the Barcelona School of Biology, was unable to put forth a scientific explanation to the existence of an animal with these characteristics, theorizing that it could be an albatross, a species from the southern hemisphere whose wingspan can reach three meters, but completely unknown in the Catalonian littoral. The Department of the Environment of the Generalitat, on the other hand, offered a laconic solution: the bird in question was nothing more than a mere vulture. In spite of this, the bird paraded through the Catalonian skies for three months, although several cases collected by local researcher Jordi Ardanuy lead us to believe that the bird (or birds, as the case may be) was not passing through the city, but rather had or has a local habitat. Let us see some of the cases compiled by Ardanuy: in the summer of 1991 or 1992, eyewitness J.A. Pérez was driving his car in the company of his wife near the El Prat airport when he saw a bird six times larger than his car. The animal, which looked prehistoric, made no noise whatsoever. In early 1996, in Girona, a family was able to see a bird measuring some 5 or 6 meters. It was dark, silent, motionless wings and thick legs. On April 14 of that year, Lluis Villamaría and a group of friends envisioned an immense black bird in broad daylight near Montseny. The bird flew by beating its wings barely three meters over the ground. As we can see, we are faced by a curious phenomenon within domestic case histories. The apparently numerous witnesses made the fact known through editorial pages in a newspaper. This in turn caused the reaction of other readers who decided to share their experience, offer an explanation, give an opinion or, as was the case with some letters, add a humorous tone to the entire matter. As a result of this initiative (let us call it a grass roots initiative), other dailies such as El Periodico de Cataluña, Avui and the Europa Press agency (as well as mystery magazines) decided to give a certain credibility to the story that became the talk of the streets of Barcelona for a long time, and collect reports to which they had access. But what were the citizens of Barcelona facing back then? Several hypotheses have been put forth to explain the giant bird. The one that gathers the most supporters considers a voluntary or involuntary hoax that may have started with a malicious letter, followed by others who "thought" they had seen something or heard something. Errors of perception and a desire for celebrity, or to feel part of an extraordinary event, could lead a mystifying event to become real for many citizens. The fact is that this animal (or whatever) became rara avis (pun intended) within cryptozoology at the international level. So that all readers of our blog may have access to the full information on the case, the Criptozoología en España team has compiled the documents published by La Vanguardia. These are the letters, surveys, opinion pieces and editorials that the paper devoted to the bird. Spain: Barcelona's Giant Winged Cryptid (1990) Many thanks to Scott Corrales!          |
| Fortean / Oddball News: Christopher Columbus Was Polish, UFO Pit Stop and Organ Regeneration Posted: 29 Nov 2010 03:19 PM PST  dailymail - He is celebrated as the humble Italian weaver who ended up discovering the Americas. But the conventional wisdom relating to Christopher Columbus is under threat after academics concluded the explorer was actually a Polish immigrant. An international team of distinguished professors have completed 20 years of painstaking research into his beginnings. The fresh evidence about Columbus' background is revealed in a new book by Manuel Rosa, an academic at Duke University in the United States. He says the voyager was not from a family of humble Italian craftsmen as previously thought - but the son of Vladislav III, an exiled King of Poland. 'The sheer weight of the evidence presented makes the old tale of a Genoese wool-weaver so obviously unbelievable that only a fool would continue to insist on it,' Rosa said. The academic argues that the only way Columbus persuaded the King of Spain to fund his journey across the Atlantic Ocean was because he was royalty himself. For some reason he hid the true identity of his Polish biological father from most people during his lifetime, and history books have been none the wiser. 'Another nutty conspiracy theory! That's what I first supposed as I started to read... I now believe that Columbus is guilty of huge fraud carried out over two decades against his patrons,' said US historian Prof. James T. McDonough. Other historians first doubted Columbus' Polish roots, but Rosa's findings have been steadily gaining followers as the evidence comes to light. 'This book will forever change the way we view our history,' said Portuguese historian Prof. Jose Carlos Calazans. National Geographic is reportedly interested in making a documentary. Until now, it was believed that Columbus, who was born in the Italian city of Genoa in 1451, was the son of Domenico Columbo, who was a weaver and had a cheese stall in a market in the city. At the age of 22 Columbus started working for Genoese merchants trading throughout the Mediterranean, and three years later took part in a special trading expedition to northern Europe, docking at Bristol before continuing to Ireland and Iceland. Throughout the 1480s, when Columbus was in his 30s, he traded along the African coast. Historians say it is a myth that navigators thought the world was flat before Columbus sailed west – they had been using the stars at night as a primitive navigation system that assumed the earth was a sphere. What sailors including Columbus didn't know is how big the earth was, and how long it would take to sail round it. When he persuaded financiers to back his voyage west in 1492, he had completely miscalculated the distances and thought that Asia would be where America is: he arrived in the Bahamas, thinking he was somewhere off the coast of China. Columbus undertook three more return journeys across the Atlantic Ocean, each time hoping that he had found another part of Asia. He set up Spanish colonies and became governor of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but was later put on trial in Spain for alleged abuse of power. After Columbus' death in 1506, European explorers continued to set up colonies and eventually empires in north and south America. ********** Scientists Reverse Ageing in Mice guardian - Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies. The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process. An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population. "What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature. "This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer." The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing. The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing. At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing. "These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho. Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar. DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies. David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells." Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function." DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age. Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, said: "The key question is what might this mean for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers." ********** Pit Stop for UFOs in Colorado NYTimes - "I like humans, they're fun," Judy Messoline said as she showed a visitor through her vortex garden, which psychics have said contains not just one, but two separate portals to a parallel universe. Many of the humans who come to Ms. Messoline's U.F.O. Watchtower, hard by the dueling vortexes, may be fun, but they are also wounded. About 95 percent, by her estimate — and she makes a point of asking — have experienced something, a shudder in the fabric of the ordinary, the sighting of an unidentified flying object that to one degree or another has haunted them and drawn them to this otherwise empty spot in south-central Colorado. Having fun in thinking about extraterrestrials, she said, is usually bound up with something deeper right here on the home planet. "The world needs a place where people can go to talk about their experiences and not be laughed at," she said. People do laugh here. One of Ms. Messoline's principles in building the Watchtower a decade ago, in an attempt to raise cash as her cattle ranch collapsed in economic ruin, was that U.F.O.-spotting should be a hoot, and whenever possible, a party. "The best sightings have been when people are just out enjoying the evening," she said. Fifty-nine events — lights that move erratically or, during the day, objects that defy explanation in shape or movement — have been witnessed from the tower since 2000, Ms. Messoline said, sometimes by dozens of people at the same time. No one knows the count before that, since no local institution existed for counting. Many residents, though, say the San Luis Valley, just north of the New Mexico state line, has been a hotspot for decades. U.F.O. reports reach all the way back to the early settlements of the 1600s, with a particularly noted wave in the late 1960s. The turmoil of modern life is also in evidence near the tower, at the house once occupied by Ms. Messoline's son and his family, now vacant and in foreclosure since the couple's divorce. "Broke my heart," she said. Adding to the pain, she said, is that the house will probably never sell. "Who wants to live next to a U.F.O. Watchtower?" she said. Truth be told, the Watchtower — really just a framed metal platform perhaps 10 feet off the ground — is not much of a moneymaker at $2 a head for admission. Ms. Messoline, 65, a former housecleaner from the Denver area who moved to Hooper in the mid-1990s, still needs the paycheck from Miss Deb's, a convenience store down the road, identified by the giant chicken out in front, to make ends meet. But that is the interconnection of a lot of things in Hooper, a dot of perhaps 100 souls in a vast and lonely place. Harsh realities in economics and climate — high poverty rates and brutal winters — are interlaced with vistas of breathtaking beauty and a local culture that has long prized and cultivated the offbeat. Ms. Messoline furthered that spirit by encouraging visitors to leave something in her vortex garden. One recent offering: a two-foot-tall Superman doll with one hand extended, holding a bottle of hot sauce, perhaps in greeting or in supplication. Another visitor left a primer for extraterrestrials who might find themselves confused about human tableware. A folding knife-and-spoon was marked with text and helpful arrows pointing in the direction of each object: "This is a knife and a spoon, alien," it said. Even the winds are strange. One corner of the San Luis Valley, banked on all sides by mountains, somehow became a collecting spot for blown sand over the past few thousand years, since the drying up of an ancient lake bed. The result: a little bit of the Sahara in Colorado at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, about 15 miles from here. The sky, with barely a town to break the landscape, is black at night — a riot of stars not visible from the big city — and huge at all hours. And people here are used to being out and aware of their surroundings, which makes them perhaps more likely than city folk to see things in the great Out There. "There's not a lot of activity, so people have more opportunity to be watching what's around them," said JoDene Newmyer, 64, who works with Ms. Messoline at the convenience store. Ms. Newmyer's own U.F.O. story — and most people here seem to have one — occurred on the Friday morning of Memorial Day weekend, 1972. She was driving her daughter to the baby sitter at 7 a.m. when she stopped cold at the sight of a huge angular silver object just above the horizon. "Flying saucer? I will not say that," Ms. Newmyer said. "But unidentifiable it definitely was, because I've never seen anything like it." Ms. Messoline says the years of scanning the sky and of meeting people who are drawn to her and her tower have changed her. She decided recently to put the patch of ground under the tower and the vortex garden in her will, donating it to a U.F.O. research group in Denver to continue the work, or the fun, after she's gone, even though she knows that a tower in perpetuity will probably doom any chance of a sale of her son's former home. ********** Shock in Ghana over gruesome death of 'witch' BBC - There has been widespread shock in Ghana over the death of a 72-year-old woman accused of being a witch. The woman, who lived in the port city of Tema, near Accra, was allegedly set on fire by a group of five adults, one of whom is believed to be a pastor. The suspects say her death was an accident, and deny committing any crime. The BBC's David Amanor in Accra says belief in witches is common among both educated and uneducated Ghanaians. Three women and two men have been arrested, aged between 37 and 55. Police say the suspects tortured the woman, Ama Hemmah, until she confessed to being a witch, before dousing her with kerosene and setting her on fire. She died from her injuries the following day. According to reports, the suspects say that they poured anointing oil on the woman which caught fire as they were trying to drive out an evil spirit. Our correspondent says newspaper pictures showing the woman's injuries have caused revulsion in Ghana, and the incident has been condemned by human rights and women's activists. Our correspondent says there have been other cases of violence against women accused of being witches, and a government-backed commission has urged religious and civil society groups to help tackle the problem.      |
| The Night the Boom Went Off in Georgia Posted: 29 Nov 2010 08:59 AM PST  Residents of Carroll, Douglas and Haralson counties heard it, and officials in all three counties tried to find what caused it. They're still trying. Douglas County Communication Director Wes Tallon said "911 calls lit up" the switchboard after the 9:45 p.m. noise rattled windows across a large area of west Georgia. "There was no catastrophe, we know that," Tallon told the AJC Saturday morning. Tallon, who lives in East Douglas, did not hear the blast. But plenty of people in the western area of the county, and in Carroll and Haralson counties farther to the west, did hear it. Villa Rica authorities dispatched several police and fire units to the Mirror Lake subdivision when the sound was first reported, but they found no damage or even smoke. "People all over the city heard the boom, but we couldn't find anything," a police department receptionist said late Friday. The National Weather Service in Peachtree City had no natural explanation for it. And there were no obvious signs of damage on the ground. An amateur astronomer who has published several books about sky-watching said one could probably rule out a natural phenomenon such as a meteorite. "A really big meteor can make a sonic boom, but if it did it would make a big flash of light," said the author, Michael Covington, who helps run a computer research program at the University of Georgia when he's not star-gazing. So far, no one has reported seeing a flash in the sky, and the National Weather Service says that the clouds that were moving over Villa Rica Friday evening were mostly gone by the time of the unexplained sound. Tallon said no one who called 911 reported fires or explosions. And he said no utility companies reported trouble either. "We've called everyone under the sun trying to figure this one out," said Tallon. "We used the process of elimination and the only thing we can think of is that it was a sonic boom of some kind. To be able to be heard and felt 30 miles away in Haralson County it had to be something like that." But there is a problem with that theory, too. A sonic boom is a large shock wave created by an aircraft that exceeds the speed of sound, about 761 mph. Since the retirement of the supersonic Concord, no civilian aircraft has been capable of reaching that speed, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. "Only military planes make sonic booms," she told the AJC Saturday afternoon. Bergen checked with radar installations in the area at the request of the AJC and confirmed that there were no logs of military flights around the time of the boom Friday night. And there shouldn't have been, anyway. Military planes are only supposed to fly fast in designated zones, Bergen said, and there are none in that part of Georgia. ********** WHAT WAS THE MYSTERY SONIC BOOM IN GEORGIA? popfi - In the evening hours, residents of three Georgia counties, Carroll, Douglas, and Haralson, were settling down to a relaxing post-Thanksgiving Friday. Then, their night was shattered by a huge explosion. The noise is easily explained away, but the cause remains to be determined. When an airplane travels faster than the speed of sound, the resulting noise is a horrifying explosive thunder known as a sonic boom. Usually, the only airplanes breaking the sound barrier are military aircraft, but according to the FAA, there are no military flyover zones in the area of Georgia where the mysterious sonic boom was heard. Rural Georgia was rocked by a sonic boom that seems to have no cause. Not only were there no military aircraft in the area, there were also no meteors spotted, according to amateur astronomer Michael Covington. There were no bright lights that would be associated with a meteor, no explosions, and no damage to anything in the area where the booming was heard. Douglas County Communication Director Wes Tallon was left grasping for explanations as to just what tore a hole in the Georgia sky. "There was no catastrophe, we know that," Tallon told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "We've called everyone under the sun trying to figure this one out. We used the process of elimination and the only thing we can think of is that it was a sonic boom of some kind. To be able to be heard and felt 30 miles away in Haralson County it had to be something like that." 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. 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