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SOMETHING IS UP THERE DEPARTMENT -
The Lair of the Beasts: Monsters of the Skies
The Lair of the Beasts: Monsters of the Skies
Whenever the subject of monster-hunting is brought up in conversation, there’s always a tendency to think that such things solely revolve around long treks into deep woods in search of Bigfoot and other hairy man-beasts, and expeditions to the shores of places like Loch Ness on quests for long-necked water-beasts.
But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, chasing monsters involves something far simpler: merely looking up.
Yep: we’re talking about giant birds, rumors of still-living pterodactyls, and even sightings of creatures similar to those portrayed in Stan Lee’s Harpies.
No-one can say that the subject of crypto-zoology is a dull one!
Without doubt, the most famous aerial beast that straddles the world of monster-hunting and the genre of on-screen entertainment is surely the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia: a truly sinister, glowing-eyed creature that terrorized the town in the 1960s, and that was immortalized in the 2002 movie starring Richard Gere: The Mothman Prophecies.
But Mothman has its rivals – and they can be found soaring around the skies just about here, there and everywhere.
Britain, for example, is home to the Owlman – a beast eerily similar to the Mothman, and which has for decades reputedly haunted the woods of Mawnan in the ancient county of Cornwall.
Jonathan Downes, who runs the British-based Center for Fortean Zoology (named after Charles Fort – an early 20th century chronicler of all-things-weird) spent years chasing the Owlman and tracking down witnesses to its activities.
Like so many of these monsters of the air, however, the Owlman has remained frustratingly elusive.
Then there’s the bat-winged, gargoyle-type creature seen flying over the English town of Glastonbury (the rumored resting place of King Arthur, no less), late one night in 2000.
Admittedly obsessed by the beast, the witness, a man named Colin Perks, went broke and nearly lost his mind trying to solve the puzzle of the Glastonbury gargoyle – such is the effect that encounters of the truly monstrous kind can have on people when they find themselves plunged into the domain of the beasts.
And let us not forget Popobawa: a creature eerily similar to that described by Perks and whose alleged nocturnal attacks on the populace sent shockwaves all across Zanzibar in 1995.
While there are a number of monster-hunters who have tried to resolve the mystery of what these many and varied winged-things might be, perhaps no-one knows more about the controversy than Ken Gerhard.
A good friend of mine who lives in San Antonio and who fronts the industrial rock band, Bozo Porno Circus, Gerhard is the author of the book Big Bird! Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters, and has traveled extensively in search of countless sky-beasts, including the Thunderbird: a giant bird that features heavily in Native American Indian lore; and even creatures that sound suspiciously like surviving flying dinosaurs: pterosaurs.
Gerhard says: “During the summer of 2003, I became aware of a weird, winged beast that had been spotted mere miles from my home in Texas, and I was instantly swept into an investigation that would take me south to the Mexican border.
“Three decades earlier, Texas’ Rio Grande Valley had been the site of well-publicized events that revolved around a nightmarish creature described as being charcoal black and as tall as a man, with bat-like wings twenty feet across.”
Gerhard admits that “there are no recognized birds, either native to Texas, or indeed anywhere else, that can claim a twenty-foot wingspan. There were, however, such creatures in the distant past: animals that resembled flying dragons ruled the skies for nearly two hundred million years before disappearing into extinction.”
With this latter point in mind, Gerhard asks an intriguing question: “But are they really extinct?”
One monster-pterosaur that would certainly fit the bill was Quetzalcoaltus northropi, a huge creature with a whopping forty-foot wingspan.
Of course, mainstream zoologists and archaeologists scoff at the very idea that in some of the more remote corners of our planet such immense beasts just might still thrive. But try telling that to the countless witnesses to such creatures – and try telling it to Ken Gerhard, too.
So, if pterosaurs do still exist, then where are they hiding? Gerhard has a few ideas:
“It does seem within reason that a group of these animals could populate remote parts of Mexico’s unexplored mountains, or the marshes and jungles of Central America. There are native traditions and ancient engravings in Mexico that support the continued existence of such an animal. And an elderly settler in the Yucatan told an acquaintance of mine that prehistoric-animals could still be found living within its rainforests.”
And, with that in mind, if late one night you find yourself on some lonely stretch of road and hear above you the beating of what sounds like immense wings, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Source: Mania
http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-monsters-skies_article_87474.html
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BEFORE THE SPIN DOCTORS DID THEIR WORK DEPARTMENT -
Earliest Reference Describes Jesus As 'Magician'
Earliest Reference Describes Jesus As 'Magician'
A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Jesus Christ.
If the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world.
The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ."
"It could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic," Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology, said.
He and his colleagues found the object during an excavation of the underwater ruins of Alexandria's ancient great harbor. The Egyptian site also includes the now submerged island of Antirhodos, where Cleopatra's palace may have been located.
Both Goddio and Egyptologist David Fabre, a member of the European Institute of Submarine Archaeology, think a "magus" could have practiced fortune telling rituals using the bowl. The Book of Matthew refers to "wisemen," or Magi, believed to have been prevalent in the ancient world.
According to Fabre, the bowl is also very similar to one depicted in two early Egyptian earthenware statuettes that are thought to show a soothsaying ritual.
"It has been known in Mesopotamia probably since the 3rd millennium B.C.," Fabre said. "The soothsayer interprets the forms taken by the oil poured into a cup of water in an interpretation guided by manuals."
He added that the individual, or "medium," then goes into a hallucinatory trance when studying the oil in the cup.
"They therefore see the divinities, or supernatural beings appear that they call to answer their questions with regard to the future," he said.
The magus might then have used the engraving on the bowl to legitimize his supernatural powers by invoking the name of Christ, the scientists theorize.
Goddio said, "It is very probable that in Alexandria they were aware of the existence of Jesus" and of his associated legendary miracles, such as transforming water into wine, multiplying loaves of bread, conducting miraculous health cures, and the story of the resurrection itself.
While not discounting the Jesus Christ interpretation, other researchers have offered different possible interpretations for the engraving, which was made on the thin-walled ceramic bowl after it was fired, since slip was removed during the process.
Bert Smith, a professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford University, suggests the engraving might be a dedication, or present, made by a certain "Chrestos" belonging to a possible religious association called Ogoistais.
Klaus Hallof, director of the Institute of Greek inscriptions at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, added that if Smith's interpretation proves valid, the word "Ogoistais" could then be connected to known religious groups that worshipped early Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses, such as Hermes, Athena and Isis.
Hallof additionally pointed out that historians working at around, or just after, the time of the bowl, such as Strabon and Pausanias, refer to the god "Osogo" or "Ogoa," so a variation of this might be what's on the bowl. It is even possible that the bowl refers to both Jesus Christ and Osogo.
Fabre concluded, "It should be remembered that in Alexandria, paganism, Judaism and Christianity never evolved in isolation. All of these forms of religion (evolved) magical practices that seduced both the humble members of the population and the most well-off classes."
"It was in Alexandria where new religious constructions were made to propose solutions to the problem of man, of God's world," he added. "Cults of Isis, mysteries of Mithra, and early Christianity bear witness to this."
The bowl is currently on public display in the exhibit "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" at the Matadero Cultural Center in Madrid, Spain, until November 15.
Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26972493/
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IT'S BIGFOOT MIGRATION SEASON DEPARTMENT -
Sasquatch Sightings Continue Throughout Northwest
Sasquatch Sightings Continue Throughout Northwest
Bigfoot appears to be on the move through the wilds of Northern B.C.
A rash of three sightings between late July and August have brought about speculation from paranormal specialists as to what the creature might be up to.
In addition to Houston sightings, Larry Sommerfield, a self-proclaimed sasquatch hunter from Terrace has a cast in his possession that he says is a sasquatch print.
Though he wouldn’t tell The Terrace Standard how he came into possession of the cast, it is 16 inches long, 10.5 inches wide and has four toes.
“I don’t know why there is so much activity but I have a researcher friend in Saskatchewan, who thinks it may have something to do with increased bear sightings” Brian Vike, director of Houston British Columbia Canada (HBCC) UFO Research said. “There seems to be a lot more bear sightings nearing hibernation and as the animals move down from the mountains, maybe something else large and hairy is moving too.”
A second hand report received by Vike, about a sighting in the Morgan subdivision, indicates that another Houston resident saw the enigmatic creature in late July, around the same time as Delores Harrie.
“I haven’t been able to connect with the other lady yet, but she is a very credible witness, she has an important job in Smithers,” Vike said.
Harrie reported a Sasquatch sighting at her home on Buck Flats Road on July 28 to Vike. She made the report 29 days after the sighting simply because she didn’t not know who she should tell.
“It was my neighbour who said Brian was the person to talk to,” Harrie said.
Since her incident, one of the woman’s friends reported a sighting on Telkwa High Road in Moricetown on Aug. 27 and over the summer there have been sightings in Campbell River on Aug. 31.
At the time of the sighting, Harrie heard something crashing outside near her house and her dogs were anxious to get outside.
“I am becoming much more aware of being out here,” Harrie said, adding her home is surrounded by trees and bluffs. “I mean it could have been a moose or something, but you never know.”
At 5:45 a.m. that morning of July 28, Harrie heard her dogs barking at the door. When she went down to investigate she saw that someone or something was rattling the door handle.
She eventually opened the door and the dogs were out like a shot, sniffing out something on he east side of her property.
When she looked out at the side of her house, she saw a creature that was walking on two legs.
“It was huge and it had long hair, not fur — kind of like the kind you see on an ox and a reddish brown, the colour of the trees that are killed by the pine beetle,” said the woman. “And it moved so fast, by the time I opened my door it had run from the porch to the other side of the house.”
Once outside, the dogs pursued the creature it continued along a dried-up ravine and disappeared into a forested area. Her oldest dog didn’t return for three hours.
“I was worried but what do you do, tell people your dog is chasing bigfoot?” she asked. “I drove up and down the road, looking for him and eventually he came back.”
When she went out later that day, she found the area had markings where something very heavy had laid down the grass along the path.
“She was very obviously upset and there was a sighting on Buck Flats near Silverthorne Lake three years ago,” said Vike. “And another one in a different area near the lake.”
When Vike investigated the property, he stood in the same area on the east side of the house where the women had seen the creature in attempt to gauge it’s height.
“I am just over six feet and when I stood there she said she could only see the top of my head,” said Vike. “Whatever the heck she saw that morning, she was able to see from the head to the chest, making it at least seven or eight feet.”
Brian also found that the treed area she indicated the creature disappeared into had disturbances on the path where the grass had been laid down, as if something very heavy had slipped and possibly fallen.
“The creek there is dried up but the ground is still very swampy so I figured I would be able to find some impressions,” said Vike. “I also found what could have been a track with maybe a couple of toes visible but I just can’t be sure.”
Vike didn’t find any other evidence such as hair but he did say that there have been other sighting this summer.
Harrie doesn’t know why the creature would choose to go onto her property, but the experience has left her a little shaky.
“I used to only lock my door once in a while, now I lock it all the time,” she said.
Source: Houston Today
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/houston-today/sports/29974929.html
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HOLY STIGMATA BATMAN DEPARTMENT -
Girl Who Bleeds Without Being Cut Baffles Doctors
Girl Who Bleeds Without Being Cut Baffles Doctors
Twinkle Dwivedi, 13, has a strange disorder which means she loses blood through her skin without being cut or scratched. She has even undergone transfusions after pints of it seeped through her eyes, nose, hairline, neck and the soles of her feet.
Sometimes her condition is so bad she wakes up with her entire body covered in dried blood.
Villagers near her home in Uttar Pradesh, India, believe she must be cursed and shout cruel things in the street. Her frantic family have sought help from numerous doctors as well as preachers from many different religions without success.
"I am desperate to help my daughter," said her mother Nandani Diwedi, 42.
"We are not superstitious people but we became so desperate.
"We've been to temples, mosques, churches and sufi saints, but nothing has cured her."
Indian medics now believe her condition is an extreme version of a rare blood platelet disorder for which they cannot find a cure. However, a ray of hope has been offered by a British specialist, who believes Twinkle may have a different clotting disorder, for which treatment will be possible.
Last year, Twinkle was a normal 12-year-old who enjoyed school, painting and playing with her friends - but then she suddenly started bleeding between five and 20 times a day.
"I was so scared," she said.
"It didn't hurt. But it was scary and messy, and my friends thought it was disgusting.
"My school blouse went all red. No-one would come near me or play with me.
"I used to cry nearly every time it happened. But now I just keep quiet."
Twinkle was thrown out of one school and another refused to teach her because of her strange condition. Now she studies at home and rarely sees other children.
Her mother said: "I am very worried about her. She is very weak and pale from the blood loss.
"She is very isolated and depressed. She wants to get better so she can go back to school.
"I now believe doctors in India are incompetent. I don't think they can help her."
The first time the bleeding happened from Twinkle's mouth in July 2007, her parents took her to a GP who suggested a common ulcer. But then, a few weeks later, the bleeding also started from her nose, eyes, feet and hairline.
Twinkle's parents took her to see dozens of different doctors who could not find a reason for her blood loss. Her dad Aditya Kumar Diewdi, 47, a railway worker, said: "They told us they had never seen a case like this before.
"One doctor even accused us of making it up. Why on earth would we do that?"
Finally doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi decided she has Type 2 Platelet Disorder, a rare condition where blood is dangerously low in clotting particles.
They say her blood is watery and has the colour of a light red wine - but they cannot find a treatment to make it thicker. However, a blood specialist in Britain came up with a different diagnosis and believes there may be hope.
Consultant haematologist Dr Drew Provan, of Barts Hospital in London, said:
"She may have Type II von Willebrand disease and she should see a coagulation doctor for treatment."
He believes her condition is not related to the number of clotting particles, but something called the von Willebrand factor, which helps platelets stick to blood vessels and blood to clot. But Twinkle's family is poor and unless an actual diagnosis can be found soon, she will continue growing weaker. She has already undergone several blood transfusions and it is feared she may one day lose too much blood too quickly.
"When I bleed from the head, my head feels very heavy," says Twinkle.
"When my eyes bleed they go really red and sore. It also hurts when I wash it after bleeding."
Twinkle has thee older sisters who are also extremely concerned for her future.
Her eldest sister Parul, 21, who works in a Delhi call centre said: "We pray every day that the doctors will find a cure for my sister."
Her mum added: "My family will do anything we can to help her be healthy again."
Source: The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3107900/Girl-who-bleeds-without-
being-cut-baffles-doctors.html
