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A fresh look at NASA data suggests that a robotic mission uncovered microbial life on Mars—more than 30 years ago.

In 1976 NASA sent two space probes, Vikings 1 and 2, to Mars to determine whether life exists on the red planet. The probes carried three experiments specially designed for the task, one of which was called the Labeled Release (LR) apparatus.

The LR experiment worked by scooping up a bit of Martian soil and mixing it with a drop of water that contained nutrients and radioactive carbon atoms.

The idea was that if the soil contained microbes, the life-forms would metabolize the nutrients and release either radioactive carbon dioxide or methane gas, which could be measured by a radiation detector on the probe.

A number of control experiments were also performed, including heating some Mars soil samples to different temperatures and isolating other samples in the dark for months—conditions that would kill microbes that are photosynthetic or that rely on photosynthetic organisms for survival. These control samples were also mixed with the nutrient solution.

To the delight of many biologists at the time, the LR experiment came out positive for life, and the control experiments came out negative.

"The minute the nutrients were mixed with the soil sample, you got something like 10,000 counts" of radioactive molecules—a huge spike from the 50 or 60 counts that constituted the natural background radiation on Mars, said study team member Joseph Miller, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California and a former NASA space shuttle project director.

Unfortunately, the LR experiment results were not backed up by the probes' other two experiments, both of which came out negative for life, so the space agency dismissed the possibility.

Now, after running Viking's LR data through a mathematical test designed to separate biological signals from nonbiological signals, Miller's team believes that the LR experiments did indeed find signs of microbial life in Martian soil.

"It's very possible that if you have microbes, they're living a couple of inches beneath the soil, close to water ice," he said.

Clustering Viking's Mars Data

For the study, Miller and mathematician Giorgio Bianciardi, of Italy's University of Siena, used a technique called cluster analysis, which groups together similar-looking data sets.

"We just plugged all the [Viking experimental and control] data in and said, Let the cluster analysis sort it," Miller said. "What happened was, we found two clusters: One cluster constituted the two active experiments on Viking and the other cluster was the five control experiments."

To bolster their case, the team also compared the Viking data to measurements collected from confirmed biological sources on Earth—for example, temperature readings from a rat—and from purely physical, nonbiological sources.

"It turned out that all the biological experiments from Earth sorted with the active experiments from Viking, and all the nonbiological data series sorted with the control experiments," Miller said. "It was an extremely clear-cut phenomenon."

The team concedes, however, that this finding by itself isn't enough to prove that there's life on Mars.

"It just says there's a big difference between the active experiments and the controls, and that Viking's active experiments sorted with terrestrial biology and the controls sorted with nonbiological phenomena," Miller said.

Evidence for Martian Rhythm

Still, the new findings are consistent with a previous study published by Miller, in which his team found signs of a Martian circadian rhythm in the Viking LR experiment results.

Circadian rhythms are internal clocks found in every known life-form—including microbes—that help control biological processes, such as waking, sleeping, and temperature regulation. (See "Sleep Preferences Predict Baseball Success, Study Says.")

On Earth this clock is set to a 24-hour cycle, but on Mars it would be about 24.7 hours—the length of a Martian day.

In his previous work, Miller noticed that the LR experiment's radiation measurements varied with the time of day on Mars.

"If you look closely, you could see that the [radioactive-gas measurement] was going up during the day and coming down at night. ... The oscillations had a period of 24.66 hours just about on the nose," Miller said.

"That is basically a circadian rhythm, and we think circadian rhythms are a good signal for life."

Waiting for the Video

Despite his own conviction that the Viking mission detected life on Mars, Miller said he doesn't expect most people will be convinced until they can look at a video of Martian bacteria sitting in a petri dish.

"But for some reason, NASA has never flown a microscope that would let you do something like that," he said. "If they can fly a microscope for the geologists, they should be able to fly one for the biologists."

NASA's next Martian mission—the Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity—will arrive on the red planet later this year. Although it's not carrying such a microscope, Miller thinks the lander could find supporting evidence for his team's theory.

"It won't test the hypothesis [for life on Mars] directly, but I think they'll be able to detect methane," Miller said. "And if they see a circadian rhythm in the methane release into the atmosphere, it would be very consistent with what we saw."

Source: National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-nasa-viking
-program-mars-life-space-science/

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The word, ‘Heretic’, so often associated with spiritual rebellion and even sorcery, literally means the much less alarming, ‘One who chooses’. This article is intended to allow you, the seeker into occult and magickal lore, to peer through the cracks in the façade of normality that has been constructed to conceal many dark and frequently uneasy truths concerning the human condition. Doing so deserves some timely words of warning and caution and you should consider your position very carefully. As the famous quotation by Nietzsche states, ‘Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you’, and indeed it does as many who chose the rocky path to truth and enlightenment discovered. From a personal viewpoint I can state categorically that having also gazed into the abyss I was once made all too aware that whatever resides there can and does sometimes look back and make contact.

At one stage in the history of our race your instinctive curiosity would have automatically condemned you as the heretic of the title and your route to official ‘salvation’, (if it was even offered), would have been short, brutal and frequently agonising. It is curious to learn that salvation and forgiveness frequently equated with death and your path to a hypothetical pardon was often glimpsed through the flames engulfing you at the stake. While there are currently no official proscriptions denying the natural instinct of curiosity, you should keep firmly in mind that history is cyclical, and because of this humanity, in spite of all its abundant talent, is almost guaranteed through inherent stupidity, pride and intolerance to repeat its mistakes.

Among the first things your quest will unearth are the unmistakable links between magick, the occult and religion and in spite of continuous repudiations and denials by the religious authorities we find that these subjects tread similar paths and in the past have even worn the same shoes. All religions from the very earliest times were founded on a ‘revelation’ in one form or another made to an individual and this revelation frequently came from what was considered to be an ‘angel’ or some other supernatural agency. Is it likely that these wondrous entities had no religious provenance whatsoever, and both they and their agendas may have originated in some murky and far off, invisible ‘otherworld’?

Could this entity have been one of the beings also allegedly unleashed in recent times by such relatively modern magicians as the notorious Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard the inventor of Scientology; and indeed, are they still among us? The inclusion of Hubbard in the same company as known magicians may seem unlikely, but this individual was, along with Jack Parsons and to some extent the notorious Crowley, responsible for ‘The Babalon Working’, which was a ritual intended to open a portal in the fabric of reality to allow an alien entity, in this case the goddess Babalon, access to this planet. In fact Hubbard has much in common with a series of unlikely messiahs who either began as magicians or had that title bestowed upon them.

In bygone eras for example is it not strange that the prophet Mohammed encountered an ‘angel’, Gabriel, from who he learned the precepts of Islam, or many centuries later that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, had a very similar encounter with an ‘angelic’ being called Moroni? In both cases the precious metal, gold, was involved. Gabriel presented Mohammed with a ‘golden tablet’ commanding him to read it and Moroni gave Joseph Smith ‘magical spectacles’ called ‘Urim and Thummim’, with which to translate texts written in an unknown language called ‘reformed Egyptian’, oddly enough these texts were also written on ‘golden plates’. Why specifically gold?

Was this because its intrinsic value implied great wealth and therefore lent the story greater significance, or might it simply have been a factor of the electrical properties of the metal? Does this hint at the possibility that properties inherent in magick and the occult may be a factor of the electromagnetic spectrum? An even earlier instance of initiation comes from the gnostic mystery school of ‘Manichaeism’. In this case, at the age of twelve the founder, Mani, encountered a being that he referred to as ‘The Twin’. This being imparted a great secret, which revealed that evil had continually influenced the human race and that there was a continual battle throughout the cosmos between the opposing forces of good and evil.

This mystery school was quite widespread and even counted St Augustine among its many initiates. Another apparent connection between the early church and magick involves Bishop Clement of Alexandria, who taught his advanced students what he called the ‘disciplina arcani’ (lit. secret disciplines), which were, in effect, magickal practises and techniques. This supposed cosmic battle finds a strange resonance in claims from sections within the UFO community suggesting that there is a battle currently raging in the cosmos concerning the takeover of planet Earth and its inhabitants. In this scenario a race known as ‘The Nordics’, (who seem to conform to the western angelic stereotype being attractive, tall, blue-eyed blondes), are on the side of humanity, while enemy have all the characteristics of demons etc. typified by images of greys and reptilians.

The reader we will find a few more synchronous crossovers between magick, religion and Ufology as they progress through the article, is this by accident or design, or does the era, culture and context define reality? Magick and magickal beliefs in the form of animism and latterly shamanism existed long before religion and, in spite of religion’s best efforts to stifle them they have continued to exist in parallel with it and will, in spite of everything, continue to exist; one must ask oneself why? One must also ask why have considerable sums of money been spent by various government agencies all over the world attempting to harness ‘magickal’ forces for their own purposes, the infamous Stargate Project was case in point. Is this possible, is this practical, or is it something that only exists in the tales of wizardry created by writers of fantasy fiction?

Perhaps writers like H.P. Lovecraft may even have succeeded in breaching the gateways, reaching into bizarre and unnameable worlds that exist beside our own, although in the case of Lovecraft the creatures he describes appear to have been glimpsed in some interdimensional version of Hell. In other words, as with many instances involving the occult, the only difference between fantasy and reality lies in the perspective and cosmology of the observer. Might the horrors the writers envision actually exist in some altered reality and gradually drip-feed into their subconscious minds to find a type of specious existence in the written word? Or more worryingly, might the very act of reading about them in some way alter the neural processes in the brain of the reader and present them with the chance to materialise in our world? Is their malign influence the real driving force behind the actions of the serial killers and multiple rapists who prey on our largely passive society? Or are the tales simply words of warning about dimensional entities whose potential for hatred and malice is unknowable?

Other heretical utterances concern the presence of the human race here on Earth. How did we get here and could our moon have provided the means to do so, or was there another method? We find bizarre experiments conducted in 1953 by Millar and Urey to recreate the building blocks of life and even claims that a strange form of life was created, apparently artificially, during the curious Crosse experiment in the mid 19th century. Was Darwin right or did he fail to grasp a much bigger picture simply because the concept required was too vast, conservative religious values to deeply entrenched and the prevailing science was just not up to proving it?

The instinctive and repressive influence of religion tried to stifle his breakthroughs and to some extent still does, indeed Creationism casts a long, long shadow and still flourishes in the American ‘bible belt’. But what happens now that geneticists operating at the current leading edge of science announce the creation of the first genuinely artificial biological life form? Dr Craig Venter and his team in the USA have taken the first step and created a single cell that is synthetic.

A single cell may seem like small beer, but this is only the beginning and its eventual benefits are alleged to include the creation of custom made human organs for donation and this is well and good, but what happens when the first entirely synthetic human is finally created; what then? A miracle, magick or science and is there necessarily any difference: the ethical and moral implications and considerations are enormous; might this even be a step too far.

When you continually ‘push the envelope’ might the envelope finally tear and if it does what lies on the outside? While not a heresy in a conventional sense, does the fact that we can do something mean that we actually should do it, and are there some areas of research and best left alone? Is this moral and ethical minefield an example of the abyss staring back into us? Never forget that conservative religion was always try to deny anything that does not fit its self serving and cosy canon of belief even when its dogmas are proven utterly wrong. However, science has had a profound effect on religion, but religion has had little or no effect in science, except as we saw earlier, to occasionally accuse them of heresy and sentence them to death.

Has our race evolved as far as it can or is the future already here, just waiting in the wings until the conditions are right for it to emerge? One thing linking all of these seemingly disparate issues are the subjects that opened this article, the pale, twin spectres of magick and religion, but they now seem to find expression in a number of much more subtle and diverse guises. There is however hope, for although what is suggested here may not exactly induce peace of mind, it just might create a need for greater understanding of what is real and what is not and what has value and what does not, and in that search for knowledge the seeker might find the source of their own salvation. Since to some extent we select our own road in life and the vehicle in which to travel, we should choose wisely.

Brian Allan is the editor of Phenomena Magazine, the world's most recognised e-zine of its kind.

The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt, has long been rumored to contain hidden passageways leading to secret chambers. Now a team of researchers has confirmed the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum contains two unknown cavities, possibly hiding a corridor-like structure and more mysterious features.

The announcement by the ScanPyramids project comes at the end of a year-long effort to use various scanning technology on Old Kingdom pyramids, including the Great Pyramid, Khafre or Chephren at Giza, the Bent pyramid and the Red pyramid at Dahshur.

Carried out by a team from Cairo University's Faculty of Engineering and the Paris-based non-profit organization Heritage, Innovation and Preservation (HIP Institute) under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, the ScanPyramids project used three innovative techniques — muography, thermography and 3-D simulation — to deeply investigate the Great Pyramid of Giza.

An unknown cavity was detected at a height of about 345 feet from the ground on the northeastern edge of the monument, while a "void" was found behind the northern side at the upper part of the entrance gate.

"Such void is shaped like a corridor and could go up inside the pyramid," Mehdi Tayoubi, founder of the Paris-based Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, told Seeker.

He added that no link can be made between the two cavities at the moment.

Built for the pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu, the Great Pyramid is the largest of a family of three pyramids on the Giza plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo. It's the last remaining wonder of the ancient world.

A striking thermal anomaly was detected in November 2015 by French infrared specialist Jean-Claude Barré on the northern side of the monument, right where four chevrons — blocks placed according to an inverted V-shaped pattern — overhang the descending corridor.

When the pyramid was finished some 4,500 years ago, the chevrons were not visible in that area, but were hidden under casing stones that were dismantled over the centuries.

"Today we still see the remains of those chevrons and oblique stones which most probably are parts of propped missing chevrons covering a kind of void that might have existed before stones were dismantled," the researchers wrote in a statement.

In the construction of the pyramid, chevrons were not used for decoration, but to protect a void and prevent the roof from collapsing.

"Why many chevrons are put to protect such a small area at the beginning of the descending corridor?" the researchers wondered.

After carrying out a 3-D reconstruction of the area, they decided to install three aluminum plates at the bottom of the descending corridor in an attempt to capture cosmic particles.

The technology, known as muography, relies on the muons that continually shower the Earth's surface. They emanate from the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, where they are created from collisions between cosmic rays of our galactic environment and the nuclei of atoms in the atmosphere.

"Just like X rays pass through our bodies allowing us to visualize our skeleton, these elementary particles, weighing around 200 times more than electrons, can very easily pass through any structure, even large and thick rocks, such as mountains," Tayoubi said.

Tayoubi and his colleagues placed detectors sensitive to muons, called emulsion plates, inside the pyramid to discern dense areas from less dense areas — essentially the bones and tissue of the pyramid. When the films from the detectors were analyzed at Nagoya University in Japan, they revealed a significant excess of muons in the same direction, strongly pointing to a corridor-like void.

"The precise shape, size and exact position of this void is now under further investigation," the researchers said.

To that end, they added 12 new muon emulsion plates in the descending corridor.

"They will be collected by the end of October," Tayoubi said.

The investigation of the Great Pyramid also involved muon gas detectors, basically telescopes pointed on the northeastern side of monument from the outside.

Overall, they accumulated around 50 million muon cosmic particles, revealing muon excess at a spot close to the edge, at around 345 feet from the ground.

"This excess corresponds to an unknown cavity, measuring about 30 square feet. It's the same volume as another known cavity located on the same edge," Tayoubi said.

"Several studies from The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Nagoya university were conducted to confirm the excess of muons was not statistical fluctuation or noise," he added.

The excess was measured to be largely above 5 sigmas, corresponding to an effect with a probability above 99.9999%. In other words, the findings don't seem to have been some odd fluctuation of muons.

The results have been submitted to a scientific committee led by the former minister of antiquities Zahi Hawass.

In the committee are also Mark Lehner, director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), Miroslav Barta, director of the Czech Archaeological Mission in Saqqara, Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute and Mahmoud Afifi, director of the Egyptian Antiquities sector at the Ministry of Antiquities.

Zahi Hawass, who heads the committee, believes more research is needed before it can be confirmed that the results point to hidden cavities or secret rooms.

"These people are scientists and do not have an archaeological background. The core of the pyramid was built using long stones and small stones. If you know that, you'll find anomalies everywhere," Hawass told Seeker in a phone interview.

"I think there are no secret rooms and these anomalies have to do with the way the pyramid was built," Hawass said.

He urged that more research, including a photogrammetric map of the pyramid, is needed.

In this view, the committee approved the ScanPyramids request to extend the time of the project for another year.

"We have so many other data to analyze. Many new scientific teams from prestigious international universities want to join the project. Our knowledge on the pyramid is progressing," Tayoubi said.

Source: Seeker
http://www.seeker.com/mysterious-cavities-secret-chambers-great-pyramid-giza
-2049012211.html

The wreck of a German U-boat that sank almost 100 years ago has been discovered by engineers laying subsea power cables.

Remarkable sonar images show the missing World War One submarine is largely intact and lying off the Galloway coast.

Experts believe the vessel could be the UB-85, a sub that sank in 1918, according to official records.

However, naval folklore suggests it may have been attacked by a "sea monster".

Mysterious sinking

On April 30, 1918, the waning days of World War 1, the British patrol ship Coreopsis, while sailing off the Belfast Lough in Ireland, came upon a disabled German submarine, the UB-85, floating on the surface of the North Atlantic. The crewmembers of the Coreopsis were stunned by their discovery as they did not often come upon non aggressive German U Boats, especially not in the middle of the day.

The crew of the UB-85 was picked up by the Coreopsis after they abandoned ship with no provocation. Once on board the British patrol ship, the UB-85’s commander, Captain Gunther Krech, was interrogated immediately. One of the first questions asked by the British officers conducting the interrogation regarded the decision to remain on the surface even after the obviously British Coreopsis came within the UB-85’s line of sight.

According to Captain Krech, his U Boat surfaced the night before in order to recharge the submarine’s batteries. Krech was on deck with some men and a few of his officers, getting some fresh air and having a smoke, when an abrupt surge rocked the ship and a heavy weight seemed to bring down the starboard bow. Out of the darkness of the night, what the captain referred to as, a strange beast climbed out of the ocean and onto the side of the U Boat. The following is the description of the beast as told by Captain Krech to his British captors:

“This beast had large eyes, set in a horny sort of skull. It had a small head, but with teeth that could be seen glistening in the moonlight. Every man on watch began firing a sidearm at the beast, but the animal had hold of the forward gun mount and refused to let go.”

Captain Krech continued, stating the proportions of the beast were so immense that it rocked the U Boat and caused it to list greatly to the starboard side. Fearing that the ships open hatch would dip below the water line, which would subsequently flood the U Boat and sink it, Captain Krech ordered his men to continue their barrage. The crew continued firing upon the beast until it finally released the forward guns and disappeared back into the night blackened ocean.

Krech noted that during the struggle the forward deck plating of the UB-85 had been damaged rendering the U Boat incapable of submerging, the reason why the Coreopsis was able to catch the UB-85 at the surface. The crew’s retelling of the encounter, along with that of the captain’s, was chronicled by members of the British Navy only hours after the U Boat was found. The UB-85 was then cleared of any remaining crew that may have remained on board and sunk by the Coreopsis.

However, Dr Innes McCartney, a historian and nautical archaeologist who helped identify the wreckage, does not believe the tale.

"In reality, the real sea monster was the U-boat, here trying to sink ships," he said.

He added: "The submarine was caught on the surface at night, recharging its batteries.

"It saw the patrol ship coming. It attempted to do a crash dive to get away.

"Once the submarine was under water, it rapidly started flooding from above so they had no option but to blow all the compressed air they had, bring the submarine to the surface at which point all they could do was surrender."

The historian said tales of sea monsters and haunted U-boats came about due to secrecy surrounding exactly what happened during the first U-boat war which meant that period was "ripe for conspiracies".

He said the stories were often concocted as a result of journalists and ex-Navy men "talking late at night, after having a nice time".

Mechanical failure

Dr McCartney said there were at least 12 British and German submarines known to have sunk in the Irish Sea.

He said: "The features of this particular wreck, which is largely intact, confirm it as a UBIII-Class submarine, of which we know of two which were lost in the area - the more famous UB-85 and its sister boat UB-82.

"While I can conclude that this wreck is likely to be one or the other, they would be practically impossible to tell apart, aside from the numbers painted on them in service, now obviously long gone.

"Unless a diver can find a shipyard stamp, we cannot say definitively, but yes, we're certainly closer to solving the so-called mystery of UB-85 and the reason behind its sinking - whether common mechanical failure or something that is less easily explained."

The historic discovery was made by engineers involved in the £1bn Western Link project to lay a subsea power line between Ayrshire and the Wirral.

The 385km (239miles) long cable will carry renewable energy produced in Scotland to England and Wales.

The engineers found the wreckage 120m north-west of the centre of the planned route, off the Stranraer coast. It is about 45m long, with debris spilling from the stern.

Gary Campbell, the keeper of the Official Sightings Register of the Loch Ness Monster, said it was "entirely feasible" that a large sea creature disabled the submarine.
Environmental impact

"The World War One report from the captain of the British ship HMS Hilary a year earlier makes it clear that sea farers at that time were well aware of large sea 'monsters' that could be harmful to their ships," he said.

"The area of sea where the attack took place has a history of sea monster sightings - they have ranged from the north coast of Wales to Liverpool Bay. What the German captain said could well be true."

Scottish Power Transmission and the National Grid are working together on the Western Link project to lay the undersea cable.

Peter Roper, of Scottish Power, said: "The images we get back from the subsea scans are incredibly detailed, but we obviously need to be aware of what lies beneath before we can start laying a power cable.

"In all the years I have been building power lines, I can say that this is the most extraordinary discovery."

National Grid's Graham Edwards said: "The Western Link is a very significant project for the UK and has required careful planning in all aspects, but particularly in the laying of high-voltage cables in the sea, where we are working hard to minimise our impact on the environment.

"During construction we take great care over archaeology, whether on land or at sea, and it's always exciting to record a significant find and help to shed new light on our history - especially one with such a good tale involved!"


Source: BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-37691283

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There’s ghosts, there’s UFOs, and then sometimes the two groups get together and have a real freaky lookin’ baby. They say the act itself is usually preluded with some smooth R&B after a night at the theatre and a nice dinner that costs more than $20 for the both of ‘em.

The end result is something called Phantom Planes - airbuses that both look and sound real, but then disappear into nothing. Some low-flying encounters with them have been so lifelike that pedestrians have jumped for cover.

As we already said - Phantom Planes are a phenomenon wherein the ghostly structure of a plane materializes, flies for a bit and then disappears. We haven’t heard if any long-dead crew have been seen piloting the ghost-ships, but there have been some reported very close encounters - like this one from the BBC:

    “The most dramatic incident which came to the attention of ufologist Margaret Fry was reported by mothers in Llangernyw, Denbighshire, as they were picking up their children from school. Several claimed they were sent running for cover as the plane - which they described as rusty, with no paint work - roared over their heads.

    “In the distance it followed the landscape and dipped down in the valley at such speed that the parents felt the plane was sure to crash, but they continued to watch as it pulled up and, with “great effort”, it managed to make it over some distant hills. Margaret said there was a shocked silence after the incident before locals began calling officials to try and find out what had happened to the plane.”They were told that no such aeroplane would even be allowed to fly in that condition,” said Margaret. “

Sounds unique, right? It’s not. Here’s another account - this one first hand. It’s from a man named Tony Ingle, who was out walking his dog:

    “It was very eerie…I could see the propellers going round but there was no sound..It was getting lower and lower and I thought, this thing’s going to crash…..It was bizarre…I could see it was banking as if trying to turn, and then it seemed to go down just over a hedge. I ran up the lane to see if I could see anything. I expected a plane to be in the field but there was nothing…just lambs and sheep. Everything was silent, you could hear a pin drop…”

There was no sound with that particular sighting - it’s not always the case though. In this next one - taken from a 1976 edition of the Cincinnati Post (and found on Unexplained-Mysteries.com, there were a bunch of different types of witnesses - the last of which even heard people screaming as the phantom plane was about to crash:

    “Butler County, Ohio, deputies discontinued a search yesterday afternoon for a plane which reportedly had crashed in Reily Township near Imhoff and Indian Creek Roads late Wednesday night. Deputies said an amateur radio operator heard what he thought was a distress call from a plane believed to be flying from Oxford to Cincinnati about 11 p.m. About 1:45 a.m. yesterday, George Mosley, 1203 Azel Avenue, Hamilton, his son and two other boys became separated in the same area while coon hunting. During the separation the boys said they saw a white flash in the sky at treetop level, then heard screaming and a crash. Airports in Hamilton and Butler County had no record of any small craft filing a flight plan during those hours. Deputies used a plane and walked the area in search of a downed plane Wednesday night until fog set in on the Reily area. The search was continued yesterday morning and discontinued after nothing was found.”

That’s a pretty creepy account - not only did the three boys see the thing individually,  but a radio operator heard a distress call completely separate from the other account.

Phantom Plane sightings don’t seem to happen too often - they’re rare enough to be pretty free from devoted debunkers, as far as our quick internet search can tell. Should any of these debunkers arise we’ve little doubt their chief arguments would have to do with tricks of light or the moon through the trees.  It doesn’t answer much, but when you have to publicly expose something you can’t actually study there’s not a lot of wiggle room.

All we know is if we saw a ghost plane accompanied by terrified screams, a light emitting explosion and distressed radio calls, we’d probably think at least twice about our brand of cough syrup.

And we’d rub our eyes.

Source: Hecklerspray.com
http://www.hecklerspray.com/awesome-or-off-putting-phantom-planes/200816756.php

A Mississippi county has declared it illegal to dress like a clown, and is threatening to levy $150 fines against anyone caught in a clown costume...even children.

The Kemper County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to implement the ban, which expires the day after Halloween. It makes it unlawful for anyone of any age to appear in public in a clown costume, clown mask or clown makeup, the Kemper County Messenger reports.

The newspaper reports that the measure was passed at the request of Kemper County Sheriff James Moore.

The national trend of people dressing up like clowns "has really gotten out of hand," said Johnny Whitsett, president of the county board of supervisors.

What's really gotten out of hand is the degree to which public officials have panicked over stories of threatening clowns, despite little evidence that the supposed clown panic is anything other than a wildly successful hoax perpetuated by mischief-making pranksters that's been amplified by social media—and, too often, by credulous reporters at actual media outlets. There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of reports of "creepy clowns" stalking near wooded areas or trying to lure children, but hardly any of those reports have been substantiated in any meaningful way (although some enterprising criminals have used the clown panic to their advantage to commit crimes that likely would have happened anyway).

Still, that's not stopping public officials from running scared. A school district in Connecticut has banned clown costumes for Halloween because they are "symbols of terror" and a police officer in Texas has suggested a "shoot first, ask questions later" policy towards all clowns. Ridiculous over-reactions from people trusted to be leaders—like the Kemper County Board of Supervisors— are a big reason why, two months after it started, the Great Clown Panic of 2016 is still going strong.

So far, the ban has gotten a positive response. "I really had no idea how much you guys do for Kemper County," said district supervisor Mike Luke to the Kemper County Messenger. "It's good to know. This has been very enlightening."

Target is also doing its part to shut down the clown craze; the store recently announced that it would be pulling clown masks from its shelves.

If anyone in Kemper County does get a citation for dressing like a clown, here's hoping they take the matter to court so we can all enjoy that spectacle.

In other clown-related news, the craze has reportedly reached Germany, according to Deutsche Welle. In the northern city of Rostock, a man wearing a clown suit allegedly attacked a 19-year-old boy with a baseball bat. Earlier that day in the same town, a knife-wielding clown reportedly approached a 15-year-old boy.

In the western German town of Wesel, a woman walking her dog was frightened by a clown who jumped out of the bushes with a chainsaw. He attempted to start the chainsaw several times unsuccessfully.

Source: Reason
http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/21/no-laughing-matter-mississippi-county-wi

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