UFO sighting over Lafeyette, Colorado March 2011



Lafeyette, Colorado UFO Sighting March 2011

 Last week, three red lights hovering in a triangular formation appeared over Lafeyette, Colorado and spooked residents and sparked rumors of aliens - as to be expected. The UFOs made no noise at all as bystanders caught the incident on tape. Lester Valdez, a witness and local, said "I've never witnessed anything like that... they all just kind of got into a pattern..." The objects in the sky eventually flew off in a northeast direction.

Witnesses seem to agree that the formation was not made up of airplanes, helicoptors or satellites. The FAA declined to comment. Without any answers, the possibility remains that the whole thing was staged as a hoax.

The real battle of Los Angeles, The Great Los Angeles Air Raid

Until now I had no idea that Battle:Los Angeles was based on an actual event. Yikes. Shame on me. Books, tv shows and other movies stemmed from the same real-life event that occured in 1942, several months after the United States entered into World War II following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Where have I been?

The difference between the movie and the event that took place on February 24th/early February 25th 1942, is a big one -- no aliens touched down and took over Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, the government actually called what is termed The Great Los Angeles Air Raid a "false alarm".

Los Angeles Times Feb. 26th 1942

Here's what happened. The night of Feb. 24th, air raid alarms signaled citizens all throughout Los Angeles county, followed by a complete blackout. At 3:16 a.m., the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade fired 12.8 pound anti-aircraft shells into the sky at reported unidentified aircraft. Fourteen-hundred shells were fired.

AT WHAT!?!? No one knew. But plenty of witnesses saw something in the sky.

Air fire continued until 4:14 a.m. and then the "All Clear" was given and the blackout lifted around 7:20 a.m. Three citizens died of heart attacks due to stress, three other civilians were killed by friendly fire.

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox held a press conference shorlty after and announced that the whole ordeal was the result of war nerves and there was never an attempted attack by any nation against the United States that night. Representative Leland Ford of Santa Monica called for a Congressional investigation, stating, "...none of the explanations so far offered removed the episode from the category of 'complete mystification' ... this was either a practice raid, or a raid to throw a scare into 2,000,000 people, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to lay a political foundation to take away Southern California's war industries."

As usually happens following a loosely-explainable situation involving the military, many people suspected a cover-up. Therein lies the basis for the alien invasion theories, books and other media involving Los Angeles, and the recent film Battle: Los Angeles, which takes place in modern times.

Why the alien theory? An unidentified object did appear in the sky for up to an hour that night. The photo and video above shows a mysterious object in the sky, converged on by search lights. Later explanations included a possible weather balloon and an atmospheric illusion.

Scott Harrison of the LA Times commented on the original photo as well as a more recently discovered retouched photo found in the LA Times archives. “In the retouched version, many light beams were lightened and widened with white paint, while other beams were eliminated. In earlier years, it was common for newspapers to use artists to retouch images due to poor reproduction — basically 10 shades of gray if you were lucky. Thus my conclusion:  the retouching was needed to reproduce the image. But man, I wish the retouching had been more faithful to the original. With our current standards, this image would not be published.” (Visit the above link to see a looped version of the original photo and the retouched photo).

Movie Review: Battle Los Angeles, Oorah!

Well, I have to say. I love alien invasion movies. Some are plain hilarious and poorly done (recent example: Skyline) while others scare me so bad I can't sleep. Then there's Independence Day, which is just friggen awesome because it's fun and the aliens are fantastic. And who doesn't wish Bill Pullman would run for President?

Battle: Los Angeles Screenshot

Regardless, Battle: Los Angeles is a whole new kind of alien movie for me. There was an actual plot that was incredibly believable. There weren't any crazy one-liners or ridiculous personalities. The movie dealt with families and the military, more specifically the United States Marine Corps. It's the story of survival, a small group of Marines and cilvilians working together to escape a dangerous and seemingly impossible situation, taking risks, feeling afraid and helpless, sacrificing and so forth. It was a war movie, that's what it was - with aliens.

For once, the aliens were not at the forefront of the movie - they were a problem, yes, but the human characters were so much more prominent and I honestly worried for them. The aliens were almost a sidenote. I even cried at one point! Alien movies do not make me cry. Can't say that anymore.

It was Hurt Locker meets War of the Worlds. The flow of the movie was compelling, swift-moving and engaged my emotions more than I ever expected. The acting was pretty good, too. No silliness from the likes of Will Smith here. What the heck, I loved it. Skyline can sit on a pin, Battle: Los Angeles is just too cool.

Southern Malaysia's civil court ghosts

Menara CyberPort

The huge Menara Cyberport building in the capital city of Southern Malaysia, Johor Baru, has caused a flurry of ghost busting talk this week, after policemen and a medium came in to invstigate the city's eight civic court rooms for alleged demonic spirit activity.

While countries worldwide have different interpetations of what "demonic activity" actually means, there seems to be no harm done, just people in hysterics. Perhaps for good reason, as employees and a chairman have claimed to "brush into" ghosts on several occasions.

Senior court officials immediately sought help after a court employee went bonkers after claiming to have witnessed a ghost in one of the rooms. Other employees have complained of doors opening and closing by themselves. Court judges have expressed a lot of uneasiness toward the activity.

Ever since a medium came to assist in getting rid of the spirits, reports of apparitions manifesting have stopped completely and apparently the doors have returned to normal as well.

Former Johor Bar chairman K. Balarajah admitted he heard the stories of not-so-normal things going on in the courtrooms, “I received at least three complaints from lawyers about strange occurrences and sightings at the building... I have been there a few times but have not experienced anything personally."

NASA distances itself from meteorite fossil story

Say it ain't so. NASA has officially backed off the fossils in meteorites story, citing that the study was not thoroughly peer reviewed as required before going public. Leading scientists in various disciplines claimed the study, a newly published examination of three rare meteorites, was riddled with pitfalls. Published last Friday morning, NASA and its top scientists disavowed the work by noon Monday.



Earthly Contamination or Alien Life?

 Apparently the meteorites fell to Earth between 100 to 200 years ago, therefore any study conducted now can most certainly be contaminated with earthly bacteria. According to a scientist who has studied these same meteorites in the past, more specifically the one that fell to France in 1864. He stated the rock was in "atrocious" condition at a Paris Museum with obvious contamination. A vein in the rock that hadn't been there in old photographs provided proof of slowly spreading moisture.

The Associated Press interviewed up to a dozen scientists, and none of them agreed with the findings. Back in 1996, NASA announced similar findings with great zeal and was forced to back away from later. In that case, a meteorite from Mars found in Antarctica showed evidence of alien life - and then... apparently not.

"There's a lot of stuff there, but not a lot of science," said Rosie Redfield, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, regarding this most recent claim. She publicly scutinized the study over the weekend. "I looked at it and shuddered."

"There has been no one in the scientific community, certainly no one in the meteorite analysis community, that has supported these conclusions," NASA Astrobiology Institute Director Carl Pilcher said Monday of the latest work (No, not the guy from Ricky Gervais... although that would be fabulous, yes?) ... and what the heck is a meteorite annalysis community - I want in!

Somehow Mr. Hoover, who originally claimed he was ready for the controversy and open to other ideas, has managed to elude all phone calls and interviews.

So why would such a journal publish a story like this without the appropriate verification first? Rudy Schild, a Harvard astronomer and editor-in-chief of the journal, said the study was reviewed by scientists, but he wouldn't identify them. Schild said the idea was to garner attention and generate debate, which happened after it was first reported over the weekend by FoxNews.com. The journal was apparently looking for a buyer or risk going under. So the answer is, money.


Shame on you, "DR" Hoover!

 And the story gets worse. While Hoover's paper in the journal lists him as a "Ph.D.," NASA's solar physics website mentions nothing of the sort. A colleague of Hoover's acknowledged that he doesn't have a Ph.D. Schild said someone at the journal, he doesn't know who, may have accidentally published Hoover with the doctorate title.

Direct from NASA - fossil life forms found on meteorite

If the following findings are true, then guess what everyone -- we're not alone in the universe! And Charlie Sheen can finally shut up and stop distracting me, because this is actually more fascinating than him.

Richard B. Hoover: Fossils of cyanobacteria found in meteorites

(Credit: Journal of Cosmology)

In the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology, a NASA scientist unveiled his recent findings involving a meteorite that made its way through to space to land here on Earth - carrying with it, *DRUM ROLL *, fossilized life forms!

NASA Astrobiologist Dr. Richard B. Hoover of Marshall Space Flight Center, has traveled to remote areas in Antarctica, Siberia, and Alaska, and others, for his decade long career, gathering and studying meteorites. Hoover writes that the latest findings in his study focus on a very rare class of meteorites, called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. Only nine such meteorites are known to exist on Earth.

Though the study is likely to upset people, cause excitement and controversy all over the place, Hoover is convinced that his findings reveal true fossil evidence of bacterial life within these meteorites. Fossils, the remains of living organisms from their parent comets, moons and other astral bodies, were discovered inside the meteorites once they were taken apart. Based on these findings, Hoover believes that life is broadly distributed throughout the universe. So if these are really fossils, then what kind of life forms are they?



Similar in size and overall structure to the giant bacterium Titanospirillum velox



Actually, some of the fossils are very similar to our bacterial life forms while others are completly strange and unrecognizable. Hoover told FOXNEWS.com, “The exciting thing is that they are in many cases recognizable and can be associated very closely with the generic species here on earth. There are some that are just very strange and don’t look like anything that I’ve been able to identify, and I’ve shown them to many other experts that have also come up stumped.”

Dr. David Marais, an astrobiologist with NASA’s AMES Research Center says he’s not ready to jump onto the bandwagon just yet. Evidence like this has come up before and was proven false. One hundred experts and over five thousand scientists have scrutinize the study and commented on the findings alongside the article. 

Dr. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, says there is a lot of caution toward believing in the claims. If found to be true, the implications would be change science and astronomy on a huge, huge scale.

Shostak guessed that, “Maybe life was seeded on earth -- it developed on comets for example, and just landed here when these things were hitting the very early Earth. It would suggest, well, life didn’t really begin on the Earth, it began as the solar system was forming.”

Hoover is hardly worried about the quick-coming controversy but welcomes other explanations. He says, “If someone can explain how it is possible to have a biological remain that has no nitrogen, or nitrogen below the detect ability limits that I have, in a time period as short as 150 years, then I would be very interested in hearing that."

Is that Humming Bird spying on me?

Yes. Yes, that humming bird is spying on you.

Four million dollars have been spent by the US Pentagon on tiny drones mimicking small animals such as the humming bird and various insects - even leaves. AeroVironment, a California based company and leader in the drone-creation business, was hired for the job of creating the pocket-sized crafts. The drones, equipped with audio and video survellience equipment, are just the beginning. Researchers are also trying to figure out ways to implant video and sound recording devices into actual insects undergoing metamorphosis. Kind of makes everyone's favorite Chinese magician's magnet-implanted fish looks like small chickens.

Humming Bird Spy Drone, AP

The spy humming bird prototype unveiled this week has a wingspan of 6.5 inches and weighs less than one AA batteries. It can fly at a speed of up to 11 mph by flapping those wings. The camera is in his cute little belly. It can sit on a surface as thin as a window ledge.

Who will use these drones and spy insects? Apparently, the police and fire fighters. For one thing, they'll be able to use the drones to locate people under collapsed buildings, in fires, etc. Also, soldiers will put them to use to survey buildings or combat areas.

Nothing's made it out of the lab yet. YET.

Two things.
1. Although I do see the value of spy birds and insects (Really? Millions and millions of dollars? Really?), it raises some privacy issues with me - as I'm sure once these things are in the hands of the police force, it will not always be put to good use.
2. Implanting sound and video devices into real, living things is cruel. I already wrote that story - and if people are unhappy with living fish magnets, they'll get upset about this, too.

Wait, 3. I knew that humming bird/bee buzzy thing hovering in my yard was not a real animal!! Does anyone know what the heck that thing is!?

... it's a humming bird moth. Darn.

Catching up with Tree Man of Indonesia



Tree Man with his child

 Back in 2007, Dede Koswara became a kind of celebrity when his undiagnosed skin condition gone out of control made headlines.
Koswara first discovered the growths when he was fifteen following a cut to his  knee. The warts began to spread to the rest of his body, eventually reaching his face. For a time, he worked for a circus act just to make money. At one time, bugs were living in the growths.

For the past two years, doctors continually remove the growths, but there's not yet a cure to provide sustained relief. The condition, known as Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, which is apparently the cause of wart and horn growths, has never been linked to such an excessive case before. Doctors still cannot say why the growths that resemble tree roots on his upper body and on his feet are so pronounced.

Treeman's Condition Worsens in 2008



 Back in 2007, Dede's life seemed entirely consumed by his disease and he feared an entire take-over of his body. Living in poverty and constant pain, his story brought him to the attention of a doctor in the United States. One of the treatments offered was daily doses of Vitamin A - seems simple enough, but to a poverty-stricken man living in Indonesia suffering in this way, it was more than a hopeful opportunity.

Four pounds of tree-like tissue was removed from his body. After his condition did seem to improve and he was able to use his hands again (becoming a Sudoku addict) without causing himself pain, things eventually went downhill again in 2008. Dede underwent two more skin graft surgeries that year and has had ten surgeries to date. The roots of the warts have reached his bones which is not making treatment easy.

Mothman in Weird US TV Clip

Too bad this show doesn't air anymore, I love the books.

As a follow-up to my last post, Mothman: An Icon of American Monster Folklore, here's a clip from "Weird US" regarding the Mothman and more recent interviews with the original witnesses.

The Mothman, an icon of American monster folklore.

Witness Sketch

This is for Esther, who asked for more Mothman. He's a bit worn out as far as more recent folklore goes, but you have to love a scary mystery, so here it goes.

Mothman. Hoax? Maybe in part. There's no doubt, however, that more than one someone, saw something that scared them. According to witness testimonials, he's a seven-foot tall winged humanoid with bright red eyes that glow in the dark, whom emits an evil, harsh shriek. Sightings of something akin to this description first occurred in 1966 on November 15th. Two teenage couples driving past the abandoned World War II TNT factory north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, claimed to see two glowing red orbs in the night. Looking more closely, they claim to discern a tall man-like creature, with wings folded against his back. The creature, they said, chased their car at speeds of 100 miles per hour.   They drove to the Mason County courthouse and explained what happened to Deputy Millard Halstead, who stated later, "I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously."

It didn't stop there. Since the kids were so genuinely afraid, townspeople were out at the TNT factory the following night, searching for any explanation. Some camped and even brought their families, hoping to witness the Mothman and to obtain evidence. At the same time, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley, and Mrs. Marcella Bennett, with her baby girl, were driving to visit their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas, who lived in a small house near the abandoned igloos, the concrete dome structures erected during WWII to store dynamite). As they were leaving their friend's house, a figure appeared near their parked car. Mrs. Bennett later described the creature as initially lying down, slowly getting up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes. While Mr. Wamsley was on the phone with the police, the creature walked onto the front porch and looked in at them through the window.

On November 24th, four more witnesses stepped forward, claiming again to have seen the creature flying above the TNT factory. The following morning, a Thomas Ury told the police he'd seen a creature of the same above description, standing in a field only to fly away. Mothman took the media by storm.  

Mothman Newspaper Clippings

All the descriptions of the Mothman were similar, yet with minor differences. Inconsistencies aren't major, however, due to the different experiences of the witnesses, their circumstances at the time of each particular event, given light, weather and location. One witness claimed, "It stood taller and broader than a man, walked in sort of a halting shuffle on humanlike legs, and emitted a squeaking sound." Another stated, "The red, glowing eyes, set into the shoulders, seem to have been more terrifying than either the size of the creature or span of its batlike wings." Several witnesses heard a mechanical humming as the creature flew. All witnesses described feeling absolute terror; "I’ve never had that feeling before. A weird kind of fear. That fear gripped you and held you."

The story gets more weird. In fact, the Mothman was only one of several weird things going on in Point Pleasant during this time. UFO’s were reported, including strange encounters with men in black suits. Nick Diamond writes that "The Grinning Man, as many refer to him, was supposedly in Point Pleasant as well.  The best known Grinning Man was Indrid Cold, who appeared during the Mothman sightings. The first encounter was on November 2nd of 1966.  A man by the name of Woodrow Derenberger was driving home after work when he heard a sudden crash behind him.  A strange vehicle shaped like an old furnace firing soot and embers at both ends sped by him and stopped, blocking off the road ahead.  A tall thin man stepped out of the car and approached Mr. Derenberger.  He approached with a broad grin on his face and said his name was Indrid Cold.  The two men had a brief conversation about the Mothman sightings, and then Mr. Cold left."

On January 11th, 1967, sightings of Mothman were again reported, this time over Point Pleasant's Silver Bridge, and then several sightings occurred after the bridges collapse (46 people died in the Ohio River). The Silver Bridge connected Point Pleasant, WV to Gallipolis, Ohio.



Mothman Statue Caption, Point Pleasant WV

 A Mothman statue stands in Point Pleasant, welcoming tourists who come interested in the Mothman story. There's a museum and the whole shibang, obviously.

North American Sandhill Crane

One of the earliest theories that surfaced, aside from the supernatural ones, was that a Sandhill Crane was being mistaken for the alleged Mothman. This bird, which can stand up to seven feet tall, was a problem in surrounding areas at the time. This bird can glide on air without flapping its wings for a longer period of time than the average bird and also lets out a fantastic shriek, possibly like the one described by witnesses.

John Keel wrote a book entitled, "Visitors from Space: The Astonishing True Story of the Mothman Prophecies". His theory that the sightings occurred as precognitions to the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The movie The Mothman Prophecies starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney was based on Keel's book (the accuracy of his book, stemming from his original investigation and translating over to the book has been questioned) . While the reader may or may not buy the supernatural side of the book, a large amount of fascinating first-hand accounts are included.

Mothman Photo? 2003

A Mothman festival occurs every September in Point Pleasant. Why not? Whether the Mothman (named after a Batman character) was real or not, the witness testimonials seem genuine and terrifying. The town brings in revenue thanks to Mothman, and boy, do they go all out. Visitors can take a hayride through the abandoned TNT area - although this past year, illegal explosives were found inside the igloos and the area was shut down.

Newer sightings have occured, some with photos and some from other parts of the world. The following 2003 photo was evaluated on History Channel's "Monster Quest". One conclusion was reached that the very Mothman-esque thing at the peak of the bridge is actually, a trashbag. Thoughts, anyone? There is a second photo of the alleged trashbag flying off the bridge.

World Trade Center Mothman

Then there's this photo, that circulated widely via e-mail forwards - and don't we all love those? This photo was apparently taken on the day of the September 11th attack in NYC by a Steven Moran.

So... the mystery continues.

Bow-Nessie, England's Lake Monster, with photos and video

I had a feeling today was going to be a good day for paranormal news stories making the front page.

Pickles/Harrington Bow-Nessie Sighting 2011

I didn't have to dig for today's cryptid sighting. Fresh from the press, couple Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington spotted what they called an "enormous snake" last Friday February 11th 2001, while kayaking on England's largest lake, Lake Windemere. It may not be the Scottish Loch Ness monster, but her English counterpart is close enough with sightings occurring eight times in the past five years.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph," stated 24 year old Pickles. "Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal—it's not like any animal I've ever seen before."

Bow-Nessie or Wells Catfish?

Sojourning with his wife, Journalism professor Steve Burnip started the recent string of "Bow-Nessie" sightings on the lake back in 2006 reporting they had seen a "giant eel" somewhere between 15-20 feet long with two humps. Ian Winfield, a fish ecologist for the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Lancaster University, believes this couple (and perhaps the others) could have seen a catfish, as they have been introduced to a lot of English lakes for angling. “The Wells catfish comes from mainland Europe and can grow to about 500cm and weigh up to 306kg and there have been numerous records of catfish washing up dead in Cumbrian lakes,” said Mr Winfield.

Mr. Burnip says of the most recent picture being called the clearest Bow-Nessie photo ever taken: “I know what I saw and it shocked me, it had three humps and it’s uncanny the likeness between this and what I saw five years ago.”

Here's an intriguing video, where a strange V-shaped ripple affects the lake surface seemingly out of no where during filming of LAKES TV.

Vampire movie "Let Me In" deserves a serious look.

"Twilight" is so yesterday. Absent are the tense, silent and many times uncomfortable moments between teenage girl and teenage vampire. In Matt Reeves' remake of "Let Me In", the theme is adolescent (as in, 12 year old) loneliness. However, the film's story isn't new. It's a remake of the Swedish English speaking movie of the same title, based on the book Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Kodi Smitt-McPhee (see movie "The Road) plays Eli, the twelve year old boy who lives in an apartment complex in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Bullied daily at school, (and that's some serious torture he puts up with), Eli sits at home at night spying on his neighbors with a telescope and fantasizing about how to destroy the mean kids at school. He carries around a knife, and never uses it except to jab at a tree and pretend to stab those he hates in his room.

While spying through his telescope in the dark one night, he watches the new neighbors arrive - an older man and a young girl. She doesn't go to school. She comes out a night, barefooted in the snow. Her name, Abby. With the innocence and openness of a twelve year old, he accepts her this way and she becomes his only friend. He waits for her each night, and doesn't question her weirdness until much later. He suspects abuse, but never says it out loud - he can hear yelling through the wall where she lives on the other side.

Then - people start dying. A teenager. A runner from the apartment complex. Meanwhile at school, Eli is still putting up with his bully. The yelling is continuing on the other side of his wall. I'll stop there.

The movie, while much more simple than the book its based on, touches some real issues that "Twilight" and "True Blood" don't come anywhere near. That's what makes this movie so compelling. You can believe it, despite the fact the vampire stuff is going on. A vampire movie, that's believable? OMG.

It's not just believable, it's moving. I'm fond of stories that touch on the loneliness of human beings, the uncertainty of life. It's universal, it's in all of us - the fear of being alone - and sure, vampires work here. This is a movie that deserves your attention, even if it's just to make you aware of what some kids have to go through as young people in school and at home. This story is very, very human - ironic, yes?

Chinese magician commands fish, activists claiming animal cruelty

I spent the majority of this video trying to decide whether or not I could actually see the magnet in the orange goldfish's bellies! Since magnet implants are really the only way to pull this off, I won't even bother suggesting that I could be wrong. The attached video shows six fish swimming in formation, allegedly commanded by the magician.

Chinese magician Fu Yandong performed this trick two weeks ago for the Spring Festival Gala on Chinese Central Television and after animal rights activists jumped, his second planned performance was cancelled for unknown reasons. Convenient. Activists came to the same conclusion as the rest of us - magnets. Either implants or he fed them magnets, so as to inable him or someone else to drag them alongside each other from underneath.

Fish Magnets? ... or magic? Uh... let me think.

Having been promoted as one of the highlights of the Lunar New Year holiday last week, Yandong's agent confirmed the cancellation. This past Monday, fifty-three non-government organizations asked TV stations not to show the magic trick, due to a copycat effect that woud likely ensue. However, Hunan Television has in fact booked Yandong to perform the trick, where the magician will apparently tell the secret (which isn't magnets, he says). This is in contradiction to his previous statements where he refused to give up the secret, sticking with magician code.

I can't wait to see what he managed to come up with between the first airing and the unveiling of the secret. So, stay tuned.

The Voynich Manuscript: Alien Language, Code, or Nothing At All?

In 1912, antique book dealer Wilfrid Voynich came across an odd item. The Voynich Manuscript, as it is called, was found hidden inside a chest for sale by the Society of Jesus, just outside of Rome. The letters, some of which resemble Latin, are unlike any characters in known language. Currently, the book resides in Yale's Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Something akin to the DaVinci Code in fiction, this book is the real deal. For decades, scientists and scholars have attempted to figure out what language, if any, is within the book. Only one thing has been determined, and only very recently.

The pages of the book are made of animal skin which make it possible to carbon-date for age. Carbon-14 dating puts the book's creation in the 15th century, roughly between 1404 and 1438. The first book ever to be printed off a press is the Gutenburg Bible, which was created in 1453. The oldest book that we know of? The Diamond Sutra, a scroll printed on paper using wooden blocks in China 1,300 years ago.

So, is it a coded writing? This would make sense for the time period. According to Kevin Repp, curator of Beinecke Rare Book Library, "Fears of heresy or witchcraft among them".

The drawings are suggestive of botanical, marine and even astrological items/creatures. Physicist Greg Hodgins of the University of Arizona said, "Who knows what's being written about in this manuscript, but it appears to be dealing with a range of topics that might relate to alchemy. Secrecy is sometimes associated with alchemy, and so it would be consistent with that tradition if the knowledge contained in the book was encoded".

Computers can't even figure this book out. The language literally doesn't exist and on top of that, the latest coding programs can't find a single code within. Therefore, top researchers are concluding that it might not say anything at all and perhaps there are much smaller codes hidden throughout.

No mummies damaged during Cairo museum's break-in



Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egyptian Antiquities

 Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's antiquities committee since 2002 and made minister just last week, clarified an earlier statement yesterday for BBC. The two mummies originally thought to be damaged during the break-in and looting in Cairo's Egyptian Museum were not mummies at all, but two skulls swiped from the CT machine.

Egypt's cultural treasures are secured, Dr. Hawass said. "The Valley of the Kings is safe, the pyramids are safe, 24 museums are safe, the synagogues and the monasteries and the Muslim monuments are completely safe."

On his website, Dr. Hawass wrote that 70 antiquities were broken included a statue of boy pharaoh King Tutankhamun atop a panther and other artifacts from later periods, all of which can be restored.

Mothman Sighting, Doomsday Capsule and Bigfoot Hoax

Definitely a weird week.

Recent Mothman Sighting near Cincinatti, Ohio. Witness claims to have watched a deer pass in front of her car - except when she turned to look at the animal at the side of the road, it was not a deer. Red eyes and wings. Not very deer-like. From the looks of it, I think she might have been texting while driving, too. Shame, shame.

Russian man, military engineer, determined to outlive 2012 Armageddon builds a Doomsday Capsule. This is like Buzz Aldrin claiming that aliens are the real deal. Makes you wonder... Seth Brogan seems to think George Lucas has his own doomsday spaceship. This whole thing is catching on.

Bigfoot Sighting Caught on Film, Catches Attention of Discovery Channel, Students Fess Up. After a woman caught a snapshot of an alleged Bigfoot, Discovery Channel called in for interviews. The woman did some research of her own and found the culprits responsible for her experience. Will Discovery Channel still do the interview?

New Ghost Hunters Airs in Feb 2011

So I've gotten some not so nice feedback regarding my current thinkings regarding the Ghost Hunters of SyFy. May I point out to this particular reader that I was one of you! I, too, aside from being a freelance writer for some years at Penn State and having the chance to interview these guys several times, was in fact a serious fan of the show!! Show aside, the cast members are super nice, were always awesome about interviews and were just plain fun to be around.

However... my heart and many, many others were broken when the Fort Delaware footage showed up on YouTube. Now I haven't done any research on this since that happened, so yes, I admit that I haven't done any follow-up looking into any of that. I basically abandoned the show. I happen to live in Delaware now, so I have heard claims coming out of the fort backing up my position on this.

Even so and upon the request of a reader, I will give the show another chance. I will tune in to the new season, which begins on SyFy channel on Wednesday 23rd. Ahh... I can remember looking forward to Wednesday night all week long... whilst my husband barked at me through every commercial how the whole show was staged and I said, "No, it's not! No, it's not!"

So there. I'll watch it already, okay!?

Egyptian unrest; looters steal mummies and treasures

Looters attempted to run off with the skulls 2,000 year old mummies from Cairo's Egyptian Museum yesterday, but were fortunately caught by police and civilians. Also confiscated was a heavily damaged statue of Tutankhamun, broken by the criminals during the theft. Zahi Hawass, archaeologist and chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities stated that, "They tried to attack and rob the showcases of King Tut, but they failed. These people are criminals, they are not true Egyptians... the army are now guarding the museum and all the museums are now safe." A first-hand description of the looting can be found at Dr. Hawass' website. Dr. Hawass writes that "What is really beautiful is that not all Egyptians were involved in the looting of the museum.  A very small number of people tried to break, steal and rob.  Sadly, one criminal voice is louder than one hundred voices of peace.  The Egyptian people are calling for freedom, not destruction.  When I left the museum on Saturday, I was met outside by many Egyptians, who asked if the museum was safe and what they could do to help.  The people were happy to see an Egyptian official leave his home and come to Tahrir Square without fear; they loved that I came to the museum." Since the Internet is not working in Egypt at this time, Dr. Hawass faxed his update on Egyptian Antiquities to Italy.

It saddens me that people can become so desperate that they would, as Dr. Hawass writes, "rob their own country". Fortunately there are many standing up to the criminals, willing to protect the museums and countless irreplaceable treasures.   

The pyramids at Giza are now closed off by the military, a site that normally swarms with tourists. There are a lot of ongoing dig sites throughout Egpypt and given that the entire country is basically a museum, deep concern remains over many of the treasures and historical artifacts at risk during this time of protest and unrest.

I'll be watching this, as the rest of the world does too. Stay safe Dr. Hawass!

Ghost Hunters open The Spalding Inn

Now I might not watch the original Ghost Hunters all that often anymore (I once was a die hard fan and interviewed several cast members for various publications), due to the fact that I firmly believe that Jay and Grant and the whole crew have fallen victim to fakery (maybe they don't have a choice, maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't think I'm wrong), I still think they're pretty awesome guys (It's important to add here that I think the show started out real). So when I heard they opened The Spalding Inn, I was pretty psyched. Quite honestly, it is absolutely gorgeous and perhaps I'll make my way there sometime soon as my mother is *yells out* MOVING to New Hampshire in the spring. ...Verklempt... talk amongst yaselves...

The Spalding Inn Whitfiled, NH

For now, I only have second hand information.

Located in the North Woods of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, The Spalding Inn has thirty-six rooms and a family restaurant called "The 2 Kings Restaurant" as well as a pub to compliment, called "2 Kings Pub". Don't think too hard about the identities of the two kings.

The rates are reasonable and according to the website, so are the meals. The views look pretty delicious, too.

This upcoming weekend, February 2nd through the 4th, The Spalding Inn will host a TAPS Paranormal Weekend. Ghost hunting with these guys is actually really fun - I had the chance to investigate with Steve Gonzalves and that was a blast. If you're not a Ghost Hunters fan, no worries. The Inn is perfectly suited for weddings, romantic or family vacations and business meetings. There is, of course, a ghost hunting package - because duh! The Spalding Inn is allegedly haunted. You probably already guessed that. In fact, The Spalding Inn was featured on the SyFy show, Ghost Hunters (the crew of Ghost Hunters International served as investigators while Jay and Grant became clients).

Bipedal Gorilla. Evolution, in your face.

Gorilla Fight!!!!

Speaking of orangutans, I've got a really, really crazy video for you today. People on YouTube are claiming it's fake! Ironic, considering the whole theory of evolution and all. Despite the fact that evolution is pretty much widely accepted these days and has even been worked into some religious teachings, this is still a jawdropper.

And sorry to be misleading with my opener, but it's a gorilla. A silverback gorilla. Not an organutan. Had to work in a previous and somewhat related post.

Ambam the gorilla lives in Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, England. Oh, and this isn't the first time a gorilla walked upright. Plenty of them do it. This video just happened to go viral. In this zoo alone, walking upright seems a family affair.

"Ambam's father Bitam used to display the same behavior if he had handfuls of food to carry," animal keeper Phil Ridges said. "Ambam also has a full sister, Tamba, and a half sister ... who also sometimes stand and walk in the same way... We think he might use it to get a height advantage to look over the wall when keepers come to feed him. Ambam can also carry a lot more food if he stands and uses both hands, and walking on two feet also means he doesn't get his hands wet when it's raining."

Twenty-one year old Ambam is 485 pounds. Imposing, yes?

Enjoy!

George Washington in a box. ARE YOU KIDDING!?

My latest postings seem to be much, much less on the paranormal/weird side but sometimes I just can't help but share something! Like the following photo, for instance.

NCAA, Martin Luther King Day, South Carolina 2011

I won't say much about this except that NCAA - what were you thinking?

George Washington, our first president - in a box? Really?

... Really? To make things worse, G.W. has been similarly covered for the past four years at the same event.

Some things get me so annoyed/worked up/dumbfounded. This is one of those things. In honor of this ridiculous act of disrespect, I will usher in a new type of post, which will fall under the weird AND annoying/what!? what!? category and I will title them "ARE YOU KIDDING!?" posts.

 (Snapshot taken at the NAACP's 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in Columbia, SC shows a wooden box covering a statue of George Washington in front of the state house).

Orangutan's 97% same DNA as humans

While Chimps are 99% DNA doubles to the human species, scientists have just announced that the red-haired Orangutan comes in second at 97%. This study marks the first time that scientists have ever unraveled the endangered Orangutan species' genetic code. Orangutan is a combination of two Malay words which mean "forest man or forest people".

There are only about fifty-seven thousand wild orangutans left in the world, living in Borneo and the island of Sumatra. Due to deforestation, these numbers continue to dwindle.

Thirteen million DNA variations were studied by scientists, with apes from both locations, discovering that the two species split off 400,000 years ago (more recent than they thought). Some sections of DNA were closer to humans than of chimp DNA.

Current research shows that humans and chimps shared a common ancestor five to seven million years ago.

To see an Orangtan up close, there loads of fun to watch at the zoo. At the Philadelphia Zoo, for instance, you'll likely find the older female Sumatran orangutan Tua shying away from visitors beneath a blanket, while baby orangutan Batu plays pranks by trying to continuously yank the blanket off the female. Orangutan's have also attempted to draw in captivity. An orangutan will live ten years longer on average in a zoo, than in the wild. The average life span of an orangutan is forty years old.

Orangutan's can recognize themselves in a mirror and can also learn sign language.

Unicorns, rare white deer, need help in New York

While I'm not sure why on earth anyone thinks that a white deer looks anything like a unicorn (after all, the defining feature of unicorn is the horn on top of the horse's head), that's what they're calling them in New York. A herd of very, very rare white deer (white due to a recessive gene) are living in Seneca Couny inhabit a former Cold War Army Depot enclosed in a twenty-four mile fence. These sweet guys are so rare and beautiful that Lenape Native Americans believed they were something like ghosts and had magic powers.

In the early 1950s, two white fawns (baby deer) were spotted by the Commanding General and he adored them so much he forbid any GI's from shooting them. Today, Seneca County boasts the world's largest herd of white deer.

Sadly, business is looking to develop 7500 acres of the former army depot. Due to heavy economic problems in Seneca County, businesses are eyeing up the land that is being called "an economic goldmine". Others, the Seneca White Deer Organization in particular, want the land made into an official nature reserve. The White Deer group hopes to market their cause as a conservational issue (which it is!!!) and capture the hearts of people the world over. Nothing can happen yet, however, as the army owns the land until 2012. Given the fact that the economy needs fueling, maybe they can do both?
Help the White Deer!

• Buy White Deer Merchandise
• Become a member of Seneca White Deer - I'm doing it!
• Attend fundraisers
• Donate to Seneca White Deer
• Write a letter

Fix the economy - build a crop circle and say the aliens did it - charge money.

Seriously. If you build it, people will come. And they'll bring money if you ask them to. Even since the late 1970s when crop circles were all the craze, the alleged "phenomenon" has been under heavy scrutiny. In 1991, two men named Doug Bower and Dave Chorley announced that they were responsible for crop formations in 1978 that sparked a worldwide debate on the origins of the circles. People came from all over to visit the crop circles and even after 1991's revelation, crop circles are still turning up all over the world and much more complex than usual. Many are created by professional artists or people that just plain like to knock down wheat. Yet there are still hoards of people that shout E.T. when another one appears in a field somewhere in the world!

Just this week, a crop circle appeared in an Indonesian rice field, sparking local rumors that extra-terrestrials are at it again. According to the Associated Press, the formation resembles a 70 yard flower and is "clearly sculpted by humans". Twitter feeds are suggesting that a group of students may have created the crop circle. Sure enough, however, people are paying to see this thing and the UFO rumors haven't settled just yet. Locals claim they saw a tornado the previous night and their calling the circle a "footprint". It is pretty though, isn't it?

Believers in paranormal or ET-created crop circles continue to assert that while many of these field formations may be created by man, some of them may be otherworldly messages or phenomena. In several cases, witnesses claimed to spot balls of light (BOLs) over crop formations.

In one highly controversial and sensational video, BOLs lay out a crop circle in a matter of two seconds right for the camera. My verdict: Hoax! If I were watching the same scene unfold over a field, I definitely wouldn't say "This is amazing..." in a calm, cool tone as the videographer is (It is a hoax, by the way). I'd shout something to the tune of "HOLY ____" and probably drop my camera, maybe?

I could get into all the hub bub of crop circles and paranormal/alien theories but I won't waste my time or yours. They're fun and that's that. What's more interesting, I think, is how much we all want to believe in extra-terrestrial influences and messages in crops. That says a lot about us as human beings all over the world from different countries and cultures and how we feel about life and our place in the universe -- we want to know that something else is out there and that it's not just us... we want to believe that we're not alone?

Charlie Chaplin's Time Traveler DeBunked

Back in mid-October of 2010, a scene from Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928) went viral on the web. the clip shows the hustle and bustle of people in Hollywood attending a premier at then Grauman's Chinese Theater. Irish filmmaker George Clark made an odd discovery: a man (or a woman) walks into the scene wearing a long black coat and appears to hold something akin to a cell phone up to his/her ear.

An alleged time traveler, according to some. Jumping to conclusions, are we?

Since the video circulated on the web, much has been said against the time traveler theory. Here are some obvious flaws to the time traveler theory.

Time Traveler Theory Hitches:

• Even if someone had traveled back in time to 1928, cell phones would not work as there are no cell phone towers.
• Time travel is still very much theoretical.
• No one in the scene thinks anything of the alleged cellular phone, so if they're not worried - why are we?

Recently, the Charlie Chaplin Time Traveler clip was debunked. The alleged cell phone is actually an early form of a Siemens hearing aid, shaped much like a cellular phone and held up against the ear.

Taking Applications for Poe Toaster: The End of a 60 Year Tribute

Two things very close to my heart. Baltimore and Edgar Allen Poe's grave. Hey, it's not weird if you're an English major! (... or a history major.) As if The Baltimore Ravens' loss to Pittsburg last weekend didn't hurt enough, it seems the Poe Toaster has given up his annual appearance at Poe's grave at Westminster Hall Cemetary for good.

I spent an evening at Poe's grave back in 2008 and the experience sent chills up my spine. (again... English major.) The cemetary might have had something to do with that, too.

Poe, originally buried in 1849 in an unmarked grave, caught the attention of the media and his mother-in-law Maria Clemm in 1860 when reports circulated that his resting place was overgrown with weeds. Judge Neilson Poe ordered the creation of a marble headstone and promised a worried and distraught Maria Clemm that the grave would be better maintained. The headstone fell off of a train and crumbled to pieces. Neilson Poe, without the funds to build another stone, did not order a second one.

In 1895, Miss Sara Sigourney Rice launched a movement that would provide a monument for the dead poet. Half the cost of the new stone was raised by 1871 through donations by students and friends while the remaining funds were gifted by George W. Childs of Philadelphia. George A. Frederick, the architect of Baltimore's City Hall designed the monument for Poe and was dedicated on November 17th, 1875. According to The Edgar Allen Poe society's website, "Among those in attendance were John H. B. Latrobe (one of the judges who awarded Poe the Baltimore Saturday Visiter prize in 1833), Judge Neilson Poe (Edgar’s cousin) and Walt Whitman (the great American poet, who actually met Poe once). Letters from H. W. Longfellow, John G. Whittier, William C. Bryant and Alfred Tennyson were read. The remains of Virginia Poe, buried in 1847 in New York, were brought to Baltimore and added to those of Poe and Maria Clemm in 1885. Thus the three who had struggled together as a family for so many years were reunited for eternity".

Beginning in 1949 (The Baltimore Evening Sun reports it first in this year), in the darkness of the night of Poe's birth, a cloaked figure has visited the monument every year, always leaving three roses and a bottle of cogniac. You can visit the Poe house in Baltimore to see some of the tributes left behind.

Famous Poe Toaster Photo

Last year, the Poe Toaster, as this mysterious stranger has been dubbed, did not show up on the anniversary of Poe's birth. Over a dozen spectators stood on the street across from the cemetary in the rain and freezing temperatures to wait all night. They never saw the Poe Toaster enter the cemetary, nor was anything left at the grave. Four imposters came and went - one out of a limo, two women and one older man - all in plain sight. This year it seems, the original Poe Toaster was absent again, leaving many to assume that he might have passed away.

Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House told the Associated Press, "I think we can safely say it's not car trouble, and he's not sick. This doesn't look good."

Upon realizing that the Poe Toaster was not coming, spectators crossed into the cemetary and paid their own tribute to Baltimore's beloved poet. Jerome stated that he will return in 2012 to wait for the Poe Toaster but if the cloaked stranger does not appaer, that will be the end of the annual vigils at Westminster Hall.

Hark the Raven, nevermore.

There's No Place Like Home... UFO's Over Bel Air, Maryland, US

As a child, I spent about ten years of my life living in Bel Air, Maryland. A childhood friend claimed to see a similar orb as described below out in the sky as he sat with his dad on their back deck. I've always been on the fence regarding UFO's (but I leave the possibility open). When I saw this story coming right out of my childhood hometown, I just had to share.

The sighting above occurred in October of 2010. Still can't figure out what road this is. For a time, that interested me more than the orbs floating off in the background. I gave up.

The following sighting listed in the MUFON CMS report occurred on January 10th 2011:

For the past two months I've been seeing strange lights and aircraft in my area around Bel Air, Maryland. After seeing them on a regular basis I went out and bought a video camera so I could document these sightings.

I started to notice these lights almost every night usually around 7:00PM EST. They appear very low in the sky, usually over trees and sometimes they can be extremely bright. At times they appear to pulsate and move extremely slow. Generally they hang around for 5-10 minutes before fading out. Sometimes when they fade out and start moving away they start to blink a red light or strobe light like you would see on a standard aircraft. However I can assure you that these objects do not behave like standard aircraft.

I have also seen and filmed several large black triangle aircraft with 4 bright head lights. They fly extremely low maybe 200 feet off the ground and are almost completely silent. Sometimes they turn the head lights on and off while flying. I had one fly directly over my head one night while I was filming and even though it was only 200-300 feet above me I couldn't hear any sounds coming from it until it was directly over my head. Once it was over my head it sounded like a jet engine but the craft appeared to be a black triangle shape. It was very eerie to have such a large object flying that low and right in front of me yet completely silent until it was directly over my head.

Now you have to keep in mind that Aberdeen Proving Grounds is not far from Bel Air, so any sightings occurring within the area need to be taken with that in mind. However, these "crafts" are moving in such a way that seems very inconsistent with any known military craft. Am I right?

UFO Sightings in Maryland since 11/2010

An earlier MUFON CMS report from late 2010: This report is being filed by the Maryland Mufon State Director on behalf of a witness and a reporter that wish to remain anonymous. This a report of a "first-hand" report.

On December 30, 2010, an individual traveling north on Rt 109 north of Poolsville, MD., passed the curve north of the Jerusalem Road intersection and encountered a stopped vehicle in the road ahead of him.

He looked left (west) and saw the object [a dark "square" (diamond?), approximately 50 yards on a side, fixed white light on all four corners, about 75 yards west of the road over a farm field, about 1000 feet lower than normal approach altitude into Dulles International Airport, moving such that a corner was the forward point) moving slowly (direction not given). He initially thought it was a helicopter.

He turned off the car radio, opened the window to listen, and heard nothing. Two vehicles traveling southbound also saw the object and stopped. The weather that evening was mostly clear with some high clouds.

Giant concete home construction in the Ozark

More fodder for the conspiracy theorists or maybe not at all.

A home near Highlandville, MO, US that rumors claim will be built entirely out of concrete and bullet-proof glass, will span the length and width of about one acre on a five hundred acre stretch of land. The structure itself will boast a nice 73,000 square feet of room. Let's compare, shall we?



http://www.ozarkmountains.org/


The average US home size in the last 5 years comes to about 2300 square feet. The not so average? Take Bill Gates' house. 66,000 sqaure feet. The White House is smaller, coming to 55,000 square feet. The "mansion" in Highlandville could potentially fit twenty-six average sized homes (and more!) in the space it occupies.

According to blueprints, there are plans for fifteen bedrooms, fourteen bathrooms, a two story library and a two story great hall. All big, of course. Big means BIG. The basement alone is 2300 square feet and will apparently be used mostly for storage purposes. That's a lot of stuff.

All in all, so what? The biggest house in America. Move that bus! Congratulations, Huff family. Wait, no.

The deed to the land names Steven T. Huff. Online records of political campaign contributions show a Steven T. Huff of Leesburg, VA - an engineer and chief technology officer of Overwatch Systems, Ltd. Overwatch's website states that the company “delivers multi-source intelligence (multi-INT), geospatial analysis and custom intelligence solutions to the Department of Defense, national agencies and civilian organizations. ... More than 25,000 analysts in the U.S. Department of Defense and the larger intelligence community utilize Overwatch solutions.”

So why all the concrete and bullet-proof glass? Planning and zoning restrictions are allowing only one family to occupy the "residence" at a time and that doesn't sound much like a home. Steven's brother, the project manager, suggested that the concrete structure in progress is actually an insulated concrete structure protecting the real building going on inside. According to onlookers, builders and equipment arrive daily and it's been going on for a full year.

Horns on humans. For real.

"Doctors say they don't know what caused it," Huang Yuanfan of China tells the press, "But if they try to take it off it will just come back." Yuanfan is 84 years old and lives in Ziyuan, China. The it he's referring to turns out to be a three-inch horn growing out the back of his head.

Seriously? Yes. Seriously.

What started out as a small lump, Yuanfan attempted picking at it and even tried filing it off. Nothing worked, however, as the protrusion continued to grow.

In fact, this has happened before. More than once. Last year, a 101 year old Chinese woman made headlines with not one, but two horns growing on her head. The second horn, in its earliest stages, is shown here. A mother of seven, her family expressed worry.

During the same year, another Chinese woman made the news with a 6 1/2 inch horn growing out of her forehead. The horn curled down over her face and was growing for 4 years. Another similar case occurred in 2006.

Human horns are not limited to China it seems. In Yemen, 2007, a 102 year old man named Saleh Talib Saleh was reported in the Yemen Observer to have grown a horn at age 78.

"One day, as I was touching the surface of my head, I felt a very thick and hard layer of substance on my head," Saleh told the Yemen Observer. "At that time we didn't have the medical institutions like we have today, so I ignored it and did not focus too much on it because it didn't bother me at all. Every week, it seemed to grow bigger and harder."

In this particular case, the individual broke the horn off once it reached 19 inches long in 2006. Only days afterward, the growth continued.

Each of the horns resembles what is called a cutaneous horn, a funnel-shaped protrusion that are usually only a few millimetres long. Cutaneous horns are composed of compacted keratin, which is the exact protein we have in our hair and nails which forms horns, wool and feathers in the animal kingdom. The underlying causes of cutaneous horns are the common wart, skin cancer and actinic keratoses, sections of scaly skin that develop on skin heavily exposed to the sun - in these cases, the face and head. Doctors do acknowledge that the length of the horns mentioned here are unusual.

Aflockalypse: The Debate Continues Over Mass Animal Deaths

The term Aflockalypse, a term referring to the mass animal die-offs occuring early in 2011, got started with conspiracy theorists and became a laughing matter with Saturday Night Live (see photo).

No laughing matter, however, is the fear and debate resulting from the seemingly unending reports of mass animal deaths occuring the world over since New Years Eve 2010.

Just yesterday, California reported about 100 birds died and were found near Highway 101 near the Wine Country region.

So far the public has been presented with many rational explanations for the mass deaths such as cold weather, movement of the earth's magnetic pole, blunt trauma, H1N1, disease and fireworks. While scientists are continuing to examine dead birds in the US, conspiracy theorists are busy tying loose ends together. Government testing, the end of times. Some really complex theories have tied the murder of John Wheeler in Delaware earlier this year to a WMD cover-up related to the animal deaths.

Fact is, over ninety mass animal deaths have been recorded over the past year and that's basically normal. The problem is that we're so tied to our cell phones and computers and the incoming news seems like something we've never heard before - because we've never heard it before!

Mass Animal Deaths Attract Attention

Mass animal deaths are not unusual. As the daughter of an environmentalist educator, I know this to be true. However, there's nothing normal in my small opinion, about the number of animal species seemingly singled out in many parts of the world to be instantly struck down out of the sky or washed up on shore. Yet I can't help but wonder - if this is all a big coincidence and disease, trauma, H1N1, cold waters, etc. are to blame - is the Internet and the media to blame for all the hype? Information travels fast. Much faster than ever before. Perhaps we're seizing each event too quickly, without realizing that normal die-offs just haven't been sensationalized like this before. Or maybe not...

The alleged culprits for the sudden deaths? Indigestion for the seven-hundred turtle doves that rained down over Faenza, Italy last Wednesday, January 5th, 2011. Fireworks blamed for the hundreds of jackdaws that fell dead to the ground in Sweden (A truck driver tried to take the blame as well, claiming he ran them over but yet there was no outward phsyical damage).  Fireworks were also blamed for five-thousand blackbirds and starlings littered roads in Beebe, Arkansas in the US on New Years Eve 2010. Over 100 miles away one-hundred thousand drumfish washed up on shore, an event said to be unrelated. The cold. The cold. The cold. More of the cold. The list goes on...

• Hundreds of dead snapper fish found on the shores of Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand.
• Forty-thousand dead crabs on the shores near Kent, England.
• 450 birds fallen dead in Louisiana, US.
• Two-million dead spotfish in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, Us.

And I can still go on... and on...

• Manatees in Florida (just a few)
• Starfish and Jellyfish in South Carolina
• 150 Tons of Talapias in Thailand
• Hundreds of fish in Aulstralia
• Snappers and Penguins in New Zealand

You can't help but get caught up in this, right? I haven't even documented them all. If you want to keep track, you can visit BuzzFeed's interactive map.