The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
10-12-2018
NASA: Earth’s Poles Are About To Flip – Worldwide Blackouts Coming! The Consequences Could Be Deadly
NASA: Earth’s Poles Are About To Flip – Worldwide Blackouts Coming! The Consequences Could Be Deadly
Scientists understand that Earth’s magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in your hand, the needle would point to ‘south.’ This is because a magnetic compass is calibrated based on Earth’s poles. The N-S markings of a compass would be 180 degrees wrong if the polarity of today’s magnetic field were reversed. Many doomsday theorists have tried to take this natural geological occurrence and suggest it could lead to Earth’s destruction. But would there be any dramatic effects? The answer, from the geologic and fossil records we have from hundreds of past magnetic polarity reversals, seems to be ‘no.’
Reversals are the rule, not the exception. Earth has settled in the last 20 million years into a pattern of a pole reversal about every 200,000 to 300,000 years, although it has been more than twice that long since the last reversal. A reversal happens over hundreds or thousands of years, and it is not exactly a clean back flip. Magnetic fields morph and push and pull at one another, with multiple poles emerging at odd latitudes throughout the process. Scientists estimate reversals have happened at least hundreds of times over the past three billion years. And while reversals have happened more frequently in “recent” years, when dinosaurs walked Earth a reversal was more likely to happen only about every one million years.
Sediment cores taken from deep ocean floors can tell scientists about magnetic polarity shifts, providing a direct link between magnetic field activity and the fossil record. The Earth’s magnetic field determines the magnetization of lava as it is laid down on the ocean floor on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Rift where the North American and European continental plates are spreading apart. As the lava solidifies, it creates a record of the orientation of past magnetic fields much like a tape recorder records sound. The last time that Earth’s poles flipped in a major reversal was about 780,000 years ago, in what scientists call the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal. The fossil record shows no drastic changes in plant or animal life. Deep ocean sediment cores from this period also indicate no changes in glacial activity, based on the amount of oxygen isotopes in the cores. This is also proof that a polarity reversal would not affect the rotation axis of Earth, as the planet’s rotation axis tilt has a significant effect on climate and glaciation and any change would be evident in the glacial record.
Earth’s polarity is not a constant. Unlike a classic bar magnet, or the decorative magnets on your refrigerator, the matter governing Earth’s magnetic field moves around. Geophysicists are pretty sure that the reason Earth has a magnetic field is because its solid iron core is surrounded by a fluid ocean of hot, liquid metal. This process can also be modeled with supercomputers. Ours is, without hyperbole, a dynamic planet. The flow of liquid iron in Earth’s core creates electric currents, which in turn create the magnetic field. So while parts of Earth’s outer core are too deep for scientists to measure directly, we can infer movement in the core by observing changes in the magnetic field. The magnetic north pole has been creeping northward – by more than 600 miles (1,100 km) – since the early 19th century, when explorers first located it precisely. It is moving faster now, actually, as scientists estimate the pole is migrating northward about 40 miles per year, as opposed to about 10 miles per year in the early 20th century.
Another doomsday hypothesis about a geomagnetic flip plays up fears about incoming solar activity. This suggestion mistakenly assumes that a pole reversal would momentarily leave Earth without the magnetic field that protects us from solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun. But, while Earth’s magnetic field can indeed weaken and strengthen over time, there is no indication that it has ever disappeared completely. A weaker field would certainly lead to a small increase in solar radiation on Earth – as well as a beautiful display of aurora at lower latitudes – but nothing deadly. Moreover, even with a weakened magnetic field, Earth’s thick atmosphere also offers protection against the sun’s incoming particles.
The science shows that magnetic pole reversal is – in terms of geologic time scales – a common occurrence that happens gradually over millennia. While the conditions that cause polarity reversals are not entirely predictable – the north pole’s movement could subtly change direction, for instance – there is nothing in the millions of years of geologic record to suggest that any of the 2012 doomsday scenarios connected to a pole reversal should be taken seriously.
There’s a renewed interest right now in Earth’s magnetic poles – specifically, whether or not they’re about to flip, and what may happen. The consequences of this seemingly rapid geomagnetic backflip may sound a little ominous, but don’t worry: we’re not sure when the next reversal will happen, and even when it does, the risks aren’t likely to be as scary as you may think.
Let’s start with the basics.
As Earth’s liquid, iron-rich outer core gradually cools, it sloshes around through colossal convection currents, which are also somewhat warped by Earth’s own rotation. Thanks to a quirk of physics known as the dynamo theory, this generates a powerful magnetic field, with a north and south end.
Although 99 percent of the magnetic energy remains within the core, the slithers that escape extend into space, and spends most of its time deflecting potentially deadly, atmosphere-stripping solar wind.
Right now, the magnetic north pole is exactly where you suspect it is; the same goes for the magnetic south pole. Both represent locales in which the planet’s magnetic field is vertical, and at which point your compass needle tries to point upwards.
Throughout geological time, these magnetic poles have switched sides – a phenomenon known as a “geomagnetic reversal”. Although there are several hypotheses that attempt to explain this, geophysicists are still a little unsure as to why it happens. It’s clearly something to do with turbulence and chaos within the metallic outer core, but the specifics haven’t been nailed down yet.
This is bad news for anyone who enjoys life without radiation sickness.
The Earth’s magnetic field is a barrier which shields us from a lot of harmful solar radiation, attracting cosmic rays towards our planet’s poles so that they shoot harmlessly past us without doing too much damage. If the field were to become weak enough during this transitional period, more radiation would bake the planet than we’re typically used to, which could ultimately render large parts of the Earth uninhabitable for a long time to come.
What’s more, our technology won’t fare too well once the magnetic field begins to weaken—orbital satellites in particular will suffer from solar buffeting without the convenient protection that’s currently provided by the Earth’s magnetic field. Down on the planet itself, things could get hectic too—solar flares would do more damage than normal, overloading power grids, causing computers to fail, and generally running amok.
This wouldn’t be a small global problem that would pass harmlessly afterwards. Because it takes hundreds of years for the planet’s poles to stabilize, entire generations of humans would be constantly affected, unable to use the technology that has become, and will continue to become, such a large part of our lives.
The greatest threat that this poses to humans is via the sun. With a weak magnetic field, we would be far more exposed to CMEs (Coronal Mass ejections), in which flaming hot materials from the Sun are thrown into space at high speeds (around 5,000,000mph), often in the direction of Earth. These would easily create temporary punctures in our ozone layer, causing massive exposure to UV rays. Some scientists predict that skin cancer rates would skyrocket.
Or, nothing happens…
There are some who are quite sure that people would feel absolutely nothing if the poles were to flip. Whilst sleeping, eating our lunch or working out at the gym, the magnetic poles of our planet could reverse, and we’d be none the wiser.
Those who go by this theory often believe that it will be technology that suffers in such a huge magnetic event. We’ve seen before that solar storms can cause huge malfunctions on satellites, interfere with communications, and cause blackouts. The best, and most recent example of this was the 2003 ‘Halloween Storm’ which caused blackouts across Sweden, it was a logistical nightmare for aviation and caused two NASA satellites to temporarily fail.
If humanity wants to continue to survive indefinitely, we’re going to need to come up with some inventive solutions to this problem while we don’t have plenty of time to organize ourselves.
The Coming Blackout Epidemic The lights may go out sooner than you think.
Every year, millions of people around the world experience major electricity blackouts, but the country that has endured more blackouts than any other industrialized nation is the United States. Over the last decade, the number of power failures affecting over 50,000 Americans has more than doubled, according to federal data.
The looming power failure epidemic
The paper published this September in Routledge’s Journal of Urban Technology points out that 50 major power outages have afflicted 26 countries in the last decade alone, driven by rapid population growth in concentrated urban areas and a rampant “addiction” to high-consumption lifestyles dependent on electric appliances.
Extreme weather and climate change
According to a little-known report last year to the Executive Office of the President by the Council of Economic Advisers and Department of Energy, between 2012 and 2018 the US saw 679 blackouts due to extreme weather events, costing on average $18-33 billion a year. In 2018 alone, the US suffered eleven “billion-dollar” weather disasters.
“The number of outages caused by severe weather is expected to rise as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, blizzards, floods and other extreme weather events,” the report found.
The growing prevalence of extreme weather including droughts due to climate change could also significantly undermine coal, gas and nuclear production, all of which require large inputs of water, to spin and cool turbines in thermal power plants.
The amount of fresh water consumed for world energy production could double in the next 25 years according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). In that fossil fuel-centric scenario, over 50 percent of demand would come from coal-fired power plants, 30 percent from biofuel production, and 10 percent from oil and natural gas production.
Surveying the impacts of past blackouts in the US, China, Canada, Italy, Africa, and many other regions, they show that blackouts can lead to state-rationing of electricity, massive economic losses, the breakdown of manufacturing, food supply shortages, degradation of water purification and waste facilities, and increases in crime rates and civil unrest. Yet they are not fatalistic about the inevitability of such an increasingly dark future.
“There is a possibility of mitigating, but not eliminating, the risk with improved technology,” said Hugh Byrd. Major investments in self-healing ‘smart grids’ and ‘smart metering’ “can assist in reducing demand by providing feedback to users,” but some technologies can also create new risks like “cyber-espionage of the control systems of generators and distributors.”
Growth of global electricity production, is undergoing “a marked slowdown in many industrialized countries of the west,” due to “increasingly high prices of energy that are squeezing demand. Now, the question is: would that lead to blackouts? In short, I think not—not in the short run, at least… Right now, the industrial sector of several western countries is rapidly contracting and the result is reduced consumption. So, right now, as long as things evolve slowly, I would say that I don’t see a blackout danger anywhere in Europe. We should see a gradual reduction of consumption as people become poorer and poorer, and less and less able to afford to pay the electricity bill.”
So whether we face a future of increasing blackouts or declining consumption, the climbing costs of keeping the lights on means more of us might be switching off. But clearly that doesn’t need to be the final verdict: increasing investments in installing smart grids now could prepare us for increased electricity demand in the future.
Hopefully before another major solar event happens, we might at least have the ability to anticipate it. To, at least, mitigate damages, people could be informed of the exact time and nature of the event, lessening panic and chaos. They could also be instructed to stay off the roads, airlines could be entirely shut down, and protective structures could be created/used (or there might be ways for people to maximize safety at home). While these actions wouldn’t ensure safety, being informed would be the key to recovering from the event. NASA is also aware of the potential problems, and is actively researching solutions. The agency says:
[Space weather] is a problem the same way hurricanes are a problem. One can protect oneself with advance information and proper precautions. During a hurricane watch, a homeowner can stay put … or he can seal up the house, turn off the electronics and get out of the way. Similarly, scientists at NASA and NOAA give warnings to electric companies, spacecraft operators and airline pilots before a CME comes to Earth so that these groups can take proper precautions.
There are a number of different options for emergency cooking. In this post we’ll cover everything from simple heating to large scale cooking for emergency situations.A grand encyclopedia of country Carnivore’s Bible , weather wisdom,country remedies and herbal cures, cleaning solutions, pest purges, firewoodessentials, adobe making and bricklaying, leather working, plant dyes, farmfoods, natural teas and tonics, granola, bread making, beer brewing andwinemaking, jams and jellies, canning and preserving, sausage making and meatsmoking, drying foods, down-home toys, papermaking, candle crafting, homemadesoaps and shampoos, butter and cheese making, fishing and huntingsecrets, and much more. Carnivore’s Bible : Traditional Skillsfor Simple Living
An adorable photo of such an issue was shared on the administration’s Facebook page just after the update on their website. Apparently, the issue is a relatively new one, only having been observed a few times in the last couple of years. Scientists are currently investigating the cause of this new phenomenon, and are not sure if it is indicative of a new trend.
According to the report, Hawaiian monk seals feed through foraging. They forage for food by shoving their mouths and noses into underwater crevices. This is to find food sources who hide, including eels. So while monk seals are shoving their noses around the nooks and crannies of the ocean’s depths, eels may try to defend themselves, which could lead to them charging into the creatures’ nostrils, or the seals themselves may have regurgitated the eels through their nose.
Scientists from the NOAA admit they may never know why the seals are getting the eels stuck in their nose, adding they gently remove the eels from the seals’ noses when they are discovered, with a 100 percent success rate. The seals do not seem to have any negative effects from that removal, nor having them there in the first place. The eels, though, are dead when they are removed from the noses of the seals.
Those working firsthand to pull the eels from the nostrils of the seals said the phenomenon started becoming an issue around two years ago. While the eels are in their noses, the seals are described as both calm and serene. At least one scientist working with the animals told a reporter from the Washington Post he wished the seals would “make better choices.”
One thing is for certain with for the scientists regarding this phenomenon – it is not directly human-related. Much of this monk seal/eel nonsense is occurring on remote islands only visited by scientists. It probably has more to do with monk seal feeding patterns, as eels are a steady part of their diets, alongside octopus and other species of fish.
BRITTANY DOLAN/NOAA FISHERIES
A juvenile Hawaiian monk seal was found with a spotted eel in its nose at French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands this past summer.
One of the most mysterious types of cryptid creatures is that of what are called living dinosaurs, said to be relic populations of those enormous lumbering lizards that once thunderously crashed over the face of our planet with ponderous might. While most may assume that these creatures went extinct eons ago, it is surprising how many reports there are of actual dinosaurs still alive and roaming about in the most isolated parts of our planet as they did millions of years ago. One place that has proven to be a veritable Lost World of supposed living dinosaurs is the dark continent of Africa, and here in the remote unexplored jungles dinosaurs still allegedly reign supreme as if they were never gone at all.
By far the most famous of the supposed lost African dinosaurs is none other than the one called Mokele-mbembe, which literally translates to “one who stops the flow of rivers.” The habitat of this creature is deep within the furthest recesses of the steamy swampland and dark jungles of the Congo river basin, in particular an expanse of sprawling isolated wilderness called the Likouala swamp region. The beast in question lives up to its name, larger than an elephant and with a lang neck topped by a smallish reptilian head and with stocky short legs, resembling a brontosaurus and which has been a part of the landscape here for the native tribes since time unremembered. Semi-aquatic in nature it is rarely seen even by the natives, and although a vegetarian makes for a frightening sight, with a mighty roar that is said to create great fear and dread in all who hear it. A good description of the Mokele-mbembe can be found in a 1980 issue of Science, within an article called Living Dinosaurs, which reads:
In the swampy jungles of western Africa, reports persist of an elephant-sized creature with smooth, brownish-gray skin, a long, flexible neck, a very long tail as powerful as a crocodile’s, and three-clawed feet the size of frying pans. Over the past three centuries, native Pygmies and Western explorers have told how the animals feed on the nutlike fruit of a riverbank plant and keep to the deep pools and subsurface caves of waters in this largely unexplored region.
Although the tribes and missionaries of this land of impenetrable swamp had long known of the creature, it was not until the early 1900s that its existence would finally trickle out to the Western world. In 1909, the renowned big game hunter Carl Hagenbeck wrote of the creature in his autobiographical work Beasts and Men, in which he told of hearing tales from the natives of a hulking, frightening beast that was described as being half elephant and half dragon. Hagenbeck looked into this phenomenon further, speaking with the naturalist Joseph Menges, who told him that indeed the natives had a rich lore of this beast, and that he personally believed it to be some kind of dinosaur similar to a brontosaurus. Yet another of Hagenbeck’s sources was the German adventurer, filmmaker, and big game hunter Hans Schomburgk, who told him that the natives of the area blamed the Mokele-mbembe for killing all of the hippos at a place called Lake Bangweulu.
Another well-publicized account was made in another area in 1913, by German adventurer and Captain Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz, who at the time was surveying a region of present day Cameroon for potential spots for colonies. Natives told him many tales of the Mokele-mbembe, which were surprisingly consistent across the board from many independent sources, although Lausnitz remained rather skeptical himself at first. This version of Mokele-mbembe painted it as a vicious force to be reckoned with, an aggressive behemoth that the natives steered well clear of, and he would later write of the mysterious beast:
The animal is said to be of a brownish-gray color with a smooth skin, its size is approximately that of an elephant; at least that of a hippopotamus. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth but a very long one; some say it is a horn. A few spoke about a long, muscular tail like that of an alligator. Canoes coming near it are said to be doomed; the animal is said to attack the vessels at once and to kill the crews but without eating the bodies. The creature is said to live in the caves that have been washed out by the river in the clay of its shores at sharp bends. It is said to climb the shores even at daytime in search of food; its diet is said to be entirely vegetable. This feature disagrees with a possible explanation as a myth. The preferred plant was shown to me, it is a kind of liana with large white blossoms, with a milky sap and applelike fruits. At the Ssombo River I was shown a path said to have been made by this animal in order to get at its food. The path was fresh and there were plants of the described type nearby. But since there were too many tracks of elephants, hippos, and other large mammals it was impossible to make out a particular spoor with any amount of certainty.
These accounts, along with other scattered reports from explorers and missionaries in the region of these brontosaurus-like animals roaming the swamps really captured the public imagination, with the thought of lumbering dinosaurs from ages past wallowing through the mists of this lost world proving to be absolutely irresistible. Many expeditions were launched into the forbidding terrain of this mysterious domain in search of the enigmatic Mokele-mbembe over the decades, with some of them funded by such respected institutions as the Smithsonian, and even the famed cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson made an excursion there in 1932. Sanderson would come across large tracks that the natives explained as being from the creature, and he also spotted something very large disappear into the water which he could not explain. In the 1930s the lore was further fueled by a report from the region’s Lake Tele of a tribe of pygmies that had actually managed to kill one of the creatures. According to the tale, two of the Mokele-mbembe tried to smash through a wall of stakes designed to keep the beasts out, and were set upon by fierce, spear wielding tribesmen. After an epic thrashing battle, they were allegedly able to kill one of them, after which they brought it back to the village and had it cooked and eaten as part of a celebratory feast. The story goes that everyone who ate the meat of this mysterious animal became violently ill and later died.
Perhaps the most famous of these expeditions was that of a University of Chicago biologist named Roy Mackal, who ventured to the Likouala swamp region multiple times in 1980s in order to investigate the stories. Although he would not find any physical evidence or see one of the creatures himself, the team did find things like large swaths of broken branches caused by something very large barreling through, footprints, and claimed to have heard the creatures as well. Mackal would bring back numerous native reports of the Mokele-mbembe, which he compiled into a book entitled Living Dinosaur?. Another rather interesting expedition was carried out in 1981 by a Herman Regusters, who brought his team to the remote Lake Tele. This particular expedition would come back with quite a bit of supposed evidence of the creatures, such as droppings, a footprint cast, and even an alleged recording of the Mokele-mbembe’s roar, which you can listen to here, although it is pretty inconclusive at best and could be anything.
Indeed, the 1980s saw several promising expeditions into the region. In 1980 there was one launched by German adventurer and engineer Herman Regusters and his wife. The couple would claim to have seen the beast on several occasions, both in the water and on land, as well as hearing its roars, and they even produced an alleged photograph of it. In 1983 a zoologist by the name of Marcellin Agnagna led an expedition to Lake Tele and claimed to have seen the creature when it raised its head and long neck out of the water, which he described as having a thin, reddish head and reptilian oval eyes that stared at him for a time before vanishing beneath the murky depths. Interestingly, the only known video footage of the Mokele-mbembe was taken at Lake Tele in 1987, when a Japanese film crew was flying over the lake to survey the area. The footage is grainy at best, but shows what appears to be a very large animal of some sort moving across the water, with what looks like it could be a head and neck but which has been criticized as being merely two natives on a canoe.
Expeditions and reports of the Mokele-mbembe have continued on into later years, with some of them proving quite spectacular indeed. One British expedition led by explorer and cryptozoologist William Gibbons in 1992 trekked through a large portion of the region and came back with a photograph of what might be the head of a Mokele-mbembe taken at Lake Tele. In 1999 there was also a rather incredible report printed in the Sunday Times of London, which claimed that members of the Kabonga tribe had killed one of the creatures, but it is unknown how much veracity this report holds as no body was ever presented for scrutiny. Despite all of the expeditions and reports, which continue to this day, there has not been any solid evidence provided for the existence of Mokele-mbembe, but it remains the most talked about and sought after “living dinosaur” of Africa. Is it out there or not? Considering the lack of many modern day sightings, is there even the chance that if it did exist, has it finally gone extinct after all?
If Mokele Mbembe is in fact a real living dinosaur and really exists, then it also has some company, and there are various others said to lurk within the muck and trees here, inhabiting the exact same area, within the remotest, most impenetrable areas of the Congo’s Likouala swamp region. One is a large, saurian creature said to prowl Lake Bangweulu, and which the natives call the nsanga. This ferocious beast is described as looking very similar to a crocodile, only much larger and without scales and with formidable, over-sized claws on its feet. The German adventurer Lt. Paul Gratz claimed in 1911 to have been presented with strips of skin from the creature.
A rather more well-known member of this menagerie is called the Emela-ntouka, which literally translates from the local tribal language to “Elephant Killer.” It is said to be a massive dinosaur-like reptilian beast that is said to be about the size of a full grown elephant and takes a stout, tank-like form with an armored body, a ponderous thick club-like tail, and a prominent and formidable horn protruding from its head similar to that of a rhinoceros. The creature is supposedly semi-aquatic, spending much of its time lurking hidden within the muddy waters of the swamp and, although a vegetarian, stays true to its name, storied by local tribes for its explosive aggressiveness, attacking anything that approaches and indeed killing elephants, as well as buffaloes or hippos on occasion with apparent ease, usually while unleashing a reverberating, distinctive growl.
Although this mysterious creature has long been known to the native tribes of the region, the wilderness itself is so forbidding and closed off from the rest of the world that it wasn’t until the 1930s that stories of the existence of this single-horned killing machine prowling the dim swamps began to come in from outsiders. One of the first mentions of the creature by Western explorers was by the adventurer J.E. Hughes, who wrote of a local tribe along the shores of the Luapula River who had killed one of the beasts, an account buried within an otherwise non-sensationalist 1933 travel book called Eighteen Years on Lake Bangweulu. Interestingly, there was another of the creatures supposedly killed by tribesmen in the early 1930s near a place called Dongou. In 1954 the creature was really propelled to the public consciousness when a former Likouala game inspector named Lucien Blancou wrote of it in an article for the scientific journal Mammalia, saying of it:
The presence of a beast which sometimes disembowels elephants is also known, but it does not seem to be prevalent there now as in the preceding districts. A specimen was supposed to have been killed twenty years ago at Dongou, but on the left of the Ubangi and in the Belgian Congo.
In the 1980s, when Dr. Roy P. Mackal made his way into the hostile wilderness of the Congo looking for the legendary Mokele Mbembe, he too heard the stories of the Emela-ntouka, which he also included in his famous 1987 book A Living Dinosaur. Mackal himself believed the creature to be perhaps a surviving relic population of the Centrosaurus, an extinct dinosaur that possessed a large single horn, a theory supported by the legendary cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, although this cryptid is not said to have the same prominent head ridge that these dinosaurs displayed. Another idea is that the creature is not a dinosaur or even a reptile at all, but rather something more like a new species of semi-aquatic rhinoceros, but considering the incredibly isolated area and the relative small number of sightings by outsiders it is likely we will never know for sure, and indeed that like the Mokele Mbembe might even be already extinct once and for all.
The Emela-ntouka seems to somewhat resemble in some respects other supposed living dinosaurs within the uncharted wildernesses of Africa, particularly an immense squat, armored beast covered in bony plates and with a thick tail said to inhabit the jungles of Kenya and called the Muhuru. Also, roaming the savanna region of Cameroon is also a cryptid called the Ngoubou, which is said to be a buffalo-sized hoofed creature with a thick, muscular body and with an imposing array of 6 horns upon its head, which it used to chase off, and on occasion kill, elephants. It is uncertain what connection either of these have to the Emela-ntouka but the passing similarities are interesting.
Getting back to the Likouala Region of the Republic of Congo we have yet another apparent living dinosaur to join Mokele Mbembe and the Emela-ntouka, in this instance one called the Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, or literally “the animal with planks growing out of its back.” As its name suggests its main feature is an array of protruding armored ridges running along its back, and is said to be almost completely aquatic in nature, rarely seen out of the water, and villagers of the region in which it is seen say that its back is typically covered with a sheen of green algae.
This is rather similar to yet another Congo dwelling dino called the Nguma-monene, which allegedly takes the form of a massive lizard, or in some accounts a snake, with intimidating ridges down its back. The Nguma-monene is reported from along a tributary of the Ubangi River called Dongu-Mataba, and one of the most famous sightings by an outsider was made by a pastor Joseph Ellis in 1971, who saw it swimming alongside him as he rode a dugout canoe, and who described it as absolutely gigantic, with a portion of the tail alone measuring the same size as the vessel he was in, and with clearly visible diamond shaped protrusions all along the top. The truly massive creature apparently created a rush of ripples and waves that were enough to threaten to overturn the canoe as it glided past. This creature is also apparently very aggressive, and supposedly hates hippos, killing them on sight. Hippos seem to just do that to these dinosaurs.
Also from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an apparent dinosaur more in appearance like the terrible Tyrannosaurus Rex, reported from the remote rainforests of a place called the Kasai Valley. The creature in question is most spectacularly known from a report made in 1932, by a Swedish plantation owner named John Johanson, who at the time was travelling through the region with a local guide. At one point during their trek through the mosquito choked interior jungles they allegedly came across a rhinoceros going about its business. As they stood looking at the creature, they claimed that an enormous bipedal dinosaur-like monster, estimated as around 43 feet long, came erupting forth from the trees to pounce upon the rhino and kill it, after which it actually began to eat the carcass, apparently unaware that the two startled men were standing there watching it go about its hunt. Johanson would describe it by saying,“It was reddish in color, with blackish-colored stripes. It had a long snout and numerous teeth. The legs were thick; it reminded me of a lion, built for speed.”
There was another rather intriguing report from that very same year from the same area of what may or may not have been the same creature, which was published in the Rhodesia Herald. In this account, a hunter made his way to the Kasai Valley along with his gunbearer. As they made their way through the jungle, they supposedly cam across two large elephants standing there in the mist. As the two witnessed surveyed the area their gaze fell upon what they described as “a monster, about 16 yards in length, with a lizard’s head and tail.” Of course the hunter did the human thing and fired upon it, hey if you don’t understand it kill it, and he would say of what happened next:
I was shaken by the hunting-fever. My teeth rattled with fear. Three times I snapped; only one attempt came out well. Suddenly the monster vanished, with a remarkably rapid movement. It took me some time to recover. Alongside me the boy prayed and cried. I lifted him up, pushed him along and made him follow me home. On the way we had to transverse a big swamp. Progress was slow, for my limbs were still half-paralyzed with fear. There in the swamp, the huge lizard appeared once more, tearing lumps from a dead rhino. It was covered in ooze. I was only about 25 yards away. It was simply terrifying. The boy had taken French leave, carrying the rifle with him.
At first I was careful not to stir, then I thought of my camera. I could hear the crunching of rhino bones in the lizard’s mouth. Just as I clicked, it jumped into deep water. The experience was too much for my nervous system. Completely exhausted, I sank down behind the bush that had given me shelter. Blackness reigned before my eyes. The animal’s phenomenally rapid motion was the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever seen.
Stories of similar creatures have been told in the region, but the credibility of the so-called Kasai Rex has been the subject of some skepticism. One of the main things that has detracted greatly from its veracity are two photographs of the alleged creature, both of which were found to be doctored hoaxes. There is also the inconvenient fact that the natives of the region don’t seem to have any knowledge of this particular creature, and it has mostly only been sighted by outsiders, making the reports all the more questionable. Whether it is real or not, they are interesting accounts nonetheless.
Other areas of Africa are not without their own stories of roving dinosaurian monsters. Cameroon, which is also thought to be a haunt of the Mokele-mbembe and others, also has a monster of supposedly truly epic proportions known locally as the M’kuoo M’bemboo. This creature is said to be truly gargantuan, with its head alone described as being the size of a full grown hippo. The M’kuoo M’bemboo is described as being a jet black in color, and has a flattened head reminiscent of that of a seal. The creature is known for its rumbling, gurgling roar, and it is said to kill hippos but not eat them. Hippos just can’t catch a break here. Cameroon is also purportedly home to what are called the Jago-Nini, and the Amali, which are said to be immense aquatic dinosaurs that glide through the rivers here, oddly not killing hippos. The adventurer and ivory trader Alfred Aloysius Smith wrote of these mysterious creatures thus:
Aye, and behind the Cameroon there’s things living we know nothing about. I could ‘a’ made books about many things. The Jago-Nini they say is still in the swamps and rivers. Giant diver it means. Comes out of the water and devours people. Old men’ll tell you what their grandfathers saw but they still believe its there. Same as the Amali I’ve always taken it to be. I’ve seen the Amali’s footprint. About the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead of five.
Perhaps one of the strangest “living dinosaur” of all is one supposedly native to the wilds of Sudan, in the wetlands of Bhar el Zeraf, and well as in Sudan’s Lake No, and in Lake Victoria. The creature is called the Lau, which is said to look like “a donkey with flippers,” possesses bizarre tentacles on its face, and measures up to 100 feet in length. It is said to emit a truly terrifying roar that sounds like “the thundering of elephants.” There have been many reports of the creature since the 1800s, and in 1914 there was a Lau allegedly killed in the swamps of Addar, but the body was never recovered. In 1924, a supposed vertebrae from one of the beasts was received by a British officer from a native tribesman, but where it went is anyone’s guess and we are left with no physical evidence at all.
It is rather frustrating because that is the situation we are left with all of these cases, a lack of any clear evidence and only these mystifying stories and native accounts to go by. It is certainly not an indication that these creatures cannt exist, and the terrain itself makes it a given that these places should be unexplored. After all, we are dealing with some of the most unexplored places on the planet, walls of nearly impassable jungle filled with diseases, dangerous wildlife, and often in wartorn areas patrolled by nefarious bands of cutthroats, all conspiring with the extremely vast areas involved, meaning that it is very difficult to mount thorough expeditions and investigations into the matter. The reliance on reports from natives is also not a damning thing, as many known animals such as the gorilla and the okapi got their start in tribal reports that at the time seemed every bit as outlandish. In the end we are left with the question of whether any of these creatures are real, and if so, are they indeed living dinosaurs? It is impossible to say, but if there are dinosaurs still roaming the earth, then these dark uncharted jungles are pretty much exactly where one would expect them to be.
A variety of different kinds of unexplained illuminations have been reported over the centuries. These mysterious luminous phenomena are reported both by day and by night (although perhaps a majority seem to occur nocturnally), and many are observed passing through the air; in modern times, such unexplained aerial phenomena are often linked to UFO sightings, and occasionally appear to display features that may indicate the objects are intelligently controlled.
In an incident that occurred on May 4, 1997, the S.T.S. Astridhad set sail from the Azores, and was passing through the North Atlantic Ocean while en route to Dartmouth when something very peculiar happened.
According to a report on the incident published in the Marine Observer in 1997, “At 0443 UTC a light was sighted high in the sky above the ship. The light was of the style of a satellite in appearance. However, it was seen for about 10-15 seconds moving west to northwest, with a pulsating white light.”
The fact that the strange, flashing “satellite” was moving so quickly over them was naturally of interest to the crew of observers aboard the Astrid. However, many were shocked when the object they observed, in addition to flashing and moving very quickly, also “stopped dead” on at least two occasions.
“At one point,” the report continues, “the light stopped and turned in the direction of the ship. The light no longer pulsated, and for about one second it was in the form of a spotlight lighting the surrounding area. The light then turned back again and moved very, very fast across the sky before it was lost below the horizon in a matter of seconds.”
Such a report leaves much to the imagination, of course, although the description of both the spotlight, as well as the flashing and intermittent stop-and-go behavior described here is consistent with a number of UFO reports from over the years, where larger objects which appear to possess flashing or strobing lights, or simply blinking lights all by themselves, have been observed by pilots and ground-based observers.
Could any of these flashing objects have a natural origin? There are at least some anecdotal reports that involve descriptions of intermittent pulsating or blinking by unusual aerial lights, such as with the luminous phenomenon that has been observed for decades at Hessdalen, Norway. According to Hessdalen.org, a website devoted to the study of these unusual nocturnal illuminations, there are several varieties of lights, among which white or blue-white flashing lights are included.
“They are usually high up in the air, close to the top of the mountains or even higher,” the description at the website says. Usually lasting only a few seconds, these nocturnal displays have on some occasions lasted up to a minute, and according to the website, during their visible periods, “the light flashed several times while it is moving.” Other varieties of lights observed at Hessdalen are composed of yellow lights “with a red light on the top,” with the red upper portion also described as flashing intermittently.
The Hessdalen lights, it is widely believed, could represent some kind of natural phenomenon; possibly an earthlight formation akin to ball lightning, although some recent estimates have suggested everything from piezoelectricity, to cosmic radiation as possible sources. Whatever the case, their presence could provide a unique instance where a variety of luminous phenomenon in nature has been observed pulsating or flashing in this way.
Another oceanic incident similar to the one described earlier was reported by M.E. Guy in the Marine Observer a few years earlier, this one taking place on May 6, 1984. It occurred over the Equatorial Eastern Atlantic ocean, and involved a series of flashing white lights that were observed as the sailing vessel in question neared the equator. The crew later reported that visibility was good at the time, with little disturbance on the ocean, and the moon in its first quarter. “At first it was thought that there were three lights, one being bright and the other two relatively dim,” the report reads, “but as the vessel approached it it was decided that there were only two, one bright and one dim.”
This unusual pair of flashing lights was also tracked on radar at the time. “The target, once detected,” the report indicates, “gave a very strong echo and gave the impression of being a large target. It was plotted and found to be stationary.”
According to the observers at the time, neither of the two lights seen by the crew appeared to be flashing or operating under any kind of pattern. “Instead they just flashed at random, but never together.” Notably, the intensity of the brighter of the two lights, according to one observer, “would have put many a lighthouse to shame,” seemingly indicating a manufactured source for the illumination.
The crew was unable to identify the source of this light, although the incident described here was not the only time it was observed. According to the Marine Observer report, “two previous voyages had been to Brazil and France and the lights were observed on every occasion near the equator; they were identical in every way, but in the previous encounters the lights, both dim and bright, were more numerous.”
Reports of unusual luminous phenomena, especially those which occur at sea, are fairly common in scientific literature, and many can be easily attributed to bioluminescence and other identifiable causes. However, the descriptions of “flashing” lights, as provided here, are far from typical in almost any case, land or sea. The source of such illuminations could certainly still be mundane, although a few of the more unusual reports like these may also represent some unique variety of natural phenomenon… and one which, at present, remains undetermined.
The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything.
The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything.
In some ways, the planet's worst mass extinction — 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period — may parallel climate change today.
Fossilized crinoids, marine invertebrates that lived during the Permian Period, found in western Australia. Scientists say the Great Dying, which wiped out 96 percent of all life in the oceans, was caused by global warming, which deprived the oceans of oxygen.CreditCreditJohn Cancalosi, via Getty Images
On Thursday, a team of scientists offered a detailed accounting of how marine life was wiped out during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. Global warming robbed the oceans of oxygen, they say, putting many species under so much stress that they died off.
And we may be repeating the process, the scientists warn. If so, then climate change is “solidly in the category of a catastrophic extinction event,” said Curtis Deutsch, an earth scientist at the University of Washington and co-author of the new study, published in the journal Science.
Researchers have long known the general outlines of Permian-Triassic cataclysm. Just before the extinctions, volcanoes in what is now Siberia erupted on a tremendous scale. The magma and lava that they belched forth produced huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
Once in the atmosphere, the gas trapped heat. Researchers estimate that the surface of the ocean warmed by about 18 degrees Fahrenheit. Some researchers argue that the heat alone killed off many species.
Others believe that the warmth reduced oxygen in the ocean, asphyxiating the species living there. Rocks from the mass extinction appear to have formed when at least some of the ocean was lacking oxygen.
In previous research, Dr. Deutsch has explored how living animals adapt to temperature and oxygen levels in the seas. Animals with a fast metabolism need a lot of oxygen, for example, and so they can’t live in parts of the ocean where oxygen falls below a certain threshold.
Warm water makes the challenge even more difficult. Warmer water can’t hold as much dissolved oxygen as cold water. Even worse, warm water can also increase an animal’s metabolism, meaning it requires more oxygen just to stay alive.
Cod, for example, are not found below a latitude running roughly from New England to Spain. South of that line, warmth and low oxygen are just too great for the species.
Dr. Deutsch and Justin Penn, a graduate student, recreated the world at the end of the Permian Period with a large-scale computer simulation, complete with a heat-trapping atmosphere and a circulating ocean.
As the Siberian volcanoes flooded the virtual atmosphere with carbon dioxide, the atmosphere warmed. The ocean warmed, too — and according to the model, it began losing oxygen.
Some parts lost more than others. On the surface, for example, fresh oxygen was produced by photosynthetic algae. But as the ocean warmed, its circulatory currents also slowed, the model demonstrated.
Oxygen-poor water settled to the bottom of the oceans, and before long, the deep was gasping.
Rising temperatures and plunging oxygen must have made huge swaths of the oceans uninhabitable. Some species survived here and there. But most disappeared completely.
“Everything was losing a lot of habitat, creating the risk of extinction,” said Dr. Deutsch. “But the risk was actually higher in places that were cold. That was a bit surprising.”
You might expect that animals near the Equator would be at a greater risk, because the water was warm to begin with. But Dr. Deutsch’s model suggested a very different kind of apocalypse.
To test their simulation, the researchers teamed up with Jonathan Payne and Erik Sperling, paleontologists at Stanford University. They dug into a huge online database of fossils to chart the risks of extinction at different latitudes during the catastrophe.
When they were done with their analysis, they sent their graph to Seattle. Dr. Deutsch and Mr. Penn compared it to the prediction from their computer model.
They matched. “This was the most exciting moment of my scientific life,” said Dr. Deutsch.
Michael Benton, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England, who was not involved in the study, said that it resolved the roles of heat and oxygen as causes of the mass extinction. “This makes a clear case that, of course, the two are linked,” he said.
The new study offers an important warning to humans over the next few centuries.
The Siberian volcanoes ultimately delivered much more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than we will ever emit by burning fossil fuels. But our annual rate of carbon emissions is actually higher.
The carbon we released over the past two centuries already has made the atmosphere warmer, and the ocean has absorbed much of that heat. And now, just as during the Permian-Triassic extinction, the ocean is losing oxygen. Over the past fifty years, oxygen levels have declined by 2 percent.
“The way the Earth system is responding now to the buildup of CO2 is in the exact same way that we’ve seen it respond in the past,” said Dr. Kump.
Just how much warmer the planet will get is up to us. It will take a tremendous international effort to keep the increase below about 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
As the ocean warms, its oxygen levels will continue to drop. If ancient history is any guide, the consequences for life — especially marine life in the cooler parts of the ocean — will be disastrous.
“Left unchecked, climate warming is putting our future on the same scale as some of the worst events in geological history,” Dr. Deutsch said.
A meltwater canyon on the Greenland ice sheet. Photograph: Sarah Das/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/PA
Rising sea levels could become overwhelming sooner than previously believed, according to the authors of the most comprehensive study yet of the accelerating ice melt inGreenland.
Run-off from this vast northern ice sheet – currently the biggest single source of meltwater adding to the volume of the world’s oceans – is 50% higher than pre-industrial levels and increasing exponentially as a result of manmade global warming, says thepaper, published in Nature on Wednesday.
Almost all of the increase has occurred in the past two decades – a jolt upwards after several centuries of relative stability. This suggests the ice sheet becomes more sensitive as temperatures go up.
“Greenland ice is melting more in recent decades than at any point in at least the last four centuries, and probably more than at any time in the last seven to eight millennia,” said the lead author Luke Trusel, of Rowan University.
“We demonstrate that Greenland ice is more sensitive to warming today than in the past – it responds non-linearly due to positive feedbacks inherent to the system. Warming means more today than it did even just a few decades ago.”
The researchers used ice core data from three locations to build the first multi-century record of temperature, surface melt and run-off in Greenland. Going back 339 years, they found the first sign of meltwater increase began along with the industrial revolution in the mid-1800s. The trend remained within the natural variation until the 1990s, since when it has spiked far outside of the usual nine- to 13-year cycles.
Greenland currently contributes about 20% of global sea-level rise, which is running at 4mm per year. This pace will probably double by the end of the century, according to the most recent models used by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. How the new study affects those projections will be the subjects of future study by the authors. If all the ice in Greenland melted, it would raise sea levels by seven metres. At the current pace that would take thousands of years, but the ongoing acceleration could bring this forward rapidly.
“At some point, sea-level rise will be too fast for us to adapt to, so we really have to avoid this situation by reducing emissions,” said the study’s co-author Michiel van den Broeke of Utrecht University. “I think this is one of the many wake-up calls that we have had in the last few decades. It clearly links manmade global warming to sea-level rise.”
The research comes out as policymakers from around the world are attending UN climate talks in Katowice, Poland, where governments are trying to set new rules to keep global warming to between 1.5C and 2C. The authors said the paper underlined the dangers of exceeding even the lower figure.
“On a personal level it is worrying to see this – along with the vast array of other scientific evidence showing that we’ve entered unprecedented or exceptional times,” said Trusel.
“The ice has no political agenda – it either grows or melts. Today it is melting as humans have warmed the planet. The ice sheets have tipping points, and how quickly they impact our livelihoods through sea level rise depends on what we do now and in the very near future.”
Other academics, uninvolved in the paper, said the new study was an important confirmation of what scientists have long suspected: that the recent increase in ice melt is ominously unusual.
“The Greenland ice sheet is like a sleeping giant who is slowly but surely awakening to ongoing global warming, and there are surprises in its response. However, the response may be more rapid than previously believed,” said Edward Hanna, professor of climate science and meteorology at the University of Lincoln.
My recent article, “Before Lazar: UFOs at Area 51 (Or Not…)” began as follows: “In a recent article here on Bob Lazar, UFOs, Area 51 and Russian spies, I noted how the whole UFO angle of Area 51 might be a big game; an operation chiefly designed to try and reel in Russian spies. In my new book, Area 51, which will be published on January 1, I tell the story of another man who found himself in a very similar situation to Lazar, but close to two decades before Lazar was on the scene. The entire story is way too long to tell here, but here’s a summary: To demonstrate that the connection betweenArea 51 and UFOsgoes back a significant number of years – and long before Bob Lazar almost became a household name – we have to go back to the dawning of the 1970s. The story comes from a man I’ll call John, and who I met back in the mid-2000s. It’s a story of incredible proportions and which clearly demonstrates that when it comes to the matter of aliens and the legendary secret base, nothing is as it seems to be. In fact, it’s much weirder.”
In light of the above extract from the earlier article, I thought I would share with you one of the weirdest stories that John shared with me. The strangest file of all, John stated, was titled “Suit Study 48 Armageddon.” This was a very long document which was directed towards addressing the nature of the clothing found on at least some of the strange, alien aviators who had lost their lives and who came from who knows where. The location: Nebraska, which is also where the study secretly went ahead, the files on which having later reached Area 51. In these particular cases, the outfits worn by large-headed, humanoid creatures were of a bright yellow color and somewhat resembled the outfits worn by military pilots. The biggest problem of all was removing the clothing. There were no zips, no buttons, no nothing. It took the team tasked with examining the clothes several hours to remove them – but, when they understood the process, it all became relatively simply. It turns out that the suits were held together by something that vaguely resembled today’s Velcro. But, with one amazing difference: it was as if the fibers were alive and bonded according to the particular wearer. An intelligent, self-aware outfit? As incredible as it sounded, that’s exactly what the files John read suggested.
On one occasion, one of the team volunteered to try on one of the suits; as a six-footer he just about managed to squeeze himself in. It was something he sorely regretted in rapid-fire fashion. When the man climbed into the one-piece uniform, the fibers seemingly recognized that the man was taller than the average alien and the suit altered – size-wise – accordingly. Things got even more bizarre – and terrifying, too. Within seconds, the man revealed later, his mind was filled with imagery of worldwide destruction, of countless cities in ruins, of billions of dead, and the Earth in an Armageddon-like state. The man started to panic, to the degree that he started to hyperventilate to a major degree. His colleagues and friends quickly tore the suit off him. After recovering, the man was extensively debriefed by an out-of-state team of Intelligence personnel. He told them that he felt – or speculated – the alien outfit somehow retained the memories and thoughts of its previous wearer.
The result was that when the man put the suit on, he had picked up on the apocalyptic images which flooded his mind. This led one and all to suspect that the aliens were deceptive, dangerous entities that wanted us, the human race, gone – hence the images of what looked like a worldwide nuclear war designed to wipe us out. Personnel from both NASA and the CIA expressed a deep interest in the suits, but John was unable to remember any specifics as to what the outcome of that angle may have been. Notably, though, the one thing that really stayed in John’s mind was the revelation that the suits were deemed to be somehow alive. As a result, they were locked away, with clearance limited to only a very small group of people who knew how to handle them and who knew the potential dangers and hazards they promised.
Well, that’s quite a story, to say the least. As I mentioned in my previous article, John came to believe that all of these controversial documents were bogus – and probably designed to confuse and manipulate the Russians when the Cold War was still at its height. I have to agree. The story above is – in my view – nothing but wild science-fiction. If it looks like sci-fi and it reads like sci-fi, then it probably is. As many know, I’m not much of a fan of sci-fi at all. But, I do know it when I see it! And this is clearly such an example. So, who might have been the creator of this wild, bogus shit? You can find the answer to that question in this previous article from me…it was a woman tied to both the CIA and the world of science-fiction…
Will the next Cold War be fought in the really cold realm of outer space? Those who think about these things for a living point to the U.S. announcement of the formation of a separate military branch known as the Space Force as an indication of the affirmative. Who will they be fighting? No less of an expert than Nick Pope, former investigator for the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), said this week he believes it was be extraterrestrials. Meanwhile, Russia unveiled its own new space weapon – a laser cannon capable of knocking planes, satellites, flying saucers and other crafts out of space. Is that weapon for us or ‘them’? And what’s China doing while everyone else is watching these two?
“There are conspiracy theories suggesting President Trump’s plans for a Space Force reflect a need to protect Earth against hostile aliens. There were similar conspiracy theories about President Reagan’s Star Wars plan. While there may not be an alien connection, President Trump surely knows all of America’s UFO secrets – some of which were released earlier this year as part of the AATIP project – and this may have contributed to his keenness to develop a military Space Force. And of course he knows that the two key battlespaces in any future conflict are going to be cyberspace and outer space, so it’s vitally important for the US to dominate those battlespaces.”
In an interview with Star Online, Pope hints that the president knows what many of the alleged unidentified objects in the sky really are and, wherever they come from, he wants to be ready in case they start firing, bombing, blasting or something worse. Pope believes President Trump would have demanded to see this information, contrary to conspiracy theorists who contend those with the information are withholding it from him.
“I do not want to reveal more details. It is not the time yet. But experts will understand that with such weaponry, Russia’s capacities for defending itself have multiplied.”
Here’s something else for the Space Force to worry about … Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this week that the Russian army has deployed the Peresvet laser cannon (paging Austin Powers) that can “zap satellites out of space.” Named after Alexander Peresvet, a 14th century Russian Orthodox Christian monk and heroic warrior. The cannon looks sufficiently scary (see the video here) but the announcement did not include a demonstration – is this merely a case of laser-rattling or has it already been used and we just don’t know about it?
If you want to throw in one more superpower, China’s National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) denied this week that the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) will begin searching for aliens in 2019 despite Wu Xiangping, director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, bragging that “It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe.” While NAOC wants the world to believe that FAST is looking for radio millisecond pulsars and gravitational waves, it’s no secret that China wants to be the first nation to publicly announce the discovery of alien life.
Unless it has already visited us, as a NASA scientist implied this week. Who should we believe? Who do YOU believe? Are we in trouble … or is it too late?
As a follow-on to my previous article, “Bob Lazar, Area 51, UFOs and Russians,” I thought I would expand on why it would be so important for U.S. authorities to keep a careful watch on any potential Russian penetrations of Area 51 in the 1970s and 1980s. And also to mislead the Russians as to what was going on at the legendary base. When it comes to the matter of Area 51 and the 1970s, there is one important issue that cannot be ignored. And it should not be ignored. It was the early development of what has become known as “Stealth” technology for aircraft. It was in 1988 that both the LockheedF-117 Nighthawkstealth fighter and the Northrop GrummanB-2Spiritwere unveiled for one and all to see. The completely black, triangular-shaped aircraft caught the world’s attention, primarily because of their strange, angular shapes. It’s intriguing to note that in 1982 a wave of encounters with what became known as “Flying Triangles” began over portions of New York State, specifically in Hudson Valley.
In their 1988 book, Night Siege, authors Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Imbrogno and Bob Pratt wrote: “Can 7,000 eyewitnesses be wrong? They were there to witness the huge, hovering object in the sky, the flashing lights, the eerie silence. They are ordinary people from all walks of life: stay-at-home moms, kids, business people, engineers. They tell their stories here, and they all agree on one thing: they saw the same massive object cruising over their backyards. And it was like nothing they had seen before…”
At the time when the Hudson Valley encounters were at their peak, it was reasonably assumed by UFO researchers just about here, there and everywhere that aliens had arrived and were scoping out the area to a massive degree. When, however, the Stealth planes were unleashed in 1988 – planes that looked eerily like the Hudson Valley “UFOs,” more than a few of those same ufologists came to wonder if what was seen over Hudson Valley was actually a top secret variation on the Stealth Fighter and the Stealth Bomber. Regardless of whether or not the Hudson Valley UFOs originated in the United States, or on a world far, far away, one of the most intriguing revelations that surfaced when the Stealth planes were revealed was the startling fact that they had been secretly flying not just for a few years, but since the 1970s – at Area 51. And, the secret (the top secret) had been skillfully contained for more than a decade.
If there is one thing that just about any and all military agencies want, it’s for their aircraft to be completely invulnerable. Well, while that’s a tall order, steps were taken in the early 1970s to create an aircraft that could not be detected on radar. It would, then, be the ultimate predator: quietly and carefully approaching its completely oblivious target. That is, until it was all too late. Lockheed Martin, the company which was secretly contracted to come up with a stealth-driven fighter, state that a pair of engineers, Dick Sherrer and Denys Overholser, “developed a computer program based on obscure German and Russian theories, which postulated that radar beams could be reflected by a series of carefully angled triangular panels,” which is precisely why both the B-2 and the F-117 look so odd. But, cool, too.
The most important development came in 1976. That was the year in which a program designated “Have Blue” was established as, to quote Lockheed Martin, “the stealth demonstrator that would lead to the F-117A Nighthawk.” Built out of aluminum and not much else, the aircraft was typified by the angular shape and futuristic-look. Although the Nighthawkremained unknown to virtually everyone until 1988, it was first test-flown on June 8, 1981, just one year before the Hudson Valley “UFOs” were first seen. Notably, the Nighthawk – while in test stage – was flown exclusively at night. And, while it seems unlikely that the F-117A was the culprit at Hudson Valley, perhaps a far more advanced stealth plane was.
One of the most notable of all the missions that the Nighthawkstook part in revolved around the invasion of Iraq in January of 1991. The radar-systems of the Iraqi military were woefully inadequate and, as a consequence, they flattened close to forty targets in no time at all; something which helped to bring the conflict to a close in a little more than forty days. Today, the Nighthawk is no more. It has been mothballed. But, how many other stealth aircraft – of highly advanced forms and technologies – remain hidden from prying eyes is anyone’s guess. Now, let’s take a look at the Stealth Bomber: the Spirit.
The brainchild of Northrop Grumman, the B-2 stealth bomber is, to quote the team that brought it to fruition, “a key component of the nation’s long range strike arsenal, and one of the most survivable aircraft in the world. Its unique capabilities, including its stealth characteristics, allow it to penetrate the most sophisticated enemy defenses and hold at risk high value, heavily defended targets.” It has played major roles in numerous conflicts, including Operation Iraqi Freedom in Afghanistan, in Kosovo, and in Libya. Not only that, the Spirit is capable of flying for 6,000 miles without refueling and can soar through the skies for 10,000 miles when refueled just once. And, it is armed with nuclear weapons. The B-2, then, is a decidedly formidable craft. Twenty-one such aircraft were built and deployed, of which only one came to grief, while taking to the skies from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam in February 2008. Just like the Stealth Fighter, early versions and incarnations of the Spirit were secretly flow from Area 51.
It goes without saying that hiding (from the Russians) the existence of early Stealth planes out at Area 51 would have been paramount to those working on the highly-classified projects. And, to the extent that they may even have used tales of UFOs to act as convenient covers for what was really afoot – all of which could have led to additional operations, such as the one involving Bob Lazar in the late eighties.
Geoscientists exploring the remote Canadian wilderness have discovered a massive cave in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park which may have never been explored by humans. In a nod to The Return of the Jedi, the cave has been nicknamed the “Sarlacc Pit” due to its gaping hole-like appearance – although us real fans know that the actual name was the “Pit of Carkoon” and that the Sarlacc was the ancient carnivorous beast inside the pit, not the name of the pit itself. Filthy casuals.
Kinda like calling this guy “Frankenstein.”
The cave in British Columbia was spotted by helicopter crews conducting a caribou count. It’s believed that the entrance has been covered in snow up until the last few decades, hence why it hasn’t yet been documented by either indigenous First Nations peoples or the Canadian Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. While we’d all like it to be named after the Sarlacc, consultations are underway with First Nations representatives to determine if they would like to name it.
The cave has not yet been given an official name or explored, and researchers aren’t exactly sure how it avoided detection for all of these years. “My immediate reaction was that there can’t be a cave there, it’s impossible,” said scientist Catherine Hickson. “It is huge. It is enormous. When you first see it, you just gasp because it’s just this huge hole in the ground.” The entrance measures 100 meters by 60 meters – the same size as a football field – and opens onto a shaft extending 100 meters underground. Check out Canadian Geographic‘s coverage for some breathtaking photos of the massive, unexplored cave.
Just what exactly may lie at the bottom of this cave remains unknown, as are its exact dimensions; once the cave is explored, it very well could become Canada’s largest cave. For now, scientists are keeping the location of the cave a secret until more research can be done and in order to protect it from intrepid spelunkers seeking to find a new definition of pain and suffering as they are slowly digested over a thousand years.
A planetary alignment this week will see seismic unrest around the globe and potentially exacerbating an extremely powerful earthquake. The Earth, moon, Venus and Uranus will align in pour solar system in the coming days which could cause worldwide destruction. The gravitational pull of the celestial bodies either side of our planet could pull on Earth’s tectonic plates, according to the prediction.
As the plates are tugged apart, they could cause earthquakes around the globe.
This is according to ‘New-age earthquake forecasting’ website Ditrianum, run by researcher Frank Hoogerbeets, who said an earthquake as strong as a magnitude eight could hit.
Writing on his website, Mr Hoogerbeets said: “Seismic unrest is expected in the coming days, possibly peaking high 6 to 7 magnitude.
“Throughout the week doesn't look much better. Especially from the 7th to the 10th may be highly critical with the potential of a magnitude 8+ earthquake.”
Major earthquake WARNING: ‘Totally DESTRUCTIVE’ tremor predicted by December 10
(Image: GETTY)
A magnitude eight quake would be truly catastrophic.
It is categorised as a “great earthquake” and according to Michigan Tech, it “can totally destroy communities near the epicentre.”
Mr Hoogerbeets made the prediction using his Solar System Geometry Index (SSGI) which “is the computation of a dataset for a specific time-frame of values given to specific geometric positions of the planets, the Moon and the Sun”.
He added: “After three years of observations, it became clear that some planetary geometry in the Solar System clearly tends to cause a seismic increase, while other geometry does not.”
Mr Hoogerbeets believes earthquakes are caused by the alignment of planets
(Image: GETTY)
But experts have dismissed Mr Hoogerbeets’ claims, saying that there is no way earthquakes can be predicted.
John Bellini, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said: “We can't predict or forecast earthquakes.
"Sometimes before a large earthquake you'll have a foreshock or two, but we don't know they're foreshocks until the big one happens.”
Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
Cave in Wells Gray Provincial Park described as “about as big as they come in Canada”
The entrance to the massive cave that was spotted earlier this year in British Columbia's Wells Gray Provincial Park. Two members of the Canadian team that conducted a preliminary exploration of the site in September are circled in red to give an idea of the size of the entrance of the cave, which measures 100 metres long by 60 metres wide.
A massive pit that was spotted in a remote high alpine valley in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park earlier this year is the entrance to a previously unexplored cave of “national significance,” say two members of a Canadian team that helped conduct a preliminary exploration of the site in September.
The cave “has a number of features that when combined indicate a cave of national significance” and constitutes “a major new find in Western Canada, and promises a dramatic new chapter in the story of Canadian cave exploration,” say John Pollack and Chas Yonge in a document they co-wrote that summarizes the significance of the find.
Pollack, who is a archeological surveyor, further explained the significance of the cave in an exclusive interview with Canadian Geographic. “I’ve been in some of the biggest caves in the world, and this thing has an entrance that is truly immense, and not just by Canadian standards,” he said. “The opening is 100 metres long by 60 metres wide, and when you’re standing on the edge looking down into it, your line of sight is nearly 600 feet [183 metres]. You don’t get lines of sight of 600 feet in Canadian caves — it just doesn’t happen. And this is a shaft. It goes down quite precipitously, it had a large amount of water flowing into it and is wide open for as far down it that we’ve gone. The scale of this thing is just huge, and about as big as they come in Canada.”
Pollack said that the pit was spotted in April during a routine aerial caribou survey conducted by British Columbia's Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and that Bevan Ernst, a regional caribou biologist with the ministry, called it “Sarlaac Pit” (a reference to a subterranean creature that made a brief appearance in the film Return of the Jedi). Pollack added that the name Ernst gave the pit is unofficial and temporary. BC Parks is consulting with local First Nations to determine whether a traditional Indigenous name for the cave exists.
The exact depth and size of the cave has not been determined, but Pollack said he believes that the water flowing into it forms an underground river that emerges 2.1 kilometres away and 500 metres lower, which gives some early indication of the cave’s length. “While the deepest cave in Canada now exceeds 670 metres,” Pollack and Yonge note in their summary, “these measurements suggest we will be facing a very deep and challenging river cave. It will be highly technical.” Pollack said that future exploration of the cave is being considered in consultation with BC Parks, and that a team is likely to be fielded in 2020.
When asked whether anyone had explored the cave before, Pollack said there was only a very remote chance anyone had ever attempted a descent, given the cave’s depth and nature. “The entrance to the river sink is precipitous, intimidating and sufficiently technical that pre-contact descent is unlikely,” he said. “You’d need long ropes and the rope-ascending systems carried by cavers — it’s very unlikely that someone would try to drop into it on a short rope of the kind carried by mountaineers. Plus, the entrance is sufficiently notable that descent attempt would have been written up by mountaineers, cavers or park staff if it had been encountered in the past 40 or 50 years. No such account exists in caving or mountaineering literature.”
Members of the team that conducted the preliminary on-site exploration of the cave in Wells Gray Provincial Park include (left to right): John Pollack, Ken Lancour, Catherine Hickson, Lee Hollis and Tod Haughton. Chas Yonge is not pictured but assisted the team remotely.
(Photo courtesy Catherine Hickson)
On Sept. 9, Pollack spent the day at the site with geologist Catherine Hickson, caver Lee Hollis, BC Parks area supervisor Tod Haughton and Ken Lancour, the helicopter pilot who Ernst was with when the entrance to the cave was spotted in April. Yonge, who is a geochemist and a renowned speleologist, did not make the journey in September but supported the team remotely by examining photos and videos of the cave. The reconnaissance project was organized by Hickson and jointly funded by her company Tuya Terra Geo Corp., Pollack and BC Parks.
While Pollack used a laser instrument and 3D photographic rendering to produce a survey of the pit and Hickson examined the geology on the surface, Hollis rigged up ropes to one side of the 61-metre waterfall that plunges into the pit and rappelled to a depth of 70 metres before climbing down 10 more metres, where the volume of water of the underground river prevented him from going any farther. “It was a privilege to make the first known descent and my focus was purely on rigging, rockfall hazards and avoiding the powerful whitewater that could have dragged me into the abyss,” said Hollis, who’s been caving for 31 years in Europe, North America and Asia. “This is by far the largest and most impressive entrance pit I’ve ever encountered, and during my brief descent it showed no signs of closing down. There’s a lot of water thundering down there, so it will make for a sporting trip.”
Lee Hollis descends into the entrance of the cave during the preliminary exploration of the site on Sept. 9. Hollis got as far as 80 metres into the cave before an underground river prevented him from going any farther.
(Photo: Catherine Hickson)
The waterfall is formed by a large stream that’s fed by snowpack and glacier meltwater from a surrounding area of 10 square kilometres. “This thing is getting pounded by a large volume of water in the spring,” said Pollack. “We don’t know how much, but it could be something along the order of five to 15 cubic metres per second — maybe a couple of dumptruck loads of water per second. At a higher flow, like on a hot summer day, it would definitely be in the double digits. When Lee went down, he was right down on bedrock — there were no boulders, no gravel, no cobbles, nothing. Everything had been stripped right out of there, which tells you that the force and volume of the water coming down in spring is gigantic.”
That pounding is part of what helped form the cave. “From the evidence we see from the surface, the pit, which is simply the vertical part of the cave entrance, and the cave that leads away from it was carved into the marble by dissolution and mechanical abrasion,” said Hickson. “The waters drain directly from the glaciers and are laden with silt and sand, which is highly abrasive.”
Pollack wouldn’t reveal the exact location of the cave, saying only that it was in the northern section of the park. Asked whether he was concerned about protecting the site, he said, “We are, but also the thing is that this cave is truly in the middle of nowhere. We don’t even think it’s feasible for someone to walk in and do anything. You might be able to reach it, but you couldn't bring in enough equipment to do anything about it. It’s out there in mountainous terrain, surrounded by glaciers and at the bottom of a 45-degree avalanche slope that rises 2,000 to 2,500 feet above it, meaning you can’t go to it in winter. The only time you can really do anything there is in September, when the water flow is at its lowest. This is a wild place.”
In our never-ending quest to understand what happens to us after we die, humans have long seen the rare phenomenon of near-death experiences as providing some hints. People who’ve had a brush with death often report seeing and experiencing life-altering events on “the other side,” like a bright white light at the end of a long tunnel, or being reunited with lost relatives or beloved pets. But despite the seemingly supernatural nature of these experiences, experts say that science can explain why they happen – and what’s really going on.
What are near-death experiences?
A near-death experience is a profound psychological event with mystical elements. It typically occurs in people close to death, or during situations of intense physical or emotional pain, but may also happen after heart attacks or traumatic brain injuries, or even during meditation and syncope (loss of consciousness due to a fall in blood pressure). They’re surprisingly common, with a third of people who have come close to death reporting having experienced one.
Common characteristics people report are feelings of contentment, psychic detachment from the body (such as out-of-body experiences), rapid movement through a long dark tunnel, and entering a bright light.
Culture and age may also influence the kind of near-death experience people have. For example, many Indians report meeting the Hindu king of the dead, Yamraj, while Americans often claim to have met Jesus. Children typically describe encountering friends and teachers “in the light”.
Most reported near-death experiences are positive, and have even helped in reducing death anxiety, affirming life, and increasing well-being. However, some near-death experiences are negative and include feelings such as lack of control, awareness of nonexistence, hellish imagery, or perceived judgement from a higher being.
Why do near-death experiences happen?
Neuroscientists Olaf Blanke and Sebastian Dieguez have proposed two types of near-death experiences. Type one, which is associated with the brain’s left hemisphere, features an altered sense of time and impressions of flying. Type two, involving the right hemisphere, is characterised by seeing or communicating with spirits, and hearing voices, sounds and music. While it’s unclear why there are different types of near-death experiences, the different interactions between brain regions produce these distinct experiences.
The temporal lobes also play an important role in near-death experiences. This area of the brain is involved with processing sensory information and memory, so abnormal activity in these lobes can produce strange sensations and perceptions.
Despite several theories used to explain near-death experiences, getting to the bottom of what causes them is difficult. Religious people believe near-death experiences provide evidence for life after death – in particular, the separation of the spirit from the body. Whereas scientific explanations for near-death experiences include depersonalisation, which is a sense of being detached from your body. Scientific author Carl Sagan even suggested that the stress of death produces a remembrance of birth, suggesting the “tunnel” people see is a reimagining of the birth canal.
But due to the fanciful nature of these theories, other explanations have emerged. Some researchers claim that endorphins released during stressful events may produce something like near-death experience, particularly by reducing pain and increasing pleasant sensations. Similarly, anaesthetics such as ketamine can simulate near-death experience characteristics, such as out-of-body experiences.
Other theories suggest near-death experiences arise from dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic drug that occurs naturally in some plants. Rick Strassman, a professor of psychiatry, observed in a study from 1990 to 1995 that people had near-death and mystical experiences following injection of DMT. According to Strassman, the body has natural DMT released at birth and death. However, there is no conclusive evidence to support this view. Overall, chemical-based theories lack precision and can’t explain the full range of near-death experience features people experience.
Researchers have also explained near-death experiences via cerebral anoxia, a lack of oxygen to the brain. One researcher found air pilots who experienced unconsciousness during rapid acceleration described near-death experience-like features, such as tunnel vision. Lack of oxygen may also trigger temporal lobe seizures which causes hallucinations. These may be similar to a near-death experience.
But the most widespread explanation for near-death experiences is the dying brain hypothesis. This theory proposes that near-death experiences are hallucinations caused by activity in the brain as cells begin to die. As these occur during times of crisis, this would explain the stories survivors recount. The problem with this theory, though plausible, is that it fails to explain the full range of features that may occur during near-death experiences, such as why people have out-of-body experiences.
Currently, there is no definitive explanation for why near-death experiences happen. But ongoing research still strives to understand this enigmatic phenomenon. Whether paranormal or not, near-death experiences are extremely important. They provide meaning, hope, and purpose for many people, while offering an appreciation of the human desire to survive beyond death.
On November 11, 2018, a strange sort of wave circumnavigated the globe and registered on sensors more than 11,000 miles away from what was believed to be its source. These waves emanated from the Northeast corner of Madagascar and continued for nearly 20 minutes, ringing slowly and at a low-frequency as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand. The cause of these waves are still being theorized and investigated by scientists, but the strange wavewas caught by a Twitter user, with the handle @matarikipax, according to a report from National Geographic. Many seismologists said they had never seen anything quite like it in response to the Twitter user’s find.
So, why were these waves so strange? During most earthquakes, there are fast-moving waves, which cause the initial rumble of the quake. Secondary waves follow, moving from side-to-side, the article states. This particular seismic occurrence, however, seemed to contain mostly the tertiary waves of earthquakes, which are described as slow, lengthy surface waves. Because of its similarity to these, the strange rumbling of the earth was not physically felt and reported by anyone.
The French Island of Mayotte was close to the source of these mysterious waves
These waves were specifically pinpointed nearest to the French island of Mayotte. The island has been experiencing something of an earthquake swarm relating to possible undersea volcanic activity since May. The largest of these events was reported to be around 5.8 on the Richter Scale. These swarms have slowed a bit in recent years, and the report in National Geographic said none of the events have been similar to the one recorded on Nov. 11.
To get to the bottom of the incident, the French Geological Survey (BRGM) is investigating possible new volcanic activity on the seafloor near the island. Mayotte was created by volcanism, but such activity has not been ongoing in that area for more than 4,000 years, geologists believe. The earlier earthquake swarms, though, could indicate a new magma pocket is opening in the earth’s crust beneath the waves just offshore of the island.
When magma pushes toward the top of the earth, new crust is formed by its cooling. Islands such as Mayotte and the Hawaiian Islands are formed by new crust being created from magma being squeezed to the surface by plate tectonics. This occurs constantly around the world, and it appears recent earthquake swarms and this recent mysterious wave were created by these processes.
During those processes, rare occurrences, known colloquially by geologists as “slow earthquakes” can occur. Slow earthquakes release the same amount of pressure as normal earthquakes, but over a longer period of time. This could explain why the waves were not felt by anyone, but registered on sensors across the globe for at least 20 minutes. If this were proven to be such an instance, this release would have been equivalent to about a five on the Richter Scale. Similar quakes occurred during the collapse of a magma chamber in 2009 at the Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I love the theme of science fiction, so I always have these ideas about flying UFOs and houses in the middle of nowhere that aliens show an interest in as they try to take over a new planet.
In turning my ideas into photos, I always try using new toys and scale models while mixing photography with Photoshop.
I worked on this UFO house abduction photo for about two months. I like the vintage look of things like the car and the house. I had bought a bigger house, but it was way too big for the project. I then contacted a company that cut wood to make a small house using my design, but it was hard to get it together because the size I asked for was too small.
Fortunately, in the end, I was able to get it together.
I used a $2 LED light strip for the spaceship. To create the smoke, I used cigarettes — I don’t smoke, so this was hard for me.
For the sand, I used hummus, as real sand would have looked too big on camera given the scale.
I used one flash head to make the light that comes out from the UFO/Spaceship, and there was another small LED light to give overall light to the scene.
Here’s the photo that resulted, titled “The House”:
About the author: Amr Elshamy is a photographer, visual artist, and filmmaker based in Cairo, Egypt. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Elshamy’s work on his website, Behance, and Instagram.
Bizarre Seismic Waves Was felt Around the World Nov 11, Here’s Why It Happened
Bizarre Seismic Waves Was felt Around the World Nov 11, Here’s Why It Happened
Something very unusual rumbled across planet Earth on November 11th, and scientists say they’ve never seen anything like it. Now they know what happened. For 20 minutes, instruments measured unusual seismic activity over 10,000 miles away from where it originated, yet not a single human felt them.
600 Million Years Ago, the First Scavengers Lurked in Dark Ocean Gardens
600 Million Years Ago, the First Scavengers Lurked in Dark Ocean Gardens
The bizarre organisms of the Ediacaran Period have long puzzled researchers. Fossil discoveries suggest these ecosystems may have been more complicated than once thought.
A fossil of an Ediacaran fern discovered in South Australia.CreditCreditAuscape/UIG, via Getty Images
By Asher Elbein
Some 635 million years ago, as the Earth shook off massive shrouds of glacial ice, an alien world blossomed on the ocean floors.
No complex animals prowled the seas of the Ediacaran Period. Instead, the depths held microbial mats and strange, frond-like creatures that resembled nothing alive today. Paleontologists have suggested that this was a sort of Garden of Eden, a simple ecosystem wiped away by the more vibrant fauna of the following Cambrian Period.
Obamus coronatus.
Image credit: University of California, Riverside.
But recent research is complicating this view, suggesting that Ediacaran ecosystems were more complex than previously thought. Fossils also hint at the beginnings of a massive shift: scavenging that later evolved into predation.
“It’s the beginning of a major change in the ecosystem of the Earth, an irrevocable change,” said Mary Droser, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Riverside. “The ability to eat another animal is a big deal, and is a major ecological and biological innovation.”
The fossils of the Ediacaran, found in desolate locations like Namibia and South Australia, have been notoriously controversial and difficult to interpret. They include strange, quilted blobs; stationary filter-feeders; and organisms like enormous ferns, some up to eight feet long.
“At first, they were all thought to be jellyfish,” said Simon A.F. Darroch, a paleontologist at Vanderbilt University. “Later, others argued that they were stem-animals or lichens.” (Stem-animals were proto-animals: not quite plants, not yet creatures.)
Scientists also have debated how sophisticated these seafloor ecologies were, Dr. Darroch added. A complex ecosystem holds multiple species with a multitude of feeding strategies, like a modern forest or a reef. A simple ecosystem comprises only a few species with the same basic strategies.
Looking at the Ediacaran’s apparently uncomplicated organisms — without legs or obvious guts — most researchers assumed this ecosystem was on the simple side. But in a study recently published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, Dr. Darroch and his colleagues surveyed seafloor fossils from various parts of the Ediacaran and concluded that the early stages of the period featured surprisingly intricate communities.
Simon A. F. Darroch, a paleontologist, examines fossils in Namibia.CreditSimon A. F. Darroch
Dive into the Ediacaran seas, and you’d see sediments covered in thick sheets of green or white microbes. There were no deep burrowers here; the ocean mud had the solidity and stickiness of a tile floor after a fraternity party.
The few multicellular organisms grazed slowly on the congealed mats or sat atop them, using different body shapes to pluck nutrients from the currents. Sea jellies, or something like them, may have floated in the open waters — nobody’s sure.
Many of these organisms had an architecture unlike any seen in modern organisms, said Martin Smith, a paleontologist at Durham University in England. While they may have appeared plantlike, they lived in waters too deep for sunlight to penetrate.
Even their precise shapes are unknown. Some may have been folded into complex patterns; others, inflated like a water bed.
“They probably grew very slowly,” Dr. Smith said, “arriving as spores on a virgin seafloor after a mudslide or land slip, then reproducing asexually to form interconnected colonies that gradually populated the seafloor.”
Dr. Darroch and his colleagues suggest that different feeding strategies were at the root of this unexpected diversity, but Dr. Smith finds it hard to imagine such organisms feeding in radically different ways.
Attenborites janeae.
Image credit: University of California, Riverside.
Instead, the organisms may have competed with one another with varying reproductive strategies, he suggested. Some were able to alter their shapes according to their surroundings and then to spread their spores over a greater distance.
Even with such unexpected diversity, the Ediacaran was a still world, without much in the way of predation. But dead organisms were an easy resource, Dr. Droser said, and some animals began to take advantage.
According to a recent paper Dr. Droser co-wrote in the journal Emerging Topics in Life Sciences, a new set of fossils shows the oldest known traces of such scavenging. Recovered from the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, the rocks hold beautifully preserved fossils of Ediacaran organisms, with tiny passages carved through them.
Dr. Droser and James Gehling, a paleontologist at the South Australian Museum, suggest that these burrows were made by small animals nibbling through microbe mats decaying under thin drifts of sand, and devouring the dead organisms they found in the mats.
In a world where nothing dug very deep, burrowing would have been a biological and ecological innovation.
“The scavenging occurred after the organisms were buried, so we know that they were dead,” Dr. Droser said. “Eating a dead animal requires more oxygen and also a metabolism that can digest it.”
But Dr. Smith disagrees, pointing out that signs of scavenging after the Ediacaran Period are not like these. Scientists tend to find elaborate patterns in fossils, left by animals exploiting every inch of decaying organic matter.
“These Ediacaran burrowers seem not to care that they’ve just passed through a potential meal,” Dr. Smith said.
µ
A fossil cast of a creature from the group known as the Ediacaran biota. These creatures existed during the Ediacaran period, which spanned from 635 million to 540 million years ago. Members of the Ediacaran biota are unlike anything that exists today. Researchers typically find these fossils in rocks that are between 580 million and 541 million years old.
“This doesn’t sound like a great strategy for a scavenger, less still for a predator,” he added. “But perhaps these early organisms were still learning the ropes.”
Either way, the advent of simple scavenging and burrowing heralded larger changes to come. Scavenging may have been a steppingstone to active predation, and the evolution of the first predators kicked off a massive arms race. Once prey began attempting to escape, defendingthemselves or fighting back, competition and natural selection began to escalate.
There are clues that something was changing toward the end of the Ediacaran, Dr. Darroch said: signs of movement in the mud fall dramatically, as do the number of species recorded — symptoms of an ecosystem under stress.
As the microbial mats disappeared in a world of burrowers, the fragile species that lived off them went, too. The appearance of more recognizable animals — mobile and powerful, able to punch through the mats and devour other living organisms — might have caused a biologically driven mass extinction.
The Cambrian explosion gave rise to many recognizable animal groups, and for a time these overshadowed the strange, silent gardens of the Ediacaran. But the key to how multicellular ecosystems developed seems to lie in sandstones left by those chilly seas, in an ecosystem much more diverse than previously suspected.
“Life has impacted our world today from the production of oxygen to churning up soil,” Dr. Droser said. “We can see in the Ediacaran the firsts of a number of these biological and ecological processes that later became essential to our planet.”
Scientists Have Spotted A “Lost Continent” Using Satellites
Scientists Have Spotted A “Lost Continent” Using Satellites
Lurking deep beneath the ice sheets of Antarctica, scientists have detected the remnants of long-lost continents. Nope, it’s not quite Atlantis, but the discovery is shedding some much need light on the mysterious history of Antarctica.
Researchers discovered the ancient continents using gravity-mapping satellite data (the same way we map the seafloor) and bucket loads of seismological information, which picked up on a patchwork of ancient key geological features on the Earth’s lithosphere, the tough outer shell of the planet that consists of the crust and upper mantle.
“These gravity images are revolutionizing our ability to study the least understood continent on Earth, Antarctica,” co-author Fausto Ferraccioli, science leader of geology and geophysics at the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.
Much of the data came from the European Space Agency’s Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite that cruised the planet between 2009 and 2013 on a mission to measure the pull of Earth’s gravity field in unprecedented detail. Five years ago, GOCE made an uncontrolled reentry to Earth’s atmosphere before disintegrating near the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately, all of its precious data had made it safely back home before then.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the team explain how they used GOCE data about how rapidly the acceleration of gravity changes, known as localized gravity gradients, as well as information about the differences in horizontal and vertical components of the gravity field. Together with seismological data of the planet, they were able to build up three-dimensional images of Earth’s plate tectonics, even in hard to reach areas buried beneath kilometers of ice, like Antarctica.
“In East Antarctica, we see an exciting mosaic of geological features that reveal fundamental similarities and differences between the crust beneath Antarctica and other continents it was joined to until 160 million years ago,” noted Ferraccioli.
GOCE map of Antarctica on bedrock topography.
Kiel University/BAS
It also revealed how West Antarctica has a notably thinner crust and lithosphere compared to East Antarctica, made up of mountainous folded plate crumples (known as orogen) and ancient stable rocky zones of the Earth’s crust (called cratons). This is perhaps unsurprisingly similar to the features of the region’s past neighbors, India and Australia. The cratons are also particularly interesting as they make up the oldest cores of Earth’s lithosphere, therefore they can be studied to unearth insights into the Earth’s early history.
“It also provides context of how continents were possibly connected in the past before they drifted apart owing to plate motion,” ESA’s GOCE mission scientist Roger Haagmans added.
A new crop circle was recently discovered in the UK on July 8th, 2018. It was the exact depiction of the chemical weapons warning symbol.
Reflect On:
Does this serve as a message for us to put down the chemical and nuclear weapons for good? Do we need to be using these weapons? This may also cause us to consider the poisoning of our planet in other ways.
A new crop circle was recently discovered on July 8th in Coneybury Hill, Nr Stonehenge, Wiltshire. This circle is the exact same as the chemical weapons warning symbol.
Interestingly this crop circle was found shortly after the death of Dawn Sturgess who had come into contact with a deadly nerve agent.
While we can’t know for sure, this crop circle certainly appears to be a message to humanity about the dangers of chemical weapons and the catastrophic damage they can cause, regardless of who you believe made it. Perhaps this circle symbolizes the fact that these weapons have no place in our world, and it’s time we got rid of them, for good.
Check out some amazing drone footage of this newly discovered crop circle below.
ET Intervention?
It is not all that surprising to see this message show up in a crop circle, as in the past we have seen deliberate ET intervention when nuclear weapons would have otherwise been used. We have covered this topic before, and the following is an excerpt from an older article,
One of many previously classified reports -out of the thousands in existence -that is now available in the public domain is the intrusion at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, on August 24, 1966. Air Force personnel were concerned about a light in the sky. A team went to check it out and confirmed the object, then saw a second white object while doing so. The object was tracked on radar and moved vertical several times; each time it descended, an air force officer in charge of a missile crew found his radio transmission interrupted by static. The object eventually descended to ground level, and the Air Force sent a team to check it out. They saw the object either on the ground or hovering very low. According to the official report:
“When the team was about ten miles from the landing site, static disrupted radio contact with them. Five to eight minutes later, the glow diminished, and the UFO took off. Another UFO was visually sighted and confirmed by radar. The one that was first sighted passed beneath the second. Radar also confirmed this. The first made for altitude toward the north, and the second seemed to disappear with the glow of red.”
Here are a couple of more articles that go into greater detail regarding the connections between UFO’s and nuclear missiles:
It seems that these extraterrestrials know just how damaging nuclear weapons can be to our planet, and possibly to our entire solar system. There is information that says that UFO’s have been deactivating nuclear weapons since we created them and started to show up a lot more often when we were testing the atomic bomb. Thankfully, someone or something has our back and is helping to stop us, humanity from making a huge mistake.
As Far As Crop Circles Go, You May Be Interested In These Detailed Articles That Go A Little Deeper Into The Phenomenon
Author Shanna Swenson writes romance, but she has some other, stranger stories to tell. Shanna recently told me about a UFO sighting she and her husband experienced a few years ago in Georgia. At the time, Shanna, her husband, and a cousin were driving home from dinner on a clear December night. They were making their way down a two-lane road on the outskirts of Cumming, where she and her husband live. At some point, she saw an unidentifiable red light in the sky. She pointed the orb out to her husband, and it suddenly began splitting into multiple lights. (Click here to see an example.) Any thoughts that the light might be a cell tower vanished as the red UFO became six pinkish-orange orbs.
Shanna’s husband pulled the truck over, and the travelers got out to watch the sky. In stark silence, the trio observed, spellbound, as the orbs began a slow, rhythmic pulse and moved farther apart. No motor hum, no sound of any kind issued from the UFOs. As they watched, the glowing array continued toward them and passed directly over their heads. Shanna says, “they flew over our heads and as quickly as they appeared, they vanished! We were all completely mystified.”
The author explained that while not desolate, the road they traveled that night is outside the city limits. Her sighting occurred around 11:00 pm and lasted only a few minutes. It is not unusual that they encountered no other traffic during the event, but other sightings are occasionally reported in the area.
UFO Formation Patterns
Shanna states that they were surprised and curious about what they saw, but they were not afraid. Unlike some reports, she had no sense that the UFOs were aware of being observed. The group had none of the aftereffects sometimes reported following a UFO sighting, such as nightmares or lost time.
I asked Shanna if the orbs formed a pattern of any kind during the sighting. She said there was no discernable pattern, but more like the single light was “breaking apart into a fan-like spread.”
I was curious if Shanna recognized any patterns because of a theory put forth by filmmaker Damon T. Berry in 2015. In his YouTube film Alien Contact, Berry claims UFOs are trying to communicate with humans using the most basic language possible. This language is neither music nor math, as some famous movies depict. Rather, Berry says, UFO language consists of constellation patterns. No more basic language could exist, he says, than showing humans the star patterns in their own skies. The filmmaker says it is common for groups of UFOs to change patterns five to seven times during a sighting. He believes this communication was not effective before the advent of cell phones, before the patterns could be routinely recorded and analyzed. Berry says UFO arrays form the patterns, then often repeat the series again during the same event.
Constellation Arrays
Berry’s film has been criticized for its quality and repetition, but the point it makes concerning UFO arrays is clear. Repeatedly, regardless of location, UFOs are seen forming similar patterns. This fact is easily proven by the most cursory online search for UFO pictures and videos. I noticed one pattern even before discovering Berry’s video–before I understood the shapes they form might be a communication. In several videos, I noticed UFOs forming a pattern that looks like either the Big or Little Dipper. According to Berry, other outlines formed by UFOs include Orion, Pegasus, and Cygnus.
Each of these constellations and asterisms (star formations contained in constellations) has been recognized by humans for thousands of years. Berry believes each star grouping features one or more significant elements known by any intelligent race, human or alien. The Dippers, for example, rotate about Polaris, the North Star. Polaris represents true north for Earth. Dubhe and Merak, the outer stars forming the bowl of the Big Dipper (part of Ursa Major) point to the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper—Polaris.
Cygnus (also known as the Swan) is sometimes called the Northern Cross. The constellation contains Cygnus X-1, a bright object that radiates X-rays. The X-rays result from a black hole and a blue star rotating around one another. The black hole pulls gasses from the star which heat up and emit X-rays.
Pegasus is shaped like a square. It is an asterism that can be used by stargazers to locate Andromeda.
Orion and the Pyramids
Last but not least is Orion. Specifically, Orion’s belt. The three stars comprising the belt are easily detectable and often used to locate other celestial bodies. How many pictures have we seen of three blue stars hanging in a dark sky over the pyramids? How many times have we been told the pyramids align with the stars in Orion’s belt?
Damon Berry thinks the pyramids of Giza were built long ago to warn alien spacefarers that Earth is “taken,” that intelligent life inhabits the planet, that this blue orb is not available for use or colonization. If Berry is right, and alien visitors are communicating by forming constellation patterns in our skies, how do we respond? What do we say? How do we say it? A lot more research is needed.
Many thanks to author Shanna Swenson for sharing her UFO sighting. Check out her fiction on Amazon and Goodreads, like her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your time. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think. If you would like to share your own true paranormal experience, please complete the form here. All posts are subject to review and moderation prior to publication.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.