Aug 31, 2010

The Loveland Lizard

This remarkable creature has earned its place in the annals of the unknown primarily because of the credibility of the involved witnesses: two police officers on two separate occasions.

The scene is the early hours of March 3, 1972. A police officer is cruising on Riverside Ave., which runs for a few blocks along the Little Miami River in Loveland, Ohio. On the side of the road he sees what he at first thinks is a dog lying there. He slows his vehicle on the icy road to avoid hitting the animal should it get up and run in front of him. He nears the animal and stops his patrol car, at which point the creature quickly stands on two legs to a crouching position. Illuminating the creature with his headlights, the officer can now clearly see that it is not a dog at all, but something he cannot explain:

  • three to four feet tall
  • 50 to 75 pounds
  • leathery skin
  • possibly wet, matted hair on its body that made it look textured possibly a short tail
  • a head and face like a frog or lizard

Whatever this creature was, it looked at the officer briefly, then leapt over the road's guard rail toward the river. The officer reported the odd sighting to the police dispatcher, then later returned to the scene of the incident with another officer. All they found was evidence that something had scraped the hillside as it made its way down to the river.

The creature may have been completely forgotten had not a second police officer seen it again two weeks later. The second officer also at first thought the thing lying in the middle of the road was a dog or roadkill. When he got out of his car to haul it to the side of the road, it got up, climbed over the guard rail this time, all the while keeping its eyes on the officer, and disappeared toward the river. His description of the creature pointed out the same frog-like characteristics. A subsequent investigation uncovered only one other possible sighting around the same time; a farmer claimed to have seen some kind of large, lizard-like creature. It thereafter became known as the Loveland Lizard or Loveland Frog.

What was it? Good question. If is was a frog or similar amphibian, it's the largest one ever recorded - and the only one known to get up and walk away on its hind legs.

The chupacabras

The chupacabras is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas. It is associated more recently with sightings of an allegedly unknown animal in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States, especially in the latter's Latin American communities.

The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile.

It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail. Biologists and wildlife management officials view the chupacabras as a contemporary legend.

Aug 30, 2010

Strange disappearance at Stonehenge

The mysterious standing stones of Stonehenge in England was the site of an amazing disappearance in August, 1971. At this time Stonehenge was not yet protected from the public, and on this particular night, a group of “hippies” decided to pitch tents in the center of the circle and spend the night.

They built a campfire, lit several joints of pot and sat around smoking and signing. Their campout was abruptly interrupted at about 2 a.m. by a severe thunder storm that quickly blew in over Salisbury Plain. Bright bolts of lightning crashed down on the area, striking area trees and even the standing stones themselves.

Two witnesses, a farmer and a policeman, said that the stones of the ancient monument lit up with an eerie blue light that was so intense that they had to avert their eyes. They heard screams from the campers and the two witnesses rushed to the scene expecting to find injured - or even dead - campers.

To their surprise, they found no one. All that remained within the circle of stones were several smoldering tent pegs and the drowned remains of a campfire. The hippies themselves were gone without a trace.

Beaumont children disappearance

Jane Nartare Beaumont (aged 9), Arnna Kathleen Beaumont (aged 7), and Grant Ellis Beaumont (aged 4) were three siblings collectively known as The Beaumont Children who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia on Australia Day (26 January) 1966.

Their case resulted in one of the largest police investigations in Australian criminal history and remains Australia's most infamous cold case. The huge attention given to this case, its significance in Australian criminal history, and the fact that the mystery of their disappearance has never been explained, has led to the story being revisited by the press on a regular basis, with the result that it has started to pass into Australian folklore.

It is also viewed by many social commentators as a significant event in the evolution of Australian society, with a large number of people changing the way they supervised their children on a daily basis.

Aug 29, 2010

The Bog bodies

Bog bodies, which are also known as bog people, are the naturally preserved human corpses found in the sphagnum bogs in Northern Europe. Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies have retained their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area.

These conditions include highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen, combining to preserve but severely tan their skin. Despite the fact that their skin is preserved, their bones are generally not, as the acid in the peat dissolves the calcium phosphate of bone. The German scientist Dr Alfred Dieck catalogued the known existence of over 1,850 northern European bog bodies in 1965.

Most, although not all, of these bodies have been dated to the Iron Age, and many of them show signs of having been killed and deposited in a very similar manner, indicating some sort of ritual element, which many archaeologists believe show that these were the victims of human sacrifice in Iron Age Germanic paganism. Some of the most notable examples of bog bodies include Tollund Man and Grauballe Man from Denmark and Lindow Man from England.

Foo Fighters - A mysterious phenomena

Foo fighters were first spotted and named by Allied aircraft pilots during World War II. Foo fighters were basically unidentified flying objects (also described as "mysterious aerial phenomena") seen in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. First reported in November 1944, the foo fighters were initially thought to be a weapon of the enemy. However, the mysterious experiences were also reported by Axis forces and the cause remains unknown to this day.
The foo fighters were reported to be fast-moving, round, glowing objects that would follow aircraft. Sometimes they were said to resemble Christmas lights and pilots claimed that they seemed to toy with them before vanishing. Pilots reported that these objects would fly in formation with their aircraft and seemed to be under intelligent control. Foo fighters have never been reported to display hostile behavior. No aircraft could outmaneuver them and they could not be shot down. However, on one occasion, the pilot of a B-29 aircraft did manage to hit one, at which time the foo fighter burst into several pieces and fell to the earth below, setting several buildings afire.

Foo fighters have also been reported by ships at sea and appear to be invisible to radar. One theory is that these events could have been caused by ball lighting. Another is extraterrestrials. No one knows for sure.

Aug 14, 2010

The Mystery of Stonehenge

No place has generated so much speculation and wild theories as the standing stones of Stonehenge. After driving for miles through the rolling hills and plains of the English countryside the sight of this unusual structure makes people gasp. A walk around it only provokes more strange feelings. There's a sense that this is something very important. It taunts us with it's mystery. For over 5000 years it has stood silent vigil over the earth. It has been excavated, x-rayed, measured, and surveyed.

Yet despite all that has been learned about its age and construction, its purpose still remains one of the great mysteries of the world. Around 3500 BC the semi-nomadic peoples that populated the Salisbury Plain began to build the monument now known as Stonehenge. The original construction was a circular ditch and mound with 56 holes forming a ring around its perimeter. The first stone to be placed at the site was the Heel Stone. It was erected outside of a single entrance to the site.

200 years later 80 blocks of bluestone was transported from a quarry almost 200 miles away in the Prescelly Mountains. It is surmised that these blocks were transported by way of rafts along the Welsh coast and up local rivers, finally to be dragged overland to the site. These stones were erected forming two concentric circles. At some point this construction was dismantled and work began on the final phase of the site.

The bluestones were moved within the circle and the gigantic stones that give Stonehenge its distinctive look were installed. Some of these massive stones weigh as much as 26 tons! It remains a mystery how such huge stones could have been moved from the quarry at north Wiltshire by a supposedly primitive people.

Dome of the Rock

Muslim men pray beneath the massive stone enshrined at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Israel. Despite its appearance, the dome, called Qubbat as-Sakhrah in Arabic, is not a mosque.

Rather, it is a shrine built over the rock from which the Prophet Muhammad is said to have ascended into heaven. The site is also sacred in Judaism as the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Built on Temple Mount between A.D. 685 and 691, the dome is the oldest extant Islamic structure and one of the first Islamic monumental buildings ever constructed.

Aug 12, 2010

Yeti - The unsolved mystery

The yeti is a mythical creature who is supposed to live in the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world. In Tibetan the word means "magical creature". Alternatively: "The Western name is derived from the Tibetan yeh-teh (transliterated: gYa' dred), "little man-like animal". Some Tibetan locals call a Yeti like creature a Kanchenjunga demon.

There are more predictions about Yetis. Following are few among them: Yetis could be of alien origin. Their home planet might be much colder than the Earth so they have physical bodies adapted for the extreme cold of the higher himalayan regions. Perhaps they crash landed hundreds of years ago and live in secret in mountain caves.

Yetis could be part of a small remaining tribe of ancient humans or-pre-humans. There maybe a vast network of undiscovered caves in the himalayas that helps them survive and remain concealed. They may be more telepathic than most present day humans and have other powers as well.

The Mongolian Death Worm

The Mongolian Death Worm, known to Mongolia’s nomadic tribesmen as the allghoi khorkhoi (sometimes given as allerghoi horhai or olgoj chorchoj) or ‘intestine worm’ for its resemblance to a sort of living cow’s intestine. It is said to be red in colour, and is sometimes described as having darker spots or blotches, and sometimes said to bear spiked projections at both ends. They are said to be thick bodied and between 2 and 5 feet long.

The creature is reported to be able to spray an acid like substance that causes death instantly. It is also claimed that this creature has the ability to kill from a distance with some sort of super charged electrical charge. Numerous Mongolians have reported seeing this creature including a Mongolian Premier. The creature is reported to hibernate during most of the year except for June and July when it becomes active.

It is believed that touching any part of the worm will bring instant death, and its venom supposedly corrodes metal. Local folklore also tells of a predilection for the color yellow and local parasitic plants such as the Goyo. It is also believed that the worm likes to get out on the ground generally after the rain, when the ground is still wet.

Aug 11, 2010

Newgrange islands

With several aircraft already planning to swarm around hurricanes this year, yet another one will be dispatched to help scientists solve a large mystery: Why do some clusters of thunderstorms grow into hurricanes while many others dissipate?

The results could help the National Hurricane Center extend its long-range forecasts from five to seven days. So says the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a non-profit research center based in Boulder, Colo. “There are clusters of thunderstorms every day in the tropics, but we don’t know why some of them develop into hurricanes while others don’t,” Christopher Davis, one of the lead NCAR scientists, said.

Under a project called PREDICT, NCAR plans to deploy a Gulfstream G-V high-altitude jet from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands when storms pop up during the height of the hurricane season. The PREDICT plane will join others on a similar mission.

Underwater Pyramids at Japan

Man-made, made by Nature, or did humankind finish what Nature started? These enigmatic, sunken stone structures off Okinawa, Japan, located 60 to 100 feet beneath the ocean surface, have the Japanese wondering if their homeland was once part of the lost continent of Mu.

Stone terraces, right angled block and walls, and stone circles encompassing hexagonal columns look intriguingly, if not conclusively, man made. A few more clues: an encircling road, what might be post holes supported long-gone wooden structures, what look like cut steps, and castles with similar archietecture located nearby and still on land. (see photos; link at end of this article)

The two sites that are getting the most attention: near the city of Naha is Okinawa is what looks like a wall, with a coral encrusted right angled block. Another, just off the southern end of the tiny island of Yonaguni, the southernmost island of Japan, is an extensive site, with five irregular layers that look like ceremonial, terraced platforms. There are eight anomalous, underwater sites found to date.

The Dropa Stones

In 1938, an archaeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture.

Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old.

The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendants, possibly, were found in the cave.

The Grooved Spheres

Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

Roelf Marx: "There is nothing scientific published about the globes, but the facts are: They are found in pyrophyllite, which is mined near the little town of Ottosdal in the Western Transvaal. This pyrophyllite (Al2Si4O10(OH)2) is a quite soft secondary mineral with a count of only 3 on the Mohs' scale and was formed by sedimentation about 2.8 billion years ago. On the other hand the globes, which have a fibrous structure on the inside with a shell around it, are very hard and cannot be scratched, even by steel."

"It also seems that the spheres are so delicately balanced that, even with modern technology, they would need to have been made in zero gravity. The story goes that scientists at NASA were totally flawed when they examined them, and were unable to come up with any explanation." However some of the photographs do not seem to support this.

Aug 10, 2010

Tasmanian Tiger

One of the great tragedies of the twentieth century was the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger, the largest carnivorous marsupial to have lived in the modern world.Bad enough that this rare beast, found only on the Australian mainland, New Guinea and Tasmania is gone but that its demise was mainly caused by the incursions and depredation of European settlers.

The Tasmanian Tiger was neither a feline nor a canine although it looked very much dog-like in body style and size. It shared a small classification of the genus, Thylacinus, with its cousin the Tasmanian Devil. In length the Tasmanian Tiger averaged between three and a half and four and a half feet long with a tale about two foot long. Matching the size of mid-sized dogs, the Tiger weighted in at between forty and seventy pounds.

According to International standards fifty years passed without a Tasmanian Tiger being discovered so it was listed as officially extinct in 1986. Despite the classification, there are still reports of sightings, tracks and scat of the occasional Tiger in a few remote parts of Tasmania. Several agencies have offered substantial rewards for proof the Tiger is still with us although they have as yet gone unclaimed. That the last old growth forest of Tasmania are where these sighting occur, the continued logging of these areas will soon guarantee the last hope of finding a live Tasmanian Tiger will perish along with this creature.

Aug 9, 2010

The Mayan Prophecy

According to an increasingly large number of people, the Mayan Prophecy states that the world as we know it will change on December 12, 2012. This is not a new phenomena; as landmark dates draw near, end of the world theories creep out of the woodwork with astonishing popularity. However, this particular theory has been around for more than 5000 years. It began when the ancient Mayans plotted our position in the Milky Way and launched the Mayan calendar.

The Mayans believed that in the year AD 1999, mankind would have 13 years to recognize our own patterns of self destruction. Then, starting December 12, 2012, our entire lives would be tested and only those most in touch with their spiritual sides would survive (as some interpretations have it). Many people take this as a sign that a natural or manmade disaster will occur, tearing apart the civilized world and taking us back to hunter-gatherer days.

There are other interpretations too: from sun storms to the eruption of a super volcano; from a magnetic field reversal to a meteor impact. Some people even point to the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland as the bringer of doom. While the world may come to an abrupt end any time, any day, without warning - one thing is for sure: our modern society, like all civilizations before us, is geared to postulate over end-of-the-world mysteries with gusto.


Ica Stones

Ica stones are considered by some people to be proof that there was once a technologically advanced civilization on Earth. They were reportedly discovered in a cave of unknown location near the city of Ica in Peru and popularized by Peruvian physician Javier Cabrera. Scientific testing of the more than fifteen thousand stones dates them as being from prehistoric times, but the stones are carved with images of things that would have been unfamiliar to any known prehistoric people. Contradicting both existing knowledge of Peruvian prehistory and evolution, they are considered prime examples of out-of-place artifacts.

The stones are composed of andesite and vary in size from pebbles to boulders. They are shallowly engraved through their surface patina with a variety of images, purportedly depicting a variety of phenomena: For example, some of the stones seem to depict surgical equipment, blood transfusions, cesarean sections, and life support systems, as well as men using a telescope, Incan or Aztec men riding and attacking dinosaurs, extinct animals, flying machines, bestiality, star and land maps.

Interestingly, the cave where the farmer claimed to have found the stones is near an area of mysterious lines scratched into the ground, the Nazca lines, which some people claim was once a landing site for extraterrestrial spacecraft. Cabrera thinks that this is the site from which Gliptolithic man left Earth. He further believes, based on some of the celestial drawings on the stones, that the Gliptolithics headed for a planet in the Pleiades star cluster.

The Beast of Gévaudan

One day in June 1764, in a forest in the Gévaudan, a mountainous region of south-central France, a young woman tending cows looked up to see a hideous beast bearing down on her. The creature resembled an enormous wolf. Her dogs fled, but the cattle drove the beast off with their horns. The woman would prove considerably more fortunate than most witnesses of what became known as the “Beast of Gévaudan.” The beasts were consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable teeth and immense tails. Their fur had a reddish tinge, and was said to have emitted an unbearable odour. An enormous amount of manpower and resources was used in the hunting of the beast, including the army, conscripted civilians, several nobles, and a number of royal huntsmen.


The Beast of Gévaudan (French: La Bête du Gévaudan) is a name given to man-eating wolf-like animals alleged to have terrorized the former province of Gévaudan (modern day département of Lozère and part of Haute-Loire), in the Margeride Mountains in south-central France from 1764 to 1767 over an area stretching 90 by 80 kilometres.

In a study of the relationship of human-attacking wolf reports to werewolf legends, W. M. S. and Claire Russell write that “modern wolves have had many generations’ experience of fire-arms, and are likely to be more cautious than their ancestors.” Few peasants in mid-eighteenth-century France possessed guns. Much folklore and printed speculation aside — the beast has been “identified” variously as a werewolf, a hyena, a man in wolf skins, or a hybrid bred by a madman specifically to kill people — no real doubt about the animal’s identity remains.

Aug 4, 2010

THE COWDEN FAMILY

An entire family once disappeared from the Rogue River National Forest Campground in Oregon. On September 5, 1974, Richard Cowden and his wife Belinda, along with their two small children, David and Melissa, went camping for the Labor Day weekend.

On Sunday morning, Richard was seen in nearby Copper, Oregon buying some milk. That was the last anyone ever saw of the Cowden family. When the family didn't show up for a scheduled Sunday dinner at Richard Cowden's mother's place, local authorities conducted a search. The camp scene was like something out of The Twilight Zone. Trooper Lee Rickson stated: "That camp sure was spooky. Even the milk was still on the table".

Investigators found cooking utensils resting on a tree stump, fishing rods leaning against a tree and the family car was still parked above the campsite. Richard's wallet and his wife's purse were also discovered, with nothing apparently missing from them. There were no indications of a struggle.

Phoenix LightsPhoenix Lights

The Phoenix Lights (sometimes referred to as the "lights over Phoenix") were a series of widely sighted optical phenomena (generally unidentified flying objects) that occurred in the skies over the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, and the Mexican state of Sonora on March 13, 1997.

A repeat of the lights occurred February 6, 2007, and was filmed by the local Fox News TV station. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson.

There were two distinct events involved in the incident: a triangular formation of lights seen to pass over the state, and a series of stationary lights seen in the Phoenix area. The United States Air Force (USAF) identified the second group of lights as flares dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft which were on training exercises at the Barry Goldwater Range in southwest Arizona.

Witnesses claim to have observed a huge carpenter's square-shaped UFO, containing lights or possibly light-emitting engines. Fife Symington, the governor at the time, was one witness to this incident; he later called the object "otherworldly."

The Roswell Incident

There are those who think that what Mac Brazel stumbled upon, and Major Jesse Marcel recovered, was indeed a crashed saucer- complete with its alien crew. They are adamant that the Air Force/ Government is hiding The Truth deep in the bowels of Top Secret. More books, articles and research have been done about The Roswell Incident than any other event in the history of UFO's.

But the same dedicated research that has made Roswell so famous has also turned up countless inconsistencies, gross elaboration, and strong indications that some of the evidence was hoaxed. Yet, despite the confusion, there are many who believe that what Mac Brazel found was proof positive that we are being visited by beings from another world.

Spurred by numerous books, the popular press and television, the hard-core faithful and curiosity seekers alike have made the once sleepy town of Roswell, New Mexico the Mecca of UFO-ology. This site is designed to give you an analytical look at the events, the people, and those that have brought us the Roswell Story. There is much here that is very skeptical in focus, but to be considered part of a valid explanation, any and all evidence presented must be able to withstand critical analysis. As you will see, there is much that cannot.

Mysteries of Canada, Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste (often incorrectly referred to as Marie Celeste) was a brigantine merchant ship notably discovered in December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned, despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able seamen. The Mary Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables.

The crew was never seen or heard from again. Their disappearance is often cited as the greatest maritime mystery of all time. The fate of her crew has been the subject of much speculation. Theories range from alcoholic fumes, to underwater earthquakes, to waterspouts, to paranormal explanations involving hypothetical extraterrestrial, unidentified flying objects, sea monsters, and the hypothetical phenomena of the Bermuda Triangle, although the Mary Celeste is not known to have sailed through the Bermuda Triangle area.

The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship, since she was discovered derelict without any apparent explanation, and her name has become a synonym in British culture for similar occurrences.

Aug 2, 2010

King Arthur

Did one of the most famous kings ever really exist or was his legend just a way to inspire English troops? One of the first times he is mentioned is by a Welsh cleric named Nennius in his Historia Brittonum in the 9th century.

However, the most comprehensive account that is known is Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, which dates back to the 12th century. Monmouth claimed that Arthur was unsurpassed in power and diplomacy, a great warrior king who ruled Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Brittany, Normandy and Gaul. Mounmouth's supposed history is completely false, but that didn't stop the world from falling in love with and continuing the Arthurian legend.

The Lost Island of Atlantis

One of the oldest mysteries in the world, the legend of Atlantis has mystified humanity since ancient times. According to the Greek philosopher Plato, Atlantis was a large island somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (the Rock of Gibraltar) and the home of an incredibly advanced civilization known as the Atlanteans.

Plato described Atlantis as a place of immense beauty with a palace compound in the center of three ringed canals. He said that every king that inherited the palace would add to it, trying to surpass his predecessor and by doing so they made it a palace that surpassed any other in both beauty and wealth.

The Atlanteans themselves were blessed with wealth but at the same they were incredibly ambitious, constantly seeking power. Atlantis is said to have met its end when it was hit by a giant earthquake and swallowed by the sea. But is any of this the truth or is the story of Atlantis just a myth?