WINDSOR — For months, residents of south and west Windsor have been wondering and worrying about vibrations of unknown origin.
And now, those mysterious rumblings under the city have found a new believer — the city’s Ward 10 Coun. Al Maghnieh, who says it’s time to start taking the phenomenon seriously.
“It’s very present and real,” he said.
Maghnieh added that those who think the phenomenon is a joke or that its proponents are “crazy” need to grasp the implications in terms of health and the environment.
“I mean, it’s actually scary to think that this is going on and we still can’t pinpoint what it is,” he said.
I can’t believe we’re still finding new animals in the water all around the world, wait, yes I can because we’ve only explored 70% of our oceans! I’m sure there are still hundreds if not thousands of new things to discover. Who’s up for an adventure?
The Proceedings of Royal Society B, 2011, is noting the discovery of a new species of fish. Their article is published here, and is entitled, “A ‘living fossil’ eel (Anguilliformes: Protoanguillidae, fam. nov.) from an undersea cave in Palau.”
Check this out! I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have a bigfoot body turn up anytime now. Sightings are happening more often than ever and with modern technology, it’s just a matter of time until one turns up!
A while back, someone was talking to someone who was very excited to start their career as an amateur ghost hunter. It had never struck me before, but suddenly I realized what a strange phrase that was… “Ghost Hunter.”
Depending on your origins, hunting can have different connotations. The don’t call me the Authentic Texas Mojo Man for nothing! In Texas hunting has been a tradition since before the Tonkawa and Comanche roamed the hill country around Austin. (Today we call that land “shopping centers” and it’s all built up with steel and concrete like a pizza oven.) The hunters I knew ate what they killed and they stalked them honestly. They didn’t use robotic feeders to train the animals to gather at the kill site at a convenient time. They had respect for their prey and had as much praise for the ones who got away as the ones that ended up at the dinner table.
Slaughter of American Buffalo
Ah, but there are other kinds of hunters. There are poachers who use the most aggressive means possible and rape the environment with no concern for balance. They come in and take the one thing that they value, leaving the rest to rot. This was the case in the early European settlement of America, where herds of buffalo were slaughtered, skinned and left to rot. You can read all about it in “The Extermination of the American Bison,” by William T. Hornaday, freely available through Project Gutenberg. This kind of destruction shows no respect, only a drive to profit.
So, when people talk about “ghost hunting” I first have to ask myself “What kind of hunter are you?” Frankly, a lot of what I see from people seems to be much more about trophy hunting. They gather their experiences and trot them out for display, but what have they learned about the nature of the spirits they pursue? Even the more respected style of hunting is still about dominance. As a predator you have to win or you don’t eat. No matter how much you respect your food, you still need it to lose the game.
There is another approach to wildlife that I think is much more in tune with what people say they want to achieve: bird watching. I know some people who are birders. They have traveled far and wide for the express purpose of crossing a species off of their list. They are immensely knowledgeable about birds, appreciating the nuance of color and shape that separates them. They know the calls and can tell you a number of things about the birds that make them unique in their environment. The are damned near ornithologists in their understanding of these creatures. Their goal? To see that these animals live.
I’m sure that there are some bad birders out there, but the birds get to largely ignore them. It doesn’t kill you to be looked at. On the other hand, the good ones spread a lot of information about habitat and what these animals need to survive. (Yes, responsible hunters do that too, but it’s lost on some people because of the whole “dead animal” thing. Don’t get me wrong… I’m a huge fan of venison!)
I guess what it all comes down to for me is respect. Are you just going for chills and thrills, or do you want to grow closer to these entities that you are seeking? What are you learning as you go on your encounters? What are you doing to improve the situation?
I’ve said before that I don’t think… shall we call it “Ghost Watching?”… is all about gadgets. People are already wired to connect with the spirit world. We just devoted that energy to video games and managing fantasy football teams. You need to learn how to quieten yourself so you can experience what is there. But I’m not going to harp on that right now.
I just want you to consider when you seek a ghost, what you want to take away. You have an amazing opportunity to make some sort of connection. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to get it to tell you the color of your socks? (“Because no one could know that!”) Are you going to try to get this spirit— who for all we know was a human being just like you and me, with love and pain and joy and sorrow and a real life that they led as best as they could— are you going to get them to do tricks for you? Or, are you going to do something to find out more about what hold them here? Are you going to do something to make sure that their memory matters?
Word mean things. If you are a Ghost Hunter, that says something about you. Does it say what you mean it to? Even if you adopt the term Ghost Watcher, which I think is a better description, are you really learning about this phenomena, or just going for the exercise. Think about it. Look at that picture of the buffalo and think about it. What are you going to leave behind?
(I just wanted to let you know that I didn’t come up with the term “Ghost Watching” on my own. My friend, David, was kind enough to help draw these correspondences during a conversation over adult beverages when I expressed my dissatisfaction.)
10:00 PM CST, Wednesday, 8/10/2011: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.
This week Chris and Mark will open the lines for your stories about the weird. Have you had a strange encounter? Gone on your first ghost hunt? Had dreams that have been coming true? We want to hear from you. Everything is on the table.
As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight (Wednesday, August 10th) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. See you in the shadows…
For years, people have been searching for the fabled “lost Thunderbird photo” in vain… a mysterious photograph showing what appeared to be a gigantic bird or flying reptile nailed to the side of a barn.
The really strange thing is, hundreds of people can recall seeing the image either in a book, magazine, or a newspaper… but nobody has ever been able to produce the photograph. It’s almost as if it never really existed (If you’re not familiar with the subject of the Thunderbird photo, you can read up on the story here; it’s a fascinating mystery that continues to drive people bonkers)!
But perhaps the mystery is one step closer to being solved. This morning Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo.com brought this photo to the world’s attention:
So what is the origin of this photograph of some kind of giant flying reptile (not a “Thunderbird”) with humans?
The appearances are here and here, but they give no info on the actual source.
Actually, this is just the latest entry in the running for the “lost Thunderbird photo.” There have been other Thunderbird photos that have cropped up on the internet in the past, all of which have been proven as a hoax. Here are a few of them.
So the question is, where did this new photo originate? Is it from some forgotten book? Another hoax? Or… could this actually be the long lost Thunderbird photo so many people recall having seen?
Amsterdam was the scene of a strange UFO sighting when an object fell from the sky during broad daylight on August 5, 2011. The descent of the falling object was captured on a video that lasts longer than four minutes.
The UFO is nearly the same shade of gray as the skies that surround it, but slightly darker. It is vaguely spherical in shape and moves downward at a fairly slow rate of speed.
The YouTube user who posted this video described the UFO as follows: “Watch an object that otherwise gets routinely dismissed as a Chinese lantern morph into something completely different.” The video is from the YouTube channel theInterzone.
In the video, you can see that the object disappears behind a large building. It doesn’t appear to have any lights or other illumination. From the way the object moves, it does appear that its trajectory is being affected by the wind.
(Springfield, MO) — The Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team has explored some of the areas most haunted homes.
Their skeptical team members always take hundreds of pictures in the dark.
But their most recent trip brought back a shocking image that is making believers out of the biggest of skeptics.
“The first thing I want to do is disprove it.” says Robert McCall, skeptic and co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team.*
Robert spends a lot of time disproving apparent haunting in the region. “A lot of times people think there is a presence in the room and it turns out the room is where the breaker box is. Or your meters on the outside of the wall and there is a lot of energy there. Sometimes people think they are hearing things and it turns out they are just hearing things.”
But something that happened during his latest ghost hunt left Robert with no explanation. A family in north Springfield contacted the group because of some odd things that were happening.
“All the lights were shut off and the doors were locked,” says Robert. ” I came around to lock up the front door and as soon as I turned the corner I heard a growling disturbance on my EVP and seen something darker then dark move around in the hallway so I just started taking pictures of a completely dark hallway with nobody there.”
There was no one in the hallway but something else showed up on camera.
“When I first seen the picture, I saw a reaper,” says McCall. “Typical of what you would think.” Now it almost looks like a mother and child.”
10:00 PM CST, TONIGHT: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.
Tonight we’ll be talking to Robbie Prince, from the paranormal investigation group, Ripcrew. We’ll talk about their origins, methods and stories. We’ll also talk about the work some members have been doing with a filmmaker to create a dramatic recreation of their work. It will be a live, call-in show, so get your questions ready!
As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight (Wednesday, August 3rd) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. See you in the shadows…
Such a weird defect of the human hearing system that I had to put it up here.
Telegraph.co.uk writes:
Stephen Mabbutt, 57, from Charlton, near Banbury, could also hear his own heart beating.
Mr Mabbutt first experienced symptoms six years ago, when he felt a dull ache in the side of his head.
GPs treated him with nasal sprays and antibiotics, but his hearing deteriorated. Mr Mabbutt was eventually diagnosed with an unusual ear condition in which sounds inside the body are heard very loudly. The condition meant that the noise from chewing food became deafening.
His symptoms worsened to the extent where loud noises caused dizziness and his vision blurred.
Mr Mabbutt told the BBC: “When I raised my voice I could hear it reverberating in my head and the vibrations made my vision vibrate.
“Eventually I could hear my heart beating and my eyes moving in their sockets. It was really distracting.”
A while back, someone was talking to someone who was very excited to start their career as an amateur ghost hunter. It had never struck me before, but suddenly I realized what a strange phrase that was… “Ghost Hunter.”
