Strange days.

[jasoom]

From time to time I happen across some interesting tid-bits from the realms of sci-fi, paranormal, scientific papers, strange but true articles, ufology, or just plain thoughts & ideas that are interesting curiosities found in the hinterland of the internet. I hope you will join me here and mention your 'discoveries'. Maybe we can have some fun in the process.

[jasoom]

2:00 a.m. Jan. 22, 2001 PST

A new telescope that searches the night sky for laser signals from alien civilizations will be announced on Monday.

At the OSETI III Conference in San Jose, California, astronomers will unveil the first telescope dedicated entirely to finding light signals emanating from extraterrestrial
intelligences. <a href=http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41241,00.html>more</a>

[jasoom]

<h2>Nova Discovers Plane Thought to Have Been Intercepted by Extraterrestrials Fifty Years Ago</h2>

(Vanished! on NOVA Tuesday, January 30, 2001 at 9pm ET on www.pbs.org/nova/vanished)

On August 2, 1947, a converted British bomber named "Stardust" disappeared on a
commercial flight over the Andes. For more than fifty years, no one knew what
happened to the plane and the eleven people on board, and the incident remained one
of the most notorious unsolved cases in the history of aviation.

Then in 1998, two mountaineers stumbled across a huge engine on the Tupangato
glacier high in the Andes. It was Stardust's, and it was far from the flight path that the
airliner was supposedly following.

NOVA travels to the site of this long ago catastrophe to solve the riddle of Stardust's
disappearance on Vanished!, airing Tuesday, January 30, at 9pm ET on PBS (check
local listings). complete article

[jasoom]

'Baby trade' couple hired ghostbusters

The British couple who bought American baby twins over the internet had their home investigated for spirits.

Alan and Judith Kilshaw called in paranormal investigators to their north Wales farmhouse.

The BBC has shown film of the couple speaking about different spirits seen in their farmhouse home.

One of the couple's two young sons talked of "The Milky Man", a ghostly apparition of an old man in a white milkman's coat. more


[This message has been edited by jasoom (edited January 24, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by jasoom (edited January 24, 2001).]

[jasoom]

<h2>Mystery Tracks</h2>

In January of this year a set of mysterious tracks was found in an infrequently visited cave called Cueva del Arroyo in Central Mexico. On the caving trip were Bonnie Crystal, Peter Strickland, Andy Grubbs, and Ernie Garza. The unidentified animal tracks were found after the team's fourth rope drop into the middle of a deep lake. Following a 30 meter swim, the team reached an area of mud islands inside the 25 meter by 3 meter high passage.

There they found the tracks, leading into and out of the water and crossing several of the mud islands. The tracks showed no distinct claw marks, and no tail or body marks. According to Crystal, the tracks looked like they were made by a bipedal animal. The only known entrance to the cave is the a sheer-sided rope drop at the end of a long deep box canyon. Crystal believes they may have discovered evidence of an uncommon or previously unidentified troglodite. more


[This message has been edited by jasoom (edited January 24, 2001).]

[jasoom]

<h2>People With Really Bad Luck</h2>

Wayne A. Louden was profiled in the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle in September for his history of at least 37 traffic collisions in the last 10 years (23 of them serious, though none of any kind this year); he admits to some problems (bad vision, diabetes, depression). And in July in Ponta, Texas, Charles and Jennifer Smith and their three preschoolers purchased a new Dodge Intrepid, which was totaled in a collision the next day; on Aug. 11, fire destroyed their trailer home; then Jennifer drove over the family dog, whose leg is now in a cast; and in September, after the community banded together to get the Smiths a new trailer home, a storm totaled that one, too.

[Wichita Eagle, 9-24-00] [Athens (Tex.) Daily Review, 9-25-00]

[jasoom]

<h3>Least Justifiable Homicides</h3>

A 28-year-old man was shot to death by his first cousin during dispute over how to paint the floor at a construction site (Banner, Ky., October). And one man was shot to death and his killer then beaten to death by relatives and in-laws at a Labor Day barbecue, all because of a request by one of the relatives that another man move his car (Marshall, Texas, September). And a 30-year-old man was shot to death at a bar by a fan of race car driver Dale Earnhart who was angry that the victim was wearing another driver's (Jeff Gordon) cap (Spencer, Ind., October).

[Floyd County (Ky.) Times, 10-8-00] [APB News, 9-5-00] [Bloomington Herald-Times, 10-12- 00]

[jasoom]

<h3>DOES CARCHARODON MEGALODON STILL EXIST?</h3>

Taken from David G. Stead's 'Sharks and Rays of Australian Seas', published in 1963. Here is the now-classic monster encounter, in Stead's words:

In the year 1918 I recorded the sensation that had been caused among the
"outside" crayfish men at Port Stephens, when, for several days, they refused to
go to sea to their regular fishing grounds in the vicinity of Broughton Island. The
men had been at work on the fishing grounds--which lie in deep water--when an
immense shark of almost unbelievable proportions put in an appearance, lifting pot
after pot containing many crayfishes, and taking, as the men said, "pots, mooring
lines and all." These crayfish pots, it should be mentioned, were about 3 feet 6
inches in diameter and frequently contained from two to three dozen good-sized
crayfish each weighing several pounds. The men were all unanimous that this
shark was something the like of which they had never dreamed of. In company
with the local Fisheries Inspector I questioned many of the men very closely and
they all agreed as to the gigantic stature of the beast. But the lengths they gave
were, on the whole, absurd. I mention them, however, as an indication of the state
of mind which this unusual giant had thrown them into. And bear in mind that
these were men who were used to the sea and all sorts of weather, and all sorts of
sharks as well. One of the crew said the shark was "three hundred feet long at
least"! Others said it was as long as the wharf on which we stood--about 115 feet!
They affirmed that the water "boiled" over a large space when the fish swam past.
They were all familiar with whales, which they had often seen passing at sea, but
this was a vast shark. They had seen its terrible head which was "at least as long as
the roof on the wharf shed at Nelson's Bay." Impossible, of course! But these
were prosaic and rather stolid men, not given to 'fish stories' nor even to talking
about their catches. Further, they knew that the person they were talking to
(myself) had heard all the fish stories years before! One of the things that
impressed me was that they all agreed as to the ghostly whitish color of the vast
fish.

[JaceSan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jasoom:
At the OSETI III Conference in San Jose, California, astronomers will unveil the first telescope dedicated entirely to finding light signals emanating from extraterrestrial
intelligences.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Damn! I might have gone to this if I'd known about it ahead of time. I've been spending more of my time down in that part of the Bay Area than I used to.

[jasoom]

JaceSan, wish you could have gone to the event. That way you could have filled us in on how things went.

Wish they had set up out here in the east.