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"Life expands or shrinks in proportion to one's courage." ~Anain Nin
Fish from heavens rain on India The people of Kerala in India's southwest are famed for turning fish into spicy feasts fit for gods, but last week the heavens turned provider as fish rained down on the village of Manna, a newspaper reported on Monday. The mad fishmonger strikes again! jaybird found this for you @ 20:24 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Follow up: Is it Raining Aliens? As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis’s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens. In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples—water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis’s home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001—contain microbes from outer space. Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600˚F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250˚F.) So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth. [via boingboing] jaybird found this for you @ 17:01 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Ribbit. 1955 was a busy year for the Children of Dagon, amphibious bipedal creatures that are said to dwell in the Ohio River and it’s tributaries. In May of that year, a man driving home at 3:30 AM in Loveland OH, located northeast of Cincinnati, pulled over his car on the shoulder of the road when he sighted three frog like reptilian creatures, one of which was waving a wand device that shot sparks out of it. The driver notified local police authorities of what he had witnessed in those three minutes of terror before the mysterious beings disappeared. No substantial proof for the creatures was ever found and the witness was labeled an imaginative quack. Three months later the Children of Dagon struck again during the sweltering heat of a hot August 21st day in Evansville, Indiana. Mrs. Darwin Johnson had decided to cool off by taking a refreshing swim in the polluted Ohio River. From out of the murky depths her aquatic assailant gripped at her knee with its menacing claws, pulling her under. Struggling with this unseen fiend, she managed to fight her way out of its horrible grip. Yet not soon after her first gasp of air was she dragged down below into what almost became her watery grave. With a stroke of heaven sent luck Mrs. Johnson was able to reach out her hand and grab onto the inner tube of a nearby friend. The thumping noise she made when pulling herself up and landing on it, amidst her wailing splashes and screams, seemed to have scared her attacker off, sending it back down to its underwater lair where it still may be hiding to this very day waiting for other would-be victims. The creature left a green stain on Mrs. Johnson’s knee, along with a few scratches where the beast had groped at her, for which she sought the advice of a medical doctor. [via corpus mmothra] jaybird found this for you @ 12:28 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
The red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial origin A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, India starting from 25th July 2001, in which the rainwater appeared coloured in various localized places that are spread over a few hundred kilometers in Kerala. Maximum cases were reported during the first 10 days and isolated cases were found to occur for about 2 months. The striking red colouration of the rainwater was found to be due to the suspension of microscopic red particles having the appearance of biological cells. These particles have no similarity with usual desert dust. An estimated minimum quantity of 50,000 kg of red particles has fallen from the sky through red rain. An analysis of this strange phenomenon further shows that the conventional atmospheric transport processes like dust storms etc. cannot explain this phenomenon. The electron microscopic study of the red particles shows fine cell structure indicating their biological cell like nature. EDAX analysis shows that the major elements present in these cell like particles are carbon and oxygen. Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells. In the context of a suspected link between a meteor airburst event and the red rain, the possibility for the extraterrestrial origin of these particles from cometary fragments is discussed. jaybird found this for you @ 12:10 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Spooky: RED RAIN OF KERALA A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, the place where I live, during July-September 2001. The characteristics of this phenomenon were very strange. Conventional explanations appeared totally inadequate to account for this phenomenon. I started an investigation with limited resources and I was greatly assisted by my research student A. Santhosh Kumar. We have been studying this red rain since 2001. Some of our research results are now accepted for publication in the journal -Astrophysics and Space Science, an international peer reviewed journal of astronomy, astrophysics and space science. According to these accepted results, the red particles, which caused the red rain of Kerala, are possibly of extraterrestrial origin. This conclusion is arrived by analysing the various aspects associated with this phenomenon, like the geographical and time distribution pattern of this phenomenon and the nature of the red particles. It appears that the phenomenon can be explained much easily if it is assumed that the origin of the red particles is from cometary fragments, which underwent atmospheric disintegration above Kerala. There are also some additional correlating evidences that prompt this line of thinking, like the sonic boom from the meteor airburst, which preceded the first red rain case. Having made a logical possibility like this it follows that the cometary body in question should contain huge quantity of these red particles, which amounts to an estimated quantity of more than 50,000 kg. [More...] [via mefi] jaybird found this for you @ 08:36 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Has anyone a clue what this is?  It looks like a cross between a crayfish and a lobster with some characteristics of a large prawn or crab but even the experts are stumped about the identity of this crustacean. Christopher Chan, Operations Manager of Mimpian Jadi Resort in Tuaran, noticed it crossing a tarred access road, while driving to work with wife Rosie last Friday. "I've never seen it in my life," said Chan and sought Daily Express for help. We showed the pictures of it to a certified diver who shook his head and said: "I have no idea." ...There are more than 500 species of crayfish in the world. Could this be one of the 500 or could it even be a new species? Characteristic of crayfish is its joined head with the thorax (mid-section) and a segmented body, four pairs of legs and a pair of pincers. This creature has all those general features but there is something very unusual about the pincers - they are not equally curved claws as in most cases. Rather, the lower claw is short while the upper claw shapes like a sharp blade three times longer. And it is combative and fierce. jaybird found this for you @ 16:25 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Cryptids! Researchers to trap mysterious cat-fox animal  Environmental researchers are preparing to capture what they call a new, mysterious species of carnivore on Borneo, the first such discovery on the wildlife-rich Indonesian island in over a century. Swiss-based environmental group WWF said on Monday its researchers photographed the strange animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, in the dense, central mountainous rainforests of Borneo. "This could be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island..." jaybird found this for you @ 08:45 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Hark the Herald Yeti Stalk, Glory to Cryptozoology!  A backpacker from Vancouver, Washington, took these photos on Silver Star Mountain in Gifford Pinchot National Forest on November 17. He says he doesn't know what the figure was, but he does not believe it was another hiker or backpacker. The photos are inconclusive, but they are potentially relevant. [via metafilter] jaybird found this for you @ 08:53 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
 jaybird found this for you @ 08:30 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building. Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together. When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet. "It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told Australian radio Friday. jaybird found this for you @ 09:16 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Six great enigmas of ancient civilizations We stand today at an unprecedented turning point in human history. In recent years two versions of ancient history have formed. One, we shall call ‘alternative’ history, the other we shall refer to as ‘official’ history. The former ponders over a variety of anomalies and tries to make sense out of the corpus of evidence, i.e., the pyramids and timelines, why they were built, by whom and when. The latter conducts digs, catalogues pottery shards, and tries to defend its proposal there are no enigmas, and virtually everything is explained. There is no more dialogue and no more polite, gloves on debate. The proponents of ‘official’ history have taken an increasingly political and ideological approach to the issue. They now do little more than offer pronouncements of the historical ‘truth’ on the one hand, and denounce of all those who dare challenge officialdom on the other. In this context we offer evidence that our ‘scholars’, the gatekeepers who control our institutions of ‘higher learning’, refuse to consider. jaybird found this for you @ 15:40 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
For about a month between June 23 and July 20, English skies were thick with a "peculiar haze" or "smoky fog" while terrible lightning storms left people cowering in their homes. One storm provided five men with a stay of execution at Tyburn as the gallows, and assembled crowd, were flooded. "The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting..." Despite winds that seemed to change direction with alarming frequency, the country was engulfed in a heat so stifling that meat was said to rot within a day and the air was filled with clouds of flies. It was a turbulent year for planet Earth... jaybird found this for you @ 11:36 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
fortean friday #4 (Short UPI story follows, no link. Hey, I beleive) The Icelandic tradition of believing in elves is so strong roads have been rerouted to avoid disturbing rocks where they might live, a report said. Polls consistently show most residents of Iceland either believe in elves, or aren't willing to rule out their existence. Retired museum director Hildur Hakonardottir, 67, told the New York Times she saw and elf once, one bigger than life and dressed like my grandmother, in a 1930s national costume. Tourists at Hafnarfjordur, a port on the outskirts of Reykjavik, are invited to tour known elf locations, including a large rock whose reputation as an elf habitat led to plans for a nearby road being changed so as not to disturb its supernatural residents. Elly Erlingsdottir, head of the town council's planning committee, said some elves recently borrowed her kitchen scissors, only to return them a week later to a place she had repeatedly searched. jaybird found this for you @ 20:27 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
fortean friday #3  NZ: 'Haunted' cave opens again to sightseers He dismisses claims the cave is haunted despite local stories, including an alleged incident where a black water rafting guide, who did not want to be named, said he felt like he had been asphyxiated while in the cave earlier this year. John Ash, a geologist who has been advising Tourism Holdings on the cave's reopening, said he was aware "quite a few people have had interesting experiences in it". "People talk about a cave being alive or dead. This cave is very much alive." According to Maori legend, the cave was discovered 400 to 500 years ago by a young Maori hunter. A pack of wild dogs are said to have inhabited the entrance and the cave was named rua, meaning den and kuri meaning dogs. Mr Ash said people who had been in the cave by themselves had said they heard or saw other people. "To me the cave has mana, it has presence to it." jaybird found this for you @ 16:18 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
fortean friday #2 The crew described a series of lights which crossed their take-off path from Darwin airport, with no visible fuselage or structure. RAAF command in Sydney said the contact may have been a foreign aircraft. "The fact the sighting was made by an RAAF aircrew and detected by the aircraft's radar leaves very little doubt ... (that something) was in the area," RAAF command said. "As the aircraft has not been identified, a violation of our national airspace cannot be discounted." jaybird found this for you @ 12:12 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
fortean friday A single mother-of-two who said she saw strange figures on the stairs and heard noises in the dead of night was met with sniggers until a neighbour came to stay with her, Mr Marshall claimed. "They heard it too and she forced the Executive to rehouse her. It was never occupied again," he said. "Young ones went in to mess once but didn't stay long because they said there was something strange about it..." jaybird found this for you @ 08:08 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
gender is mutable Thin Sandar, a chicken seller in Myanmar, had always dreamed of being a man. When she inexplicably grew a penis last month, the 21-year-old treated it as an awe-inspiring omen -- as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have traveled to a pagoda to see him. "On the morning of the full moon day of June 21, I noticed my thing (sex organ) was not the same as before," Thin Sandar, who now goes by the male name Than Sein, told AFP in an interview at his home. "And my breasts disappeared," Than Sein added. "So I called out and showed it all to my mom and dad. It was very strange." Strange enough that he has attracted significant attention in this deeply superstitious country, where the unexplained can quickly be exalted to hold powerful spiritual significance. jaybird found this for you @ 11:08 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
dances with yeti  Sasquatch sighting reported in Yukon Nine people, some of them children, say a large human-like figure covered in hair passed by a window of a house. They later saw it standing behind an abandoned car near some houses in the community, which is located 180 kilometres east of Whitehorse. Chucka Choumant and Trent Smarch are two of the people who believe they saw the sasquatch. The men said they heard trees snapping and creaking even though there was no wind at the time. The figure they saw was nearly three metres tall and moving fast, they said – too fast for them to keep up even when they were running. The creature left behind some evidence, the men said: a footprint about twice the size of a human's, and a small patch of hair... UPDATE: Possibly identified. jaybird found this for you @ 08:00 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
electronic voice phenomenon The voices take on diverse forms; they may appear to be speaking in tongues (polyglot), singing or making public service announcements. They interrupt standard radio broadcasts, and can apparently call on by name, and speak directly to researchers (and most likely attempt to communicate with people too busy to notice they are being addressed by the voice of weirdness). They may make themselves heard over telephones, during television broadcasts, and as anomalous interference on tape recordings. Some of them seem to enjoy engaging in dialogue, answering questions, or willingly supply secret, or highly specific personal information, no doubt as an indication of their greater insight. Often, intercommunication between those waiting and hoping to speak finds its way onto the tape, just as background talk might during any normal recording, the difference here being that the discarnate technicians' ability to create a window of communication is seemingly random, or poorly fixed. In other words, that acoustic window only opens for a moment, and whoever happens to be making noise ends up on the recording, whether they are the designated speakers or the bystanders. Of course, as with all "sciences," both conventional and paranormal, there are those investigators (or "investigators"), who are so keen on finding evidence to support the validity of their chosen field that they will impose meaning on what might otherwise be a mere cloud, albeit oddly shaped. jaybird found this for you @ 07:45 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
sanguine pastorale What six local men did was enact an ancient Romanian ritual for dealing with a strigoi - a restless spirit that returns to suck the lifeblood from his relatives. Just before midnight, they crept into the cemetery on the edge of the village and gathered around Toma's grave... There, cows and grubby geese sway and horses pull carts past old men who sit motionless in the shade of a few broad trees. The air seethes with birdsong and the noises of farm animals tethered in dung-strewn back yards. Time moves slowly and ritual and superstition shape the lives of peasants who gained little under communism and even less from the aristocracy that came before and the free market that followed it. jaybird found this for you @ 11:07 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
Popo Bawa is real, and well prepared Holidaymakers on the Indian Ocean islands tend to smile dismissively at accounts in guidebooks of the bat-like ogre said to prey on men, women and children. But for superstitious Zanzibaris a visit from the sodomising gremlin is no joke. Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the monster and his unnatural lust is so strong that entire villages will sleep out of doors for protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing) prefers to attack behind closed doors at night. In huts set amid rustling groves of jackfruit and mangoes on Zanzibar's Pemba island, victims told Reuters in interviews that they detected a bad smell, became cold and went into a trance in the moments before they felt the creature's inhuman strength. Some attacks were heralded by the sound of giant wings and claws rattling and scraping on huts' tin roofs. Others cringed in terror at what sounded like a car engine ticking over. jaybird found this for you @ 11:49 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
parrot-heads are behind this "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." That's the name of a children's book about the strange town of Chewandswallow where it rains soup and snows mashed potatoes. All the town's food is delivered by the weather. Up on Mount Soledad, Janet Andrews is reporting it rained shrimp on April 28. She and others found masses of baby shrimp on the tennis courts of the Summit residential development. "They're not crazy," says Bob Burhans, curator of the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. "I haven't heard of it raining shrimp, but I have heard of it raining fish." About 15 years ago, a Chula Vista man reported that hundreds of minnows had dropped out of the sky onto his driveway, yard and roof. A marine biologist at Scripps identified the airborne fish and theorized they were from the Sweetwater Reservoir. The most likely delivery system: a wind funnel that formed over the water, picking up surface creatures and then dropping its load as it dissipated. jaybird found this for you @ 16:32 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
revealing rituals revealed Freemasonry is a highly successful organisation that has been a powerful force in helping to shape our modern scientific and democratic society. Members such as Sir Robert Moray, the founder of the Royal Society, George Washington, the first president of the United States, Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime saviour, Wolfgang Mozart, the composer, and Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, all drew inspiration from its rituals. What accounts for the wide appeal that Freemasonry has had during the past four centuries and still has today? Why does Masonic ritual inspire its practitioners to become creative, balanced individuals? The traditional answer to this question has always been “it’s a secret”. But why is it a secret? Is it because Freemasons have something to hide? I am much more inclined to believe that most Freemasons simply don’t understand why Masonic ritual inspires and encourages them, and they cover up this ignorance by refusing to talk about the spiritual impact of their Masonry. I first entered a Masonic temple blindfolded and my confusion remained for some time. Whatever other mysteries there are in Freemasonry, trying to second-guess the form of words the Lodge wants to hear when its Master asks a question is the most puzzling. At least that’s what I thought, until, in that first initiation, I experienced the oddest postural instruction I’d yet known. I heard the instruction . . . but what did they mean? Could I twist my body into such an odd position? Goodness knows what strange endorphins were released into my brain as I struggled to keep my body still, using only the kinetic feedback of my stretched muscles to judge what was happening. But only when this contorted question and answer session to “make me a Mason” was complete would the blindfold be removed. jaybird found this for you @ 16:08 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
squid vicious  There is an alien intelligence residing deep within the Monterey Bay, a bizarre life form that appears to be proliferating by the thousands in cold black waters far below the surface. It resides within creatures that have three hearts, primate-like stereoscopic eyes, blue blood and brains large enough to suggest they are among the smartest creatures on earth. They are giant raptorial predators with a taste for flesh. Growing up to seven feet long and occasionally bigger—possibly much bigger—these carnivores seize their prey with two lightning-fast, hook-laden tentacle clubs, draw it into a squirming nest of eight arms and proceed to tear chunks of flesh from its body with a disproportionately large, razor-sharp, parrot-like beak. jaybird found this for you @ 14:59 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
if the shoe fits... Pairs of shoes are being left in mysterious circumstances outside a remote farmhouse in Lincolnshire. Jason and Claire Foster, who live near Market Rasen, do not know who is doing it or why they have left as many as four pairs of shoes at one time. The family have video footage, which shows an elderly couple driving by in a green vehicle depositing the shoes. Mrs Foster said that although it was scary at first, she was rather hoping some of the pairs might fit. jaybird found this for you @ 19:52 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
seeing tiny elephants? It’s a quest in the literal sense of the word. Ecologists of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and officials of the Forest Department are set to trek the state’s forests in search of the ikallaana, the mythical dwarf elephant. Aimed at conclusively confirming or denying the presence of this species, scientific teams will also undertake DNA mapping of samples of dung collected from areas where tribals claim to have seen the dwarf elephant. A DNA study from dung samples is the first-of-its-kind experiment in solving a decades-old mystery. Three teams are already scouring the dense forests of Agasthyavanam and Neyyar, hoping to chance upon the kallaana somewhere. Ecologists and veterinarians, however, are strongly divided on the possibility of finding one. jaybird found this for you @ 15:42 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
a child remembers her 'past life' Swarnlata Mishra was born to an intellectual and prosperous family in Pradesh in India in 1948. When she was just three years old and traveling with her father past the town of Katni more than 100 miles from her home, she suddenly pointed and asked the driver to turn down a road to "my house", and suggested they could get a better cup of tea there than they could on the road. Soon after, she related more details of her life in Katni, all of which were written down by her father. She said her name was Biya Pathak, and that she had two sons. She gave details of the house: it was white with black doors fitted with iron bars; four rooms were stuccoed, but other parts were less finished; the front floor was of stone slabs. She located the house in Zhurkutia, a district of Katni; behind the house was a girl's school, in front was a railway line, and lime furnaces were visible from the house. She added that the family had a motor car (a very rare item in India in the 1950's, and especially before Swarnlata was born). Swarnlata said Biya died of a "pain in her throat", and was treated by Dr. S. C. Bhabrat in Jabalpur. She also remembered an incident at a wedding when she and a friend had difficulty finding a latrine. jaybird found this for you @ 11:02 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
historical citations of teleportation The most famous example of teleportation in the history of paranormal phenomena is the Filipino guardia civil during the Spanish era, who suddenly disappeared from his post in the governor general's palace and appeared in Mexico City half way around the world. The bewildered soldier could not explain how he got there. When asked by Mexican authorities, he told them he was a guard at the Philippine governor general's palace and said the governor was assassinated. He was brought before church authorities who concluded he must be possessed by the devil and promptly put him in jail. from the Philippines arrived with a Philippine official who identified the guardia civil and confirmed everything he said. The Filipino was released and sent home on a ship. jaybird found this for you @ 19:42 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
hombrecitos volodaros 
Footage of what look to be flying humanoid entities, or 'hombrecitos volodaros', is a very recent development in Mexico's ongoing UFO activity and is 'high strangeness' of the truly phenomenal kind... 'Montezuma is said to have patrolled the roof of his palace every night, scanning the skies fearful of hostile influences from the air - fears well-founded, for the belief in aerial demons kidnapping people persists in Mexico to this day.' jaybird found this for you @ 07:39 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
... discovered a strange skull with the dimensions of a chimpanzee's but with an odd, prominent crest like a gorilla's. Motion-detecting cameras in the forest caught what looked like immense chimpanzees, and a photograph purchased from poachers showed hunters posing with an animal estimated to be twice the size of an ordinary chimp... Most intriguing were the gorilla-like ground nests found in the riverine swamps. Chimps normally make their nests in the high safety of trees. Why would they build their beds of branches and shoots on the ground? And why here, of all places? jaybird found this for you @ 19:20 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink
The Loneliest Mystery of the Deep jaybird found this for you @ 07:25 in Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre | | permalink |
