The Grinning Man

                The creature (or man) known as “The Grinning Man” is commonly sighted in areas where “alien activity” takes place. In the town of Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1966 a large white light was witnessed by residents. Soon afterwards a middle aged resident claimed to have been chased by a green man. Then on Oct 11 the Grinning Man legend was born . Two boys walking by the elevated intersection of New jersey Turnpike spotted a man on the opposite side of the fence.

            "Jimmy nudged me," Marvin Munoz reported to police, "and said, 'Who's that guy standing behind you?' I looked around and there he was... behind that fence. Just standing there. He pivoted around and looked right at us... then he grinned a big old grin."

                                                                        -(Pulled from Wikipedia article)

                When asked about his appearance separately, they both recounted the exact same description: a very tall man wearing a shimmering green costume with no distinguishable facial features other than a large green and wide-set, beady eyes.

                Later that same year in Point Pleasant, Virginia, sightings of a similar man were reported. For any die-hard cryptics out there, you know this is the same time and place as the Mothman sightings. We won’t cover the Mothman in this article, but if you are unfamiliar you just need to know he was a large humanoid with glowing red eyes who could fly. He was seen time after time in the same exact area (near an abandoned dynamite factory). Well, at the same time as Mothman was being seen, the Grinning Man showed up, leading some to believe he is some sort of clean-up man who comes along and cleans up after the aliens. Much like one of the Men in Black (also believed by some to be real). I’m going to rip this first encounter straight of off wiki:

…[O]n November 2, 1966. A man named Woodrow Derenberger was driving home in his panel truck after a hard day of work. As he drove up a hill outside of Parkersburg on Interstate 77, he heard a sudden crash. A vehicle was speeding behind him, and it suddenly cut in front of him and slowed down. Derenberger looked in amazement as the vehicle that passed him looked like "an old fashioned kerosene lamp chimney, flaring at both ends, narrowing down to a small neck and then enlarging in a great bulge in the center." The "thing" blocked the road, and a door slid open on the side of it. Then a man stepped out, described as around 6 feet tall, with long dark hair combed straight back. His skin was heavily tanned. He wore an outfit that was made out of some sort of "glistening green material," similar to the outfit worn by the other Grinning Man that was encountered in Elizabeth, New Jersey by the two boys. He was grinning broadly. Derenberger said that the figure spoke to him telepathically and said his name was "Cold" and went off asking him strange questions. Then the strange entity said that he would visit Derenberger again, and he got back in the craft and left.

                Soon after that a family, who had been seeing strange lights every night around their house, also had a scary encounter. They claimed that every night their locked living room door would be found open the next morning. During the night cabinets would slam shut and odd noises would come from nowhere. Then one night Linda, the daughter, woke up to find a large man towering over her bed. She could make out no facial features except his large grin.

                Scary stuff, this Grinning Man. But is he real? The stories are very similar it’s scary. If he is real, what is he? Is he an alien himself? Or is he here to clean up their mess? What do you think?

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Wikipedia

http://www.strangeusa.com/ViewLocation.aspx?locationid=48127

http://www.unexplainable.net/UFO-Alien/Was-Grinning-Man-A.shtml

Is there a Santa Claus?

From the New York Sun editorial page on September 21, 1897

"Dear Editor--I am eight years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.'
:Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?"

-Virginia O'Hanlon 

          "Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age.  They do not believe except they see.  They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.  All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little.  In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
          "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.  Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!  It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.  There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.  We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight.  The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
          "Not believe in Santa Claus!  You might as well not believe in fairies!  You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?  Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.  The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.  Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?  Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.  Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
          "You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.  Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.  Is it all real?  Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
          "No Santa Claus!  Thank God he lives, and he lives forever.  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

-Francis P. Church 

Amelia Earhart

                You probably all know the story of Amelia Earhart, the girl who disappeared during a flight around the world. She was intended to land on a small strip of land known as Howland Island for refueling. She never made it. Her last transmission was picked up by the Coast Guard cutter the Itasca. It said, “We are running on line North and South.” She had just recently reported being unable to hear radio contact and also running low on fuel. Some theories say she had actually cut off the antennae. She had done so on a previous flight.

                But what actually happened to this famed female pilot? Well, the most obvious theory is that she ran out of fuel and crashed. The only problem with this theory is that it is very hard to test. Howland Island is in the Pacific Ocean, and that leaves a lot of room for a confused pilot to go splashing into the ocean.  If this is what happened, it will take forever for us to find the wreckage.

                Another theory that has gained ground very recently is the Gardner Island theory. Gardner Island is part of the Phoenix Islands, and was uninhabited when Earhart disappeared. The group heading up the investigation (Known as TIGHAR [The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery]) found a body said to be a white female on the island. As luck would have it, the body was misplaced (As always happens when the possible skeleton of a missing person is found). What wasn’t misplaced were the three bone fragments discovered just a few days ago. These fragments have been sent to the University of Oklahoma for analysis, so keep your fingers crossed. This could change everything.

                Of course you can’t talk about a disappearance without aliens.  Some people will adamantly say that Amelia Earhart was abducted by aliens. At this point we can’t prove them wrong though, we don’t have a body or aircraft wreckage.

                Another interesting theory says that she was a spy. Some versions say she spied on the Japanese, and some versions say she was a spy for the Japanese. Both versions end with her being shot down and a large-scale cover-up ensuing. The theory has little ground, as authorities seem to be pretty lax on people searching for the wreckage. Maybe they’ve already removed it though…

                Her husband was named George Putnam, and some theories say he tampered with the radio to make Amelia disappear. Perhaps an affair on one side or another. After all, Amelia was up in the air all alone with another man. Maybe jealousy led a murderous husband to cut an antennae. But George really did put a lot of effort into the search attempts, so I can’t give this one much.

                The last theory, another that is immensely popular, says that Amelia planned the whole thing. She then landed somewhere safely, married her navigator Fred Noonan, and lived happily ever after. The thing this theory leaves out is what happened to the airplane. Somebody definitely would have gotten suspicious of a girl who looked remarkably familiar either giving away or selling an expensive aircraft. I would say this one stinks too.

                A lot of other theories about island crashes/landings are out there. A popular one says that they landed on a Japanese-controlled island and were executed. Many people have stepped forward claiming to know a guy who knows a guy who saw the execution, but this is all hearsay. A man by the name of David Billings thinks they may have turned around and landed on Rabaul Island, where he claims to have found Noonan’s navigation map.

                Keep your fingers crossed about those bone fragments. Otherwise, just let the theories flow because we can’t know anything for sure.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

 

References:

Wikipedia (For names, information, images and dates only)

http://www.tothecenter.com/index.php?readmore=14482

http://www.ameliaearhart.com/

The Taos Hum

                In the town of Taos, New Mexico there is a phenomenon known as “The Hum”. The Hum is heard in many places all over the world, but here in America the Taos Hum is probably the most well-known. The Hum is described as being a low-frequency noise that sounds much like a distant diesel engine. Not everyone hears it. In fact, most people don’t. Of the few that do, most are men. Some find it annoying and teeth rattling while others can get along with it just fine. Sort of like that mosquito ringtone. I can hear it but it doesn’t bug me, while other people say it makes their ears hurt.

                There have been tons of possible explanations for the sound. Aliens, underground engines, magma, but what really could it be? Honestly, I think underground magma is one of the best possible answers. Perhaps the crust of the earth is thinner there. The hum could easily be associated with the noise of it moving deep, deep below. But that wouldn’t really explain why only some people could hear it and it’s impossible to record.

                 I did find a little bit of evidence from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/structure/crust/index.php that supports the thinner crust theory.  On this map, the numbers are all in km. As you can see, the crust in the area of Taos is just on the border of the 30 km section. However, if this really had much to do with it, then we could expect every other town in the area to experience the same noise, which they don’t.

                If this town was near Roswell I might give a little credit to the alien theory, but it isn’t. It’s not near Roswell, Area 51, or any other sites that we could point at and say “Look, it’s in the same area!” So aliens are out.

                I’m going to discount the underground government facility for the same reason. It’s not near any other serious government facilities that I’m aware of, but at the same time it isn’t exactly remote in location.

                So what is it? I have no idea. Maybe somebody has a loud neon sign they aren’t aware of. Or maybe people just want to believe they hear it, so they do. Who knows? All I can say is that it will probably never be solved.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Wikipedia (For location of Taos)

Google Images

http://www.crystalinks.com/taoshum.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGHe7rdq0Ds

http://www.qsl.net/w5www/taoshum.html

http://amphibiaweb.org/maps/geo-us.html

Bigfoot

                Perhaps the world’s most well known cryptid is Bigfoot.  There are many “sasquatch” legends out there, but Bigfoot is the original (If you don’t count indigenous legends). Stories of these sasquatches exist on every continent except Antarctica, Bigfoot being the North American version.

                Stories of Bigfoot-like creatures predate most history, so we can’t really say where it begins. However, it is known when it really blew into popularity: 1967 with the Patterson-Gimlin film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIMbBcZgwc.  There were plenty of sightings before then, but this was the big one. The “unexplainable”. I personally believe this footage is a load of BS. Probably the most compelling argument against it I’ve seen yet (Besides looking at it yourself and thinking logically) is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB1MM77Nxno.  Basically I feel very strongly about the Patterson footage being a hoax. That is that.

                One of the most interesting, and also newest, sightings of Bigfoot was on a trail camera in Northwest Pennsylvania. Known as the Jacob’s photos, these images seem to show an ape-like creature sniffing at the deer feed left out next to the tree. Many have said the picture shows a bear suffering from mange.  Personally, I think it’s an ape. I did find one series of images that gave the bear theory a little bit of push in my mind, but not enough. The head, limb, and even arch of the back seem to show an ape. What would an ape be doing in Northwest Pennsylvania? I have no clue, but it seems really small for a Bigfoot, so the most I can say is that it definitely seems to be a non-human primate.

                In 1997 a footprint was found in the Elkins Creek floodplain of Georgia. The impression revealed something rarely found in Bigfoot prints: dermal ridges. Dermal ridges are the prints on your toes. Upon inspection, it was concluded that the ridges resembled a non-human primate. It was also concluded that it did not belong to any known primate. Especially compelling about this is that nearly identical ridges were found on two footprints found many years before.

                In 1975 the Army Corps of Engineers published an environmental atlas. The atlas recognized the Sasquatch as a species indigenous to Washington. It justifies its claim on supposed hair-samples taken by the FBI that represent an unknown creature. If that doesn’t sound like evidence I don’t know what does.

                My conclusion is that something is out there. And that the “something” could very well be a human-like creature. I believe that much of the evidence is faked or misinterpreted. But I also believe that there is too much for it all to be so. What do you think?

               

               

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Wikipedia (For images, dates, names, and description of events only)

Google Images

http://www.bigfoot-lives.com/html/bigfoot_footprints.html

http://www.bfro.net/avevid/jacobs/jacobs_photos.asp

http://www.qsl.net/w5www/bigfoot.html

More Delays

Broke my leg on my birthday. Sorry, no updates until my pain lets up enough for me to think clearly.

No Story Today

It's been a really busy week for me, so no post tomorrow. Sorry. I wouldn't expect one Saturday either, but I'll be back in action next week. Hope you all (Americans) had a great Thanksgiving break.

Road Trolls

                Some of the most popular fairytales involve creatures called “trolls”. We were always told that they don’t exist, but some people argue otherwise.

                Most sightings of “Road Trolls” are by truckers. This shouldn’t be surprising though, they are on the road more than anybody else. Road Trolls are typically described as 6 foot tall hairy men. This sounds like almost any homeless hitchhiker you might run into. But another consistency is the peg-leg. Almost every sighting claims that the troll/man has a peg leg, despite everyone seeing them in different places completely. A fellow blogger made a post about these things and I think you should read it: http://phantomsandbeasts.blogspot.com/2007/07/road-trolls.html.

                Maybe it’s all the same guy. One of those adventurous types who like to hitchhike everywhere. But I’m not convinced it’s a troll.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Google Images

http://phantomsandbeasts.blogspot.com/

http://paranormal.about.com/od/othercreatures/a/tales_09_07_08t.htm

DB Cooper

                On the day before Thanksgiving, 1971, 39 years ago today, a man identifying himself only as “Dan Cooper” threatened to blow up an airliner if he was not given $200,000 in cash and four parachutes upon its landing. The money was given at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. After letting off the passengers and two crew members, he ordered the remaining crew and pilot to fly to Mexico. Then, at 10,000 feet in the air, the man from seat 18C, known only as Dan Cooper, jumped from the plane never to be seen again.

                This was the beginning of what is possibly the largest manhunt ever to take place on American soil. One newspaper reporter falsely identified Dan as “D.B. Cooper”. This is the name that stuck. Where did Cooper go? Nobody knows. Some say he died, some say he’s still alive, and others say he was an alien (surprise).

                In 1980, a boy digging a fire pit found $5,800 of cash by the Columbia River.  In 2008 a run of these serial numbers showed them to be same of the ransomed money. That same year, a parachute was found buried by children in southwest Washington.

                Some people say he never survived the crash. If the parachute is indeed actually Coopers then he was not an experienced jumper as many have thought. The chute was only for training and the reserve shoot had been sewn shut. An experienced jumper would have noticed that. Also, if the chute is his, there is no way for the money to wind up on the bank where it did by natural means.

                In April of 1972 a man named Richard McCoy, Jr, calling himself “James Johnson” hijacked a Boeing 727. He demanded $500,000 and four parachutes. He escaped after ordering the pilot to land and refuel. He left his fingerprints on a magazine unfortunately, and this led to his capture. While in prison he fashioned a fake handgun out of dentist’s molding materials and escaped with a crew of other prisoners in 1974. Four months later he was shot and killed by the FBI. McCoy does bear some resemblance to the sketch of DB Cooper. He also never admitted or denied that he was Cooper. When asked about it, he is quoted as saying “I don’t want to talk about it”. McCoy was a Vietnam Veteran and an experienced skydiver.

                In 2004, a man named Lyle Christiansen wrote to the FBI claiming he knew the identity of DB Cooper. “Yes, I knew the culprit personally,” he said, “He was my brother.” The brother in question was Kenneth Christiansen, a former paratrooper. After the war he became a flight attendant for Northwest airlines, the same airlines who owned the plane Cooper would later hijack. Kenneth died of cancer in 1994, but not before pulling his brother close and telling him “There is something you should know, but I cannot tell you!” According to records, Kenneth was able to purchase a house, land, and small ranch by 1972. This was a lot for a flight attendant’s salary.

                Duane Weber died in 1995 of polycystic kidney disease. Before he died he told his wife “I have a secret to tell you, I’m Dan Cooper” (Note that, according to his wife at least, he used the correct name). When his wife never responded, not knowing who Dan Cooper was, he shouted “Oh, let it die!” Moments later he was sedated and soon died. His wife, Jo, sold his van two weeks after his death. The new owner discovered a wallet containing a “bad conduct discharge” in Duane’s name, as well as a prison-release form in the name of John Collins. Jo says that Duane spoke of his past very little, but did tell her that he received an old knee injury from “jumping out of a plane”. A friend told her a month later to look into the story of D.B. Cooper. Jo checked out a book at the local library and was shocked to find the description matched her husband almost perfectly. And to top it off, in the margins of the book was a handwritten note, in what appeared to be Duane’s handwriting, naming a town in Washington in which a placard from the backstairs of the flight Cooper hijacked had landed. The same year the hijacking had taken place, Duane had been diagnosed with kidney disease and was not expected to live past 50. Perhaps it was a final bang for a former criminal. The FBI declared him to no longer be a suspect as his DNA was not found on a tie left behind on the aircraft (Which the FBI were so kind as to NOT test for with other suspects, and are not even sure if the tie belonged to Cooper).

                Other suspects have been made, but most were based on no evidence at all or very improbable. So what do you think? Alive, dead, or alien?

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

 

References:

Google Images

http://www.coinnews.net/2008/03/26/skyjacker-db-cooper-20-dollar-bills-and-now-parachute-appear-4018/

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/cooper.htm

http://n467us.com/I%20Am%20D%20B%20Cooper.html

http://n467us.com/Answers%20Page.htm

Bunnyman

                There is a bridge in Fairfax County, Virginia that is said to be haunted by a rather peculiar ghost: the Bunnyman.

                Over the years there have been around a hundred reported incidents of the Bunnyman, three of which involve murders. Like most urban legends, there are plenty of different versions, but they all have one major thing in common: an asylum escapee wearing a bunny costume and wielding an axe.

                The most popular story says that a bus full of asylum inmates was being driving from Fairfax Insane Asylum to Lorton Prison when it overturned on the bridge. All the inmates were found, except for one. Soon rabbit carcasses began showing up in the area. In some versions the police shoot the inmate, in other versions he is never caught, and in still others the Bunnyman himself is found hanging from a bridge. In yet another version, two men escape the bus and are never found. Then later the body of one is found gutting and hanging from the bridge, sometimes wearing a bunny suit, sometimes not. There is a few problems with this story, most notably the fact that there has never been an Insane Asylum in Fairfax. Also, during transport of dangerous inmates handcuffs, ropes, muzzles, straight jackets, and whatever else was needed would most likely be employed.

                Most modern sighting of Bunnyman involve him yelling things like “Get off my property!” and “I got your tag number!” and “Get me a carrot!”…well, maybe not the carrot… But for the most part the modern Bunnymen sound like copycats, though they do occasionally throw a hatchet through a car window.

                My conclusion is that Bunny man is just an Urban Legend, which is rather disappointing as it is a unique and interesting one.

          

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

    

References:

Wikipedia (For images, dates, names, and description of events only)

Google Images

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/bunny.htm

2012

                According to a popular belief, we are nearing the end of the world. On December 21, 2012 the Mayan Long calendar will come full cycle and reach the point it started at again. So do we really have anything to worry about?

                The Long Count calendar was a calendar system unique to the Mayans. It covered a 5125 year cycle, starting on August 23, 3114 BC. The calendar was used to mark and record political events. Politics were mostly just for show in the Mayan culture. Everything was predetermined by the Gods. Every sacrifice represented a sacrifice the Gods had made, and in some cases the winners of battles between states was even predetermined. The day of August 23, 3114 BC seems to have no real significance, except perhaps as the day the Mayans believed the world began. The Long Count calendar has accurately predicted Eclipses, Equinoxes, and other such phenomenon even to this day. However, this should be a “no duh”. Things like this happen in a cycle. If you know the amount of time between two, then you know the amount of time between all of them.

                The day of December 21, 2012 is not only the day the Mayan calendar ends, it is also a day in which the sun holds still for a second, as it is solstice day. The sun will form a perfect alignment with the center of the galaxy at this moment. Once again however, this should not really be a surprise. Of course the calendar will end on a day of major alignment! The calendar was based around such thing, so it can be expected that it will start and end with such.

                Supposedly the Mayans also predicted catastrophic events such as 9/11 and large earthquakes. This is bunk. The Mayan calendar only predicted astrological events. People have made up these predictions to get people stirred up about the end of the world. These predictions are also not made anywhere else. That is, unless you want to interpret a scratchy drawing of a bird hitting a tree as an airplane smashing into a smoke-shrouded tower.

                One argument skeptics make is that the Mayans probably just ran out of room on their circular rock and had to end it. This is a bad argument. In fact, it is a very bad argument. The Mayans did not carve their calendars on circular rocks. People are confusing the Mayans with the Aztecs. The Mayans marked their calendars on temples, with stairs marking days and other complex such things.

                The final question now is, why did the Mayan’s disappear? Were they not aliens? No. They were not aliens. As a matter of fact they didn’t go anywhere. Mayans are still alive and well. They fled their last city, Tayasah, and left the Elite to deal with the Spaniards themselves.

                So basically, the rundown is, 2012 is nothing special. More than likely nothing at all will happen, as nothing special is really going on.

               

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Google Images

Anthropology Class

Slender Man

                Here is the Wikipedia page before it was taken down on this Legend: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/18/75599/wiki-38b.jpg . Why was it taken down? Well, there’s actually a perfectly logical reason: The Slender Man is not real. In fact, it’s not even debated to be real. Slender Man was made up on the internet, specifically the “something Awful” forums in 2009. It spread like a wildfire; people were posting images (most photoshopped) and videos of the alleged Slender Man all over the internet.

                Slender Man varies in appearance, but for the most part he is described as a male figure between seven and nine feet tall. Sometimes he also has extra appendages. Some people will say adamantly that Slender Man is not a myth, that he is 100% real. There are two possible explanations: these people have been caught up in the legend, or the Slender Man story was so good it gave rise to a demon from hell…yeah…I’m gonna go with the former.

                With every image of Slender Man there is a story to go with it. Most of these stories involve a large number of children disappearing soon afterwards, and in many cases the “photographer is presumed dead”. Some have even given the creature Ancient origins. People have pointed to alleged cave paintings, and historical texts that mention this tall, skinny man who lures people, mainly children, to their deaths.

                It’s actually kind of sad this story is made up, it has great potential. In a few years though, if it continues at this rate, people will not even remember it was fake.

                P.S. Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot to point out: He hates it when you hear too much about him. So watch your back.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

 

References:

Google Images

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slender-man

http://ufosearchonline.com/ufo/2010/09/slender-man-sightings/

Psychics

                It amazes me what some people now will consider evidence of PSYCHIC POWERS!!! As far as I am aware, no psychic has ever been able to entirely prove themselves. In fact James Randi, a magician and author, offers $1 million to anyone who can prove themselves to be psychic. Nobody has yet won this money. Not James Van Praagh, not Sylvia Browne, not anyone. Why then do so many of us still throw our money at these people? I can’t rightly answer this question as I don’t have psychic abilities and therefore can’t get into these people’s brains. If I could, I would be a million dollars richer now.  If I had to guess though, I’d say most people enjoy the comfort they get from these people giving vague readings of experiences almost anyone could be going through. Popular things for psychics to say include: “You are going through a difficult time right now”, “Things look bad but will soon get better”, and “The one you think you might love likes you back”. These things are so easy to predict and can apply to anyone.

                One of my favorite examples of “Precognition Evidence” is the classic “I was thinking about my friend/sibling/parent and five minutes later I heard they had died!” This example was laid out by, of all people, my chemistry teacher. Let us break down a year into five minute blocks: 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year equals 8760 hours a year. 8760 hours a year and 60 minutes an hour equals 525,600. 525,600 divided by five is going to give you 105,120 five minute blocks of time a year. Let us say that you only knew or knew of one person that was going to die this year. And let us say you were so self centered you only thought about them one time in this same year. You would still have a 1 in 105,120 chance of thinking about them within five minutes of them dying.  These odds are better than your chance of winning the lottery, and yet people win the lottery. But guess what else? There are nearly 7 billion people in the world (7,000,000,000). That means there are 7,000,000,000 chances of somebody making that 1 in 105,120. And this is still assuming every person in the world only knows one person who will die this year and only thinks about them once. With these odds, theoretically, 66,590 people will think about that one person in a five minute block of time that they died (7,000,000,000/105,120 = 66,950.563). Are these 66,950 people psychic? No. Are they lucky? Not even that. This scenario was being generous in assuming everyone only knew or knew of one person who would die this year, when actually most people know many more. Also, they normally think about them more than once a year. So the odds are that THIS PHENOMENON WILL OCCUR. As a matter of fact, it would only be abnormal if it didn’t occur!

                Of course, there are other things tied in with being "psychic". There are those that can supposedly move things with their mind (telekinesis). If somebody can do that and prove it, then all the power to them and I will personally kiss their toes for proving me wrong, but I have not seen anyone do it yet. I’ve only seen people claim they “entered a state of meditation and told themselves they could move*object* and *object* moved ____ inches”. This just…annoys me. Saying that kind of thing without even trying to prove it makes me unhappy. Giving a report of a sighting is a different story, maybe you didn’t have your camera with you or whatever, but if you can make something move at your command at least TRY to film it. Even if people shoot it down at least you tried and I give you credit for that.

                I still can’t believe how many people believe the woman known as Sylvia Browne predict anything correctly. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKX5yB-H2tI&feature=related). If she was truly psychic shouldn’t she be right more than 50% of the time? In fact, I haven’t even heard of her being right that often. This woman needs to be sued or something. There’s no telling how many lives she’s ruined with her “predictions”.

                Of course, some people do have amazing mind powers. Take for example the “Human Calculator”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUsD2V6ijyQ. But Psychic powers are unproved and never involve anything hard to guess, and when they do they are usually wrong.

                So I think that if anyone were truly psychic then they would have already won a million dollars. If any of you think you are psychic, tell me your story, I’ll listen, unless it sounds like you pulled it out of your foot. But please everybody: stop throwing your money to these people who have yet to even prove they really exist.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

 

References:

Google Images

Star Whackers

             

               Actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi were arrested in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago for causing more than $5,000 worth of damage at a residence in Santa Barbara, California. But the story doesn’t end there. The couple is asking for protection from a shadowy group of people Randy Quaid says has killed eight of his close friends. This sounds pretty crazy, but is there any fact to it?

                Among this list of “celebrities killed by the Star Whackers” are Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Chris Penn, David Carradine, and Natasha Richardson. Now, I will admit that there has been some talk of foul play for all of these stars, most notably Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. And in the case of Michael Jackson, there have been rumors of a conspiracy too; Dr. Conrad Murray is said to have had among his patients “several unidentified officials in Vegas government”. Other than foul play rumors and being Quaid’s costars I can really find no connection between any of them.

                So is this true? Well, rumors of Hollywood killing off their own stars (as some reports claim Quaid says about the identities of the Star Whackers) date pretty far back: Albert Dekker, Nick Adams, Elizabeth Short, even Bob Crane.  So this is no new claim. If you ask me, the Quaids just want attention. What better way to jump-start a dead acting career than to ransack a house, flee to Canada, then claim you are being pursued by Star killers?           

P.S. And is Jackson even considered a Hollywood star?

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Google Images

http://www.alternativereel.com/includes/top-ten/display_review.php?id=00005

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Arrested+Hollywood+star+Randy+Quaid+wife+fear+star+whackers+seek+refugee/3713206/story.html

http://www.examiner.com/celebrity-headlines-in-chicago/randy-evi-quaid-fled-to-canada-for-safety-from-star-whackers

http://markmaynard.com/?p=6368

http://www.celebritydrugdeaths.com/hollywood-drug-overdose-deaths.php

The Beast of Bray Road



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7MRdeHdjz8. That video right there will give you a nice basic idea of what this creature is. This is quite possibly my favorite cryptozoological creature ever.  The sighting that gave the beast its name was on Halloween night of 1999 (I wouldn’t ignore the fact that it takes place on Halloween. Quite the indication that it could possibly be a prank.). A young woman was driving on Bray Road in Michigan when she thought she felt her front tire go up on a bump. Thinking she’d hit something she got out of her car to look. She found nothing on the roadway. Then, peering into the darkness next to the road, she saw a huge form running towards her. She quickly got into her car. The thing jumped onto the trunk of her car, but could not hold on and fell onto the pavement as she drove off. Later that same night she saw the beast again on the side of the road as she was taking a young girl trick-or-treating. She quickly sped off after commanding the girl to lock her door. Of course, after these sightings, many more people came forward claiming to have seen the same thing, some dating back ten years. After further analysis people have found reports dating all the way back to 1936. This story bears uncanny resemblance to the Michigan Dogman, whom I will discuss in a future post. Maybe the same beast? Michigan and Wisconsin are close enough together.

The Beast of Bray Road has been seen in Walworth, Jefferson, and Racine counties. Nobody has ever observed it doing anything “paranormal” or “unworldly”, ruling out Alien or ghost. In fact, the beast seems to be governed by the normal laws of natural. There is no hovering capabilities, no teleportation, no immense jumps. Is this creature just a type of animal that people have never encountered before? Is it actually a werewolf as people have described it? Or can it be written off as just a bear or wolf?

Earlier the same year of the previously described sighting, a 24 year old bar manager (Is it just me or do people who see creatures always seem to be either bar tenders or bar managers?) claims to have seen a  creature kneeling on the side of the road, eating roadkill with its palms upward. She stated in an interview that the creature “appeared to be so human-like it was scary”. She  had no idea what it could have been until she saw an illustration of a werewolf in a book in a public library (talk about back-woodsy. Who hasn’t heard of a werewolf?). She said it was so similar that her “eyes popped out of her head.”…Really? This lady sounds like she’s dying for attention.

Just the summer before, a large number of animal carcasses were found dumped in a ditch by nearby Willow Road. A humane officer claims they appeared to have been used in cult rituals, though the local police dismissed the idea. According to the humane officer, some of the animals had ropes tied around their back legs and their throat slit. Many of the animals matched descriptions of pets that had gone missing in the area. Rumors spread about imposter humane officers coaxing stray dogs, including one report in which a ten year old boy was supposedly intimidated by a man in a black uniform in an attempt to obtain his black Labrador. Around the same time there were reports of cult graffiti being found in an abandoned house. This house was only a quarter-mile off of Bray Road. Perhaps tying the cult along with the beast?

A sighting in 1989 from Elkhorn had a dairy farmer seeing an “odd-looking dog” in his field. Another man reported a similar sighting, though his report also involved the creature standing for a second on all fours.

The reports have mostly died down, though there is still a small trickle of sightings coming through. What is/was this creature? Some have said that is could just be a Bigfoot. I’m not so sure about that, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

The most recent report I can find is from March 9, 2006 in Rock County (nearby). A  22 year old history major claims to have seen a six-foot tall shaggy brown creature with “meaty legs” walking upright across Hwy 59. She said it may have been Bigfoot, or the Bray Road Beast. Glad to see a witness who was well-educated in matters of cryptozoology.

There are so many sightings it’s crazy. And if you tie in the Michigan Dogman (who, again, we will discuss later, but for this purpose you just need to know that it is a remarkably similar creature) I would confidently say that sightings go up past the couple-hundred mark.

My only conclusion is that either people in the area are all remarkably stupid/blind and there is a rogue bear on the loose (which I HIGHLY doubt is the case), or there really is something weird out there.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Wikipedia (For images, dates, names, and description of events only)

Google Images

http://www.beastofbrayroad.com/history.html

http://www.prairieghosts.com/brayrd.html

Coming next week: Psychics

Special Request: Holocaust



                I was asked to do a post on the Holocaust and because it ties in closely with a previous post I’m going to write about it now. Let me go ahead and say that I am a firm believer that the holocaust did indeed happen. But, I’m going to look at just the facts and try to explain them all as best I can.

                I’ve heard a lot of pieces of “evidence” against the Holocaust, so, to try and best cover as many as possible I’m going to use this person’s article: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/holohoax.htm. This person has some interesting things to say against the Holocaust, so his points will be the same ones I analyze.

            “Fred A. Leuchter is America's leading specialist on the design and fabrication of execution equipment, including homicidal gas chambers. In 1988, Leuchter scraped samples from the alleged gas chamber walls in Auschwitz, Birkenau and Lublin. Cyanide residue would be clearly evident on all these walls if gassings did occur. To his astonishment, Leuchter found no significant cyanide traces in any one of these rooms.” (Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are taken from aforementioned site) This is a very compelling piece of evidence to readers. We are told that a leading expert found no evidence of cyanide...some 40-50 years after the chambers were used. I’m sorry to call a “leading expert” this, but this guy has to be an idiot. First off, Hydrocyanic Acid (AKA Zyklon B) was not used in every single gas chamber, in some cases it was Carbon Monoxide. But even assuming that Hydrocyanic Acid was used in all of these chambers he analyzed, remember he is scraping the walls in an attempt to find not only a forty-year old residue, but a forty-year old SOLUBLE residue. That’s right, Hydrocyanic Acid will dissolve fully in water. This makes it extremely easy for a last minute Nazi to wash away the evidence, or for a rainstorm leaking through the dilapidated structure to wash it all away. Another thing to take into account is that all chemicals deteriorate over time, and cyanide deteriorates quickly (Only taking 20-60 minutes to be reduced to half the initial concentration in a human body). So when you are looking at something that has been sitting idle for more than forty years, you are going to be lucky if you even manage to find an atom.

            “The structural integrity of these "gas chambers" is also extremely faulty. These rooms have ordinary doors and windows which are not hermetically sealed! There are large gaps between the floors and doors. If the Germans had attempted to gas anyone in these rooms, they would have died themselves, as the gas would have leaked and contaminated the entire area. Also, no equipment exists to exhaust the air-gas mixture from these buildings. Nothing was made to introduce or distribute the gas throughout the chambers. There are no provisions to prevent condensation of gas on the walls, floors or ceilings. No exhaust stacks have ever existed.” Here is a picture of the gas chamber at Auschwitz:

 If you wish to consider this a room with “ordinary doors and windows” I’m afraid your sense of ordinary is a little bit screwed up. And by the time this area was finally captured most Germans had done whatever they could to hide the evidence. There are holes all over the gas chamber! Here are some photos from a reconstruction made to look exactly like this original: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Auschwitz1/Auschwitz08E.html. There is ventilation. As to whether it led to an “exhaust stack” that is not for me to say, but I don’t think it was just some Nazi décor.

            “Though six million Jews supposedly died in the gas chambers, not one body has ever been autopsied and found to have died of gas poisoning. We have been shown piles of bodies from World War II, but most of these persons died of typhus or starvation or Allied bombings and a great many of those were murdered Germans, not Jews. Roughly the equivalent of ten football fields should be packed full of gassed bodies to present as evidence, yet not one body has ever been discovered.” As I have already said, Cyanide has a short half-life (the amount of time it takes for the concentration to reach half of what it originally was). Even today people sometimes only find low concentrations of it in the blood on the bodies of people who died of Cyanide poisoning. So that part goes out the window right here and now. I will give them this, most of the bodies in pictures are indeed of other murdered people, not Jews. Gee, I wonder why nobody took any pictures of the people dying in the concentration camps. Maybe because it would be suicidal. Can anyone really expect a camera-bearing citizen to waltz up to the pile of dead bodies and politely ask the Nazi on guard duty if he would be so kind as to allow a photograph of the rotting corpses?

            “The Germans documented everything in meticulous detail from shrubbery to arbors, but no pre-war or wartime plans or documents exist that detail or even mention any gas chambers for reasons of genocide. All documents ever presented were drawn up AFTER the war.” I don’t remember ever hearing that the Germans documented anything at all…
            “Even if we threw away all the evidence and accounted for every so-called gas chamber, it would have taken 68 YEARS to accomplish gassing six million Jews! “ Some reports say that as many as 700-800 people were shoved into gas chambers at a time. Therefore this statement can only be classified as an ALGEBRA FAIL. Even if only 700 people were gassed a day, it would only take 4 years for more than a million people to be gassed. If you had, say six chambers, you could reach the full six million in four years with just 700 a day. Not to mention "six million" is a total death count, and not all of them were gassed to death.
            “Even The Diary of Anne Frank is a hoax. Portions of the diary were written with a ball point pen. These pens were not in use at the time Anne Frank lived.” The first ball-point pen was made in 1888 and similar pens have been used ever since.

“It is not denied concentration camps existed. Tragically, many died of typhus or starvation, as often happens in such situations. There is, however, no evidence that any gassings occurred for the reasons of genocide.” Other than hundreds of testimonies, no there isn’t. Either way, people were gassed, even if it was just prisoners of war.

“It is an interesting fact that the number of so-called persecuted Jews KEEPS INCREASING. Hal Greenwald, program director for the Hillel Foundation at Duke University, a Jewish student group, has been promoting the idea that NINE MILLION JEWS WERE EXTERMINATED IN HITLER'S GAS CHAMBERS (New York Times, Nov. 9, 1991, AP). NOW IT'S 9 MILLION AND GROWING. ..JUST LIKE OUR DEBT/TAX MONEY SUPPLY...THE NUMBERS JUST KEEP COMING OUT OF THIN AIR...” I give this one to the author entirely. The numbers do keep growing, and most of that is bogus. People do make money off this stuff, I’m not going to deny it, but to ignore all of these accounts from both survivors and the Nazi’s themselves is like saying 9/11 didn’t happen at all and that all the videos were faked and there never was a World Trade Center.

Another few sites for extra reading: http://www.nizkor.org/features/qar/qar01.html, http://www.holocaust-history.org/~jamie/the-hoax.shtml, http://www.holocaust-history.org/denial-hoax/, http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/pdf/Archive/Alt/alt.politics/2007-08/msg00645.pdf

P.S. Some people present “images” of Jewish weddings, or football games, etc taking place in concentration camps. This supposedly shows that concentration camps were not actually killing camps. These are never actual photographs, they are movie stills. These are from somebody else’s imagination, never take them seriously.

***Some Images Were Removed From This Page To Avoid Potential Lawsuits and/or Shutdowns. My apologies***

References:

Google Images

http://www.chemicalland21.com/industrialchem/organic/HYDROGEN%20CYANIDE.htm

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12040&page=16

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/1997/cwbw/Ch10.pdf

http://holocaust.skeptik.net/documents/provan_gerstein.html

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm

Hatchetman Road

Before I begin, let me say that there are actually two Hatchetman stories. The better known one is in the area of Gobles, Michigan. There is also one in Huntsville, Ohio though. The two are of no relation, though they have very similar stories.

                The Michigan Hatchetman (http://www.michigansotherside.com/Articles/HatchetManRoad_Michigan.html) apparently haunts a patch of 28^th avenue in Michigan. There are a couple stories in the link there of people claiming to have seen weird things. It would appear that the Michigan Hatchetman is more than just Paranormal. With ghost lights and beams from the sky, the Michigan Hatchetman is almost extraterrestrial. Unfortunately there aren’t many stories about him, making him a much lesser Urban Legend. Supposedly there is a fallout shelter somewhere in the area where the Hatchetman made his family live, eventually losing it and killing them all. Supposedly, if you leave your car idle near where his ghost is, then he will track you down and kill you with his hatchet.

                The Ohio Hatchetman (http://www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/Logan/hatchetman.html) doesn’t seem to have a set area, but from what I’ve found, the Hatchetman Road of Ohio is in Bristol. The Hatchetman in this story is named Andrew Hellman, a tailor from Germany. He too killed his family, poisoning a couple and hacking his wife to death. He hates women who stray onto his stretch of road.

                This is almost exactly like any other road/bridge haunting Urban Legend. Bunnyman, Goatman, Hatchetman, they are similar in more ways than just having “–man” at the end. My conclusion is that this is just another story made up to scare people sitting around a campfire; I can’t find anything other than “eyewitness accounts”. With no basis in fact, I label this one nothing but a legend.

Evolution vs. Creationism

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