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.