New Type of Space Object Discovered. Astronomers Dumbfounded.

Ah ha! The weirdness continues!

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope set of images from Sept. 10, 2013 reveals a never-before-seen set of six comet-like tails radiating from a body in the asteroid belt designated P/2013 P5. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, D.Jewitt/UCLA

Sploid Gizmodo – 11/07/13 — The object in these photographs captured by Hubble is not a comet. It’s something that no astronomer has ever seen before, according to NASA: An asteroid with six comet-like tails that isn’t moving like a comet and it’s not made of ice. It’s just hanging up there, rotating like a crazy space spider.

According to lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, “we were literally dumbfounded when we saw it [in the solar system’s asteroid belt] We were completely knocked out.”

NASA says that “unlike all other known asteroids, which appear simply as tiny points of light, this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, resembles a rotating lawn sprinkler. Astronomers are puzzled over the asteroid’s unusual appearance.” Read more…

A lot of discoveries out there these days! The more, the merrier, right? Keep ‘em coming!

Some seem to think it’s from a collision. Or rotational breakup. Or pressure from the Sun. Or something. NASA itself doesn’t seem to know what to make of it at the moment.

Good.

Discovery! Investigation! Science!

Peace.

China’s Disgusting ‘Gutter Oil’ Street Food.

I have always loved Chinese food. I think it rocks, especially the stuff that’s only on the menu in deepest Chinatown, in those restaurants for the locals where you have to go downstairs to get in. I’ve so far not been lucky enough to go to China for the “real deal,” but after learning what lies below these words… I would now likely dine exclusively in the hotel’s eatery or in a private home…

Via Business Insider:

The next time you consider eating Chinese street food you might think twice.

The use of gutter oil it turns out is pretty common. This refers to a process of pulling waste oil from sewers, grease traps, waste from slaughterhouses, reprocessing it and then selling it as cooking oil.

RFAVideo Published on May 2, 2013

Most of China’s ‘gutter oil’ winds up in cheap restaurants and among street food vendors.

Gregory Taylor Published on May 29, 2013

Gutter oil is illicit cooking oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, drains, grease traps and slaughterhouse waste. Reprocessing is often very rudimentary; techniques include filtration, boiling, refining and the removal of adulterants.

Gutter oil has been shown to be very toxic, able to cause diarrhea and abdominal pain. There are also reports that long-term consumption of the oil can lead to stomach and liver cancer as well as developmental disabilities in newborns and children.

Oh, Gawd!

In early October of 2013 a Chinese man was sent to prison for life for making gutter oil, as that is the official penalty, (lenient version!), but still the practice continues. There is simply too much of it going on to keep up, I suppose.

Greed rules, you see, especially, it seems, in China.

In the ATS thread that alerted me to this, member crackerjack replied:

I’ve been living in China for 7 years and you would be AMAZED at how many cheap, hole in the wall restaurants use this stuff.
One thing you gotta understand about China is that it’s PROFIT FIRST, safety last, most people don’t care as long as there’s a profit in it, they have no morals to whom they might be harming, just think of their own wallet. Also the people who do eat this stuff eat for the sole reason that it’s CHEAP.

My family has always ate at home because of the food safety concerns here.

Whoa.. confirmation!

Well, now, keep an eye out, folks!

Peace.

North Korean Holiday From Hell – LOL!

ROFL Mao!

Clearly, these people have no clue.

diagonaluk Uploaded on Sep 29, 2011

Welcome to the world’s best new tourist destination. Welcome to North Korea.

Hahaha! A North Korean cruise ship.

This is what happens when you impose 100% isolation on yourself and your people for 60 years.

The initial premise that it is for needed revenue is plausible as they know that there are cruises and that those cruises are pretty popular. Been on two myself. The problem here stems from the rather  likely fact that… no one’s ever been on one!

And… what to do about putting on influences from the outside world, like the shopping the Chinese tourist suggests… can’t have that! No! Duty-free cigs? Ha!

It’s apparent right from the standardized “tour” that visitors are taken on and shown in just about every doc you see about visiting the DPRK. Never cease to amaze, the Northern ones.

Seriously, the realization that they seem to fully believe in their hearts that we would not see right through the well-planned situations created and in every one of the places meant to impress us, huge places, completely devoid of visitors. So bizarre. So bizarre.

Isolation.

Quite sad, in a way. 25 million people prevented from participating in the daily life of planet Earth. Or even knowing that it exists.

It’s changing, though, albeit excruciatingly slowly. Through goods smuggled back in, (which is an act of heroism, surely). That spreading of knowledge must continue.

Ah, well, have a laugh.

Peace.

Hypnotized – Fleetwood Mac. Now, about that “pond.”

…from the album Mystery to Me.

Uploaded by FavoriteTunes2009 on Jul 31, 2009

from the CD “Mystery to Me”, by fleetwood Mac.
pics and video clips taken here in Oregon

Enjoy, yes, indeed do that thing!

I haven’t posted a tune in a while, so we’re due, but this thread didn’t start out in the usual way. You all know that I’m always lurking on ATS for the latest in high strangeness and conspiracy; I saw a thread entitled North Carolina’s strange, strange pond. by member ColeYounger, which as you might imagine is right up my alley, so of course I had to click it.

In it was the following very cool story and the reference to this song, along with this YouTube music video. Two birds, one stone for WATT, eh? Ha!

On the discussion board, there was an old post by a guy who said he grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Apparently, the guy had been checking out the online discussions about strange power spots, vortexes and ‘Earth anamolies.’ [sic]

He said that one day in 1969, he and three friends were riding dirt-bike motorcycles in a large forested area near Winston-Salem. He described it as thick forest with bike trails worn through the woods. Deep in the middle of the forest was a large clearing. They had ridden their bikes there many times before, but on this day, when they reached the clearing, they were shocked to see a huge, perfectly round depression in the ground that was probably 80 – 100 feet in diameter . He said it was as if a giant iron ball had been pressed into the ground, buried halfway, and then lifted out. The dirt in the indentation was ‘smooth as glass’. There was not a bump or a ripple anywhere. Of course they thought that it had somehow been man-made…dug out with bulldozers or something. But there was no machinery anywhere. There was no way to get any machinery there! There were no roads, just bike trails. They got really spooked and got the hell out of there. From what the guy said, all four of them were pretty spooked.

They went back to town and told some friends. A couple other guys went there shortly thereafter and they saw it too. The weird depression was gone within a few days, as if it was never there.
Now this is weird! ….supposedly someone took some photos, but never gave them to any news people, reporters, etc. The story became quite a local legend. I’m surprised it’s not really famous. Maybe because the “mystery circle” was there and gone so quickly?

A couple years later, Fleetwood Mac released their song “Hypnotized”. Some of the lyrics definitely sound like the Winston-Salem circle, although the term “pond” is used.

Cole then wonders just exactly how Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist and songwriter at the time, came up with the lyrics in question…

Well… In FleetwoodMac.net’s The Penguin Q&A Sessions section, ATS researcher Pauligirl found this quote regarding this very happening from the guy who wrote the song, Bob Welch, August 4 – 17, 2003:

Hey Bob! In Hypnotized you talk about a strange pond in North Carolina. What’s the story behind it, and where’s it supposed to be? A curious North Carolinian… (Louie Golden, Charlotte, NC, USA)

A guy that I used to work with from Winston-Salem told me the story of he and some friends riding dirt bikes 20 miles or so out in the woods when they came upon a strange “crater” in the ground with smooth sides like melted glass. It was a “pond” in the sense that there was some rainwater in it I guess.There were no access roads or caterpillar tracks so it wasn’t a construction site. I think the location must have been near Winston-Salem. They all immediately got the feeling they should get out of there. Maybe it was a meteor impact ? I just liked the imagery for the song.

So, Bob actually met and talked with one of the guys who experienced this first-hand. Seriously, how cool is that? What are the odds? Spock?

Needless to say that this is one heck of a mystery. The ‘smooth as glass’ nature of the depression is particularly fascinating. As is the fact that it ‘repaired itself,’ so to speak, after just a few days. Weird! Groundwater rising and falling within a water cave has been suggested, which I suppose is reasonably plausible, but what about the glassy smooth effect? Not a common sinkhole feature that I know of.

And in this reply, posted after I started writing, this feature, or a remnant of it, may have been located! Only those who were there could verify that, of course, but it is certainly intriguing. Maybe they’ll show up and clarify things! It’s happened before. But them Gol darn odds are agin’ us. It would be fabulous if the photos mentioned were to turn up!

I just love how utterly strange our world can be. I really do.

And,  it turns out, much to my delight, that Bob Welch is a big fan of various Fortean subjects, most notably UFOs. I like that and wonder if this incident helped trigger off his interest in the unexplained. If you read the interview with him at the Fleetwood Mac site you will see several questions relating to UFOs and the like. Such as this one…

Hi Bob and thank you for doing another Q&A for your devoted fans ! My questions are….

Since you are into the paranormal like me, who are your favourite authors on the subject ? (i.e. John A. Keel, Stanton Friedman, and Jenny Randles) (Arizona Ranger, Cranford, NJ, USA)

Jacques Vallee, Ingo Swann, Gary Schwartz (the Afterlife Experiments), David R. Hawkins MD (The Eye Of The I), Stephen Greer(Disclosure Project). The ones you mentioned (Freidman etc.) are also good. There are many more…John G White “The Unobstructed Universe” comes to mind. I’m planning to put a list of all the authors I like on my website.

Shame about Greer being in there, really… hopefully Bob has seen the light on that matter. It’s one I fell for initially, too, back in the day, so I can relate and I’m sure all’s well.

May strangeness befall you.

Peace.

Bouncy, Bouncy Water Drops.

Watch the bouncing droplet

Uploaded by strainoff on Jun 7, 2009

I saw this on the TV show Time Warp and thought that I could do that. Well it turns out that Noah and I could do it! I was a little surprised at how small the parameter space was to achieve a good series of bounces. Near the end of this clilp, you can see waves entering from the lower right. I think these are reflections of a low frequency sloshing modes set up by the initial droplet. The smallest droplet bounces off these waves and start moving off to the side. In any case it is pretty cool. The only issue is that there was some dust on the sensor (dark spots that don’t move). The camera is a Vision Research Phantom v7.3 high speed video camera.

It is fascinating (and beautiful) to see water behave this way in such detail and I thought you all might think that this is as cool as I do.

It seems bizarre as what is revealed goes against our innate impression of what water is, how it should act and what it can do.

Great food for thought, too. There are so many things in nature that happen all the time and right before our very eyes… all forever unnoticed due to size or speed or both. Although a poster on the forum claims to see this regularly with his unaided eyes and has called it the “Anti Bubble” effect. … hmmm.

Here is another video of the phenomena:

Cascade Coalescence

Uploaded by videoslmpt on May 31, 2010

High speed video of a droplet coalescence at the surface of deionized water. Filmed at the Laboratory of Porous Media and Thermophysical Properties.
www.lmpt.ufsc.br

And here is a great article that appears on the io9 site, with a hat-tip to this ATS article for providing the lead:

High speed video reveals the bizarre physics of an ordinary water droplet

The video is of an effect known in fluid dynamics as the coalescence cascade, which can be observed (provided you have access to a video camera with a sufficiently high frame rate) when a drop of liquid is deposited very gently onto the surface of a layer of the same liquid. Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics explains:

When a droplet impacts a pool at low speed, a layer of air trapped beneath the droplet can often prevent it from immediately coalescing into the pool. As that air layer drains away, surface tension pulls some of the droplet’s mass into the pool while a smaller droplet is ejected. When it bounces off the surface of the water, the process is repeated and the droplet grows smaller and smaller until surface tension is able to completely absorb it into the pool.

Pretty awesome, right? In the video shown up top, the effect manages to repeat itself four times (in what scientists who study fluid mechanics call “events”) before the viscous properties of the resting pool become too strong for the smallest drops to withstand coalescing completely.

And while the highest number of events I’ve been able to find anywhere else is five (see the video on the left), MIT’s John Bush claims to have observed as many as seven such events in a row. I just wish he’d included a video of it…[Spotted on Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics]

Enjoy Mother Nature. She’s a beautiful girl.

Peace.

Taxonomically Terrific! The Wonder That Is Trogloraptor!

Meet Trogloraptor, fearsomeness incarnate. The creature more than lives up to its name—it is, in fact, an eight-legged showcase for scientific novelty. The spider somewhat resembles the brown recluse, famed for its flesh-necrotizing venom—but at four centimeters, Trogloraptor is about twice as large. In fact, this spider is an entirely new critter—just look at those legs, each ends in a curved, scythelike claw. Citizen scientists and arachnologists have uncovered these spiders in the caves of southwestern Oregon and old-growth redwood forests. As they report in ZooKeys, the discovery of Trogloraptor is a taxonomic wonder that establishes a new family, genus and species in the spider family tree.

Troglo’s story begins with citizen scientists in the Western Cave Conservancy who spotted the strange spider in Oregon’s caves. They sent specimens to researchers at the California Academy of Sciences where entomologist Tracy Audisio, a research fellow at the California Academy of Sciences, puzzled over the new find. After approaching every member of the arachnology lab, she and Charles Griswold, the academy’s curator of arachnology, took the finding to arachnologists around the country. They combed through comparative anatomy, fossil records and genetic analyses in their efforts to place the new spider, only to conclude that the cave dweller has a totally unique lineage. […]

—Daisy Yuhas

learn more, read the rest of it!

Cool, no? Weird, too. Just doesn’t look right… It’s the stance, the way the body is jutting forward from where the legs attach… dunno… just looks quite odd. Then there are those teardrop antennae and of course… the feet, er, claws! Claws?! Yep, eight of ‘em. Yikes. Good thing it’s not all that big.

It is always a treat when creatures are discovered that necessitate the rewriting of established ‘facts.’ It shows that we know so very little about the totality of the world around us. There is so much to find, so much top see, so much to learn, on every level, in every field of study… everywhere.

Let the search continue.

Peace.

Girls Gone Mad – Maximum Strangeness.

Digging through my drafts folder again… under a dozen now! Ha!

This is one of the strangest incidents I have ever seen. I heard about it through my usual hangout, of course, where I proceeded to read all the threads about it as they were posted over a few months worth of time. One of the saner threads about it is called, more appropriately, Madness In The Fast Lane – Suicide Pact?/Mental Illness?/Superhuman Twins?)

It is all about the story of the profoundly bizarre antics of a pair of rather resilient Swedish twins, Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, born in 1967, as they were visiting, if one could really call it that, the United Kingdom.

The threads I read ranged from the logical (pretty much) to the patently absurd.

Theories advanced were

• various forms of mental illness
• drugs, although none were found
• some sort of governmental MK-Ultra type mind control experiment
• some sort of governmental super-soldier manipulation / training deal
• that they are really clones
• and finally – the WATT prize of Most Ridiculous has to go to the one that appeared on Christmas in 2010, a thread called Alien twin hybrids on TV.

Really. We do get our share of them at ATS.

Yet even with three professional psychologists weighing in with psychological speculation, the case to this day remains – unexplained.

The original “Aliens…” post said: (typos corrected)

In latest program UFOs & the Star of Bethlehem, Author L.A. Marzulli Introduce the story about the two twin alien hybrid being shown in a documentary called “Twins Madness in the fast lane”

He say that there is this documentary about two twins that are clearly alien hybrids because of the things they do and because they have super human powers and dont care about pain ( no drugs involved )

I will not go into depth about what is going to happen in this short documentary where the supposedly twin alien hybrids are in, all that I will say is that is jaw dropping even if you believe its alien hybrids, mind control or mental ill persons.

Well. Should have stopped when I saw the words Coast to Coast, but didn’t, as I did not immediately realize on clicking that it dealt with this case. There is nothing therein that has any relation to any aspect of “alien hybrids.” Nothing. Whatsoever.

The entire story is jaw dropping, however. I’ll certainly give it that! High Strangeness!

Just to note, as you will see upon watching, the entire premise listed above is distasteful at best and reeks of charlatan in the worst way… let’s just say that the gentleman person referred to is not one who will be let into the bunker after the SHTF. I abhor charlatans. Especially those who care more for fame and money that the people they directly hurt with their thoughtless bullshit.

As one commenter noted: (typos corrected, emphasis added)

To imply that they are ET hybrids is scraping the barrel of Ufology in desperation for a new story.when they did tests on both of them they both had abnormally high amounts of HGH (human growth hormone)in their system which was said to be naturally occurring? If you do some research you’ll find lots on HGH, and how it makes the user feel invincible, ultra strong

Oh, man, I hate when I go off on such silly tangents. Not altogether sure why it affects me so but I think the impact of those poor souls so desperate to believe such foolishness in the face of reason gets me going a tad too much.

So before I get even further into digression, forget all that alien crap, for crap it is – and savor if you will just how powerful mental illness can be and just how weird human behavior can be.

Two girls, from an admittedly very poor and tragic childhood, later go on to lead pretty much normal lives as far as we can tell, one married with kids in Ireland; one in the USA; finally get together after a being apart for about 5 years… and then, suddenly — what you are about to see takes place.

Originally broadcast on the UK’s BBC One at 10:30pm on Tuesday, 10 August 2010.

Madness in the fast lane (Full film)

Uploaded by BlackMountainScar on May 20, 2011

In 2008, BBC cameras filmed two Swedish sisters throwing themselves into traffic on the M6. When it was shown on BBC One, nearly 7 million viewers were glued to their screens, and millions more watched it later on YouTube.

The footage was shocking. One previewer wrote “On no account miss this documentary. It opens with what is perhaps the most extraordinary footage I’ve seen on TV”.

But this amazing footage was only part of an even more incredible story, one which could not be told at the time for legal reasons.

Now, two years later, this documentary reveals the full story of the hours just before the cameras captured that motorway footage, and the even more chilling story of what happened over next 72 hours, which left one of the sisters fleeing the scene of a crime, after she had stabbed a man through the chest.

Those who were at the centre of this fascinating legal case, including the police and Crown prosecution service, reveal the complex issues involved in both bringing charges and taking this disturbing case to trial.

A leading criminal psychiatrist, Dr. Nigel Eastman, explains the difficulties the judicial system has in achieving justice and deciding punishment when dealing with mental illness. He explains the possible causes of the womens’ behaviour, and why, in his view, it could happen again.

Peace.

Dinochelus ausubeli, A Wicked-Clawed Deep Sea Nasty.

Author: Shapiro, Leo

Compiler: Hammock, Jen

Supplier: EOL Rapid Response Team

License: Some rights reserved

Source URL: View original data object

Indexed: October 01, 2010 Permalink

Dinochelus ausubeli is a new species of deepwater lobster (family Nephropidae) first collected in 2007 from the Philippine Sea off the island of Luzon and was formally described in 2010. The species is so distinct that it was not only described as a new species but placed in a newly erected genus as well (Dinochelus). “Dinochelus” is derived from the Greek dinos, meaning “terrible”, and chela, meaning “claw”, an allusion to the massive, spinose major claw. The specific epithet ausubeli honors Jesse Ausubel, an enthusiastic sponsor of the Census of Marine Life, a major effort to document marine life in the first decade of the 21st century. (Ahyong et al. 2010)

Wow, man, that’s one hell of a claw! I’m diggin’ it. It reminds one of a precision instrument that some technician might wield for maximum tweakage of something obscure and specialized.

And it is obviously extremely specialized. I would imagine it is designed to do one thing really well, whether that’s getting into a seriously narrow nook or similarly configured cranny wherein its main nutrient-filled nodule resides, or, perhaps it somehow conforms to said nutrient-filled nodule’s unique physiognomy.

Shivers, I surely wouldn’t want to be that unfortunate creature!

For additional perusal and introspection into the vastness of life’s catalog:

At AboveTopSecret: Newly Discovered Deep Sea Lobster *pic*

At ScienceDaily (source for the ATS discussion thread): Newly Discovered Deep Sea Lobster

At Encyclopedia of Life (source of the extract above): Dinochelus ausubeli

At WoRMS – World Register of Marine Species: WoRMS Image

Whenever I look at new creatures from the sea I am always, always reminded of the fact that we know more about the Moon and Mars than our own oceans. A LOT more. A situation I find very saddening. Indeed, don’t spend our resources on learning what’s out there… spend them on global acts of corporate criminality and on killing each other in support of the same. Great.

Every time a probe or submersible or anything goes down below, at least one lifeform is seen for the first time. Less than 5% of the world’s oceans have had any sort of exploration.

Interestingly, when humans briefly visited the deepest deepness that there is on this planet, the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the fabulous Trieste… right there on the bottom scurrying away… was a fish.

Absolutely amazing.

Brown Pants Time! Thanks to Ghost Girl on RMS Queen Mary.

Additionally, APRA’s Queen Mary Ghost Girl Video Puts A Chill Down My Spine! It really does!

Ghosts can have that effect on me. Not sure why except possibly because they were once supposed to be people.

Now as you may know I really loathe hoaxers and fraudsters and that’s why you won’t see certain places in the sidebar any longer like Skipper and Hoagland and Strickler. And ghost hoaxers… well, they are extra bad in my eyes, perhaps due to the effect legit ones have on me as mentioned.

There are some interesting ghost vids out there. I don’t usually watch them as I feel that the vast majority of ‘ghost hunters’ are just completely full of it, and will tell them so to their faces… and I’d never heard of these APRA people, but this came recommended so I watched it, full screen at HD and often, and – well – I was creeped out enough to put it on WATT.

There are a couple of small issues as always, but I feel they are just that. For now at least.

Could still be a hoax, but the chill felt very real.

• It is not a shadow.
• It has definition.
• It seems to start standing up at the end.
• It looks really sinister, even though “just a little girl.”

Do hit the 1080 resolution. I also strongly recommend seeing it in full screen.

Also a good discussion is ensuing here should you desire more opinions and leads. What do you think of this?

What In The Hell Are They Doing?

Found this at one of those sites where strange, odd and funny pics are displayed.

So… do any of you have anything you can provide regarding the seemingly simple question of – “What In The Hell Are They Doing?” Anyone?

Such data will be appreciated. I am intrigued by this. Who are these people?

Thanks in advance.

Dances In The Clouds

video 1

joininglife | October 15, 2009

This is the original from July 2000. This “phenomenon” was watched for 20 minutes before the call for the camera went out. A slow moving thunderhead sitting above Baltimore seen from 8 or 10 miles south became a head scratcher. The odd changes occur at :20, :31, :37, :58, and 1:26 When the filming came back to the thundercloud it was focussed on the left and wrong part of the cloud. You can see the weird thing happen again (@2:13 or so) as it was panned into the left side when it was in the middle right section. Any thoughts? Whatever it was it seemed VERY large, changing every 15 to 20 seconds.

video 2

fckwalm | July 18, 2009

some odd phenomenon in the sky off the pier looking towards the coast

Wow, those be cool, eh, matey?

Hat tip to RavenX at ATS for scoping it out and posting it over there in a piece called UFO In A Cloud??

I must admit that I, like most, am inside a lot and don’t watch clouds all that often. When I have not a lot has really happened… just bad timing… but I must say these two videos have struck me as very, very cool. The second one even stumped the resident weatherman in the resulting thread of comments… and that’s pretty sporty!

So, which one is weirder to all you folks? Which clip makes you say “Whoa”?

For me it’s the mysterious second video, if for no better reason than the fact that to these eyes that freaky deaky motion “it” goes through looks almost organic and close to alive, as opposed to the first video’s “spy casting his flashlight [torch] about” look way up there on top of that cloud. They both qualify for a solid WTF in my opinion.

I’m no meteorologist so I can’t offer up any real insight into what the heck these two lucky groups managed to see and capture for us… these videos are here at WATT both for their wow factor and to add yet another piece to the Fortean puzzle that is our world. Enjoy…

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Texas Chainsaw Massacre?! Great Scott, that’s about as harsh as you can get. I wonder… what could possibly have happened between them to result in such a finale? Is it covert mind control with an agenda, or simply a sick man snapping at some ethereal “final straw?” This guy shouldn’t be too hard to find, so we might learn more soon. Unfortunate timing too, considering the current border tensions… the weirdness just never stops.

Lewisville Police Department, AP Police have issued an arrest warrant for Jose Fernando Corona, 49, as a suspect in the murder of his wife.

This was posted by Steve Jones to the Yahoo group Forteana.

Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:28 pm (PDT)

Police Search for Husband in Texas Chainsaw Killing

by David Knowles, AOL, Writer

(April 28) – A 44-year-old Texas mother of six who was found decapitated actually died from wounds she suffered while being attacked with a chainsaw, the local medical examiner has ruled.

Lewisville Police Department, AP

Police have issued an arrest warrant for Jose Fernando Corona, 49, as a suspect in the murder of his wife.

The mutilated body of Maria Corona was discovered by a mail carrier on Monday, near her home on Shadow Wood Lane in Lewisville, The Dallas Morning News reported. Police have issued an arrest warrant for the woman’s husband, Jose Fernando Corona, 49, as a possible suspect in the crime. He is believed to have fled in a gold 1991 Ford Ranger pickup truck.

A trail of blood led from Maria Corona’s body to her home, police said. A chainsaw was found, still running, on the tailgate of a truck parked in the home’s driveway, the Morning News said. Another chainsaw was found nearby.

The Coronas had been having marital problems, Lewisville police Capt. Kevin Deaver said. Jose Corona has no criminal record.

The Tantalizingly Tempting Thing On The Moon Tshirt

The Thing On The Moon by iggymak

Ah, yes, well, here we have the lovely Luz along with righteous dude Darren both modeling variations of my Thing On The Moon Tshirt, which celebrates what may just be the strangest thing that I have ever clapped eyes on — namely, well, the “thing” — discovered back in the day by none other than the notorious Mr. John Lear.

It’s on a photo taken on the exceptionally notorious far side of the Moon… by the intrepid crew of Apollo 8.

A high resolution version, that is; obtained by Lear from his buds a bit before they got real strict about taking stuff like that out of circulation. Score!

This design is my enhancement of a crop of this particular anomaly from that very high res version.

If you’re motivated, the official NASA image number is AS8-12-2209.

High Strangeness at it’s best, eh?!

I mean… seriously… people… wtf is that?!

Something Wicked This Way Comes…

I am fond of saying that the further from Earth we go, the weirder things get in a general sense. You’ll never convince me of otherwise. Ever. This object is just the latest in the ever-so-wacky universe that lies way, way, way “out there.”

About the only thing agreed upon so far is that it isn’t a comet and has been therefore classed as an asteroid, based solely on composition… it’s assumed, more specifically to be the result of a high speed asteroidal hit-and-run. You know what happens when you assume.

So we need to know exactly how, if it’s a scooting junk pile of the shattered remains of two rocks whacking into each other, do we get this absolutely fabulous shape… a shape more reminiscent of some kind of alien battle cruiser from a slick Hollywood movie?

Assuming that the “crosspiece” is asteroid A’s trail, how did it make such a hard left turn? I’d always been taught that objects, especially objects in space, tend to go in pretty much straight lines, unless there’s something wickedly dense close by… right? Hence everyone’s, scientists and debunkers, too, reaction being something somewhat similar to … what’s all this, then?

Not to mention that 460 foot wide glowing “rock” at the leading edge of the aforementioned asteroid A’s trail… hmmm… anyone?

So strange is this thing that even arch NASA supporter and “ice crystals and debris” flogger Jim Oberg himself has called it a UFO… yes… he called it a UFO…

In fact, I spotted it first in the very thread started by Jim Oberg at the AboveTopSecret conspiracy site :

“Spiral UFO” Photographed by Hubble — in the Asteroid Belt!!

Sorta spiral shaped, maybe more cross-shaped…

but weird all the same…

Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris

hubblesite.org…

FEBRUARY 2, 2010: Something awfully curious is happening 100 million miles from Earth in the asteroid belt. There’s a newly discovered object that superficially looks like a comet but lives among the asteroids. The distinction? Comets swoop along elliptical orbits close in to the Sun and grow long gaseous and dusty tails, as ices near the surface turn into vapor and release dust. But asteroids are mostly in circular orbits in the asteroid belt and are not normally expected to be “volatile.”

photo – imgsrc.hubblesite.org…

And then there’s this piece, too, an article, Space UFO baffles boffins, at The Sun, a not too journalistic journal, but this they couldn’t mess up… for an additional perspective…

THIS amazing UFO has left scientists baffled — after boffins claimed it was NOT a comet streaking through space.

It was first spotted early last month so astronomers turned the Hubble telescope on it last week to get these close up images.

The object — named P/2010 A2 — is of a type never before seen by stargazers and orbits in a satellite belt between Mars and Jupiter. (emphasis mine)

Despite its tail they have ruled out it being a comet, as there is no gas in its trail.

The 140-metre nucleus is also offset from the centre of the tail and its structure is very unusual.

The most likely theory is that it is debris from a collision between two asteroids which were likely to have smashed together at a speed of 15,000 kilometres an hour, five times the speed of a rifle bullet.

The resulting collision would have released more energy than a nuclear bomb.

It is believed that pressure from sunlight then spread the debris out into a trail.

Dr Robert J Nemiroff, astrophysicist at Michigan Technological University and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said: “Future study of P/2010 A2 may better indicate the nature of the original collision and may help humanity better understand the early years of our Solar System, when many similar collisions occurred.”

He added: “What is this strange object? First discovered on ground based LINEAR images on January 6, the object appeared unusual enough to investigate further with the Hubble Space Telescope last week.

“What Hubble saw indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet.

“Close inspection, however, shows a 140-metre nucleus offset from the tail centre, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernable gas in the tail.

“Knowing that the object orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a preliminary hypothesis that appears to explain all of the known clues is that P/2010 A2 is the debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids.

“If true, the collision likely occurred at over 15,000 kilometres per hour, five times the speed of a rifle bullet, and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb.

“Pressure from sunlight would then spread out the debris into a trailing tail.”

The mysterious object was circling about 90 million miles (144 million km) away from Earth when it was spotted.

I just think it’s seriously beyond cool — and although I don’t think that it’s a cruiser by any means — I just want to know what in the hell that thing really is…

Shine A Light On Me

Elysia chlorotica. Credit: Nicholas E. Curtis and Ray Martinez

Well, well now… this creature is certainly unusual… it’s half animal… and it’s half plant… and according to this article in LiveScience describing Sidney Pierce’s paper presented on January 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle, this is apparently the only one known to possess a certain unique quality – making it’s own chlorophyll and it’s own food –  from light! How weird is that?

Pierce is a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

“We collect them and we keep them in aquaria for months,” Pierce said. “As long as we shine a light on them for 12 hours a day, they can survive [without food].”

Amazing! Meet the sea slug known as Elysia chlorotica, (although I prefer George in this case), amazingly enough a resident of salt marshes in my own neck of the woods… here in New England and in Canada, too. Who knew?

It is actually able to steal genes from the algae that it eats – specific genes – the very genes that let said algae make chlorophyll; and then incorporate them into it’s own body in a way that they really work.

Even though George can perform that feat as a matter of course, it must rip off the hapless little algae  critters still further –  by taking their little chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are the biodevices within the algal cells that actually convert sunlight into energy, called photosynthesis, using the chlorophyll as fuel.

Eating is just an option for this thing… as long as there’s a bit of light about.

It also has the ability to pass the genes on to the kids, fully functioning, but they too must steal enough chloroplasts for the process to start working for them.

What I find interesting is that the article says that Pierce has been studying these creatures for 20 years… Surely it can’t be that he’s only noticed this ability now? No. Or is it that he’s crying out, so to speak, for others to continue to assist in the research so that the phenomenon can finally be understood? As he says…

“It certainly is possible that DNA from one species can get into another species, as these slugs have clearly shown,” Pierce said. “But the mechanisms are still unknown.”

Hey, here’s a very nice website concerning this little critter, from the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maine.

Is it not fascinating to think that the mysterious forces of evolution have come together to give this simple creature the ability to so specifically choose to eat a certain organism and to extract from that animal something so small as a gene and then to use it in it’s own body… absolutely amazing! A real ganglia tickler, that! Damn!

Critters. Flying Critters. Sighted!

A little while ago, there in my mailbox was the usual roundup of headlines at Phantoms and Monsters… this one though, had a flying creature report from the very gung ho guys at the Centre for Fortean Zoology!

I love flying Cryptids! One of my life goals, in fact, if you don’t know is to capture, (on film at least), both a Thunderbird and a Pterodactyl. [Please Note: The imagery in this post is suggestive or illustrative only as no images were captured during the reported sightings.] Checked it out… here’s what it said…

Flying Cryptid Reported in County Durham, UK

This was reported at CFZ:

We saw a Thing the other night. Not sure at all WHAT it was, but both myself and Gareth saw it. We were driving back from Darlington to home at about 10pm on Wednesday 7th October, and just west of Harperley roundabout on the A698 to Wolsingham, when “it” flew in front of the car.

Whatever it was, was not a bird, and was not a moth or bat. It was approx. 3 feet long, about 1ft wide at the head, tapering down to a short tail. It was white and almost see-through – like a cloud, perhaps – pear-drop shaped, and moved very fast.

It rose from a hedge (or from the ground close to the hedge), which borders the road. Then it sped across the road at about 30ft high. Not sure how fast it was going, but a few mins later we saw a tawny owl flying across the road, and the Thing was much faster than the owl.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am not suggesting that the Thing and the owl were connected in any way. It was incidental and only serves as an indication of air-speed.

The site we saw it at was close to the POW camp, which has recently been put up for sale on ebay. There are no street lights nearby, and it is a remote area of the high north Pennines. Very few dwellings, not much human activity, other than the fairly quiet A689. There was very little wind, and it was quite dark as it was cloudy/overcast. No rain.

Ideas?

And in response to that post, a short while later a person sent this report in to Phantoms and Monsters…

I read the article you had listed entitled “Flying Cryptid in County Durham UK”. I live in the USA, and saw something very similar to what was described in the article. My sighting occurred in a rural area of Henderson, West Virginia, approximately 20 years ago (1989). I had been visiting a friend with my daughter and was on my way home in the afternoon. The day was partly sunny with clouds in the sky, but not rainy or misty. We were traveling down an incline in the car and we saw something strange go across the road (from the left side to the right side of the road). I’m not good with distances but it was probably no more than fifty feet from us. The thing described in the article was much smaller than what my daughter and I saw. I watched it disappear and asked my daughter if she had seen anything, and she confirmed that she had seen it also.

What we observed was approximately horse or cow sized and it had a white, translucent appearance, without identifiable head, tail, or appendages. It was just a big oval shaped airy “blob” that you could see through! This thing was like watching a tiny cloud or a mass of fog move on its own. It was flying or gliding quickly across the road and just disappeared on the other side of the road. It moved straight and did not weave or bobble. We only saw it for maybe 5 seconds. I had never seen anything like it before and haven’t seen another one since. I never reported it but I always remembered my sighting and was immediately struck by the similarity of what was reported in the UK.

Thanks for your website…it is extremely interesting.

Pat Queen, Ohio

It’s exciting!

And the reason it is so, to me, is because, as a Fortean and big fan of both on and off-world cryptozoology, it is my humble opinion that these two sightings are appearances of a “new” form of life that I’ve recently rekindled my interest in and have become very hot on… the Critter, or, the Plasma Lifeform.

Not really new, though,  to those immersed in such things – interest started a long time ago within the scientific community following renowned plasma physicist Dr. David Bohm’s discovery through repeated laboratory observations that plasmas, more often than not, act just like living things; and there’s always researcher Trevor James Constable’s infrared photography to peruse, wherein he managed to regularly capture these “critters” back in the late 50s, and coined the term we still use for them. But surely, this concept is not something the majority of people have ever thought about.

The idea is that there are perhaps as many species of plasma creatures as there are “regular” creatures, with the same diversity as all our known life… replete with the same diversity of intelligence endowment, too.

As Mr. Constable noted, due to their rather exotic makeup, most of the critters would normally be invisible to us; his photos, after all, were in the infrared spectrum. They’d possibly become visible during certain interactions with the environment… while passing through localized electrical fields in search of food, namely the electrons that gives plasma life, (Bohm’s original observation), maybe, or perhaps through other phenomena; perhaps light can catch some qualities of their amorphous bodies in certain situations.

Many UFOs, perhaps up to 80% of good sightings, a great deal  of the things usually deemed to be “spirits,” aerial BVM apparitions, shadow people and indeed lots of other oddly intangible sightings may in fact be plasma critters… who are, for whatever reason, occasionally visible to us at certain places, at certain times.

Clearly the two featured sightings here were real enough, but also were clearly not animals in the sense of flesh and blood beings… nevertheless, I do feel that these two sightings represent living creatures, or rather, critters… and as living things, these fabulously different critters should not be cast by cryptozoologists into the abyss of the paranormal. What’s needed is a broadening of the playing field, to think in terms of all that’s out there; to include all living things, not just those that are like us.

That may be asking too much, I’m not sure. Critters not made of flesh and blood may be too radical a departure for biologists, who have enough on their plate already. Maybe a special branch is needed… not sure who they might be, though. I suggest a multi-disciplinary approach… after all, this is radically different from our norms. But it should be done… they are alive… they are all around us… even in space… we should know all there is to know about them.

The Critters Of Enceladus

What the heck is that? I just knew you’d ask. This JPL image is a crop I chopped from the “full-res” image number N00121336 taken by the Cassini mission to Saturn, the top right catches a bit of the moon Enceladus. The thing at center left is, as you might imagine, unidentified.

Most of you have probably seen the spectacular ring photos that were recently released showing the varying mountains of material at the ring edges. Truly fascinating. I am impressed! Thoughts came flooding in via remembrance of Dr. Norman Bergrun’s work, published long ago in his book The Ringmakers of Saturn, wherein evocative and rather spooky evidence of massive objects of very likely artificial construction was presented.

Did my usual stop at Skipper’s Mars Anomaly Research site to see if there was a new post — and there was — a nice post on the Cassini investigations at the Saturnian moon Enceladus, featuring a whole bunch of high strangeness objects of which the object here in my post is but one. This one I picked for its visual brightness and cool shape, however the others are equally strange in their own right (one looks like a big lobster claw, another a giant resistor!).

Skipper thinks all these things including our guest here are life forms. It is, believe it or not, a distinct possibility. Just as up to 80% or so of our UFOs may be critters. Plasma critters.

This has been discussed in scientific circles for many, many decades… at least six of ’em… that plasma can and does behave much like a life form does… so much so there is very little doubt that plasma life forms not only exist but are as evolved and as diverse as our sort of life… as in microbes to people. Including intelligence. They are able to live in outer space.

By the way, the scientific discussions mentioned above — we’re talking David Bohm, Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein here… yes, it’s not the fringe, it’s the real deal.

Anyway, since I’ve no truck with any of those dudes, dudes who influenced my childhood, I have no problem in accepting and imagining the world of these creatures… and no problem with Skipper’s analysis… especially if you look at the sequences, the things do move and change shape, so hey… not much of a stretch. They sure are big, though! Jeez!

I am impressed. Very much so. There are tons of these guys around out there at Saturn… and different kinds, too! Very, very exciting. To me at least.

Now… I do have two problems with the Cassini mission, one pointed out by Skipper that I share, as will you, I bet.

Firstly, Cassini has several occasions flown way close to Enceladus, once in 2008 approaching within 16 miles of the surface! Sixteen miles! What could be wrong with that, you ask? Nothing!

The problem is that no photos have been publicly released that are any closer than 88,020 kilometers. Not one. And even those are only 512 pixels small. It twists my gut. In my opinion, that is simply criminal. In a literal sense. Our tax dollars paid for all this… and we want to see! Man, that ticks me off. Really, really, really so.

Secondly, I have a problem with the image below. Haven’t checked the others. This is the original “hi-res” (Ha!) shot with our selected guest critter in it, reduced from the 512 pixel width to the 497 that this blog theme displays.

My problem is the stars. Assuming of course that they are stars. Because if they are… then how in heck are they showing through the moon? Eh? I mean really, don’t you think that that is mighty odd? The moon seems to vanish into the ether just past halfway up; and below that doesn’t look too solid, either… I really want to know just what is up with that… that’s just weird. That’s just wrong.

I’m actually more concerned with this aspect than with the critters!

Even if these stars aren’t stars at all but are really just more critters, that’s cool, but what of the vanishing moon? This is driving me right up the wall! The cameras sure took some sporty pics of those rings, so, again… what is going on here?

And, now, something I just now stumbled across… here’s my resulting image just below.

I opened up the above shot from JPL/NASA and gave it 4 more f-stops of exposure (which is all I can give it in one shot)… and just lookee what we can see now!

A little bit more of Enceladus… which served as some small relief for the aforementioned mind-warping conundrum (is it really that dark out there? Wow!) but certainly not relief in full by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots more “stars” which I’m now thinking are just more critters… The “stars” all exhibit awful jpeg weirdies by the way which one can see just by enlarging the original, which causes our Skipper to go on about tampering and such in his report… anyway…

But look! There are at least four more of our lovely curved-V critters! Woot! They just aren’t up to glowing like our invited guest does. Wow!

Since they all have the same shape… are these camera artifacts? From the conditions out there? Reflections of the first one? Could be certainly, but it doesn’t seem likely… there are different families of critters in the day’s sequence… all the dudes in the Skipper’s report are from the same day… so… wow.

Finally, I would just like to note that it’s been more and more apparent to me over the years, more so lately simply due to more thought being devoted to it… that the farther out we go… the more the strangeness factor applies… and applies exponentially! Just weird!

!!!

And A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall…

Oh, I do think ‘ole Charlie Fort would’ve loved this… talk about odd falls! Ha! I’m lovin’ it.

This is just the sort of thing we explorers need to lock in yet another cascade of fantabulous scenarios and tantalizing thoughts… you make sure they never stop flowing forth from your mind… and remember, if you go to this place – convertibles are not recommended! Seriously, though, read the article below, ripped as it was from the Telegraph ‘ere… and just let it fly… your ganglia will thank you.

What intrigues me is this… if this astronomer’s digital flight of fancy, (for that’s really all it is, you know…), is really true, then, how exactly do the rock clouds stay aloft? Well, never mind, because I can picture it… so it’s cool. Er, hot rather. Yeah.

Brollies out!

H e l l  p l a n e t  w h e r e  r o c k  f a l l s  a s  r a i n  f o u n d

An artist’s impression of COROT-7b, where pebbles fall as rain Photo: European Southern Observatory

COROT-7b, an alien planet where a rain of pebbles falls from clouds of rock vapour into lakes of molten lava, has been found by astronomers.By Tom Chivers
Published: 1:10PM BST 01 Oct 2009

Computer models of COROT-7b, a planet orbiting an orange dwarf star in the constellation Monoceros, 490 light years away, suggest that the world has a surface temperature hot enough to boil rock.

The research, by scientists at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, conjures up a vision of hell.

COROT-7b, a rocky planet around twice the size of the Earth but of similar density, is only 1.6 million miles from its star: 23 times closer than the innermost planet in our solar system, Mercury, is to the Sun.

This proximity means that the planet is gravitationally locked, like the Moon to the Earth, so that one side of the planet always faces the star.

So while its far side is in perpetual freezing darkness – around 50 degrees above absolute zero – its near side is a balmy 2,800°C.

While scientists are not sure of the exact chemical makeup of the planet, the sheer temperatures mean that whatever it is, the rocky ground will boil, forming a mineral atmosphere.

And when cold fronts move in, small pebbles will condense and form rain and hail, just like water on Earth.

Professor Bruce Fegley, one of the team behind the research, said: “The only atmosphere this object has is produced from vapor arising from hot molten silicates in a lava lake or lava ocean.”

“As you go higher the atmosphere gets cooler and eventually you get saturated with different types of ‘rock’ the way you get saturated with water in the atmosphere of Earth.”

“But instead of a water cloud forming and then raining water droplets, you get a ‘rock cloud’ forming and it starts raining out little pebbles of different types of rock.”

Prof Fegley and his associate Laura Schaefer carried out the research using the modelling programme MAGMA. They had previously used the software to model the volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io.

COROT-7b was discovered by the European Space Agency space telescope COROT in February, but the Washington University researchers were the first to model its atmosphere.

Luna. 1969. Moltke. Roads. Triangular Roads.

Spotted by easynow at ATS, this new videoclip by LunaCognita is pretty wonderful.

Okay… first, though… stare awhile at and contemplate the above image. It’s an image of the “crater” called Moltke, from the Navy space program, i.e. the real one, (Shhh!!!) from the Clementine craft, specifically. Not one of the high-res ones, but hey, it serves the purpose for here I think. Yes, it is blue. Yes, that’s the right color. Glowing, even. Pretty flat. With at least three buildings.

And… roads!

Roads?! Whaddaya mean, roads? Says who? Some nutjob tinfoil blogger dork?

Nope.

Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Mike Collins. Note that the roads are described as being triangular. Triangular? Triangular? Yeah. That’s what he said… Triangular roads.

I’m still attempting to visualize just what, exactly, that characterization means… all the scenes I’m coming up with are pretty rad, but I just know that ‘paling in comparison’ to what these dudes clapped eyes on is the ultimate understatement.

It would, of course, be most helpful – to everyone – if the Powers That Be would simply let Mike Collins tell us what he saw, but as will become tragically clear to you from watching the video, that just ‘ain’t gonna happen’ in our lifetime… unless we… well… I’ll leave that to your imagination.

I’m hoping part 2 comes along soonest. :)

Okay… After you watch the video and are suitably filled with that sense of Whoa!, scroll back up and gaze into the depths of the picture of Moltke “crater” again.

Edit-add: You can download the audio clips for the mission. This particular one is here and the comments in question are about 2/3 of the way in.

In this examination into NASA’s “black box” transcripts, we will look at just a few of the many interesting and revealing comments made by the astronauts throughout the Apollo program that were captured by the CSM’s DSE system, as well as touch on some of the scripting protocols employed during the various TV broadcasts made from the CSM during the journey to and from the Moon and while in lunar orbit. Contrary to what many think, those TV broadcasts were in fact elegantly scripted affairs, designed to rigidly control the amount of data that we, the general public, would have available to analyze. Because of this, the DSE and DSEA internal crew conversation transcripts can provide us, in the astronauts own words, an unscripted and less-guarded insight into some of the incredible things they really witnessed during their journey to and from the Moon.

During the Apollo lunar landing program, NASA made use of two primary flight telemetry/voice recording systems aboard their spacecraft. One of these systems was inside the Command/Service Module, and the other was mounted within the Lunar Module. These two systems were known as the DSE (aboard the CSM) and the DSEA (aboard the LM). The “Data Storage Equipment” systems essentially served as Black Box cockpit voice recorders, designed to tape some of the internal conversations between the astronauts while they were out of radio contact with Mission Control in Houston. After contact was re-established during the flight, Mission Control could then dump (downlink) the recorded data from the CSM to Earth, where it would be analyzed.

Unfortunately, NASA today claims that the original DSE Black Box tapes from the Apollo missions are missing and are presumed lost. However, these DSE recordings were transcribed shortly after the contents of the tapes were originally dumped from the CSM to the Earth, and several years after the Apollo program ended, these transcripts finally were declassified and then released to the NASA archives.

In coming segments, we will examine many more impressive statements made by the NASA astronauts that were captured by the various cockpit voice recording systems utilized during not only the Apollo program, but during the earlier Gemini Earth-orbital flights as well. There is much more to come!

Cheers,
LunaCognita

All the transcript pages shown in this presentation are official source documents, the online versions of which can be accessed @
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/missi…

Enjoy. Oh, hey, this is the 100th post. Cool.

Alabama Witch Readies Gear At Local Shop

Well… not really… but…

I think this is pretty darn sporty. I mean you have to admit that the ability of inanimate objects to defy gravity is pretty cool. And I want one, dammit. It was only $2.99, too. I, like all of you, have owned way more than my share of cheap Chinese crap since we’ve so little choice of late, but none of those forlorn and inadequate imitations of whatever they were supposed to be could ever do what this piece does.

Note, though, that its powers are limited! Apparently it doesn’t work but in a few select places… which I find most interesting… and which will surely provide clues as to what’s really going on here. It’ll be fun to watch the speculation fly. Watch the video on the linked page… you’ll see it “in action” and find that the previous tenants had similar experiences. The site has a nice photo gallery as well… the last shot’s swell.

There’s also a property exhibited by our sweeper that paranormalists will find interesting and familiar. Well… I don’t know what to think. Very cool use of energy, that’s for sure, but the extreme localization is intriguing. Probably something to do with earth energies, ley lines and various similarly-tinged items of interest.

If you figure it out, do let us know.

Montgomery Advertiser: Posted: 26 Aug 2009 09:42 AM PDT
By Marty Roney • mroney@gannett.com • August 26, 2009

PRATTVILLE — Buzz about a broom standing upright and unsupported at a downtown Prattville business is sweeping the town.

Several hundred people have stopped by Vintage Blu, a yet-to-be-opened consignment shop, since the phenomenon was discovered Thursday. Dozens of theories to explain what’s going on have been thrown out. There must be glue on the bristles of the broom, or there are magnets in the floor working in concert with the buildings electrical system, or maybe … just maybe … it’s something from beyond at work.

“I think it’s more strange than spooky,” said Christy Burdett, the shop’s owner, who has been working for several weeks to get the business open. “But it’s been fun.”

No, there isn’t any glue, and there are no magnets in the floor. As to something otherworldly going on, people will have to use their own judgment.

It all started out innocently enough. The broom was leaning against a set of mobile shelves when Della Benton, Burdett’s sister, moved the shelves Thursday afternoon. When Benton looked back, she was surprised to see the broom standing on the floor. Continue reading at Standing broom has folks here strawstruck