Iraq: Recent weeks have seen reports of strange animals around Basrah.
For over a month now, people in Basrah have been circulating rumors about astrange,bear-like deadly creature that attacks people at night with its strong claws. Locals in rural areas around Basrah claim it has killed three people and injured six others, and that it usually pounces on its victims as they are sleeping outdoors during hot summer nights, when electric power outages are common. Farmers at Garmat Ali, Abu Skheer, Jisr and Shikhatta were so alarmed, they assigned guarding duties at night to prevent its attacks, the Nahrain website and Radio Sawa reported last week...
The animal is known locally as the Garta or 'the muncher,' and mothers in Basrah used to tell scary stories about the Garta to their children so they would not wander out alone at night. Old families in Basrah believe the animal brings bad luck because it is mostly found in cemeteries at night. The unusual phenomenon, however, is their sudden appearance in large numbers near the city and their increasingly aggressive behavior.
Rumours are circulating that British troops have deliberately brought the creatures, or their eggs, into the city as a means of spreading chaos. Some of the animals have been killed, and are believed to be the indigenous Hog Badger.
Rumors of Strange Creatures Abound in Basrah—IraqSlogger, 6th July 2007.
United States: Psychological research conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia has shown a correlation between mood and credulity. In particular, being in a good mood correlates with believing any old bollocks.
Laura King, professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts and Science, along with a faculty member from Johns-Hopkins University, tested the notion during a series of interesting studies that examined how mood and intuition can affect a person's beliefs - even under the most unique circumstances and scenarios.
When you're in a good mood and more intuitive, you're open minded, creative and engaged in what appears to be reality,King said.You make non-rational associations.
The research investigated phenomena such as UFO and ghost sightings, sympathetic magic and cooties. So, next time a fundie tells you how great their imaginary friend makes them feel, you know what it is.
Good Moods Spark Overly Credulous Beliefs, Study Finds—Research at MU, 1st June 2007.
UFOs are in the news again. First up is a lump of black rock found near Seattle, which some claim fell from an alien spaceship, and others claim came from a B-25 which crashed while carrying an alien spaceship. Possible alien stone found near Seattle—Earth Times, 24th April 2007; Is strange rock from UFO or just a piece of poppycock?—Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 22nd April 2007
Then there's a magic mountain in Argentina, where UFOs are said to gather, and which is claimed to have healing powers. But its special effects can only be felt if you know how to kid yourself: Books about the Uritorco are available in several languages because the hill's positive forces cannot be felt without some basic knowledge of its "spirituality reactor," a vendor explains behind a thick cloud of perfumed smoke rising from huge joss sticks.
The languages available are clearly all dialects of Bollocks. Argentine magic mountain attracts UFO- and esoteric freaks—Jurnalo, 24th April 2007.
Finally we learn that Mick Jagger claims to have had a UFO encounter in the 1960s: In 1968 he went camping in Glastonbury with his then girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithful, and encountered a rare, luminous cigar-shaped mothership. Around the same time Mick had a UFO detector installed at his British estate. The alarm kept on going off whenever he left home, indicating the presence of strong electromagnetic activity in the immediate area.
Of course, this all took place in the late 60s—a time when rock musicians never, ever took drugs. Sir Mick Jagger had close encounter with aliens in the 60s—LondonNet, 23rd April 2007.
A handful of stories from the last few days which I was too lazy to write about at the time:
There are lots of grand statements about research, with nice superscript numbers relating to references in the back. But when you chase to the back of the book to see what these academic documents are, they include such august periodicals as Delicious, Creative Living, Healthy Eating, and my favourite: Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet.I found You are What you Eat frustrating and full of errors—it cited the safe drinking levels which were revised upwards in the early 1990s, for example. There are some good recipes in there, but often they are made needlessly complicated, and use exotic ingredients which would put it out of the price range of mere mortals.
Some of it is plainly absurd. As we get older, she explains,the levels of RNA/DNA decrease.Okay.If you do not have enough RNA/DNA,she goes on, youmay ultimately age prematurely. Stress can deplete your DNA, but algae will increase it. And that's not all.Chlorophyll within the algae is a powerful oxygen generator for human beings.Back to GCSE Biology: it'll only make oxygen if there's light inside me, Gillian ...
liberal leftputs the rights of religious organisations over that of the individuals they oppress:
In the past century, material betterment and the steady diminuation of discrimination advanced progressive goals. Much of the left have [grr...—F.] yet to come to terms with this achievement. At the extreme, some who were once on the left have adopted the language and outlook of the right. They argue for what by any objective standards are reactionary positions. These include promotion of religious obscurantism in place of secularism; segregation of the sexes at public events; abridgement of free speech in deference to the sensibilities of those who claim themselves victims of Islamophobia; and, most pernicious, the resurrection in political debate of some highly traditional motifs of anti-semitic conspiracy theory.If you can get yourself to the library, it's on page 31.
United States: Ah, the Weekly World News, such a wonderful publication bringing us exciting tales from all over the universe. Recently we were told of an interesting development of the cattle mutilation theme.
It was as if someone had taken a scalpel to the takeout box,
Weald said of his mutilated order of steamed tofu. Neighboring containers of soy sauce and low-calorie dressing were unharassed.
High levels of radiation were found in the freezer, so the Weekly World News asked a suitably anonymous expert for their opinion.
However, NASA researchers believe that the tofu mutilators' origin may be otherworldly.
There have been increased reports of crop circles in soybean fields, and of UFO sightings near the star Vega,
a NASA source revealed.
So there you have it - it was space vegans. Another story from a couple of weeks earlier, Health Food Stores Particularly Vulnerable to Alien Attack, supports this hypothesis.
Tofu Mutilations Blamed on Aliens from Vega—Weekly World News, 4th December 2006 (via drieux).
Scotland: Pictish symbol stones have been the subject of much debate over the years, with many hypotheses put forward to explain their unique iconography. Stan Hall has come up with possibly the most surprising one, suggesting that the Newton Stone in Aberdeenshire depicts a planetary catastrophe, and that something was around to witness it.
I recognised that on the Newton Stone it shows two planets breaking away from each other…The double disc and z-rod pictographs…record for posterity the actual birth of Jupiter from Saturn.
Hall believes that this break-up of Saturn — which must have been an extraordinary cosmic moment — has been recorded in the myths of all ancient people.
The Greeks talk of the night of the falling stars — all major civilisations have records of major interplanetary catastrophes. They're found in old nursery rhymes, which have found to be Sumerian, like 'Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle' which shows the planets rushing together.
But whilst Hall believes that our mytho-history records these turbulent disruptions, he is unsure whether humans would have been around to witness the events depicted. Which leads to Hall to question who first set down the information? Just who might have been around to see the birth of Jupiter?
If you are even slightly familiar with the contents of Chariots of the Gods, you can guess who.
Out of this world solution to a Scottish standing stone—The Scotsman, 28th November 2006 (via Warren Ellis).
Today's must-have bargains are more examples of over-active imaginations at work. First up is
JESUS FACE ON A LOG christian bible catholic religious. We are urged PLEASE HELP HIT THE PULSE " CLICK WATCH IT NOW"
.
PLEASE CLICK ON YOUR WATCH IT NOW TO GET IT ON THE PULSE
This is the way i found it in the desert. This log is not touched painted or anthing like that i cant believe it. Its a weird story me and my kid were in the desert and i was talking to him about a problem we as a family were having, around a camp fire. And my kid said ask God. 10 second lateri was picking up a log with JESUS on it
Im not a very religious person, But my kid is. The prayer was answered and the log needs a new home. If your prayer is answered pass it on after.
PLEASE CLICK ON YOUR WATCH IT NOW TO GET IT ON THE PULSE
Bid a penny at a time. I promise this is real and not like some piece of toast with the big man grilled into it
It's the bit on the right of the picture, rather than the side that looks like the conventional representation of Jesus. Bidding is at $1.01 (US) right now, but there's another 9 days to go. A little more expensive are these Images Of Mother Mary & Christ. They are presumably not of interest to fundies, as this pair of masterpieces was apparently created 210,000,000 years ago.
Images Of Mother Mary and Christ in a 210 million year old rock. READ EVERTHING VERY CAREFULLY. 1) ONE OF A KIND. 2) IT IS ORGINAL) 3) ESTIMATED @ 210 MILLION YEARS OLD. 4) ONLY SERIOUS BIDDERS ONLY PLEASE. 5)YOU WILL EXCEPT THE C.O.D. CONDITIONS, NO IF ANDS OR BUTS.) THIS IS ORIGINAL AND MADE BY MOTHER EARTH AND ALL SEE MOTHER MARY AND HER BACK SIDE OR MOTHER MARY AND HER SON JESUS CHRIST. I WISH THE BEST TO ALL BUT MOST OF ALL THE WORLD MUST SEE THIS. GOOD LUCK.
location found in Cerro Cuadrado, Patagonia, Argentina
Age: Jurassic (Approx. 210 Million Years Ago)
WILL CONSIDER A SERIUS BEST OFFER
I've turned the photograph through 90 degrees so you can easily see what miraculous object is worth the US $1,000,000.00 (US) Buy It Now price.
You know, you might be wandering down the street, and you can't be sure, but you think there might be aliens in the area. Well, you can now clarify the matter with help from India Daily's simple experiment to find out if an extraterrestrial UFO is in your vicinity .
If you really want to know if an extraterrestrial UFO is really near you, look at the animals and yourself. It is now scientifically proven that super high intensity of electromagnetic flux makes all living beings depressed. Our living soul is electromagnetic energy and it cannot tolerate an influence of an external very high intensity of electromagnetic flux that is uncontrolled by our soul. So all living beings become depressed and the thinking process gets difficult in the presence of extraterrestrial UFOs. When you find all animals are lethargic and you also feel the same, the possibilities are very high that one or more UFOs are near by.
A simple experiment to find out if an extraterrestrial UFO is in your vicinity —India Daily, 5th February 2006.
Today's bargain is a set of pictures of an accidental spill made by a child under the influence of a strong, but legal, drug. Or rather, it's a JESUS COFFEE SPILL ANGEL HOLY SPIRIT - set of 4 photos. Unlike other vendors of similar simulacra, the seller here does not make any particularly ludicrous claims and seems to regard it all as a happy accident, rather than an actual work of their imaginary friend.
These are photos of a coffee spill that appears to be in the image of JESUS, an angel, or perhaps an apostle, with arms lifted toward heaven. Tongues of fire or maybe the Holy Spirit are drifting upward.
Every morning my 6 year old daughter just has to have her cup ofcoffee. So my wife mixes her about a half cup of milk, some Carnation french vanilla creamer, and a splash of coffee. Needless to say, my daughter is not always neat and is quite often spinning her chair around to see Spongebob. Today, about a half hour after she finished, my 10 year old son hurried us into the kitchen to show usJESUS. We were surprised he even noticed it, since the image actually formed upside down - my daughter was sitting at the breakfast bar, facing it. I took the photos from both in front of, and behind the counter. The second picture shows the view from the direction she was facing.
I am being 100 percent honest when I say that this is not a hoax, and that these photos have not been staged or doctored in any way. This is an actual coffee (albeit with lots of milk and creamer!) spill that occurred by happenstance, while my daughter was having her morning cup of java - we even had to wipe some off of her chair (you can see where it dripped over the edge of the counter). I am also being 100 percent honest when I say, that while we are devout Christians, we don't necessarily believe that such things occur by divine intervention or have any specific spiritual meaning, I know that some folks do. That's why I'm offering this set of 4 photos for sale. They will be printed on 4 inch by 6 inch, premium glossy photo paper. There will be one set of these and one set only. That's my solemn promise to the winning bidder.
United States: Seeing as his recent attempt to call down UFOs on Las Vegas went so swimmingly, Prophet Yahweh, Seer of Yahweh has issued a new proclamation:
Beginning August 7, 2005, Prophet Yahweh, Seer of Yahweh, will start his50 State UFO Summoning Tour 2005. During this time, UFOs will appear on Prophet's signal for radio or television news and talk shows to film and photograph.
The Prophet got a bit miffed at the local Las Vegas media outlets taking the Michael and is doing the national tour with UFOs on command for all. Yay!
Continue reading "UFOs, Coming Soon to a State Near You"
![[An interesting landscape]](http://www.prattle.net/prattlepix/peru-jesus.png)
Peru: I fully expect that we will be seeing more of this satellite simulacrum, presented as a miraculous image of Jesus and therefore evidence of a Christian God who put it there.
Even if it does look more like Charles Darwin when you shrink it. Or maybe Confucious.
(via Simon)
Today's bargain is, well, mingin'. It's apparently an INVITATION TO ABUNDANT LIFE, a TABLET GROWN FROM RECIPE IN BIBLE,Fountain of youth
. The information on the eBay auction is rather sketchy:
MORE INFO: www.whothirst.com until now this is something money can"t BUY
PAYMENT ORGANISED THROUGH email Bank Direct whothirst@bigpond.com or PAY/PALS
Let Your SOUL DELIGHT Itself in ABUNDANCE
But fortunately, the linked website is much more informative. For bizarre religious values of informative.
SAINT ANTHONY'S
NEW TREASURE ABUNDANCE
Made from Seven Years Working On Understanding
ISAIAH 55
AN INVITATION TO ABUNDANT
LIFE
ABUNDANCE: Is made with all natural ingredients:
USING: Flowers, Shrubs and Trees
CRYSTALGENICS: Is the art of turning liquid into crystals.
Sought after by Alchemists since the beginning of time.
ABUNDANCE: Grows from liquid, which I callThe Waters Of Life
NOTE: When Abundance is dissolved in water, it regrows and multiplies in approximately 4 to 5 days based on 1 to 2ml of water
INTERESTING FACTS: Things found written about recipe while working on recipe.
ISAIAH 55:1 REVELATION 21:6 REVELATION:22:17
available for sale from July 1st, 2005
So, about as clear as one of QuePirate's comments then.
United States: Prophet Yahweh, Seer of Yahweh has issued an announcement that will interest all fans of bad science fiction:
For only 45 days, starting June 1st until July 15, 2005, Prophet Yahweh, Seer of Yahweh, will be calling down UFOs and spaceships for the news media to film and photograph. During this time, a spaceship will descend, on Prophet's signal, and sit in the skies over Las Vegas, Nevada for almost two days.
The Prophet claims a talent for this kind of thing and, if you are not sure what to look for, the press release helpfully explains more:
There is a difference between UFOs and spaceships. UFOs are usually small flying objects: glowing orbs, metallic spheres, satellite-type flying machines, etc. And, their flight patterns suggest that they are not of this world.
But, spaceships are large futuristic vehicles that are clearly designed to carry passengers in like you see in the movies.
And his promises are very precise.
Prophet is in direct telephatic contact with his space being friends. They have revealed that they will send UFOs as soon as Prophet starts asking for them to appear.
Also, before the 45 day summoning period has ended, a spaceship will descend and sit in the skies over Las Vegas on Prophet's signal.
The spaceship will hover in the sky, not far from Nellis Air Force base, for almost two days. All Las Vegans will be able to see it, day and night, before it goes back up into space.
MEDIA ALERT: Spaceships Will Appear Over Las Vegas On My Signal - Prophet Yahweh press release via PRWeb, 23rd May 2005.
England: Police and Stansted Airport received a number of worried calls after a couple launched around 70 Thai lanterns to celebrate their wedding.
But the release of some 60 to 70 illuminated Thai lanterns into the night sky over Leez Priory, near Felsted, sparked fears that aliens were on their way...
...A police spokesman said that one caller reporteda large amount of red lightsin batches of five or six lights over Bannister Green on the evening of Monday, March 21.
Other callers contacted Stansted Airport concerned that extra-terrestrial activity was about to land.
The situation was eventually resolved when the airport's control tower identified the source of the strange lights.
Wedding lanterns spark UFO scare - Epping Forest Guardian, 3rd April 2005.
United States: Last October, a fire destroyed Dora's A-Dora-ble Pet Shop in Frankfort, Indiana. Only one animal survived - a turtle. But something is amiss:
Owner Bryan Dora now says he sees Satan's face on the critter's shell. He can spot lips, eyes, a goatee, shoulders and a pair of pointy horns on Lucky's back.
The marking on the shell was like the devil wanted us to know he was down there,Bryan Dora said.To me, it's too coincidental that the only thing to come out unscathed would have this image on it.
Pet store owner: Satan's image on turtle's shell - CNN.com, 21st March 2004 (thanks to Jeff Zurschmeide, who spotted it).
England: Many holy wells have gruesome legends attached to them, but the one associated with Lidwell in Devon isn't your usual tale of saintly self-sacrifice. Instead, the well was used by an early serial killer:
On the slopes of Haldon Hill lie the remains of Lidwell Chapel, the site of one of Devon's more macabre tales. The name, Lidwell, is actually a corruption ofLady's Welland the chapel is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. Like so many other churches and chapels, it was built on what was formerly a pagan place of worship, a sacred well, probably dedicated to the goddess of spring. There is, too, evidence of the original well and this can be seen in a corner of the grounds.
This isolated ruin, adjacent to farmland and situated to the northwest of Teignmouth, was, in medieval times, the focal point of a small settlement and leper sanctuary where the monks could provide care for the sufferers, all of whom would be compelled to live outside their community. The legend concerns one monk in particular, a hermit or recluse who lived at Lidwell during the early part of the fourteenth century. This man is said to have lured passing travellers into the chapel where he would rob them, murder them and dispose of their bodies by throwing them down the well.
In support of the legend, the Bishop's register of the year 1329 contains an entry relating to the execution of a Hermit Monk who had been convicted of murder. Intrigued by what we had unearthed and wanting to know more about this curio, we felt that the next logical step would be to visit thescene of crimeso a team of five members of TNC arranged to go and look the place over as soon as we could.
And so starts the tale of a group of criminologists who discover that well-hunting can be a wet and frustrating business. But the tale takes a turn for the fortean:
Continue reading "Gruesome goings-on at the holy well"
![[Cheesy Raelian graphics]](http://www.prattle.net/prattlepix/iran-rael.jpg)
Normally I get 200-250 spams per day. And they get filtered out and deleted. But before they're deleted, I glance at the From: and Subject: lines, just in case that offer of a million dollars is coming from my agent instead of a fly-by-night low-life.
This isn't worth a million dollars, but it's definitely priceless in Fortean terms Iranian Raelian spam. Complete with pyramids, Greys, flying saucers, and some sort of come-on in Arabic script (presumably Farsi, which -- not unusually -- I can't read).
Anyone willing to volunteer a translation? (Warning: the spam is included in the extended entry below as inline images -- about 160Kb.)
Continue reading "Strange Spam of the Day"United Kingdom: The new Freedom of Information Act is being used in an entirely predictable manner by the Independent--to obtain files relating to UFO sightings. Last year, the Ministry of Defence's UFO unit was contacted regarding 88 instances of someone seeing something they did not recognise in the sky:
A report from Devizes in Wiltshire on 24 September last year records an object that:Looked liked a big ball of fire coming down from the sky with a tail and sparks coming off the end of it.Another, from Somerset the week before, states:The object looked like a great bright light and was really intense, like a ball of fire coming down from the sky, rapidly moving towards the ground.
Although such reports might be discounted as meteor showers or other astronomical phenomena, other sightings are not so easy to dismiss. A report from Surrey on 20 May last year describes a UFO as havinggrooves and windowsbut no room for humans. Even the MoD inspector notes that thewitness had seen the object so clearly.
Many of the other sightings refer to UFO's changing colour, speed and shape. The most common colours are yellow, orange or black.
In a moment of creative genius, the newspaper referred to the documents as X-files
.
The truth is out there: declassified reports of UFO sightings reveal 88 sightings last year - The Independent, 3rd February 2005.
Numismatists are baffled by an unusual French coin which appears to show a flying saucer. Experts have spent decades looking at the 17th century coin, but still have no idea what it is.
It was made in the 1680s in France and the design on one side certainly looks like it could be a flying saucer in the clouds over the countryside,said Kenneth E. Bressett of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a former President of the 32,000-member American Numismatic Association and owner of the curious coin.
Is it supposed to be a UFO of some sort, or a symbolic representation of the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel? After 50 years of searching, I've heard of only one other example of it, and nothing to explain the unusual design.
Bressett said the mysterious piece is not really a coin, but a "jeton," a coin-like educational tool that was commonly used to help people count money, or sometimes used as a money substitute for playing games. It is about the size of a U.S. quarter-dollar and similar to thousands of other jetons with different religious and educational designs that were produced and used in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The design on this particular piece could be interpreted as showing either a UFO or Ezekiel's wheel, but little else. Some people think the Old Testament reference to Ezekiel's wheel may actually be a description of a long-ago UFO,he explained.
The legend written in Latin around the rim is also mystifying. 'OPPORTUNUS ADEST' translates as 'It is here at an opportune time.' Is the object in the sky symbolic of needed rainfall, or a Biblical reference or visitors from beyond? We probably will never know for certain,said Bressett.
Centuries' Old UFO Coin Remains Mystery - PR Web, 28th January 2005.
Japan: A number of residents rang the Fukuoka District Meteorological Observatory to report a UFO in the sky. And what was it? an aircraft vapor trail that had been lit up by the late afternoon sun
:
Observatory officials said vapor trails can suddenly be cut off due to the amount of moisture in the air, creating the appearance of a comet tail.
Fukuoka residents mistake vapor trail for UFO - Mainichi Shimbun, 24th January 2005.
Thailand: Survivors of the recent tsunami have started to complain about an invasion of foreign ghosts:
Volunteer body searchers at the resorts of Phi Phi Island and Khao Lak have been reported as claiming they have heard laughing and singing on a devastated beach only to find darkness and empty sand.
Taxi drivers at Patong on Phuket island swear they picked up a foreign man and his Thai girlfriend going to the airport with all their baggage, only to then look in the rear-view mirror and find an empty seat.
Guards at a beachfront plaza in Patong said one of their men had quit after hearing a foreign woman cryhelp mall night long and similar stories abound of a foreign ghost walking along the shoreline at night calling for her child.
Traditional Thai beliefs have an explanation:
Wallop said the reason almost all ghost sightings appear to involve foreign tourists stems from a belief that spirits can only be put to rest by relatives at the scene, such as was done to many Thai victims.
Thai people believe that when people die, a relative has to cremate them or bless them. If this is not done or the body is not found, people believe the person will appear over and over again to show where they are,he said.
The ghosts themselves are believed to think they are still on holiday.
Tsunami sparks ghost sightings - news.com.au, 14th January 2005.
Russian and Iran: The Russian and Iranian authorities have agreed to start a joint study of UFOs after weird lights were spotted over Iran.
This comes in the wake of a skywatching mania that struck Iran amid state-media reports of sightings of flying objects near Iran’s nuclear installations.
The Resalat news agency reportedshining objectsin the sky near Natanz, where Iran's uranium-enrichment plant is situated. One of those objects is said to have exploded, promptingpanic in the region.
Tehran's air force was ordered to shoot down any unknown or suspicious flying objects in its airspace, amid security concerns for its nuclear plants.
Flights of unknown objects in the country's airspace have increased in recent weeks... [they] have been seen over Bushehr and Isfahan provinces,the Resalat daily reported. Nuclear facilities are located in both provinces.
Russia Joins Iran in Fighting UFO's - MosNews, 30th December 2004.
China: An Unidentified Flying Object has caused a bit of a flap in Lanzhou, when it passed over the city and appeared to explode in the suburbs.
The unusual sighting of two bright trails of light, reported by several witnesses, took place last Saturday shortly before midnight, the China Times reported.
Police, working on the theory that it was a meteorite, went to investigate the matter, but as of today they had found no evidence of what caused the nightly phenomenon, an officer told AFP by telephone.
UFO passes over China, explodes in suburbs - China Daily, 14th December 2004.
Russia: Want to send a Christmas card to aliens? Well now you can, thanks to the boffins behind the Glonass-M satellites. The launch of the latest model on 25th December, marks the start of a special extraterrestrial message service.
Glonass-M satellites orbit the Earth at the height of 20 thousand kilometers, and they can stay there forever. Information in the form of texts and drawings for extraterrestrial beings can be placed on aluminium plates, which make so-called cargo models to balance the satellite's center of mass. Official spokeswoman for the association, Elena Matveeva said that the first six informational plates were placed on the Glonass-M 12L satellite, the launching of which was planned to take place on December 25th. The plates contain the information about the enterprise and its founder, academician Mikhail Reshetnev.
We have already started accepting applications for the next Glonass-M spacecraft, which is to be launched in 2005. Anyone can submit their applications free of charge - students, enterprises and so on and so forth,Matveeva specified. First priority will be paid to information about planet Earth, the human civilization, education and modern terrestrial space technologies. The scientific association for applied mechanics does not exclude that extraterrestrial civilizations might be interested in such messages from Earth.
Russia to launch space mail for extraterrestrial civilizations - Pravda, 19th November 2004.
England: An artist has revealed that his well-known UFO photo was nothing but a schoolboy prank.
In February 1954 a picture resembling a UFO floating over Coniston, taken by 14-year-old Stephen Darbishire, from Torver, caused a national sensation.
The teenager claimed he had been on the fells with his cousin when he photographed a UFO.
Now Mr Darbishire, a 63-year-old well-known South Lakeland artist, says it was all a hoax.
At the time, confronted by the national media, he was too terrified and went along with the deception.
Hoax UFO sighting to be recreated for art - North West Evening Mail, 9th October 2004.
United States: Not terribly sure where this article of weirdness is heading. It doesn't seem to have a point, it just waffles along jumping from tales of flamey birds to invisible flying jellyfish.
The hypothesis about the existence of little-studied forms of life in the Earth's atmosphere has been an attraction for scientists for quite a long time. Nations around the globe have numerous stories, fairy-tales and legends about such creatures, the most popular of which are sylphs, giant fire birds, fairies, flying snakes and dragons. This weird theory has been gaining more and more details lately to prove its credibility.Continue reading "Invisible Flying Jellyfish"
United States: A Texas car dealer claims to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary on a balloon.
Everybody was blowing some balloons and we noticed that this image came from the balloon,said Fuentes.And everybody was agreeing that it looked like the Virgin Mary.
Co-workers were moved to tears:
My eyes kind of watered. And I said right away when he showed it to me, (yes). He said, 'do you know what this is?'. And I said, 'Yes. That's La Virgencita.
Fuentes also called his family to come over to see the apparition for themselves. Javier's mother, Maria, made the sign of the cross when she saw the balloon.
Unfortunately, the resemblence must be lost in the photographs - the image shown looks more like a vagina than a virgin.
Virgin Mary Appears on Balloon at Car Lot - KGBT 4 TV, 31st August 2004.
Russia: Pravda carries a feature about Russian traditions surrounding ghosts. Many of them seem to be associated with tragedy:
Little remained from ancient Moscow, except for the Kremlin. Ghosts love the Kremlin. From time to time, a red spot appears on the walls of Konstantino-Eleninskaya tower where a torture chamber was located in XVII century. A pale uncombed lady holding a gun in her hands, lives in Komendantskaya tower. This is famous Fanny Kaplan who attempted to kill Lenin and who was executed by shooting by Kremlin's superintendent Malkov.
St. Petersburg has a rather interesting spectral resident:
The ghost of the first director of the Academy of Arts, architect Kokorin is wondering around the Academy's corridors. When the weather is bad, at nights somebody knocks at the Academy's gates and shouts,It's me, sculptor Kozlovsky from Smolenskoe cemetery, I got wet and frozen in my grave.open the door!
And there's no way I could resist this tale from Yaroslavl:
A goblin lives in the local bath-house. People often hear somebody walking in the bath house, opening taps and moving wash-basins. The former bath house attendant fell ill after meeting the man, and retired from the job. The local bell-ringer started hearing voices after attending the bath house.
And don't forget - the world ends later today!
Where ghosts live in Russia - Pravda, 18th August 2004.
Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute has a very interesting inbox, and needed to share:
Now and again, independent thinkers will send their own research papers -- the distilled essence of years of effort in the attic or den -- which purportedly show in a handful of pages, and with third-grade mathematics, that Einstein was wrong, and that SETI is therefore, somehow, barking up the wrong tree. I store these with tender care, and always offer to send back originals. But then again, I'm probably too soft.
Emails Illustrate Fine Line Between the Brilliant and the Bizarre - Space.com, 12th August 2004.
Siberia: Researchers in Siberia claim to have found the cause of the Tunguska explosion back in 1908 - an alien spacecraft!
The press service of the Evenkiya republic administration reported the expedition worked in the western part of the region in the summer of the current year. The mission's itinerary was based on the results of the space footage analysis. Explorers believe they have discovered blocks of an extraterrestrial technical device, which crashed down on Earth on June 30th, 1908. In addition, expedition members found the so-calleddeer- the stone, which Tunguska eyewitnesses repeatedly mentioned in their stories. Explorers delivered a 50-kilogram piece of the stone to the city of Krasnoyarsk to be studied and analyzed.
Needless to say, the press has paid considerably less attention to this large lump of rock.
Explorers find UFO fragments in Tunguska meteorite area - Pravda, 10th August 2004.
South Africa: A woman in the South African province of Limpop was booted out of her village because a hail of stones seems to follow her wherever she goes. Apparently, the problem is caused by an evil spell cast on her by a trader when she didn't pay him back for some clothes she purchased on credit.
We were there for nearly the whole night and saw stones falling from the sky like rain,said Vhembe police spokesperson Ailwei Mushavhanamadi.We went around the area to make sure someone wasn't throwing stones on the roof on purpose, but we didn't find anyone.
Police then advised the family to consult with spirit mediums about the phenomenon.Continue reading "Rain Of Stones Follows Woman"
United States: Normally when window tinting starts to lift on a building, the installation company is called out to fix the problem, not in Texas. Crowds of the gullible and curious are flocking to a hardware store in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, to see an image of Jesus that has appeared on a tinted window at the business.
The image first appeared on a True Value store window on July 19 and caused employees to wonder where it came from.Continue reading "Ghosts in the Window Tinting"
![[Hello Kitty crop circle]](http://www.prattle.net/prattlepix/HelloKitty2004.jpg)
England: A rather unusual crop formation has appeared in a Wiltshire field. The Hello Kitty crop circle was created by Circlemakers and New York artists surface2air to celebrate her 30th birthday and is approximately 60m in diameter. The photo is by Steve Alexander, whose web site includes a lot of impressive aerial photos of crop formations. (via Simon).
Update: Just noticed this was the 1500th entry in the Prattle. Must be a conspiracy or something...
Italy: Ah, the Italians. If they're not blaming phantom Satanic cults for murders, they're seeing things in religious icons.
![[An unusual coin, apparently showing a UFO]](http://www.prattle.net/prattlepix/UFO_coin_big.jpg)