The Anomalist is a daily review of world news on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, and unexpected discoveries.
http://www.anomalist.com/ - 11/20/09 10:48:45 - 12/16/06 01:58:04
November 1The Catholic Church in Poland is investigating claims of a miracle after a piece of communion wafer was reported to have been transformed into human heart tissue after falling into water during a mass. The claim is being made by Professor Maria Sobaniec-Lotowaska, of the medical university in Bialystok. Skeptics say it's nothing more than bacteria growing on the small piece of wafer. Police and the Church are convinced there is no fraud involved.Workers at the Lake County Coroner's office in Illinois began hearing strange knocking sounds and glimpsing figures walking around the autopsy room after the body of a woman who died in a nursing home was inadvertently left in a cooler for several months before she was identified. Elsewhere, I Do Believe in Spooks and Twits, tweets and a tweance – it must be Halloween.Disinformation Shadow of the ShinigamiHow Jaime Maussan came to be a UFO personality on Mexican TV and how he was repeated duped by the most obvious of hoaxes. Marla Pena provides an unflinching look at his gullibility and bemoans the sad state of UFOlogy when some organizations still promote "investigators" who "keep promoting and talking about cases that were already explicitly proven to be hoaxes!" Elsewhere some are convinced that the answer to the question Is Disclosure Imminent? is yes. Everything you might want to know and more.Yowie Report Still on the TrackAn undated newspaper report entitled "Yowie 'sighting' the ultimate forest experience for a busload of kids" in which a "wild looking" hairy figure was seen moving through the trees and running toward the bus in the Pilliga scrub, North West NSW. The article is accompanied by a photograph showing the shape of "an unidentified hairy creature" next to the bus. Elsewhere, in Cryptid Keeper, a profile of Loren Coleman and his upcoming International Cryptozoology Museum, which will have a "soft" open today despite permit problems with the city of Portland, as described in Museum Opening Slightly Delayed.Apparitional Experiences: A Primer Public ParapsychologyThe introduction to a forthcoming “crash course" for paranormal enthusiasts and the general public "for the prime reason that there has been much misunderstanding within the paranormal enthusiast community regarding what has been learned in the past about ghosts and apparitions, particularly by parapsychologists." Elsewhere, Stacy Horn mentions A Few Things in the course of which she recommends a new book called Queer Hauntings. She says: "There’s a connection, at least some of the time, between the paranormal and sex."Visited by the Dead The ParanomalistFrom the sound of his recent posts, John Carlson seems surrounded by the paranormal. This post is about Tina, his cousin’s best friend of some 35 years, who is a gifted medium. He tells the story of the spirit of her date's father who appears to her and asks her to pass on a message to his son, that he was sorry he didn't believe him, when as a boy of 10, his uncle had molested him. And in Giant Wolves, UFOs, and Invisible Monsters Carlson reviews Hunt for the Skinwalker.Playing With Fire: Flares, Plasma Weapons and UFOs Intangible MaterialityBruce Duensing asks: Is there a connection between night flare drops, ball lightning, the stealth testing of new plasma weaponry, and UFOs? You might be surprised. With videos. Elsewhere Fascinating "Mothership‚" UFO filmed in China and ‘UFO Hunters’ vs. werewolves.Fowler's Bog GhostwoodsThe dark forests of Maine hold many secrets. Natives to any of the smaller towns in its vast wilderness know the land well and its creatures. Fowler's Bog in Albion, Maine, may indeed hold a secret of its own and a young boy playing hooky with some friends may have stumbled upon it years ago. During their walk home, as darkness descended, an enormous black creature emerged from the tree line and into the bog with a terrifying sound that has haunted the witnesses to this very day. Upon returning the next day with parents and sheriff in hand, clear evidence of the sighting was obvious. Suspiciously, however, the sheriff was quick to determine it was a pair of bears and told them to forget the incident but their parents knew well it must have been something else.The Stone Heads of Easter Island Philip CoppensA thorough look at enigmatic Easter Island and its surviving population of stone heads. Visible to this day, paths leading some 10 kilometers through grassy plains to volcanic craters containing a type of soft pumice stone named red scoria are known to be the source of the stone for the heads. What is still uncertain is who built these magnificent idols. Some claim it was the first two native tribes on the island, which was discovered in 1722. Others claim South American origins, though researchers tried unsuccessfully to sail from Peru to Easter Island using primitive boat designs that would have been used at the time. Polynesian influence, Tamils from India, as well as extraterrestrials, via Erich von Daniken, have all been proposed as well. Perhaps the real clue lies in the hieroglyphs inscribed on tablets called, rongo rongo. If only someone were still alive who could read these hieroglyphs.