Saturday, July 30, 2011

UPDATE: Crashed UFO found?

Following up on this post, it appears as if we may never find out what that strange object on the bottom of the ocean is.

UFO found on ocean floor?

The article says that the team that found the object have no plans to explore it further. If it is actually a crashed extraterrestrial craft it could have incalculable value but if it's just a natural formation then it would probably be a huge waste of time and resources.

It seems that what I was afraid of will be the case: This will be one of those very interesting things that falls by the wayside and that never has any definitive answers, essentially making it a permanent mystery. I'm sure this lack of further exploration will fuel the fires of conspiracy theory.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Benevolent Space Brothers? Maybe not.

Some new tinkering with Drake's equation suggests that we could be alone in the universe.

Are We Alone In the Universe? New Analysis Says Maybe

Can you imagine how profound it would be if we were the only intelligent species in the entire universe? I don't really think we'd ever be able to determine that for certain until we were able to investigate every inch of the universe and I don't think that's likely anytime soon (if ever). Our galaxy alone presents a daunting challenge for anyone hoping to get in touch with other intelligent life. Isn't it still interesting to think about the implications of either outcome though?

I'm not sure if it would have a humbling effect to discover we were the only ones here or if it would push our hubris over the edge.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A Magical Education

I'm going to keep it short today as I would rather you be reading the link I'm about to provide. I came across a lecture called "A Magical Education" by John Michael Greer that I think anyone interested in the magical arts should read at least once.

A Magical Education

Friday, July 22, 2011

Drop me a line.

And if that submerged circular goodness wasn't enough for you this Friday night, I have finally set up an email address for the blog. You can find it in the "Contact Me" section on the right margin but I'll go on and put it here for even more convenience: patentlyparanormal@gmail.com.

So if you have a story you'd like to share, a tip on an interesting paranormal topic, or just need to get in touch with me for some reason you now have a way to do so. I can't promise I'll reply to everything but I'll do my best to stay on top of any mail I get. I look forward to hearing from you.

Crashed UFO found?

Explorers find bizarre, spaceship-like object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea

I really hope that this isn't one of those things that falls by the sidelines and we never find out what the object actually is. The fact that it's circular makes it really interesting as that shape wouldn't be expected to occur naturally. This doesn't mean that it's a crashed flying saucer but, in my opinion, it does make it interesting enough to take a look at up close.

It could even shine some light on the phenomenon of unidentified submerged objects (USOs). These are reported to be similar to UFOs except they are seen in the oceans, sometimes coming out of or going back into the water with seemingly no difficulty at all. USOs add a whole new dimension to the UFO phenomenon. Since this unknown object has tracks leading up to it there is the implication that it has moved at some point.

I really am excited to see what it turns out to be.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Lizard Man of South Carolina

Searching the Web for "lizard man" will most likely give you The Lizardman, a sideshow performer, or it will give you the Lizard Man, a humanoid cryptid that seems to have resurfaced recently.

The cryptid in question is described as being seven feet tall with scaly skin, glowing red eyes, and three fingers on each hand. Alleged footprints are three-toed. Without going too deeply into the back story (which is explained by the link above) I can't help but see the resemblance to the reptilian humanoids or the Reptilians that pop up a lot in conspiracy theories and UFO lore. As it happens, lizard people pop up rather often in regards to the paranormal as can be seen by this search on paranormal.about.com.

I can't help but find myself wondering if the Lizard Man might be an extraterrestrial or an extradimensional, assuming it's not a hoax or misidentification. Considering how it likes to maul automobiles, the only thing that it could be besides an actual seven-foot-tall lizard would be a bear. I'm not really sure how someone could misidentify a bear to such a degree but I suppose anything is possible in the dark.

If this is a bear, I suppose one would also have to ask why it likes to destroy automobile fenders. Bears and other animals have been known to break into cars to get at some food that's inside, but I'm not sure why a bear would bite through the chrome bumpers or other outlying metal parts of a car. It just seems exceptionally odd to me. Even in the case of a Lizard Man biting the cars it's still very odd.

A humorous bit of speculation I have to offer is that perhaps this Lizard Man is a stranded alien and it is attacking cars in the hopes of salvaging material to repair whatever it used to get here in the first place. Not understanding Earth technology, all it manages to do is result in repair bills and scary stories for the people that encounter it. So then it sulks off, homesick, waiting to try again another night or perhaps hoping that someone will send a damn rescue mission. This is the stuff of science fiction, but if there really is a Lizard Man running around South Carolina and attacking cars in incidents decades apart then why else would it be doing it? I suppose the creature could just not like cars.

Anyway, here's a recent article from the Huffington Post that suggests the Lizard Man may be back:

Lizard Man Reportedly Mauls And Bites Through South Carolina Couple's Car

Friday, July 8, 2011

io9 is offering $2000 for authentic cryptid shots.

io9 Offers $2000 Bounty For Authentic Photos Of Cryptids

io9 is looking for submissions of authentic pictures or videos of cryptids and I'm curious to see what they end up getting. They've already put up a few of the submissions for voting and you can find and vote on those here. In my opinion, most of the critters on that page are insects that could probably be identified by a competent expert. Another looks like a decomposing sea turtle to me. Overall, I think that the white cheetah is the most compelling and the reasons for that are outlined in the description accompanying the photo.

The folks at io9 also have a contest for the best fakes that are submitted but all you'll get are some books and DVDs. All of the authentic submissions will be judged by a panel of experts that will make the final decisions. Submissions also have to be original and submitted by the person that shot them. All of these factors should make for some really interesting submissions.

I'm really glad to see a website doing something like this in what seems to be a lighthearted manner. Sure, there may not be any groundbreaking scientific discoveries coming out of it but for those that are interested in cryptozoology this is definitely something to keep an eye on. Is there incentive to try to pass off a hoax as the real deal? Sure. Will it make this entire prospect any less interesting? I doubt it. If anything, I think it will be even more interesting to see if anyone is able to pull one over on the panel of experts.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

More Dowsing

Today I used dowsing for a practical application and had some success. I won't go too heavily into why or how dowsing works, just that it worked for me today.

I used my L-shaped rods to pinpoint the location of a water pipe that was leaking, buried approximately three-and-a-half feet underground. We knew the general location of the pipe and the leak, but when digging a hole that deep with a shovel it's a good idea to be as sure as you can be. So, not thinking much of it, I went and got my rods and just walked perpendicular to where we had an idea the pipe was a few times. When I crossed the pipe the rods spread to line up with it, giving me a general idea of where the pipe was. Using this, I was able to determine that the hole we had started was maybe slightly to the side of the pipe, but still suitable.

Not terribly impressive, but it was enough to add a little strange to my day. Later on, after the leak was fixed, I was walking around with the rods and testing them out a little bit. A neighbor mentioned that if the water wasn't running then the rods wouldn't work. I didn't agree with this at the time and I still don't. I did mention to him that some people believe that dowsing can be used to find more than just water; things like minerals, oil, gold, and bodies. Out of curiosity, before going inside I checked the water meter after testing my rods. The meter at the time I checked it showed no water was moving through it, suggesting no moving water in the pipe. Because of this I don't think that water absolutely must be moving to find it through dowsing.

There are a lot of factors that could have played to my relative success with dowsing today, more mundane factors. I acknowledge this. However, the leak was found and repaired and that's all that really matters.

Here is more information on dowsing:

All About Dowsing
How To Practice Dowsing
Dowsing: Subconscious and the Paranormal