Sunday, June 26, 2011

Has Bigfoot Been Found?

Group claims they have proof the legendary Sasquatch exists... but need DNA testing to be sure.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

All Girl Ghost Hunters To Search For Spirits

When there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who do you call? How about Houston’s only all-female ghost-hunting group?! Shanna Karstedt is the leader of the group, called Second Sight Paranormal. She and her crew have briefcases full of equipment they say can help determine whether a place is haunted, or just hyped. Next on their agenda? The Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Houston. Long reported to be one of the most haunted places in the Bayou City, Karsted and her fellow female ghost hunters are heading to the restaurant Saturday night, to finally determine for sure if there are other-worldly occupants. "I’m very excited to do this location … I’ve heard so much about it," Karsted said.
Karsted said while there are plenty of other ghost hunters out there, they’re not all legit. "There are so many TV shows about ghost-hunting, and they’re all dramatized. And they are always getting possessed, and they’re always finding activity," she said. She said she’s found ghosts and sprits before, but even with Spaghetti Warehouse’s well-known reputation as a haunt, she’s not sure what they will find there. However, local News reporter Vicente Arenas and photographer Gustavo Pereyra had a ghostly encounter of their own while shooting this story. Vicente said the lights in Spaghetti Warehouse flickered while they were inside, and then Gustavo’s light blew out. Maybe Second Sight Paranormal will be able to explain why…

Monday, June 6, 2011

Armchair Astronomer Finds 'Evidence' Of Life On Mars

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab is investigating a California armchair astronomer's claim that a white, fuzzy image on the red planet's surface might be evidence of life. David Martines' YouTube video is heading for viral status after he uploaded a flyby of Google Earth's Mars explorer zooming in on a white, cylindrical object. The object, according to Martines, is "about 700 feet long and 150 feet wide." He's calling it "Bio Station Alpha, because I'm just assuming that something lives in it or has lived in it." His video was uploaded May 28, and has already been watched nearly 750,000 times. A spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab told reporters it was investigating the wild claims, speculating that "Bio Station Alpha" would most likely be determined to be a glitch in the digital imaging or an unusual feature on the surface of the planet -- and not a Martian base. That's not what Martines thinks, however."It's very unusual in that it's quite large, it's over 700 feet long and 150 feet wide, it looks like it's a cylinder or made up of cylinders," he said in the video. "It could be a power station or it could be a biological containment or it could be a glorified garage -- hope it's not a weapon. "Whoever put it up there had a purpose I'm sure. I couldn't imagine what the purpose was. I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to live on Mars." But who's responsible? Martines says it's unlikely to be NASA. "I don't know if they could pull off such a project without all the people seeing all the material going up there," he said. "I sort of doubt NASA has anything to do with this. I don't know if NASA even knows about this." Google representatives weren't immediately available to comment on the footage either.
But YouTube commenters knew no such restraint. "You are looking at one of the cold poles of Mars. The poles have caps of dry ice. You see a long white object at low resolution -- which is clearly broken up into 3 sections towards the end. This mass is near the pole. Conclusion? Clearly an alien/man-made Mars station that is 700 ft long," wrote user nemethma. "We have crashed several attempted probes onto Mars. It could be debris or some un-weathered rock structure uncovered by a crash," theorized user blayzebright. Martines is seeking help finding a higher resolution image, if it exists. He claims the coordinates of Bio Station Alpha are 71 49'19.73"N 29 33'06.53"W and that anyone who has downloaded the Google Earth software can see it. Skeptics are lining up to shoot down Martines' theory, which has been likened to the infamous "Face on Mars" hysteria, which turned out to be an unusual angle of a rock formation. The first of the Bio Station Mars parodies have also already hit YouTube, starting with Ski Station Beta.
The coordinates are:
71 49'19.73"N 29 33'06.53"W

Friday, June 3, 2011

Eerie Vibes At Ten Broeck Mansion

Is it heavy static, a mechanical noise or the disembodied voice of a spirit child whispering "I'm downstairs?" An audio recording made by investigators with the Tri-City New York Paranormal Society in the wee hours after midnight in an unoccupied third-floor storage area of the Ten Broeck Mansion is certainly strange, and perhaps even a little creepy. How much stock you place in this "Electronic Voice Phenomenon," or EVP as it's known, will depend on whether you're a confirmed skeptic or a believer in paranormal activity. Regardless of which side of the haunting versus hokum divide you place yourself, a Wednesday night talk detailing the investigators' findings drew intense interest at the Federal-style mansion built in 1797 for Gen. Abraham Ten Broeck and his wife, Elizabeth Van Rensselaer.
At a time when historic sites and museums are struggling to draw younger patrons and to stay afloat financially, a haunted Ten Broeck Mansion may be the best sort of branding imaginable given the popularity among teens with the "Paranormal Activity" movie and its sequels. "It's definitely a big draw and we've gotten a lot more calls than usual," said Wendy Burch, executive director of the Ten Broeck Mansion. The ghost hunters set up audio, video and electromagnetic detection equipment twice over the fall and winter at various "hot spots" in the mansion, long rumored to be home to things that go bump in the night. In the third-floor storage area -- which was used as a nursery and servants' quarters in centuries past -- they picked up what could be a child's voice. They also detected in the kitchen area what sounds like a man saying "Go away." "We had a new cabinet put in and some other work done in the kitchen, so maybe the renovation angered him," Burch said. Coincidentally, a visitor during the Christmas holidays, who identified herself as a medium, offered a similar sensation after she went into the kitchen.
"She said she sensed there's an angry man in the kitchen and she hadn't talked to anyone before her visit," Burch said. Claims of hauntings at the Ten Broeck Mansion are not new. Local psychic Ann Fisher held a seance there a few years ago and sensed a presence of a woman who was an invalid in a bedroom. Past volunteers at the mansion claimed to hear strange noises, including a musical sound resembling a flute. "It's always a little bit creepy to be alone in a big, old house after dark, but I've never seen anything concrete that convinced me it's haunted," Burch said. She considers herself open-minded when it comes to ghosts, spirits and other paranormal phenomena that defy a rational explanation.
A wide chasm of interpretation exists. While ghost hunters and psychics consider blotches of light on photographs indicative of "spirit orbs," non-believers chalk it up to dust or condensation on the camera lens. Although there were no fatal fires or reports of violent deaths occurring in the mansion, two centuries brought its share of family tragedies among the Ten Broeck and Olcott families. After occupying the house for a century, the Olcotts transferred the property to the Albany County Historical Association in 1948 and it became a historic site. Founder Gary Robusto and members of the Tri-City New York Paranormal Society have floated the idea of leading a "ghost walk" in the Ten Broeck Triangle, where there have been claims of paranormal activity in nearby houses and in St. Joseph's Church. "There seems to be a lot of interest in this," Burch said.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Mystery Creature Spotted In Norfolk

Another sighting of a mystery black cat creature has been reported in north Norfolk. Callers have been giving details today of more encounters with panther-type black cats in Norfolk following another recent reported sighting on the north Norfolk coast. Two more people now say they too have seen a mystery creature, with one sighting as recently as Wednesday evening. The first caller, an Aylsham woman, said she spotted a large cat in the grounds of the National Trust’s Felbrigg Hall at about 5pm in late April. The creature was walking through a wooded area and the woman glimpsed it from the car as she and her husband drove along the entrance road to the stately home. “I looked to the left and saw it - it looked so big. It was completely black and it didn’t walk like a dog. I kept my eyes trained to where it should have reappeared, after the next clump of trees, but it didn’t emerge,” she said. The second caller, Sylvia Phillips, of Plumstead Road East, Norwich, said she and her husband were driving from Dereham to Scarning on Wednesday, at about 4.30pm. Just before the church a large, jet-black cat had appeared in the middle of the empty road ahead and “stood there.”“It was pure back with feline features and a long, curved tail - it definitely wasn’t a muntjac. I wish I’d had my camera. It was beautiful,” said Mrs Phillips. After a few seconds the animal had turned and “sauntered” back the way it had come, disappearing into a field. At the end of March north Norfolk was at the centre of a big cat mystery as a number of people reported seeing a black panther or a puma roaming wild at the Bayfield Hall estate, near Holt. Earlier this week a woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she and her friend spotted a “very dark and feline-looking” creature as they were out bird watching on heathland in Salthouse, close to Cookies Crab Shop on May 17. The woman said at first she though it may have been a muntjac or dog on the loose as it was so big, but then realised it was more cat-like. She said as they approached it, the creature disappeared into the heathland. Sightings of big black cats in the wild have been regular occurrences all over Norfolk in recent years. But no conclusive evidence of their existence has yet been produced.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

UFO Squadron Filmed Flying Over California

YouTube user KevinMC360 - who claims this isn't his first UFO capture - says he saw the UFOs over Oakland, California, last week. Describing the night-vision footage, Kevin points to three lights moving in a triangular pattern as being the 'UFO squadron' and uses a plane as his point of reference. And while cynics suggest a host of more mundane explanations, Kevin insists these are the same spacecraft which he filmed around a year ago… which were also dismissed by more cynically-minded viewers.