Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Mystery Of The Dragon's Triangle...

An area located southeast of Japan, between Japan and the Bonin islands, and more exactly in the vicinity of Iwo Jima and Marcus Islands, has been officially declared by the Japanese authorities as a danger zone for shipping. Nine big and modern ships disappeared in this area during only four years between 1950 and 1954. Totally, several hundred crewmen, fishermen and pilots have disappeared in this area so far. The area's name is Dragon's Triangle or Devil's Sea.

The US Air Force has also been concerned about aircraft that have mysteriously disapeared in this region.

Many extensive searches, both from air and by sea, have not revealed anything. No wreakages or oil spills have been found. A Japanese expedition was sent to investigate this mysterious and dangerous place. The Kaio Maru No. 5 - the survey ship - with 22 crewmen and 9 scientists aboard, itself disappeared in 1955...

Friday, July 20, 2007

THE QUEST FOR SASQUATCH

There has long been a legend of forest giants among the native tribes of the Pacific Northwest. These legendary creatures are today known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

Reports of bi-pedal primates stalking the wilderness stretch back to the times of the Vikings, and even before. There is strong evidence to support the existence of such a creature in the woods of Pennsylvania and Virgina. Covered in forests, these states are reknowned for hunting and wildlife and this dense wilderness would be a perfect home for the elusive creature.

WHAT IS IT? In a theory touted by noted physical anthropologist and Bigfoot researcher Dr. Grover Krantz, the Sasquatch is a living version of the long extinct ape Gigantopithecus blacki. Dr. Krantz believed that the Gigantopithecus was bi-pedal based on the configuration of its lower jaw.

One of the biggest arguments skeptics present for the non-existence of Bigfoot is that no fossils of ancient bi-pedal primates have ever been recovered from the Pacific Northwest. If Bigfoot does inhabit the woods of North America, it most likely would have migrated there between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago, possibly alongside early Homo sapiens, and in turn, would have left fossil evidence behind. However, one must consider that Gigantopithecus blacki was identified in Asia only by jaw bone fossils and loose fossilized teeth. No full or partial skeletal fossils have ever been recovered, such is also the case with modern day Bigfoot remains.

WHERE IS IT? Researchers have classified the Bigfoot species into three different races based on physical characteristics and geographic location.

1. Sasquatch: Has 5 toes, brown to black fur and primarily inhabits the Pacific Northwest of North America.

2. Skunk Ape: Has 3 toes, orange to brown fur and inhabits the Southeastern United States.

3. Yeti: Has 5 toes, white to gray fur and inhabits the Himalayan Mountains

Researchers don't yet know enough about the individual races to classify them as separate species although this possibility has been raised. The genetic adaptations in each race are the result of natural selection starting when the Sasquatch moved from Asia to North America and adapted darker fur, better blending in with the dense woodland environment. As the species moved across the United States due to territorial deconcentration and "rogue male" transmigration, the species adapted a three-toed foot better designed for climbing trees and travelling through marshy areas in the Southeast.

The Bigfoot living in the Northeast probably began establishing a solid population base over the last 3,000 years, and it remains the least densely populated by these creatures for several reasons, namely, a high concentration of humans and competition between races for food supply. More than likely, there is increased diversity in the Bigfoot species, lending to numerous races - other than those which have been listed in this article.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Ghost of Mary Bregavy

In 1934, on a cold winter night, a young girl was returning home from a dance she had attended at the O. Henry Ballroom on Archer Avenue in a suburb of Chicago.

In a hit and run car accident, the girl thought to be known as Mary Bregavy was killed. Wearing the long white gown and shoes that she had worn to the dance, Mary’s parents laid her body to rest in Resurrection Cemetery.

For 5 years, Mary rested peacefully, until one day in 1939. On a cold January night of that year, a cab driver picked up a woman on Archer Avenue wearing a long white gown. She directed him North on Archer. She asked him then to stop and pointed to the place she wanted him to stop. He looked at where she pointed and then turned to look at her, only she was gone. The cab had stopped directly in front of Resurrection Cemetery.

That same year, a man named Jerry Palus reported dancing with a beautiful blonde girl in a long white dress. After a night of dancing, he offered her a ride home. She directed him North on Archer Avenue. When they began to drive by Resurrection Cemetery, she dashed out of his car never to be seen by him again.

A more concrete report of Mary’s ghost occurred on August 10, 1976. A man was driving past Resurrection Cemetery in the evening and saw that a girl appeared to be locked behind the steel gates. He reported this to the police and Police Sergeant Pat Homer responded to the call. He looked for this girl to no avail, but what he did find was that two of the steel bars had been pried apart and human handprints were embedded into the metal. On the bars themselves were scorch marks which looked like skin texture and handprints.

Experts were brought in to explain how the bars could have been bent and no one could offer any explanation. In 1977, the bars were blow-torched by the cemetery and though the scorch marks were burned off, the handprints that were embedded into the metal could not be removed!

Other reports in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1997 and 1998 have all told similar stories. Many people have reported seeing a girl dash in front of their cars in front of the cemetery. She is so close that people end up slamming on their brakes scared that they are going to hit the girl. But when the cars stops, they never end up hitting anyone and a girl is never to be seen. Other stories tell of people calling the police to report a woman lying very injured or dead on the side of the road in front of the cemetery. By the time the police or ambulance arrive, the woman is gone but an imprint of her body remains on the ground.

Could these numerous accounts of Resurrection Mary be true or have people made them up just to make a good ghost story? Will this question ever be answered?

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

GIANT CHIMPS OF THE MAGIC FOREST

Legend goes that, deep in the Congolese jungle, is a magic forest. In this fabled land live a band of apes that, according to local accounts, passed down over the generations, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon.

Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla. Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists.

Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest.

One set of speculation concludes that the apes may be some yeti-like new species or a chimp/gorilla hybrid. Another view is that they are actually a population of super-sized chimps with a unique culture - and it seems, a taste for big cat flesh.

Some expeditions have started venturing into the Congolese jungles in an attempt to track down these legendary creatures. Hopefully they will return – with news of unimaginable discoveries!

Monday, July 16, 2007

The Antikythera Mechanism

A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete.

The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels. Writing on the case indicated that it was made in 80 B.C., and many experts at first thought it was an astrolabe, an astronomer's tool.

An x-ray of the mechanism, however, revealed it to be far more complex, containing a sophisticated system of differential gears. Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575!

It is still unknown who constructed this amazing instrument 2,000 years ago or how the technology was lost.

The Ica Stones

Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas.

Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones.

The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops, stegosaurus and pterosaurs.

While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

The Stones Of Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a megalithic monument on the Salisbury Plain in Southern England, composed mainly of thirty upright stones (sarsens, each over ten feet tall and weighing 26 tons), aligned in a circle, with thirty lintels (6 tons each) perched horizontally atop the sarsens in a continuous circle. There is also an inner circle composed of similar stones, also constructed in post-and-lintel fashion.

Every year on the first day of summer, the Sun rises at a point that is farther north than on any other day of the year. At the ruins of Stonehenge in England, this solstice sunrise appears on the horizon in direct alignment with the massive heel stone. This is the most outstanding feature of this ancient monument, built during the same era as the Great Pyramid of Egypt. There is now a general consensus that the builders of Stonehenge used it to mark this special day as the beginning of each year. By counting the number of days between these annual alignments, they could determine the length of the year. This could serve as a practical calendar to mark holidays and seasonal festivals and to ensure the timely planting and harvesting of crops.

But to predict eclipses, knowledge of two other cycles is required. One of these - the length of the lunar month - is easily determined. It is simply the number of days between one full Moon and the next. This cycle of 29-1/2 days is marked at Stonehenge by two rings of 29 and 30 holes, which together average 29-1/2. The other cycle, however, is of an altogether different character: it is a cycle of rotation of two invisible points in space. The evidence shows that the builders of Stonehenge probably discovered this cycle and could have used it to predict eclipses.
These two invisible points in space are called the lunar nodes (from the Latin for "knot"). They are the points where the Moon's orbit, which is tilted at a slight angle, intersects the plane of the Earth's orbit. It would have taken many decades of watching countless risings and settings of the Moon to figure out the cycle of the lunar nodes. This information - which must have been passed on from generation to generation - is preserved at Stonehenge. All the Moon alignments necessary for determining this cycle are marked by massive stones.

Who were these people who observed this subtle cycle even before the first metal tools were used by humankind? Some have suggested that Stonehenge was built by Druids, but we don't really know much about the builders. We do know that the actual motions of the Sun and the Moon are reflected in the structure of Stonehenge, and we can reason how it may have been used to keep track of these cycles. The number of stones or holes in the ground in the various rings around Stonehenge each represents a certain number of days or years in the cycles. By moving markers (such as stones) around a ring in time with the cycles, the positions of the Sun and Moon -- and the two invisible points -- can be tracked.

An eclipse can occur only when the Sun is close to being aligned with a node. By using Stonehenge to keep track of the position of the Sun and the nodes, these "danger periods" for eclipses can be predicted. A new (or full) Moon appearing during one of these periods would call for a special vigil to see if the solar (or lunar) eclipse would be visible from Stonehenge. A total solar eclipse would be a rarity. But the law of averages confirms that either a partial solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse can be seen (weather permitting) from the same point on the Earth about once every year.

Why would eclipses have been so important to the ancient people of Stonehenge? Perhaps they considered the darkening of the Sun or the Moon a fearsome event - a celestial omen of doom or disaster. Many cultures have interpreted eclipses this way. But the sophistication of the astronomy of Stonehenge suggests that the builders had something different in mind. Their understanding of the solar and lunar cycles must have led to a high regard for the cosmic order. Eclipses may have been seen as affirmations of the regularity of these cycles. Or perhaps the unseen lunar nodes formed an element of their religion as invisible gods capable of eclipsing the brightest objects in the heavens.

The idea that Stonehenge may have been a center for some kind of worship has occurred to many. It is not hard to imagine Stone Age people gathering at a "sacred place" at "sacred times" (such as solstices, equinoxes, and eclipses) to reaffirm their religious beliefs through ritual practices. British antiquarian Dr. William Stukeley, who in 1740 was the first to note the summer solstice alignment at Stonehenge, advanced the notion that the monument was built by Druids to worship the serpent. He claimed that Stonehenge and similar stone circles had been serpent temples, which he called "Dracontia." Could this serpent symbolism be related to eclipses? Recall that the key to eclipses is the position of the lunar nodes. The length of time for the Moon to return to a node (about 27.2 days) astronomers call the draconic month. (Draco is the Latin word for "serpent" or "dragon.) Perhaps the mythical serpents of Stonehenge and the legendary dragon that eats the Sun are symbols of the same thing: the invisible presence in time and space that eclipses the Sun and the Moon.