A roundup of mysterious, paranormal and strange news stories from the past week.
We tend to believe law enforcement officials as witnesses so people in Minneapolis are rightly concerned over a report made by three Minneapolis police officers who claimed they saw spherical Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) with six glowing rings that changed colors while on top of a parking garage; according to the report send anonymously to the Americans for Safe Aerospace site, one officer drove toward the UAP in a squad car while the other two watched it through binoculars; the cops estimated the UAP was at 10,000 feet and at various times hovering, moving slow and occasionally zipping at hypersonic speeds – all without making a sound; even more concerning, the UAP was seen near a civilian helicopter and was very close to Minnesota’s Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant; according to whistleblower Ryan Graves, who heads the Americans for Safe Aerospace, this incident occurred in February but was only revealed recently, as was a similar incident about one mile away in July; the report included photos of the UAP but did not help identify it; Enigma Labs, which analyzes UAP sightings, says it could have been the International Space Station which was flying over the area at that time. If it is aliens, is this a sign they are interested in our nuclear plants – or in hunting, fishing and skiing in Minnesota?
When confronted by a mysterious event with no obvious cause, people in Honduras blame ‘El Duende’, so when a three-year-old boy went missing recently near the Tiscagua River, which was running high because of recent rains, his family and the local media blamed El Duende, a legendary gnome who many believe lures children into the forest where they are never seen again; fortunately, this little boy showed up a day later with a nasty head wound, but his family still blamed El Duende because, despite heavy rains throughout the night, the boy’s clothing was mysteriously dry; one relative told local media: “”We believe it was El Duende, because where we live is a highly desirable location for evil things. He snatched it away. There have been similar cases before, like a girl who disappeared and returned years later”; the boy was taken to Choluteca General Hospital for treatment of the head wound. If everyone thinks it was El Duende, will insurance go after him to pay the hospital bill?
You can’t hide from me, Little Waldo!
From the Roger Daltry ‘Hope I Die Before I Get Old’ file comes new research which looked at the recent discovery that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus and sought to determine if humans could acquire this ability and would it be beneficial; in “Safety and tolerability of intrarectal perfluorodecalin for enteral ventilation in a first-in-human trial”, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the University of Osaka in Japan recruited 27 healthy adult men in Japan and gave each anal injections (enemas) of non-oxygenated perfluorodecalin – oxygenated perfluorodecalin has been used to allow rodents to breath anally; “Apart from mild temporary abdominal bloating and discomfort—which proved to be dosage dependent and resolved with no need for medical attention—they experienced no adverse effects”; this proved that the procedure is safe for humans – the study concludes that “next step will be to evaluate how effective the process is for delivering oxygen to the bloodstream” with the goal of one day using this technique in place of ventilators and artificial lungs to assist patients’ breathing and prevent respiratory failure. It might help if the patient could select a fragrance to add to the oxygenated perfluorodecalin.
Psychologists say loneliness is an increasing problem in the U.S. and one sign may be seen in a new survey by Rocket Mortgage which found that 65% of Americans would consider buying a haunted house, with 39% saying yes outright and another 26% saying they were open to the idea; when asked what they would do if they found out the house they bought was haunted, only 18% said they would move out and sell it, while 41% replied they would make friends with the ghosts; that seems like a good plan since those surveyed who currently or once lived in a haunted house said their ghosts were friendly (43%) or mischievous (20%); it’s also about the money, since many buyers said they would use the knowledge of the house being haunted to negotiate a better deal, while owners say the cachet of living in a haunted house is increasing the value of theirs. This all may be true, but it’s still a good idea for prospective haunted house buyers to see at least one of the Conjuring movies.
If you’re in the market for a haunted home, Country Living magazine provides a checklist of 10 things to look for at open houses which are signs you could be sharing your domicile with a ghost – these include feeling like you’re being watched, hearing weird noises (check for squirrels), odd electrical glitches that an inspector can’t explain, items that move around on their own (check for a bad foundation) and strange smells (check for dead squirrels); while some states require disclosure that a house might be haunted, many don’t so it pays to check if it shows up in local news stories about haunted houses or on paranormal investigation sites. You know you have a good realtor if they bring sage to the open house.
Proponents of UFO disclosure in the U.S. are generally disappointed with their government’s response (or lack thereof) to requests and hearings, so NewSpaceEconomy.ca conducted a study on how other countries “have adopted a variety of approaches to UAP phenomena—ranging from formal investigations led by military agencies to passive monitoring or outright dismissal” and noted that “these differences stem from political cultures, defense priorities, scientific infrastructure, and public transparency norms”; for example, “Argentina is one of the few nations that has openly engaged with UAPs through its defense infrastructure. In 2011, the Argentine Air Force created the Comisión de Estudio de Fenómenos Aeroespaciales (CEFAe), a commission designed to analyze aerial anomalies using a multidisciplinary team” and “France is one of the few Western nations with a formal government-funded scientific body dedicated to UAPs. Established in 1977, GEIPAN (Groupe d’Études et d’Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés) operates under the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES)”; on the other hand, “Germany has no national body or defense agency assigned to study UAPs. Most references to UAPs come from historical documents or academic research, not official investigations” and “Few African governments maintain the air defense or scientific infrastructure to support formal UAP investigations”; the study optimistically recommends that “As airspace becomes increasingly contested and sensor technologies continue to improve, a unified or at least cooperative international approach to UAP investigation may become an operational necessity—driven by science, strategy, and shared airspace integrity”. The grass is always greener on the other side of the flying saucer.
Having sex with over 1,000 men in 12 hours (1,057 if you’re counting) would be enough fame for most women, but it’s yesterday’s new to Bonnie Blue, so she’s trying to top that ‘stunt’ by issuing a statement about whom she ‘wouldn’t’ have sex with – and at the top of the list is extraterrestrials; in a recent interview, Blue reveals that “I’ve not had any UFOs park up outside my events yet” but says she would not “facilitate an alien” if one did, explaining that “I don’t know if that would be classed as bestiality and I wouldn’t want to get banned from any more sites so, I’d have to probably turn them down”; as implied in that answer, animals are also a no and she says she doesn’t believe in ghosts so anyone showing up at her ‘event’ in a sheet better be sleeping on it, not wearing it. Hey Bonnie – what if the alien is rich?
In the newly-released trailer to the upcoming documentary, ‘The Age of Disclosure’, current U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes time from his other important duties to note that there have been reports of “something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities” and that ‘something’ does not belong to the U.S. military or any other American source, ’ that was not of American origin, so he is very concerned about them and other UFOs; he complains that “even presidents” only get top secret UFO reports on a strictly “need to know basis” and this “keeps him up at night”; while he wants more disclosure, he concedes that potential whistle-blowers fear that doing so “would cost them their lives”. When are we going to get a documentary of these leaders who claim to support disclosure saying so while attached to a lie detector?
Cheap hotels are often synonymous with quickie romantic interludes while expensive ones are associated with romantic getaways, but stays at the historic 600-year-old Mermaid Inn in Rye, England – considered by many to be that country’s most haunted hotel – say that instead of love and passion, staying there for a night leads to arguments and frustration; longtime Mermaid Inn employee (43 years) Judith Blincow says guests interested in encountering ghosts usually request the same six rooms, with Room One being the most popular, and she finds it “hilarious” that couples often leave fighting and accusing each other of activities that were obviously pranks pulled by mischievous ghosts, including one who once worked there as a maid before she was killed for knowing too much about local smuggling activities. Needless to say, none of The Eagles are interested in checking in or out – no matter how sexy the maid or the mermaid might be – because they’d never be able to leave.
This guy is not going to win this argument.
Next to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the most famous cities in the bible are the twin sin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose stories of decadence, punishment, destruction by fire and the lady who turned into a pillar of salt have withstood the test of time despite there being no evidence of their actual existence; that may have changed with the announcement that archaeologists digging near Jordan’s southeastern Dead Sea uncovered evidence of what could be Sodom at Bab edh-Dhra and Gomorrah at Numera; both locations show early Bronze Age occupation, ruins destroyed by fire and permanent abandonment; Dr. Titus Kennedy, a field archaeologist, shared on a podcast that these and three other nearby sites add up to “five cities that potentially all look the same and the same types of things happened there in the right geographical area” to match up with the biblical accounts of Sodom and Gomorrah and the five cities of the plain; for supporting evidence, he described a building in a cemetery where “the fire had actually started on the top of the roof, burned through it into the chamber and then spread throughout. This suggests that the destruction came from above, rather than being intentionally set inside the graves”; of the five cities, the evidence is strongest at Zoar, which he says is key to “anchoring the locations of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim”. It’s too bad Lot didn’t have more wives leaving behind those pillars of salt as signs.
Those who believed those mysterious UFOs flying around New Jersey for weeks last year were Earth-originated and probably from the U.S. finally have their proof – at the Army’s recent UAS and Launched Effects Summit at Fort Rucker, an employee for an unnamed private contractor admitted that they were responsible and supported the admission by giving a live demonstration of the same manned drone to the attendees; the media was provided with a separate video of the 20-foot wide, four-winged, silent drone flying over dozens of soldiers that the unnamed source described in this way: “It feels like it’s a UFO because it defies what you’re expecting to see; When it turned you almost completely lose sight of it”; the company defended the unannounced tests over New Jersey in November and December 2024 by saying they were not required to disclose their activity to the public because it was for a private government contract. Sorry, having a private contract doesn’t make it right to subject the public to strange flying objects – isn’t that what Area 51 is for?
Death is an inevitable part of hospital life, but Dr Andrea O’Connor, a doctor of naturopathic medicine in Arizona who is studying stories of death experiences in hospitals, shares the accounts of a nurse who had a patient that was very close to dying; when she made one of her 15 minute checks on him, she claims she stopped at the door when she saw “this dark shadowy tall figure looming over him’; the 7-foot tall figure was not a friend or relative because the nurse knew he sadly had none; even worse, she returned later because the patient was experiencing anxiety and terror and saw the figure again, which caused her to conclude that “I think I saw the Grim Reaper”; O’Connor says she’s heard similar accounts of “dark shadows in the room” before a hospital death by reliable nurses, doctors and staff who treat the dying daily; tales of The Grim Reaper date back to the 14th century and the bubonic plague, which cut down people like a farmer cutting hay with aa scythe, to it is firmly entrenched in many cultures, but that doesn’t explain so many real-life accounts in hospitals. Good luck getting a job in a hospital if you’re tall and prone to wearing hoodies.
If you think this is grim, wait until your relatives find out you don’t have insurance.
Statues that appear to be crying and paintings that seem to be bleeding have been around as long as churches have had statues and paintings, and these incidents almost always are the result of a hoax or something logical, but a new variation popped up in the news again from Honolulu where a cheap, mass-produced picture of Mary and a young Jesus on display at the Holy Theotokos of Iveron Russian Orthodox Church in Honolulu seemed to be oozing sweet-smelling myrrh from the knee of the child; Father Nectarios Yangson is the “guardian of the myrrh-streaming icon” and is responsible for collecting the myrrh using an absorbent cloth, bottling it and distributing it to those who believe it has miraculous powers to heal healing blindness, eye disease, cancer, demonic possession, paralysis, kidney disease, chronic pain and debilitating viruses; while there doesn’t appear to have been any scientific studies of the icon, the Russian Orthodox Church officially recognized it miraculous; most experts say this phenomenon can be created by allowing the painting to absorb myrrh secretly. Why isn’t the miracle ever the water into wine one – that would be hugely popular.
If you’re tired of betting – and losing – on sports contests, the website Canada Sports Betting has compiled the probability (for Canadian bettors) and odds (for American wagerers) on the best and worst spots in North America for spotting Bigfoot based on human population, recency, forest coverage, and climate; the top spot unsurprisingly goes to Washington State with a 3% probability, +3,233 odds and one Bigfoot sighting for every 11,038 residents; that was followed by West Virginia, Oregon, British Columbia and Michigan; states to avoid at the bottom of the list are Quebec, Maryland, Arizona, Alberta and Louisiana; while Arizona makes sense, Louisiana’s low rating for Bigfoot or Skunk Ape sightings seems odd (no pun intended) because of its plentiful variety of flora and fauna to eat and swamps to hide in. Put a ball in his hands and Bigfoot would be the odds-on favorite to win the NBA MVP trophy.
The U.S. is not the only country with an Area 51 as new photos unearthed from a location near the Giza Pyramids that was closed by the Egyptian military in the 1960s show what is considered to be that country’s Area 51 – the images show a T-shaped pit carved 100 feet deep into solid limestone, lined with enormous granite blocks and containing a sealed oval vat that once held an unknown substance; Zawyet El Aryan was discovered by Italian archaeologist Alessandro Barsanti in the early 1900s and these phots, the only ones of the site, were taken by him; the mysterious structure gets its alien reputation from strange graffiti like an inscription that reads “Seba-[unknown]-Ka,” which translates to “star” and “vital essence” or “life force” in ancient Egyptian; researcher Derek Olsen thinks this as the ancient Egyptian term for “gateway to the stars” and implies that it could have been used for cosmic travel, but mainstream Egyptologists think it’s just the name of the builder; the purpose of the structure and the reason for the military takeover remain unknown. Put in a ballroom and it could be used for ‘Dancing with the Gateway to the Stars’.
