mysterious of the world

World’s 20 Greatest Mysteries

2010-11-25T07:02:00.000-08:00

By Tabi on August 18, 2010

1. Easter Island

Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is remotely located 2,000 miles off the coast of Tahiti. The original settlers of the island were Polynesians who migrated to the far-off land between 400 and 600 BC. They built many shrines and statues, called moai, from stones quarried throughout the island including a volcano site. Researchers still question exactly how the large stones were moved.

The world is full of unsolved mysteries, some that invoke the supernatural. Many have tried to establish reason to these wild quandaries, but not all have perfect answers. Here are some of the best enigmas the world has to offer…

2. The Legend of El Dorado

The Legend of El Dorado originates from the Muisca, who lived in the modern country of Colombia from 1000 to 1538 AD. In a ritual ceremony for their goddess, the tribal chief would cover himself in gold dust and jump into a lake as an offering. This spawned the legend of a lost golden city, which led Spanish conquistadors on a wild goose chase to nowhere.

3. The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle — located in the Atlantic between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico — is a thief, stealing planes and boats right out of existence. The area got its name after Sgt. Howell Thompson (l.), along with 27 Navy airmen, vanished from the devilish spot during a routine flight in 1945. Rumors persist on a supernatural explanation, but many specialists blame hurricanes, a heavy Gulf Stream and human error.

4. The mighty Incan Empire of South America

The mighty Incan Empire of South America flourished between 1200 and 1535 AD. They developed drainage systems and canals to expand their crops, and built stone cities atop steep mountains — such as Machu Picchu (above) — without ever inventing the wheel. Despite their vast achievements, the Incan Empire with its 40,000 manned army was no match for 180 Spanish conquistadors armed with advanced weapons and smallpox.

5. The Mayan Temple

According to the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, made famous by the ancient Mayan people, December 2012 marks the ending of the current baktun cycle. This little bit of information has many archeologists spooked. Some believe the Mayans were warning of a coming apocalypse, while others insist it’s simply a mathematical misconception.

6. The Nazca Lines

The Nazca Lines cover more than 190 square miles in the southern deserts of Peru. The mysterious shapes etched into the land rival football fields and predate the Incan Empire. The ‘Las Manos’ figure (above) is 2,000 years old. Little is know about why the Nazca people constructed such vast pieces of sand art, some believe they are extraterrestrial in nature, while others claim they may have carried and pointed to sources of water.

7. Ancient Pyramids in Giza, Egypt

Khafre (l.) and Khufu (r.) are two of the three ancient Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Khufu is the biggest, consisting of more than 2 million stones with some weighing 9 tons. The Pyramids, built as elaborate tombs for divine kings, date back to 2,550 BC. Modern Egyptologists believe that the Pyramids are made from stones dragged from quarries and, despite ancient Greek testimony, were built predominantly by skilled craftsmen rather than slave labor.

8. Sphinx of Giza, Egypt

Another Egyptian wonder, the Sphinx of Giza has the body of a lion and the head of a Pharaoh, believed by most to be that of king Khafre. It was carved from soft limestone, and has been slowly falling apart over the years. A popular theory of the missing nose claims Napoleon’s soldiers shot it off with a cannon in 1798, but early sketches discovered of the Sphinx without a nose predate Napoleon’s rampage.

9. The Loch Ness Monster

According to Scottish folklore, a mystical creature called a water horse lures small children to a watery grave by tricking them to ride on its sticky back. The Loch Ness Monster became an English wonder in 1933, after witness accounts made newspaper headlines. No hard evidence of the creature has ever been recorded with several pictures, including the one above, being proven as hoaxes.

10. Aliens

Area 51, located on Groom Lake in southern Nevada (c.), was founded in 1955 by the U.S. Air Force to develop and test new aircrafts – such as the U-2 Spy Plane, A-12 Blackbird and F-117 Stealth Fighter. The secretive nature of the military base, combined with its classified aircraft research, helped conspiracy theorists imagine an installation filled with time-travel experimentation, UFO coverups and alien autopsies.

11. The Stonehenge

The Stonehenge landscape of Salisbury Plain, England, has become a tourist hotspot. But before foreigners with windbreakers and cameras showed up, the area may have been a burial ground and ceremonial den dating back 5,000 years.

12. The Lost City of Atlantis

The Lost City of Atlantis was introduced to the West 2,400 years ago by Plato, who claimed it to be the island home of an advanced society. Legend says it was sunk by an earthquake, with later interpretations as an underwater kingdom protected by mermaids. Its whereabouts still a mystery, recent underwater evidence suggests it was once apart of a larger landmass in Cyprus off the Mediterranean (c.), but the only true Atlantis exists in the Bahamas as a grand casino and resort hotel.

13. The Fountain of Youth

Don Juan Ponce de Leon completed Spain’s claim on America in 1509, and soon after was made governor of Puerto Rico. Six years later, following Indian rumors, he traveled north to the island of Bimini in search of the Fountain of Youth. Bimini turned out to be the peninsula of Florida, and the fountain remained hidden until July 2006, when famed magician David Copperfield claimed the waters on his $50 million Exumas Island (c.) had healing properties.

14. The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant is described in the Bible as a wooden casket, gold plated, made for carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The casket was carried throughout the desert and remained in the Israelite Temple until its destruction by the hand of the Babylonian Empire. Its whereabouts are still unknown, but Hollywood made its own version for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’

15. Chupacabra

Phylis Canion holds the head of what she is calling a Chupacabra at her home in Cuero, Tex. The strange-looking animal, first reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, apparently has a taste for chicken and goat blood. Although many pictures like the above might prove its existence, biologists assure none such creature exists.

16. The Iron Pillar of Delhi

The Iron Pillar of Delhi is a 1,600-year-old, 22 feet high pillar located in the Qutb complex in India. The pillar, made from 98% wrought iron, has been astounding scientists by its ability to resist corrosion after all these years.

17. Stone Spheres in Costa Rica

Discovered in the early 1940s in Costa Rica during excavations by the United Fruit Company, these perfectly formed stone spheres date from 600 AD to the 16th century. Their makers and purpose still unconfirmed, many believe them to be some religious effigy made to worship the sun.

18. The Tunguska Explosion of Russia

The Tunguska Explosion in Russia occurred around 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908. To this date, the exact cause of the explosion – which leveled 80 million trees over 830 square miles – remains a heated debate. Most believe it to be caused by a meteoroid fragment, others insist either a black hole or UFO origin.

19. Mothman

A humanoid with insect wings and crimson eyes, known as the Mothman, terrorized Point Pleasant, W.Va., during the late 1960s. No solid evidence exists of the creature, except for a handful of witness reports documented in paranormal-journalist John A Keel’s ‘Mothman Prophecies’.

20. Jersey Devil

According to legend, 250 years ago a Jersey woman by the name of Mrs. Leeds cried out in despair during her 13th pregnancy, ‘Let it be the Devil!’ After childbirth, the baby was revealed to be a kangaroo-like creature with wings, and flew away to cause all sorts of Jersey Devil mischief. Today the Jersey Devil can be seen getting fans riled up during local hockey games.

Source: NYDailyNews

Case of the Mysterious Artifact

2010-11-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

"Hi from the Oregon coastal village of Florence. I have gone to lapidary stores, jewelry stores and they all say this is not jade, too heavy, too hard. I have exhausted my village experts. It changes color in the lighting from dark green to gray to light green to honey with ruby red flashes when you walk around it. The only signature is the yin yang on the lions shield. It is 6x8 inches 2 lbs. of carved rock into a bottle. Any clues? Love Sarah"

It has been suggested to Sarah that it is connected to the art of feng shui. Other correspondents have claimed that it is demonized and needed immediate exorcism. One response said it was the eye of Rah, not Chinese but from Egypt. Then there are those who think some wizard put a genie in the bottle. An other said it is the rock Jesus cast the demon into. Do you have any information about this artifact? If so then please email me. Here is an interesting and authoritative reply from Paul Darby-The Feng Shui Doctor:

"CHINESE ORNAMENT.

What you appear to have is an authentic or very good reproduction of a Daoist Shaman’s potion bottle.
The bottle was used for various rituals, including births, deaths, ordination of priests, ceremonies to frighten away evil spirits and for use for herbs/medicine to cure disease/illness.
Very often though the bottle would be empty-symbolically filled with protection ‘gas’ to fight evil.
Daoist ‘magic’ called internal alchemy, as opposed to external alchemy- feng shui-- was used to chase away evil and protect goodness.
The yin yang energies- symbolised in the shield, were also symbolised by the minerals- cinnabar and mercury.
Often when these minerals were found, a bottle was shaped from the rock, containing the minerals, or the minerals were put into a mixture of glass and jade.
Cinnabar is red mecuric sulphide, quicksilver was mercury, but very often some use of lead in with the mercury as well.
The two mixed together- cinnabar and quicksilver represented the yin - yang, heaven and earth mix and was thought to be immensely powerful
Hollowed into a container/bottle- the humidity, air temperature, sunlight, fire, candlelight- hand warmth- all produced different combinations of colours-- like the ones you describe.
The Daoist shaman would use different colour combinations for different purification and cleansing rituals.
The lion, fu dog, and sometimes qirin-[Chinese unicorn]- were all used as ornaments to signify protection and the transformation of nasty energy into good stuff!!!
Contained in the minerals already mentioned are calcium and magnesium, very unstable and very reactive to heat and humidity--even to expansion of size- which once again explains the things you have seen
To read more- get Understanding Reality by Chang Po-tuan--University of Hawaii press- ISBN-0-8248-1139-9--read it all, but especially around page 85. The language and style is quite difficult to understand!
The bottle, and the lion’s eyes- should be placed in the north-east or the north-west of a room/building- and should not face the front door- toilet or kitchen!
Hope this has helped!
Paul Darby-The Feng Shui Doctor.
FEB 2003- copyright! "

THE RED PYRAMID and THE BENT PYRAMID

2010-11-21T07:13:00.001-08:00

The Red Pyramid History

The inscriptions found on the back of the casing stones gave us clues to how long the pyramid took to build and also revealed the sequence of work that took place. An inscription found at the base of this pyramid has shown that work had started during the year of the 15th cattle count of Snofru's reign. Since the cattle counts were held at irregular intervals during this reign, this refers to somewhere between Snofru's 15th and 30th year. It is very likely that the pyramid construction was started at the time when structural problems encountered when building the Bent Pyramid forced the builders to temporarily abandon this project.

Interestingly, a second inscription found 30 courses of stones higher is dated 2 to 4 years later than the inscription found at the base. This gives an idea about the speed at which the Egyptians were able to build a monument like this pyramid. Within four years, 30 percent of the pyramid had been completed, and the entire pyramid was finished in about seventeen years.
There is little doubt that Snofru was finally buried in this pyramid, although the fragments of human remains found inside the burial chamber are not certain to have been his. Interestingly, during the reign of Pepi I of the 6th Dynasty, this pyramid along with its southern neighbor, the Bent Pyramid, was considered as one estate.

The Geometry of the Red Pyramid

The Red Pyramid was built with a slope of only 43°22'. Its base length is 220 meters, that is 32 meters more than the Bent Pyramid. Its height is the same as the Bent Pyramid.
Basic Dimensions:

base length: 220 m
slope: 43^o 22'
height: 104 m
burial chamber: 4.18 x 8.55 m (height: 14.67 m)

Fig. 2 The Red Pyramid and its internal structure.
Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 104-105.

The broader base and lower slope were intended to better spread the mass of this pyramid and thus avoid the structural problems that had temporarily halted works on the Bent Pyramid.
The internal structure of this pyramid is a further continuation of the pyramid at Meidum and the Bent Pyramid. Contrary to this latter monument, however, there is only one internal structure, making it a lot more simple.
The entrance is located 28 m high up in the Northern face of the pyramid.
A descending passage (at an angle of 27 degrees) leads down for 62.63 m to a short horizontal corridor 7.4m long. This is followed by two almost identical antechambers with corbelled roofs. Both antechambers measure 3.65 by 8.36 m and are 12.31 m high.

The burial chamber can only be reached via a short passage which opens high up in the wall of the second antechamber. The burial chamber measures 4.18 by 8.55 m. Its corbelled roof goes up to a height of 14.67 m. It is located well above ground level, in the core of the pyramid.

The chapel built against the Eastern face of the pyramid was finished hastily, probably after the death of Snofru. It is somewhat more elaborate than the eastern chapel of the Red Pyramid or the pyramid at Meidum in that it houses an inner sanctuary, flanked by two smaller chapels.

There is no trace of a causeway leading down to the Valley Temple, of which few remains were found at the end of the 19th century.

In fact, all three of the chambers in this pyramid have corbelled ceilings, with between eleven and fourteen layers. Even with some two million tones of stone above, this ceiling design is so strong that there are no cracks or structural problems even today.

Fig. 3 The Red Pyramid, Corbelled Ceiling

A short passage on the south side of the first chamber leads to a second chamber. These first two chambers are at ground level, while a third chamber is higher, built within the masonry of the pyramid itself.

The second chamber is unusual in that it lies directly under the apex of the pyramid, or center point of the pyramid. It is one of the only pyramids in Egypt to have this design layout. The final chamber, with its entrance passageway about 25 feet above the floor of the second chamber, can be accessed by a staircase (of modern construction).

Egyptologists believe the final chamber was intended to be the actual burial chamber. The floor has been excavated in an unsuccessful attempt to find other passageways.

Design of the Red Pyramid

It appears that the Red Pyramid design was based on the pentagon.

Each triangular segment of a pentagon has 72° at the central point (360°/5=72°).
Using 4 of the 5 triangles of a pentagon a pyramid can be made
(with a base equal to the base of the pentagon's side)
that will have the same proportions as the Red Pyramid.

Fig. 4a
The pentagon and the red pyramid - perspective view.
© 2004 by World-Mysteries.com

Fig. 4b
The pentagon and the red pyramid - top view.
© 2004 by World-Mysteries.com

Using very basic reasoning we can see that the angle of the slope of the pyramid
(α ) can be found from this equation cos α = tan 36°, which gives α= 43°24'.

This theoretical slope angle of 43°24' ( 43.402680°) is practically identical
to the measured slope angle of the Red Pyramid: 43° 22'.

* * *

The Bent Pyramid

Two slope angles of the Bent Pyramid match a design based on a HEXAGON (for the lower part)
and a PENTAGON (for the upper part) principles:

The Bent Pyramid - slope angle:	Measured	Theoretical
Lower part	54° 27'	54° 44'
Upper part	43° 22'	43° 24'

Note: For hexagon: cos α = tan 30° --> α= 54° 44'

Fig. 5 The Bent Pyramid

Fig. 6 The hexagon principle gives the slope angle
for the base of the Bent Pyramid.
© 2004 by World-Mysteries.com

Image Source: http://www.invisibletemple.com/geometry1.html

Enter the Bent Pyramid! _****/****

* * *

For the angle of the Great Pyramid, any theory of the base, combined with any theory of the height, yields a theoretic angle; but the angles actually proposed are the following (Source: Page 184, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh by Sir W.M.Flinders Petrie 1883):

Angle of casing measured

By theory of 34 slope to 21 base
Height : circumference :: radius to circle
9 height on 10 base diagonally
7 height to 22 circumference
area of face = area of height squared
(or sine) = cotangent, and many other relations)

2 height vertical to 3 height diagonal
5 height on 4 base

51º 52' ± 2' (51.867)

51º 51' 20"
51º 51' 14.3"
51º 50' 39.1"
51º 50' 34.0"
51º 49' 38.3"

51º 40' 16.2"
51º 20' 25"

Fig. 7 The Great Pyramid design principle
Related link: Geometry of the Great Pyramid

Links and Resources

Mummies of 15th century dogs discovered in Peru

2010-11-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

LIMA — Peruvian archaeologists have discovered six mummified dogs, all dating from the 15th century and apparently presented as religious offerings at a major pre-Columbian site just south of Lima.
The dogs "have hair and complete teeth," said Jesus Holguin, an archaeologist at the museum in Pachacamac, located some 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Lima.
Holguin told AFP Wednesday that experts were still trying to determine their breed.
The mummified remains of four children were also found at the site, archaeologists said.
The mummified dogs were found two weeks ago wrapped in cloth and buried in one of Pachacamac's adobe brick pyramids.
Archaeologists believe the animals were offerings related to a funeral, "although we do not know if this was related to an important personality of the Inca period," said archaeologist Isabel Cornejo.
The experts believe the dogs are neither Hairless Peruvian Dogs -- an ancient native breed -- nor sheepdogs found at gravesites of the Chiribaya culture, which flourished in southern Peru between the years 900 and 1350.
"Their strong teeth lead us to believe that they are domestic dogs that were used for hunting," added another expert, Enrique Angulo.
Researchers will x-ray the finds in an attempt to determine the breed of the animals and whether the dogs were slaughtered.
Pachacamac museum director Denise Pozzi-Escot said that the find will let researchers broaden their knowledge of ancient Peruvian canines.
The remains are well preserved due to the type of soil and the dry weather along the Peruvian coastline, where it rarely rains.
At its height, Pachacamac was the most important ceremonial center on Peru's central coast, where thousands of pilgrims flocked from afar bringing rich offerings. Human sacrifices took place at the site.
At least three different societies occupied Pachacamac for hundreds before the Incas took it over around 1400. The Incas in turn were defeated by Spanish conquistadors who arrived in 1532.

Two airborne trails spur two very different tales

2010-11-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

Brian Stelter and William J. Broad, The New York Times
Gil Leyvas has been a photojournalist on board a television news helicopter for a decade. He has seen countless airplanes and their wispy contrails. What he saw – and recorded – near Los Angeles on Nov. 4 and 8 looked nothing like the trail from an airplane. It looked, to him, like the launching of a missile.
The first time, it looked like a far-off plume of smoke over the Pacific Ocean. The second time, it appeared to be rising into the air, a large vertical column set against the bright orange sky at sunset.
The sunset video piqued the attention of KCBS, the TV station Leyvas works for, and by dawn the next day, last Tuesday, news anchors were speaking of a "mystery missile," one that apparently posed no danger to Los Angeles but that baffled people who saw it. By the end of the day, the video had garnered worldwide attention, which the absence of an official government explanation magnified.
On Wednesday, about 30 hours after the "mystery missile" started attracting news media attention, a Pentagon spokesman said that "there is no evidence to suggest that this is anything else other than a condensation trail from an aircraft." That day, news coverage took a sharp turn, with many reporters, and experts, concluding that what Leyvas had seen was an airplane or, barring that, an optical illusion. Some experts chastised media outlets for running with a half-baked, whole-hyped story.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said from the start that the tape showed an airplane. In an interview, Pike, whose group in Alexandria, Va., analyzes space and military technologies, defended the military's evasiveness as resulting not from dissembling but from the difficulty of knowing with certainty what every part of its vast network was up to. Pike added that television news programs had acted irresponsibly in pushing the missile hypothesis without bothering to establish basic facts that would have quickly cleared up the riddle.
Scott Diener, news director at KCBS, said that the experts interviewed by KCBS on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning had leaned toward the missile hypothesis, spurring the initial "mystery missile" coverage. Asked why he thought there had been a change in the tone of the coverage, he surmised that the aircraft was "the explainable answer as opposed to the unexplainable."
Brian Stelter

Bermuda Triangle

2010-11-14T04:13:00.000-08:00

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared. Some people have claimed that these disappearances fall beyond the boundaries of human error or acts of nature. Some of these disappearances have been attributed to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings by popular culture. Though a substantial documentation exists showing numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have gone on record as stating the number and nature of disappearances to be similar to any other area of ocean, many have remained unexplained despite considerable investigation.

The Triangle Area The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezoid covering the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean island area east to the Azores; others add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar, triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.
The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South America from points north.
The Gulf Stream ocean current flows through the Triangle after leaving the Gulf of Mexico; its current of five to six knots may have played a part in a number of disappearances. Sudden storms can and do appear, and in the summer to late fall hurricanes strike the area. The combination of heavy maritime traffic and tempestuous weather makes it inevitable that vessels could founder in storms and be lost without a trace - especially before improved telecommunications, radar, and satellite technology arrived late in the 20th century.

History of the Triangle Story According to the Triangle authors, Christopher Columbus was the first person to document something strange in the Triangle, reporting that he and his crew observed "strange dancing lights on the horizon", flames in the sky, and at another point he wrote in his log about bizarre compass bearings in the area. From his log book, dated October 11, 1492 he wrote:

The land was first seen by a sailor (Rodrigo de Triana), although the Admiral at ten o'clock that evening standing on the quarter-deck saw a light, but so small a body that he could not affirm it to be land; calling to Pero Gutierrez, groom of the King's wardrobe, he told him he saw a light, and bid him look that way, which he did and saw it; he did the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the squadron as comptroller, but he was unable to see it from his situation. The Admiral again perceived it once or twice, appearing like the light of a wax candle moving up and down, which some thought an indication of land. But the Admiral held it for certain that land was near...Modern scholars checking the original log books have surmised that the lights he saw were the cooking fires of Taino natives in their canoes or on the beach; the compass problems were the result of a false reading based on the movement of a star.
The first article of any kind in which the legend of the Triangle began appeared in newspapers by E.V.W. Jones on September 16, 1950, through the Associated Press.
Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door", a short article by George X. Sand in the October 1952 issue covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine.
The article was titled "The Lost Patrol", by Allen W. Eckert, and in his story it was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." "The Lost Patrol" was the first to connect the supernatural to Flight 19, but it would take another author, Vincent Gaddis, writing in the February 1964 Argosy Magazine to take Flight 19 together with other mysterious disappearances and place it under the umbrella of a new catchy name: "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle"; he would build on that article with a more detailed book, Invisible Horizons, the next year. Others would follow with their own works: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost,1969); Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974); Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974), and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.

Kusche's Explanation Lawrence David Kusche, a research librarian from Arizona State University and author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975) has challenged this trend. Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants, and others involved in the initial incidents. He noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Another example was the ore-carrier Berlitz recounted as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the Pacific Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents which have sparked the Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it. Often his research was surprisingly simple: he would go over period newspapers and see items like weather reports that were never mentioned in the stories.
Kusche came to several conclusions:

The number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the area was not significantly greater, proportionally speaking, than in any other part of the ocean. In an area frequented by tropical storms, the number of disappearances that did occur were, for the most part, neither disproportionate, unlikely, nor mysterious; furthermore, Berlitz and other writers would often fail to mention such storms. The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat listed as missing would be reported, but its eventual (if belated) return to port may not be reported. Some disappearances had in fact, never happened. One plane crash was said to have taken place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses; a check of the local papers revealed nothing.Kusche concluded that:

The Legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery ... perpetuated by writers who either purposely or unknowingly made use of misconceptions, faulty reasoning, and sensationalism.

Natural Explanations

Methane Hydrates An explanation for some of the disappearances focuses on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. A paper was published by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, offshore southeastern United States, in 1981. Periodic methane eruptions are capable of producing ship-sized bubbles, or regions of water with so much dissolved gas, that the fluid density is no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships to float. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink almost directly and without warning. Experiments have proven that a methane bubble can indeed sink a ship by decreasing the density of the water.
Methane gas can also crash planes. The less dense air causes planes to lose lift. Also, the altimeter of planes (the instrument that measures the altitude) functions on the density of air. Because methane is less dense, the altimeter assumes the plane is climbing. Planes at night or in the clouds, where they can't see the ground, assume that they are climbing and dive, causing them to crash. Also, methane in the engine throws off the mix of fuel and air. Aircraft engines burn hydrocarbons (gasoline or jet fuel) with oxygen provided by the air. When the ambient oxygen levels drop, combustion can stop, and the engine stalls. All of these effects of methane gas have been shown experimentally.
Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water; any wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the Gulf Stream. It has been hypothesized that periodic methane eruptions (sometimes called "mud volcanoes") may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning.
A white paper was published in 1981 by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, off the southeastern United States coast. However, according to a USGS web page, no large releases of gas hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 15,000 years.

Hurricanes Hurricanes are extremely powerful storms which are spawned in the Atlantic near the equator, and have historically been responsible for thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert, one of the most powerful hurricanes in history, set back Jamaica's economy by three years. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is an ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, and then through the Straits of Florida, into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine trouble will be carried away from its reported position by the current, as happened to the cabin cruiser Witchcraft on December 22, 1967, when it reported engine trouble near the Miami buoy marker one mile (1.6 km) from shore, but was not there when a Coast Guard cutter arrived.

Freak Waves Extremely large waves can appear seemingly at random, even in calm seas. One such rogue wave caused the Ocean Ranger, then the world's largest offshore platform, to capsize in 1982. There is, however, no particular reason to believe rogue waves are more common in the Bermuda region, and this explanation cannot account for the loss of airplanes.
Research has shown that freak waves up to 30 m (100 feet) tall, capable of sinking the largest ships within moments, can and do happen. Although these are very rare, in some areas ocean currents mean they happen more often than the norm. Such waves have now been hypothesized as a cause for many unexplained shipping losses over the years.
The book was a best seller, and many interested readers offered theories to explain the nature of the disappearances. The list includes natural storms, transportation by extraterrestrial technology, high-traffic volumes (and correspondingly high accident rates), a "temporal hole," the lost Atlantis empire from the bottom of the ocean, and other natural and supernatural causes.

Glowing Water Aerial photos taken in 2005 show the phenomenon of glowing water. Whatever causes this phosphorescence to vent up from the Bahama Bank bottoms, if that is its cause, remains a mystery.
The Triangle's location in the Caribbean makes it subject to unpredictable weather patterns. This takes us to Earth changes and the excalation of intense hurricanes in 2005 with more to come in the years ahead.
These weather extremes prey on inexperienced navigators and smaller boats and planes. Water spouts, sudden electrical and thunder storms, and the like, can cause havoc in the area. The Gulf Stream can also be brutal in that region and perhaps has swept away evidence of natural disasters.

Electronic Fog Many people have reported seeing portals opening in cloudy skies - strange swirling lights sometimes accompanied by sounds - temporal distortions - electromagnetic distortions called 'electronic fog' that can cause a time storm, and the disappearance of planes and ships. There is something about this fog that is important and gives one the sense of all things paranormal. Something unexplained is definitely happening in that region of the Atlantic. This goes back to ancient explorers such as Christopher Columbus and his crew who experienced the phenomenon.

Acts of Man

Human Error One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Whether deliberate or accidental, humans have been known to make mistakes resulting in catastrophe, and losses within the Bermuda Triangle are no exception. For example, the Coast Guard cited a lack of proper training for the cleaning of volatile benzene residue as a reason for the loss of the tanker V.A. Fogg in 1972. Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, the Revonoc, as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958. It should be noted that many losses remain inconclusive due to the lack of wreckage which could be studied, a fact cited on many official reports.

Deliberate Acts of Destruction This can fall into two categories: acts of war, and acts of piracy. Records in enemy files have been checked for numerous losses; while many sinkings have been attributed to surface raiders or submarines during the World Wars and documented in the various command log books, many others which have been suspected as falling in that category have not been proven; it is suspected that the loss of USS Cyclops in 1918, as well as her sister ships Proteus and Nereus in World War II, were attributed to submarines, but no such link has been found in the German records.
Piracy, as defined by the taking of a ship or small boat on the high seas, is an act which continues to this day. While piracy for cargo theft is more common in the western Pacific and Indian oceans, drug smugglers do steal pleasure boats for smuggling operations, and may have been involved in crew and yacht disappearances in the Caribbean. Historically famous pirates of the Caribbean (where piracy was common from about 1560 to the 1760s) include Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Jean Lafitte. Lafitte is sometimes said to be a Triangle victim himself.
Another form of pirate operated on dry land. Bankers or wreckers would shine a light on shore to misdirect ships, which would then founder on the shore; the wreckers would then help themselves to the cargo. It is possible that these wreckers also killed any crew who protested. Nags Head, North Carolina, was named for the wreckers' practice of hanging a lantern on the head of a hobbled horse as it walked along the beach.

Popular Theories Triangle writers have used a number of supernatural theories to explain the events. One explanation pins the blame on leftover technology from the lost continent of Atlantis. Sometimes connected to the Atlantis story is the submerged rock formation known as the Bimini Road off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, which is in the Triangle by some definitions. Followers of the purported psychic Edgar Cayce take his prediction that evidence of Atlantis would be found in 1968 or '69 as referring to the discovery of the Bimini Road. Believers describe the formation as a road, wall, or other structure, though geologists consider it to be of natural origin.
Other writers attribute the events to UFOs. This idea was used by Steven Spielberg for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which features the lost Flight 19 as alien abductees.
Charles Berlitz, grandson of a distinguished linguist and author of various additional books on anomalous phenomena, has kept in line with this extraordinary explanation, and attributed the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained forces.

Famous Incidents

Flight 19 Flight 19 was a training flight of TBM Avenger bombers that went missing on December 5, 1945 while over the Atlantic. The impression is given that the flight encountered unusual phenomena and anomalous compass readings, and that the flight took place on a calm day under the supervision of an experienced pilot, Lt. Charles Carroll Taylor. Adding to the intrigue is that the Navy's report of the accident was ascribed to "causes or reasons unknown." It is believed that Taylor's mother wanted to save her son's reputation, so she made them write "reasons unknown" when actually Taylor was 50 km NW from where he thought he was.
While the basic facts of this version of the story are essentially accurate, some important details are missing. The weather was becoming stormy by the end of the incident; only Taylor had any significant flying time, but he was not familiar with the south Florida area and had a history of getting lost in flight, having done so three times during World War II, and being forced to ditch his planes twice into the water; and naval reports and written recordings of the conversations between Taylor and the other pilots of Flight 19 do not indicate magnetic problems.
On December 5th, 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers lifted into the air from the Navel Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 2:10 in the afternoon. It was a routine practice mission and the flight was composed of all students except for the Commander, a Lt. Charles Taylor.
The mission called for Taylor and his group of 13 men to fly due east 56 miles to Hens and Chicken Shoals to conduct practice bombing runs. When they had completed that objective, the flight plan called for them to fly an additional 67 miles east, then turn north for 73 miles and finally straight back to base, a distance of 120 miles. This course would take them on a triangular path over the sea.
About an hour and a half after the flight had left, a Lt. Robert Cox picked up a radio transmission from Taylor. Taylor indicated that his compasses were not working, but he believed himself to be somewhere over the Florida Keys (the Keys are a long chain of islands south of the Florida mainland). Cox urged him to fly north, toward Miami, if Taylor was sure the flight was over the Keys.
Planes today have a number of ways that they can check their current position including listening to a set of GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) in orbit around the Earth. It is almost impossible for a pilot to get lost if he has the right equipment and uses it properly.
In 1945, though, planes flying over water had to depend on knowing their starting point, how long and fast they had flown, and in what direction. If a pilot made a mistake with any of these figures, he was lost. Over the ocean there were no landmarks to set him right.
Apparently Taylor had become confused at some point in the flight. He was an experienced pilot, but hadn't spent a lot of time flying east toward the Bahamas which was where he was going on that day. For some reason Taylor apparently thought the flight had started out in the wrong direction and had headed south toward the Florida Keys, instead of east. This thought was to color his decisions throughout the rest of the flight with deadly results.
The more Taylor took his flight north to try to get out of the Keys, the further out to sea the Avengers actually traveled. As time went on, snatches of transmissions were picked up on the mainland indicating the other Flight 19 pilots were trying to get Taylor to change course. "If we would just fly west," one student told another, "we would get home." He was right.
By 4:45 P.M. it was obvious to the people on the ground that Taylor was hopelessly lost. He was urged to turn control of the flight over to one of his students, but apparently he didn't. As it grew dark, communications deteriorated. From the few words that did get through it was apparent Taylor was still flying north and east, the wrong directions.
At 5:50 P.M. the ComGulf Sea Frontier Evaluation Center managed get a fix on Flight 19's weakening signals. It was apparently east of New Smyrna Beach, Florida. By then communications were so poor that this information could not be passed to the lost planes.
At 6:20 a Dumbo Flying Boat was dispatched to try and find Flight 19 and guide it back. Within the hour two more planes, Martin Mariners, joined the search. Hope was rapidly fading for Flight 19 by then. The weather was getting rough and the Avengers were very low on fuel.
The two Martin Mariners were supposed to rendezvous at the search zone. The second one, designated Training 49, never showed up.
The last transmission from Flight 19 was heard at 7:04 P.M. Planes searched the area through the night and the next day. There was no sign of the Avengers.

Nor did the authorities really expect to find much. The Avengers, crashing when their fuel was exhausted, would have been sent to the bottom in seconds by the 50 foot waves of the storm. As one of Taylor's colleagues noted, they didn't call those planes 'Iron Birds' for nothing. They weighed 14,000 pounds empty. So when they ditched, they went down pretty fast.
What happened to the missing Martin Mariner? The crew of the SS Gaines Mill observed an explosion over the water shortly after the Mariner had taken off. They headed toward the site and there they saw what looked like oil and airplane debris floating on the surface. None of it was recovered because of the bad weather, but there seems little doubt this was the remains of the Mariner. The plane had a reputation as being a 'flying bomb' which would burst into flame from even a single, small spark. Speculation is that one of 22 men on board, unaware that the unpressurized cabin contained gas fumes, lit a cigarette, causing the explosion.
So how did this tragedy turn into a Bermuda Triangle mystery? The Navy's original investigation concluded the accident had been caused by Taylor's confusion. Taylor's mother refused to accept that and finally got the Navy to change the report to read that the disaster was for "causes or reasons unknown." This may have spared the woman's feelings, but blurred the actual facts.
The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle. The planes, and their pilots, even found their way into the science fiction film classic, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'
Where is Flight 19 now? In 1991 five Avengers were found in 600 feet of water off the coast of Florida by the salvage ship Deep Sea. Examination of the planes showed that they were not Flight 19, however, so the final resting place of the planes, and their crews is still the Bermuda Triangle's secret.

The Mary Celeste The mysterious abandonment in 1872 of the Mary Celeste is often but inaccurately connected to the Triangle, the ship having been abandoned off the coast of Portugal. Many theories have been put forth over the years to explain the abandonment, including alcohol fumes from the cargo and insurance fraud. The event is possibly confused with the sinking of a ship with a similar name, the Mari Celeste, off the coast of Bermuda on September 13, 1864, which is mentioned in the book Bermuda Shipwrecks by Dan Berg.

Ellen Austin The Ellen Austin supposedly came across an abandoned derelict, placed on board a prize crew, and attempted to sail with it to New York in 1881. According to the stories, the derelict disappeared; others elaborating further that the derelict reappeared minus the prize crew, then disappeared again with a second prize crew on board. A check of Lloyd's of London records proved the existence of the Meta, built in 1854; in 1880 the Meta was renamed Ellen Austin. There are no casualty listings for this vessel, or any vessel at that time, that would suggest a large number of missing men placed on board a derelict which later disappeared

USS Cyclops The incident resulting in the single largest loss of life in the history of the U.S. Navy not related to combat occurred when USS Cyclops under the command of Lieutenant Commander G. W. Worley, went missing without a trace with a crew of 306 sometime after March 4, 1918, after departing the island of Barbados. Although there is no strong evidence for any theory, storms, capsizing and enemy activity have all been suggested as explanations.

Theodosia Burr Alston Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of former United States Vice President Aaron Burr. Her disappearance has been cited at least once in relation to the Triangle, in The Bermuda Triangle by Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey (1975). She was a passenger on board the Patriot, which sailed from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City on December 30, 1812, and was never heard from again. Both piracy and the War of 1812 have been posited as explanations, as well as a theory placing her in Texas, well outside the Triangle.

Spray Captain Joshua Slocum's skill as a mariner was beyond argument; he was the first man to sail around the world solo. In 1909, in his boat Spray he set out on a course to take him through the Caribbean to Venezuela. He disappeared; there was no evidence he was even in the Triangle when Spray was lost. It was assumed he was run down by a steamer or struck by a whale, the Spray being too sound a craft and Slocum too experienced a mariner for any other cause to be considered likely, and in 1924 he was declared legally dead. While a mystery, there is no known evidence for, or against, paranormal activity.

Carroll A. Deering A five-masted schooner built in 1919, the Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on January 31, 1921. Rumors and more at the time indicated the Deering was a victim of piracy, possibly connected with the illegal rum-running trade during Prohibition, and possibly involving another ship, S.S. Hewitt, which disappeared at roughly the same time. Just hours later, an unknown steamer sailed near the lightship along the track of the Deering, and ignored all signals from the lightship. It is speculated that the Hewitt may have been this mystery ship, and possibly involved in the Deering crew's disappearance.

Douglas DC-3 On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3aircraft, number NC16002, disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No trace of the aircraft or the 32 people onboard was ever found. From the documentation compiled by the Civil Aeronautics Board investigation, a possible key to the plane's disappearance was found, but barely touched upon by the Triangle writers: the plane's batteries were inspected and found to be low on charge, but ordered back into the plane without a recharge by the pilot while in San Juan. Whether or not this led to complete electrical failure will never be known. However, since piston-engined aircraft rely upon magnetos to provide electrical power and spark to their cylinders rather than batteries, this theory is unlikely.

Star Tiger and Star Ariel These Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft disappeared without trace en route to Bermuda and Jamaica, respectively. Star Tiger was lost on January 30, 1948 on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda. Star Ariel was lost on January 17, 1949, on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica. Neither aircraft gave out a distress call; in fact, their last messages were routine. A possible clue to their disappearance was found in the mountains of the Andes in 1998: the Star Dust, an Avro Lancastrian airliner run by the same airline, had disappeared on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile on August 2, 1947.
The plane's remains were discovered at the melt end of a glacier, suggesting that either the crew did not pay attention to their instruments, suffered an instrument failure or did not allow for headwind effects from the jetstream on the way to Santiago when it hit a mountain peak, with the resulting avalanche burying the remains and incorporating it into the glacier. However, this is mere speculation with regard to the Star Tiger and Star Ariel, pending the recovery of the aircraft. It should be noted that the Star Tiger was flying at a height of just 2,000 feet (610 m), which would have meant that if the plane was forced down, there would have been no time to send out a distress message. It is also far too low for the jetstream or any other high-altitude wind to have any effect.

KC-135 Stratotankers On August 28, 1963 a pair of U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft collided and crashed into the Atlantic. The Triangle version (Winer, Berlitz, Gaddis) of this story specifies that they did collide and crash, but there were two distinct crash sites, separated by over 160 miles (260 km) of water. However, Kusche's research showed that the unclassified version of the Air Force investigation report stated that the debris field defining the second "crash site" was examined by a search and rescue ship, and found to be a mass of seaweed and driftwood tangled in an old buoy.

SS Marine Sulphur Queen SS Marine Sulphur Queen, a T2 tanker converted from oil to sulfur carrier, was last heard from on February 4, 1963 with a crew of 39 near the Florida Keys. Marine Sulphur Queen was the first vessel mentioned in Vincent Gaddis' 1964 Argosy Magazine article, but he left it as having "sailed into the unknown", despite the Coast Guard report which not only documented the ship's badly-maintained history, but declared that it was an unseaworthy vessel that should never have gone to sea.

SS Marine Raifuku Maru One of the more famous incidents in the Triangle took place in 1921 (some say a few years later), when the Japanese vessel Raifuku Maru (sometimes misidentified as Raikuke Maru) went down with all hands after sending a distress signal which allegedly said "Danger like dagger now. Come quick!", or "It's like a dagger, come quick!" This has led writers to speculate on what the "dagger" was, with a waterspout being the likely candidate (Winer). In reality the ship was nowhere near the Triangle, nor was the word "dagger" a part of the ship's distress call ("Now very danger. Come quick."); having left Boston for Hamburg, Germany, on April 21, 1925, she got caught in a severe storm and sank in the North Atlantic with all hands while another ship, RMS Homeric, attempted an unsuccessful rescue.

Connemara IV A pleasure yacht found adrift in the Atlantic south of Bermuda on September 26, 1955; it is usually stated in the stories (Berlitz, Winer) that the crew vanished while the yacht survived being at sea during three hurricanes. The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season lists only one storm coming near Bermuda towards the end of August, hurricane "Edith"; of the others, "Flora" was too far to the east, and "Katie" arrived after the yacht was recovered. It was confirmed that the Connemara IV was empty and in port when "Edith" may have caused the yacht to slip her moorings and drift out to sea.

Skeptical Responses The marine insurer Lloyd's of London has determined the Triangle to be no more dangerous than any other area of ocean, and does not charge unusual rates for passage through the region. United States Coast Guard records confirm their conclusion. In fact, the number of supposed disappearances is relatively insignificant considering the number of ships and aircraft which pass through on a regular basis.
The Coast Guard is also officially skeptical of the Triangle, noting that they collect and publish, through their inquiries, much documentation contradicting many of the incidents written about by the Triangle authors. In one such incident involving the 1972 explosion and sinking of the tanker V.A. Fogg in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and recovered several bodies despite one Triangle author stating that all the bodies had vanished, with the exception of the captain, who was found sitting in his cabin at his desk, clutching a coffee cup (Limbo of the Lost by John Wallace Spencer, 1973 edition).
The NOVA / Horizon episode The Case of the Bermuda Triangle (June 27, 2006) was highly critical stating that "When we've gone back to the original sources or the people involved the mystery evaporates. Science does not have to answer questions about the Triangle because those questions are not valid in the first place. ... Ships and planes behave in the Triangle the same way they behave everywhere else in the world"
Skeptical researchers, such as Ernest Taves and Barry Singer, have noted how mysteries and the paranormal are very popular and profitable. This has led to the production of vast amounts of material on topics such as the Bermuda Triangle. They were able to show that some of the pro-paranormal material is often misleading or not accurate, but its producers continue to market it. They have therefore claimed that the market is biased in favour of books, TV specials, et cetera. which support the Triangle mystery and against well-researched material if it espouses a skeptical viewpoint.
Finally, if the Triangle is assumed to cross land, such as parts of Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, or Bermuda itself, there is no evidence for the disappearance of any land-based vehicles or persons. Located inside the Triangle, Freeport operates a major shipyard, an airport which yearly handles 50,000 flights and is visited by over a million tourists annually.

Compass Variations Compass problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle incidents. Some have theorized the possibility of unusual local magnetic anomalies in the area, however these have not been shown to exist. It should also be remembered that compasses have natural magnetic variations in relation to the Magnetic poles. For example, in the United States the only places where magnetic (compass) north and geographic (true) north are exactly the same are on a line running from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico. Navigators have known this for centuries. But the public may not be as informed and think there is something mysterious about the compass "changing" across an area as large as the Triangle, which it naturally will.

Located on the 80th degree longitude, the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two areas on Earth where a compass will point at true north rather than magnetic north. This compass variation can be as much as 20 degrees, enough to throw one catastrophically off course. The other is the Devil's Sea.
Bermuda Triangle Wikipedia
List of Bermuda Triangle Incidents Wikipedia

Devil's Sea - Devil's Triangle - Dragon's Triangle The Devil's Sea is classified by many as having the same paranormal effects as the Bermuda Triangle. It is located in a region of the Pacific around Miyake Island, about 100 km south of Tokyo. Although the name is used by Japanese fishermen, it does not appear on nautical maps. In popular culture, especially in the United States, the Devil's Sea is widely believed to be, together with Bermuda Triangle, an area where ships and planes particularly often disappear mysteriously. The Japanese, on the other hand, do not consider the Devil's Sea to be any more mysterious or dangerous than other coastal waters of Japan.
Contrary to several claims, neither the Devil's Sea nor the Bermuda Triangle is located on the agonic line, where the magnetic north equals the geographic north. The magnetic declination in this area is about 6 degrees. As is the case with all things mysterious, there are many theories regarding the Devil's Sea. One of the most prominent is that there is a large amount of volcanic activity around the area, and an underwater volcano could obliterate a ship without a trace.

Columbus and the Sargasso Sea The Sargasso Sea is located in the east side of the triangle in the middle of the Atlantic. It houses a few small islands and masses of clumped floating seaweed. A warm water current within it swirls clockwise, affecting the weather of the area, keeping it calm and steamy. Having little wind, this area greatly affects unpowered ships.
Christopher Columbus wrote in his diary about this sea. In fact, it so fooled his crew that it almost led them to mutiny. There exists the possibility exists of never leaving this legendary sea, he wrote. Another fascinating feature he noted is its ability to draw things in from all over the Atlantic. Some even claim it to be the "catch-basin" of the Atlantic.
Columbus' crew was greatly disappointed when seaweed and land birds were sighted, but after a few days no land was to be seen. Soon after, Columbus wrote, My compass acts strangely. I will not report this to my crew because of their deep superstitions about the area. Days later, Columbus saw a large meteor fall from the sky. He wrote, A large ball of light has fallen from the sky. It is unsure whether he mentions this occurrence in awe, because of its great size, or in fright. Later on their journey, in that area, Columbus and several of his crew members sighted unexplained dancing lights on the horizon. They wandered around for over a week before finally sighting land.

The Michigan Triangle According to Linda S. Godfrey in her book Weird Michigan, the Michigan Triangle is located over central Lake Michigan. One side stretches from the town of Ludington to Benton Harbor in Michigan; another links from Benton Harbor to Manitowoc, Wisconsin; the final side connects Manitowoc back to Ludington.
There are numerous stories of the supposed appearance of strange creatures, unexplained vanishings, time standing still, slowing to a crawl, or speeding up, or other weird happenings.
One well-documented and well-known case includes that of Captain George R. Donner, who commanded the Great Lakes freighter O.M. McFarland. While on a journey back from Erie, Pennsylvania after picking up 9,800 tons of coal, the ship made course westward through the lakes. It was slow going due to late-spring ice floes, but the ship was making steady progress toward its destination, Port Washington, Wisconsin, when Donner disappeared.
On the night of April 28, 1937, the captain took to his cabin, with instructions to be awakened as the ship drew near to port. About three hours later, with Port Washington growing close, the second mate appeared at the captain's cabin, prepared to awake him, but found no one. He and the crew searched the ship, but the captain was nowhere to be seen. The mate reported that the cabin door was locked from the inside, adding to the mystery of the triangle. Reportedly, the ship was in the dead center of the triangle when the captain disappeared.
Another disappearance took place on June 23, 1950, and involved a Northwest Airlines DC-4 aircraft carrying fifty-five passengers and three crew members. This flight 2501 had departed from New York City and was due to land at Minneapolis. The last radio contact recorded with the plane was that it was 3,500 feet over Battle Creek, Michigan and was going to change its course to a northwesterly path over Lake Michigan, due to bad weather near Chicago. After this, the plane was never seen again, nor were the occupants. Even after an extensive search by the Coast Guard, only a blanket with the airline's logo was found. Once again, the aircraft was in the center of the supposed triangle when it disappeared.

Formosa Triangle The Formosa Triangle is a roughly 5 million square kilometer region of the Pacific between Gilbert Islands, Taiwan, and Wake Atoll, where, allegedly, ships frequently disappear under mysterious circumstances. It is supposed to have similar paranormal properties to the Bermuda Triangle. According to Muhammad Isa Dawud, it also has an increased activity of the jinni. The name is not used by the inhabitants of the area, nor does it appear on nautical maps.

Paranormal Theories

Edgar Cayce on Atlantis In 2005, as part of a Sci Fi Channel documentary on the Bermuda Triangle, researcher David Childress explored underwater artifacts called the Scott Stones which he and others believe is linked to Atlantis - one of its locations being the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. No one is certain what the 'stone looking' formations are. Chisel marks would have to be found for them to be determined as manmade, not to mention dating their age.
Edgar Cayce said that the Bahama Banks were the last part of Atlantis to sink, and the last place where these glorious advanced electromagnetic machines went below the ocean. He prophezied that elements of Atlantis would rise in 1968 and 1969. The Bimini Wall or Road was discovered off the coast of Bimini in 1968.
The electromagnetic anomalies in the area, Childress states, are linked to advanced technologies under the water in the Bermuda Triangle that are still active. This goes to ancient mysteries, and perhaps ancient astronauts, about powerful Atlantean crystal technology developed being buried beneath the ocean floor when Atlantis sank into the sea due to cataclysmic events over 10,000 years ago.

Comet Theory The Comet Theory proposes that a comet, of unknown composition, crashed to Earth 11,000 + years ago and embedded itself in the area of the Bermuda Triangle, beneath the ocean floor. If such an object exists there, it could still possess electromagntic properties that we don't entirely understand causing the anomalies in the Bermuda Triangle.

Conspiracy Theory and Government Cover-ups - AUTEC The Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center is allegedly located in the Bermuda Triangle and is sometimes called Underwater Area 51. This US Navy Research Center is a top-secret facility whose exact mission statement is not known to the general public. No one is allowed to visit there or film in or near the facility. Conspiracy theorists suspect they make have created or reproduced these electromagnetic anomalies.
This theory takes the viewer to the events of the Philadelphia Experiment in 1943 - rips in space-time in the Atlantic region - government secret projects and more.

USO's - Unidentified Submerged Objects Could extraterrestrials have anything to do with the Bermuda Triangle, perhaps using it as a vortex - indwells and out wells for spaceships, perhaps since the beginning of time?

Planetary Grid Points Major planetary grid points pass through the Bermuda Triangle.

Dr. Ray Brown's Alleged Subterranean Crystal Pyramid Experience

Black Dahlia

2010-11-13T22:15:00.000-08:00

Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts to parents Cleo and Phoebe Short. She acquired the nickname Black Dahlia after moving to California. The body of Elizabeth Short was found on January 15, 1947, in a vacant lot in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, severely mutilated, cut in two, and drained of blood. Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears, and she was posed with her hands over her head and her elbows bent at right angles. The autopsy indicated she was 5′ 5″ and 115 pounds, with badly decayed teeth, light blue eyes and brown hair. The murder, which remains unsolved, has been the source of widespread speculation as well as several books and film adaptations. The case remains one of Hollywood's long-running mysteries and one of the most gruesome of the 1940s.

On January 15, 1947 Elizabeth Short was found murdered, her body left in a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue between 39th Street and Coliseum. Homemaker Betty Bersinger was running an errand with her three-year-old daughter when she realized that what she was looking at was not a mannequin but an actual body in the lot along the street where she was walking. She went to a nearby house, made an anonymous call to police, and reported the body.

When police arrived on the scene, they found the body of a young woman who had been bisected, displayed face-up on the ground with her arms over her head and her lower half placed a foot away from her torso. Her legs were wide open in a vulgar position and her mouth had three-inch slashes on each side. Rope burns were found on her wrists and ankles. Her head face and body was bruised and cut. There was little blood at the scene, indicating whoever left her, washed the body before bringing it in the lot. The crime scene quickly filled with police, bystanders and reporters. It was later described as being out of control, with people trampling on any evidence investigators hoped to find. Through fingerprints, the body was soon identified as 22-year-old Elizabeth Short or as the press called her, "The Black Dahlia."

A massive investigation into finding her murderer was launched. Because of the brutality of the murder and Elizabeth's sometimes sketchy lifestyle, rumors and speculation was rampant, often being incorrectly reported as fact in newspapers. According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Elizabeth Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" at a Long Beach drugstore in the summer of 1946, as a word play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia. However, Los Angeles County district attorney investigators' reports state the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the murder. In either case, Short was not known as the "Black Dahlia" during her lifetime.

A number of people, none of whom knew Short, contacted police and the newspapers, claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week" between the time of her disappearance January 9 and the time her body was found on January 15. Police and district attorney investigators ruled out each of these alleged sightings, sometimes identifying other women that witnesses had mistaken for Short. Many "true crime" books claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid-1940s; these claims have never been substantiated, and are refuted by the findings of law enforcement officers who investigated the case.

A document in the Los Angeles County district attorney's files titled "Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946" states that Short was in Florida and Massachusetts from September 1943 through the early months of 1946, and gives a detailed account of her living and working arrangements during this period. Although popular belief as well as many true crime books portrayed Short as a call girl, a report by the district attorney's grand jury states there is no existing evidence that she was ever a prostitute. Another widely circulated rumor holds that Short was unable to have sexual intercourse because of some genetic defect that left her with "infantile genitalia." Los Angeles County district attorney's files state the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had sex, including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case. The FBI files on the case also contain a statement from one of Short's alleged lovers.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department's summary of the case, in the district attorney's files, the autopsy describes Short's reproductive organs as anatomically normal. The autopsy also states that Short was not and had never been pregnant, contrary to what is sometimes claimed. The Black Dahlia murder investigation by the LAPD was the largest since the murder of Marion Parker in 1927, and involved hundreds of officers borrowed from other law enforcement agencies. Because of the complexity of the case, the original investigators treated every person who knew Short as a suspect who had to be eliminated.

Hundreds of people were considered suspects and thousands were interviewed by police. Sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage, as well as the nature of the crime, focused intense public attention on the case. About 60 people confessed to the murder, mostly men, as well as a few women. As the case continues to command public attention, many more people have been proposed as Short's killer.

(Sources : http://crime.about.com/od/murder/a/blackdahlia.htm and Wikipedia)

(Pic source : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/95/Black_Dahlia.jpg)

"Lost" Language Found on Back of 400-Year-Old Letter

2010-11-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

Brian Handwerk

for National Geographic News

Published August 27, 2010

Notes on the back of a 400-year-old letter have revealed a previously unknown language once spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Peru, an archaeologist says.
Penned by an unknown Spanish author and lost for four centuries, the battered piece of paper was pulled from the ruins of an ancient Spanish colonial church in 2008.
But a team of scientists and linguists has only recently revealed the importance of the words written on the flip side of the letter.
The early 17th-century author had translated Spanish numbers—uno, dos, tres—and Arabic numerals into a mysterious language never seen by modern scholars.
(Related: "'Lost' Languages to Be Resurrected by Computers"?)
"Even though [the letter] doesn't tell us a whole lot, it does tell us about a language that is very different from anything we've ever known—and it suggests that there may be a lot more out there," said project leader Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
"Lost" Language One of Two Already Known?
The newfound native language may have borrowed from Quechua, a language still spoken by indigenous peoples of Peru, Quilter said.
But it was clearly a unique tongue, and likely one of two known only by the mention of their names in contemporary texts: Quingnam and Pescadora—"language of the fishers."
Some scholars suggest the two are in fact the same tongue that had been misidentified as distinct languages by early Spanish scribes.
(Related: "Languages Racing to Extinction in Five Global 'Hotspots.'")
Also, the writings include translated numbers, which means that the lost language's numerical system was a ten-based, or decimal system—like English.
While the Inca used a ten-based system, many other cultures did not: the Maya, for example, used a base of 20, according to Quilter.
Church Misfortune is Archaeologist's Gain
The letter was found during excavations of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex in northern Peru. (The National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News, has sponsored fieldwork at the site in the past.)
(Related: "Ancient 'Lost City' Discovered in Peru, Official Claims.")
The church served a nearby town once inhabited by indigenous people forcibly relocated to the site by Spaniards, probably for purposes of conversion to Christianity, Quilter said.
The tantalizing fragment is just one of hundreds of historic papers recovered at the site, which has been well preserved by the extremely arid climate—and also by the church's collapse, Quilter added.
"Archaeologists live on other people's misfortunes," Quilter said.
The Spanish colonialists "had the misfortune of having the church collapse—we think probably in the mid-to-late 17th century—which trapped the library or office where they kept their papers."
Language Hints at Diversity of Cultures
Finding the new language at Magdalena de Cao Viejo helps to reinforce the rich diversity of cultures found in early colonial Americas, Quilter said.
"You know that Chinese curse, 'may you live in interesting times'—well that was an extremely interesting time," he said.
“We often think of a confrontation of Spanish and Native Americans, but in almost every location, from Massachusetts to Peru, it was a confrontation of a much more diverse group of people."
For instance, colonialists from many parts of Europe were grouped into "the Spanish," and in the Americas there were many people who spoke different languages and had different customs, he noted.
"it really shows how rich and diverse that world was."
Discovery of the lost language is described in the September issue of the journal American Anthropologist.

Mysterious Hole Phenomeno

2010-11-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

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>> Apr 29, 2009

There are several examples of the Mysterious Hole that have appeared in the USA, in remote parts of Russia, and recently in Guatemala. From the end of 1980s a strange phenomena is happening in some Russian forests. In the case of Russia, the holes have been found in at least three regions: Ryazan region, Kaluga region, and Krasnoyarsk region. In the Ryazan region, the phenomenon of the Mysterious Holes occurred at least ten years ago. People find strange, deep holes. They appear in the dense forest, in the places you can't get on the car or truck to bring any device to drill the ground. There is no any soil [sic] that should be taken from such deep holes is found. In Siberia, human groans heard from a super deep hole drilled on a plateau between the Aral and Caspian seas were recorded and sent to the Soviet Academy of Sciences for further studies. But researchers did not take the mystical phenomena seriously, and the record was lost.

Almost all religions of the planet say that there is some underground realm. At that, each religion has its peculiar description of the realm. Some elements of the description however are typical of all religions. First of all, the population of the underground realm consists of ‘masters’ and people who get there after their death. Second, people get under the surface in the form of shadows, souls and others known today as clots of information and energy fields. Third, the ‘masters’ and sometimes the souls posses unique information about the past and even about the future. To obtain this information one has either to send his soul to the underground realm like Siberian shamans do, or help the shadows become visible and audible for some time. In ancient Greece there were special rituals involving obligatory blood shed.

Esoteric experts state that the bloody rituals were first of all connected with the unique energetic and informational saturation of blood. Attempts to obtain the information possessed by the ‘masters’ of the underground world were taken in all epochs and even in the modern time.

Russian researcher Nikolay Rerich was the first to organize an expedition to the legendary area of Shambala inhabited by wise ‘teachers’ and concealed from people’s eyes under the Himalayan Mountains. He successfully conducted the expedition and brought a message from the ‘teachers’ especially for the Soviet Government. Gleb Bokiy from the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (earlier the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission) also planned an expedition to the mysterious Shambala. The preparation was controlled by the Commissariat Head Felix Dzerzhinsky. When the latter died financing of the project was stopped. It is known that Germany’s Waffen SS of the Third Reich also organized expeditions to Shambala. The structure and objectives of the organization resembled so much those of the mystical orders that existed in Germany before WWII. The organization, as well as the orders, wanted to keep it secret that creatures with superhuman power existed deep under the surface.

The creatures employed meditation and self-discipline to gain power over the natural phenomena and attain the level of Gods. When Adolph Hitler, who as some researchers believe possessed extrasensory capabilities, came to power he supported the idea of a Hollow Earth and even made it official. Russian researcher of the occult magic of fascist Germany Sergey Zubkov states that race clearing in the Third Reich and organization of secret societies were meant to help the mysterious ‘masters’ out from under the surface for active participation in reorganization of the world.

SS even had a special structure for collecting mystical information of the secret societies that at that time existed in Germany and employed the information for researches aimed to create a mystical weapon for solution of war problems. The organization sent expeditions to Tibet and the Himalayas.

The first expedition searching for Shambala started in 1931. The expedition failed to discover the way to the underground world but it brought lots of Tibetan manuscripts to Germany which proved that the ‘mysterious’ masters actually existed under the surface. Later, the organization sent even more expeditions to the area. Who are the mysterious creatures living under the surface and where could they come from? President of the Association of Engineer Biolocation Vladimir Khlopkov is absolutely sure that some sentient beings live under the surface. Ten years ago, he conducted some kind of a brain storm of the planet’s interior.

The most experienced operators of the Association used biolocation frames to find the traces of intellect under the surface. The researchers said that they found out intellect at the depth of 200 kilometers under the surface. Khlopkov explained it was a strong intellect but alien to humans. It is clear that albuminous bodies cannot survive under the huge pressure of rocks and terribly high temperatures under the surface. It is highly likely that the discovered intellect is concentrated in some informational and energy clusters. Later, Vladimir Khlopkov discovered several places on the planet’s surface where the intellect probably got out on the surface.

One of the areas was in the town of Zelenograd very close to Moscow. Biolocation operators came across strange formations there during ground tests and at first called them “traces of UFO landing”. When studied closer the traces revealed coincidence with a deep break that geophysics also discovered there. Every evening operators observed a strange biological field creep out from the break and move at a speed of 90 cm per second towards Zelenograd. Little by little the field filled up the whole of the town. In some time, the field began to withdraw at the same speed back to the deep break. The entire of the cycle took about 3.5 hours. Khlopkov said that the field was reading the information in people’s memory.

Mysterious Tunnel In Russia

In the Russian republic of Khakassia, there is the Kashkulakskaya Cave, the name means ‘the cave of a black devil’, in the Mountains of Kuznetsky Alatau. For many years, researchers from the Novosibirsk Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences regularly came to the place to study the strange phenomena that occurred to people staying in the cave for a long period of time. Visitors of the cave were at regular intervals gripped with horror that made them rush to the exit. At that, those people had optical hallucinations that were the same with all people: they saw an elderly man wearing a shaggy horned cap and with his eyes sparkling.

Researchers fixed high-precision magnetometers and other appliances outside and inside of the cave; they compared the indications of the devices with the emotions experienced by people in the cave. It turned out that bursts of a higher magnetic field fixed with the devices coincided with the moments when people felt nervous. At that, devices fixed outside the cave precisely on its outline registered no changes at the time when there was a magnetic storm inside of the cave.

Some researchers participating in the experiment supposed that they came across some kind of a radio-range beacon complying with a strange program and sending signals vertically up, right into the cosmos. May it be so that the mysterious creatures living under the surface came from the space and used the signals for communication with other beings that stayed there in their home?

In Kaluga region (Russia), a shepherd Pyotr Malinkin took his cows out to the pasture as usual. Having gone five kilometers into the field the man was shocked to find a huge hole in the ground six meters in diameter. The pit was not on the spot the day before, it appeared overnight. The shepherd said the animals were scared to approach the hole, they did not eat the grass nearby. Specialists of the Labyrinth public group to study anomalous phenomena went to examine the wonder in the field. Local elderly women confirmed the large hole had appeared in the field indeed. They said the hole had a perfect round shape, as if someone took a huge lump of ground with a cup. Local townsfolk built a fence around the hole not to let curious people and cows fall down in it.

The hole became a local place of interest: people come to see it and picnic nearby, others take photographs against its background. As it turned out, the pit was not round, but oval. It does not look like an excavator pit: there are no bucket tracks on its walls, nothing is seen on the meadow around either – the ground is even. The pit is smooth and vertical inside. There is some water on the bottom of the 4,5-meter deep pit. Specialists of the above-mentioned Labyrinth group believe the hole probably appeared as a result of UFO’s activities: aliens landed their spaceship on the meadow to take ground samples. However, ufologists failed to find any evidence to prove the landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft. Ufologists also proposed the ground hole appeared as a result of a rare inexplicable natural phenomenon.

An identical phenomenon occurred ten years ago in the Ryazan region, when a huge crater reminiscent of a shell-hole appeared in the ground near the Sasovo village. Nobody was able to explain the appearance of the pit. Such hole appeared before in the Rostov and Tula regions of Russia. Local townsfolk told Labyrinth ufologists there was a larger ground hole two kilometers far. It appeared decades ago. Elderly people say village residents used to sacrifice sacks of grain throwing them in the hole to pacify ‘something’ under the ground. During the Soviet years they used to throw branches and stones in the hole, but they never managed to cover it.

Ufologists tried to find the pit, but they could not find the mysterious pit – numerous trees and bushes have grown in the field. Local people said there was another mysterious object in their countryside. They said there is an ‘angry spring’ on the stream nearby. When a person comes to the spring to take some water, it starts ‘boiling.’ If one starts talking near the spring, the water in it boils harder and harder. There used to be a church on the spot where the spring appeared. Legends say the church went under the ground when Napoleon’s army was advancing in the region in 1812.

The Kaluga region is located on limestone soil. Ground waters can dissolve such soil, creating limestone caves, the vaults of which may tumble down at times. This can be an explanation how the village church went under the ground. It is not ruled out mysterious holes appear for the same reason – the ground was probably sucked in a limestone cave. These holes, ufologists believe, are of the terrestrial origin, although it is hard to explain why the walls of the pits are perfectly smooth and even.

Residents of Novoselovo district in the Krasnoyarsk region have come across a mysterious phenomenon in the field. They discovered several tunnels of unknown origin in an area located some 100 meters away from the highway connecting the cities of Krasnoyarsk and Abakan , in the vicinity of the village of Kurgany, Siberian News Agency reports. There are about 10 holes in the field. Each hole has an entrance to a cave-like hollow place in the earth. Some of the tunnels are big enough for a person of medium height to stand up straight. According to one of the suppositions, all the underground passages are interconnected in a network. A few daredevils equipped with flashlights attempted walking across the tunnels. Local residents have a number of theories to explain the origin of the tunnels.

Some people believe the tunnels are the work of unidentified pranksters, others blame mysterious animals which reportedly dig holes in the ground. According to yet another theory, the tunnels may somehow be related to an earthquake that occurred in the area 3 years ago. Krasnoyarsk scientists have not yet made any official statements as to the explanation of the phenomenon.

Enormous Hole In Guatemala

Another mysterious phenomenon occurred in Guatemala. A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed at least two teenagers as it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. Officials blamed the sinkhole on recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.

The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities feared it could widen or others could open up. Rescue operations were on hold until a firefighter, suspended from a cable, could take video and photos above the hole and officials could use the documentation to decide how to proceed.

The dead were identified as Irma and David Soyos, emergency spokesman Juan Carlos Bolanos said. Their bodies were found near the sinkhole, floating in a river of sewage. Their father, Domingo, was still missing, according to disaster coordinator Hugo Hernandez. Several houses and at least one lorry have been swallowed by a giant sinkhole in a poor district of Guatemala City. The hole is said to be more than 100m (330ft) deep.

Residents said they had felt the earth shaking and heard loud noises before the houses collapsed. More than 1,000 homes were evacuated in the area. The national emergency agency said there had not been any casualties. Officials said the sinkhole had probably been caused by a saturated sewer main. They had initially urged residents to stay at home on Thursday night, but later decided to move them to temporary shelters. Three people who had officially been declared missing turned up later, national disaster co-ordinator Hugo Hernandez said.

Mayor Alvaro Arzu said the sewers were now being repaired and help was being offered to those affected. Apparently, no one (especially the mainstream scientists) has been able to offer an explanation that is satisfactory or agreeable to all.

One explanation about these mysterious hole phenomenon are "tree holes" that were formed when lava or volcanic ash settled around a tree, burnt out the wood, then hardened and became the deep hole.

A second explanation is that, in place of the tree and lava, we have relatively vertical limestone deposits which had been dissolved away by natural acids (e.g., carbonic acid) that were either from underground water or which were formed during the rainy seasons.

The About.com site has the following to say under the heading "Karst Topography and Sinkholes" ... When limestone interacts with underground water, the water dissolves the limestone to form karst topography - an amalgamation of caves, underground channels, and a rough and bumpy ground surface. Karst topography is named for the Kras plateau region of eastern Italy and western Slovenia (Kras is Karst in German for "barren land"). The underground water of karst topography carves our impressive channels and caves that are susceptible to collapse from the surface. When enough limestone is eroded from underground, a sinkhole (also called a doline) may develop. Sinkholes are depressions that form when a portion of the lithosphere below is eroded away. Sinkholes can range in size from a few feet or meters to over 100 meters (300 feet) deep. They've been known to "swallow" cars, homes, businesses, and other structures.

Sinkholes are common in Florida where they're often caused by the loss of groundwater from pumping. A sinkhole can even collapse through the roof of an underground cavern and form what's known as a collapse sinkhole, which can become a portal into a deep underground cavern. While there are caverns located around the world, not all have been explored.

Many still elude spelunkers as there is no opening to the cave from the earth's surface. Inside karst caves, one might find a wide range of speleothems - structures created by the deposition of slowly dripping calcium carbonate solutions. Dripstones provide the point where slowly dripping water turns into stalactites (those structures which hang from the ceilings of caverns), over thousands of years which drip onto the ground, slowly forming stalagmites. When stalactites and stalagmites meet, they forum cohesive columns of rock.

Tourists flock to caverns where beautiful displays of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and other stunning images of karst topography can be seen. Karst topography forms the world's longest cave system - the Mammoth Cave system of Kentucky is over 350 miles (560 km) long. Karst topography can also be found extensively in the Shan Plateau of China, Nullarbor Region of Australia, the Atlas Mountains of northern Africa, the Appalachian Mountains of the U.S., Belo Horizonte of Brazil, and the Carpathian Basin of Southern Europe.

A third suggestion of an explanation is that the holes are actually chimney-type, or vertical, entrances into underground caverns or caves. The above explanations are, of course, possible and they have a naturalistic basis, without invoking aliens or magical creatures from the 'deep'. Note one interesting observation, if it can be considered an accurate one. It has been suggested that these deep holes appear to have been 'dug' from the bottom up. The use of the word 'dug' would suggest an agency other than 'blind nature' or randomness which the 'hollow earth' supporters would take it to support their views / beliefs. Shades of Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'?

There has also been the suggestion that some occurrences of the Mysterious Hole are due to the actions of pranksters. Although, judging by the depth and verticality of some of these holes, the pranksters would surely have needed major heavy logistical support.

One of the easiest explanation offered is that a Mysterious Hole could easily be the entrance to a mine, natural or artificial, or maybe some superhuman creatures possessing intellect actually exist under the surface. The only thing is not clear yet if they originated on this planet or came from space.

Sources and Pics sources :
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=105918;
http://www.mysteries-of-the-world.com/mysterious-hole.html ;
http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/karst.htm;
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13614_aliens.html ;
http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/09-08-2006/83834-holes-0 ;
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/27-02-2007/87801-underground-0; http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/87801-1/ ;
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/87801-2/ ;
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/87801-3/ .

UFO's: The Key to Our Future?

2010-11-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

Do UFOs Really Exist? Where do the ETs come from? What is the implication of this discovery to our world?

The UFO Controversary continues...

UFOs -- Extra-terrestrials -- Visited by beings from other worlds -- Abductions -- Lights in the Sky.... these are all terms or phrases to describe this most intriguing world mystery. A subject that has inspired writers of science fiction for over the last fifty years and which still captivates us through all the movies, films and television programs that are aired throughout the world.

In South America, the people totally believe in UFOs, because most of them either know someone who has seen a UFO or have had an experience themselves. And these people are disappointed if they missed the sighting. A few years ago, in Mexico City, UFOs will appear almost daily over a period of a week. Or what about the Dogon tribe in Africa that has exact star maps of a double star system in Sirius of which one of these stars can not be seen by the naked eye?

It is obvious that the worldwide sightings of UFOs represents one of the most major discoveries for our world as its implications are staggering .. yet, scientists in the U.S. and the western world, avoid this subject like the plague. Can we therefore assume by this silence that this is a general policy or admission that UFOs are real?

Our mission at the World Mystery Research Center is to work with other UFO organizations and serious researchers to uncover the best information we can share with the general public. We have within our own organizaton some in-house expertise and will avail our own resources to help and pursue research this area as well. However, we can categorically state that a pure scientific approach will not provide a complete understanding.

Picture taken by George Adamski, the father of the UFO's.

You will discover in this section the lastest updates and news we uncover.

Also we are open to work with others who have had their own experiences
or research related to the UFOs.

Please feel free to fill out our on-line mailing form so we can
contact you when more information becomes available.

Also you may wish to visit the following website, which has over
500 pages related to UFOs and has many links to other on-line UFO resources as well:

http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/vjufos.html

A Link between Egypt and Americas?

2010-11-12T05:14:00.001-08:00

According to the official view there was no contact between the Old World and the New World before Columbus. Yet numerous similarities have been found that suggest a link between Egypt and the Americas:

Both have huge pyramids, aligned to the cardinal points
Both have structures built with megalithic stones and extremely fine joints
Both exhibit intriguing bumps on many unfinished stone blocks (Picture 1)
Both employed a unique style of construction using "L" shaped corners
Both use the same style of metal clamps to hold the huge stones in place
Both used the process of mummification to preserve and honor their dead

These compelling similarities suggest that both ancient cultures were influenced by a sophisticated common source.

Gravity Mysteries Solved

2010-11-12T00:39:00.001-08:00

A simple law of nature, reveals the cause behind all of these mysteries:

Gravity
Creation of galaxies immediately after the Big Bang
Gasses amassing to become solar systems
The creation of the heavenly bodies
Why matter is pulling together
The flattened universe
Dark matter
Dark energy
Black holes
Lightning
Tornadoes
Strange air pockets
The Pioneer Anomaly
The Eye of a Hurricane
Magnetic Field of the Sun
Magnetism & Electricity
"Ionospheric Dynamo" and its ring currents.
The shocking new data discovered by XMM Newton
Quantum Physics
and much more...

Abstract

Gravity has always been a mystery…
With thanks' mainly to Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein we have achieved some knowledge; however gravity is still not fully understood. This arises because we don’t fully understand the following:

The cause of gravity, is it a force?
How can we involve a force without disturbing space-time.
How can space transfer a force, if gravity really is a force.
How the galaxies and solar systems were created.
How the heavenly bodies were created.
How matter amasses.
Is dark matter and dark energy are connected to gravity.
How black wholes are created.

A new expression of gravity, "Space Curves" was introduced 100 years ago and has since been a famous and usable expression, especially for a pure geometric/mathematical understanding.
The main problem is that we don't know much about what space really is. Our immediate impression is that space is nothing.
How can 'nothing' curve?
To reach a deeper understanding of gravity, it is obvious that first of all we need to better understand how space plays a role in the gravity phenomena, and if force is really passing through it.
We don’t have many options when it comes to better understanding space. The expression 'curvature of space' has not been able to take our understanding further in the last 100 years.
We also know that space can expand as mean it must also be able to contract.
So we have 3 apparently different properties of space

Curvature
Expansion
Contraction

We simply don't know what 'curved space' really is.
It seems incredibly unnecessary that space would have 3 different deforming properties.

This article will show what happens when we equate curvature of space with contraction of space.

In doing so three properties will be united into one simple concept; "a flexible space", which means that space is not quite as mysterious as before.

There are several factors that support the idea that such simplicities are relevant. We will look deeper into these factors.

Whether one fully accepts such a simplification, is not necessary, for understanding this article.

What has changed is so far only an expression, it's not necessary to change or violate anything else. Einstein's theory of space-time will remain intact.

All that by way of introduction is assumed is that curved space is in reality contracted space, the opposite of expanded space.

Assuming this will give us an interesting main tread. This article will try to follow this main tread to see where it brings us.

Even if the expression: "Matter Contract Space" seems to be close to the well-known: "Curvature of Space", this article will show that such simple changes are merely in expression. In reality this theory opens, not some, but all the doors to fully understanding the cause of gravity and more.

Well, this “immediately” sounds too good to be true. Think about attempting to solve one mystery. Most likely some of your findings will contradict other information. Matter contract space seems to solve 10 to 12 huge mysteries, and is met with little by way of contradiction or opposition. Even further, "Matter contract space" leads us to a more complete understanding of existing theories.

This assumption will quickly lead to the conclusion that our understanding of gravity has been based in part on a serious misunderstanding;

For the last 300 years we have accepted that our knowledge about how two or several fields of gravity affect (and counteract) each other was correct and that this expression of a law of gravity should be used to understand how one single field of gravity counteracts itself.

It is forgivable that over the past hundred years have thought like we have, but not that we still believe like we do. Over the last 50 years have gained ability to verify if our believe was really true. This will be further covered in the third chapter; Dark Matter. (As we all know physics is science based not on what we believe but on measurements and experiments.)

Dark matter, dark energy, and black holes remain mysteries only because we for much to long have failed to understand how gravity build up itself from its own center.

10 More Unsolved Mysteries of the World

2010-11-12T00:26:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt that some of our most popular lists are ones which revolve around mystery and intrigue. Fortunately for us all, there is no end to the number of weird and wonderful mysteries in the world, so we are now able to present our fourth list of unsolved mysteries. So – onwards to the world of the mysterious!

10. The Grooved Spheres

Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian – and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

9. The Dropa Stones

In 1938, an archaeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendants, possibly, were found in the cave.

8. 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 (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While sceptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

7. Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica

Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.

6. Oera Linda Book

The Oera Linda Book is a controversial Frisian manuscript covering historical, mythological, and religious themes that first came to light in the 19th century. Themes running through the Oera Linda Book include catastrophism, nationalism, matriarchy, and mythology. The text alleges that Europe and other lands were, for most of their history, ruled by a succession of folk-mothers presiding over a hierarchical order of celibate priestesses dedicated to the goddess Frya, daughter of the supreme god Wr-alda and Irtha, the earth mother. The claim is also made that this Frisian civilization possessed an alphabet which was the ancestor of Greek and Phoenician alphabets. The current manuscript carries a date of 1256. Internal claims suggest that it is a copy of older manuscripts that, if genuine, would have been written by multiple people between 2194 BC and AD 803. [Source]

5. Impossible Fossils

Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don’t make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human hand print for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

4. Out-of-Place Metal Objects

Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

3. Ark Of The Covenant

The Ark is considered the greatest of all hidden treasures and its discovery would provide indisputable truth that the Old Testament is hard fact. Its recovery remains the goal of every modern archaeologist and adventurer. Its purpose was as a container for the ten commandments given on stone tablets by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to the book of Exodus, the Ark is made of shittim wood (similar to acacia) and gold-covered inside and out. It was topped by a mercy seat comprising two cherubs also made of gold. It was believed to have supernatural powers due to several events, including causing the death of a man, who attempted to steady the Ark as the oxen hauling it stumbled, bringing down the walls of Jericho in one battle, and showering misfortune on the Philistines after they captured it in another. There are several speculations around the final resting place of the Ark, and whilst it would take a shrewd operator to find it, it would need a brave or even foolhardy person to open it!

2. Angel Hair

Angel Hair is a rare phenomenon that has so far defied explanation. It is made up of silken threads that rain down on to the earth, but reach out to touch it and it will almost certainly vanish before your eyes. It is a world wide phenomenon with the most regular occurrences from North America, New Zealand, Australia, and western Europe. There is no known proof for what causes this substance, or even what it is made up of. Speculations are that it has come from Spiders or another type of silk-spinning insect, and even UFO’s as it has often been associated with UFO sightings. Because of its sensitive nature, it has been difficult to collect, and to analyse as it is subject to contamination from car exhaust fumes, and even human contact, which could skew the chemical results.

1. Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis Map is a famous pre-modern world map created by 16th century Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. The map shows part of the western coasts of Europe and North Africa with reasonable accuracy, and the coast of Brazil is also easily recognizable. Various Atlantic islands including the Azores and Canary Islands are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia. The map is noteworthy for its depiction of a southern landmass that some controversially claim is evidence for early awareness of the existence of Antarctica. Some scholars claim this and other maps support a theory of global exploration by a pre-classical undiscovered civilization.