Disappearance by Design: Cases Where People Intentionally Vanished

Via mysteriousuniverse.org by Micah Hanks

No student by the same name had ever attended the high school where he claimed he went. He apparently had a Social Security number, but it didn’t appear on file until 1987, nearly 40 years after he was believed to have been born. Records did exist for an individual with a similar name–Paul Raymond Harrod–that included the same date of birth and next of kin; however, they belonged to a 5-year-old who was killed in a car accident years ago. That incident occurred in Harrod, Ohio.

Some things just aren’t what they seem, as the old expression goes. While the idea has applications in many different walks of life, it has particular relevance to certain people; and when it comes to missing person cases, while it is true that some individuals do vanish under mysterious circumstances, at least some of those individuals seem to have wanted to disappear.

The Ethics of Paranormal Skepticism

Image via en.oxforddictionaries.com

Via hayleyisaghost.co.uk by Hayley Stevens

When I first wrote and shared the code of ethics I use as a paranormal researcher, it was geared towards field-based research. I shared it so that other field-based paranormal researchers could steal it and adapt it for their own uses and I know that many have. The document is due for an update which I’m hoping to complete by the end of this month (Feb 2019).

With this in mind, I’ve been thinking a lot about what should and shouldn’t be adapted, what obstacles I’ve had to overcome as a researcher that weren’t necessarily covered in the document, what is in there that I haven’t used, and so on. For example, I’ve decided to include a section in the updated code of ethics which will cover the use of social media in relation to cases after I recently witnessed what I consider pretty unethical behaviour from an alleged skeptic based in the US. Think of it as a cautionary tale…

The man in question claimed that a member of the public had sent him a photograph for analysis. The photographer believed the photo showed a ghost – possibly of their deceased spouse. For me, this would automatically be an indicator that this case was a sensitive one that required careful handling because of the bereavement involved in the scenario. This armchair skeptic, however, saw fit to share the photo on social media, allowing hundreds of people the ability to speculate what the cause of the perceived oddity in the photo was.

(By the way, I don’t use the term ‘armchair skeptics’ dismissively but instead to label the type of people who rarely leave the relative safety of their keyboard and yet miraculously know the exact cause of a case without stepping foot in the location, or speaking to any of the eye-witnesses. Ever.)

YouTube aids flat earth conspiracy theorists, research suggests

Via bbc.com

YouTube is playing a significant role in convincing some people that the Earth is flat, research suggests.

A study quizzed people at flat earth conferences and found most cited videos viewed on the site as a key influence.

They were won over by videos which claimed to amass evidence proving the Earth was not a spherical planet.

YouTube needed to do a better job of ensuring visitors get accurate information alongside such videos, said the researcher behind the study.

Hubble Telescope Detects Mysterious ‘Dark Vortex’

Via mysteriousuniverse.org by Brett Tingley

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered evidence of a mysterious “dark vortex,” and astronomers aren’t sure what to make of it. During Hubble’s annual survey of weather on our Solar System’s outer planets, NASA astronomers spotted a mysterious and incredibly powerful storm on Neptune and they’re unsure how it formed or what it may have in store for the eighth planet from the Sun.

NASA has seen these unexplained dark vortices before, once in 1989 when the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune and again in 2018. The vortex appears to be a massive storm spanning some 6,800 miles across and powerful enough to churn up material from much lower in the planet’s atmosphere. Surrounding the storm are what NASA calls “companion clouds,” bright white formations of methane ice crystals formed as the dark vortex swirls the air above it with powerful winds.

Science moves closer to killing malaria with mutant mosquitos

Getty Images

Via wired.co.uk by Jennifer O'Mahony

For the last 15 years, Austin Burt and Andrea Crisanti have worked tirelessly to genetically engineer the perfect mosquitoes. The two scientists are at the most radical end of a spectrum of researchers currently working to eradicate malaria, a disease that killed 435,000 people, most of them children, in 2017.

Not content with blocking the parasite that causes malaria, as some scientists are attempting, Burt and Crisanti want to perpetuate a modified gene – a so called "gene drive" – in a mosquito population that will render females sterile, until the species is wiped out. In another 15 years, they believe, their mutant mosquitoes will be released all over Africa.

“I hope to see it in my lifetime. I think the only thing that we need is to show its effectiveness in a small, isolated proof of principle example. And then I think everybody will want to use it,” 64-year-old Crisanti says.

The scientists are the two most prominent figures in Target Malaria, an initiative dedicated to halting the disease from its base at Imperial College London and with local partners in Burkina Faso, Mali and Uganda.

They are very aware that their work is viewed as audacious, even dangerous. Friends of the Earth called for a moratorium on gene drives at a UN meeting on biodiversity in November 2017, referring to their work as “exterminator technology”.

“It’s a GMO (genetically modified organism) technology. It’s a GMO technology that spreads. It’s a GMO technology that reprograms sex. It’s a GMO technology that can be used to eliminate malaria,” Crisanti summarised, rattling off the reasons why his work causes alarm and wonder in equal measure.

Declassified CIA Files Show NSA Feared Soviet ‘Psychic Nukes’

Via mysteriousuniverse.org by Brett Tingley

Now that the CIA has placed a trove of its dirty laundry online for all to see, all sorts of strange chapters of the intelligence agency’s past are beginning to be revealed. Since 2017, journalists and amateurs alike have been poring over the CIA’s CREST database in search of the truth about the many dark, twisted research projects and activities the Central Intelligence Agency has gotten into over the years.

Already, some interesting and somewhat unexplained things have been found. Earlier this month, files were discovered showing the CIA hunted the elusive Yeti and a mysterious “metallic disc” in the Nepalese Himalayas, while another set of files appeared to depict unexplained shadow people with curious numbers stamped on them. Who knows what else may be waiting to be discovered in the CREST databases?

This week, American government watchdog site Muckrock found an interesting set of documents outlining the CIA’s interest in and fears of psychic abilities. Many of the files describe experiments into telekinetic abilities conducted throughout the U.S., Europe, and the USSR, including experiments involving famous psychic Uri Geller. In many of these experiments, the files note, individuals were able to “evidence a new form of energy that moves and perhaps alters matter.” The documents claim that British scientists witnessed objects appearing or disappearing during some of these tests, leading to CIA fears that enemy psychics might create “poltergeist phenomena” in order to terrify and confuse their adversaries’ leadership with psychic attacks.

Cultured lab meat may make climate change worse

Getty Images

Via bbc.com by Matt McGrath

Growing meat in the laboratory may do more damage to the climate in the long run than meat from cattle, say scientists.

Researchers are looking for alternatives to traditional meat because farming animals is helping to drive up global temperatures.

However, meat grown in the lab may make matters worse in some circumstances.

Researchers say it depends on how the energy to make the lab meat is produced.
 
Why are scientists trying to grow meat in the lab?
There's increasing concern about the impact of meat consumption on the planet. Around a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving up temperatures are estimated to have come from agriculture.

Beef production is considered the worst offender with cattle emitting methane and nitrous oxide from their manures, but also from their digestive processes.

There are also additional gases from fertiliser application to land, from the conversion of land for pasture or feed production.

Because of these impacts on the climate and because of a range of other concerns about issues such as welfare and sustainability, scientists have in recent years sought to develop meat that can be grown from animal cells in factories or laboratories.

One perceived advantage would be much lower greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane.
 

New NASA Team Tackles Next Challenges in Detecting Life Beyond Earth

Image Credit: NASA/ESA

Via spaceref.com

The question, "Are we alone?" has been a subject of speculation for centuries. The answer may soon lie within the grasp of science.

Decades of research have led scientists to look deeply into the nature of life itself — what it is, how it began on Earth, and what other worlds might also support it. A shift in focus is now emerging as scientists recognize that with a strategic push the possibility of detecting life beyond Earth could be on the horizon.

To support NASA’s growing emphasis on detecting life beyond Earth, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley has established the Center for Life Detection Science. CLDS brings together a diverse group of researchers at Ames and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland to tackle the next set of challenges science must overcome to be able to one day detect life beyond Earth.

“We now have the scientific and engineering expertise to address this profound question with the clarity of scientific evidence — and we have a great community of scientists ready for that grand challenge,” said Tori Hoehler, the principle investigator of CLDS and a researcher at Ames.

A Dark History, Mysterious Hauntings, and the Hellfire Club

Via mysteriousuniverse.org by Brent Swancer

Perched atop an expanse of grassy knolls and rather charming scenery, at a place called Mount Pelier Hill, near Dublin, Ireland, is an old, abandoned stone structure from another time, standing out there defiantly amongst the elements. Today it just seems like the crumbling ruins of another bygone era, like many that dot the lush countryside here, but this place in particular had a rather colorful history and an even more haunted reputation. Commonly called the Hellfire Club, the building was first erected in 1725 by Irish Speaker of the House of Commons William Conolly, and was originally a hunting lodge then called Mount Pelier, as well as other monikers such as The Brass Castle and Bevan’s Hill. It is also well known as being one of the creepiest and most aggressively haunted places in Ireland, with a dark history that would soon transcend its humble beginnings to devolve into a world of the occult, sacrifices, and black magic.

Things begin to get spooky from the years of between 1735 to 1741, when the building was frequently used as a meeting place for the notorious Irish Hellfire Club, a sort of secret society, who allegedly used it as a venue for all manner of occult rituals, black masses, ceremonies, black magic rituals, sacrifices both animal and human, and it was generally full of orgies and wild drunken debauchery, a place of sin and depravity. Illustrating the club’s full on hedonism perfectly was their motto, which was “Fais ce que tu voudras”, or “Do what thou wilt.” Adding to the occult imagery of the club in general is that they were said to always leave a chair open for the Devil, and that their mascot was an enormous black cat.

Exploding grapes: Scientists figure out microwave mystery

Pic: PNAS

Via news.sky.com

Scientists have dug into a viral YouTube video from 2011 to solve the mystery of why grapes explode into fireballs when cooked together in a microwave oven.

The trio of researchers have published their work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

They recreated viral videos which showed YouTubers cutting a grape in half, leaving only a sliver of skin connecting the two halves, and then microwaving the fruit.

Within seconds of being microwaves the two halves of a grape would suddenly explode into a fireball, despite not containing any obviously flammable material.

Possible Ghostly Image Captured In Haunted Jail

Via mysteriousuniverse.org by Jocelyne LeBlanc

Sarah Murphy took a tour of an old haunted jail and when she got back to where she was staying, she noticed a mysterious figure in one of her photos. The Crumlin Road Gaol is the name of the jail in Belfast, Ireland, and it was in the B wing where Sarah captured the unexplained apparition.

“All the tours go down C wing, so I just stood at the gates to B wing and snapped a few photos just in case,” she told Belfast Live. And that’s where she took the picture of what appears to be a man in uniform. “The wing was in darkness, there was nobody down there. But I noticed it when we got back to where we were staying and I had a look through the photos and zoomed in,” she said, adding, “To me it looks like a man in uniform looking down the corridor. You can even see the chin strap of his hat.”

Another unexplained apparition was captured in a photo taken by Carly Foster in 2016 that she believes to be the spirit of a little girl in the doorway of one of the cells. Click here to see the pictures taken by Sarah Murphy and Carly Foster of the mysterious apparitions.
 

Canadians report seeing UFOs in the sky at a rate of 3 times a day

Image Credit: PD - Max Pixel

Via cbc.ca

Acclaimed Canadian ufologist Christopher Rutkowski can be best described as Canada’s Fox Mulder.

He recently travelled to Duncan, B.C., a small town on Vancouver Island that was home to Granger Taylor, whose story is told in CBC Docs POV documentary, Spaceman. Taylor, who became obsessed with space travel, left a note telling his family he could communicate with extraterrestrials and was going on an interstellar journey — and then vanished.

But Taylor wasn’t only one who reported a strange encounter in Duncan. Lisa Nydahl was a teenager in 1980 when she saw a boomerang-shaped object in the sky over the town, gliding toward the mountains. “It just did a 90-degree turn and went straight up and just disappeared,” she recalls. “It was unlike anything I’d ever seen.”

Rutkowski says that UFO sightings in Canada are more common than we think. “There are about 1,000 UFO reports filed in Canada every year, and the number remains high.”