High StrangenessS


Question

Secret Soviet death rays. Yetis. Aliens. Just what did slaughter nine hikers on Siberia's Death Mountain in 1959?

Tony Rennell
The Daily Mail
Fri, 23 Aug 2013 15:44 UTC
Peering through the windswept snow on a dark February day, the rescue party finally came on the first sign of life - the flapping remains of a tent pitched on ski poles on an uppermost slope of Kholat Syakhl, 'Mountain of the Dead' in the native language of northern Siberia.

But where were the nine young Russian students who should have been sheltering beneath the canvas?

Curiosity turned to mystery as human tracks were seen in the snow heading downhill away from the tent in single file for a third of a mile... barefoot human tracks.
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© Dyatlov Memorial FoundationOblivious to what fate had in store: Four of the victims - Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolle, Luda Dubinina, Semyon Zolotarev and Zina Kolmogorova
In temperatures of minus 24! And mystery became horror when an inspection of the tent showed its front flaps still buttoned tightly together but huge knife slashes down the sides - through which the occupants apparently fled.

Inside was like the Mary Celeste, with everything intact - warm clothes, waterproof jackets, blankets and sweaters that would have been essential to survive in the Siberian weather; plus cameras, diaries and cooking utensils, all apparently abandoned in a moment of madness.
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X

Mystery of the Russian plane carrying 13 people which vanished without trace a month ago

Emma Reynolds
The Daily Mail
Sun, 18 Aug 2013 15:17 UTC
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© Associated PressLost: The group had reportedly been drinking when they set off in an AN-2 biplane like this one at 11pm
A plane carrying 13 passengers has been missing for a month after taking off from the Ural mountains in Russia.

Rescue teams have scoured the area but have been unable to find a trace of the AN-2 biplane, which set out without permission from a regional airport in Serov, near Yekaterinburg.

The families and friends of the missing group can only hope they have stranded somewhere without means of communication, in echoes of the popular TV series Lost.
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MIB

Invasion of the Doll People

Colin Bennett
Fortean Times
Fri, 01 Mar 2002 15:15 UTC
John Keel
John Keel
John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies (1975) - argues Colin Bennett - stands alongside John Michell's Flying Saucer Vision (1967), John Fowles' The Magus (1965), Patrick Harpur's Daimonic Reality (1994) and Anthony 'Doc' Shiels' Monstrum (1990) as a modern masterpiece that reimagines our place in the world. Such classics point to ancient magical connections between Mind and Landscape, the antithesis of the godless 'objectivity' of a sterile materialist culture.

The best writers are painters; not content merely to describe, they scorn the base instincts of cloddish objectivity and, as John Keel has done, allow themselves to become part of the investigation itself. Like the characters of Borges and Castaneda, such writers allow themselves to be fooled on occasion in order to hack into the system and let the investigation talk to them. Sometimes this risky participation mystique brings them near to death and madness, as it brought Coleridge and De Quincey and indeed Keel himself. If they survive at all, such shamanic writers bring back wonders, demonstrating that a seeker who takes no risks learns nothing.

In The Mothman Prophecies, Keel tells an astonishing tale of how, as a budding UFO researcher in November 1966, he began investigating sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, of an incredible animal form with characteristics of both man and moth. Keel found, as had his friend Ivan Sanderson before him, that the pursuit of a mystery creature - a 'cryptid' - leads very quickly to involvement with the mysteries of a landscape and a community.
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Question

A strange and enormous four meter fish washes up on a beach in Villaricos, Spain


Inexplicata Blogspot
Sat, 17 Aug 2013 13:47 UTC
Strange Fish
© InExplicata Blogspot
The photo uploaded to Facebook by a beachgoer captured half the world's attention; the nature of the "critter" is still not known.

The photo of a strange creature uploaded by a beachgoer in Villaricos "went around the world" by means of the Facebook network, garnering a multiplicity of comments as it did so. The fact of the matter is that what is believed to be an enormous fish was found by a woman on Luis Siret beach in Villaricos. Civil Protection authorities in Cuevas del Almanzora assisted in removing the nearly 4-meter long "critter" from the water and immediately notified the Guardia Civil's SEPRONA agency as well as PROMAR (Programa en Defensa de la Fauna Marina - Sea Life Defense Program).

However, due to the advanced state of decomposition of the enormous "body", as PROMAR's Paco Toledano explained, "it's hard to know what we're dealing with. It's very decomposed and we cannot identify what it is. Perhaps we could learn something more from the bones, but to be precise, it would be necessary to perform a genetic analysis, which is very expensive, and who would pay for it. Anyway, we have submitted the information to colleagues with more experience and knowledge to see if they can tell us something more specific."
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Question

Two mysterious and elaborate crop circles appear in a week - just miles apart

Alex Wynick
The Mirror, UK
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:56 UTC
The pair are the latest in a long line of patterns to have appeared in the south-west of England this summer.

Image
© Barcoft Media
Two crop circles that have sprung up in the rolling British countryside just 15 miles apart have been described as the "most elaborate" this year .

The pair are the latest in a long line of patterns to have appeared in farmer's fields in the south-west of England this summer.

The area is widely regarded as a hotbed for crop circles - with the most recent offerings appearing just days apart.

One spotted in Monument Hill, near Devizes, Wilts, shows a cube encased in a circle surrounded by a decorated ring.

It is believed to measure around 390 feet in diameter and is first thought to have appeared on August 6.

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Question

Mayor baffled by buried 'alien head'


Orange.co.uk
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 10:55 UTC
Alien Head
© EuropicsMayor Ivan Stefic holding the head.
A baffled mayor has asked scientists to examine the remains of what be believes to be the head of an alien dug up by workers in a graveyard in Croatia. The twisted, soft-bodied remains - which seems to have a beak-like mouth in the centre - were unearthed in Medjimurje where gardeners were extending the local cemetery.

A second section - believed to contain what looks like a heart - was also recovered.

"It scared the life out of me to see that thing staring up out of the ground," said one worker.

"The really strange thing, though, was the smell. Most things that come out of the ground don't smell too good.

"But this smelled very sweet, like aftershave or perfume," they added.

Mayor Ivan Stefic, seen here holding the head, explained: "It was found about one metre under the surface and gave the workers quite a shock."

"We have got it safe here at the Town Hall until the scientists take it from us.

"I know it sounds crazy, but we can't think of any more rational explanation for what we've found," he added.
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UFO

Mysterious UFO spotted on India-China border by Indian Army troops


The Indian Express
Sun, 18 Aug 2013 10:19 UTC
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© ReutersThere have been over 100 sightings of UFOs along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the last several months but this sighting has come after some time-gap.
Indian Army troops have sighted mysterious unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the Ladakh sector along the Line of Actual Control with China. On August 4, the UFO was sighted by Army troops in Lagan Khel area in Demchok in Ladakh area in the evening and a report has been sent to the Army headquarters by the local formation, sources said here.

There have been over 100 sightings of UFOs along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the last several months but this sighting has come after some time-gap, they said. Asked about the UFO sightings by the Army troops in Ladakh sector, Defence Minister A K Antony had told Parliament that there is no conclusive proof of sighting of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over the Sino-Indian border. The UFO sighting on August 4 comes after reports suggested that a top-level science research institute had found that the UFOs were actually planets Jupiter and Venus, which are clearly visible from the high altitude and thin atmosphere terrain of Ladakh.
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Question

This eerie figure appeared in the corner of the picture - but who or what is it?


Todmorden News, UK
Sat, 17 Aug 2013 15:09 UTC
Ghost?
© William KayWilliam Kay took this spooky picture on the Rochdale Canal near Baltimore Marina at Todmorden on July 6, 2013 - he was testing a new camera and only noticed the figure - blown up and superimposed in the centre of the picture.
This eerie picture was taken earlier in the summer and the photographer, who has blown up the relevant section and placed it in the middle of the photograph, wonders if anyone can shed any light on it.

Taken from near the Baltimore Marina, where photographer William Kay had moored his boat, it appears to show, in the bottom right of the image, the ghostly presence of a woman wearing an old-style dress.

William explained that he was only taking some test shots with a new camera and only noticed the figure when checking the pictures on his personal computer later.
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UFO

Area 51 revealed in CIA spy plane documents

Anthony Castellano
Good Morning America
Fri, 16 Aug 2013 08:18 UTC
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© ABC NewsGood Morning America - Area 51 Revealed in CIA Spy Plane Documents
Area 51 in Nevada has long been the subject of wild conspiracy theories about extraterrestrials, time travel and alien autopsies, but newly released declassified documents from the CIA finally acknowledge its existence.

The report does not detail the sensational stories that have played out in pop culture for decades, but states that Area 51 was started as a testing site for the government's U-2 spy plane. The report, more than 400 pages, is titled "Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 1954-1974."

The U-2 spy planes were commonly used by the United States during the Cold War in reconnaissance missions around the globe.

Officials and former employees have previously acknowledged in passing the existence of the facility and how it was used for testing U-2 planes, but this is the first time the U.S. government has openly referred to Area 51 and given specifics on its operations. The report also features a map of the area.
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Black Cat

Beast of Trowbridge... or Alsatian? Panther-like creature photographed in Southern England

Olivia Goldhill
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 16 Aug 2013 15:36 UTC
Beast of Trowbridge
© Herbert Smith/SWNS
Over the years, the panther-like creature has been spotted in Trowbridge, Staverton and Westbury Leigh.
Herbert and Doreen Smith were walking in Murhill Woods, near the village of Winsley, at around 10.30am on Saturday morning when they spotted the creature. Mr Smith, 71, said he struggled to believe the sight when he first came across the large black animal.

He told the Wiltshire Times: "Our first impression was sheer astonishment, we really could not believe our eyes at what we were seeing. The animal was eating what we believe it had just caught.

"There was a lot of rabbits about so I expect it was having breakfast. I was about 20ft away from it whilst it was eating, it looked up at me for a couple of seconds then resumed eating.
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