As songbirds awaken the early risers at dawn on the farm, one resident is already up; in fact, he never slept - not once in the past 33 years.
You'd think going without sleep for that long may have its drawbacks, but not for the man in central Quang Nam province who has never been ill after decades of insomnia.
His inability to sleep has not only made him famous, but also represents a "miraculous" phenomenon worthy of scientific study.
Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights.
"I don't know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I'm still healthy and can farm normally like others," Ngoc said.
High Strangeness
Aztec -- At 5 a.m. March 25, 1948, an unidentified flying object was spotted on a military radar. It was reportedly flying over Northern New Mexico, before crashing in a field in Hart Canyon north of Aztec.
It was a saucer-shaped ship, 100 feet in diameter, and there were small charred bodies inside, according to eyewitnesses -- military personnel, locals and police officers.
This is the stuff legends are made of. But for some Aztec residents and big-time ufologists, this had the makings of a story that would put Aztec on the map.
Leanne Hathcock, Aztec librarian, and Scott Ramsey, a friend from North Carolina, began the Aztec UFO Symposium nine years ago with the purpose of propagating the story and the small town it hailed from.
It was a saucer-shaped ship, 100 feet in diameter, and there were small charred bodies inside, according to eyewitnesses -- military personnel, locals and police officers.
This is the stuff legends are made of. But for some Aztec residents and big-time ufologists, this had the makings of a story that would put Aztec on the map.
Leanne Hathcock, Aztec librarian, and Scott Ramsey, a friend from North Carolina, began the Aztec UFO Symposium nine years ago with the purpose of propagating the story and the small town it hailed from.
He's heard that it's impossible, but Timothy J. Rohn swears human waste is raining from the sky.
"It doesn't look like friendly stuff," said the 47-year-old Richland Township resident whose home is in the flight path of airplanes going to and from MBS International Airport. "Bird poop is kind of white, but this is a lot of brown. It's a mess."
Tuesday, for the second time in as many months, Rohn found the suspicious substance splattered on the side of his truck and his home, on North Raucholz near Geddes.
"It's in the exact same spot," he said. "Some of it is white, but there are a lot of brown blotches, and it doesn't look like any goose poop to me. Plus, it would be quite a coincidence to have that many birds hit the exact same spot twice."
Even Richland Township Police Officer Gary Wade is perplexed.
"It's manure," Wade said, "and it came from the sky. If it came from some kind of fowl, it had to be one heck of a large flock. To me, it looks like bird droppings but, man, it had to be an awful large flock of birds. It's all over."
"It doesn't look like friendly stuff," said the 47-year-old Richland Township resident whose home is in the flight path of airplanes going to and from MBS International Airport. "Bird poop is kind of white, but this is a lot of brown. It's a mess."
Tuesday, for the second time in as many months, Rohn found the suspicious substance splattered on the side of his truck and his home, on North Raucholz near Geddes.
"It's in the exact same spot," he said. "Some of it is white, but there are a lot of brown blotches, and it doesn't look like any goose poop to me. Plus, it would be quite a coincidence to have that many birds hit the exact same spot twice."
Even Richland Township Police Officer Gary Wade is perplexed.
"It's manure," Wade said, "and it came from the sky. If it came from some kind of fowl, it had to be one heck of a large flock. To me, it looks like bird droppings but, man, it had to be an awful large flock of birds. It's all over."
A series of UFO sightings on Tenerife, in the Canary Isles, has UFO investigators scratching their heads and wondering if the Islands' history holds clues to the current spate of activity. In the last 18 months, at least three different disc shaped UFO's have been photographed on this small Island off the coast of Africa.
Many in the UFO community will remember Tenerife from the high profile arrests in the late 90's involving members of what authorities claimed was a semi mystic UFO group. It was falsely claimed that the group went by the names Centro Sagrado de Isis (Sacred Centre of Isis) and Orden del Santuario Solar (Order of the Solar Shrine).
The group was lead by German psychologist Dr. Heide Fittkau-Garthe, a divorcee in her late 50's who had no previous involvement with cults but who had studied eastern mysticism in some depth and through that study seems to have become interested in communication with extraterrestrial life forms and their ability to visit Earth.
Many in the UFO community will remember Tenerife from the high profile arrests in the late 90's involving members of what authorities claimed was a semi mystic UFO group. It was falsely claimed that the group went by the names Centro Sagrado de Isis (Sacred Centre of Isis) and Orden del Santuario Solar (Order of the Solar Shrine).
The group was lead by German psychologist Dr. Heide Fittkau-Garthe, a divorcee in her late 50's who had no previous involvement with cults but who had studied eastern mysticism in some depth and through that study seems to have become interested in communication with extraterrestrial life forms and their ability to visit Earth.
The federal government said yesterday that it has solved the three-year-old mystery of a small plane crash in Alabama that, at least initially, appeared to have been the result of an in-flight collision with an unexplained object.
The nighttime crash in October 2002 of the single-engine Cessna cargo plane killed the pilot, the plane's only occupant, and launched UFO and government-conspiracy theories on Web sites, pondering what it might have collided with. Red scuff marks were found on pieces of the wreckage after it was pulled from a swamp.
The nighttime crash in October 2002 of the single-engine Cessna cargo plane killed the pilot, the plane's only occupant, and launched UFO and government-conspiracy theories on Web sites, pondering what it might have collided with. Red scuff marks were found on pieces of the wreckage after it was pulled from a swamp.
Johnny Marlin says two employees were cutting tobacco in this barn beside his home when suddenly, they heard an explosion.
A five pound chunk of ice fell through the roof of the barn. Marlin believes it fell from a passing plane overhead.
"I called Lelan Statom, and said can you explain this one? He guessed airplane too," said Marlin.
Marlin says luckily no one was hurt, but he's keeping the ice-chunk as a keepsake.
A five pound chunk of ice fell through the roof of the barn. Marlin believes it fell from a passing plane overhead.
"I called Lelan Statom, and said can you explain this one? He guessed airplane too," said Marlin.
Marlin says luckily no one was hurt, but he's keeping the ice-chunk as a keepsake.
A West crop circle expert has lifted the lid on a previously long-forgotten chapter in the bizarre history of the West's 1990 crop circle mystery. Colin Andrews revealed to a coast-to-coast audience in America the goings-on under the cover of a summer night 15 years ago.
Mr Andrews, who left his West home for the US a decade ago, said that, far from being an embarrassing flop, the three-week vigil on the hilltops of Wiltshire was an astounding and secret success.
Listeners on US radio heard claims yesterday that the British Army watched and filmed a UFO making a ground-breaking crop circle near Silbury Hill while the world's media were camped 20 miles away.
Back in 1990, it was the high point of the crop circle hysteria gripping the world.
Mr Andrews, who left his West home for the US a decade ago, said that, far from being an embarrassing flop, the three-week vigil on the hilltops of Wiltshire was an astounding and secret success.
Listeners on US radio heard claims yesterday that the British Army watched and filmed a UFO making a ground-breaking crop circle near Silbury Hill while the world's media were camped 20 miles away.
Back in 1990, it was the high point of the crop circle hysteria gripping the world.
Somebody knows how catfish ended up on eastbound Interstate 20 near Airline Drive on Friday afternoon, Dec 23.
Just not Bossier City authorities.
Passing motorists had already pummeled, squashed and obliterated the slippery aquatic creatures by the time police were called.
They arrived about 1:30 p.m. and shut down traffic because the gooey remnants left an oily service that could pose a driving hazard.
Eastbound travel was halted completely for about 15 minutes while firefighters used grease sweep, a granulated substance, to provide traction on slippery surfaces.
Just not Bossier City authorities.
Passing motorists had already pummeled, squashed and obliterated the slippery aquatic creatures by the time police were called.
They arrived about 1:30 p.m. and shut down traffic because the gooey remnants left an oily service that could pose a driving hazard.
Eastbound travel was halted completely for about 15 minutes while firefighters used grease sweep, a granulated substance, to provide traction on slippery surfaces.
Comment: Comment: Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.
Tokyo - A disc-shaped piece of ice of unknown origin plummeted from the sky onto a golf course near Tokyo Wednesday, narrowly missing players on the fairway but causing no injuries, police said.
Authorities were investigating the bizarre incident, said Saitama prefectural (state) police spokesman Masahiko Kuwashima.
Four players at the Heisei Club golf course in Saitama, just outside Tokyo, heard a loud thud and found a disc-shaped hunk of ice - about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and 15 centimeters (6 inches) thick - broken into several pieces, Kuwashima said.
He said police investigators have asked the Transport Ministry to check a possibility that ice stuck on an airplane might have fallen, and are waiting for the ministry's response.
There have been several past reports of ice falling in Chiba prefecture (state) near Tokyo's Narita International Airport, Kuwashima said.
Authorities were investigating the bizarre incident, said Saitama prefectural (state) police spokesman Masahiko Kuwashima.
Four players at the Heisei Club golf course in Saitama, just outside Tokyo, heard a loud thud and found a disc-shaped hunk of ice - about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and 15 centimeters (6 inches) thick - broken into several pieces, Kuwashima said.
He said police investigators have asked the Transport Ministry to check a possibility that ice stuck on an airplane might have fallen, and are waiting for the ministry's response.
There have been several past reports of ice falling in Chiba prefecture (state) near Tokyo's Narita International Airport, Kuwashima said.
On Dec. 9, 1965, a fireball was reported streaking over four states, across the Pittsburgh area and toward Greensburg.
Local sightings touched off calls to police, who assumed they should be looking for an airplane on fire or a downed aircraft.
Around dinner time, residents of Kecksburg, a village in Mt. Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania, began reporting that something had fallen into a wooded area just outside the town.
Local sightings touched off calls to police, who assumed they should be looking for an airplane on fire or a downed aircraft.
Around dinner time, residents of Kecksburg, a village in Mt. Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania, began reporting that something had fallen into a wooded area just outside the town.
Comment: Seems to be a lot of ice chunks falling from "planes" lately. With so many instances that could make them liable to lawsuits for damages, you'd think they would "clean up their act." But then, maybe the ice chunks are NOT falling from planes...