Technical Difficulties

Sorry for not posting in a while - I'm having some technical difficulties (I caught a virus). I'll have some new info up in a couple days. Stay tuned.

The Bloop

During the summer of 1997, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected an ultra low frequency underwater several times that they could not identify. So named for the sound made, the source of the "Bloop" remains unknown.

The Bloop originated off the southwest coast of South America. It was picked up several times using US Navy equipment designed to detect Soviet submarines. The Bloop rose in frequency for over a minute and was strong enough to be heard from over 5,000 km. The scientists who have heard the Bloop say that it matches the audio profile of a living being, however, there is no known animal large enough to have made the noise. If it did come from an animal, the creature would have to be bigger even than the largest known animal on Earth, the Blue Whale.

Hear the Bloop here.

The Wow! Signal

On August 15, 1977, Dr. Jerry R. Ehman detected a very strong, narrowband radio signal while working on a project for SETI at Ohio State University. The signal had the potential to be of non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It came from the Sagittarius constellation region and lasted for 72 seconds. It has never been detected again. Dr. Ehman was so amazed by this signal that he circled the frequency on the computer printout and wrote "Wow!" next to it. Hence the name "Wow! Signal".

Dr. Ehman searched unsuccessfully for a recurrence of the signal in the months following his discovery, as did others after him. In fact, the search for the signal continued through 1999 by various scientists at various observation locations to no avail.

Of course, there is a ton of speculation as to where the signal came from. There is a remote possibility that the signal could be artificial due to the "interstellar scintillation of a continuous signal", which, by the way, is waay too technical for this writer to understand. :-) I do know that it's similar to atmospheric twinkling! However, scientists have tried to recreate the Wow! Signal with no success. There is also the possibility that it could have been the one time burst of some type of light source. At one time, Dr. Ehman considered the possibility that the signal could have come from Earth, and was simply reflected off of a bit of space debris. After conducting further research, Ehman realized that this was not possible. He finally concluded that he could not come to a conclusion as to the source of the Wow! Signal.

The Mothman

Originally referred to as "Big Bird", sightings of the Mothman were first reported in 1926. A young boy and three gravediggers at work independently reported observing the Mothman on the same night. Renewed interest in the Mothman came when reports of sightings came from both the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia from November 12, 1966 and December of 1967. However, there have been sporadic sightings of him ever since, even as recent as 2007. "Most observers describe the Mothman as a winged man-sized creature with large reflective red eyes and large moth-like wings. The creature was sometimes reported as having no head, with its eyes set into its chest." Many explanations have been set forth regarding the Mothman. Everything from misidentification to conspiracy.

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge, the bridge that connects Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Kanauga, Ohio, collapsed, killing 46 people. After that, fewer and fewer sightings of the Mothman were reported. Rumors began to circulate that the Mothman appears before disasters. Some believe that the Mothman appears to warn of upcoming disasters. Others believe that he causes them. Whatever the case, Point Pleasant holds a Mothman Festival every September! Indeed, there stands a 12 foot tall, stainless steel Mothman statue in Point Pleasant.

While there have been many sightings of the Mothman over the years, there is zero photographic evidence. In 2002, a movie was made entitled The Mothman Prophecies. That is how I first learned of the Mothman. I have to say, that movie scared the daylights out of me!

D. B. Cooper

On Wednesday, November 24, 1971, a man traveling under the name of "Dan Cooper" hijacked a Boeing 727 during an American flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. He received $200,000 in ransom and then jumped from the plane via parachute. He was never seen again. During the subsequent investigation, police questioned (and released) a suspect by the name of D. B. Cooper who lived in the area near where the hijacker was projected to have landed. Due to a miscommunication with the press, "Dan Cooper" became known as D. B. Cooper. There have been many leads over the years, but the true identity of D. B. Cooper has never been ascertained. The FBI maintains that he did not survive the jump. Whether he did or not, his fate still fascinates people to this day. Cooper's case is one of the few unsolved air hijackings. Every lead investigated by police has led nowhere.

As recently as March 2008, a parachute was discovered on private property within Cooper's projected landing area. However, on expert review, it was determined not to be the same type of parachute that was used in the hijacking.There are three major clues in the case. The first was discovered in 1978 when a hunter found a placard printed with instructions on how to lower the rear stairs on a Boeing 727. The placard was positively identified to have come from the hijacked airliner. The second clue came two years later in February of 1980 on the banks of the Columbia River. An eight year old boy by the name of Brian Ingram found $5,880 in decaying $20 bills while on a picnic with his family. On review of the serial numbers, the money was determined to be some of the ransom given to Cooper. The third clue wasn't able to be found until more recently due to modern technology. During the hijacking, Cooper left his tie and tie pin behind when he jumped from the plane. In October 2007, the FBI announced that it had obtained a partial DNA profile of Cooper from these items. No match has been found. Officials at the FBI still claim that they believe Cooper to be deceased, however, they would like to know his identity.

The D. B. Cooper hijacking had a major impact on the commercial airline industry. After the incident, airports installed metal detectors for the first time, the FAA set new flight safety rules, and Boeing modified its 727, installing a "Cooper Vane". Obviously named after D. B. Cooper, the Cooper vane is a device that prevents the rear air stair from opening while in flight.

La Chupacabra

Stories of la Chupacabra, or "Goat Sucker", first originated in Puerto Rico in the 1990s. It began with the discovery of local farm animals (mostly goats) drained of blood during the night. Shortly thereafter, sightings of an unusual animal began to be reported. While the descriptions of this animal vary, sightings of it have been reported from Chile to Maine. Two details, however, do seem to be consistent from story to story. La Chupacabra is said to be about the size of a small bear, with a row of spikes extending from neck to tail. Still, most people believe that la Chupacabra is a myth. With no evidence of the creature, that is what it will remain.

Bigfoot

Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, has been reported to have been sighted mostly in the Pacific-Northwest area of the US, but also in the British Columbia province of Canada since the 1860s. It has been described as, "a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid". There have also been numerous accounts of sightings of similar animals in different parts of the world. The Yeti, for example, of the Himalayas. Of course, there is no conclusive evidence to prove or disprove Bigfoot beyond the shadow of a doubt. Some explain Bigfoot away as folklore, misidentification, a hoax, or all three. If that truly is all there is to Bigfoot, then it is the most famous, misidentified, hoaxed story of all time.

The Loch Ness Monster

Loch Ness is located in the Scottish Highlands. It is the largest fresh water lake in Great Britain. Reports of there being a large creature living in the lake have been documented since as early as 565 AD. Even so, modern day interest in the Loch Ness "Monster" didn't come until July 22, 1933, when George Spicer and his wife saw "a most extraordinary form of animal" cross the street in front of their car near Loch Ness. There exists photo, video, and even sonar evidence of the creature, but none of it is conclusive. Some believe that the Loch Ness Monster aka "Nessie" is a myth; others that it is a surviving plesiosaur from the Cretaceous period. From time to time, different people and organizations attempt to solve the mystery, so perhaps we will one day know the truth behind Nessie.

Jimmy Hoffa

Jimmy Hoffa was an American labor leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. He was a very powerful man and a convicted criminal. He served almost a decade in prison for attempted bribery and was pardoned by Richard Nixon on December 23, 1971. Four years later, on July 30, 1975, Hoffa vanished from a Detroit parking lot and was never seen again. Although no one knows for sure what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, the general belief is that he ran afoul of the Mafia and they killed him. In fact, one convicted mobster claimed that Hoffa's body was buried in the foundations of the Giants' stadium; another that the body was put into the trunk of a car which was subsequently sent through an automobile compactor. Part of the Giants' stadium has been dug up in search of the remains but nothing has ever been found.

The Marfa Lights

The Marfa Lights are unexplained "ghost lights" that have been appearing on Mitchell Flat, east of Marfa, Texas since the 1800s. The first recorded account didn't come until 1957, however, word-of-mouth reports have been made since around 1880. These mysterious hovering lights have been reported to be about the size of a basketball. They have appeared in various shades such as white, yellow, orange, red, green, and blue. They have also been reported to move in various directions and to appear in groups. Modern day sightings are rare but there exists a plethora of photographic and video evidence. Some theories include the reflection of lights from nearby traffic and a by-product of the quartz hills in the area. The spot where the lights appear are on private property and the terrain is tough to travel over, therefore, there have been no reports of anyone getting close to the lights. This is a mystery that I would like to see solved.

The Roanoke Colony

In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent an expedition to Roanoke Island, Virginia (part of present day North Carolina) on the East Coast of North America with the permission of Queen Elizabeth I to set up a colony there. They didn't exactly hit it off with the local Native American tribes (the Croatans) that were there and they began to run low on food and men. So when Sir Francis Drake came for a visit and offered to take them back to England, they left.

In 1857, 121 new colonists were sent back to Roanoke Island for a second attempt at colonization. These new colonists found the natives to be friendly. However, the more they tried to befriend them, the higher the tension mounted, resulting in the killing of a colonist by the name of George Howe. The leader of the colony, John White, decided to return to England for help, leaving behind 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children. When he returned to the colony, it was deserted. There were no signs of struggle and no remains were found. The Roanoke Colony became known as the Lost Colony and none of the settlers were ever seen again. Although no one knows for sure, some believe that they merged with the Croatans.

The Bimini Road

In 1968, an underwater rock formation was found off the coast of North Bimini Island in the Bahamas. Many people believe that this is a road from the lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis is a legendary island first spoken of by Plato. No one is sure whether or not Atlantis ever really existed. In 1938, an American psychic by the name of Edgar Cayce made this prediction: "A portion of the temples may yet be discovered under the slime of ages and sea water near Bimini… Expect it in ‘68 or ‘69 - not so far away.” Most recently, archaeologist Dr. Greg Little found another layer of rock in the same formation directly underneath the first. His conclusion was that the "road" was actually the top of a wall or dock. Some think that the Bimini Road is a natural occurrence. Tessellated Pavement is the well known result of sedimentary rock cracking at perfect angles due to shifts within the Earth. Indeed, there are many examples of this on Tasmania that attract many tourists every year. Maybe in time the mystery of the Bimini Road will be solved.

The Creation of Man

This is THE unsolved mystery. The unanswerable question. Where do we come from? It is pretty amazing when you think about it. How did human life on Earth begin? It seems that the majority of humans believe that mankind was created by a higher power i.e. God. The second most popular theory is that humans evolved from another life form. There are other theories. For instance, some people believe that we were put here by aliens. However, the big debate has always been creationism vs. evolution. I personally don't see why the two ideas can't coexist. Pope Benedict XVI has said that the idea of evolution does not go against the teachings of the Church so long as it includes God as the organizer of the process. This is one mystery that may remain unsolved.

The Babushka Lady

The Babushka Lady is a mysterious woman that was spotted on the film footage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. She has her back to the camera but it appears that she is using a camera to film the festivities leading up to JFK's murder. She continues to film all through the shooting and the moments thereafter, even after most everyone has fled the scene, without moving a muscle. Toward the end of the footage, she is seen moving down the street and out of sight. The FBI issued a public request that the woman come forward and turn in the film that she shot. She never did. One woman did come forward several years later claiming to be the Babushka Lady, but she was proved to be a fraud. So the mystery continues. No one knows who the woman was, what she was doing there that day, or why she never came forward with her film.

The Zodiac Killer

At the end of the 1960s the Zodiac Killer terrorized Northern California. The victims were shot. Less than an hour after the second murder, police received an anonymous phone call from a man claiming to be the Zodiac Killer and confessing to the crimes. The authorities believed the man to be Arthur Leigh Allen, however, they could find no evidence to support this theory. About one month later, three identical letters were sent to different newspapers in California. The letters contained a cypher that, once decoded, contained this message: "I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERIENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADISE AND THOSE I HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE". The murders of the Zodiac Killer have never been solved.

The Burmuda Triangle

The Burmuda Triangle is an area of water in the North Atlantic Ocean that forms a triangle. It is also a hotspot for the mysterious disappearances of ships and airplanes. There have been numerous documented reports of not only ships and airplanes disappearing in the Burmuda Triangle, but also their passengers. There have been many theories put forth over the years to explain these disappearances, among them weather, alien abduction, time warps, and even suspension of the very laws of physics. However, the truth is still unknown.

Jack the Ripper

At the end of 1888, London experienced a wave of murders in and around the Whitechapel area. The victims were largely prostitutes who were found mutilated and with their throats slit. Although there were many suspects at the time, police had insufficient evidence to make any convictions. To date, modern day police methods have been applied to the case, but no new information has been discovered. The identity of "Jack the Ripper" remains a mystery.

The Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is a book that dates back to medieval times. It is named after the book dealer who first discovered it. It is written in an unknown language and includes strange illustrations. The document is thought to be some type of medical manual. However, no one knows its true purpose.