Obama's Former Pilot Tells Of A UFO Sighting

One of President Barack Obama’s former pilots not only says he believes in UFOs and tells in great detail about the time he saw one while flying over Iowa.

Andrew Danziger, a 28-year airline veteran who was one of Obama’s pilots during his 2008 presidential campaign, told his story to the New York Daily News.

Danziger says his close encounter happened in 1989" while flying from Kansas City to Waterloo, Iowa. He describes it as a beautiful evening, with clear skies. He says both he, and Bruce, the captain, had noticed a white disc in the sky. For 30 minutes, that disc remained in the sky.

“We got busy with our flying duties and for a short while, maybe for a minute, both of us had looked away from the disc, but when I looked up at it again I saw something that has been burned into my memory,” Danziger writes. It has turned in to a red ball...

..."

As the plane slowly descended to the ground, and was at 13,000 feet, the ball began a descent as well.

In about 30 seconds, like a setting sun but not nearly as bright, it vanished behind the clouds. The instant it fully disappeared, hundreds of lights began flashing from within the clouds.

As I looked on in disbelief, the flashing lights were brighter than ever and I could see that the section of the cloud that the glowing red ball had descended behind was starting to stretch apart like a piece of “Silly Putty,” two halves being pulled slowly apart with the middle getting thinner and thinner. This continued until the halves grew so thin that it tore apart and, pop! Everything was gone. The dimly lit disc, the flashing lights, the thin wispy clouds that we had with us for the last 40 minutes; all of it, gone. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Only the full moon remained off to our left.

Above the clouds, where the white disc had been, was a now giant red ball. It was big and bright and just sat there above the clouds. It wasn’t intense enough to illuminate us with a red glow but it was still plenty bright. We sat there in stunned silence. We obviously didn’t want to hit it but quickly saw that it was flying parallel to our course. We weren’t on a collision course and we also weren’t gaining on it. Time became a blur as we continued our descent, this giant, red ball holding its course.

Stone Age people may have battled against a zombie apocalypse

The zombie apocalypse may be much more than a plot device exploited by modern horror movies. In fact, fears about the walking dead may go back all the way to the Stone Age.

Archaeologists working in Europe and the Middle East have recently unearthed evidence of a mysterious Stone Age "skull-smashing" culture, according to New Scientist. Human skulls buried underneath an ancient settlement in Syria were found detached from their bodies with their faces smashed in. Eerily, it appears that the skulls were exhumed and detached from their bodies several years after originally being buried. It was then that they were smashed in and reburied separate from their bodies.

According to Juan José Ibañez of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona, the finding could suggest that these Stone Age "skull-smashers" believed the living were under some kind of threat from the dead. Perhaps they believed that the only way of protecting themselves was to smash in the corpses' faces, detach their heads and rebury them apart from their bodies.

But here's the creepy thing: many of the 10,000-year-old skulls appear to have been separated from their spines long after their bodies had already begun to decompose. Why would this skull-smashing ritual be performed so long after individuals had died? Did they only pose a threat to the living long after their original burial and death?

If it was a ritualistic exercise, it also raises questions about why only select corpses were chosen. All of the smashed skulls were from adult males between the ages of 18 and 30. Furthermore, there was no trace of delicate cutting. It appears that the skulls' faces were simply smashed in using brute force with a stone tool.

Of course, there's almost certain to be a rational explanation for all of this. Then again, it's also fun to consider the possibility that these findings represent evidence for a Stone Age zombie uprising.

Let's consider a few key facets of zombie mythology. Zombies, as we know, are hungry for the flesh of the living, and the only way to stop them is with a head shot. In many zombie movies, this involves shooting them in the cranium. One might surmise that the Stone Age equivalent of this would be to instead smash in their faces with a big rock. Perhaps the lopping off of their heads was then performed to ensure that the job was done.

Perhaps the reason the original dead bodies seemed to be exhumed before their heads were properly smashed in was because the dead had risen from their own graves, under their own power.

Maybe, just maybe, Stone Age Syrians battled against and saved the world from an imminent zombie apocalypse some 10,000 years ago. The theory may not make great fodder for a scientific thesis, but it sets up the plotline for a B-grade horror movie to perfection.

Ibañez, not biting, operates with a cooler head. Being ever the sound researcher, he has proposed more tempered theories to explain the findings. For instance, it's possible that Stone Age people simply believed that they could absorb the strength of the dead young men by performing the ritual. This would help explain why all the skulls were from young men. It would also help to explain why the heads were buried directly underneath a thriving settlement. He also suggested the head-smashing could have been an act of revenge or spite.

In the News: What is Ricin

This week, letters bound for the White House and the office of Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker were intercepted and found to be laced with ricin. There was an arrest today. Here’s what you need to know about the toxin everyone is talking about.

WHAT IS IT AND WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

Like some other scary poisons, ricin is naturally occurring. It’s a protein found in Ricinus communis, the castor oil plant. It can be extracted from the waste materials (the “mash” or “bean meal”) left over from castor oil processing and turned into a powder, pellet, or mist.

WHAT DOES IT DO, AND HOW BAD IS IT?

Ricin kills cells by shutting down their ribosomal RNA, part of the molecular machine that builds their proteins. As the cells die, a ricin poisoning victim experiences different symptoms depending on how they were exposed, usually starting within 6 to 12 hours.

If the ricin was inhaled, the victim is in for difficulty breathing, chest pains, coughing, nausea, a buildup of fluid in the lungs, and respiratory failure. If the poison was ingested or injected, the victim can experience diarrhea, bloody vomit and urine, seizures, and failure of the kidneys, liver, spleen and/or heart. Death from organ failure follows within 36 to 72 hours of exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

It doesn’t take much of the stuff to wreak this kind of havoc either. The lethal dose for an adult is around 0.35 to 0.7 milligrams by inhalation (less than the mass of a single grain of sand) and between 1 and 20 mg per kilogram of body weight by ingestion (1mg/kg is about what you’d ingest if you ate a small handful of castor beans).YIKES. HOW DO YOU TREAT RICIN POISONING?

There’s no known antidote for ricin, so the best treatment is flushing it out of the body as quickly as possible while maintaining organ function and treating individual symptoms.
SCARY STUFF. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR BESIDES TERRORIZING POLITICIANS?

Biomedical scientists have been experimenting with ricin as a cancer treatment for decades. The ricin protein is linked to an antibody to form an immunotoxin that attaches only to specific, targeted cells. Once the immunotoxin latches on to a cancer cell, the ricin does its thing.

Other than that, though, ricin is mainly for murder and mayhem. Maybe the most famous ricin victim was Georgi Markov, murdered in a scheme that seems right out of a spy novel. In 1978, the Bulgarian writer was waiting for a bus when he felt a stinging pain in the back of his leg. When he looked behind him, he saw a man with an umbrella. The man crossed the street, got in a cab and fled. Three days later, Markov was dead, murdered via a ricin-filled pellet injected into his leg by the modified umbrella. - Mental Floss

Corpse Bride Trafficking

A county court in central China has sentenced four men to prison for digging up and selling corpses on the black market to enable "ghost marriages", a millennia-old custom of burying deceased bachelors alongside newly deceased wives so that they will not grow lonely in the afterlife.

On Saturday, the Xi'an Evening News reported that the Yanchuan county court in Yan'an City, Shanxi province, sentenced each of the men to more than two years in prison for stealing 10 female corpses, cleaning them up and counterfeiting their medical records to boost their prices, and selling them on the black market for a total of £25,000.
Ritual ghost marriages, which may date back to the 17th century BC, are increasingly rare in contemporary China – Mao Zedong tried to eliminate them when he assumed power in 1949 – but they are still practised in rural parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and Guangdong provinces. Families often employ a matchmaker to help find a suitable spouse for their deceased loved ones.

The four men, with surnames Pang, Bai, He and Zhang, exhumed the corpses in the winter of 2011 from a smattering of arid, coal-rich counties in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.
The state-run Global Times newspaper reported in 2011 that an influx of coal money to parts of northern Shaanxi province bolstered the area's underground corpse trade, with a newly wealthy but superstitious demographic suddenly being able to afford high prices for desirable postmortem mates. Some are known to purchase their corpse brides straight from hospitals, where they cut deals with grieving families.

This is not the first time that ghost marriage intermediaries have fallen on the wrong side of the law. One woman died over the lunar new year in February 2012 and was sold by her family to the family of a recently deceased young man for about £3,700; soon afterwards, police caught a graverobber selling her twice-exhumed body to another family for slightly less.

In 2009, a grieving father in Xianyang City, also in Shaanxi province, paid a team of graverobbers £2,700 to find a suitable bride for his son, who had died in a car crash. They were arrested for exhuming the remains of a teenage girl who had killed herself not long after failing her college entrance exams.
According to the Global Times, less affluent families who desire ghost marriages may use a non-human proxy for the corpse bride, such as a silver statuette or a doughy human-shaped biscuit with black beans for eyes. Some may buy an old, rotten corpse at a discounted price, dress it in clothing and reinforce its skeleton with steel wire.

The tradition has its own set of customs and rituals, including postmortem marriages with sumptuous feasts and dowries, according to the report. - Guardian

Shape-Shifting Jesus Described in Ancient Egyptian Text

Heard about this twice yesterday. Liked this from the Phantoms And Monsters newsletter the best. Lon is always complete!
"A newly deciphered Egyptian text, dating back almost 1,200 years, tells part of the crucifixion story of Jesus with apocryphal plot twists, some of which have never been seen before.

Written in the Coptic language, the ancient text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus' crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text — and it puts the day of the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening, something that contravenes the Easter timeline.



The discovery of the text doesn't mean these events happened, but rather that some people living at the time appear to have believed in them, said Roelof van den Broek, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who published the translation in the book "Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ"(Brill, 2013).

Copies of the text are found in two manuscripts, one in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City and the other at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the translation comes from the New York text, because the relevant text in the Pennsylvania manuscript is mostly illegible.

Pontius Pilate has dinner with Jesus

While apocryphal stories about Pilate are known from ancient times, van den Broek wrote in an email to LiveScience that he has never seen this one before, with Pilate offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus.

A researcher has deciphered a 1,200-year-old Coptic text that tells part of the Passion (the Easter story) with apocryphal plot twists, some of which have never been seen before. Here, a cross decoration from the text, of which there are two copies, the best preserved in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.

"Without further ado, Pilate prepared a table and he ate with Jesus on the fifth day of the week. And Jesus blessed Pilate and his whole house," reads part of the text in translation. Pilate later tells Jesus, "well then, behold, the night has come, rise and withdraw, and when the morning comes and they accuse me because of you, I shall give them the only son I have so that they can kill him in your place." [Who Was Jesus, the Man?]

In the text, Jesus comforts him, saying, "Oh Pilate, you have been deemed worthy of a great grace because you have shown a good disposition to me." Jesus also showed Pilate that he can escape if he chose to. "Pilate, then, looked at Jesus and, behold, he became incorporeal: He did not see him for a long time ..." the text read.
Pilate and his wife both have visions that night that show an eagle (representing Jesus) being killed.

In the Coptic and Ethiopian churches, Pilate is regarded as a saint, which explains the sympathetic portrayal in the text, van den Broek writes.

The reason for Judas using a kiss

In the canonical bible the apostle Judas betrays Jesus in exchange for money by using a kiss to identify him leading to Jesus' arrest. This apocryphal tale explains that the reason Judas used a kiss, specifically, is because Jesus had the ability to change shape.

"Then the Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him [Jesus], for he does not have a single shape but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man ..." This leads Judas to suggest using a kiss as a means to identify him. If Judas had given the arresters a description of Jesus he could have changed shape. By kissing Jesus Judas tells the people exactly who he is. [Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]

This understanding of Judas' kiss goes way back. "This explanation of Judas' kiss is first found in Origen [a theologian who lived A.D. 185-254]," van den Broek writes. In his work, Contra Celsum the ancient writerOrigen, stated that "to those who saw him [Jesus] he did not appear alike to all."

St. Cyril impersonationThe text is written in the name of St. Cyril of Jerusalem who lived during the fourth century. In the story Cyril tells the Easter story as part of a homily (a type of sermon). A number of texts in ancient times claim to be homilies by St. Cyril and they were probably not given by the saint in real life, van den Broek explained in his book.

Near the beginning of the text, Cyril, or the person writing in his name, claims that a book has been found in Jerusalem showing the writings of the apostles on the life and crucifixion of Jesus. "Listen to me, oh my honored children, and let me tell you something of what we found written in the house of Mary ..." reads part of the text.

Again, it's unlikely that such a book was found in real life. Van den Broek said that a claim like this would have been used by the writer "to enhance the credibility of the peculiar views and uncanonical facts he is about to present by ascribing them to an apostolic source," adding that examples of this plot device can be found "frequently" in Coptic literature.

Arrest on Tuesday

Van den Broek says that he is surprised that the writer of the text moved the date of Jesus' Last Supper, with the apostles, and arrest to Tuesday. In fact, in this text, Jesus' actual Last Supper appears to be with Pontius Pilate. In between his arrest and supper with Pilate, he is brought before Caiaphas and Herod.

In the canonical texts, the last supper and arrest of Jesus happens on Thursday evening and present-day Christians mark this event with Maundy Thursday services. It "remains remarkable that Pseudo-Cyril relates the story of Jesus' arrest on Tuesday evening as if the canonical story about his arrest on Thursday evening (which was commemorated each year in the services of Holy Week) did not exist!" writes van den Broek in the email.

A gift to a monastery ... and then to New York

About 1,200 years ago the New York text was in the library of the Monastery of St. Michael in the Egyptian desert near present-day al-Hamuli in the western part of the Faiyum. The text says, in translation, that it was a gift from "archpriest Father Paul," who, "has provided for this book by his own labors."

The monastery appears to have ceased operations around the early 10th century, and the text was rediscovered in the spring of 1910. In December 1911, it was purchased, along with other texts, by American financier J.P. Morgan. His collections would later be given to the public and are part of the
 present-day Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The manuscript is currently displayed as part of the museum's exhibition "Treasures from the Vault" running through May 5.

Who believed it?

Van den Broek writes in the email that "in Egypt, the Bible had already become canonized in the fourth/fifth century, but apocryphal stories and books remained popular among the Egyptian Christians, especially among monks."

Whereas the people of the monastery would have believed the newly translated text, "in particular the more simple monks," he's not convinced that the writer of the text believed everything he was writing down, van den Broek said.

"I find it difficult to believe that he really did, but some details, for instance the meal with Jesus, he may have believed to have really happened," van den Broek writes. "The people of that time, even if they were well-educated, did not have a critical historical attitude. Miracles were quite possible, and why should an old story not be true?" - Live Science

Worldwide 'Bermuda Triangle' Zones

Recently from the newsletter from Phantoms and Monsters

"When ships and planes mysteriously vanish -- sometimes without a trace -- speculation runs wild.

Many worry about the conventional -- pilot error, kidnapping and terrorism come to mind. And there are those who worry about the supernatural.

Acclaimed fashion designer Vittorio Missoni and five others boarded a twin-engine BN-2 Islander aircraft in the Los Roques island chain near Venezuela on Jan. 4. They were headed for Caracas and had only flown about 11 miles when they vanished into thin air.

After hundreds of people in boats, planes and helicopters searched the area for days, no wreckage or debris of any kind was found, according to ABC News.

The mystery deepened when the only item that turned up was a bag that didn't even belong to anyone on the Missoni flight. The bag, recovered on the nearby island of Curacao, was placed onto Missoni's plane while its Italian tourist owner, caught a different flight out of Los Roques.


More recently, according to Vogue News, two bags belonging to Missoni were found on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles. A statement released by the Missoni family said that, a month and a half after Missoni's plane vanished, "the case is not closed."

Something else added more fuel to speculation that Missoni's flight may have been deliberately diverted. According to ABC News, Missoni's son, Ottavio, told an Italian newspaper that a puzzling text message was reportedly sent from the cellphone of Guido Foresti -- one of the passengers on the missing plane -- to Foresti's son two days after they disappeared.

The younger Missoni told the newspaper the message said: "Call now. We are reachable." No follow-up news has been reported about this.

So what happened to Missoni's plane? Could foul play have been involved, in an area that has seen its share of kidnappings or hijackings by possible drug dealers?

The Guardian reports that unexplained plane crashes and disappearances have allegedly occurred over the last 10 years in the same geographic location between Caracas and the Los Roques chain of 350 islands, cays and islets covering an area of about 40 kilometers.

If any of this sounds even vaguely familiar, it's probably because this area, dubbed locally as the Los Roques Curse, is not far from the infamous Bermuda Triangle -- bordered by Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico -- where people, planes and ships have vanished for decades.

1918: The U.S.S. Cyclops, a World War I Navy vessel, is refueling ships in the south Atlantic Ocean. After stopping in Barbados, the ship, with more than 300 passengers and crew aboard, vanishes without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle.

1945: During a training exercise, five U.S. Navy planes disappear in the same Bermuda Triangle area. Adding more mystery to the incident, a search aircraft sent to find the lost planes also unexplainably vanishes.

1950: A Northwest Airlines flight -- with 55 passengers and three crew members -- is en route to Minneapolis from New York City when it apparently simply drops out of sight while passing over what's known today as the Michigan Triangle.

1955: Nine ships disappear from an area of the Pacific Ocean about 60 miles south of Tokyo. Another ship sent to find them also vanishes. This has been dubbed The Devil's Sea.

All of the above cases involve ships or planes that mysteriously vanished and the explanations of those incidents may seem as diverse as the number of cases themselves:
-Unexpected severe weather conditions
-Pilot or captain error
-Pirates or kidnappers
-Methane gas buildups capable of sinking a ship without warning

Of course, disappearances in the infamous Bermuda Triangle and some other areas have come amid fears of UFOs, mysterious vortexes, time portals and sea monsters. To be sure, fear can play on any nervous traveler's mind, but some disappearances just defy conventional explanations and fall in the murky category of unexplained phenomena.
...
Numerous smaller ships and planes have disappeared in the decades following the 1940s after often reporting disturbances causing compasses, radios and other instruments to malfunction.

And yet, according to the United States Coast Guard, the Bermuda Triangle is much ado about nothing....

While The Bermuda Triangle is the most famous of areas around the world laying claim to causing people, planes and ships to vanish, there actually hasn't been such a report from there for almost a decade. - THP"

The 'alien space cathedral' built in New Mexico desert by the Church of Scientology

You may have heard about this?

These giant symbols etched into the desert are a welcoming message to aliens from Tom Cruise's deeply secretive church of Scientology.

The religion, which believes a sinister extraterrestrial being called Xenu brought billions of people to earth in spaceships similar to DC8 airliners, operates a giant underground base hidden deep within the New Mexico desert.

BBC reporter John Sweeney, who famously clashed with Scientologists during a Panorama report in 2007, travelled to the site dubbed Scientology's 'alien space cathedral', to research a new book.

Welcome to earth: The huge symbol etched into the desert in New Mexico next to the Scientology base dubbed the 'alien space cathedral'

Richard Dolan Teaches Rare Ufology Class Online

Saw this recently

"Vienna, WV, December 04, 2012 --(PR.com)-- The International Metaphysical University (IMU) is proud to announce a ground-breaking, ufology class taught by Richard Dolan, one of the world’s leading UFO researchers and historians.

Richard Dolan is offering something never seen before in any academic setting, anywhere else in the world: a complete and fresh study of the entire UFO phenomenon.

Through a series of twelve riveting lectures, Richard Dolan provides up-to-date information and analysis relating to:

1. The full history of UFOs, from ancient times to our own era, focusing on the most significant and instructive cases.

2. The political issues, such as the how the U.S. government and the military and intelligence communities deal with UFOs. This includes the issue of whether some UFOs are made by “us” and what might be the true structure of secrecy.

3. The philosophical and investigative problems brought about by UFOs, including how ordinary objects and events might fool us, and how they differ from “true UFOs.” Moreover, in an age of the internet, Facebook and Youtube, when information practically overwhelms us, how to separate fact from fiction, legitimate issues from fear-mongering or fantasy-peddling.




4. The science behind UFOs, from propulsion technologies to space travel to consciousness itself.

5. The beings behind the phenomenon, whoever and whatever they are. The history and claims of
 contact, explores the nature of that contact, and asks pertinent questions about just who and what we are dealing with.

6. A look into the future, especially focusing on such issues as disclosure. Can UFO secrecy ever really end, and if so, what might a post-disclosure world look like?

A year in the making, this course is truly special. If you have ever had an interest in exploring the UFO issue, you cannot get off to a better start than this course: an instant classic."

For more information about ufology and Richard Dolan's ufology class, please visit http://intermetu.com/faculty/faculty-ufology/richard-dolan/intro-to-ufology/ or call 1.304.295.4411.

Richard Dolan is a leading historian and author about UFOs and related phenomena. He is the author of "UFOs and the National Security State" (currently in 2 volumes) and co-author of "A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth about Alien Contact."
The International Metaphysical University is an online metaphysical university offering a master’s degree in metaphysics and majors in fields such as consciousness studies, holistic health, intuitive arts, paranormal studies, shamanism, or ufology.

Pareidolia: Seeing Faces in Unusual Places

 To some observers, it looked like an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich. But to the Miami woman who put it up for sale on eBay, and to some people who viewed it, there was an image of the Virgin Mary seared on this seemingly run-of-the-mill snack.
Or as pictured :Many say this stump in Rathkaele, Ireland, resembles the Virgin Mary.
CREDIT: BBC


"The psychological phenomenon that causes some people to see or hear a vague or random image or sound as something significant is known as pareidolia (par-i-DOH-lee-a).
 The word is derived from the Greek words para, meaning something faulty, wrong, instead of, and the noun eidōlon, meaning image, form or shape. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, which is a more generalized term for seeing patterns in random data.

Some common examples are seeing a likeness of Jesus in the clouds or an image of a man on the surface of the moon.

Famous examples of pareidolia

A prime example of pareidolia and its connection to religious images is the Shroud of Turin, a cloth bearing the image of a man — which some believe to be Jesus — who appears to have suffered trauma consistent with crucifixion. The negative image was first observed in 1898, on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pia, who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral.


Some visitors to St. Mary's in Rathkaele, Ireland, say a tree stump outside of the church bears a silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

Damage to the Pedra da Gávea, an enormous rock outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, created an impression that many interpret as a human face.

Many people thought images taken in 1976 by the Viking 1 mission showed a face on Mars that could have been the remnants of an ancient civilization. [Gallery: Mars Illusion Photos: The 'Face on Mars' and Other Martian Tricks]

 In September 1969, conspiracy theorists claimed some Beatles records contained clues to Paul McCartney's supposed death. Many heard the words "Paul is dead," when the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" was played backwards, a process known as backmasking. This is a common urban legend often repeated to this day.

In 1977, the appearance of Jesus Christ on a flour tortilla set the international standard for miracle sightings. It happened in the small town of Lake Arthur, New Mexico, 40 minutes south of Roswell.

Diane Duyser of Miami sold a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich, which she said bore the image of Jesus, for $28,000 on eBay in 2004.

 In 2004, Steve Cragg, youth director at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, discovered a Cheeto that looked like Jesus.

Donna Lee of Toledo, Ohio, saw an image of Jesus on a pierogi she was preparing on Palm Sunday in 2005.

In 2007 in Singapore, a callus on a tree resembled a monkey, leading believers to pay homage to the "Monkey god."
mother teresa, bun, pareidolia
A cinnamon bun with the likeness of Mother Teresa was stolen.
CREDIT: The Telegraph


A cinnamon bun bearing a likeness of Mother Teresa was first discovered at the Bongo Java Café in Belmont, Tenn. It was on display for about 10 years, until it was stolen on Christmas day in 2007.

In 2012, many people made a pilgrimage to a tree at 60th Street and Bergenline Avenue in West New York, N.J., to see a scar on the tree that some believed looked like the image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe depiction of the Virgin Mary.

Why pareidolia happens

There are a number of theories as to the cause of this phenomenon. Experts say pareidolia provides a psychological determination for many delusions that involve the senses. They believe pareidolia could be behind numerous sightings of UFOs, Elvis and the Loch Ness Monster and the hearing of disturbing messages on records when they are played backwards.
  Pareidolia often has religious overtones. A study in Finland found that people who are religious or believe strongly in the supernatural are more likely to see faces in lifeless objects and landscapes.

Carl Sagan, the American cosmologist and author, made the case that pareidolia was a survival tool. In his 1995 book, "The Demon-Haunted World – Science as a Candle in the Dark," he argued that this ability to recognize faces from a distance or in poor visibility was an important survival technique. While this instinct enables humans to instantly judge whether an oncoming person is a friend or foe, Sagan noted that it could result in some misinterpretation of random images or patterns of light and shade as being faces.

Leonardo da Vinci wrote about pareidolia as an artistic device. "If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills," he wrote in a passage in one of his extensive notebooks.

Sometimes artists use this phenomenon to their advantage by embedding hidden images in their work. Observers often view other objects in Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings, for example.

In 1971, the Latvian writer and intellectual Konstantīns Raudive detailed what he believed was the discovery of electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). EVP has been described as "auditory pareidolia." The allegations of hidden messages in popular music have also been described as auditory pareidolia.
The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state. Since the cards have been designed without any specific image in mind, this is an example of "directed pareidolia."
http://www.livescience.com/25448-pareidolia.html

Demon Cat In DC?

Interesting story.Have you heard it?

"The US government has been keeping a secret for the last few hundred years...a demon lives in the sublevels of the US Capitol Building and in the basement of the White House. This demon has spooked security, baffled witnesses, and said to be an omen of terrible tragedy for the United States or a change in office.

The demon comes in the form of a black cat. When sighted, the animal appears to be a normal stray cat but when it approaches, it's said to have glowing eyes and grows larger to the size of a lion or bear. The caterwauling of the demon cat, said to walk the hallways in the basement near the Catafalque Storage Room, can sometimes be hear echoing through the damp corridors. In 1862 and again in 1898, guards shot a black cat that had swollen to the size of an elephant.

The story of the demon cat, nicknamed "DC" by Capitol employees, begins shortly after the capitol building was completed. Washington DC had something of a rat problem and cats were brought into the building to get rid of them. As the rat problem was taken care of, the cats either wandered off or were adopted by people who worked there. It seems that one cat was left behind in order to roam the recesses of the capitol building for a longer period.

“One guard who saw it wants to remain anonymous. It happened on a January night in the 1970s. As he was walking through a passage way, he saw the black cat approach. The phantom appeared to get larger as it walked toward him. Its eyes had a reddish glow. The guard was afraid to move. Finally, the phantom reached the size of a tiger and its meowings changed to roars. It crouched and sprang and all the guard could do was to pray and close his eyes. Nothing happened. When the guard opened his eyes, the cat had vanished.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune of 11/1/1992 stated: "The demon cat would usually meet someone alone in a dark corridor. It had large yellow eyes that seemed to hypnotize, and it would snarl. It would seem to grow larger and larger until it would make a final lunge toward its victim and then either explode or disappear over the victim's head. Historians recorded stories of guards firing guns toward the hissing cat as it disappeared only to find they were shooting into an empty hall. It was said to appear only on the eve of a national tragedy or the change of
administrations."

DC has been seen periodically throughout the last 200 years. Reportedly, he was spotted before the assassination of Lincoln and Garfield, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the death of Roosevelt, the assassination of Kennedy, the attempted assassination of Reagan, and there was even an account of the cat being spotted the night of September 10th, 2001. At the White House, it is usually seen during times when the presidency is moving to a new person.

DC's predicting ability isn't the only thing it is known for. It's said to live in a room originally intended to house the body of George Washington after death, a place that would remain empty as Washington was buried at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia. This empty room is one of the many places witnesses have spotted the mysterious creature.

When the subject of ghosts and the paranormal on Capitol Hill is approached, a few incidents are brought to light. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is a firm believer. “In my old hideaway we had ghosts,” Leahy said. “We had a 300-pound table that we’d come in and find in different parts of the room that we hadn’t left it in...it had moved around by itself about every two or three months.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she hadn’t seen any ghosts in her more than 20 years in Congress, but added that “sometimes it feels haunted.”

Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.) agreed, saying that when he presided over the House floor, he sometimes felt another presence in the room. “When I sat in the [House] chair at times, I knew that there were members around me that were not just not in the chamber to vote on something,” he said.

Anthony Wallis, a research analyst with the House historian’s office states, “One soldier is known to have undergone excruciating pain one night during surgery and he died on the operating table. So Capitol Police swear that they hear moaning and see figures walking across the Capitol Rotunda, because it was used as a makeshift hospital during the Civil War.”

Whether real or the result of years of paranoia I cannot say, but if you ever find yourself in the Capitol Rotunda during a tour, take a look at the floor near the old entrance to the Senate Hall. One thing that you cannot deny is the set of cat printsacross the stone floor said to be made by the US Capitol's demon cat."

Crop circles appear in E. Washington

"Mysterious crop circles have appeared in an eastern Washington wheat field — not far from the nation's largest hydropower producer — but area farmers preparing for the summer's harvest find the distraction more amusing than alarming.

"You can't do anything other than laugh about it," said Cindy Geib, who owns the field along with her husband, Greg. "You just kind of roll with the theory it's aliens and you're special because aliens chose your spot."

Friends called the Geibs on July 24 when the pattern of flattened wheat was spotted off Highway 174about five miles north of the town of Wilbur. The field is about 10 miles south of the Grand Coulee dam, which the Bureau of Reclamation says is the largest hydropower producer in the United States.

The circles resemble a four-leaf clover and remind Cindy Geib of Mickey Mouse ears. The design knocked down about an acre of their wheat. Some of it could be salvaged by combines when the harvest starts in a week or two, she said, but some will be lost.

"Of course, we don't have alien insurance," she said.

Crop circles have been a worldwide phenomenon for decades, and this is not the first one in Lincoln County. Similar circular patterns were left in crops in the Wilbur area in 2010 and in 2008 or 2009, Geib said.

UFOs & the Bennewitz Case:

George Knapp interviewed, UFO investigator Christian Lambright and delved into the mysterious case of Paul Bennewitz, in which he became a victim of a govt. disinformation program, when he revealed he'd captured footage and strange signals relating to unusual craft at Kirtland AFB, outside of Albuquerque. Bennewitz (who died in 2003) was a successful Albuquerque businessman who had contracts with military agencies, and was initially considered credible. He first became interested in the cattle mutilation mystery, which led to his fascination with UFOs, and in 1979, he started recording film of mysterious craft at Kirtland from the roof of his house. He described seeing glowing spots over a period of minutes, followed by a sudden flash, with objects then taking off suddenly and flying around the mountain, low enough to evade radar, Lambright recounted.


Bennewitz was concerned that these craft might be a threat to weapons at the AFB, and took his film and information to the Air Force. But his contacting the Air Force, initiated a chain of events that led to his downfall, and a stint in a mental hospital. Richard Doty, an agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, handled the case, and carried out a disinformation campaign on Bennewitz, enlisting UFO researcher Bill Moore in his efforts to mislead and discredit Bennewitz. They led him to believe that he was intercepting signals from aliens, and that ETs lived in an underground base in Dulce, NM, so that people would think he was mentally unstable, Lambright outlined. However, in a written statement Doty provided to George Knapp, he said that Paul Bennewitz was targeted because of his involvement with a Russian scientist, and that Bennewitz was convinced he was receiving alien signals, "and we just let Paul believe that."

 The MJ-12 documents were first intended to be given to Bennewitz as part of the disinformation campaign, Lambright added. He also discussed the UFO films made by researcher Ray Stanford that depicted craft which had different facets or faces and a beam that pulsed outward from their center. From viewing the films, Lambright concluded that the beam was related to the craft's propulsion. An engineer, who also saw the films, ended up working for a black project on laser propulsion, and Lambright believes he based some of his designs on what he observed in Stanford's films.

The Mowing Devil Mystery

You may remember some of this as I posted on it last year.This appeared more recently...

"Jul 3rd in Ancient Mysteries by Nick Redfern
It’s a saga that many have heard of, but not so many know the story behind it. It’s the weird tale of the “Mowing Devil” – a strange legend that had its origins more than 300 years ago in England, and which has led to suggestions that Crop Circles have been with us for longer – far longer, actually – than many suspect. And it goes like this…
Jim Schnabel, Crop Circle researcher and author of the book Round in Circles, wrote that in 1989, Jenny Randles, a well-known British investigative writer on many things Fortean “…received a surprising piece of information from a local historian named Betty Puttick, from St. Albans, Hertfordshire [England]. Mrs. Puttick had just read Randles and [Paul] Fuller’s Controversy of the Circles, and it had reminded her of a seventeenth-century woodcut she had come across in a recent book on Hertfordshire folklore.”

Schnabel added, somewhat significantly, that the woodcut in question “…depicted a small, black, horned figure, scything down oatstalks along a circular path, leaving what appeared to be flaming stalks in his wake.”

It was dated 1678, and titled The Mowing-Devil: Or, Strange News out of Hartford-Shire. Written in the distinct (and very odd, as you’ll see!) style and spelling of the 1700s, it stated:

“In the said County lives a Rich industrious Farmer, who perceiving a small Crop of his (of about three Half-Acres of Land which he has sowed with Oats) to be Ripe and fit for Gathering, sent to a poor Neighbour whom he knew worked commonly in the Summer-time at Harvest Labour to agree with him about Mowing or Cutting the said Oats down.

“The poor man as it behoov’d [sic] Him endeavour’d [sic] to sell the Sweat of his Brows and Marrow of his Bones at as dear a Rate as reasonably he might, and therefore askt [sic] a good round Price for his Labour, which the farmer taking some exception at, bid him much more under the usual Rate than the poor Man askt [sic] for it: So that some sharp Words had past, when the Farmer told him he would Discourse with him no more about it.

“Whereupon the honest Mower recollecting with himself, that if he undertook not that little Spot of Work, he might thereby lose much more business which the Farmer had to imploy [sic] him in beside, ran after him, and told him that, rather than displease him, he would do it at what rate in Reason he pleas’d [sic]: and as an instance of his willingness to serve him, proposed to him a lower price, than he had Mowed for any time this Year before. The irretated [sic] Farmer with a stern look, and hasty gesture, told the poor man

“That the Devil himself should Mow his Oats before he should have anything to do with them, and upon this went his way, and left the sorrowful Yeoman, not a little troubled that he had disoblig’d [sic] one in whose Power it lay to do him many kindnesses.

Somewhat intriguingly, the reference to the field being “all of a Flame” the night before the curious formation was found in the field, was highly reminiscent of a similar incident from 1964 that occurred in the north of England. During the early part of 1995, while digging through a then-recently-declassified collection of British Ministry of Defense files on UFOs that were held at the National Archive at Kew, England, I was startled to find the following letter, submitted to the MoD, via the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, on March 23, 1964. The subject matter was a curious, circular area of flattened ground found on land in the town of Penrith, Cumbria, England.

The Reverend T.E.T. Burbury – who took a personal interest in the affair – wrote:

“Does an apparent column of blue light about eight feet in diameter and about fifteen feet high which disappears and leaves a mark of very slightly disturbed earth, the same diameter, mean anything to you? I examined the ground which is about one hundred yards from the nearest building and there are no pylons near. There was no sign of burning, either by sight or smell; the grass growing between the exposed ground appeared quite normal. There were no signs of bird tracks or droppings: the ground simply appeared to have been lightly raked over in an almost perfect circle.”

For its part, records revealed to me, the Ministry of Defense dismissed the case as having no bearing on the defense or safety of the British Isles and wholly forgot about the matter. But, how notable, I thought: a Crop Circle-style formation that was believed to be the work of the Devil had appeared in southern England in 1678 – the night before which the field in question was seen to be “all of a flame” – and almost three hundred years later, something of a strikingly similar nature occurred in the north of England."

Maybe Crop Circles really are much older than many assume…
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/07/the-mowing-devil-mystery/

Is this anti-freckle cream a clue to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance?

While Star Trek: Voyager and conspiracy theories suggest that aviatrix Amelia Earhart was kidnapped by aliens, it's looking more and more like she met her end right here on Earth. A handful of newly discovered artifacts, including a jar of freckle fading cream, suggest that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan landed on the island of Nikumaroro in 1937 and survived for some time.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), has made several expeditions to Nikumaroro, an uninhabited island in the Republic of Kiribati where the skeletal remains of an apparent castaway were discovered in 1940. There they've uncovered artifacts that could very well point to Earhart and Noonan's survival on the island. Among them is a shattered jar that appears identical to jars used for Dr.‭ ‬C.‭ ‬H Berry's Freckle Ointment, an early 20th century cream that claimed to fade freckles. Earhart was known to dislike her own freckles and may have well used the cream in an attempt to remove them.

Since the skeletal remains and other artifacts found in 1940 — including part of a man's shoe and part of a woman's shoe — were lost, researchers hoping to close the lid on the Earhart disappearance have to rely on more recently discovered artifacts. Much glassware has been discovered on Nikumaroro, but some of it can be explained by US‭ ‬Coast Guard visits to the island. However, TIGHAR has found some glass containers in a campfire that were heat damaged at the bottom but not the top, suggesting that they were used by castaways to boil water. TIGHAR is also especially interested in artifacts that would have been used only by women, such as a bottle that appears to be Campana Italian Balm, a hand lotion commonly used by American women in the 1930s, and what appears to be a small cosmetics jar.
This July, TIGHAR plans to launch Niku 7, its latest mission to Nikumaroro, to investigate photographic evidence of what might be an aircraft. In the meantime, researchers stateside will continue to analyze the bone fragments and artifacts found during previous missions. - io9

Ghost Of Flight 401

Flash of the past.This was always one of my favorites.Recently featured in Phantoms And Monsters (I love that site and the Newsletters!_
 This story was taken from the book titled Ghosts of Flight 401 (Unsolved Mysteries Series)

Early in December 1972, a stewardess with Eastern Airlines told some of her colleagues of a premonition, in which she had seen a Lockheed Tri-Star on approach to Miami International Airport; she saw the port wing crumple as the aircraft hit the ground, and heard the despairing cries of the injured. The disaster would occur, she said, "around the holidays, closer to New Year". Asked if she and her colleagues were to be the cabin crew, she replied: "No, but it's going to be real close" On December 29, there was a last-minute change in crew schedules: the stewardess and her colleagues did not take Flight 401 from New York to Miami. Late in the evening, the aircraft crashed into the Florida Everglades, all of the flight crew and many of the passengers being killed. Among the fatalities were captain Bob Loft and the flight engineer, Second Officer Don Repo.

The cause of the crash was found to be a couple of minor design faults in the controls, and Lockheed rapidly corrected them. However, it appears that some undamaged parts of the aircraft were subsequently recycled in other planes.
Following this, a number of mysterious incidents were reported. One of the vice-presidents of Eastern Airlines boarded a Miami-bound Tri-Star at JFK airport, and spoke to a uniformed captain sitting in First Class. Suddenly he recognized that the captain was Bob Loft – at which point the apparition vanished. On another occasion at JFK, Loft was seen, and spoken to, by the plane's captain and two flight attendants. The captain was sufficiently disturbed to cancel the flight.

One aircraft, numbered 318, was particularly affected. A woman found herself sitting next to an Eastern Airlines flight officer who looked pale and ill, but would not speak; she called a stewardess but, before the eyes of several people, the man disappeared. The woman was later shown photographs of Eastern Airlines engineers, and identified Don Repo. On another flight, from New York to Mexico City, one of the plane's engines malfunctioned, and it had to return to the runway and was taken out of service. There were other incidents. A male voice on the PA announced the usual seat belt and no-smoking precautions, when the PA had not been switched on and none of the crew had made the announcement. A flight engineer making the preflight checks found a man in Second Officer's uniform, whom he recognized as Repo, sitting at the control panel. The apparition said, "You don't need to worry about the preflight, I've already done it", and vanished. One Tri-Star captain said that he had also spoken to Rep, who told him "There will never be another crash (of a Tri-Star)…we will not let it happen".

"

Two-Thirds of Americans Think Barack Obama Is Better Suited to Handle an Alien Invasion Than Mitt Romney

What Do You Think?
"According to a new U.S. extraterrestrial survey from National Geographic Channel (NGC), more than 80 million Americans are certain that UFOs exist. In fact, many believe in tangible proof that aliens have landed on Earth and think that government officials are involved in covering up paranormal activities. Moreover, most citizens would not mind a minor alien invasion, because they expect these space-age visitors to be friendly--like the lovable character depicted in Steven Spielberg's popular film "E.T."

Survey results also reveal that more than one-third (36%) of Americans believe UFOs exist. More than one in 10 (11%) are confident that they have spotted a UFO, and one in five (20%) know someone who claims to have seen one.

- Despite the popularity of "Avengers" and "Twilight," more than seven in 10 (71%) Americans think that aliens are more likely to exist than are superheroes, vampires and zombies. Furthermore, if aliens attacked our planet, more than one in five (21%) would most likely call on the Hulk to deal with the havoc. Far fewer would most trust Batman (12%) or Spiderman (8%) to step in.

- In regards to national security, nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans think Barack Obama would be better suited than fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion. In fact, more than two in three (68%) women say that Obama would be more adept at dealing with an alien invasion than Romney, vs. 61 percent of men. And more younger citizens, ages 18 to 64 years, than those aged 65+ (68% vs. 50%) think Romney would not be as well-suited as Obama to handle an alien invasion.

Tech Supervisor Erin Ryder and UFOlogist James Fox from NGC's new series "Chasing UFOs," believe the survey results are in line with the interviews and research they found in field operations taping the show. Viewers who watch the series' back-to-back premieres on Friday, June 29, at 9 & 10 p.m. ET/PT, will witness over 30 Texas residents who swear they saw an unidentified flying object in 2008 and Colorado towns folk share their encounters with the team about speeding saucers and green lights that often are spotted in the night sky.

About the Survey

NatGeo's "Aliens Among Us" survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,114 Americans, May 21-29, 2012. The poll was conducted by Kelton Research, which used e-mail invitations and online surveys. Quotas were set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population, ages 18 and older. The margin of error is +/-2.9 percent. - spaceref"

06/30/2012

Bible Account True? Go Moses!

Chariots in Red Sea: 'Irrefutable evidence'
'Horse and human remains strewn like battlefield wreckage'
Published: 4 days ago
Joe Kovacs, author of the forthcoming book (out July 17), "The Divine Secret: The Awesome and Untold Truth About Your Phenomenal Destiny", as well as the No. 1 best-seller "Shocked by the Bible: The Most Astonishing Facts You've Never Been Told," is executive news editor for WND.

"Coral-encrusted object in Red Sea could be ancient Egyptian chariot wheels

A news report that stunned the world nine years ago about the discovery of possible ancient chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea is suddenly gaining fresh attention with new video claiming “irrefutable evidence” that corroborates the find.

In June 2003, WND interviewed Bible enthusiasts who dove the waters of the Red Sea, alleging they found and photographed parts of chariots that may be the actual remains of the catastrophe brought upon the Egyptian army which pursued the Israelites, according to the Book of Exodus in the Bible.

“I am 99.9 percent sure I picked up a chariot wheel,” said Peter Elmer, a forklift mechanic from Keynsham, England, who made two diving trips to the Gulf of Aqaba branch of the sea. “It was covered in coral.”

“I believe I actually sat in an ancient chariot cab,” he told WND at the time, referring to his time exploring a submerged item in the underwater junkyard. “Without question, it is most definitely the remains of the Egyptian army.”

Now, Michael Rood, a Hebrew-roots teacher, has produced a video proffering evidence Elmer is absolutely correct.

His DVD, titled “The Red Sea Crossing,” documents the work of numerous researchers from the U.S. and overseas who have probed an underwater land bridge between a beachhead at Nuweiba, Egypt, and what is today Saudi Arabia.community,” says Rood. “Cameras mounted on remote-controlled submarines revealed coral-encrusted chariot parts, horse and human remains strewn like battlefield wreckage on the bottom of the reed sea.”
http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/chariots-in-red-sea-irrefutable-evidence/print/


“What they found strewn across the bottom of the reed sea has shaken the religious and scientific

A Recent Black Magic Horror

"Thai police arrested a British citizen on Friday after the bodies of six babies thought to have been used in a black magic ritual were found stuffed into travel bags in a Bangkok hotel room.

Chow Hok Kuen, 28, a British citizen born in Hong Kong of Taiwanese parents, was arrested in Bangkok's Chinatown and was being held for possession of human remains, police said.

Authorities believe he was trying to smuggle the corpses to Taiwan.

"The bodies are of children between the ages of two and seven months. Some were found covered in gold leaf," Wiwat Kumchumnan, sub-division chief of the police's Children and Women Protection unit, told Reuters.
It was not clear where the bodies came from.

Kuen was staying at a hotel in Khao San Road, Bangkok's backpacker area, but the bodies were found in a separate hotel.

Police had received a tip-off that infant corpses were being offered to wealthy clients through a website advertising black magic services.

The corpses were bought from a Taiwanese national for 200,000 baht (4,051 pounds) and could have been sold for six times that amount in Taiwan, police said.

Black magic rituals are still practised in Thailand, where street-side fortune tellers offer ceremonies to reverse bad luck.

Kuen faces one year in prison and a 2,000 baht fine if he is found guilty. - yahoo

Medieval medallion found in baby shark in Malaysia

A baby shark being prepared for lunch gave a Malaysian family a big surprise - an ancient artifact believed to be dated long before the Portuguese conquest of Malacca. Housewife Suseela Menon, from Klebang, made the priceless discovery while filleting the fish for lunch.

It is believed to be a medallion worn by the Portuguese soldiers, presumably as a divine protection, during their conquests in this part of the world in the 16th century. One side of the medallion is a profile of a woman's head with a crown and encircled by a halo and an inscription that is unclear. The other side is a crucifix with an engraved inscription that reads ANTONII.

Checks with a local historian revealed the head engraving could be that of Queen Elizabeth, the consort of King Denis I of Portugal during his reign from 1271 to 1336. Suseela said she immediately cleaned the medallion and preserved it in a box. “I bought two sharks from the wet market and was taken aback upon discovering the object inside the stomach of one of the fishes,” said the 47-year-old mother-of-two.

Suseela had wanted to prepare shark curry for her husband. “Finally, my husband decided not to eat the fish as the object seems to be a religious item,” she said. The medallion is 7.4cm long, 6cm wide and weighs 10g. “My husband feels it is a blessing for the family to have the medallion coming to our home from beneath the sea. We will always cherish it,” said Suseela.

Has The Lost Colony Been Found?

Lost Colony of Roanoke Found?

Perhaps the best clue in more than 420 years to North Carolina's most famous mystery has just been revealed.

The remains of the Lost Colony, it turns out, could sit under an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course in Bertie County.

Researchers at the British Museum in London, acting at the request of a group of historians andarchaeologists in North Carolina, have found a symbol hidden on an ancient map that could show where members of the English colony established on Roanoke Island in 1587 moved.

Representatives of the First Colony Foundation and scholars at the British Museum who appeared via video webcast announced the discovery Thursday in a news conference at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's Wilson Library.
The elaborate "Virginea Pars" map was created by members of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke Colony expeditions of 1584-1590, the first attempt to establish an English Colony in the New World.

The map, which is unusually accurate for its time, shows the coastal area from the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout, and pinpoints the locations of several native American villages.

Brent Lane, an adjunct professor of Heritage Education at the University of North Carolina Kenan Institute and a scholar with the First Colony Foundation, was studying a map made by the leader of the 1587 colony expedition, John White, when he became intrigued with two patches of paper pasted over small parts of it.
One of the patches was in an area that the settlers had explored, and where some historians had theorized was a likely spot for them to have moved.

The patching technique was normal for the time. When artists wanted to make alterations, they would paste on a patch and draw or paint over it. Still, Lane asked British Museum officials whether they had ever tried to determine what was under the patches.

They hadn't.
When they put the map on a simple light table, which shined through the paper, they saw something startling. Under one patch was a large symbol that appeared show the location of a fort.

The site appears to be at or near what is now the Scotch Hall Preserve, a golf course and residential community just across the Albemarle Sound from Edenton.

Raleigh planned a capital, the "Cittie of Raleigh," and Lane said that the symbol may show both the planned location of that and the most likely place for the colonists to have moved.

Lost Colony Foundation members said Thursday that they were planning new scholarly and archaeological research to explore the new clue about the Bertie site. Early efforts to match pottery recovered from the area to the correct period have already produced some positive results, researchers said. - chicagotribune