Crop circles appear outside Northern Californian town

Circles are the signs of the times in Northern California, as the largest formation of crop circles ever reported in the U.S. is drawing large numbers of visitors to an 80-acre wheat field.

The mysterious shapes appeared in the small town of Suisun Valley.

"You won't believe what I'm looking at," farmer Larry Balestra told his wife via cell phone when he first discovered the damage, according to the Fairfield Daily Republic.

Over a dozen circles were created by flattened wheat to form a symmetrical, abstract design more than 100 yards in length.

Just like the Mel Gibson character in the movie "Signs" speculated, Balestra thinks someone must have vandalized the field overnight.

"I guess some people have too much time on their hands," he told the Republic, shaking his head.

12-year-old Pat Kavanagh lives with his family in a house across from the site, and says his big brother, Charles, noticed something out of the ordinary that night.

"He was driving home from work late Friday night," Pat told the San Francisco Chronicle, "and the next morning, he told me that he had seen a large spotlight, like a motorcycle light, in the middle of the field. No flying saucers or spaceships."

Another purported "witness" to the event, Mark Grant, told KRON-TV he heard strange noises on the overnight:

"It could have been a cat, but it was like a screaming, a whirrr. [It] sounded almost like a bigger cat was being cornered or something and was screaming to try to get out of it. I don't know what it was, but I know it was enough for me to grab my gun and sit there for a while and not go back to sleep for a while."

With the first reported crop circle dating back to England in 1647, the phenomenon now has some 250 formations reported worldwide each year, according to data from the Southern Circular Research which monitors circles found in the United Kingdom.

In 1991, the British duo of Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed they sparked crop-circle mania, as they said they created the designs with ropes and planks to mash down crops with their feet.

With many pondering the possibility the designs are the work of aliens from outer space, the recent discovery is bringing people in droves to Solano County, Calif.

Nearby businesses are cashing in on all the attention, with one eatery thinking about putting an alien omelet on the menu.

"We went from a usual $900 day to a $2,000 day," Jessica Godoy, an employee of Valley Cafe, told the Daily Republic. "We are seeing people we've never seen before and people we haven't seen in a long time."

As for the field, people from all walks of life have come to walk in it, snap photos, take measurements, dance, breathe deeply, hum and wave their arms to the heavens. Some are even taking the crushed wheat to plant at home or sprinkle on their ailing body parts.

"I feel vacillations," Connie Pearson, who came from New Orleans, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Low vibrations. I feel reality, which is a function of agreement. It's very exciting to be here."

Link to the original story can be found here.

Bizarre creature washes up in small Canadian town

Locals in a small Canadian town have been stumped by the appearance of a bizarre creature, which was dragged from a lake.

The animal, which has a long hairy body with bald skin on its head, feet and face, has prompted wild internet speculation that it is a more evolved version of the famous 'Montauk monster'.

The creature was discovered by two nurses in the town of Kitchenuhmaykoosib in Ontario, Canada, while out on a walk with their dog.

When the dog began sniffing in the lake, the two women started investigating, before the dog pulled the dead animal out.

After taking some photographs of the odd animal, the nurses left it alone. When locals decided to go back and retrieve the body, it has disappeared.

The photographs have now been posted on a local website, with an explanation which reads: 'This creature was first discovered by Sam the Dog, a local dog.

'It was discovered first week of May in the creek section of town, hikers noticed Sam sniffing something in the water and they approached to see in what the Sam had detected and they noticed the creature in the water face down.

'The dog jumped in the lake and pulled the creature to the rocks and dragged it out for the hikers to see and these are the photos they took.

'The creature's tail is like a rat's tail and it is a foot long.'

There has been much speculation about what kind of species the animal is.

The body of the creature appears to look something like an otter, while its face - complete with long fang-like teeth, bears a striking resemblance to a boar-like animal.

Even the local police chief Donny Morris is baffled, saying: 'What it is, I don't know. I'm just as curious as everyone else.'

The pictures of the animal have caused mass speculation online, from bloggers who are all stumped as to what the creature could be.

One internet blogger wrote: 'That certainly is a face only a mother can love. It looks like some sort of otter, weasel-type thing.'

While another added: 'Some kind of mustelid - I thought otter first.

'Being in the water and bashed around has made the fur on the face and tail come off so clean like that.'

Many people have suggested the animal could be a new 'Montauk monster' - due to the similarities between these photographs and those of a different creature which washed up in Montauk, New York, in 2008.

The animal, which quickly earned the nickname the 'Montauk monster', thanks to the beach's location to a Long Island government animal testing facility, has never been officially identified - although the general consensus is that it was some kind of racoon.

However, other bloggers have speculated that the new creature discovered is a type of chupacabra, or 'goatsucker'.

The chupacabra is rumoured to inhabit parts of the U.S. , with many several hundred eyewitness accounts over the past few years.

But despite these sightings, the majority of biologists and wildlife experts believe the chupacabra is a contemporary legend.

Original article can be found here.

The Bear Lake Monster

Every state has their share of cryptozoological wonders and Utah is no exception. Apart from the high number of Bigfoot sightings and other strange creatures, Utah also is home to one of many supposed lake monsters that populate the world. The saline waters of the Great Salt Lake are not hospitable for such a creature, nor are the shallow waters of Utah Lake. Utah’s lake monster prefers the colder northern end of the state, preferring to reside in Bear Lake.

Situated on the Idaho border, Bear Lake has been a popular leisure lake for generations. It did not take long, though, for settlers in Utah to claim seeing a strange creature swimming, and even emerging, from Bear Lake. In 1868 local journalist Joseph C. Rich reported on the sightings of the elusive monster in the lake. According to his report, the Bear Lake Monster was first spotted by the local tribe of Native Americans. White settlers who had seen the monster described it as being able to swim faster than a horse could gallop. The monster was estimated to be at least 90 feet long. Later eyewitnesses have described the Bear Lake monster as looking either like a walrus without the tusks or an alligator.

The Bear Lake Monster has generated so much interest in the fields of cryptozoology and folklore that Animal Planet featured the monster in their Lost Tapes series (video below). In the tape, one cryptozoologist postulates that the monster is a “holdover” from prehistoric times, somehow surviving in the lake until our present day.

Interest in the monster has supposedly drawn some to visit Bear Lake in order to hopefully catch a glimpse of the monster. Most recorded sightings, though, involve locals. Some of these eyewitnesses, though, have seen the monster emerge from the water to attack prey. The ability to leave the lake at least temporarily certainly makes the Bear Lake Monster different from the droves of other lake monsters in the world. These land sightings of the monster have fueled theories that it is some sort of prehistoric alligator or a dinosaur.

Like all cryptids, there are skeptics who doubt the existence of such a creature. The size of Bear Lake has been argued to be too small to sustain such a large creature. Others have wondered why no concrete evidence has been captured that shows even the possibility of such a creature residing in Bear Lake. Still, the sightings have continued, even in recent years. Despite the potential danger lurking beneath the surface of Bear Lake, in the summer plenty of people are on the lake waterskiing and swimming.

The original article can be found here.

Multiple bright moving lights appear in Hidden Valley, CA

A Hidden Valley, CA, witness is wondering why neighbors are not noticing or reporting the multiple bright lights moving around the sky at night and the sudden occurrence of approximately 32 crop circles in the same location, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

"Last week I saw the most beautiful lights rotating around something on the hill, I had never seen such pure white lights," the witness stated. "After about 30 min. only two lights remained at that spot. Some of the lights are also golden in color."

With all the local activity going on, the witness is questioning why others are not coming forward.

"I am not sure what is going on here in Hidden Valley, but whatever it is, it is increasing. I have only shared this with family as I DO NOT want them to be scared away. And I cannot believe my neighbors haven't noticed! People just don't even look up anymore, they are so into their own heads."

In the public portion of the MUFON statement, the witness did not specify which Hidden Valley, CA, location these events are occurring at. There are Hidden Valley locations in El Dorado, Placer, and Ventura counties.

Link to the original article and MUFON report can be found here.

Five year old girl grows two new kidneys

A girl left seriously ill when both her kidneys failed astounded medical experts by growing two new ones.

Angel Burton suffered from painful kidney infections from birth to the point where she required surgery at the age of five.

But surgeons were amazed to discover the little girl had four kidneys, with two new fully-formed organs sitting on top of her old ones.

And the new ones had taken over the role of the others, meaning she was effectively 'cured' of kidney failure.

Now, three years on, Angel, now eight, is fighting fit and her family are still thankful for the miracle that changed her life.

She has an rare condition known as 'duplex kidney' - common to just a handful of people in Britain.

A duplex kidney is fused to the other at the centre and may share or have an independent ureter draining urine to the bladder.

In Angel's case both her kidneys are 'duplex' and fused to the other. Each has a separate ureter, meaning that she has four kidneys and four ureters

Doctors believe the initial scans missed the extra kidneys because they sat immediately on top of each other and would have shown up as one.

Angel's mother, Claire Burton, 32, from Louth, Lincolnshire gave birth to her daughter in 2001 but within months her baby's health started to decline.

Doctors performed tests and she was diagnosed with bilateral reflux, which meant that the valves to her bladder weren't working properly and urine was getting into her kidneys, causing infections.

Angel's condition continued to be monitored and she was regularly screened for infections and given kidney scans.

On one check-up it was revealed her kidneys had suffered serious scarring and she would have to have an operation.

She underwent surgery at Sheffield Children's Hospital in October 2007 to create an artificial valve but during the operation doctors spotted the extra kidneys.

Mrs Burton, who has two other children with husband of ten years, Michael, said: 'They'd been in there an hour and a quarter when the surgeon came out.

He said: 'We've found something very, very strange considering the amount of scans Angel's had this year.'

'He went on to explain they'd put a camera in Angel's bladder so they could repair the valves. They'd found the two openings that were supposed to be there and they'd gone ahead and repaired the two valves.

'But then they'd found two more openings and when they'd put the camera up, these openings led up to two more perfectly healthy kidneys, just sitting on top of the other ones.

'He said: 'They are totally independent. We are just stunned that these have never been picked up on a scan. She's been having intensive scanning for five years and they've never shown up. It looks like the healthy ones have taken over.''

She said: 'It's a real miracle. It's absolutely amazing that none of her earlier scans picked the extra kidneys up. We're just so grateful to have Angel back to her happy, healthy self.'

With her extra kidneys doing all the work of her old ones, Angel, now eight, is fully recovered and looking forward to a healthy future.

Prasad Godbole, consultant paediatric urologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital who operated on Angel said: 'I was surprised we had one (a duplex) in Angel because none of the previous x-rays had shown that. Sometimes you could miss it but I was surprised because looking at all the previous x-rays there was no suggestion of this. Her kidneys are working fine.'

Original article can be found here.

Porterville house was site of poltergeist activity during the 1980's

For several weeks in 1984, a residence in the small town of Porterville (situated in Tulare County) was privy to poltergeist activity. The occurrences in the single story house, built in 1979, started when the resident couple's granddaughter came for a visit.

Most of the activity occurred in the hall and a bedroom closet the daughter was staying in. Tapping noises were heard coming from inside the walls as well as strange voices. The incidences continued for several days without any explanation.

Finally a group of paranormal investigators were called in to determine what was going on. They were able to conclude that the poltergeist activity was the result of the spirit of the granddaughter's twin sister, who had died at the age of five from virulent cancer.

After the granddaughter left the residence, the activity stopped and there hasn't been anything reported since. No one knows why this one visit sparked the activity in this small house in Porterville.

Weird Fresno on the Dirty Dowdy Podcast

On Wednesday, May 12th, I had the privilege to be on the Dirty Dowdy podcast to discuss all things paranormal in the Fresno area. For those of you that haven't heard the Dirty Dowdy podcast (seriously you haven't listened? WTF?), it's a Fresno weekly podcast done by Chris Dowdy and they have a variety of guests on the show.

Chris had asked me to be on the show as several of the members were interested in the paranormal and wanted to share some stories. For the first part of the show I told them my first encounter with a ghost at my mother's old house and also the story of how I heard the two little girls in the cemetery laughing. Then I was told a story of a homemade Ouija board and actually got someone calling in with a question.

The rest of the show was insane to say the least, especially when Rash from New Rock 104 got into a very heated discussion with Ricky Ingles and yours truly was in the middle. Though I think I solved the debate when I interjected pro wrestling into the mix.

Overall I had a great time and hopefully will be back sometime in October when the "season" starts. Until then you can click here to listen to the podcast or you can also download it on iTunes.

Have aliens hijacked the Voyager 2 spacecraft?

It left Earth 33 years ago, now it's claimed the Voyager 2 spacecraft may have been hijacked by aliens after sending back data messages NASA scientists can't decode.

NASA installed a 12-inch disk containing music and greetings in 55 languages in case intelligent extraterrestrial life ever found it.

But now the spacecraft is sending back what sounds like an answer: Signals in an unknown data format!

The best scientific minds have so far not been able to decipher the strange information – is it a secret message?

Alien expert Hartwig Hausdorf said:"It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth"

Engineers are working to solve the data transmissions from the Voyager 2 spacecraft near the edge of the solar system, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said today.

The spacecraft late last month began sending science data 8.6 billion miles to Earth in a changed format that mission managers could not decode.

Engineers have since instructed Voyager 2 to only transmit data on its own health and status while they work on the problem.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, explored the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and kept on going. Nearly 33 years later, they are the most distant human-made objects.

Voyager 1 is 10.5 billion miles from Earth and in about five years is expected to pass through the heliosphere, a bubble the sun creates around the solar system, and enter interstellar space.

Voyager 2 will follow after that.

Link to original article can be found here.