381 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 83: Sep-Oct 1992 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology On cuna writing and its affinities Flat-faced chephren not sphinx! Winning by a hair Astronomy Did barnard & mellish really see craters on mars? When isotropy confounds Biology Tangled-tails tales Bc sea serpents Flat-faced hominid skulls from china Geology Earth's water not imported? Geophysics Official foo-fighter records revealed Checking out some texas ghost lights Wrong-way waterspout Crop-circle contest Psychology Is the paranormal only a set of subjective experiences? Distressing near-death experiences (ndes) Chemistry and Physics Cold-fusion update ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Triangular Holes In Boulders Recently, someone who wishes to remain anonymous, inspired after reading our Ancient Man, wrote us about a curious discovery of his. He had found some triangular holes in a granite boulder near Raleigh, NC. We have mentioned similar triangular holes before (SF#69/ 20), noting that hundreds of such holes had been recorded in boulders from Minnesota and the Dakotas to the eastern seaboard. We can now add to this dossier a photograph supplemented by this individual's testimony. "Soon after Hurricane Fran struck Raleigh in September 1996, I was walking one of my customary routes along a local creek when my attention was arrested by a -ton granite boulder in the creek bed. The boulder had 3 holes drilled in its face, about 6 inches apart, and all in a straight line. (See photo.) I had not noticed this boulder before, so I'm fairly confident it was uncovered by the storm's 10-inch deluge of rain. Because the three holes seemed too close together to be blasting holes, I took a closer look at them and was surprised to see that they had "trianguloid" cross sections rather than round ones. By "trianguloid" I mean the cross section was thus: Casts of the holes were made by using modeling clay. The expanded bases of the casts suggest that a shallow pit was pecked out of the granite before ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cold Fusion Not So Hot!The Japanese government's funding for that country's 5-year, $25-million cold fusion program will cease in March 1998. The work had been pursued at the New Hydrogen Energy laboratory, near Sapporo. IMRA, a foundation sponsored by Toyota, has also contributed financial support. Reason for the loss of government support: The program "failed to find heat generated by cold fusion." (Anonymous; "Japan Ends Funding for 'Cold' Fusion Project," Nature, 389:10, 1997.) Comment. No longer will funds-starved American cold fusion enthusiasts be able to say, "Look at what Japan is doing." We need more money to compete." From Science Frontiers #114, NOV-DEC 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Standing Stones In North Carolina?A North Carolina reader recently submitted the accompanying photograph of very large, vertically oriented stones that, if found in western Europe, would be quickly assigned to the megalithic culture. Although similar upright stones are known in New England, we have not heard of any in North Carolina before. The stones in question are located in the Boone/Blowing Rock region of western North Carolina near Foscoe, very close to Grandfather Mountain (second highest peak east of the Mississippi). Although they could well be a product of natural forces, they stand out like the proverbial "sore thumb." (Davant, Charles, III; personal communications, July 2 and August 18, 1997.) Row of three, large, erect stones in western North Carolina. From Science Frontiers #114, NOV-DEC 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Music Of The Hemispheres The playing and composition of music has always been considered the near-exclusive province of the brain's right hemisphere. This turns out to be far from the truth. For example, non-musicians use both hemispheres in musical matters; the right side for recognizing melody and intonation, the left for such analytical matters as rhythm and notation. However, professional musicians, as their brain waves demonstrate, use their left hemispheres for just about everything of a musical nature. So much for the right-hemisphere theory! The comparison of magnetic resonance images of 27 right-handed musicians and 27 right-handed nonmusicians have shown that even their brain structures differ. The corpus callosum -- that inter-hemisphere information highway -- is 10-15% thicker in musicians who began their training while young than it is in nonmusicians. Our brain structure is apparently strongly molded by early training. The corpus callosum in musicians is essential in such things as finger coordination. Like a weight-lifter's biceps, it enlarges to accommodate the increased tasks assigned to it. (Anonymous; "Music of the Hemispheres," Discover, 15:15, March 1994.) Comment. It would be interesting to compare the brain structures of mathematicians and nonmathematicians where the dexterity factor is absent. From Science Frontiers #95, SEP-OCT 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A SKY-SPANNING AURORAL ARCH August 28, 1916. Canada. "The usual Northern Lights were feeble, but at half past ten there grew in the sky an immense arc or ribbon of light -- practically a complete semicircle -- stretching from a point on the horizon practically due east nearly up to the zenith, but a little to the south of it, and passing down practically to the western point of the horizon. Throngs of people gathered to see it and according to their account the like was never seen before. It was a fairly uniform band of light of about the same width as the rainbow. Its definiteness was surprising, there was very little fading away at the edges; it was as if a paint brush had been drawn across the sky...For about an hour it arched the sky and during that time it was noticeably fixed relative to the earth, for some of the stars as they got higher in the east crossed it from the northern or convex side to the other." (Anonymous; "Great Auroral Displays," Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Journal, 10:469, 1916.) Comment. This sharp and precisely drawn arc is so different from the swaying draperies, pulsing arcs, and "merry dancers" that characterize the usual auroral displays. We have not seen any good explanation of this phenomenon. More examples may be found in GLA2 in our ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Flash Auroras Flash auroras are ephemeral auroral displays lasting only a few seconds. They occur when auroral and geomagnetic activity is subdued worldwide. Under such quiet conditions, scientists do not expect to see auroras of any kind. Yet, experienced aurora observers keep on reporting these transient events. June 13/14, 1987. Winnipeg, Saskatche wan. T. Lohvinenko saw a fragmentary active rayed arc in a clear sky at 0644 UT. It lasted for only a few seconds. February 13/14, 1991. Near Glasgow, Scotland. While facing south, A. Simmons observed rays and a luminous patch at an altitude of 45 . The phenomenon lasted 2 minutes. In both of the above instances, the geomagnetic field was quiet and auroral activity virtually zero worldwide. "It is unprofitable at this stage to speculate on the cause or causes of the mid-latitude flash aurora as it is known in the Aurora Section. More authenticated observations need to be built up before they can become statistically meaningful. The geomagnetosphere is a very dynamic and restless organism in which some instability may develop to cause what, in engineering parlance, might be referred to as a short circuit in the magnetospheric dynamo." (Livesey, R.J .; "The Flash Aurora," British Astronomical Association, Journal, 107:36, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #117, MAY-JUN 1998 . 1998-2000 William R ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Archeological revisionism Astounding undersea structure near okinawa More bones that don't belong The mysterious terras pretas Paradigm assaults from way down under Astronomy The "stealth" region of mars The day the laws of phsics changed Biology Lunacy in trees Two creations of life? Biological miscellany Geology The song of the earth Glitches in the terrestrial conveor belt Geophysics Unidentified light Phosphorescent rings and wheels Broadside against small icy comets Psychology Measuring beauty Monogrammic determinism Tactile ventriloquism ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Bones That Don't Belong More anomalous than Kennewick Man (that 9,300-year-old skeleton from Washington with Caucasian features (SF#109), is a skull from Brazil dubbed Luzia. Luzia was a female, aged 20-25, who lived near Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil. Luzia's skull and other artifacts came from a campsite carbon-dated by labs in Brazil and France as being about 11,500 years old. This makes Luzia the oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas -- assuming this whole story hangs together. The 11,500-year date is impressive enough, but anthropologist W. Neves, University of Sao Paulo, asserts that Luzia's skull and teeth are not Mongoloid but really characteristic of the South Sea islanders. Such observations agree with the studies of skeletal material by J. Powell, University of New Mexico. Powell has concluded that the oldest settlers of the New World probably did not trek across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia but came from elsewhere. (Borden, Keefe; "Skull Find Redefines American Ancestry," Austin American Statesman , May 24, 1998. (Cr. D. Phelps) From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Natural Laser Beacons "It has long been realized that the Earth's upper atmosphere cannot be in thermodynamic equilibrium, and during the last decade astronomers have made telescopic observations of nonequilibrium processes taking place in the upper atmospheres of our Earth-like neighbors, Mars and Venus. A preliminary analysis by Michael Mumma, of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and his colleagues. indicated that processes analogous to optical pumping in laboratory lasers were taking place and led to the coining of the term 'natural lasers.' Now, Deming and colleagues from the Goddard team have taken new observations of emission from Mars and Venus at wavelengths near 10 micrometers. and modelled them to show that stimulated emission -- the effect which makes lasers so powerful -- accounts for up to seven per cent of the total emission. This is not a large amplification factor by laboratory standards, particularly for a CO2 laser. But, the authors speculate that the sheer size of the natural lasers could make them useful tools in the future for communicating with distant civilizations beyond our own planetary system." The atmospheres of Mars and Venus are almost pure CO2 . The CO2 molecules are excited by the absorption of energetic solar photons; then, thermally emitted photons at about 10 micrometers from lower reaches of the atmosphere collide with the excited molecules, stimulating them to emit another 10-micrometer photon, thus doubling the number of photons. This is typical laser action. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Paradigm Assaults From Way Down Under A lengthy article in an Auckland newspaper demonstrates that archeological revisionism is alive and well in New Zealand. We select just three of the more controversy-provoking topics. G. Cook, assisted by a few likeminded compatriots, has been exploring the Waipoua Forest in Northland. Here, he claims, is a treasure trove of pre-Maori stone structures. In a 242-hectare area, he has found 16 sites encompassing nearly 2,000 enigmatic stone structures. Interestingly, the New Zealand government has made a three-year survey of the area and has embargoed release of their report until 2063! (Official coverups are also found in archeology.) B. Brailsford, of Kaimanawa Wall fame (SF#107), now asserts that the Maoris were preceded by the Waitaha -- a claim echoed by others. But Brailsford goes a step further by stating that the Waitaha really comprised three disparate groups of people: (a ) the Moriori, who were of giant stature and superb gardeners; (b ) the Urukehu, a fair-skinned group known also as Starwalkers for their knowledge of the heavens; and (c ) the Kiritea or Stone People from Asia. Finally, stated sans reference, is the fact that in 1996 rock carvings 14,000 years old were found along a 49-kilometer stretch of the Amazon. (Paterson, Kimberly; "Pushing History Back beyond ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Interproximal Grooving Of Teeth The following illustration appeared recently in a respected science journal. No, it was not a dentistry journal, nor was it an ad for a new toothpaste. It was Current Anthropology. It seems that some human and near-human skeletons possess teeth with the peculiar grooves shown in the sketch. The skeleton-age range is huge: 1.84 million years to comparatively modern bones 10,000 years old. These teeth are found on several continents. Some archeologists say simply that ancient humans just picked their teeth a lot in order to remove trapped food particles. But the grooves do not seem to be correlated with dental-decay problems. This fact has led to the so- called "cultural" theory, which holds that the picking of teeth was just another bad human habit, probably a sort of stereotype behavior having nothing to do with food caught between the teeth. (Formicola, Vincenzo; "Interproximal Grooving of Teeth: Additional Evidence and Interpretation," Current Anthropology , 29:663, 1988. Also: Anonymous; "Ancient Tooth Grooves: Take Your Pick," Science News , 134:237, 1988.) Comment. Could tooth-picking have been a religious rite? Are there cave drawings showing humans picking their teeth? Well, you can see from the Science News title that this publication also had fun with this item. Yet, the geographical and temporal reach ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gaia as a super-superorganism The Gaia hypothesis states that the earth's environment is maintained suitable for life by life itself. Our climate, atmospheric oxygen level, ocean composition, and similar vital conditions are kept livable by life's waste products, such as the oxygen emissions of plants. That something like Gaia is required is seen in the extreme disequilibrium of the earth's atmosphere compared to the near-equilibrium of the atmospheres of apparently lifeless Venus and Mars. For example, our atmosphere's 21% oxygen, a highly reactive gas, is many orders of magnitude higher than one would expect on a lifeless planet. Furthermore, life-friendly conditions have been maintained for billions of years despite large changes in the sun's output and the traumas of asteroid impacts. T.M . Lenton, writing in Nature, asks a salient question: How has planetary self-regulation (Gaia) been established and maintained by evolution and natural selection which operate on the level of individuals? In other words, evolution tells us that organisms should evolve so as to leave the most progeny not so as to regulate the atmosphere. Lenton answers that there must be feedback loops from the planetary environment that steer the evolution of individuals in the "proper" direction. Lenton goes on to explore some of these many feedback mechanisms; one obscure loop involves the production of dimethyl sulfide by marine phytoplankton. Truly, it ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Bright Flying Object And Another Enigmatic Crater The curious event described in the following abstract is eerily like the fireball and suspicious "crater" mentioned in SF#110. In that incident, which occurred November 22, 1996, near the HondurasGuatemala border, there was also a detonation. "On the early morning of 1994 January 18, a very bright luminous object crossed the sky of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. From visual sightings, it is concluded that the object wasn't a meteoric fireball (bolide). A surface "crater" in Cando (close to Santiago) with dimensions 29 x 13 m and 1.5 m deep was later discovered within 1 km of the projected "impact" point of the luminous object. At this site, in addition to the topsoil, full-grown pine trees greater than 20 m high were thrown downhill over a nearby road, leaving the downslope edge of the "crater" untouched and with a steep interior wall (this would not be the case if a regular landslide were responsible for the transport). Standing trees below the "crater" showed embedded soil and plant residues up to heights greater than 3 m. No strange materials (meteorites or artifacts) were recovered in or close to the "crater"; all materials belonged to the site and were not shocked; thus an impact is very improbable. "A possible explanation capable of reconciling all of the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Are nocturnal lights earthquake lights?" Nocturnal lights reported from 1972 to 1977 by fire lookouts on the Yakima Indian Reservation, Washington, correlate with earthquake origin time, distance, magnitude, and depth within a 200 km radius of the observations. Photographs and eyewitness accounts show that the luminous phenomena (LP) near ground level appear to be spherical, are colored white to orange, and show little or no internal detail. Locations of the observations preclude explaining them as terrestrial vehicles or other human activity." This abstract continues and notes that some of the luminous displays seem to be enhanced by geomagnetic activity. (Persinger, M.A ., and Derr, J.S .; "Relations among Nocturnal Lights, Geomagnetic Activity and Earthquakes in Southern Washington," Eos, 64:762, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Black Pyramids Spain's Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa hardly seem a place for pyramids, but there seem to be six of them on Tenerife, near Guimar. The inhabitants of this island have generally ignored these dilapidated piles of black volcanic stones. However, one perceptive native described them in a letter to T. Heyerdahl of Kon Tiki fame and a leading proponent of ancient cultural diffusion across all oceans. Quick to respond, Heyerdahl perceived amid the debris six stepped pyramids of black stone. He persuaded a Norwegian businessman to buy the site, clean up the debris of centuries, and found a museum. One of the "black" pyramids has now been restored, but some experts are still unconvinced. However, recent excavations under one pyramid have yielded artifacts identified with the pre-Spanish inhabitants of Tenerife. Meanwhile, Heyerdahl has been checking out a rumored pyramid on Sicily. Could Heyerdahl be right when he claims there were age-old cultural links between Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mexico, the Canaries, and even the Pacific Islands? (Mead, Robin; "Riddle of the Black Pyramids," London Times, December 19, 1998. Cr. A.C .A . Silk) Comment. The pre-Spanish inhabitants of the Canaries were the Guanches, who are noted for two other interesting things: (1 ) A very high frequency of the olecranon perforation of the upper arm bone ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Rock Lake Pyramids Professor James Shertz, of the University of Wisconsin, is trying to get to the bottom of the reputed stone pyramids submerged in Rock Lake, near Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Fishermen have hit the pyramids with their oars when the lake is very low; and others have spotted structures (perhaps as many as four) from the air. In 1937, a diver reported seeing a 29-foot-high pyramid in the murky waters. Recent divers have found boul-der alignments; but the visibility is so poor that organized structures cannot be identified. Truncated earthen pyramids exist at nearby precolumbian Aztalan; and strange rock piles exist elsewhere in Wisconsin. Consequently, one cannot brush off the idea that some edifices were built at Rock Lake when the water was much lower. (Smith, Susan Lampert; "Lake Mills' Lost Pyramids," Wisconsin State Journal, June 26, 1983. Cr. R. Heiden via L. Farish.) Comment. The 1937 dives are described in our Handbook Ancient Man. Perhaps it is relevant that sonar-imaging equip-ment has detailed obviously human-built rock structures on the floor of Loch Ness. Reference. Ancient Man is described here . Rock Lake pyramids drawn from 1937 diving observations. From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 123: May-Jun 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sophisticated Chemistry In Ancient Egypt The ancient Egyptians applied cosmetics copiously to themselves. Upper-class women (perhaps men, too) favored green, white, and black makeup. These cosmetic powders, dating from 2,000 B.C ., have been exceptionally well preserved in their original vials made of alabaster, ceramic, and wood. A team of French chemists led by P. Walter was not surprised when their analyses of these powders found crushed galena and cerussite (two ores of lead). However, they nearly dropped their test tubes when they also found chemical compounds that are extremely rare in nature; specifically, laurionite (PbOHCl) and phosgenite (Pb2 Cl2 CO3 ). In fact, these compounds are so rare naturally that the Egyptian powders must be artificial. P. Walter et al wrote: "Taken together, these results indicate that laurionite and phosgenite must have been synthesized in Ancient Egypt using wet chemistry. The Egyptians manufactured artificial leadbased compounds, and added them to the cosmetic product. The underlying chemical reactions are simple, but the whole process, including many repetitive operations, must have been quite difficult to achieve." It had been recognized earlier that the Egyptian chemists had used fire-based technology 500 years earlier (2 ,500 B.C .) to manufacture blue pigment. Wet chemistry represented another forward technological step. (Walter, P., et al; "Making Make- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 123: May-Jun 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Copper Pseudomorphs There are two places in the world where large masses of native (almost pure) copper are common: the Lake Superior region, particularly Isle Royale, and Corocoro, Bolivia. The largest "nugget" of nearly pure copper comes from Lake Superior and weighs almost 46 tons! But the Corocoro mines are rich in another way; copper "pseudomorphs." In copper pseudomorphs, copper ions insidiously invade crystals of other minerals and assume their shapes. Copper pseudomorphs of aragonite, a form of CaCO3 , are common. Aragonite sometimes occurs as short, tabular, hexagonal prisms, as shown in the sketch. Under the water table, in a copper-rich area, copper ions in solution "attack" aragonite crystals. First, they oust and replace the outer layers of CaCO3 , gilding the aragonite crystal with a thin layer of pure copper. Then, they work inwardly and eventually usurp the whole crystal and take on its shape. Even stranger are those hexagonal crystals that are pure aragonite in the top half and pure copper in the bottom half. Mineralogists speculate that these formed along the edge of the water table. (Hyrsl, Jaroslav, and Petrov, Alfred; "Pseudomorphs from Bolivia," Rocks and Minerals , 73:110, November/December 1998.) From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 123: May-Jun 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects They went a byte too far!" A German couple in a luxury car with a computerized satellite-steered navigation system drove into the Havel River near Potsdam Friday night because the computerized satellite-steered navigation system neglected to mention they needed to stop for a ferry at this point." (Anonymous; "Next Time, Ask for Directions," Chicago Sun-Times, December 28, 1998. Cr. J. Cieciel) A TOUR AROUND THE PACIFIC RIM From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fall Of Hot Globules January 6, 1909. Santa Cruz, California. "It rained hot bird shot at Santa Cruz today for nearly an hour, according to Mrs. W.H . Burns and her neighbors. Some of the shot has been preserved. "Mrs. Burns's curiosity was aroused yesterday by the peculiar antics of a number of barefooted children who were playing in front of her house. When she asked them what was the matter they told her that the air was full of electricity and that hot shot was falling from the clouds. "Then she heard a clatter on the housetop like hail and saw little white threads of steam rising from neighboring roofs. The steam was found to be the result of the dropping of little hot globules on the damp shingles. "This peculiar rain continued from about 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and varied in intensity. At one time the children, who were bareheaded and unshod, were compelled to take cover." (Anonymous; "Hot Shot from the Sky," New York Times, January 7, 1909. Cr. M. Piechota.) From Science Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life beyond 100 c Bacteria can survive and multiply in hot springs near and slightly above 100 C -- the boiling point of water at atmospheric pressure. Few scientists have contemplated the possibility of life forms prospering at temperatures well beyond 100 . Recently, however, the discovery of many new and frequently bizarre organisms clustered around deep-sea vents has forced a reexamination of high-temperature life. It seems that bacteria actually flourish in the 350 C water streams from the deep-sea vents. In the lab, these same bacteria multiply rapidly in water at 250 C kept liquid by pressures of 265 atmospheres of pressure. What a surprise! Quoting a concluding sentence from this article: "This greatly increases the number of environments and conditions both on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe where life can exist." (Baross, John A., and Deming, Jody W.; "Growth of 'Black Smoker' Bacteria at Temperatures of at Least 250 C," Nature, 303:423, 1983.) Comment. Ignoring for the moment the extraterrestrial possibilities, the earth is riddled like a Swiss cheese with hot, fluid environments, which we may now consider potential abodes of life. Subterranean life represents a new biological frontier. Who knows what kinds of organisms have developed to feed upon the planet's heat? Could they have con-tributed to our supplies of petroleum and natural gas? From Science Frontiers # ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sedimentary rocks on venus?The Soviet spacecraft Veneras-13 and 14 took photos of the hot surface of Venus from their landing spots beneath the planet's thick cloud cover. The rocky debris surrounding the spacecraft shows, to nearly everyone's surprise, strong evidence of sedimentary, layered structure. The rock formations display ripple marks, thin layering, differential erosion, and even hints of cross-bedding. The vision of ancient seas on Venus leaps to the mind, but according to the Russian scientists, it is far more likely that the sediments were created by winds, episodic volcanism, or repeated meteor strikes. (Florensky, C.P ., et al; "Venera 13 and Venera 14: Sedimentary Rocks on Venus?" Science, 221:57, 1983.) Reference, Venus harbors many anomalies. See our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets. This book is described here . Two pictures of the surface of Venus taken by the Russian space probe Venera 14. From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Parade Of Early Visitors To America Early Europeans. D. Kelley, a Calgary archeologist, claims that rock carvings in Petroglyph Provincial Park were etched by European explorers circa 800 BC rather than by Native Americans. One petroglyph, for example, depicts a Viking-like ship almost identical to those carved on a rock near Boslund, Sweden. There are also abstract symbols like those used by Northern Europeans in the same time frame. (Anonymous; "Did Vikings Pay Early Visit?" Baltimore Sun, August 13, 1999.) Comment. Kelley's observations certainly bolster B. Fell's claims in his book America B.C . that Europeans made landfall in North America long before Columbus set sail. Early Chinese. Perhaps Chinese adventurers beat the Europeans to the New World. At a symposium in Anyang, China, M. Xu Hui (Texas Christian University) presented 56 matching sets of characters found in both the Americas and China. "They so closely resemble the 3,000-year-old Shang Dynasty characters for the sun, sky, rain, water, crops, trees, and astronomy that if they had not been found in America, Chinese experts would have classified them automatically as pre-221 B.C . Chinese script." (Rennie, David; "Carvings Link Chinese with American Indians," Chicago SunTimes , August 31, 1999. Cr. J. Cieciel. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another "cookie cutter" hole Back in 1984, the American press had fun with the "cookie cutter" hole found in Washington state. A good-sized chunk of earth or "divot" had been neatly excised intact from the ground and deposited some 73 feet away. (see drawing.) One would think that nature would play only one such bizarre prank, but a remarkably similar occurrence also took place in 1887. A third example of this most curious phenomenon has been resurrected from one of the Middle Ages chronicles: "822 A.D .: 'In the land of the Thuringians, near a river, a block of earth 50 ft. long, 14 ft. wide, and 1 ft. thick, was cut out, mysteriously lifted, and shifted 25 ft. from its original location.' Royal Frankish Annals." (Carolingian Chronicles. W. Scholz, translator, Ann Arbor, 1972. Cr. E. Murphy) Reference. Descriptions of several other "cookie-cutter" holes can be found at ETB7 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, which is described here . Plan view of the much-ballyhooed "Cookie-cutter" hole phenomenon in Washington state, 1984. (From: Carolina Bays, etc). From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Foamy Cosmos According to recent observations, there seem to be a lot of spherical voids in the cosmos. These vast nothingnesses are closed in by nearly spherical shells of galaxies. In other words, the cosmos consists of foam; homogeneous in the large, but bubbly in the small -- if spherical shells of galaxies can be considered "small." The only way, say the theorists, that such a foamy structure can arise is for the universe to be closed, not flat as counts of galaxies seem to indicate. Thus, the foamy cos-mos infers that we do not detect a lot of the mass existing in the universe. (Anonymous; "Honeycomb Universe Must Be Closed," New Scientist, 98:540, 1983.) Comment. In the Better, Bigger Big Bang there seems to be plenty of room for a foamy section or two! From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earthquake And Subterranean Fire 1738. Month and day are unknown. Pecs, 46 06' N, 18 15' E.I = 7.5 - 8 . A very mysterious event was observed. Near Pecs, a black cliff named Szennyes (= dirty or filthy) belched forth fire during three days, accompanied by an earthquake that was strongly felt in the town of Pecs. After this shock fires were also seen on many occasions from the cliff. Naturally it was not a volcanic manifestation. The nature of this particular event is perfectly obscure. (Note by the author, P.H . "An earthquake light is improbable because of the long time during which the phenomenon was see." (Hedervari, Peter; "Unusual Phenomena Associated with Earthquakes within the Carpathian Basins," Compilation from personal files, 1983.) Comment. Compare this phenomenon with the detonations and flashes from Old Hannah's Cave, Staffordshire, England, as reported in SF#22. From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mystery Radio Bursts "Mysterious double bursts of radio emissions, originating near the surface of the earth, have been detected by a small satellite designed to spot nuclear blasts. "Although the powerful pulses of electromagnetic energy occur predominantly at times of day favored by thunderstorms, they are not accompanied by flashes of visible light and they do not resemble the emissions generated by classic lightning." Since November 5, 1993, about 100 of these bursts have been detected by a special radio receiver named "Blackbird" mounted on the Alexis satellite. Most of the bursts have been recorded over Africa and South America, although they may also be frequent elsewhere but are drowned out by man-made radio noise from the ground. The bursts come in pairs that are separated by 40 microseconds. The frequency dispersion of the bursts indicates that the signals have passed through the earth's ionosphere before reaching the satellite. Most bursts are picked up in the afternoon and early morning. There is some speculation that the bursts may be associated with the flashes of light recently reported above storm systems. (SF#90) (Quote from: Sawyer, Kathy; "Electrodynamics: Strange Bursts from the Sky," Washington Post, February 14, 1994. Also: Monastersky, R.; "Puzzling Atmospheric Bursts Spark Interest," Science News, 145:100, 1994. Hecht, Jeff; "Satellite Tunes in to Mystery Radio Bursts, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects RHYTHMIC SUBMARINE VOLCANOS AND EL NINOS An El Nino commences when a giant high pressure system centered near Easter Island weakens slightly and causes a shift in the circulation of Pacific Ocean currents. Weather patterns from North America to Australia lurch ponderously in sympathy. El Ninos occur every 4-7 years, suggesting some periodic phenomenon is waving a geophysical baton. The real cause of El Ninos is still obscure. However, the recent discovery of over 1,000 previously unmapped submarine volcanos rising from the seafloor in the eastern Pacific may lead to El Nino's source. The synchronous eruption of, say, 100 of these volcanos might warm the ocean around Easter Island a tad -- just enough to warm the atmosphere above a bit -- resulting in a shift of the high pressure area. The area of intense volcanic activity covers 55,000 square miles of sea floor where the Pacific and Nazca plates are separating. In addition to the active volcanos, many plumes of 800 F water gush from the sea floor in this area. The volcano-El Nino link is, therefore, not so far-fetched. (Nash, Nathaniel C.; "Volcano Group in Pacific May Cause El Nino," Pittsburgh Post Gazette, February 14, 1993. Cr. E. Fegert) Comment. If submarine volcanos do cause the El Ninos, and the El Ninos are periodic, the submarine volcanism would have to be periodic, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Mysterious Copy Of The Grave Creek Stone The so-called Morristown Tablet was apparently discovered near Morristown, Tennessee. A symbol-by-symbol comparison with the famous Grave Creek Stone reveals that both are inscribed with the same message, probably in a Semetic language. Barry Fell renders the message thus: "Tumulus in honor of Tadach. His wife caused this engraved tile to be inscribed." Why would anyone wish to make a second copy of such a message? The Grave Creek Stone was associated with a burial in West Virginia. Could there have been two Tadachs? Are either or both hoaxes? (Buchanan, Donal; "Report on the Morristown Tablet," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 10:22, no. 1, 1982.) Comment. The real anomaly, assuming authenticity, is the presence of Semetic inscriptions in ancient American graves. Reference. The Grave Creek Stone and other anomalous epigraphy may be found in our Handbook: Ancient Man. To order, visit: here . The Grave Creek Stone From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Geomagnetic Stimulation Of Poltergeist Activity "Several researchers have reported that poltergeist episodes frequently began on the day ( 1 day) of a sudden and intense increase in global geomagnetic activity. To test this visual observation, a near-complete account of these episodes for which the inception dates were recorded and verified was examined. Statistical samples clearly indicated that global geomagnetic activity (aa index) on the day or day after the onset of these episodes was significantly higher than the geomagnetic activity on the days before or afterwards. The same temporal pattern was noted for historical cases and for those that have occurred more recently. The pattern was similar for episodes that occurred in North America and Europe. The results were statistically significant and suggest that these unusual episodes may be some form of natural phenomena that are associated with geophysical factors." (Gearhart, Livingston, and Persinger, M.A .; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: XXXIII. Onsets of Historical and Contemporary Poltergeist Episodes Occurred with Sudden Increases in Geomagnetic Activity," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 62:463, 1986.) Comment. To put this interesting item in perspective, one must realize that few established scientists recognize the reality of poltergeists. From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why aren't beach pebbles round?The next time you walk along an ocean beach, forget the greater anomalies of nature and pick up a few well-worn pebbles. Q.R . Wald collected 200 such at random and measured them with calipers. He found that their three axes tended toward the ratios 7:6 :3 . No, beach pebbles are not spherical, they are flattened ovoids. We would naturally expect that the ceaseless action of the surf would turn out nearly perfect spheres. So much for intuition! (Wald, Quentin R.; "The Form of Pebbles," Nature, 345:211, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #70, JUL-AUG 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Project Sourcebook Subjects Bigfoot Mile-high, But Light-years From Acceptance Colorado is not prime Bigfoot country. Most Bigfoot reports come from the Pacific Northwest. Nevertheless, enough Bigfoot sightings, hearings, and footprints have accumulated in the Rockies for the Denver Post to print a lengthy review of the Bigfoot phenomenon. The article identifies three Colorado hotspots: (1 ) Leadville, where the Little Creek Monster was reported as early as the 1880s; (2 ) the southern San Juan Mountains; and (3 ) Pike National Forest. A few reports even come from the plains east of the Front Range. Coloradans have reported seeing the animals walking along a stream below Loveland Pass, drinking from a pond in the Lost Creek Wilderness, running after deer in the Roosevelt National Forest, chasing cars near Gypsum and roaring at hikers, campers and fishermen in various locations. The reports have come from scientists, wildlife biologists and elk hunters. Surely, this enough to convince everyone of Bigfoot's reality. Not so! To recognize Bigfoot officially scientists must have a living specimen, a corpse, or at least an good skeleton. They do not. Even though there are thousands of Bigfoot sightings recorded continent-wide plus hundreds of casts of huge footprints, these are not enough. Just as with UFOs and sea monsters, fraud and misidentification abound in that field of endeavor called "cryptozoology." However, bigfoot researchers do have one advantage over UFO and Loch Ness aficionados ; namely, those hundreds of casts of outsized footprints. Some are so detailed that the skin's ridge ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 85: Jan-Feb 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Clams before columbus Europe's mystery people Astronomy Heavy traffic in near-earth space WHY INTELLIGENT LIFE NEEDS GIANT PLANETS Biology Biology's big bang Singing caterpillars The lures of mussels WHEN A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORSE THAN TWO IN THE BUSH Growth spurts in children GEOMAGNETIC STORMS AND HUMAN HEALTH Our chemical brain Geology Biogeology Two tsumani tales Geophysics A PARADE OF SPINNING PHOSPHORESCENT WHEELS BALL LIGHTNING PUNCHES CIRCULAR HOLE IN WINDOW Unclassified Three views of mortality Electronic channeling ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: MAY-JUN 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Modelling Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs)Just about everyone has had an EE (Exceptional Experience): a transcendental insight, an out-of-body experience (OBE), a sudden religious conversion, a near-death experience (NDE), ecstasy, or similar "peak" experiences. Scores of such highly subjective phenomena have been described and cataloged in the psychological literature. This vast body of anecdotal knowledge is still formless and deserves to be systematized and modelled in some way. In this spirit, we reproduce below (with permission) the abstract of a long paper that presents a preliminary model of this realm of irregular, subjective, and often-vague phenomena. Hard scientists used to the quantitative definition of variables and reams of instrument readings will be entering a different world -- a qualitative world. The language and concepts are so different. But, EEs and EHEs (Exceptional Human Experiences) are so ubiquitous in human life that they should not be ignored. One supposes that they must have some meaning and evolutionary value. The Exceptional Human Experience (EHE) process is a unique, dynamic, progressive, reiterative, evolving pattern of human consciousness development initiated by an anomalous experience and evidenced by expanding levels of reported inner and outer transpersonal awareness. This paper is based on a review of hundreds of experiencer first-person written narratives solicited by Rhea White and the EHE Network over the past decade. It presents ...
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... really ice "discs") are large circular discs of ice that occasionally form in rivers. One well-observed ice ring appeared in the Pite River in northern Sweden in 1987, About 100 feet in diameter, it was rotating slowly within a slightly larger hole in the ice covering the rest of the river. (SF#112) This ring was fashioned out of ice floes that had been captured by a whirlpool and set spinning. Its rough periphery had been "machined" to circular perfection over a period of weeks as it rotated ponderously within the confining river ice. A curious phenomenon is this, but one that seems to yield to simple explanation rather easily. Somewhat more puzzling is a 16-foot ice ring that formed overnight in the more placid waters of a farm pond near Delta, Ontario, in December 2000. The ice was too thin to walk upon, so it had to be a natural phenomenon. However, there was no whirlpool to provide the lathe-like action needed to create the neat disc. Nor was the disc said to be rotating when discovered. The whole event happened very quickly, too. (Bronskill, Jim; "Strange Ice Rings Baffle Researchers," Toronto National Post, March 8, 2001. Cr. G. Duplantier via L. Farish.) Comment. Even small farm ponds have some circulation of water, particularly if fed by a stream. Rather than trying to associate ice rings with crop circles, as some do, it would be better to find out what's happening below the ice! From ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fiery Exhalations In Wales 1693-1694. Harlech, Wales. The older literature presents several accounts of the strange luminous and incendiary phenomena which we now attend to. The following excerpt is from a 1790 gazetteer, as reprinted in New Scientist. A remarkable phenomenon was seen near this town [Harlech] in the year 1694 and it continued about the space of eight months. It was a livid vapour, or fiery exhalation which seemed to arise from the sea on the borders of Caernarvonshire. It made its first appearance on the side of a bay, a little after sunset, and from thence spread itself in the most gradual manner, until it had set all the houses in the neighbourhood on fire. Not only the ricks of hay, corn, and other forts of grain were destroyed, but also the vegetables in the gardens, for it had so noxious a smell that everything perished where it diffused its baleful infuence. Its effect were severely felt by the cattle to whom it communicated a contagious distemper, by which many of them died. It made its appearance regularly every night, always rising at the same place, nor did it stop its course either by rain or storms. It was sometimes visible by day, but it was very remarkable that it never did any damage except in the night. The flames were in no way violent, but its continuance at last consumed everything that opposed it. Those few scientists ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Forests Of Mars The Web is a source for all manner of speculation, such as the following: Recently, some new images have come to light, courtesy of Graham Orme, taken by MGS [Mars Global Surveyor] in 2000 near the Martian south pole, of more unusual landforms which for all the world look like large-scale vegetation of some sort or possibly ancient coral, as has also been suggested. Is this really evidence of macro life, past or present, or just another form of unusual geology, which Mars is becoming known for? (Anderson, Paul; "The 'Forests of Mars': Biology or Exotic?" http://geocities.com/erasproject/marsforest.html ( Copy ), April 4, 2001. Cr. D. Phelps.) Comment. Claims of Martian vegetation go back almost a century. The so-called "wave of darkness" that moves toward each Martian polar region with the advent of spring was claimed to be due to greening vegetation. See AMO3 in The Moon and the Planets. From Science Frontiers #136, JUL-AUG 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A FAR-WANDERING LOST TRIBE?Imagine hiking near Los Lunas, New Mexico, and coming upon a huge basalt boulder inscribed as shown in the illustration. This is obviously not an Indian petroglyph. Rather, it is the Ten Commandments set down in an old Hebrew script. The script and its translation seem unmysterious. What everyone wants to know is: Who chiseled it and when? It was apparently discovered in the 1880s. Harvard anthropologist Frank C. Hibben visited the site in 1930 and pronounced the inscription to be at least 100 years old. Who in New Mexico in 1830 knew ancient Hebrew? The inscription may be much older, for the whole boulder, weighing 60-80 tons, is tipped 20-30 , probably by geological forces, so that the lines of script are tilted. (Underwood, L. Lyle; "The Los Lunas Inscription," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, vol. 10, no. 237, 1982.) Comment. Is it all a hoax? Some think so. It is easier to live with a hoax than with the thought of a Hebrew outpost in New Mexico a couple thousand years ago. It should be remarked that there are many purported Hebrew and Roman finds in the American Southwest; viz, the Tucson lead crosses with their Roman inscriptions. Reference. More anomalous epigraphy is to be found in our Handbook: Ancient Man. For more on this book ...
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... widespread, annoying "English hum" reported in 1977. Most famous has been the "Taos hum" in New Mexico, mentioned here in 1993, and still going strong. We presume the English hum, the Hueytown hum, and all the others are still driving those who can hear them to distraction. There have been some desultory inquiries into the sources of these hums, but no one has come up with anything more specific than engine noises, wind blowing across chimney tops (an organ effect), or some nefarious secret military project. Whatever the cause(s ), the hums have devastating effects on those particularly sensitive to them. Case 1. Take, for example, the Kokomo, Indiana, hum that started about 1999. "Almost immediately after the noise began, nearly every resident reported having chronic and severe headaches and were awakened several times at night and were fatigued." wrote Lisa Hurt Kozarovich, a freelancer. "About 30 residents said they were also nauseated and had other symptoms -- the most common being pressure or ringing in their ears, chronic joint pain, dizziness, depression and diarrhea." (Sharpe, Tom; "Pondering the Hum," Santa Fe New Mexican, July 24, 2001. Cr. D. Perkins via L. Farish.) Case 2. Residents of southwestern Germany are likewise afflicted by an unexplained, nocturnal, buzzing noise. Many have been complaining of racing pulses and fatigue along with a sense of excitation and uncontrollable muscle shivvering during their resulting insomnia. "Often at night I feel as if my ...
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... Saturn, and even the observations that gave rise to the notion of a 'fifth force.'" J. Gribbin, whose article begins with the above paragraph, is quick to proclaim that this "theory of everything" is not just silly-season kite flying. Rather, it was proposed by A.P . Trofimenko in the well-respected Astrophysics and Space Science (168:277) Restricting ourselves to speculations concerning the earth, Trofimenko sees our planet as a sphere of low-density material enclosing 126 mini black holes that account, first, for the many gravity anomalies we measure on the surface; and, second, the earth's high density. That's right, there's no iron core in this model! Some of the mini black holes near the surface create local hot spots (plumes, volcanos, etc.) through the emission of Hawking radiation. Trofimen-ko's scheme encompasses the planets, the stars, and, as advertised, "every thing." (Gribbin, John; "Could Mini Black Holes Provide a 'Theory of Everything?'" New Scientist, p. 25, September 1, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #72, NOV-DEC 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spontaneous human combustion and ball lightning?Mainstream science scarcely acknowledges ball lightning; spontaneous human combustion it ridicules. Recently, G. Egely of the Central Institute of Physics, in Budapest, investigated a case where both phenomena may have been involved. G.T . Meaden, editor of the Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., summarized Egely's report as follows: "The date was 25 May 1989, and the place a field by the roadside near Kerecsend, a village 109 kilometers from Budapest. The victim was a 27year old engineer within whose body, it is conjectured, ball lightning formed. The man had stopped his car and walked to the edge of a field about ten metres distant to urinate. Suddenly his wife who had remained behind in the car saw that the young man was surrounded by a blue light. He opened his arms wide and fell to the ground. His wife ran to him noticing that one of his tennis shoes had been torn off. Although it looked hopeless she tried to help him, but soon after she was able to stop a passing bus. Amazingly, the bus was filled with medical doctors returning from a meeting; unhappily they immediately pronounced that the man was dead. "At the autopsy a hole was found in the man's heel where the shoe had been. The lungs were torn and damaged, and the stomach and belly were carbonized! This is ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Piney Pitstop Of The Paranormal Evidently trying to inject some joy into our country's financial capital, the Wall Street Journal recently printed a story on Spook Hill, Lake Wales, Florida. Spook Hill is one of several spots in the U.S . where gravity seems to be defied. "Sue Robertson motors her maroon Ford Tempo to the white line painted across Fifth Street, shifted into neutral and slowly rolls backward up Spook Hill. "' Eerie, weird, and definitely strange," she says, finally easing to a stop near the top of the rise. "Hers is the same amazed reaction expressed by most tourists who discover this piney pitstop of the paranormal, 50 miles south of Orlando. On a typical Saturday, up to 30 cars an hour line up at the top of the hill for their turn to drive down to the white line and drift back up." Not only cars roll up the hill. Farmers had to stop planting oranges in the area because visitors pulled them off the trees so they could watch them roll uphill. Skateboarders and cyclists also feel the pull of gravity in the wrong direction. Scientists who deign to investigate sites like Spook Hill usually end up by claiming them to be merely optical illusions. "If it's an optical illusion at work here, it's an odd one; a reporter applying a carpenter's level at about the hill's ...
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... rock over rough surfaces for great distances. Sketch of the forces acting upon a thrust block being pushed by a wedge-shaped driver Low-angle thrust faulting is not a trivial geological process. To illustrate, the Lewis Overthrust in Montana and adjacent Canada involves the shoving of a block of old strata hundreds of feet thick, hundreds of miles long, over younger rock for a distance of possibly 50 miles. In contemplating such overthrusts, one immediately comes face to face with the Mechanical Paradox. Brief-ly, given the coefficient of friction between the layers of rock, the weight of the thrust block, and the mechanical strength of the rock being pushed, it can be shown that pushing the thrust block at the rear edge will crush it long before it begins to slide. For nearly a century, geologists have been trying to resolve this Mechanical Paradox. Three potential solutions have been proposed: (1 ) Lubricate the sliding surfaces with water under high pressure (the pore-pressure approach); (2 ) Allow the thrust block to slide, not as a unit, but in small discrete areas at different times (the dislocation approach); and (3 ) Push the thrust block not only from the rear edge but along the top surface (the tapered wedge approach). In fact, all three solutions may apply; but there is no consensus so far. Each solution has problems. (Washington, Paul A., and Price, Raymond A.; "The Mechanical Paradox of Large Overthrusts; Alternative Interpretation and Reply," Geological Society of America ...
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... we saw was so exciting that we decided to go back and make a film of it. The entire plateau seems to be populated with hundreds of figures carved out ot stone, some of them 90 feet tall. Yet this unique spot is relatively unknown to the outside world. "What little is written about Marcahuasi indicates a certain reluctance on the part of archaeologists to say that the figures are man-made. Indeed, many of them are subtle and not always obvious to the viewer. But that is precisely what contributes to the mystery. There are so many recognizable forms there, that one is tempted to say they must be man-made, or else nature is having a great joke on us. "Daniel Ruzo, a 90-year-old archa eologist who lives near Mexico City, aided us. The figures we saw and filmed in 1989 were both strange and fascinating. We were first greeted by a 60-foot rock called by Ruzo The Monument to Humanity because several different races are recognizable on it. They overlap each other in a unique way, but one can clearly discern a Caucasian youth, a Semitic man, a skull-like face that could be Negroid, and several others. "There are many other faces on the plateau, as well as animals. Some of the animals depicted never existed on the continent, such as the rhino, lion, camel, and a turtle-like creature." (Cote, Bill; "Marcahuasi--A Mystery in Stone," Louisiana Mounds Society News letter , no. 42 ...
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... be more impressive and, in consequence, quite a tourist attraction. The favorite viewing site is on Highway 90, 9 miles east of Marfa. HAST logged a total of 9 hours of observation there on three successive nights. All of the lights observed were easily attributed to cars traveling north from Presidio to Marfa. People at the viewing site who knew of the Presidio-Marfa road had no trouble identifying the lights as those of automobiles. But those unaware of the road called the lights mysterious. As for the frequent reports of Marfa lights cavorting and executing strange maneuvers, HAST thought they were probably due to low-flying aircraft in the neighborhood of the Chianti Mountains some 40 miles away. In fact, just such a plane was observed during a daylight trip to Shafter, a town near the mountains. Admitting that the Marfa Lights are indeed entrancing and even mildly mystical, the report closes (rather incongruously for an admittedly skeptical writer) with: "A reminder that caution must be taken. Because what we saw four nights in Saratoga and three nights in Marfa did not go out of the bounds of the ordinary does not mean that the extraordinary has never occurred in either place." (Lindee, Herbert; "Ghost Lights of Texas," Skeptical Inquirer, 16:400, 1992.) Comment. Previous descriptions of the Marfa lights in Science Frontiers (# 34 and #51) seem to portray phenomena much more "extraordinary" than automobile headlights! In SF#34, for example, one of the "lights" is said to have approached to ...
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... the caterpillars. The latter have evolved extrudable glands called "nectary organs." For their part of the bargain, the ants protect the caterpillar from predatory wasps, just as they defend the Croton plant from its enemies. Player 3. The caterpillars, though seemingly benign, are the heavies in this menage-a -trois! They get both leaves and nectar from the plant for nothing. They do supply the ants with nectar in exchange for protection, but subtle subversion prevails here! First they attract the ants with their songs; then, they seduce them with nectar that is much more nutritious and attractive than that produced by the Croton plant. Finally, they chemically force the ants into defensive postures against predatory wasps by spraying them with a mesmerizing substance from special "tentacle organs" near their heads. Why is all this subversive on the part of the caterpillars? It appears that the caterpillars have invaded and undermined the normal ant-plant symbiosis -- a very common, mutually beneficial arrangement. The ants have been seduced into letting the caterpillars feast on the Croton plant, although the ant-plant compact originally required that the ants repel all herbivorous insects. What makes this tale of subterfuge so remarkable is that the caterpillars had to evolve three separate organs in order to accomplish it: (1 ) their vibratory papillae; (2 ) their nectary glands; and (3 ) their mesmerizing tentacle organs. (DeVries, Philip J.; "Singing Caterpillars, Ants and Symbiosis," Scientific American, 267:76, October 1992.) From Science Frontiers # ...
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... down upon the surface of a suitable planet might initiate or accelerate life processes. Cosmic soot. A 70-year-old astronomical enigma is the origin of the DIBs (Diffuse Interstellar absorption Bands). These dark absorption bands in stellar spectra have never been correlated with known chemical compounds. Now, L. Allamandola and F. Salama (NASA-Ames) find that the DIBs may be due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons! A more digestible descriptor would be "soot," like that found in automobile exhaust and on your barbecued steak. (Weiss, Peter; "Cosmic Soot Fills Space between the Stars," New Scientist, p. 15, March 13, 1993.) Organic asteroids. Some asteroids are abnormally red. Newly discovered asteroid 5145 Pholus is 3 times brighter at near-infrared wavelengths than it is in the visible portion of the spectrum. The best explanation so far for this redness is that 5145 Pholus is veneered with organic compounds called "tholins." Tholins are synthesized when methane and other simple chemicals are bathed in ultraviolet and particulate radiations. Tholins have even been dubbed the "first foods" of aspiring new life forms! (Anonymous; "An Organic Asteroid?" Sky and Telescope, 85:15, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #87, MAY-JUN 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Einstein Questioned Aberration: The apparent angular displacement of the position of a celestial body in the direction of motion of the observer, caused by the combination of the velocity of the observer and the velocity of light. ( McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms ) An Abstract. Stellar aberration, discovered nearly three centuries ago by Bradley, was immediately recognized as a phenomenon owing to the velocity of the earth in its orbit around the sun. Einstein provided an explanation of aberration in his famous 1905 paper using his new relativity theory, and his explanation remains essentially without modification in many modern textbooks. Herein, we show that his explanation is very much in disagreement with measurement. (Hayden, Howard C.; paper to be published in Galilean Electrodynamics , vol. 4, no. 5, 1993.) A Comment. The essence of Prof. Hayden's main argument is that, if stellar aberration depended on the relative velocity between source and observer (as Einstein maintained), then each component of a spectroscopic binary star would have drastically different stellar aberration, contrary to observation. (Van Flandern, Tom; Meta Research Bulletin, 2:29, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #90, NOV-DEC 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... climate change.) Then, when the Nile flooded and its waters reached a gap in the hills separating the Lake and the Nile, the Egyptians were able to float the blocks of basalt over to the Nile and down to Cairo. Good thinking! But how did they transport the heavy blocks 7 ½ miles from quarry to quay? The answer: What was apparently the first paved road on the planet. This 4,600-year-old engineering feat averaged 6 ½ feet wide and was paved with thousands of slabs of sandstone and limestone, with some logs of petrified wood thrown in. Since the slabs show no grooves, it is thought that the stone-laden sleds moved on rollers. (Wilford, John Noble; "The World's Oldest Paved Road Is Found near Egyptian Quarry," New York Times, May 8, 1994. Also: Maugh, Thomas H., III; "Earth's Oldest Highway," San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 1994. Cr. J. Covey) From Science Frontiers #94, JUL-AUG 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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