132 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another Luminous Aerial Bubble September 1943. On a ship in the South Atlantic enroute from South Africa to Brazil. "During the voyage, a multicolored object about the size of a basketball appeared and the ship changed course to parallel the course of the object. The object was in view for about 20 minutes, moved slowly across the water at a height of 5 feet, and finally disappeared. It looked like a glass ball and appeared to have a membrane enclosing it. Its motion was from the NW to SE and it was seen sometime between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon sometime in September 1943. The color was at times orange and yellow, sometimes green, blue, and red. The sky was overcast and the object was on the starboard side of the ship as it moved towards the NW. The ship's crew, consisting of about 20 men, saw the event and concluded that it might be a 'fireball.'" Original observation by Charles L. Reifenhler. (Seal, James; personal communication, June 25, 1986.) Comment. For more accounts of Lumi-nouw Aerial Bubbles, see category GLD7 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. This catalog is described here . August 17, 1876. Numerous, luminous, multicolored, bubble-like spheres observed at Ringstead Bay, England. Thousands of the iridescent spheres engulfed observers. This account (Catlog # ...
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... cm) thick with spikes of two inches here and there but changing all the time. It was quite dim and appeared to be semi-transparent, in so much as I could see through to the inside of the opposite side, which appeared quite smooth -- all the spikes pointing outwards from the surface. It appeared to me to be insubstantial and made no sound. It drifted between the two of us towards the television screen at about 30 inches (75 cm) from the floor, covering the six feet (2 m) in about four seconds. When about eight inches from the screen it disappeared (imploded?) with a fairly loud crack /pop sound leaving behind a smell as of an electrical discharge." (Rowe, Michael W.; "Another Unusual Ball Lightning Incident," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 9:135, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... classical cases where science has ultimately admitted its errors and embraced the formerly rejected data: 1. The fall of stones from the sky; 2. The existence of thousands of parent-battered children; and 3. The reality of the coelacanth. In connection with meteorite falls, he provides a wonderful quote from James Pringle, of the Royal Society: "I venture to affirm that, after perusing all the accounts I could find of these phenomena, I have met with no well-vouched instance of such an event; nor is it to be imagined, but that, if these meteors had really fallen, there must have been long ago so strong evidence of the fact as to leave no room to doubt of it at present." Next, Westrum tackles spontaneous human combustion and ball lightning, neither of which have been assimilated by science. He closes with a very complimentary paragraph on the Sourcebook Project and our Catalog of Anomalies, for which we thank him. (Westrum, Ron; "Blinded by the Night," The Sciences, 25:48, May-June 1985.) From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Waiting for saturn's rings to collapse The more we learn about Saturn's rings, the stranger they seem. One of the latest theoretical models of the rings has them composed of balls of hard ice, which interact through mutual collision and are herded by the gravitational caresses of small moons. The successes of this model have been tempered by the fact that it also implies that Saturn's rings are very young. "Theorists would have no problem with a broad, featureless disk surviving the 4.5 billion years since the early days of the solar system, but features such as spiral density waves are clear evidence that satellites, including the profusion of small ones found near the rings, are draining angular momentum from the rings. The satellites should be spiraling outward into ever larger orbits as they gain angular momentum, and the A-ring should collapse inward into the B-ring in just 100 million years as its particles lose angular momentum." (Kerr, Richard A.; "Making Better Planetary Rings," Science, 229:1376, 1985.) Reference. For other indications of youth in Saturn's rings, see ARL16 in our catalog: The Moon and the Planets. For information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Aggressive Ball Lightning August 17, 1978. Caucasian Mountains, Russia. Victor Kavunenko and four other mountaineers were camped for the night at an altitude of 3900 meters. He reported as follows: "I woke up with the strange feeling that a stranger had made his way into our tent. Thrusting my head out of the sleeping bag, I froze. A bright yellow blob was floating about one metre from the floor. It disappeared into Korovin's sleeping bag. The man screamed in pain. The ball jumped out and proceeded to circle over the other bags now hiding in one, now in another. When it burned a hole in mine I felt an unbearable pain, as if I were being burned by a welding machine, and blacked out. Regaining consciousness after a while, I saw the same yellow ball which, methodically observing a pattern that was known to it alone, kept diving into the bags, evoking desperate, heart-rendering (sic) howls from the victims. This indescribable horror repeated itself several times. When I came back to my senses for the fifth or sixth time, the ball was gone. I could not move my arms or legs and my body was burning as if it had turned into a ball of fire itself. In the hospital, where we were flown by helicopter, seven wounds were discovered on my body. They were worse than burns. Pieces of muscle were found ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wormy Ball Lightning 1920. Parkside, Australia. A loud noise was heard several hundred yards away. "It wasn't long till we heard a hissing noise and, looking up to the western sky, saw an object about 12 inches in diameter slowly moving through the air down toward us -- about 12 feet away. It was travelling eastward and came down over Mrs. Harris's wooden fence landing on the cement porch floor about 3 feet behind us. It gracefully bounced along the cement floor in a straight path covering the 30 foot length of the verandah at a walking pace. It bounced three or four times rising to a height of 18 inches on each occasion. Each time the spherical ball touched the cement it was flattened at the point of contact, and deformed, but it quickly resumed its globular shape when it left the ground. It was not transparent but, rather, like a ball of smoke with glowing 'comma-shaped' electrical 'worms' wriggling about -- sizzling, hissing and flickering. It flattened by 1/4 into the egg shape on each bounce. On reaching the far western end of our verandah it accelerated rapidly and rose at a steep angle of about 45 degrees clearing the apricot tree, wires, and the house next door. At this stage my mother rushed in the back door of the house where we huddled for about 30 seconds before hearing a resounding ...
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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 Ball Lightning With Bizarre Structure An older case of ball lightning with special features has just surfaced. "It happened in the afternoon in 1924. There came a large ball of fire -- or so it looked -- but the thing was that it had chains all the way round. It lasted about five minutes, then all the chains clashed together with a terrific bang; then we had a terrible thunderstorm which lasted quite a long time.' In a second let ter Mrs. Revell drew the ball lightning as a red globe with 16 rays, composed of links like a chain, issuing from it; the rays were rather longer than the diameter of the ball. She said, 'You asked the size. From the ground it looked about four to five yards across, which would be larger than that in the sky. The chains opened from the top to the bottom with a terrific bang." (Rowe, Michael W.; "Unusual Ball Lightning," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 8:125, 1983.) Reference. Additional examples of ball lightning with internal structure are available in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "CRYSTAL" BALL LIGHTNING June 1, 1984. Nottingham, England. Testimony of Mrs. Elsie Haigh. ". .. at approximately 5.45 p.m ., I was in my kitchen. The window and door were both closed. I was standing with my back to the window when I heard a 'boiling noise' and a noise which sounded like glass splintering -- a crash sound. I was very scared and turned around to face the window and saw a large glass-looking ball, approximately 10 inches in diameter (25 cm), slightly oblong (oblate), with a white filament in the middle. This was floating on a bowl of water which was in the sink. I ran to the bathroom, and seconds later I heard an explosion and splintering glass. When it was quiet -- I think a few seconds elapsed -- I returned to the kitchen. The ball had gone and there was no damage. I can only describe it as a miracle." (Meaden, G.T .; "' Crystal' Ball Lightning," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 9:218, 1984.) Comment. Other ball lightning observations on file include sounds like "breaking glass." See our Catalog Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. For a description of this Catalog, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #37, JAN ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Balls Of Fire Enter Room Through Metal Screens "Thunderstorms are frequent in the Entebbe Peninsula, Lake Victoria (Uganda). During one of these storms, which usually come at night time, there was a simultaneous flash of lightning and its associated clattering crash of thunder. A second or less later, several balls of brilliant blue light, about 4-6 cm diameter, entered the room through a window on the south side and 'floated' across the room to leave by a window on the east side. My wife and I were already awake (it would have been difficult not to be) and independently exclaimed aloud on what we had just seen." Both windows were open but had metal screens. The same phenomenon occurred again during the same rainy season. (Gillett, J.D .; "Balls of Fire," Nature, 299:294, 1982.) Comment. Ball lightning is fairly rare; repeat performances are virtually unheard of. For the many other varieties of ball lightning, see Section GLB in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras. More information on this volume is located here . From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Great Balls Of Snakes Most garter snakes in the northern states spend the winter in communal dens below the frost line. Some dens host as many as 10,000 to 15,000 redlined garter snakes, which emerge en masse in the spring. Although garter snakes cannot survive freezing temperatures, they apparently do not congregate in such enormous numbers to keep warm, for sexually immature garter snakes commonly hibernate alone. Big concentrations of sexually mature garter snakes seem to be part of the reproduction strategy of the species. In the big aggregations, males usually outnumber females by 50-1 . As each female emerges in the spring, she is immediately mobbed by dozens of males. So-called "mating balls" of up to 100 males and a single female are formed. Naturalists commonly explain the wintering concentrations and mating balls as clever schemes evolved to maximize reproduction with minimum expenditure of energy. This article accepts this theme uncritically. (Lynch, Wayne; "Great Balls of Snakes," Natural History, 92:65, April 1983.) Comment. Evolutionists tend to "explain" facts in a circular fashion; that is, only the most efficient reproducers (or "fittest") survive, therefore those that survive must be the best reproducers. While the garter snake strategy has some advantages in terms of getting male and female together, things may have gone too far. For example, one communal den was flooded, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ball Lightning And Blue Flashes May 31, 1982. Wakefield, England. Kitchen: Blue flashes from a white cellar "We live to the south of Wakefield on the ground floor of a large Victorian house with high ceilings, attics and cellars. Our kitchen and living room face roughly S.S .W . In the late afternoon, a very heavy thunderstorm erupted with torrential rain, and thunderclaps and forked lightning occurring not quite, but almost, simultaneously. Towards the end of the storm, about 5.30 P.M ., I was in the kitchen and my mother in the living room, both facing the windows. There was a very loud peal of thunder and a loud crack, rather like the little explosion of a Christmas cracker greatly magnified. I was at the sink, close to the window, on the ledge of which stands an electric Corvette water heater, plugged in but not switched on. Beside me, about four feet from the ground and two feet to the left of me, at the moment of the crack, there appeared for a second or so, electric blue flashes, six to eighteen inches in length coming from a white centre. I felt nothing, but was startled. There was no damage to the water heater or anything else. Just as I exclaimed at the blue flashes, I heard my mother cry out and ran to her in the living room. She ...
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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 Ball Lightning Splits And Recombines Inside Soviet Airliner An Ilyushin-18 took off from Sochi, on the Black Sea, in fair weather. Soon after takeoff thunderclouds were noted about 60 miles away. "Suddenly, at the height of 1,200 yards, a fireball about four inches in diameter appeared on the fuselage in front of the crew's cockpit. It disappeared with a deafening noise, but reemerged several seconds later in the passenger's lounge, after piercing in an uncanny way through the air-tight metal wall. The fireball slowly flew about the heads of the stunned passengers. In the tail section of the airliner it divided into two glowing crescents which then joined together again and left the plane almost noiselessly." Upon landing back at Sochi, holes were discovered in the fuselage fore and aft. (Anonymous; "Tass Says Lightning Ball Entered Soviet Airliner," Associated Press Dispatch, Moscow, January 13, 1984. Cr. M.A . Lohr) Comment. Several examples of ball lightning dividing are on record in the Catalog of Anomalies, but recombination is an extremely rare event. See Chapter GLB in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spiked Ball Lightning December 3, 1979. Fleetwood, England. "On the evening in question there was an intermittent thunderstorm with rain in heavy showers. My son Michael had just come in from the college and had gone into the room and was standing watching the T.V . The time would be a little before 6.00 p.m . I said something to the effect that his meal would be ready and he'd better wash his hands, so he turned the television off, although it remained plugged in... At this point a spherical object about six inches (15 cm) in diameter floated down the (sealed) chimney and into the room. It appeared to be rather like a soap bubble but was dull purple in colour covered or rather made up of a furry/spiky emission all over. The coating seemed to be about one inch (2 .5 cm) thick with spikes of two inches here and there but changing all the time. It was quite dim and appeared to be semi-transparent, in so much as I could see through to the inside of the opposite side, which appeared quite smooth -- all the spikes pointing outwards from the surface. It appeared to me to be insubstantial and made no sound. It drifted between the two of us towards the television screen at about 30 inches (75 cm) from the floor, covering the six feet ...
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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 Three Anomalies In One Storm "During the passage of a cold frontal trough between 1030 and 1100 GMT on Monday 21 March 1983, squally thunderstorms affected south Cheshire and north Staffordshire. Two incidents of ball lightning, a fall of seashells and three occurrences of probable tornado damage were reported, mostly within a 10 km radius of Stoke-on-Kent." At Camillus Road, Knutton. Ball lightning about 40 cm in diameter with a luminous tail 4 m long. One observer saw it descend at an angle of 45 and hit the roadway. At Kingsley: "A large white luminous ball, probably over a metre in diameter, blasted its way into a factory workshop by shearing an irregular hole through a steel-mesh-reinforced window. There was no evidence of any fusion of the glass. The ball, accompanied by a deafening roar, passed very quickly in a straight line through the processing shop and left by blasting a 2 by 3 metre hole in a wall of 6 mm corrugated asbestos, fragments of which were later found 20 to 30 metres away outside the factory." At Dilhorne. Sea shells fell with heavy hail: "They extended for an area of about 50 by 20 metres and occurred in thousands on lawns, flower beds, paths and even the road. Roy was kind enough to give me half-a -dozen specimens for identification. They turned out to be small gastropods, almost ...
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... 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Phenomena September 17, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. 2103 GMT on a clear dark night. "The first thing noticed was the formation of a bright patch of white light in the general area between Rasalhague and Alphecca. Gradually a dark eye formed in the centre of the patch in which shortly afterwards a very bright object appeared like a star of magnitude -2 . After one or two seconds this object appeared to undergo a tremendous explosion and became a large bright orange gaseous fireball, which appeared to be hurled earthwards directly down the observer's line of sight, growing constantly larger and larger. One witness described the fireball as resembling rolling orange smoke. The ball then ceased to increase in size, giving the impression that it had stopped. Its orange colour rapidly gave way to rainbow colours which gradually gave way to white and faded in brilliance until all that remained were several patches of luminous white light, although these were impressive in their own right." A similar phenomenon was noted the following night, although the ship was 7 farther south. September 18, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. From a different ship in the same area as the one above. "The altitude of the first sighting was approximately 24 , level with the planet Jupiter and offset to its right. The six subsequent bursts were above the first, and slightly to the right, leaving a fantail of purple/white lenticular clouds which leaned to the right as shown in ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Burning mass falls in b.c .March 11, 1984. Duncan, BC. David Thompson was returning home at 8:30 PM, when he spotted a soccer-ball-size burning mass high over the trees. It landed in the road about 200 feet away, sounding like a light bulb popping. For about 3 seconds, it flamed. When approached, it was still sizzling, probably because the road was wet. The fallen substance quickly hardened, but samples were scraped off the asphalt. It turned out to be an odorless, rock-like substance. Left outside overnight, it had become soft by the next day and seemed to be melting. Samples were sent to Victoria for analysis. (Hausch, Karen; Cowichan Leader, March 15, 1984. Cr. L. Farish) Reference. All manner of anomalous falling materials are covered in Chapter GWF in our Catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... article touches on several of the precocious and puzzling features of the Hohokam Period, circa 0-1 ,400 AD. (1 ) The Hohokam apparently employed acid-etching to produce designs on shells. Acetic acid from fermented cactus juice was use to eat away portions of the shell not protected by tar. (2 ) Four-story Casa Grande, which seems to have been an astronomical observatory, required at least 600 big wooden beams, all of which had to be transported over 50 miles from sources in the mountains. (3 ) The Hohokam built an elaborate, well-engineered system of irrigation canals. (4 ) Unexplained are many flat-bottomed oval pits up to 182 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 13-18 feet deep. Some surmise they were ball courts. (5 ) Also puzzling are rectangular earthen mounds, 75 x 95 feet at the base and 12 feet high, with flat adobe-covered tops. (Adams, Daniel B.; "Last Ditch Archeology," Science 83, 4:28, December 1983.) Reference. The Hohokam canals and those built by other ancient peoples are presented in our Handbook Ancient Man. For details on this book, visit: here . Section through two Hohokum canals, showing original canal profile (bottom) and final profile after long use. Sedimentation eventually raised the canal bottoms above the original ground level. (Illustration from Ancient Man) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 22: Jul-Aug 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ball Lightning With Internal Structure September 1981. Berkhamsted, England. "I was resting on my settee listening to music on the Third Programme when there was some interference of a crackling kind. Suddenly, a ball of bright light appeared in front of my radio. It was about the size of a large orange. It was dazzlingly white and gave the appearance of dozens of stick crystals 5.0 mm in length jigging about with a crackling sound. By the time I reached the switch it had disappeared, but a loud burst of thunder broke overhead." (Cook, M.L .; "Ball Lightning Incident in Berkhamsted, 13 September 1981." Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 7:18, 1982.) Reference. For other examples of ball lightning with internal structure, see category GLB13 in our catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For more information about this book, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #22, JUL-AUG 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Those Darn Quarks There's no escaping it, those fractionally charged niobium balls just can't be swept under the rug. In fact, more recent experiments have served only to accentuate the anomaly. Researchers at Stanford University have been magnetically suspending superconducting niobium spheres in a modern version of Millikan's oil-drop experiment. With the niobium spheres thus suspended, their net electrical charges can be measured. The trouble is that several of the spheres have fractional electrical charges -- + 1/3 or -1 /3 electronic charges. For decades the charge on the electron was supposed to be the basic, indivisible natural unit of electrical charge. In 1964, however, theorists began muddying the waters with talk of new fundamental constituents of matter called quarks, which could possess 1/3 or 2/3 electron charges. No one really expected that quarks, if they existed at all, would be floating around free. But the niobium balls tell us that not only are quarks free but that we could have detected them with relatively simple experiments decades ago if we had not been so blinded by the idea of integral electronic charges. (Robinson, Arthur L.; "Evidence for Free Quarks Won't Go Away," Science, 211:1028, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Massive Ice Lump Falls On England December 10, 1980. Birmingham. An ice lump weighing 1 pound, 6 ounces (626 grams) fell into a garden at Kings Norton. The lump was almost spherical and had a circumference of 12 inches. (Anonymous; "Ice-Ball Falls into a Birmingham Garden," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 6:16, 1981.) Reference. Large, fallen ice chunks are often called "hydrometeors." These are cataloged at GWF1 in Tornados, Dark Days. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ignis Fatuus Ignorance A.A . Mills, a British scientist, has had the courage to research will-o '- wisps, those greatly neglected luminous phenomena frequenting marshy places. His literature search confirms the reality of these cold flames, though they seem to be reported only rarely in modern times. Actually, today's science tends to laugh off will-o '- the-wisps as old wive's tales or as misidentifications of St. Elmo's Fire or Ball Lightning. At the best, will-o '- the-wisps are considered simply the spontaneous ignition of marsh gas -- a trivial phenomenon not worth wasting time on. Mills' study, however, shows this condescending attitude to be far off the mark. He has experimented with marsh gases, even constructing his own controlled "swamp," and has been unable to duplicate the established characteristics of will-o '- the-wisps; ie., spontaneous ignition, cold blue flames, no significant odor, etc. The marsh gas theory does not seem to hold water, despite many chemical variations. (Mills, A.A .; "Will-O 'the-Wisp," Chemistry in Britain, 16:69, February 1980.) Reference. All manner of eerie lowlevel noctural lights are cataloged at GLN1 in Lightning, Auroras. Ordering information and description here . From Science Frontiers #11, Summer ...
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... Sourcebook Subjects The Senegambian Megalithic Monument Complex When one thinks of megaliths, one's thoughts usually turn to Britain and Brittany, forgetting that North Africa is covered with them. M.H . Hill sketches out in this paper the full extent of the great tract of megalithic remains on the Atlantic coast of Africa near Cape Verde, which he calls the Senegambian Monument Complex because it sits astride both Senegal and Gambia. An archeological inventory of the region discloses 212 pillar-circle sites and 251 "tombelles," which are stone cairns or heaps often surrounded by ring-like stone walls. Hundreds of sites with tumuli also dot the area. One of the pillar-circle sites boasts all of 50 individual pillar circles. Some of the pillars are topped with cupules, raised discs, or balls. The fanciest pillars are V- or Y-shaped with crossbars. Archeological exploration of these impressive sites is incomplete. Preliminary dating makes the Senegambian Complex over 1,000 years old. The functions of this vast array of megalithic sites is unknown, although it is not obviously astronomical. (Hill, Matthew H.; "The Senegambian Monument Complex: Current Status and Prospects for Research," in Megaliths to Medicine Wheels: Boulder Structures in Archaeology, Michael Wilson, et al, eds., Calgary, 1981, p. 419.) Reference. Much more information about these North African sites may be found in our Handbook: Ancient Man. This volume is described here . Lyre-shaped megalithic monument in Senegal From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . ...
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... reach out and connect with the companion. Surely, these dynamically connected galaxies should be equidistant from earth. Such distances are measured by the object's redshift, which is supposedly proportional to its recessional velocity. Thus, each member of a pair should have the same redshift. This does not occur with these three pairs. In one pair, the recessional velocity appears to be 4,600 km/sec for one galaxy and 37,300 km/sec for the other. Arp's conclusion is that at least some of the redshift must be intrinsic; that is, not due to recessional velocity alone. If this is true, the basic cosmological distance scale is suspect. (Anonymous; "X -ray Quasars Fit Theories .. .But Some Galaxies Refuse to Play Ball," New Scientist, 88:22, 1980.) Reference. For more on discordant redshifts, see AWB7 and AWO4 in our Catalog: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos, which is described here . From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Giant Ball Lightning June 8, 1977, Fishguard, Dyfed, West Wales. A brilliant, yellow green, trans-parent ball, the size of a bus with a fuzzy outline, floated down a hillside. Slowly rotating, it seemed to bounce off projections on the ground. It flickered out after 3 seconds. (Jones, Ian; "Giant Ball Lightning," Journal of Meteorology U.K ., 2:271, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... numbers of small, fired-clay objects found in the Middle East. Denise Schmandt-Besserat, University of Texas at Austin, believes that these small geometrical shapes (cones, spheres, disks, etc.) were actually symbols used in commerce to indicate numbers and types of commodities (sheep, oil, etc.). Generally less than an inch in size, the clay objects were apparently sealed in hollow clay spheres to make bills of lading as early as 8,500 B.C . This is 5,000 years before two-dimensional clay tablets were introduced for writing. (Anonymous; "From Reckoning to Writing," Scientific American, p. 58, August 1977.) Comment. These clay symbols might be related to the painted pebbles and small carved stone balls found in Europe. From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 144: Nov-Dec 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A dirty story from Amazonia From door to door to what or -- perhaps -- to whom? Astronomy Mercury: Magnetic and sinistral Tunguskas forever Biology Animal antics Processionary sperm The Changeux paradox A statement we never thought we'd see Geology Something went 'splat' in Bolivia Death in the pits Geophysics Complex ball-lightning events Revisiting the Spanish hydro-meteors of January 2000 Psychology So out-of-body experiences originate in the brain? False recovered memories Unclassified Three reasons why ETs have not contacted us ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 142: Jul-Aug 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The impossible stones How bad was that nuclear catastrophe of 12,500 BP? Black-balling very earlier Americans Astronomy Our Big Bang lost in the cosmic cacophany The spookiness of it all Biology Passenger pigeons in New York Life is sweet Are human tears irreducibly complex? Geology Weird vibes from the Antarctic A shrinking dipole and migrating flux patches Wrong-way flood? Geophysics Bailey's prairie light The Kokomo hum Psychology The pressures of music Physics Inside some 'fundamental' particles What really lies beneath it all? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 141: May-Jun 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology An Ice-Age North Atlantic voyage? Somehow bananas slipped into West Africa 2,500 years ago Ancient messages on the Shroud of Turin Astronomy Europa's anomalous infrared spectrum Are the cosmic carriers of life comets or meteorites? Biology 'Modern' feathers on a non-avian dinosaur The intelligence of plants Unexplained weight-gain transient at the moment of death Geology Flank collapses: Generators of giant tsunamis Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel Geophysics Ball lightning gets some scientific respect Unknown species puts on spectacular light show Psychology Why music? Physics Falling in a quantized way Unclassified Where are those aliens? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 152: Mar - Apr 2004 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Amazon's Jungles were Tamed Long Ago, but by Whom? World's most Mysterious Manuscript may be a Hoax (Voynich manuscript) Vast Network of Ancient Road Astronomy Centauro Events Curious Structures on the Surface of Mars The Dodecahedron and the 'True Earth' Biology Nanofabrication and Light Control in a Squid Beyond Water Condensation Animal Miscellany, some of which are rather Amusing Toriodal Bubbles Telling tales (FRTs) Magnetically orientated Tunnels Cells are naturally cancerous? Geology Witchers Hole and the Bermuda Triangle Intimate Encouters of Sand Dunes Geophysics Multiple Ball-Lightning event? A Burning Bush Sprouts a Lighning Leader Falsetto Thunder and Tabular Hail Psychology The Sleepwalking Bandsman Sleep and Scientific Insight Mathematics Quadamagicology (the science of magic squares) ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 150: Nov - Dec 2003 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Australians First in the New World? Origin of Clovis Culture Disputed A "Magic Number" Encoded in Three of the World's Major Pyramids Astronomy Mapping and Analyzing Dark Matter Biology Frog Poison Factory Puffin Tongue Trick? Human-chimp DNA Dissimilarities Four-Dimensional Biology A Squid's Eyes that Look Up and Down Tuberculosis and the Extinction of the Megaforna Dark Matter in our Genome Unknown Source of Animal Diversity Communication among Bacteria Geology When the Earth Gets Cracking Subduction Doesn't Check Out Chicxulub Didn't Do It! Geophysics Squishy Ball Lightning Far-Floating Fowl Psychology Natural-Born Readers Physics Mixed Anomalies ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: May-Jun 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Most Mysterious Manuscript A Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times? Astronomy Asteroid Ponds, Beaches and Boulders 0.999999999999999999999999c Sourceless Magnetic Fields? Biology Host Tapeworms for Health! Fall Babies Live Longer Longevity and Sardina Where is the Maestro? Geology Oil Deposits and Rotary Phenomena Does the Earth Breath? Geophysics Kisses from Heaven Don't Stomp on Ball Lightning! Whence Whitings? Psychology Modelling Exceptional Human Experience (EHEs) Unclassified Let There Be Dark! ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ball Lightning Collides With Car Summer 1991. Southern Bavaria, Germany. R. Urbanek, a teacher from Wasserburg, recalls her encounter with ball lightning. "I was with a friend in the area of Traunstein. My friend drove a minibus...150-200 meters...ahead of my car. Golf and several other cars were following behind me. It (had been) raining with heavy lightning and thunder. I did not drive at normal speed in such a weather...Then came a straight stretch of road with a bicycle path to the right, and an open wide field...Suddenly I saw a bright green, phosphorescent...ball about the size of a medical training ball, that dropped to the ground behind the minibus...It fell to the road and rolled towards me . I knew immediately it was ball lightning, and from school physics I knew a car acts as a Faraday cage. So I kept my feet to the floor mat and grabbed the wheel with both arms. 3 to 5 seconds passed until the ball reached my car. It came in a straight line, with a slight deviation to the right (as seen from my position). When the ball caught my car at the right front side, it gave the vehicle a strong shock or jerk, as if I had driven against an obstacle . All that was on the ...
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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 Lightning Strikes Jet And Possibly Spawns Ball Lightning June 17, 1996. Tewkesbury, England. On this day, two remarkable observations were made a few seconds apart. Even so, one cannot be certain that the first caused the second. For the first observation, there were two witnesses. Both saw lightning strike a low-flying USAF jet. Mrs. E. Shobli wrote the following account: "Two forks of lightning came from the clouds in front of the plane, converged on it and gripped it. The tail end of the plane became illuminated -- vapours came from its end and formed into a bright, dense mass. I thought I was witnessing damage to the plane. The light continued to separate from the plane, downwards like a flare. It appeared as yellow, lit-up gases. These seemed to take shape, becoming brighter and denser, and then move downwards in the same direction as the plane (south). About two seconds after disappearing behind the roof there was an ear-splitting explosion. To my relief the plane reappeared unscathed." At the time of the lightning strikes, the jet was passing over a factory, where a fork-lift driver saw a dazzling blue-white ball bounce along the factory roof and enter the building. Many workers inside were treated to an amazing pyrotechnic display as the ball made its way through the building. "It entered the factory ...
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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 Ball of Light Clocked At 1,800 Miles/second!August 21, 1996. Sarpy County, NE. 1,800 miles/second! That's 6,480,000 miles/hour! This speedy phenomenon was captured on video tape by D. Morss and P. McCrone. These researchers were monitoring the top of a thunderstorm with low-light, high-speed video equipment, when the ball of light "popped out" of the top of a thundercloud and flashed across their instrument's field of view in 1/10 of a second. Nevertheless, it was caught on six video frames. Morss commented as follows: "It's something that you're going to have to scratch your head and think, 'What kind of phenomenon could form this kind of light?' .. .. . "It's got to be some kind of trapped charge that popped out of the top of a thunderstorm." (Anderson, Julie; "Ball of Light Leaves Scientists in the Dark," Omaha Morning Herald , December 18, 1996. Cr. L. Farish.) Comment. Perhaps 1,800 miles per second should really be 1,800 miles per hour. This velocity would be comparable with that of another very speedy "ball of light." May 25, 1997. Near Loco, Oklahoma. In what might be called a " ...
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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 Bouncing Ball Lightning Autumn 1940, Berwyn Mountains, North Wales. The percipient in this unusual ball lightning sighting was a Mr. H, who was schoolmaster at Sandyhurst College. "While out walking he was caught in a violent thunderstorm on the side of a hill with a scooped valley below. Ahead of him perhaps 300 feet distant, a bolt of lightning struck a tree with a sharp explosion of noise. Almost immediately a sphere six inches in diameter appeared from the direction of the strike and began to bounce across the ground towards him like a rubber ball. Climbing the hill under its own energy, the object rolled in a parabolic path and hit the ground every ten or twenty feet, climbing up to about three feet in height with each 'rebound'. Every time it hit the ground there was no sound, but a puff of greyish smoke or vapor was emitted. The object got to within about 50 feet of Mr. H before it suddenly vanished. This allowed him to have a good look at it at close proximity. He says that it was completely round and was a smokey-grey colour." (Anonymous; "Ball Lightning in Lancashire and North Wales," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 23:139, 1998.) From Science Frontiers #120, NOV-DEC 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... -June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Foo Fighters Recalled U.S . airmen called them "foo fighters." These still-unexplained luminous phenomena seem to have been filed away and forgotten by science. It is not that good evidence is lacking. Perhaps the foo fighters cannot be encompassed by recognized laws of physics! We last reported on them in 1992 (SF#83), when some old Air Force records turned up. We now re-resurrect the foo fighters with an Associated Press Bulletin from 1945. "AMERICAN NIGHT FIGHTER BASE. France, Jan. 1. -- The Germans have thrown something new into the night skies over Germany -- the weird, mysterious "foo-fighter," balls of fire that race alongside the wings of American Beaufighters flying intruder missions over the Reich. "American pilots have been encountering the eerie "foo-fighter" for more than a month in their night flights. No one apparently knows what this sky weapon is. "The balls of fire appear suddenly and accompany the planes for miles. They appear to be radio-controlled from the ground and keep up with planes flying 300 miles an hour, official intelligence reports reveal. "There are three kinds of these lights we call 'foo-fighters,'" Lieut. Donald Meiers of Chicago said. "One is red balls of fire which appear off our wing tips and fly along with us; the second is a vertical row of three balls of fire which fly in front ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects B-24 SIGHTS "CIRCLES OF LIGHT"The still-unexplained balls of light (" foo fighters") seen by Allied pilots over wartime Germany were duplicated in the Pacific. In addition, strange "circles of light" followed American aircraft. The following paragraphs were taken from the "Weekly Intelligence Summary," Headquarters, Eastern Air Command, South East Asia. June 1, 1945. "A B-24 of the 11th Bomb Group on a snooper mission over Truk during the early morning hours of 3 May 1945, encountered what may prove to be as baffling a phenomena (sic) as the balls of light seen by the B-29s while over the Japanese mainland. (Excerpted From Hq. AAF, POA, Air Intell. Memo No. 4, 8 May 1945.) "The B-24 first observed two red circles of light approaching the plane from below while still over the Truk atoll. One light was on the right and the other was seen on the left of the B-24. The light on the left side turned back after one and one half hours. The one on the right remained with the bomber until the B-24 was only 10 miles from Guam. From the time that the B-24 left the atoll, the light never left its position on the right side. It was reported by the crew members as sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Horizon-to-Horizon Bioluminescent Bubbling Band June 5, 1995. East China Sea. Aboard the m.v . Tokyo Bay enroute Busan to Kaohsiung. "At 1830 UTC whilst the ship was on a course of 218 at 21.5 knots, what seemed to be hundreds of fishing lights were seen right ahead of the ship and stretching from horizon to horizon. As the ship approached them, it became apparent that the lights were bioluminescence. "The appearance was like large single 'blobs' approximately the size of tennis balls, while at the main concentration the water seemed to be 'bubbling up' in a line stretching to both horizons. When the ship passed through the line, the luminescence gave off such a glare, as bright as daylight, that it was possible to read the identification numbers of the containers on the focsle. The duration of the phenomenon was about 5 minutes or 1.5 n.mile." (Hughan, D.S .; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 66:62, 1996) Comment. P.J . Herring, Southampton Oceanography Centre, called this display "a most unusual account which I am unable to interpret." He opined that the blobs were probably cylindrical colonies of luminous sea squirts, but he could not account for the 1.5 -milewide, horizon-to-horizon bright glare and associated bubbling. Reference. For more ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Mystery of the stoned pharaoh Those ancient greek pramids An anasazi reservoir Astronomy Microscopic life on mars? Plant life on mars? "A FANTASTIC RESULT!" Ten strikes against the big bang Biology Eyeless vision The ultimate in unisex Eco-darwinism: diffuse individuals Monarch compasses Geology Miles of mush Global cooling has begun! Geophysics Target: greenland Ball lightning collides with car Earthquake weather High-fling catfish More on the mekong mystery Dr fogs and bright nights Physics G: THE EMBARRASSING CONSTANT OF NATURE Unclassified Evolution of cyberlife ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The pigeon-snaring mounds of tonga Pyramid stones not "cementitious" Where did they come from? Astronomy Bye-bye mercury, and maybe mars The force is with them Biology Why some like it hot Dog doctors Acoustical "vision" underwater Gaia as a super-superorganism Geology Spod logs Miles of floating forest Geophysics Bouncing ball lightning A BRIGHT FLYING OBJECT AND ANOTHER ENIGMATIC CRATER Psychology Are ufo abductions akin to ndes? Precognitive dreams Physics More quantum weirdness Mathematics The first digit phenomenon ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Triangular holes in boulders America b.c . and then some! Astronomy A VANISHED PLANET? An exploded planet and the "face on mars" Biology Who's in charge down there? Acoustical pipes in beaked whales? Sheep foil cattle guards Geology Earth's shifting crust Geophysics Green thunderstorms Ball of light clocked at 1,800 miles/second! Atlantic wave heights increasing Psychology Why are dreams always retrospective? A DREAM INVENTION The view from within Unclassified Where do all good deleted data go? Can computers have ndes? ...
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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 Mekong Mystery The following question was posed in the September 6 issue of New Scientist. "My wife and I saw a puzzling sight in October 1994, in the Mekong River near Nongkhai, Thailand, during a full moon, in the evening. Lights appeared under the water for a few hundred metres along the Mekong River. They rose from the bottom of the river and floated to the surface, then shot like missiles into the sky and out of sight. They were the size of beach balls, and many flew out of the water every few minutes, surfacing about 10 metres apart. I am told that this happens every year at the same time. Locals say it is caused by a serpent releasing her eggs. Does anyone know of this phenomenon?" A. Pentecost answered. He noted first the similarity of the Mekong phenomenon to the will-o '- the-wisp or ignis fatuus. The usual explanation of ignis fatuus blames the spontaneous combustion of marsh gas. However, the Mekong lights are initially seen under the water where there would not be enough oxygen to support combustion. Pentecost suggested instead phosphorescent bacteria or the "cold flame" of phosphorus vapor which might form through diphosphane decomposition. (Pentecost, Allan, et al; "Mekong Mystery," New Scientist, p. 96, September 6, 1997.) References. The Mekong phenomenon may be allied with the many examples of luminous ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Malleable Memories The ease with which psychologists can plant false memories in the minds of their subjects -- even savvy college students -- casts clouds over several anomalous phenomena, such as UFO abductions, ball lightning, and sea-monster sightings. Even scientists can be deluded into believing they have seen things in their laboratories. (Remember Blondlot's experiments with N-rays and the several physicists who confirmed his results?) Not that psychologists go around intentionally implanting memories of dubious phenomena. All it takes are suggestion, expectation, and/or paradigm-passion. At a 1997 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, several psychologists told of their "malleable-memory" experiments. H.L . Roediger III, Washington University, asked students: ". .. to look at a list of 15 words that included 'bed,' 'dream,' 'blanket,' 'doze,' and 'pillow.' Just over half said afterward that the word 'sleep' had been on the list, even though it wasn't ." E. Loftus, University of Washington, first asked a group of parents to describe some events that their children -- all now adults -- had experienced. Then, she went to the children and: ". .. walked them through a series of real incidents [mentioned by their parents] and then threw in a fake ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Standing stones in north carolina? About as anomalous as mounds can get Astronomy It can't be true because it violates our ideas! Biology Do woodcocks "grunt" for worms? Gene wars Complexity and mount improbable Geology Surface life (us!) only a "special case" The world's largest "playa-slider" furrow Geophysics Mekong mystery Lightning strikes jet and possibl spawns ball lightning Psychology Redefining science Physics A RECIPE FOR WEIGHTLESSNESS? Quantum mechanics is definitely spooky Cold fusion not so hot! Unclassified The bermuda triangle is still spooky ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Long-lived bubble in the atmosphere Artist's concept of the many luminous bubbles that floated among observers at Ringstead Bay. August 4, 1984. Winchester, England. H. Curtis gives us a firsthand account of another one of those strange bubble-like phenomena usually associated with electrical atmospheric disturbances. "In August 1984 I had just left work at 5.30 p.m . and was walking along an unfrequented side street as a short cut to get to my bus. The weather was cloudy and sultry, but there had been no reports of thunder in the area that day. I came to a junction in the pavement which led only to car-parking for buildings lying farther back when a bubble about the size of a tennis ball sailed out of this side-way, in a straight line, about the level with my shoulders, at a distance of some five or six feet. I stared at it in amazement, for where could a bubble have come from at such a place and time?" "I was further amazed that it did not disintegrate...While gazing at the bubble it seemed to me that there was a dark band round it, which I interpreted as being a reflection of the tarmac road, although subsequently when experimenting with childrens' bubble mixture I discovered that bubbles never reflect anything so discernible." "The bubble proceeded at its original speed, curving around me, and drifting down the centre of the road in the direction from which I had come. It then curved ...
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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 This was the big one, but where did it come from?October 15, 1991. American Southwest. Photomultipliers in the Fly's Eye telescopes 100 kilometers southwest of Salt Lake City recorded the havoc wrought in the upper atmosphere by the most energetic cosmic-ray particle ever measured. When this tiny subatomic particle slammed into air molecules, the ensuing debris caused the surrounding atmosphere to fluoresce. The amount of light produced indicated that this cosmic ray had an energy of 3 x 1020 electron volts -- that's equivalent to the energy of a bowling ball dropped from waist level. Now that's a lot of energy for a subatomic particle! Because cosmic rays normally lose energy as they collide with photons in their cosmic wanderings, astrophysicists believe that "the big one" had to have a recent, nearby origin in order to still be so energetic. But no one has any idea where it could have come from or how it might have acquired so much energy. Somewhere out there in nearby space there may be a natural particle accelerator orders of magnitude more powerful than our biggest earthbound atom smashers. (Anonymous; "The Deepening Mystery of Cosmic-Ray Origins," Sky and Telescope, 87:12, May 1994.) Comment. Actually, the source of "the big one" need not have been nearby and recent. All anomalists will recognize that this is an assumption based upon the particle ...
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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 An offset solar halo of 28 Anomalists should not perfunctorily dismiss unusual halo phenomena as trivial and/or boring. The laws of atmospheric optics have no room for the phenomenon described below. It is just as anomalous as ball lightning, although perhaps not as exciting! The 22 halo on the left is common and nonanomalous. However, optical theory has no room for the offset 28 halo on the right. June 22, 1993. North Cornwall, UK. "A 22 halo [the well-explained type] was very prominent, with the sector DCE being exceptionally bright and the colours quite strong. On the right-hand side of this, a larger but fainter halo could easily be seen, having a diameter of about 28 (see figure). It was white in colour. The sector CB was the brightest, sector BF not so bright but easily seen, but the sector AF could be seen only with difficulty. The halo was not seen to penetrate the 22 halo at either points A and C and so it could not be stated positively that the halo would have passed through the Sun, although it looked as though this would have been the case. The centre of the 28 halo had an altitude approximately the same as that of the Sun. The phenomenon lasted for about 20 minutes, although the 22 halo lasted for at least another hour." (Miles, Howard; "An Unusual Solar ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Reinventing the neandertals The pit-zodiacs Astronomy Men like gods The petrozavodsk phenomenon Biology It's "smothers" not "pods" Search-and-destroy sperm The magnetic mountain Geology A HOLLOW, TRIANGULAR ICICLE A METEORITIC EVENT LAYER IN ANTARCTIC ICE The whale-on-its-tail fossil An antarctic bone bed Geophysics Puzzling winds Ball lightning materializes in a sitting room Bright sparks erupt from beach Psychology An invisible information superhighway? ...
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... accompanied by rumbling and even ground vibrations. In many houses, animals began to be anxious. Some people felt ill. Railroad communication devices failed. About 1 minute before the explosion, noise appeared in broadcast radio receivers, this soon jammed all radio stations. At a distance of up to several hundred kilometers from the epicenter, some people said that they felt a "heat wave" and suffocation. Near the epicenter, a bright flash with a duration of several seconds and an explosion (thunder and ground shock) took place. (According to some reports. at first a 'glowing object' flew down to the ground.) Probably light phenomena were present at some other places. "The 1991 Sasovo explosion was accompanied by a number of intri-guing phenomena, sometimes resembling (ball) lightning and even tornado damage. There was some unusual and selective damage in the town and even in the village 20 km from the epicenter. Azimuth distribution of hurled frozen soil from the crater and damage had four lobes. But, on the other hand, a tree 10 m from the epicenter was undamaged. There was no damage on the ground level at a distance up to about 1 km from the crater (only ground swing and jerking), but several high suspended electric wires were torn off. At large distances, there was unusual damage at the ground level, and even water pipes at a distance up to 15 km from the epicenter were torn off. During the explosion, in closed and undamaged rooms, in most cases different things flew with soft landings, and ...
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... all areas of the planet. The temperature difference between full moon and new moon was only 0.02 C, with the full-moon temperature being the higher. (Ref. 1) A second study took actual surface temperatures measured at noon GMT each day at 51,200 locations around the world. These near-surface temperatures revealed a difference of 0.2 C between full and new moons -- ten times larger than that from the satellite study. (Ref. 2) 0.2 C and even 0.02 C are much too large to be attributed to direct lunar "heating." Instead, geophysicists wonder if the moon's orbit modulates the influx of meteoric dust which may affect solar heating of the earth by absorption. References Ref. 1. Balling, Robert C., Jr., and Cerveny, Randall S.; "Influence of Lunar Phase on Daily Global Temperatures," Science, 267:1481, 1995. Ref. 2. Gribbin, John; "A Mysterious Monthly Temperature Cycle," New Scientist, p. 18, January 28, 1995. From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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