Science Frontiers
The Unusual & Unexplained

Strange Science * Bizarre Biophysics * Anomalous astronomy
From the pages of the World's Scientific Journals

Archaeology Astronomy Biology Geology Geophysics Mathematics Psychology Physics



About Science Frontiers

Science Frontiers is the bimonthly newsletter providing digests of reports that describe scientific anomalies; that is, those observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific paradigms. Over 2000 Science Frontiers digests have been published since 1976.

These 2,000+ digests represent only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Sourcebook Project, which publishes Science Frontiers, also publishes the Catalog of Anomalies, which delves far more deeply into anomalistics and now extends to sixteen volumes, and covers dozens of disciplines.

Over 14,000 volumes of science journals, including all issues of Nature and Science have been examined for reports on anomalies. In this context, the newsletter Science Frontiers is the appetizer and the Catalog of Anomalies is the main course.


Subscriptions

Subscriptions to the Science Frontiers newsletter are no longer available.

Compilations of back issues can be found in Science Frontiers: The Book, and original and more detailed reports in the The Sourcebook Project series of books.


The publisher

Please note that the publisher has now closed, and can not be contacted.

 

Yell 1997 UK Web Award Nominee INTERCATCH Professional Web Site Award for Excellence, Aug 1998
Designed and hosted by
Knowledge Computing
Other links



Match:

Search results for: ground

176 results found.

4 pages of results.
Sorted by relevance / Sort by date
... 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 Lightning "attacks" vehicles Sketch of the lightning ground tracks and craters in Shelhamer's parking area. "On Sunday, 17 July, 1988, the usual calm and quiet on the Shelhamer property in rural Hannacroix, New York, was suddenly disrupted by a bright flash and a powerful concussion. The house shook. A picture came off the wall and crashed onto the floor. A contact lens popped out of Mrs Shelhamer's eye. The electric power went out. The kitchen clock froze at 3.30 PM. Mr Shelhamer saw three wisps of smoke rise from his parking area. He noticed a strange smell in the air. A pickup truck, parked near the house, was covered with dirt. Two of its tyres were flat, and the hubcaps were lying on the ground. Strange trenches and tracks had appeared in the surface of the parking area. These trenches led Mr Shelhamer to a hickory tree, about 20m from the house. On it a 10cm scar had appeared, spiralling up the trunk toward the sky. A few minutes earlier it had begun to rain, and all this was the result of the lightning strike. "Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of this lightning strike was the way the currents flowing from the hickory tree along the surface of the ground apparently leapt out of the ground in places to pass through the automobiles parked in the parking area. Two of the trenches that radiated ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 99  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf070/sf070g17.htm
... , a strange explosion took place near the Russian town of Sasova (350 km to the southeast of Moscow). After the explosion, a crater, diameter about 30 m and depth 3m, was found. At first, several ideas about its nature were proposed, but now almost all of them are abandoned, except one: that it was a tectonic (endogenic, to be exact) origin. This is proved by geophysical research in the region and a secondary, weaker explosion (a crater also appeared) taking place in 1992 in a sparsely populated area about 9 km away from the first one. For some years before the explosions, there were signs of increased tectonic activity in the region: a great number of 'fireballs' and so-called UFOs, evidence of slow ground deformation, and so on. For about several hours before the 1991 explosion, in many places, people saw numerous 'fireballs,' often 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 ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 89  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf093/sf093g13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Grounded Bats Nicheless New Zealand boasts two bat species (Mystacina) which can fly but really prefer to clamber around on the ground hunting for insects, pollen, and fruit. So far, these bats have defied classification. They are distinctly different from their flying cousins in the area. Blood protein analysis links them to tropical bats in South America. No oth-er bats from New Zealand and Australia show such a relationship. Although these two oddball species may have flown in from South America some 80 million years ago, when the land masses were thought to be much closer, one then has to explain how these tropical bats survived the Ice Ages that afflicted New Zealand. (Anonymous; "Grounded Bats," New Scientist, p. 25, October 2, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 78  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf049/sf049p11.htm
... 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 Spiral-circle ground patterns in field crops G.T . Meaden has recently summarized his research into those marvelously sharp and complex designs cut into English field crops by atmospheric vortices. (Why other countries are not similarly affected is unknown.) The simple circles range from 3 to 30 meters in diameter. The central, flattened vegetation is crushed clockwise about half the time, counterclockwise in the other cases. On two known occasions, the flattening process has actually been observed. The invisible atmospheric vor tex does its work in 30 seconds or less and generates a high-pitched humming sound. The complex nature of these vortices is attested to by the rare ringed circles and multiple patterns. Both single- and double-ringed circles are known. The wind direction always alternates from central circle to first ring to second ring. The most common multiple patterns consist of large central circles flanked by two or four, smaller satellite circles, all nicely spaced. In the quintuplets, all five circles are usually flattened clockwise, but one case has presented theorists with four counterclockwise circles accompanied by a single improbable clockwise circle! (Meaden, G.T .; "The Mystery of Spiral-Circle Ground Patterns in Crops Made by a Natural Atmospheric-Vortex Phenomenon," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 13:203, 1988.) Quintuplet pattern in barley crop, west Wiltshire, 1987 From Science Frontiers #60, ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 63  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf060/sf060p16.htm
... 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 Crop circles: a middle ground On one hand, mainstream scientists, when they deign to notice them at all, pronounce that all crop circles are the work of hoaxers, as in the article by J.W . Deardorff referenced below. On the other hand, several books and a flood of reports in fringe publications claim that the crop circles, particularly the complex ones, are evidence that extraterrestrial intelligences are attempting to communicate with us. There is also a middle ground upon which stands G.T . Meaden, a physicist, and a few other scientists. Meaden has summarized this third position in the following paragraph: ". .. we believe that the formation of real crop circles is a rare phenomenon resulting from the motion of a spinning mass of air which Professor Tokio Kikuchi has modelled by computer simulation and calls a nanoburst. This disturbance could involve the breakdown of an up-spinning vortex of the eddy or whirlwind type. On this theoretical model such a process leads to plain circles and ringed circles -- types which are known from pre-hoax times in Britain and other countries, and are the only species which credible eye-witnesses have seen forming. All other so-called crop circles reported in the media news in recent years are likely to be the result of intelligent hoaxing, while the so-called paranormal events to which Deardorff alludes are nothing but the consequence of poor observation and/or ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 63  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf089/sf089g13.htm
... . 93, April 11, 1998.) Mummified llamas yield superior wool. The wool found on a group of mummified llamas that had been sacrificed and buried some 1,000 years ago in Peru had hair far finer than cashmere and far superior to that of modern llamas. The ancient Peruvians apparently knew how to breed their animals to accentuate certain features. Their secret was lost during the Spanish conquest. (Anonymous; "Mummified Llamas Yield Superior Wool," NEARA Transit, 10:6 , Spring 1998.) Telestomping elephants. Elephants, rhinos, okapis, and even some birds use infrasound (frequencies below 20 Hertz) for communication. At a recent meeting of the American Acoustical Society, University of California researchers reported that elephants also send low-frequency acoustic signals by stomping the ground. Almost inaudible in the air, the sounds travel through the ground and can be picked up by ground microphones. It is thought that this communication channel has a range of as much as 50 kilometers -- far greater than the sounds could be perceived in the air. Supporting this notion, anecdotes say that elephants somehow know when other elephants are being killed far, far away. They run in the opposite direction! But how do they detect the stomping sounds if they travel through the ground? (Anonymous; "Stomping Ground," New Scientist, p. 25, December 13, 1997.) Some sperm are immense -- and nutritious. Fruitflies smaller than a tomato seed pro-duce sperm almost 6 centimeters (2 .3 inches) long. These can be ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 58  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf118/sf118p09.htm
... - not vocal grunting, but a much more curious activity. Kaufmann relates one of his observations: "I came upon an adult male. When I first saw him he was sitting quietly beside a creek, but he soon wandered into a damp thicket of alder, spicebush, and false hellebore. Before disappearing from sight, however, he began to rock back and forth. I followed, trying to stay just close enough to see what he was up to without disturbing him. Fortunately, he did not scare easily, which allowed me to approach within a few yards as he meandered, walking and rocking. First, I noticed that the rocking was caused by short bouts of stomping with the front feet, alternating between left and right. Then he suddenly jabbed his head at the ground and ate something. This behavior continued for a half hour, and several times I caught a glimpse of the prey - earthworms snatched from the surface. I suddenly realized the turtle was 'grunting' for worms!" Turtle preparing to stomp; i.e . 'grunt'. Earthworms, for reasons we cannot fathom, pop out of the ground and flee in panic when vibrations flood their milieu. The wood turtle has apparently learned how to take advantage of this weakness of worms. So have some gulls and plovers. In fact, some humans make their living grunting for earthworms. They simply drive a stake into the ground and draw a notched stick across it to make the worms surface. In Apalachicola National Forest, in Florida, about 700 permits ($ 30 each ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 48  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf065/sf065b05.htm
... . The printout was submitted to Science Frontiers by Mike Epstein. "We were in the deep French countryside a few weeks ago, and during our stay, we had two spectacular thunderstorms. One lasting three hours and one lasting six hours. "One of the attributes of this particular area (halfway between Cahors and Agen) is the dark night skies -- right down to the horizon (I saw constellations low in the southern sky that I'd only seen on star charts). "On the occasion of the six-hour storm (which started about eight thirty in the evening), whenever the rain abated, we went outside and watched. "During a total of approximately 1 hour of watching, I observed phenomena I had never (consciously) seen before. Following ground strikes (probably over the horizon), on at least eight occasions, the ground end of the strike (i .e ., on the horizon) would be glowing for anything up to thirty seconds. "On one particular occasion, my brother was recording the proceedings with a camcorder. I saw a big ground strike followed by a glow on the horizon. I was trying to direct him to that spot, when there was another ground strike 5-10 degrees to the right of the glow; then, maybe a second later, the original glow erupted into a brilliant point of white light that lit up the sky. "I was gratified to find that we had this captured on video, although the glow from the first strike can't really be seen. ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 46  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf091/sf091g16.htm
... January 1989. Saguenay region of Quebec. During this period, a total of 67 quakes were recorded. The foreshock (November 23) registered 4.8 ; the main shock (November 25), 6.5 mmlg. Many after-shocks followed. During this spate of tremors, 38 unusual luminosities were initially reported from the region, 8 of them before the foreshock, being in effect earthquake precursors. Afterwards, residents were queried for details and additional observations. A total of 46 reports sufficiently detailed for analysis were obtained. These luminous phenomena were classified according to a scheme proposed by F. Montandon in 1948. Montandon's five categories are: Seismic lightning (no thunder); Luminous bands in atmosphere; Globular incandescent masses; Fire tongues, small mobile flames near the ground, like will-o '- the wisps; and Flames emerging from the ground. The globular incandescent masses were by far the most common type of earthquake light during this Canadian "flap." Of these, F. St-Laurent writes: There were twenty-two reports coming from different places. Often they were seen far from the epicenter or when the seismic activity was low or quiet. Some were stationary (in one case, the yellow and orange mass presented a horizontal elongated form), others were seen emerging from the ground, some were very fast-moving near the ground, one was seen attached to a luminous band -- all as described by Montandon. (St-Laurent, F.; "The Saguenay, Quebec, Earthquake Lights of November ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 46  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf130/sf130p10.htm
... , reports (in pretty good English): "A large circle appeared in the doublyfenced compound of a Radio Nippon transmitting station near Tokyo. At the same time the survey protection equipment of the transmitting system worked abnormally. This shows that the circles effect is not simply a matter of hoaxing. It was the night of 31 August 1991 when the survey protection equipment (electromagnetic-noise warning detector) of the transmitting system of the Radio Nippon station in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture, worked seventeen times during 40 minutes from 2.00 a.m . (that is, on 1 September). This is a wholly abnormal occurrence because the survey protection goes off only once a week on average. Next morning one of the staff discovered a 10-metre circle in the doubly-fenced ground of the Radio Nippon station. The grass in the ground was pushed down, but without leaving a clear spiral mark. The ground area is approximately 20,000 m2 , and three antenna towers are located in the ground. The fences are formed by 2.5 -m -high wire netting and the station was watching for 24 hours. There were only two men in the station, and they were in a watching room for eight hours from 10.00 p.m . to 6.00 a.m .. Moreover, I can add that neither of the men had ever heard of the circles effect at that time, so that after the discovery of the grass circle the next day they did not report it for 40 days. By the way, there ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 46  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf082/sf082g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hailstorms as Imaginative Sculptors June 29, 1984. Padis Plateau, Romania. This plateau is located in the Transylvanian Western Carpathians. The weather was pleasantly warm even though the ground was still covered with snow. In the south there suddenly appeared a cumulonimbus capillatus whose top seemed to me to be about 14 kilometres or 42 000 feet. As the cloud took on the character of cumulonimbus incus and gradually covered the entire sky, thunder could be heard more and more loudly. The flock of sheep grazing in the deep valley gathered together just as they do before sunset because they too felt the approaching storm. At 16 UT the first raindrops fell. A weak shower of rain followed, and then loose-structured 20-mm-diameter discs of ice. Soon afterwards what was to be 30 minutes of "sky fire" set in. Stone-like pieces of ice streamed to the ground, very heavily and violently. Some of the hailstones were the size of a nut or plum. Within minutes a white carpet covered the plateau of Padis at an altitude of 1200 metres (3900 feet), and the air grew very cool. The landscape was covered by a milky-white veil of fog which rose from the cold ground to a height of 1 to 1.5 metres to embrace the whole dolomite plateau. Then for three minutes the hailstorm paused, before restarting! It lasted for 55 minutes, and it was ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 44  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf130/sf130p11.htm
... famous Nazca lines in Peru. It is not as well known that many other "geoglyphs" are to be found elsewhere in South America. Plan view of some Santa Valley geoglyphs from Peru. The scale at the lower left represents 10 meters. The vertical double line is not a geoglyph but rather the azimuth heading 280-degrees. It is hard to imagine how such underground drawings could be used for rituals. "For example, several areas that contain crosscrossing lines and figures similar to those of Nazca have recently been studied on the central coast [of Peru] between the FortalezaPativilca and Rimac valleys. Additional lines have been reported for Viru Valley, on the north coast, and for the Zana Valley, over 1,000 km to the north of Nazca. Interestingly, most coastal ground drawings that can be dated tentatively, either by associated ceramic remains and sites or by their similarity to diagnostic pottery motifs, fall in the earlier part of the Early Intermediate period (ca. 350 B.C . to A.D . 650) - i.e ., to a time following the establishment of irrigation agriculture as the primary subsistence focus, but prior to the rise of state societies. .. .. . "As is well known, several studies have been conducted that involved mapping and computer analysis of the Nazca lines to examine the hypothesis that they were related to astronomical phenomena. This theory is now discounted, at least as it applies to the great majority of the lines which do not appear to have been oriented toward the sky. More recent studies ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 44  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf063/sf063a01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tractors of the gods?We are all familiar with the Nazca Lines of South America and the wild theories about the aliens that drew them on the high arid plateaus. ". .. now, new patterns have appeared on some parched ground in remote north-western Australia, a series of spirals, circles and broken wavy lines by the North West Coastal Highway near Roebourne. "Dick Smith noticed them while flying over the area in June 1988. By virtue of their large size they are, like their ancient counterparts, clearly visible only from the air. Dick photographed them and in due course asked me to try to find out what they were. Simple, I thought, they must be for erosion control or some other form of land management." C. Hill inquired at several government agencies to no avail. No one knew anything about them. (Hill, Chris; "Tractors of the Gods?" Australian Geographic , p. 25, July-September 1990. Cr. L.S . Nelson) Comment. We assume that these curious marks have a modern origin, but one cannot be sure. Ground markings survive undisturbed for long periods in such arid regions. Also, many large-scale ground drawings were made in the past by Australian aborigines. See the sketches of them in our handbook: Ancient Man. Ordering details here . From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 42  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf092/sf092a02.htm
... 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 ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 42  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf120/sf120p11.htm
... Matter ESB5 Living and Fossil Marine Organisms Found Far Inland ESB6 Living Organisms and Recent Fossils at Very High Altitudes ESB7 Growth Structures on Marine Organisms and Their Fossils ESB8 Animals Entombed in Rocks ESB9 Living Organisms at Great Depths ESB10 Fossils of Warm-Climate, Light Dependent Organisms Found in the Polar Regions ESB11 Time-Wise Anomalous Fossils ESB12 Skipping in the Fossil Record ESB13 "Special" Nature of Fossils ESC ANOMALOUS CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESC1 Chemical Anomalies in the Stratigraphic Record ESC2 Chemical Anomalies in Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESC3 Surface Films on Rocks ESC4 Spontaneous, Rapid, Exothermic Reactions in Nature ESC5 Death Gulches ESC6 Violent Lake Turnovers ESC7 Petrifactions and Lignifications ESC8 Geological Effects of Natural Combustion ESC9 Rocks and Sediments of Controverted Origins ESC10 Unusual Growth Structures ESC11 Possible Extraterrestrial Origin of Ocean Water ESC12 Chemical Anomalies of Lakes and Ground Water ESC13 Petroleum Anomalies ESC14 Coal Anomalies ESC15 Outgassing of Radon-222 ESC16 Methane Anomalies ESD DEPOSITS OF REMARKABLE SIZE ESD1 Bone Caves, Bone Caches,... ESD2 Bone Beds, Fish Beds,... ESD3 Sedimentary Deposits of Exceptional Volume ESD4 Historical Evidence for Large Scale Flooding ESD5 Recent Large Reductions of Polar Ice Cover ESD6 Giant Basalt Flows and Traps ESD7 Giant Accumulations of Oil ESD8 Giant Erratics and Megabreccias ESD9 Deposits of Great Areal Extent ESI INCLUSIONS ESI1 Inclusions in Crystals ESI2 Microdebris ESI3 Erratic Boulders, Stones, and Mineral Patches ESI4 Anomalous Amber Inclusions ESI5 Microfossil-Like Inclusions ESI6 Oil in Fossil Cavities ESI7 Carbon Dust on Fossil Plants ESI8 Great Rarity of Fossil Meteorites and Tektites ESI9 Stretched Pebbles ESM ANOMALOUS SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS ESM1 Unusual Superficial Aggregations of Rocks ESM2 Strewn Fields of Natural Glasses ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 41  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /cat-geol.htm
... 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 Do woodcocks "grunt" for worms?Earthworms have a potentially fatal habit: When they detect vibrations propagating through the ground, they quickly squirm their way to the surface. Perhaps they think a mole is tunneling after them, or maybe rain is beating down above. Whatever goes through their "minds," they emerge on the surface in response to vibrations and may be snapped up by several species that know their weakness. Human fishermen know the worms' weakness and "grunt" for them in several ways; say, by drawing a notched stick across the trunk of a small tree to generate vibrations. Wood turtles are said to "stomp" for worms. (SF#65) Kiwis and Kagus also stomp for their dinner. (Kagus are rather strange birds found in New Caledonia.) We have just learned that Woodcocks will beat their wings against the ground to coax earthworms within range. (Hennigan, Tom; "A Wonderfully Bizarre Bird," Creation/Ex Nihilo , 19:54, September-November 1997.) Comment. Woodcocks seem to lure worms to the surface in still another way: They "bob" or "rock" their body in a most peculiar manner. It is thought that the resulting pressure waves are transmitted to the ground through their feet and that these bring their favorite prey to where they can be grasped. (Marshall, William H.; "Does the Woodcock ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 34  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf114/sf114p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 81: May-Jun 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Shc or h/t homicide?The possible case of SHC (Spontaneous Human Combustion) just reported above may have a rational but bizarre explanation. S.L . Wernokoff commented as follows in the Journal of Meteorology: "The very first thing that comes to mind is whether overloaded hightension [H /T ] or low-tension wires were anywhere nearby. Since this incident occurred at a roadside, nearby power lines may well have been present. If such lines are overloaded or badly insulated, fatal arcing can occur from the ground at a considerable distance from the power lines. This has happened often in our country [the U.S .] , in rural areas where public utilities have quietly exceeded the capacity of their lines. The resulting discharges can easily electrocute livestock over mile from the 'leaky' H/T lines. I would wager that the Hungarian utility agencies are guilty of the same practice. Personally, I suspect that this unfortunate young man may have been electrocuted through his own urine! The 'blue light' witnessed by the victim's wife may have been St. Elmo's Fire -- an ungrounded luminous corona visible around the victim in the humid, pre-thunderstorm conditions. The hole in his heel and tennis shoe indicate where the current finally grounded itself." Wernikoff goes on to tell of a case in Canada where a man washing up at an outdoor table, 100 ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 34  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf081/sf081b11.htm
... 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 Mysterious Mountain Deaths Occasionally, young, healthy hikers are discovered lying dead in the mountains without a mark on them. The answer to this mystery may be in the magnetic pulses created by close lightning strikes. Most deaths from lightning are from direct strikes, side flashes, or ground currents. The ground currents kill by passing up one leg and down the other. Cows sheltering under trees are even more susceptible than humans because they contact the ground in four places! People and animals electrocuted by these phenomena bear burn marks and other clues pointing to the cause of death. As for those "mysterious mountain deaths," M. Cherington and colleagues at the Lightning Data Center, Denver, suggest that these unlucky individuals may have been zapped magnetically. Lightning strikes can create electrical currents as high as 100,000 amperes in rocks and soil. These, in turn, create intense magnetic pulses that induce small electrical currents in nearby objects, such as hikers. Although small, these internal currents are sufficient to stop heart action -- without leaving tell-tale signs. (Anonymous; "Mystery Mountain Deaths and Lightning," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 23:230, 1998.) From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 34  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf123/sf123p12.htm
... 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 The Force Is With Them The communication loop between earthbased ground stations and interplanetary spacecraft allows extremely accurate measurements of the radial velocities of these distant man-made machines. As these spacecraft hurtle toward the fringe of the solar system, the visible sun dwindles to a small, bright point, and its gravitational field falls off as the inverse square of the distance. At least that is what is supposed to happen. Four far-flung spacecraft, (Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Ulysses, and Galileo are experiencing a mysterious decelerating force not encompassed by the Law of Gravitation. It's a tiny force, but it seems to be real. Making it even more puzzling is the fact that it is decreasing according to the inverse of distance from the sun rather than the inverse square. Is it a non-solar force? Is it "new" physics? Or maybe just an artifact of the spacecraft and ground-based equipment? The fact that four spacecraft feel its tugging suggests the force is real. But the motions of the distant planets do not seem to be affected by it. So, everyone is perplexed. (Schilling, Govert; "Spacecraft Motions Puzzle Astronomers," Science, 281:1581, 1998. Seife, Charles; "If the Force Is with Them...," New Scientist, p. 4, September 12, 1998. Browne, Malcolm; "After Study, ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 29  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf120/sf120p04.htm
... these complaints with a case of adequate strangeness. T.M . Olsen has investigated a bizarre observation from Kentucky. The date was September 28, 1996. "Vance C. Johns, a secondary-school horticulturist, lives a rural area east of Louisville. Sometime between midnight and 1:30 AM, he got up to use the bathroom and saw a strange object outside his bedroom window. His wife, Florence, keeps the drapes open on the center of three picture windows, and he immediately opened the other drapes for a better look. The open view through the windows, which face south, is of a grass lawn sloping to a curved driveway. This 0.8 -hectare cleared area is devoid of trees and other objects. Two large, automatic floodlights illuminate the ground around the entire house, and under a full moon, it was bright enough to read a book. The night was clear and about 10 C with no noticeable wind. No aircraft were in the area. "At a distance of 14 m (measured after the incident) from his vantage at the bedroom window, there appeared on the lawn an object resembling a common railroad cross tie but oriented in a vertical position, with one end on the ground. It was matte black, 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 m high and 30 - 35 cm wide. The sides were smooth with a well-defined corner joining the west and north sides. The view of the top showed the west and north top edges were also welldefined. The object appeared solid but ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 29  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf109/sf109p00.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Shadow Dance Of The Gnats An curious phenomenon was reported recently to the New Scientist. "I travelled to Hungary to observe the recent total solar eclipse. About five minutes before totality, my wife and I noticed many curved shadows about 3 centimetres long dancing on a white paper lying on the ground, formed by a swarm of gnats. The shadows were exactly the same shape as the remaining bright portion of the Sun, by then only a thin arc of light. Why?" This phenomenon is not anomalous but it is entertaining. It is the reverse of the pin-hole-camera effect often seen during total eclipses. People standing in the shadow of a tree will see many bright arcs on the ground -- images of the sun being eclipsed. The interstices between the tree's leaves act as pinholes. The phenomenon happens in reverse when pin-holes are replaced by "pins"; that is, small opaque obstructions, such as gnats. (Scott, Andrew, and Diebold, Mike; "Shadow Dance," New Scientist, p. 93, October 30, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 29  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf127/sf127p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fiddling Up Worms When fishing season arrives in Tennessee, L. Harvey does not get out his shovel to dig for worms, he gets out his saw! "Using a dull handsaw, Harvey cut a dead dogwood tree down to a 10-inch stump and then began sawing it lengthwise -- an act of worm fiddling that sounded like someone playing the bassoon, and made the ground purr beneath our feet. "At first, Harvey's sawing seemed to agitate only insects and spiders, but after a while we saw our first fiddled worm. It was 6 inches long, wriggling next to Harvey's boot." Twenty worms at each site are about average with Harvey's fiddling. His fiddled worms are top fish-catchers; the slime they produce even glows in the dark. Harvey is a purist and eschews modern worm-catching technology, such as those popular iron stakes driven into the ground and connected to a car's battery. (Simmons, Morgan; "Making 'Music' with Saw and Stump," Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 21, 1996. Cr. J.A . Caywood) Comment. See SF#65 on how to "grunt" for worms with a driven stake and notched stick -- a variation of Harvey's technique. From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 29  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf106/sf106p08.htm
... Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Strange Case Of Angled Lines In The Atmosphere The subject phenomenon is weird to say the least. We have seen nothing like it before and have no idea how to explain it. January 30, 1965. Near Johannesburg, South Africa. Testimony of R. Crowder. "It was the day of Churchill's funeral. I had been flying a Piper-Colt around South Africa's southern Transvaal, dodging the usual huge CuNims, and headed back to Baragwanath airfield near Johannesburg as the towering thunderheads ran out of 'puff', and began to topple and decay. Coming in to land, it seemed that something was wrong with my eyesight as there seemed to be faint flickers in the air itself, only a dozen feet or so above the ground. Taxiing and parking, I found when my wife and I got out of the plane that there were clear straight lines in the air itself. My wife saw them too. So did half-adozen fellow pilots whom I routed out of the bar to act as witnesses. .. .. . "These sky-lines were quite characteristic. There were a least half-adozen in the air, apparently starting close to the ground and fading away twenty or thirty feet up. They were all inclined slightly to the vertical, were of a dirty-brown colour, slightly blurred, roughly four inches wide, several feet apart, of some depth. This was apparent when I walked backwards and forwards across them because they appeared to move towards and also away from me, ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 29  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf127/sf127p14.htm
... Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Target Earth Let Jupiter take care of itself! What about us -- Terra, the third planet? A February article in Sky and Telescope begins: "Military satellites have been watching huge meteoroids slam into the Earth's atmosphere for nearly two decades." Secret until recently, infrared scanner data from military satellites have detected 136 atmospheric explosions since 1975 with yields of 1 kiloton or more. There may actually have been as many as four times this number, because the satellites are programmed to look for unnatural events, such as nuclear detonations. They often ignore extraterrestrial projectiles. Why aren't earthbound observers aware of all these atmospheric explosions? Because most are infrared events; few emit enough visible light to attract the attention of ground-based observers. However, two of these "secret" meteoric events might explain some Fortean phenomena recorded over the last two centuries. April 15, 1978. Over Indonesia. A military satellite watched a colossal daylight fireball that, for one second only, would have rivaled the sun to anyone watching from the ground below and alert to such phenomena. The TNT yield was estimated at 5 kilotons. August 3, 1963. Between South Africa and Antarctica. A huge airburst equivalent to a 500 kilotons was picked up by a worldwide network of acoustic detectors. The cosmic interloper this time was believed to have been a small asteroid about 20 meters in diameter. (Beatty, J. Kelly; "' Secret' Impacts Revealed," Sky and Telescope, 87:26, February ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 29  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf092/sf092a04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The "inscribed wall" at chatata, tennessee One of our favorite anomalies over the years has been the ancient "inscribed wall" at Chatata, near Cleveland, in Bradley County, Tennessee. The above quotation marks are intended to warn the reader that said wall may not be man-made, and its inscriptions may be natural rather than artificial. An old drawing of a section of the "inscribed wall" at Chatata, TN. Note the triangular marker stone projecting above ground level. The history of the Chatata wall is long and convoluted. Discovered over a century ago, new facts are still coming to light today, as reviewed by D.E . Wirth in a recent issue of The Ancient American. The wall was originally almost completely buried. It attracted attention only because its course was marked on the surface by stones projecting from the ground every 25-30 feet over a gently curving arc about 1,000 feet long. One of these surface stones seemed to be inscribed with strange symbols. Excavations, supported at first by the Smithsonian Institution, revealed a 3-ply sandstone wall-like structure seemingly cemented together by a reddish mortar. Splitting the sandstone sheets revealed diagonal rows of markings like those illustrated. At first, both wall and inscriptions were proclaimed to be artificial. More recent studies by geologists point to natural origins for the wall, the mortar, and even the inscriptions themselves. The latter ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 27  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf097/sf097a01.htm
... 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 Eclipse Shadow Bands E. Strach had the good fortune to have camcordered those elusive eclipse shadow bands that flit across the ground just before and after total solar eclipses. The time was February 26, 1998; the place, Knip Beach, Curaco. Strach had first laid out a 53-centimeter-diameter white screen on the ground. He pointed his camcorder at the screen and pressed the ON switch 4 minutes before second contact. Playing back his recording, he was not a little surprised to find he had an excellent record of the curious parade of the hard-to photograph dark bands. "They were clearly seen for 32 seconds before the second contact and a little fainter for 27 seconds after totality. They moved rapidly across the screen from E to W before totality and from NNE to SSW after 3rd contact. Slow motion studies of the video show occasional merging of the bands and at times they seem to move in opposite directions -- probably a stroboscopic effect." The widths of the bands varied from 2.36 to 6.63 centimeters. (Strach, Eric; "Shadow Bands Recorded at February 26 Eclipse," British Astro nomical Association, Journal, vol. 108, 1998. Comment. Theorists have long been challenged by these ghostly, fleeting shadows. Their widths change; their directions and speeds vary; they come in different colors; sometimes more than one set of bands appear; giant bands ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 27  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf123/sf123p04.htm
... 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 ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 27  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf038/sf038p14.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects DID A HALF MILLION METEORS FALL ON THE CAROLINAS?The Carolina Bays get scant notice in the literature these days, but E.R . Randall has rescued them this undeserved obscurity. "For years, people living along the Carolina coast have marveled at a series of strange, oval-shaped depressions in the ground called 'Carolina Bays.' "From the air these shallow, marshy bogs created a landscape that resembles the pockmarked surface of the moon. They crisscross each other in a chaotic tapestry, but at ground level are hardly noticeable because of thick forests and semitropical swamplands. "Highways and modern housing developments have all but obliterated thousands of the bays, leaving them visible only to trained eyes. "Still, it is estimated that no fewer than 300,000 such bays, ranging from a few feet across to almost two miles in diameter, dot the East Coast landscape from southern New Jersey to northeastern Florida. One source places the number at more than half a million." Map showing areas of abundant Carolina Bays and frequent meterorite finds. However, meteorites are rare in the areas of the bays. Floyd continues with a brief history of the Carolina Bay region and then reviews some of the theories of origin that have been proposed. Two now-discarded mechanisms of formation invoked: (1 ) immense schools of spawning fish; and (2 ) icebergs stranded as the Ice Ages waned. In presenting today ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 27  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf082/sf082g12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Attention, Pupils!The following questions appeared in the December 11, 1999, issue of the New Scientist: Why do some animals have a non-circular pupil? Cats and some snakes have a vertical shape yet horses and goats have a horizontal one. What is the reason behind the differences and, more importantly, how do the different shapes affect how animals actually see things? The answer for the vertical slit is that it improves an animal's focus in the direction perpendicular to the slit. Thus, cats and snakes hunting close to the ground can better detect their prey over a wide horizontal field. But how about the horses, goats and other grazing animals that must keep their eyes open for predators across a wide horizon? Pupils with horizontal slits would seem to defeat this purpose. Ah, but when they lower their heads to graze, their vertical pupils become horizontal. Simple! (Anonymous; "Eye to Eye," New Scientist, p. 85, December 11, 1999.) Comments. But puzzles remain, otherwise we wouldn't address this subject. (1 ) Some snakes have round pupils (as in the illustration) having apparently been subjected to different environmental forces; (2 ) Of all the 9,000+ species of birds, only the skimmers own pupils with vertical slits. You would expect ground-feeding birds like robins and larks to also have them; ( ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 26  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf130/sf130p05.htm
... traps, but we did not realize that they also knew their aerodynamics. "Why is it safer for a cat to fall from a 32-storey building than from a seven-storey building? .. .. . "Just ask scientific and medical reporter Karl Kruszelnicki, whose theory is based on a study of 150 cats that plummeted from windows at different heights. "Falling from 32 storeys, a cat had more time to work out a plan of action, because once it reached terminal velocity and stopped accelerating, it started to relax, he said in Sydney yesterday. "Once the moggie reached top speed of 100 kmh and realised it was not speeding up any more, it spreadeagled its limbs in the perfect position for maximum wind resistance. "' Once it reaches the ground, the cat just kisses the ground on all four paws simultaneously and the shock is absorbed,' Dr. Kruszelnicki told his bemused audience at the University of New South Wales during a talk organized by the Alumni Association. "Of the 150 cats that fell from highrise buildings in New York over a five-month period, 10 per cent died, with the chances of survival rising with the distance of the fall." It seems that at least one cat per day takes the plunge in New York City, but do they jump...or are they pushed? Dr. Kruszelnicki supposed that some may have leaped at passing birds! (Anonymous; "High-Flying Cats Have the Big Drop Licked," Wellington, New Zealand, The Dominion , September 17, ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf084/sf084b07.htm
... Observed In Canada Numerous earthquake lights (EQLs) were reported between November 1, 1988, and January 2l, 1989, in the Saguenay region of Quebec. These luminosities were associated with 54 seismic shocks recorded in this area. Most were small, but a strong foreshock (magnitude 4.8 ) occurred on November 23; the main quake (magnitude 6.5 ) hit 60 hours later. Through appeals by radio and newspapers, 52 observers of EQLs were located. They reported a wide spectrum of luminosities, some of which were very strange. In the sky, some observed silent sparkings, diffuse glows, and aurora-like stripes. For an account of the more enigmatic EQLs, we quote M. Ouellet: "Fireballs a few metres in diameter often popped out of the ground in a repetitive manner at distances of up to only a few metres away from the observers. Others were seen several hundred metres up in the sky, stationary or moving. Some observers described dripping luminescent droplets, rapidly disappearing a few metres under the stationary fireballs. Only two fire-tongues on the ground were reported, one on snow and the other on a paved parking space without any apparent surface fissure. The colours most often identified were orange, yellow, white and green. Some luminosities lasted up to 12 min." (Ouellet, Marcel; "Earthquake Lights and Seismicity," Nature, 348:492, 1990.) Reference. Many observations of earthquake lights are cataloged in GLD8 in the catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For ordering information, see: here . ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf074/sf074g14.htm
... Australia. Here is the text accompanying the sketch. "Another cave introduced a fresh problem. Fronting it, high up on the vertical face of a cliff, and unreachable without mechanical aid, had been carved out of the solid stone a human head in profile, which I show. It was 2 feet long and 16 inches across, and 1 -inch thick; and I leave my hearers to say whether it is not a striking and distinguished face. It is absolutely different from the heads of modern Aborigines. The worn edges of the cameo, where it joined the rock-surface, seemed to mark a long interval since it was carved; the difficulty of carving it where it stood must have been immense -- unless, indeed, the rock face had been near the ground at the time, and the ground had worn away since -- which, again, would probably imply antiquity. "What a problem this Caucasian face presents! Is it that of some stranger from Europe long ago -- perhaps before the Portugese or Spanish visitors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? In all probability European ships traversed the Pacific before the days of Balboa; for Greek columns are found in an island of the South Seas; and the prevalence of small-pox among the Australians when we first settled there is said -- with what truth I must leave pathologists to decide -- to postulate previous residence of Europeans amongst them." (Thornton, S.; "Problems of Aboriginal Art in Australia," Victoria Institute, Journal of the Transactions, 30: ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf121/sf121p13.htm
... and flees to water when disturbed. Likewise, there is general agreement that it is cow-sized, hornless, dark in color, and has a large mouth with big teeth." These data agree with the old descriptions of the mangarsahoc (1661), the tsy-aomby-aomby (1882), and the Ombyrano (1912). One animal fits all of these accounts: the dwarf hippopotamus ( Hippo potamus lemerlie , supposedly extinct for over 1,000 years. The Kidoky "This animal's description is decidedly lemur-like. It was compared to the sifaka by all the interviewees who described it, although all insisted that it was not the same animal... It is much larger...perhaps 25 kg. It is usually encountered on the ground and may flee on the ground rather than taking to the trees...Its whooping call is suggestive of an indri." The Kidoky is probably the giant aboreal lemur ( Palaeopropithecus ), known only from subfossils 1,000 or more years old. (Burney, David A., and Ramilisonia; "The Kilopilopitsofy , Kidoky , and Bokyboky : Accounts of Strange Animals from Belo-sur-mer, Madagascar, and the Megafaunal 'Extinction Window'," American Anthropologist, 100:957, 1999.) Comment. The Bokyboky mentioned in the article's title definitely does survive under the name: Malagsay Narrow-Striped Mongoose. Reference: Walker's Mammals of the World . What the kilopilopitsofy probably looks like. From Science Frontiers #124, JUL- ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf124/sf124p07.htm
... top of the wall; inside, steps lead down to limestone bedrock from which springs of crystal-clear water flow. The qanat entrance can be seen down near the bottom of the wall, but the water level is now too low to feed the abandoned qanat. In his book Looking for Dilmun, G. Bibby asks some pertinent questions. Has twenty feet of sand been dug away by hand over the enormous area needed to expose a matter of fifteen thousand square yards of bedrock and the springs that broke forth there? And was a twenty-foot wall then built and the sand piled back around it? And if so how had they known where to dig and find the springs? For if not there was only one other explanation. That we were standing there on the original ground surface. That once upon a time the whole hill slope had been naked rock at the level at which we stood, with springs in the hollows, and that the irrigation channels, probably indeed roofed from the start to prevent evaporation, had been dug at ground level or only a little below. In that case the sand came later, and the wall around the springs, together with the "chimneys" giving access to the qanats, had been built up gradually, to keep pace with the encroaching sand. This would suggest that the sand was comparatively recent, how recent only an investigation into the age of the qanats could determine. (Bibby, Geoffrey; "The Hidden Gardens," Looking for Dilmun, New York, 1969, p. 45. Cr. E ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf129/sf129p01.htm
... marsupial. The female possesses a watertight pouch. Strangely, the male also has a pouch !] View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 292 pages, hardcover, $21.95, 84 illus., 3 indexes, 1995. 546 references, LC 91-68541. ISBN 0-915554-30-5 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Mammals II: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print Our fifth biology catalog completes out study of mammilian anomalies. This volume parallels Humans II and III with major sections on the fossil record and cryptozoology. In addition, there are shorter sections on genetics, organs, bodily functions, and interactions between mammals and other life forms. Typical subjects covered: Biochemical curiosities * Recent survivals of the mammoth, ground sloth, thylacine * Out-of-place mammals * Dearth of transistional fossils * Male lactation * Sleeplessness in mammals * Inheritance of rotational effects * Magnetite in mammals * Microbat data processing * The onza, nandi bear, Steller's sea ape, and others. Comments from reviews: Essential for all libraries, schools and serious Forteans. Fortean Times View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 324pp, hardcover, $21.95, 89 illus., 3 indexes, 1996. 527 references, LC 91-68541. ISBN 0-915554-31-3 . 7" x 10". Biological Anomalies: Birds: A Catalog of Enigmas and Curiosities Sorry, Out of print Birds are everywhere: some can fly high over the Himalayas, others ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  10 Oct 2021  -  URL: /sourcebk.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lightning Superbolts Detected By Satellites The Vela satellites carry optical sensors for the detection of terrestrial nuclear explosions. Four Vela satellites keep the entire earth under constant surveillance. In addition to nuclear explosions, these satellites register many intense lightning flashes. Some of the flashes are over 100 times more brilliant than average. Only about five of these "superbolts" occur for every 10 million flashes registered. Superbolt flashes have relatively long durations (about one thousandth of a second) and do not appear to be confined to the upper levels of the clouds. A large fraction of the superbolts are recorded over Japan and the northeast Pacific during intense winter storms. Ground observations during these storms reveal occasional very powerful discharges of long duration from positively charged regions near the cloud tops to the ground. In contrast, typical lightning arises from negatively charged regions of clouds. (Turman, B.N .; "Detection of Lightning Superbolts," Journal of Geophysical Research, 82:2566, 1977.) Reference. Many of lightning's anomalies are described in Chapter GLL in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf001/sf001p10.htm
... 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 Green Thunderstorms Anecdotes abound that exceptionally severe thunderstorms may appear to emit an eerie, sickeningly yellow-green light. Skeptics scoff at this notion. The excited observers were deluded, or they made it all up. This is, of course, the same knee-jerk response greeting UFO reports and accounts of many other anomalies. Thunderstorms, however, do have an objective existence. And it turns out that a few storm-watching meteorologists have also seen greenish thunderstorms. Such professional testimony is usually dismissed as due to the reflection of greenish ground vegetation by the storm clouds or, perhaps, the effects of sheets of hail preceding the storms. In 1995, F.W . Gallagher et al decided to settle the matter. They chased likely looking thunderstorms armed with a spectrophotometer. Many storms later, they proved, first of all, that some thunderstorms are definitely green. In fact, some gradually change from blue to green in the space of half an hour. Their ground observations, plus more spectrophotometer data taken from aircraft, refute the theory that the green color is from reflected vegetation. Hail may contribute to the green color but is not required. In sum, green thunderstorms really do exist, but no one yet knows where all the green comes from. (Gallagher, Frank W., III, et al; "Green Thunderstorms Observed," Amer ican Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 77:2889, 1996 ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf113/sf113p08.htm
... rivers of the continents toward the sea, where they are literally swallowed up. They are never seen again! In the Atlantic, the oft-told sci-entific tale is that all the adult eels from Europe and eastern North America converge on the Sargasso Sea. Here, they mate and die. It is in this area of the Atlantic that one finds high concentrations of eel larva, called leptocephali; and this alone is why the eels are thought to spawn here. In a long article in Science News, E. Pennisi is the latest to wonder where the adult eels are. She relates how, despite several ambitious expeditions well-armed with nets, traps, and sundry eel-catching devices, ". .. no one has ever spotted adult eels in the spawning grounds." Actually, Pennisi's article focusses on the Pacific and a 1991 Japanese expedition that searched for the spawning grounds of Anguilla Japonica , the Japanese eel. Earlier searches had been in conclusive. The 1991 attempt, after arduous labors and 16,000 kilometers of cruising, found the highest concentrations of leptocephali east of the Philippines. But, as in the Atlantic, even though many larvae were captured, no adult eels turned up in the nets. (Pennisi, Elizabeth; "Gone Eeling," Science News, 140:297, 1991.) Comment. It is our understanding that adult eels are never caught anywhere once they leave their home rivers. Can anyone refute this? From Science Frontiers #79, JAN-FEB 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf079/sf079b08.htm
... pairs; a big one followed by a modest little chap following behind by 100-150 yards. The devils ranged from just a foot or so in diameter to 500 yards and more. The giants were majestic masses of swirling sand that moved along at leisurely paces. These appeared harmless enough, but stepping through the outer wall into the vortex sucked the air out of the lungs. "Outside our hangar there is a large stretch of wind-sheltered concrete which becomes intensely hot. In this area, close to the foot of the hangar, one can start up one's own little devils on occasions by a quick sweep of a signalling bat (which is shaped like a large ping-pong bat) from shoulder level in circular and downwards direction to a point almost touching the ground; one must step rapidly back or the vortex that is set up is spoilt. Such a miniature thermal starts about a foot in diameter and quickly assumes a conical shape about two feet high, moving along the ground at a walking pace. Its rotation increases very rapidly, until one has the impression of a whirling snake in front of one. As it reaches the edge of the concrete a little sand is thrown up and the thermal dies away." (Swinn, R.H ., "On Flying Gliders into Wind Devils," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:17, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf039/sf039p15.htm
... Polynesian Origins MAF FOSSILS, MUMMIES, CORPSES American Extinction of Megafauna Denied Grooving of Teeth Anomalously Ancient Fossils: Pliocene, Holocene, Miocene, etc. [BHE] Mummy Anomalies Teeth and Implications for the Settlement of Americas Calaveras Skull Controversy Minnesota Man/Loess Man/ Nebraska Man/Los Angeles Man/Vero Beach Man, etc. Caucasian Mummies in China Vast Ancient Cemeteries Light-Skinned Mummies in New Guinea Ice Man Tattoos Humerus (Olecranon) Perforation Neanderthal Fossils in the New World? Wyoming Mystery Mummy Evidence of Ancient Cannibalism Kennewick Man and Similar Recent Discoveries Rats in New Zealand That Suggest Pre-Maori Occupants Teeth and Ainu Origin Controversial Guadeloupe Skeleton Fossils Supporting the Multiregional Theory Ancient Horse-Cribbing Polynesian Fossils in the New World South American Fossils in New Zealand Babirusa Bones in Canada Humans and Domesticated Ground Sloths Trepanation Yuha Burial Problem Human Hair at the Orogrande Site Pygmy Skeletons Chinese Fossils in Australia Giant Skeletons [BHE] Neanderthal Fossils and Speech Santa Barbara Fossils Taber Skeleton (Canada) Eskimo Fossils in France Blond Mummies in Peru Red-Haired Mummies in Nevada [MAA] Santa Rosa Mammoths and Hearths MAK CULTURE Precocious Number Systems and Mathematics Agriculture and Culture Decline Navigational Techniques Ancient Cosmologies and Astronomy Music, Arts, Literature Measurement Systems Paper-Making Diffusion Olmec Origin (Cultural Evidence) Origin of Culture Human Migration Phenomena Polynesian Origins Early Caucasians in New World Extinctions and Rapid Declines (Mohenjo-Daro, Maya, Minoans, Moundbuilders, etc.) Chinese in the New World Polynesians in New World and Australia Eruption of Thera and the Minoans Ancient Warfare Human Degeneracy [BHA] Cyberculture Red Paint People ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /cat-arch.htm
... Massachusetts. "One of Earth's rarest and most mysterious weather phenomena occurred in front of Olga Perrow's Braintree home yesterday afternoon. "Ball lightning, an orange-reddish glow of luminosity that Perrow said "looked like a bowling ball," greeted Perrow and her two grandchildren as they drove into the driveway at 665 Commercial St. during the height of yesterday's thunderstorm. "' I was stunned,' Perrow said. "It was so smooth-looking. It was like a big ball of fire.' "Perrow said the ball moved alongside the car up to the front wheel and 'exploded' when the car went into the garage. "' It sounded like a bomb,' she said. "We expected to see a hole in the ground, but there was none.' "Chase Trowbridge, Perrow's grandson, said the ball was hovering about five or six inches off the ground. 'It moved very slowly; we were watching it for about 10 seconds,' he said. 'It was weird.'" (Macrae, Scott; "Powerful Storm Hurls Rare Ball Lightning," Quincy Patriot Ledger , June 13, 1991. Cr. B. Green wood) From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf077/sf077g15.htm
... , they observed a strange, but possibly related, luminous mass. R.L Goold described it in the following words: "Suddenly, at 2.55 a.m ., birds began singing which heightened our alertness and made us check wrist watches. It was soon quiet again, but at 3.00 a.m ., almost exactly, I spotted a tube of light to the northeast descending vertically beneath a cloud in that part of the sky. Most of the remainder of the sky was clear and starry. The tube extended steadily in length as we watched, and its milky-white colour seemed to be due to a self-luminoscity like one might expect from the electrical effect known as plasma. As it came down against the black sky and neared the ground, the tube began to broaden, and branched out to give two opposed arms, as indicated in the drawing, forming a design in the air with rounded ends. Then the tube dissipated from the top downwards, and disappeared into the horizontal arms which themselves proceeded towards the ground out of sight beyond the hill peaks. No noise was heard. The whole phenomenon lasted about six seconds." The trio of observers used their fingers held at arm's length to estimate angular dimensions of the phenomenon. Using these figures and the known distances of the surrounding hills, G.T . Meaden estimated the distance of the phenomenon at 1,400 meters; the width of the tube at l6 meters; and the width of the entire luminous mass at roughly 100 meters. (Goold ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf079/sf079g16.htm
... a few animals. For example, the Old World contributed black-boned chickens, cotton, and coconuts to the New World. As for China, Johannessen has gathered evidence for early Chinadestined Pacific crossings of maize, sunflowers, a squash, chili peppers, sweet potatoes, the yambean, and grain amaranths. Most startling, though, has been the discovery of New World peanuts at two Neolithic sites in eastern China. The associated dates are astounding: 2,400 BC and 4,400 BC. Who was sailing the wide Pacific while the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge were under construction? Supporting the fossil peanuts is a written Chinese record of 300 AD describing a plant that buries its flowers in the soil and makes seeds that rattle when dry. Peanuts are very unusual that they flower above ground and then burrow into the ground to form nuts -- a characteristic one must see to believe and a story hard to fabricate. (Johannessen, Carl L.; "American Crop Plants in Asia before A.D . 1500," Pre Columbiana , 1:9 , 1998.) From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf125/sf125p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lenses In Antiquity The ancient Greeks seem to have thought of just about everything. True, they didn't conceive of silicon chips or H-bombs, but they did know rudimentary optics. Excavations down the years have yielded hundreds of lenses ground from quartz crystals. (Later, the Romans used glass.) Many of these early lenses were articles of high craftsmanship, being accurately spherical and wellpolished. Lathes were evidently available for grinding the rock crystal into appropriate shapes. Some ancient lenses had holes drilled through them, possibly so that they could be carried around the neck on cords. These seem to have been used for kindling fires. Most lenses, though, were probably magnifiers for authenticating seals and for carving gems. (Sines, George, and Sakellarakis, Yannis A.; "Lenses in Antiquity," American Journal of Archaeology, 91:191, 1987.) Comment. We wonder if any ancient Greeks ever put two of these lenses together to make a telescope. Such a tan dem arrangement of lenses seems such a natural experiment; i.e ., if one is good, two will be better! The ancients probably ground lenses with the aid of bow-driven spindles. From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf053/sf053a02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 77: Sep-Oct 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Eclipse shadow-band anomalies Shadow bands moving across the face of a house during the total eclipse of December 22, 1870. J.L . Codona, in a long article in Sky and Telescope, described eclipse shadow bands in these words: "There mysterious gray ripples are sometimes seen flitting over the ground within a minute or two of to tality. The bands are initially faint and jumbled; but as totality approaches, they become more organized, their spacing decreases to a few centimeters, and their visibility improves. After totality ends the bands can reappear and become progressively fainter and more disorganized until they disappear. "Shadow bands seem to move perpendicularly to their length, but this is only an illusion. It stems from a lack of features that allow the eye to track motion along the length of the bands." Codona explains the shadow bands as basically a twinkling effect involving the thin solar crescent just before and after totality. The twinkling is created by turbulence only tens or hundreds of feet above the ground. The eclipse shadow bands, like so many other "well-explained" phenomena, display idiosyncracies that do not dovetail well with theory. Codona mentions two of these: (1 ) Bands of different colors, travelling at different speeds, are sometimes seen superimposed on each other; and (2 ) Bands of giant size have been observed. (Codona, Johana L.; "The Enigma of Shadow ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf077/sf077a04.htm
... to pursue the target. As soon as lock-on was achieved, the target appeared on the screen as a diamond shape, telling the pilots that from that moment on, the F-l6s would remain tracking the object automatically. "[ Before the radar had locked on for six seconds] the object had speed up from an initial velocity of 280 kph to 1,800 kph, while descending from 3,000 meters to 1,700 meters...in one second! This fantastic acceleraton corresponds to 40 Gs. It would cause immediate death to a human on board. The limit of what a pilot can take is about 8 Gs. The trajectory of the object was extremely disconcerting. It arrived at 1,700 meters altitude, then it dove rapidly toward the ground at an altitude under 200 meters, and in doing so escaped from the radars of the fighters and the ground units at Glons and Semmerzake. This maneuver took place over the suburbs of Brussels, which are so full of man-made lights that the pilots lost sight of the object beneath them... "Everything indicates that this object was intelligently directed to escape from the pursuing planes. During the next hours the scenario repeated twice... "This fantastic game of hide and seek was observed from the fround by a great number of witnesses, among them 20 national policemen who saw both the object and the F-16s. The encounter lasted 75 minutes, but nobody heard the supersonic boom which should have been present when the object flew through the sonic barrier. No ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 24  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf072/sf072g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Marsh gas or the planet venus?October 16, 1976. Aboard the m.t . Farnelia, Barents Sea fishing grounds. Observers, Skipper H. Powdrell and Mr. G. Christmas, Radio Officer. "At 2307 GMT while I was visiting the wheelhouse, the Skipper pointed out to me an object flying across the sky. It had already been in view for some five minutes or more and was first observed on a bearing of 140 T heading due North. I first sighted it on a bearing of 050 T. "Observation was constantly kept by myself and the Skipper with the aid of binoculars from the time I first sighted the object. It could be described as being a brilliant light travelling at a very high altitude, leaving a bright Vshaped trail of rays which could be likened to the sun's rays as they would appear from behind a cloud. However, they were very much smaller due to the height and were also horizontal. The object followed a course from south to north to be astern of us at 2308. It then commenced to come back along its course while losing altitude. I would point out here that there was no visual evidence of the object actually turning back but rather as though it had been put into reverse. "The appearance and shape of the object was now changed, becoming totally circular in shape, still losing height and coming closer. The outer edge of the circle ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 17  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf003/sf003p10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crop circles not hoaxes: a correction In SF#89, when presenting T. Meaden's "middle-ground" position on the now-infamous crop circles, we stated that an earlier letter to Weather by J.W . Deardorff represented the "all-hoax" position. This was incorrect and, to be fair, we now reproduce Deardorff's letter: "Recent letters to Weather indicate little agreement concerning the crop circles mystery, except that the phenomenon is in general no hoax. Lest it be thought that Dave and Doug made them all, including over 1000 in the season of 1990 and as many as 15 in one night, consider the following crop circle streamline configurations: an upper layer, with an inward directed swirl of stems as viewed from above, and underneath a lower layer swirled outwards and orthogonal to the upper layer. This was the situation for the 17 m circle discovered by Busty Taylor at Headbourne Worthy, which appeared overnight on 1 August 1986 (Delgado and Andrews 1989). Its stem "streamlines" were sketched by Meaden and Andrews (Noyes 1990). Somehow the source-mechanism of this circle apparently first swirled every other stem outwards while leaving the remaining stems standing, then swirled the remaining stems inwards and at right angles to the layer below, again without any appreciable breakage of crop stems. "Not only does this rule out any hoax, since it defies all ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 17  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf092/sf092g11.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Phobos Mystery Object On March 28, 1989, Russian ground controllers suddenly and unexpectedly lost contact with their spacecraft that was shadowing the Martian moon Phobos. The last close-up photo of Phobos snapped by the spacecraft contained "an object which shouldn't have been there." Naturally, this Phobos Mystery Object (PMO) was quickly dubbed a UFO by some. It was even speculated that the Russian mission had been deliberately terminated by aliens! Such a scenario dovetailed neatly with the old speculations that Phobos is actually an artificial satellite of Mars, which is being used as a base of operations by someone or something. The final photo of Phobos, taken in infrared light just three days before the communication failure, reveals the outlines of both Phobos and the PMO. All surface detail is washed out, as is common in infrared photographs. If the PMO was at the same distance as Phobos itself, it would be about 2 kilometers wide and 20 long. Its surface brightness is the same as that of Phobos. The sides of the PMO are perfectly parallel; it is rounded at both ends; the end towards Phobos narrows slightly; the other end seems to have a slight protrusion. Since the PMO does not appear to have a metallic surface and displays no antennas or other indicators of artificiality, it is reasonable to ask whether it might be some natural phenomenon. One possibility is that the PMO image is only ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 17  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf082/sf082a04.htm
... 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 ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 15  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf031/sf031p16.htm
Result Pages: 1 2 3 4 Next >>

Search powered by Zoom Search Engine