The Brown Mountain Lights

Brown mountain, in NC's Pisgah National Forest, has been one of the South's greatest mysteries for centuries. There is no argument on the existence of the lights; the debate begins when you start asking about their origin.

I took a ride out to the popular overlook on hwy 181 one fall afternoon with my wife Marii and my sister Carole. I don't believe any of us actually expected to see anything other than a mountain and a mess of trees, but it was something to do.

We parked my old F-150 with the tailgate facing Brown Mtn. right as the sun gave up the day. The night was just plain cold. Carole started playing with my video camera's night vision as Marii and I pretended to enjoy some mighty chilly pork-n-beans.

Much to our surprise we started to see a couple of lights over the summit. We all thought they were airplanes. Carole and I started filming and pretending (for the camera's sake) that the lights were THE Brown Mtn. Lights. The redneck comedy voice overs continued until one of the lights bobbled its way slowly down the face of the mountain as the other zigged and zagged about in the tree tops. We were actually filming the famous orbs of legend. (hillbilly's will catch on even if it takes us a bit longer).

The lights were gone as quick as they appeared and we were left wondering just how lucky we were to witness them. We didn't wonder this long for just as I was settling back down on the tailgate with my frozen Van de Camps a car pulled up. We watched as the man in the car set up a tri-pod for his very impressive camera. We exchanged hellos and he then informed us that he had spent many nights watching for the lights. "How many times have you seen them?" Carole asked.

"None, and you?" he replied. I started to feel a bit guilty as Carole told him we saw them about a minute before he arrived. Turns out the man was a photographer for a magazine and knew alot about the lights and what to look for. I showed him our clownish footage on our camera. He confirmed that we had captured on film (in our first 10 minutes) what he had been trying to catch for quite some time.

pics here are actual vidcaps of our trip to Brown Mtn

Cool BML Links
http://www.brownmountainlights.com/
http://www1.appstate.edu/dept/physics/caton/BML/BML.htm

Martian Snowflakes

A few months ago the Phoenix Lander on Mars confirmed the presence of water ice. Could the hard proof of the existence of extra-terrestrial life be at hand? Large methane deposits point to possibilty of organic materials on the surface of the red planet.

Sure, Mars is an alien world to us, but as we continue to unlock its secrets... we may discover that our neighbor has more in common with Earth than anyone ever imagined.


It's faint, it's eerie, but it's also familiar - snowfall on Mars!




NASA Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow

The Aurora UFO Incident

The Aurora UFO Incident is an alleged UFO crash that occurred on April 19, 1897 in Aurora, Texas. An unidentified flying machine was said to have hit Judge J.S. Proctor's windmill before coming down in the small town. What makes this event so important in UFO lore is the report that an occupant from the craft survived the crash and was cared for by a doctor before dying of its injuries. The survivor, described as "not of this world" by the townsfolk, was thought to have been buried in an unmarked grave at the Aurora cemetery. A plaque, pictured below, mentions the story of the crash and still stands today as an eerie reminder of the crash.

Some Aurora residents claim that this story was a hoax invented by local news correspondent S.E. Hayden to bring notoriety to the dying community that had been bypassed by the railroad. However, in 1995 an investigation by MUFON turned up a mysterious, rare metal. The MUFON team was not permitted to exhume a grave they found in the Aurora cemetery which they believed was the UFO pilot's resting place. This evidence, along with reports of another piece of metal with strange hieroglyphics and contaminated well water, makes the Aurora incident an important UFO case.

Detailed Account of Aurora UFO Incident

Original Newspaper Article by S.E. Hayden

Public perception of UFOs/Aliens

Crescent-shaped UFO, one of objects pilot Kenneth Arnold said he saw on June 24, 1947.

A recent headline on Yahoo focused on the public perception on UFOs.I followed the link to a thread on Yahoo Answers.

Best Answer - Chosen By Voters

UFOs, and I am absolutely positive about it, are from the HUMAN IMAGINATION. They exist because some of us yearn for mystery at all costs.


Well there are so many ways I could make fun of this answer, but I'm going to be serious about it, because for some reason it bothers me on a deeper level than what it relates to on the surface.

But first let me attack this statement at it's shallow exterior. Everyone is entitled to believe or disbelieve anything they like but, "absolutely positive" is a bold statement. This universe is so vast that we are akin to a grain of salt on the table of microbes setting up for dinner on a grain of salt... and that analogy is still probably infinitely mis-proportioned. Astronomers make new discoveries daily and Earth-similar worlds have already been found in our cosmic vicinity. I'm not sure how anyone could be positive that no life could have developed enough to pay us a visit.

As far as the "human imagination" theory goes - evidently no research whatsoever went into it. Thousands of credible witnesses have come forward to say they saw a UFO including a former governor , high ranking members of the armed forces , and well respected airline pilots . Now I'm not saying that every instance was an encounter with aliens, but to say what every one of these people saw was a figment of their imagination is... silly.

Now, for the part of the answer that really struck a chord with me. "...some of us yearn for mystery at all costs." Ouch! As the creator of a website designed as a haven for escapists... that gets me right here *clutches heart*. The easiest response here would be to stay silent as the jab collapses from it's own broadness. However, the more I think about it I'm pleased that I came across this fast food drive thru question and answer... because it makes me all the more glad that I have an open mind. Being able to think for oneself, to imagine and explore are rare abilities in this age of instant gratification. Thank God there are pockets of scientists and dreamers who keep "The Nothing" at bay.

Hubble Image of the Week

Click Image for large size





This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its parent star, Fomalhaut.

The small white box at lower right pinpoints the planet's location. Fomalhaut b has carved a path along the inner edge of a vast, dusty debris ring encircling Fomalhaut that is 21.5 billion miles across. Fomalhaut b lies 1.8 billion miles inside the ring's inner edge and orbits 10.7 billion miles from its star.

The inset at bottom right is a composite image showing the planet's position during Hubble observations taken in 2004 and 2006. Astronomers have calculated that Fomalhaut b completes an orbit around its parent star every 872 years.

The white dot in the center of the image marks the star's location. The region around Fomalhaut's location is black because astronomers used the Advanced Camera's coronagraph to block out the star's bright glare so that the dim planet could be seen. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than its star. The radial streaks are scattered starlight. The red dot at lower left is a background star.

The Fomalhaut system is 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis.

This false-color image was taken in October 2004 and July 2006.

Object Names: Fomalhaut, HD 216956, Fomalhaut b

Image Type: Astronomical


Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)


Please visit the Hubble site for related info and images at the link below...

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/39/image/a/

Molecule of Life... in Space

According to a recent article from WIRED a sugar molecule linked to the origin of life was discovered in a potentially habitable region of our galaxy. I'm not sure how exactly they can prove what type a molecule is from across the stars... but if they are right then it is pretty interesting.

You can find the entire article by clicking HERE

Glycolaldehyde (HOCH2-CH=O) is the smallest possible molecule that contains both an aldehyde group and a hydroxyl group. It is the only possible diose, a 2-carbon monosaccharide, although a diose is not strictly a saccharide. It is the simplest possible sugar.

Glycolaldehyde is an intermediate in the formose reaction.
Glycolaldehyde forms from many precursors, including the amino acid glycine. It can form by action of ketolase on fructose 1,6-bisphosphate in an alternate glycolysis pathway. This compound is transferred by thiamine pyrophosphate during the pentose phosphate shunt.

In purine catabolism, xanthine is first converted to urate. This is converted to 5-hydroxyisourate, which decarboxylates to allantoin and allantoic acid. After hydrolyzing one urea, this leaves glycolureate. After hydrolyzing the second urea, glycolaldehyde is left. Two glycolaldehydes condense to form erythrose 4-phosphate, which goes to the pentose phosphate shunt again.

---Source-Wikipedia

Psychic Animals

There is no denying that animals have a certain amount of perception that we don't understand. There are stories of pets who seem to know their owners have health problems before the doctor; others who warn of disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes. Then there are remarkable cases such as elephants breaking their holders chains and heading for the high ground just before the Indonesian tsunami brought its destruction ashore.

The debate begins when we ask just how these creatures are able accomplish such amazing feats. Is there a scientific explanation or perhaps a supernatural one?Recent studies have shown that humans are hard-wired to see a moment into the future. This is how we are able to catch a ball, blink our eyes to avoid an insect etc... It is possible certain animals have this same ability - heightened by the need to survive in the wild, much in the same way a blind person may develop a more keen sense of hearing.




Rupert Sheldrake, author of Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home (Three Rivers Press, 1999), believes that animals have abilities that humans may have possessed at one time, but somehow lost. Through his extensive research, he has concluded that there are three major categories of unexplained perceptiveness by animals:

Telepathy - a psychic connection that some pets may have with their owners through connections Sheldrake calls "morphic fields." It is this ability that enables pets to "know" when their owners are on their way home.

The Sense of Direction - this ability accounts for the "incredible journeys" some animals make to be with their owners, including homing pigeons.

Premonitions - which may explain why some animals seem to know when earthquakes and other events are about to occur.


There are actually people who make their living by claiming to have connections with animals. They work as psychic problem solvers sort of like Dog Whisperers of the mind. Are they truly forging a mental bond with pets or are they just taking advantage of an extensive knowledge of animal behavior and telling pet owners what they want to hear? Check out this wonderful How Stuff Works article - How Pet Psychics Work

One of the most extraordinary examples of animal premonition may lie in the lost and found section of newspapers. Jim Berkland, a California geologist, predicted the famous October 17, 1989 World Series Quake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area. How did he do it - by watching the tides and reading the classified ads. For reasons that we may never know, ads for missing pets increase dramatically just before an earthquake. Berkman says the tides tell him when and the animals tell him where. Whose to argue with a near eighty percent accuracy?