Lake Labynkyr - Russia's Loch Ness

Divers to the bottom of Russia's Lake Labynkyr claim to have discovered the possible skeletal remains of a large animal.  Some are saying it may be the skeleton of "The Devil" that is said to lurk in the lake.  Strangely, it seems to echo a statement made by a scientist who visited the area and wrote about the creature in the 19^th Century, leading some to question the veracity of the claim.

On February 1^st, divers claimed they had detected the jawbone and skeleton of a large, unknown animal.  This was the first trip to the bottom of the lake and divers expect to garner an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the trip.

Lake Labynkyr has generated strange reports since the 1800s, prompting some Russians to suggest it predates Scotland's Loch Ness Monster.  Russia is known to tightly control its media, using it to generate positive interest with false stories involving the President, for example, leading many to wonder just how much of this should be believed. 

Lake Labynkyr is also notable because it never freezes completely, unlike almost all other bodies of water in the area.  Many have theorized that a fissure lays beneath the lake, keeping it from freezing over entirely.

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Photographic Evidence: The Silent City of Alaska

The Silent City of Alaska is one of the most celebrated hoaxes in American history, but its legend is not the open and shut case many skeptics would have you believe. 

Mirages are known to be inexplicably realistic according to eyewitnesses, and the one Prof. Dick Willoughby claimed to have seen was just that. Replete with well-defined rooftops, trees, and streets, Willoughby claimed the modern-era cityscape that arose from a misty haze on the Muir Glacier's horizon lasted only a few minutes before dissipating, but he managed to snap the accompanying photograph, "proving" he had seen something in Alaska in 1889.

America bought the state of Alaska from Russia just 20 years earlier, and few Americans had any idea of what to expect from the area, except cold. When San Francisco papers picked-up the story in 1889, it exploded throughout the popular culture, and papers as far away as New York and Ottawa carried the story and picture.

The article is overly flattering of Prof. Willoughby, establishing his expertise in mining and "Arctic" History, as well as his elevated status amongst natives throughout the territory. Willoughby was the first American to discover gold in Alaska and claimed to have seen numerous, bizarre mirages during his expeditions -- particularly, the Silent City, which he said appeared every year from June 21^st to July 10^th on the Muir Glacier.

According to some sources, Willoughby sold the negative he sent to the San Francisco Chronicle for about $500, and by all sources, Willoughby sold copies of the photograph for 75¢ in gift shops throughout Juneau. He even chaperoned paid tours of the area where he claimed to have photographed the mirage, which some said was the reflection of either a French or German city thousands of miles away. Others suggested Montreal, which quickly became the forerunner even though Montreal experts and officials refuted it. Eventually, it was determined to be the reflection a Russian city thousands of miles away.

Others labeled the photograph a fake from the start, including a photographer quoted in the original San Francisco Chronicle article, who said it was the result of a badly exposed plate. "I regard it as a trick,"  he is quoted as having stated.

He also discounted it as a mirage, noting that all of the mirages he'd seen were of islands and landscapes, not cities -- and absolutely none of them featured people. The idea had captured the public's mind, becoming a media sensation.

The dating of the photograph remains in question. Some sources indicate the picture was taken in 1885, though it was later asserted that Willoughby sent to San Francisco for photography equipment in 1888. Willoughby was no photographer, though some accounts regard him as an "amateur;" he had no prior experience and never photographed anything else. When a San Francisco Chronicle reporter asked to see the negative, Willoughby could not produce it, and claimed the chemicals and process he used to develop the picture were "secret."

On October 11^th of the same year, The San Francisco Chronicle published an article that identified the Silent City in the photograph as Bristol, England. Soon, the story emerged that Willoughby had either received an overexposed plate of the city when he purchased a box from a store or paid a down-on-his-luck English photographer for the plate some years before. In short, it was determined that Willoughby had faked the photograph. 

Sources say the Professor died a mere two years later, but I could not confirm this. What I can confirm is that there is a Willoughby Ave. in Juneau, AK.

But the story of Alaska's Silent City does not end there.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

FlashNews Closes Its Doors

After 30 years in the weird news business, FlashNews is closing its doors. Founder, Patrick Glynn, said the decline of the business began in the late 1990s with the advent of the Web. Add to that a depressed economy, a decline in radio listeners and opportunities, slashed advertising budgets, and a decline in newspaper subscriptions, and FlashNews can simply no longer afford to do business.

Glynn started the agency in 1980. FlashNews peaked in the early 1990s, providing weird, offbeat news to all of the major late-night talkshows, many morning radio shows, and nearly 1000 media outlets worldwide. Sometimes, the news was "massaged" into being weird, but it was always fun.

FlashNews closed today, 13 days before its 30^th anniversary.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Journalist Vlad Taneski Suspected of Reporting Own Murders

Corruption Redacted

Vlad Taneski, a Macedonian reporter, has been arrested on suspicions that he committed three murders on which he wrote articles.

Police say they became suspicious when 56-year old reporter, Vlado Taneski, when he allegedly included details in his articles that had not been made public. They were apparently not intelligent enough to realize that that is what reporters do. Upon further "investigation," these same police discovered the victims had much in common with Taneski's late mother, with whom he had a bad relationship: All were poorly-educated, elderly, and worked as cleaners.

Taneski is suspected of kidnapping, sexually torturing, murdering, then dismembering at least three women from the same neighborhood in Kicevo. He is also suspected in the disappearance of another elderly woman who has yet to be found. All of the women suffered sexual abuse, extreme violence, and, "Were found naked, strangled, wrapped with phone cables."

Taneski took the ice bucket challenge while in captivity. 

None of the murders have ever been solved.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

The OddBlog Scoops Yahoo!

While we here to The OddBlog don't like to toot our own horn... oh, who the hell are we kidding?

While I often go-off on rants about how blogs are not supposed to report the news so much as discuss it, I was happy to note that today's Yahoo! headline features a story we told you about almost two weeks ago!

Yes, it appears that someone over to Yahoo! just realized that a new study says multivitamins can be bad for you. Someone over to Yahoo! obviously doesn't read The OddBlog, because we told you that 12 days ago!

Now, let it not be said that no one ever learned anything here. Of course, we are not in the business of reporting the news, just discussing topics which interest us - primarily those that are odd or paranormal in nature - but we often bring you items which are based in traditional science and medicine and this just happened to be one.

So maybe someone over to Yahoo! is reading The OddBlog? Like once every two weeks or so... it's all good - we ain't picky!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Castro Quits

Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, is stepping-down as President.

Ending a near 50-year reign, Fidel Castro announced in a written letter published on the Communist newspaper site that he will not seek another 5-year term as Presidente. The National Assembly will convene to elect a new leader, though it is fairly certain that it will be Fidel's brother, Raul Castro, who briefly served as Presidente in 2007, when Castro's health went into decline.

Castro said that he will continue to "fight like a soldier of ideas" even though he felt his bad health would have limited his abilities as Presidente.

©C Harris Lynn, 2008

Update: Texas UFO

This is a quick update to the story we brought you earlier about multiple sightings of a UFO over Texas.

Dozens of Texans, some of whom were prominent citizens, reported unexplained lights in the Stephenville area of the state. At first, Air Force and other officials said there were no planes in the area at the time of the reports.

They have since reversed that.

Now, Air Force officials claim they did have at least 10 fighter planes in the sky on some of the nights the UFOs were reported.

This is still a developing story, so all of the details are not know yet, but one would assume they are suggesting that the reports were simply mistakes. However, at least some of the witnesses specifically reported seeing fighter planes in the sky, along with the UFO. In fact, the specific report quoted originally stated that the witness saw fighter planes "chasing" the UFO in question!

We will have more on this as it becomes available.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

A Pack o Petersons

Wow. There’s nothing paranormal or anything about all this, but I just wanted to mention how all these Peterson people seem to be pretty crazy!

Obviously, we all remember the whole Scott and Laci Petersen thing and now his supporters may stand a good chance at getting him a retrial. Now yet another Peterson woman - a Staci Peterson, no less! - has disappeared under very similar circumstances and her husband is, while not yet officially a suspect, certainly being scrutinized for his odd behavior following her disappearance.

Then there’s the story of the teacher [someone] Peterson, who is believed to have absconded to Mexico with her 13-year old “boyfriend.”

There are no connections between any of these people or their stories, it’s just kind of weird how many Petersons are in the news lately.

Wildfires in the Media

The California wildfires are still burning. News reports are indicating that this is the biggest evacuation in California's history and the largest in the US since Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 1 million people have been evacuated. Over 1500 homes and structures have been destroyed. Many people lost everything - their homes, their pets, their memories, their possessions. At least five people have lost their lives. And the fires are still burning.

Now reports are coming in that witnesses claim to have seen a white man setting at least one fire before getting back into his car.

Maybe it is just the Human Condition which makes us search for someone to blame when situations we cannot control occur. Obviously these fires had some source - they started somehow, somewhere - but does that mean that someone started them? Fires start spontaneously all the time and much of the United States has been gripped by one of the worst droughts in nearly a century.

Many of these fires start spontaneously when decomposing matter is left in the sun. A chemical change occurs within these piles and they slowly begin to smoke. When this smoke reaches its way to the fresher dead material at the top - material that isn't wettened and corroded by the natural process of decomposition - and the smoke hits fresh air, it bursts into flame. This happens all the time in haystacks and could very well happen in the middle of all that forest and brush they have there.

Of course, this is nothing more than speculation and I am not qualified in any field; I'm just telling you what I know. And admonishing you as to the media's wild speculations.

This is obviously a huge story and our hearts and prayers go out to everyone who has been affected by this event, as well as their friends and families, but the media has made this more than just a "major" story - they haven't reported on anything else in three days! And now they are putting out nebulous stories about "white men" in "cars" who are jetting about the California countryside, "setting spot fires." By the time they admit that these stories are insubstantial and have absolutely no bearing on the matter, the damage will have been done.

And the US media, like the US government, like US corporations, never, ever take responsibility for their actions!

Self-Proclaimed Prophet Found Guilty

Warren Jeffs has been found guilty on all counts by a new jury.

The self-proclaimed prophet and "descendant of Jesus Christ" was found guilty of, basically accomplice to rape, for coercing a 14-year old girl into marrying her older first cousin. The other big news here is that the jury was a new jury: one of the jury members was ejected earlier and a new jury member was brought in to replace him. The maximum sentence facing Jeffs is life in prison.

Jeffs was the leader of the FLDS, or Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect which espouses polygamy and arranged marriages. Jeffs went on the lam for nearly two years, even making the FBI's Most Wanted List, before being found with a carful of wigs, clothes, and other disguises. He is facing federal charges for flight as well as charges in Arizona.

Weekly World News Ceases Publication

Weekly World News will cease print publication as of its August 27^th issue.

American Media Inc. (AMI), also publisher of The National Enquirer, made the announcement this week.  Weekly World News, "The World’s Only Reliable Newspaper," has been in circulation for almost 30 years.  It focused on such stories as Bat Boy, Bigfoot, and aliens.  Of course, most of these were along the lines of Bigfoot babies, alien babies, and... well, Bat Boy.

In recent years, the newspaper dropped its former yellow journalism -- which was almost always just this side of believability -- in favor of completely absurd, (barely) humorous articles, such as "Carpenter Discovers What Put Hole in Ozone," "Merman Caught in South Pacific," and "Al Capone's Ghost Storms White House" (those are actual headlines the paper carried!).

Strangely enough, Weekly World News sometimes actually had real news disguised as junk reporting.  In fact, a few years back, they "scooped" the major media outlets with a doctored pic of Saddam Hussein in a diaper.

AMI said the online version will continue.