PHOTO: Zeta Reticuli Star Map

Zeta Reticuli Star Map

Star Map of Zeta Reticuli -- the likeliest to be inhabited planetary objects closest to Earth (about 57 light years away, IIRC).

© The Weirding, 2018

Unknown Military-Grade Craft of Possibly Terrestrial Origin

UFO

Adjusted for clarity, size, dimension. Photographer, location, date of origin, aeronautics contracting company unknown.  Assumed to be of terrestrial manufacturing due to uniformity in, and number of, reports matching shape and light placement.

© The Weirding, 2017

Ghost Adventures: La Palazza - Las Vegas

The latest Ghost Adventures episode finds the guys investigating in their home town of Las Vegas, where fortunes are won and lost. Known as a place to have fun, Las Vegas also has a dark side. In an historical neighborhood which has been home to the mafia, there are countless stories about dark events.

There is an excessively aggressive entity within La Palazza, one of the stately mansions in the neighborhood. The spirit is said to physically attack visitors, and is even blamed for a fire at the estate. Former owners of house were constantly frightened by voices, growls, and attacks.

A former owner of the house tells Zak about one incredible incident that happened when, while entertaining some guests, a glass was knocked from his wine rack. The owner taunted the spirit until he was choked by an unseen force. Guests at the house recall seeing two deep imprints on his neck. The ghosts here don't like to be taunted, which makes it the exact type of location the GA guys get excited to investigate.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

North Carolina 'Ghost Train' Investigator Killed by Train

Flitting Ghosts

According to legend, every year on August 27^th, anyone near the Bostian Bridge by Statesville, North Carolina, will hear the screaming wheels and passengers of a phantom train that crashed nearly 120 years ago, killing nearly 30.  Eyewitnesses say the visage of a uniformed man with a gold fob sometimes presages the event.

And so it was that, on the 119^th anniversary of the vicious, 1891 disaster, several, self-styled ghost hunters from around the country gathered to witness the "ghost train."  Unfortunately, as they were investigating the bridge, a real train was headed their way.

Of the dozen investigators, 10 of them made it safely off the bridge; one plummeted to the water below and was injured, and the other was struck by the train and killed.  29-year-old Christopher Kaiser pushed the other investigator, whose condition remains unknown, to safety before he was hit by the train.  The train was traveling at the proper speed, and the engineer blew the horn and tried to brake, but there was little he could do.

Over the years, reports of railroad crossing arms dropping without cause have occasionally surfaced, but only one person claims to have experienced the phantasmagorical event.  This was in 1991, on the 50^th anniversary of the wreck.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

American First 'Cluster Balloonist' to Cross English Channel

American adventurer, Jonathan Trappe, became the first person to cross the English Channel by helium, alone.  The 36-year-old Trappe attached 54 balloons to a wicker chair and floated 22 miles over four hours from Kent to Dunkirk, France. 

Forced to cut some of the balloons to avoid floating into restricted airspace, winds blew Trappe off course, and he crash-landed in a cabbage patch, where authorities awaited him.  Things looked bad for a moment -- until Trappe produced his passport and documentation, proving he was authorized to land there.  He met with both British and French civil aviation authorities before launch. 

Last month, Trappe floated 109 miles in 14 hours across North Carolina, claiming the world's record for the longest free-floating cluster balloon flight.  A Roman Catholic priest attempted to grab that record in 2008, but received a Darwin Award instead. 

Trappe claims to have reached 18,000' on another flight.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Unlicensed Pilot Arrested... After 13 Years as a Commercial Pilot

Authorities arrested a 41-year old Swedish pilot for falsifying his piloting documents and flying without a license moments before the flight he was piloting took off with over 100 passengers aboard. But that's just the beginning: The pilot had over 10,000 hours of flight experience and had been flying commercial airlines for over 13 years!

The pilot's name has not been disclosed, but police say he did have a license to fly small aircraft, though it was now expired. That license did not permit him to fly commercial aircraft however, but he has been doing just that on European airlines for over 10 years now! Police arrested him in the cockpit and say he was relieved to have finally been caught - witnesses say he ripped off his pilot's stripes before being lead away.

The airline for which he worked said he had been employed there for some two years and had "expertly misled" the company.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Ghost Adventures - Execution Rocks

This week's Ghost Adventures finds the crew at Execution Rocks.  Execution Rocks was given its name because British soldiers used the rocks around the island to carry out executions.  They would chain prisoners at low tide and wait for the water to slowly rise until it drowned them.  The prisoners were in the water for up to 12 hours before the water rose high enough for them to drown!

It is standard for a lighthouse keeper to commit to living in a lighthouse for a year.  However, lighthouse keepers at Execution Rocks were allowed to cancel their contracts and leave at any point.  Many keepers were frightened by strange phenomena and chose to leave early.

One of America's most notorious serial killers, Carl Panzram, was a big fan of the lighthouse.  Carl Panzram once stated, "I have murdered 21 human beings.  I have committed sodomy on at least 1000 male human beings.  For all of these things, I am not in the least bit sorry."  The lighthouse was his chosen place to dump the dead bodies of his victims.

With all of the dark history surrounding the island, is it a wonder that few paranormal investigators have paid visit to the lighthouse?  Execution Rocks has been home to murder, accidental death, and of course, executions.  In order to tackle an island with this much history, the guys are pulling out all the stops, and using all sorts of equipment!

Check out this sneak peek of tomorrow's episode and check back here next week for more! 

The OddBlog is an official Ghost Adventures blog.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Official Ghost Adventures Site

I was excited to see so much traffic the past couple days and glad to know Ghost Adventures is becoming the hit I think it should be.  While The OddBlog covers Ghost Hunters regularly, and stands behind TAPS' efforts, we were contacted by Travel Channel before Ghost Adventures premiered and asked to help build the buzz.  As you can see, we receive advance trailers and other goodies every week from the good guys at Travel Channel and Ghost Adventures and pass what we can along to you.

Every week, you can find the trailer for the next episode here at The OddBlog.  You can also learn more about where the group is heading next, when DVDs are available, the scheduled times for the next live events, and more.  So I am glad you found us!  Make sure to bookmark us and check back each week for new stuff.

With that out of the way, I am spending my Sunday watching episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia online, and waiting for the season finale of True Blood.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Ghost Adventures Sneak Peek

Tomorrow night, The Travel Channel premieres their latest paranormal reality show, Ghost Adventures. Starting with the award-winning documentary by the same name, the premiere of the new series follows at 9:00pm CST.

Host, Zak Bagan, and crew research reportedly haunted locations both domestically and internationally, then lock themselves in for a 12-hour investigation. The debut finds them in Wilder, KY at Bobby Mackey Music World.

And, just for you, The OddBlog has a sneak-peek at tomorrow night's show!



© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Most Haunted Live Chat Right Now!

We are in the Most Haunted Live Chat right now! The team is live, answering questions in real time. There is a problem with the feed right this moment, so I wanted to remind everyone while we wait for them to get it straightened out.

Come on and join us and make sure to watch tomorrow night's investigation on the Travel Channel!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Most Haunted Live Chat - October 9

Thanks to the good people at Travel Channel, we are going to start covering Most Haunted on a regular basis. I would like to note that we are not being paid to do so; Most Haunted is not a sponsor of The Weirding or The OddBlog.

First up, they are in Pennsylvania for an investigation of one of the most famous sites of the Civil War, Gettysburg. They will be live on October 10^th and the team will be doing a Live Chat Event on October 9^th from 5-7pm, CST.

Make sure to join us!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Doggone Long Trek

We have all heard the story of the cat who made his way back to his owners after being separated by many miles, but a dog?

A Siberian Husky named Moon ran away when her owner stopped at a rest stop nearly 100 miles from home. While her owner said she had run off before and always returned, he certainly did not expect this to be the case after seven days.

Yet, he received a call from the vet's on the 14^th to tell him that she'd shown-up in town and a kindly neighbor had given her some food and a place to sleep before calling the number on the tag.

Moon's trek took her across White River and over the Ward mountain range!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Driverless Cars?

"This is not science-fiction," GM's vice-president for research and development told reporters in regards to the idea of automobiles that drive and even park themselves. In fact, Burns -- the VP in question -- is devoting a significant portion of his speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas tomorrow to this very concept.

According to Burns, the technology already exists and the main impediments are actually human: government regulation, peoples' desire to drive cars and the control it gives them, and so forth. Driverless cars would likely improve traffic, reducing congestion and crashes. Technology such as cruise-control, motion sensors, satellite-based digital mapping, and more, would work in congruence to achieve this within a decade or more.

GM plans to introduce cars with the driverless option as early as 2015 and have them on the road by 2018.

Privacy concerns are at the forefront of issues which could retard the technology's progress.

Men on Mars

NASA released tentative outlines for a manned Mars mission to take place within the next "few decades."

A skeleton crew on a 30-month round-trip mission would leave in a nearly 500 ton spacecraft for the Red Planet. The ship would be built in low-Earth orbit using Ares V, heavy-lift, launch rockets.

To leave in February 2031, the estimated cost would be $20-450 billion. That's... a very broad estimation, I'll say.

The astronauts would have means of growing their own fruits and vegetables, and would use nuclear energy to power their habitat. Air and water would be recycled by "closed-loop" life support systems. Their re-supply and operation-aborting options would be very limited, so they would have to be good mechanics -- possibly to the extent that they would know how to manufacture their own parts.

The moon may be used to test some of these radical ideas.