Hidden Bases in My Locale...Oregon!

Secret bases, such as the most infamous Area 51, have been part of the UFO and conspiracy world for ages now. Aside from the mentioned, there a few others that are almost household names for anyone familiar with UFOs, such as Dulce base in New Mexico or Camp Hero (not quite secret and home of the Montauk Project, which I know almost zip about) in New York. There are rumored to be many more across the US and the rest of the world, so just for the heck of it, I looked up some rumored to be in my state. I didn't find to many results, but enough that it's sparked my interest more. If I knew who to ask, I'd be digging around for more info, maybe try my hand at free lance journalism, and who knows possibly find a little bit of the truth.

So here we go, the first base in Oregon that I found is located around the Lincoln City area (on the gorgeous Oregon Coast) in the Van Duzer Corridor. There people have seen everything from weird lights to army bases somewhere in the woods. One couple apparently even had some missing time out in that area, which tends to be a good sign of alien abduction.

Not surprisingly that is about the only base in Oregon I can dig much up on. That doesn't mean that there aren't others though. One of Oregon's most recognizable landmarks, Crater Lake, is said to be home to underground tunnels that link up to Cave Junction (apparently there are at least 36 old mine shafts there) Oregon, in an underground UFO base.

Other then that, Wilmer, Oregon, and Klamath Falls, Oregon are rumored to have some UFO or secret base connections. At least to an extant, Wilmer for sure does because it apparently has some underground chemical storage out that way.

So the official Naveed's Realm tally for the number of UFO or hidden military bases in Oregon is 6! I think at least. I guess you could consider the Crater Lake and Cave Junction part one base if you wanted since they apparently connect, but that would make the tally go down...and that's just not very fun...or cool...not to mention there is enough shrink going on in the current world economy, so let's just leave the tally high shall we?

Sources and further reading:
Oregon Coast Ghost and Other Paranormal Legends
Underground Base List
Boyer Oregon, Paranormal Activity

Zombies! Run!

This just to hilarious! Right after I talk about zombies, I find this over on Phantoms and Monsters.

Right out of the X-files: Strange parasite found in man's spine!

The other day an interesting story was posted over on Rense.com about a bizarre "parasite" if you will, that was recovered from someone's spine. What makes this parasite different however is that it appears to have not only eyes and a mouth, but may even have spine and appears to be very salamander like. If real this could be potentially big...if it manages to make it through the fringe of things and into the mainstream media at least.

Of course the obvious comparisons to sci-fi are being made now. Heck my first thought when I saw it was "This is out of the X-files or something." and an even better comparison being made by some people in the UFO/fringe community (UFO Magazine blog and Damn Data) is to the Goa'uld from Stargate.

I almost forgot to throw in that in the story, they mentioned that perhaps this has some ties to some Russian (Soviet Era maybe?) biogenetic stuff involving energetics (they explain it in the article, but lord knows I'm lost) or something. Wouldn't surprise me either since the Russians were the ones doing the creepy dog experiments (!warning video contains graphic content!) back some decades ago.

Before I go I must mention that this also makes me wonder if someone is working making a zombie parasite. Something that implants itself in a human host, who it kills to take over the body so it can run around and chow down on human flesh. I'm apparently not the only one thinking that either as is apparent at the end of the post Damn Data did on this same subject.

Anyways I must go now and and buy a cricket bat just in case this is the start of a zombifiction parasite invasion (has a nice ring to it doesn't it?), so I can dispatch the flesh eating horde Shaun of the Dead style!

My thoughts exactly...

Thanks to the Debris Field, I found a link to this awesome article about Gary McKinnon, and all I can say is, my thoughts exactly. Let's hope Obama is more forgiving then Bush Vader was.

Beyond the Ancient World

Yeah, I think I'm on a bit of an ancient history kick at the moment. I just got the movie 10,000 BC, which kind of sparked my mind going on the subject. You see, the movie was inspired by the writings of Robert E. Howard(creator of the one and only Conan the Barbarian, and associate of H.P. Lovecraft) and the alternate history (aliens creating humans in the past or something like that. I'll figure out when I get around to buying one of his books tomorrow) books known as the Earth Chronicles by Zecharia Sitchin. Ok, I'll blame books and the movie...I'm a big Robert E. Howard fan. Anyways the point is that both what Robert E. Howard (REH) wrote and the movie 10,000 BC involve cultures from way in the past. Both REH's writings and 10,000 BC are fictional obviously, but I've often wondered if there are numerous advanced cultures that are all, but lost to modern day archaeology.

Modern man, according to Wikipedia (reads like it's an alien describing us) at least, first appeared around 200,000 years ago. The oldest civilization known dates to about (rough estimate based on varying results from a search on the net) 5,000 BC, so calculate our 2,000 years into that and makes it roughly 7,000 years ago when man probably started building cities in ancient Mesopotamia. So what does that leave us when we subtract 7,000 from 200,000? 193,000! Fancy that! 193,000 years until we became civilized...could that possibly be accurate? After all look at how far we've come from the middle ages until now. We've advanced rather rapidly from a time when man was almost less civilized and less advanced then Rome was to our uncivilized modern wonderland.

Awhile back on the history channel they had a special on what would happen to our world if we suddenly vanished. If I remember correctly, it was estimated that in about 500-1,000 years there would be hardly any sign that we were ever here. That leaves me wondering if somewhere in that 193,000 years before them guys over there in Mesopotamia started building cities, could there have been one or more civilizations that have come on and gone, only to have no evidence of their existence survive into our era? If our society's existence could be covered up in an estimated 1,000 years or so, I really think it's more then possible. In fact it makes almost as much sense (if not more) as the idea that there is probably a wide array of intelligent lifeforms scattered through space.

I was thinking throwing in some references here to Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria, or any of them other ancient civilizations that are said to have vanished eons ago, but there are more then enough articles, posts, and what not about them out there. I will say one thing though; why would there be talk about ancient vanished cities, by the ancients that we know of, without there having been some sort of real basis for them? After all, a lot of cities mentioned in myth and the Bible have been proven to be real. The best example is probably Troy, which everyone thought was fictional until someone had the common sense to go and see if it was where it was supposed to be. Unfortunately Troy did lack the awesome labyrinth with the minotaur, but the point is it proved to be a real place.

So before I throw in a reference Cthulhu, I'm gonna vamoose and see if I can find info on some rumored ancient cities lying at the ocean floor, that I heard could be 12,000 years old or something...beats them Mesopotamians by 5,000 years!

Random Cephalopod Goodness: Little Sister of the Colossal & Giant Squids

The Robust Clubhook Squid (Moroteuthis or Onykia robusta) is the third largest squid species known and apparently has some confusion on what it's name is. It's been suggested in recent years that Onykia, that was once thought to be a separate species of squid, is actually an immature specimen of Moroteuthis robusta and somewhere along the line scientists prefer the name Onykia...anyways all issues of identity aside this is actually a really large species of squid. There is actually a picture of it out there that plays with the perspective makes it look larger then it is. Ah here we go: linky linky

Sources and Further Reading:
It's a Sea Monster (Sort of)
Robust Clubhook Squid - Wikipedia
The Third Largest Cehpalopod
Onykia robusta
Something on the name issue - what can I say the title was to long...and well, I'm lazy lol.

Gods and the Power of Belief

I have and infinite fascination with religion, mythology, and philosophy. I really don't know why other then the fact that they're some of the most key aspects of humanity. They all intertwine together and have all changed drastically throughout human history. Rituals, worship, and even Gods change, sometimes in big ways, such as the change over from polytheism (belief in many Gods) to monotheism (belief in one God).

One of the things I've often wondered about is how humanity came to believe in the numerous religions and myths that have existed through our history. What factors drove our ancestors to believe in their Gods or perform their rituals. Was merely primitive humans trying to explain goings on in their environment as science would have us believe, or was their something more at work?

Well you have the good old "aliens intervened" concept, where the extra-terrestrials came down, possibly even created us, and acted as our Gods. However great or small the chance of that being case is, I don't necessarily agree with it. I think it has more to do with the power of belief and human thought.

I've seen some crazy things going on at churches, particularly in the Pentecostal denomination, that is all driven by how much people believe in their faith. I've seen live "exorcisms", faith healing, and seen more then my fair share of people speaking in tongues. None of it ever happened to me though and attribute that all to the fact that I didn't believe in the stuff they were doing, simply because to me, it didn't seem right.

Another good example of the power of belief or at least the human mind is an experiment I heard about years ago. In this experiment, a group called the Toronto Society for Psychical (I love that word, hehe psychical, just sounds cool...) Research got together and tried "inventing" their own ghost and actually succeeded in getting the ghost to interact with them through various methods including knocking on a table. The only thing they couldn't get it to do was to manifest in some sort of physical form, but the simple fact was that they willed this ghost to exist physical form or not.

Their is also a similar belief in creating things through thought and the overall will of the human mind in Buddhism called a Tulpa. The general concept revolves around someone's thoughtforms manifesting themselves as actual beings. It's a bit more complicated then that, but that's about the gist of it without getting into a whole lesson on Buddhism, which I know nothing about. It's my brother you'd want to talk to about that one. His place is like Buddha heaven.

Anyways, what I've been trying to get at if you haven't guessed by now, is that perhaps all of our old Gods and rituals, and even our modern ones, may all have legitemacy to them simply because people believe, or have believed in them. Odin, Anubis, even Zeus, may have all been at one point living products of human belief and thought. All it takes is one person getting others to believe in something they believe in heavily, and suddenly you have a religion made up of things people have willed into existence in one form or another. It doesn't stop with the Gods either; rituals, worship, and stuff like what I witnessed at the Pentacostal churh, could all be possible through sheer human will and strong enough belief in something.

Heck if I really wanted to I could probably throw in the possibility that quantum physics probably supports all this, but I barely know where to start on that one without confusing myself, so until next time, um...stay out of trouble, do something productive, or just simply sit around pondering over something or what not...

The Birthday Book Haul

As most of you probably know by now, I like books. I like them a lot. So as is typical every year around and on my birthday I get either books, or gift cards to get books with. So today being my birthday I had a gift card to go spend at Powells Books (greatest bookstore ever!) on top of some cash someone had given me for a gift; this is what I hauled in this year:

1) Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World's Most Elusive Sea Creature by Richard Ellis

2)A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

3)Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51 by Phil Patton

4)The Living Dead - A zombie story anthology with stories from popular authors including Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker

5)American Gods by Neil Gaiman - ok I didn't get this one today, but earlier on in the week as a gift still, so it counts!

Random Cephalopod Goodness: Hawaiian Bobtail Squid

For this installment of RCG, I chose a type of squid called the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, mainly because it's rather cute. Cuteness aside however, this guy is really pretty darn cool. It can be found in water as shallow as 2-4cm and even has a symbiotic relationship with a type of bioluminescent bacteria that lives in the Bobtail's light organ, producing light on it's underside.

Bobtail Squid video found on Youtube:


Sources and Further Reading:
Hawaiian Bobtail Squid - The Cephalopod Page
Hawaiian Bobtail Squid - Wikipedia
Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Glows from Below - GNN Article

Ancients in the Grand Canyon

One of the most memorable scenes out of the Indiana Jones series is the final one from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they Ark is packaged up and put into storage in a miles long underground facility beneath the Smithsonian. Now what if, just by chance, the Smithsonian had such a facility, or partook in other nefarious activities just to keep our standard views on history the standard. Believe it or not, they may have done just that.

The Grand Canyon is one of the worlds greatest tourist destinations. Over 277 miles long and at points as wide as 18 miles, the Grand Canyon is a sight to behold and is full of areas the public gets to see, as well as areas it doesn't. Heck even employees of the National Park service don't always get to see some parts of it. It makes some sense at least. You of course have dangerous rapids mixed up amongst the rock formations, sheer cliff faces, and probably areas of unstable rock. No wonder people don't visit some parts of it and why they are off limits to the public. Of course there couldn't be something in those off limit areas that they don't anyone to know about could there?

In April of 1909, the Arizona Gazette ran a story with the title “Explorations in the Grand Canyon” in which it is mentioned that one G.E. Kinkaid had discovered a series of ruins within some of the many caves dotting the Grand Canyon. This series of ruins not only showed connections with the Ancient Egyptians, but they also happen to lie in one of todays many off limit areas.

As the article continued, it is mentioned that a group of archaeologists from the Smithsonian led by an S.A. Jordon had just begun excavating the ruins. Now this is where the funny stuff starts. Not only were the rumored ruins found within a current off limit area, but those who have contacted the Smithsonian about the excavation, even in our day and age, have all been told that no such ruins were ever found. Making things even more confusing, the Smithsonian claims that an S.A. Jordan never worked for them, and it seems that the original discoverer of the ruins, G.E. Kinkaid never existed.

Now this of course would pretty much narrow it down to two options, either the article was fabricated, as some papers often did back in the day, or the Smithsonian has been hiding something for nearly a century. Clearly it was a hoax right? Well let's look at it from the point of view that any Egyptian artifacts being found as far away as North America, would be a major find. Not only would we have proof that they could travel farther then once thought, but it'd also rewrite the history books, which means that Columbus is no longer the first to find North America!

Big no no right? Well seeing at it took modern historians forever to accept that the Vikings beat Columbus to North America by 500 years, I would say so. Heck admitting that the Egyptians had reached the Americas back in their glory days now would mean that Columbus was not only 3rd to find North America, but the Egyptians did it first thousands of years before both Columbus and the Vikings. Big change for those who have accepted our current historical standard.

Conspiracy or not though, you have to admit, the whole setup is rather odd, and the Smithsonian does have a lot of power and some rather curious goings on, even now at days. I seem to recall reading last night that they don't even let anyone (even the press) know about what goes on during the meetings between it's heads and what not, almost as if they are trying to hide something...something that may just change the way we look at the world.

Sources and Further Reading:
I highly suggest that those interested should read more into this, there a lot that I didn't cover that is really interesting and much more revealing...

Egyptian Artifacts in the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon Egyptian Connection
Lost City at the Grand Canyon
The article in from the Arizona Gazette

Misplaced Civilizations and Contactees

This isn't really going to be a true post tonight, more of a preview for something I'm going to be posting in a couple days about mysterious ruins in the Grand Canyon and the Smithsonian covering stuff up and what not. Sort of a rant mixed with possible truth on top of conspiracy theorizing having to do with some ancient civilizations traveling farther then expected. Almost like my Vikings in America post, but not quite...a little more "out there" actually...either way, it'll be fun.

In the mean time, I figured I'd go over a bit about contactees, which if you're not familiar with the term, are people who have been contacted by aliens and given messages to share with mankind. Also my fellow blogger, Gee, did a great post about a contactee that he apparently discovered through the "powers of Greyskull". And while normally I hate making a post on basically the same subject as Gee's the day after he wrote his(makes me feel like a bit of a rip off), I figured that this is a bit more general then what he wrote. Not to mention I wanted to share a rather interesting video I discovered a couple days ago.

So as some of you may recall the contactees are the ones who have most commonly reported the Nordic aliens, which are said to look like the "Aryan" or Scandinavian image of perfection. So as it goes, these Nordic space brothers who originate anywhere from our solar system's Venus, to some place called Pleiadea (thereby making them Pleiadeans) or something.

Anyways these contactees, besides throwing rather crazy parties in the deserts of the American Southwest, also contributed the the "New Agey" side of UFO subjects. The end result of which is not really good or bad, except for some unfortunately suicidal cults.

So as I was saying, there was this video that I felt would be rather fun to share, which is by a modern contactee guy who calls himself IX-777 and claims to be a Pleiadean who died back on his home planet (does that technically make him alien despite the fact he is in human form?) to come to Earth and help us spirirtually and what not. Now the thing I find most interesting is that overall what he's saying isn't that bad as far as philosophy goes, but asides from being a bit "new Agey" he seems to have copied and pasted various ideas from other religions and beliefs together. There is also a tidbit in his speeches and writings that sound a bit Lovercraftian, but only if you take in a general sense (talk about ancient ones and stuff, but not cosmically scaled or evil, or even scary), which kind of sucks because I so want there to be some real Lovecraftian things going on out there. Ok, enough of my mad ramblings, here's the video:



And in order to save on load time, here is a link to the second video he did: Pleiadian Talk Intro Statement #2

Here's also a link to his blog which hasn't been updated in almost a month, either way he has some interesting reads there: Pleiadean Talk

And I think it's my mild taste in metal music talking, but he almost looks like he'd be more at home in some Scandinavian metal band as opposed to a spiritually advanced alien race, but hey, never judge a book by it's cover right?

Really Cool Photo Series

For me there is just something intriguing about Russia...I can't quite figure out what, but it's something about it's mix between gloomy and not so gloomy. Anyways The reason I bring it up is because of this really cool photo set that I found a link to over at Ectoplasmosis. I think the images capture the feeling I was trying to describe there.

Photo Set: Life in Russia

Here is another cool photo set from Chernobyl, which is in the Ukraine not Russia, but was part of it back when Russia was the USSR: KIDDofSPEED - Chernobyl Pictures

Debunked by Myself

Well I have officially concluded that my UFO last night is Venus. Almost in exactly the same spot, but off by just inches, well if I had a grid in front of my face. The idea of this actually being a UFO was fun while it lasted though. That's what is awesome about looking for them; the feeling of thinking you just may have seen one, even if you're not sure. It's sort of a weird rush in a way...a rush that makes you feel like you just may have seen something out of this world. So although this one was not a UFO there always the chance I might just see a true UFO that's not just Venus playing a joke on me...

Investigating Last Night's UFO

So here is my plan. If the UFO I took pictures of last night was indeed a UFO, it shouldn't show up again tonight, at the same time, in the same spot. If it does however, I'll be pretty confident that it was Venus.

Also if indeed it does not show up tonight, I may just report it to MUFON just to see if anyone else saw anything last night. Anyways until then I'll leave you with this guy playing the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Theme on a banjo:

UFO? 1-18-09 Hillsboro, OR

As I was taking the trash out tonight I noticed something odd out towards the west/southwesterly direction. At first I thought it was a really bright star, but it's color and size were way to big. It was sort of an amber or orange color and rather large. So I stood there and watched it for a few to determine if it was moving and at all, and from my perspective it wasn't. So finally I decided, well it's either a UFO, Venus, or perhaps a star went nova and is now visible. Either way it is bright.

I saw the object somewhere between 8:30pm-9pm PST.

Oh, and I was smart and took pictures, but they are crap, however I will still post them here for anyone interested.

Please note that the "movement" of the light is actually motion blur from my camera moving (no tripod) and the object is directly above the Jeep.

Zoomed in shot using digital zoom when photo was taken

Same zoomed in shot with red circle to show what it looked like without the blur.

I just double checked to see if it was Venus, but it's not visible any longer, so whatever it was has moved or left. Still I don't know how far Venus or stars can traverse the sky in about hour or two, so it still might have been, but things seem to be pointing towards UFO. Although I will say that if it was brighter then I ever, ever, remember seeing Venus. Not to mention I don't remember Venus being amber, nor do I recall airplanes using amber lights...

Independent Reality

Where to start, where start...I guess I must warn you all that this could get rather confusing. In fact I've confused myself bit with this idea, but I think I might be onto something...possibly...I could just be nuts, but I think, at least to me, that it does make some sense. So let's start with the simple fact that we are all and the simplest level, individuals. This of course means that each person will interpret events and experiences in their lives differently from somebody else. What if we took this individuality to a smaller level however, like from the atomic to the sub atomic in a sense and ask, could each person have a individual reality?

Ok well not individual enough to where we don't experience something that's happening while we are with others, that would just not make sense. It'd be like going to a baseball game where you saw your team win, yet your friend saw the other team win. I'm talking more along the lines of smaller events, things where you are by yourself or with at the least one or two others who are part of your reality at that moment.

I know I'm confusing everyone, so I'll clarify things a bit. You know when some people see something or experience something that just seems to strange to be true when you hear about it? Those types of experiences. Basically what I'm saying is that on the individual level we may all experience some things that are happening in our own individual realities. Things that didn't physically occur in someone else's reality, but they did in yours, or mine.

Now I must say that there are definitely some, if not most experiences that will always occur in the, for lack of a better term “central reality”. This is merely a way to explain why there are those of us in the world who whole heartily believe in certain anomalous experiences we have had, that others might not have and refuse to believe. It's also a possible explanation for why some people are more prone to witnessing some events.

Anyways, like all theories, it definitely has it's flaws and I don't necessarily believe it myself, but it's something I've pondered over. Something that quite possibly could be real, but we may not yet or never have the means necessary to find out for sure. Although, as I said in the beginning of this post, I could just be nuts...

NAVEED's Squid Quiz Score Report Total number of questions: 13 Total number of correct answers: 10 Your QuizMoz Score: 77% Average Score for this quiz: 43% Number of people taken this quiz: 76 Maximum score for this quiz: 77% More quizzes

Why are they so secrective?

With all the UFOs flying around, and alien abduction happening, one most common things I hear or about all this is that they've come to help us. Whether it's to keep us from destroying ourselves through war or to get us to respect our planet, the main goal seems to be helping us. Something seems rather funny about this however in the way the aliens are going about trying to help us and the secrecy they seem to be using.

So you have your standard abduction scenario with all the involuntary capturing, physical and mental examinations, then the memory block and you wake up at home without a clue anything happened. Where do they get off on saying that is helping us? You don't remember anything, unless you happened to be one of the privileged few who does through hypnosis or never had your memory blocked. And the tip of the iceberg is that almost no one believes you. So did I miss the part where that is helpful, or is there something else going on?

I must ask, why the secrecy? If you're a species from another planet or dimension and have all the technology to travel through space or open up holes to our world, then why aren't you just coming out and saying “Hey, you guys better watch what you're doing or else you're all in dire trouble.” It certainly seems to me that it would be a lot more effective that way, not to mention doesn't make you all look like a bunch of intergalactic stalkers.

Although I must digress and look at it from the possibility that any aliens visiting our world from space or wherever, might not be quite as technologically superior as we think. In which case the whole secrecy thing is simply to protect themselves from powers that would rather not have them interfering with our planet's affairs. After all, do you really think the fossil fuel big business industries want peaceful space beings telling us what's good and whats not for our planet? Then theres the fact that big business, particularly those that revolve around high polluting technologies, have massive power over certain branches of the government; most notably the military and similar agencies. This of course means that the government more then likely has every reason they need or want to “defend” us from this “alien menace” or however they see it.

Finally it would explain the tons of secrecy the government seems to have when dealing with the subject of UFOs. What would you think if suddenly you learned that forces within our worlds governments are keeping us from the help these aliens are trying to give us? I know I wouldn't be to happy with big brother, especially if the aliens have our best interests in mind. Overall I just really want to know what is actually going on and in the end isn't that really that's what all of us who are into this subject want? To qoute the X-Files “The Truth is Out There.”

Holes to Other Worlds...

I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere last night, which is a story that revolves around two completely different worlds existing at the same time here on Earth. To start you have our world (the world above) where everything is very much like it is for us right now. Running along next to it is the underground world below, which really isn't all truly underground, as much as it just runs on a completely different set of natural and physical laws.

Now being the heavy thinker that I am, I am convinced that such worlds could potentially exist with all the fancy quantum mechanical string theories and stuff out there. It's potentially all possible. In fact as I have said in a past post, it could potentially explain most of the bizarre, unexplained, or paranormal things that people witness in day to day life. Stuff that before just seemed either kooky or nuts to the average person.

I suppose I should really start off by saying that efficient space travel as most astronomers, physicists, and rocket scientists have said, is only theoretically possible. That pretty much means that the odds of an intelligent species just hiking through the stars is pretty slim, but at least possible. Stuff that I've said before, but is rather relevant here.

Now theoretically the odds of parallel world travel is probably just as slim, but let's sit back and think for a second. What if quantum laws, physical laws, and even natural laws don't always function perfectly? Or what if by some random chance the right things combine in an area that allow breaches between worlds to form causing time or dimension slips? In our vast and virtually endless world I'm sure it probably happens quite a bit.

Take for example your normal everyday intersection. Now ordinarily you'd expect to see cars stopping at the slowing at yellow lights, stopping at red, and going on green. It's common everyday, average stuff. However, there is always that one random car that doesn't always slow down on yellow or stop on red and goes on to create a traffic accident which can go on and create screaming, chaos, and really confused insurance companies.

So what's stopping similar things from happening on the molecular, or even quantum scale? There has to be that one random molecule, ion, quark, or whatever that happens to screw up, then bam...you have a UFO hovering over New York, or what you take to be a ghost in your basement, brought into our world from a slip/hole/tear between worlds.

Or just maybe it works under different circumstances such as certain elements, materials, devices, or chemicals that happen to be in the right spot together. This setup then potentially forms a link between worlds or something and you have the same effect; things crossing back and forth at will. Sort of like the vortex theories amongst some UFO buffs and paranormal investigators.

Ok I must admit that these ideas aren't quite what was happening in the book Neverwhere, but the book made me think about it...it's still similar to what happens in the story, but quite a bit different as well...but still I can't help, but wonder...

Coelophysis

Coelophysis (meaning Hollow Form because of it's hollow bones) emerged into the world of dinosaurs during the Late Triassic about 215 million years ago in a time when stragglers from the last geologic period and dinosaurs lived side by side. Basically some older critters didn't get the idea that they were supposed to be extinct, so they hung out until they had the sudden realization they couldn't mate. This overall wasn't a bad thing because it gave the dinosaurs more room to thrive, and in the case of carnivorous dinosaurs like Coelophysis, plenty of easy food as they slowly died off.

Overall, Coelophysis is your basic theropod (primarily carnivorous bipedal saurischian) dinosaur, but had an s-shaped neck and a few other differences from it's ancestors; i.e the earliest known formation of a furcula aka wishbone. It also possessed a special adaptation in it's vertebrae that kept it's tail from moving up and down, thus providing Coelophysis with better balance. This in turn probably provided old Hollow Form the ability to maneuver better when running, which also probably helped when hunting for food. Run, run as fast as you can, you can't escape me, I'm Hollow Form man!

In 1947 tons of Coelophysis skeletons were found in Ghost Ranch New Mexico by paleontologist Edwin H. Colbert. The full remains of many specimens were buried on top of each other at the time, including those of juvenile specimens, which falsely lead Colbert and many paleontologists to conclude that Coelophysis liked to indulge in cannibalism. However recent studies have proven that Coelophysis frowned upon such practices and a noted member of the species has recently filed a lawsuit against the estate of Mr. Colbert for having spread such libel. All grievances aside however, Coelophysis remains one of the most well known dinosaurs due in part to Mr. Colbert's discovery.

I would like to note that the above image is crap and outdated,
but due to a lack of public domain Coelophysis pics it will have to suffice.

Sources and Further Reading:
Coelophysis - Wikipedia
Coelophysis - New Mexico's State Fossil...I know one reader who might find that one cool.
Coelophysis - Walking With Dinosaurs Fact File
Coelophysis - DinoData

Random Cephalopod Goodness: Fresh Water Octopus?

While there is officially no Fresh Water Octopus known to science, there have been reports through the ages of such lake dwelling cephalopods. Real or not, they are often blamed for high mortality rates in certain lakes, specifically in Oklahoma where most claims come from, and Wisconsin.

I just today learned from the blog Damn Data, over at Cabinet of Wonders, that Animal Planet just did a show on the Oklahoma Octopus as it's sometimes called. It even featured an all to Blair Witch like video that even shows a tentacle or two...

Here's the video for those to lazy to check the link:


Oh and in case you are wondering, the video is a fake...however it uses the title of docufiction, which means it's a documentary which uses fake video footage for dramatic effect or something...kinda sucks, I was cheering the Octopus on...Oh well, I can always cheer Yog on:

It's in the stats folks...

It appears that those of us who blog about UFOs and similar subjects occasionally receive hits from people in various governmental (often defense) agencies. I've heard about this before from a couple sources who have checked their visitor stats only to find that governments have a slight interest in them. Heck, I just checked my stats today out of curiosity to see if I've been visited by those in “power” only to find that my stat tracker doesn't show me more then the last 25 viewers details. Although I betcha anything that my blog has been viewed before by those in the government.

Anyways, the question raised is this; why would governments (particularly US and UK) be checking up on blogs about UFOs? Officially governments do not have an interest in such subjects. Apparently that isn't the case however.

So why then are they interested?

Is it because we're a threat? I mean the government did at one point have an official interest in UFOs and other esoteric matters. And if conspiracy theories are to be believed, they still do to this day. So perhaps they're afraid that one of us might just break out the UFO Holy Grail and change the world. Can't have that now can we? Civilians aren't allowed to know such things.

Of course perhaps we are dangers to the public, or even political figures. However I highly doubt that's the case. When was the last time you read a story titled “UFO Researcher Goes on Killing Spree” or “Cryptozoologist Threatens to Bomb Sporting Event” ...yeah that's what I thought. The only thing close is the whole Gary McKinnon thing, which really is just big brother trying to scare everybody, but in the process making themselves look like fools.

So excluding that any of us interested in the realm of UFOs and other fringe subjects are threats, perhaps there people working in the government who just like us have a interest in the worlds of the unknown. People who on their lunch breaks sit at their defense department computers and look up stuff on UFOs, Bigfoot, or ghosts, just like you or me. You never know...

Once Feared Extinct Venomous Mammal Found

The Hispaniolan solenodon is one of the only venomous mammals (of which there are very, very, few) actually capable of injecting venom through it's teeth. Once feared extinct, they recently captured one in the Dominican Republic and took video, pictures, as well as DNA and other samples.

BBC Article With Video

UFO or Airplane?

I almost forgot about this experience. It happened years ago back when I was in middle school around 1997-98. My brother, his friend, and I had just left our house and began walking down the street to school. My brother's friend glanced up at the sky over toward the airport (we lived just down the road from Hillsboro Airport) and blurts out "What the heck is that?"

Looking up we saw what appeared to be a black barbell shaped craft standing on it's end. I can almost remember it spinning ever so slightly, but it's been so many years that I'm not sure. Also it was above the airport and I am slightly near sighted, so it may have been a plane or helicopter. However that doesn't explain why my brother didn't know what it was when he isn't near sighted.

What makes the situation even more interesting is that after about a minute of watching this aircraft, all three of us just sort of went on to school like normal. We didn't even bring the subject up later that day, which was odd considering I've been into UFOs most of my life. I guess it was just one of those things that we wrote off as being a plane despite the fact it might not have been. Or it could have been us being middle schoolers and not really giving a hoot at the time. Who knows...

A Monkey and man named Jack

Mass hysteria has been blamed for countless weird events over the centuries. Recently it was blamed for sightings of a “Monkey Man” in India, who apparently randomly attacked people over a period of a few days in May 2001. There were even confirmed animal bites by the 4ft to 5 1/2ft tall Monkey Man.

After a few days of panic caused by this Monkey Man, who was described as either a naked man sized monkey or a man sized monkey wearing a helmet and jumpsuit with glowing red eyes, no more reports came in. That is of course if you don't believe that he boarded a plane to Moscow. I doubt any sane Monkey Man would do that when he could have just as easily hopped over to neighboring Tibet to chill with the Dalia Lama. It's what I would've done, either way though, the authorities wrote it off as mass hysteria, case closed, except for two brief appearances in 2002 to keep his fans happy.

All monkey business aside however, a even more interesting case of possible mass hysteria spread through Victorian era England. Instead of a jumpsuit wearing helmeted monkey however this was a man, devil, or perhaps some dashingly brilliant scientist guy from the future trying to act out his steampunk fantasy. I am of course talking about the awesomely named Spring Heeled Jack.

Jack made his first appearance sometime in 1837 hopping over a cemetery wall, afterward landing in front a passer by who described him as appearing muscular and devil like.

Later on in October, Spring Heeled Jack made his second appearance. Feeling a bit amorous Jack decided to accost a young woman. Immobilizing her, he began to kiss her neck and face while ripping her blouse and feeling her flesh with his claws that felt “cold and clammy as those of a corpse.”

He apparently enjoyed scaring the ladies, and continued with this activity. Also one for showing off, he would commonly leap in front of oncoming carriages when going after a victim. This of course caused even more chaos when he appeared, spooking the carriage drivers who would often wreck, while Jack jumped over or onto (the behavior that earned him his name) walls that were 9ft or higher, cackling like a true madman.

Another difference between India's monkey menace and Spring Heeled Jack was that Jack never fully disappeared. Sightings and encounters with Jack continued on into 1938 and even later, becoming even more bizarre as his presence remained. In two cases he even had flames coming out of his mouth, while wearing something that in this day and age would be considered “kinky”. He was also apparently bullet proof and to make things even crazier, the key suspect, the Marquis of Waterford, married and moved to Ireland, all while the sightings continued in England.

Eventually with all the media coverage, Jack became something of a folkloric character, as well as a villain and a hero in the Penny Dreadfuls, which were Victorian Era pulp fiction magazines. He was even used in place of the Devil in some plays at the time and was cited as a possible cause for the “Devil's Footprints” which appeared in Devon England. Eventually, just like the Monkey Man, he was written off as nothing more then mass hysteria, thanks in part to the media. However, on occasion, similar characters have made their appearance across the world, including Texas, Czechoslovakia, and of course in jolly old England.


Sources and Further Reading:
Monkey-man of New Delhi - Wikipedia
Monkey Man on CNN article 1 & article 2
Spring Heeled Jack - Wikipedia
Spring Heeled Jack - The Shadowlands
The Legend of Spring Heeled Jack - The Cobra's Nose

The Sea Angel ain't no Angel

Figured I'd share this awesome video that I found over at Pink Tentacle. It's of a type of sea slug that swims instead of crawling along the ground using a specially adapted foot. The Sea Angel also heavily reminds me of "The Elder Things" in H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. The resemblance is almost uncanny. Not to mention despite the fact it's not a cephalopod (related though), this bugger put's them to shame the way it suddenly whips it's tentacles out of nowhere.

Pink Tentacle: The Devilish Side of the Sea Angel

Random Cephalopod Goodness: The Giant Pacific Octopus

This Cephalopod is a Pacific Northwest native, meaning if I could scuba dive I'd find him off the Oregon Coast. Besides being local, the Giant Pacific Octopus isn't really giant, at least not in the sense that the Giant Squid is giant and only has one possible competitor for largest octopus.

Recently this species has also been discovered to enjoy eating shark as some aquarium workers found out...



Sources and Further Reading:
Enteroctopus dofleini - The Cephalopod Page
Giant Pacific Octopus - Wikipedia
Giant Pacific Octopus - National Geographic Fact Page with cool size comparison chart between man and octopus

My wife's friend put this picture of my kids and I together in photo shop. Isn't it groovy?

U-28 meets SuperCroc?

You know the routine where the lazy fisherman throws a large fire cracker or other explosive in the water causing all the fish within the explosion range to float to the surface? Well apparently it works in the ocean too. As a matter of fact it happened to German U-boat 28 (U-28) during WWI, and boy did something strange come to the surface.

The incident occurred to U-28 just after it had sunk a British steamer. Shortly after the steamer sunk beneath the surface it exploded sending nearby sea life flying into the air, including a large aquatic reptilian like creature. It as described as resembling a 60ft crocodile with 4 webbed feet.

Unfortunately for us, the U-boat's crew was unable to obtain photos of the monster crocodile, but at least they thought well enough to record it in the ship's log. Amazingly, they reported the incident as if it was just an everyday event as opposed to being astonished and raving on and on about. That not only makes the Germans seem good at training their Captains in log taking, but also lends a bit of support to their encounter.

As for the strange crocodile like beast? Well the only thing in the world that even resembles such a creature is the Mosasaurs or Pliosaurs of the Mesozoic era. These large aquatic reptiles closely resembled modern crocodiles, but were not related other the whole reptile bit.

The closest in length to the U-28 creature out of those two groups are the Mosasaurs. The largest of which was Hainosaurus which estimated to be 49ft long. Seeing as paleontology has and ever growing array of creatures being found though, I think it's worth mentioning the largest crocodillian ever found, Sarcosuchus.

Dubbed “SuperCroc” this guy would have been the same length as a bus. Thats means right around 37-40ft long. Seeing as the U-28 beast was described as crocodile like with webbed feet as opposed to flippers, maybe SuperCroc or a relative lives on today, or perhaps the U-28 witnessed the last fragment of a bygone era leave our world.

Sources and Further Reading:
U-28 Abomination - American Monsters
U-28 Creature - Unknown Explorers
Mosasaur - Wikipedia
Pliosaur - Wikipedia
Sarcosuchus - Wikipedia
Hainosaurus - Wikipedia

Forgotten UFO sighting...

When I first started working my current job as a pump monkey, I was nothing but a mere gas pumper. Hanging outside, waiting for cars, pumping gas, etc...

Sometimes you see interesting things as a fuel attendant though. Car accidents, customers fighting in the parking lot of ridiculous things (more often then not their sour relationships), or even the occasional person accidentally locking their keys in the car with their infants only to have to call the fire department to come and unlock said car. Oh, and I can't forgot that I work right by the local airport, literally across the street, and get a free airshow each year.

One of the most interesting things I saw was one afternoon in October of 2005. I was standing out there pumping gas as was routine at the time, and happened to glance up at the sky before a car pulled in, and saw a silvery object kind of hanging in one spot. Well it might have been moving extremely slow, but I really couldn't tell since a car in need of gas pulled up and distracted me.

Once I got the gas pumping I turned back to look at the object, but it was gone. Just gone. Not over the station, not farther in the distance, just gone. Now ordinarily being by the airport I would have thought that it was a plane or helicopter, but I see them everyday and know what one would look like at a distance. It was clearly not either and there wasn't even any aircraft noise at the time. There is a small chance that it could have been some sort of balloon, but I have no doubt that it would have been visible for longer then it took me to get the gas pumping into a car.

I'll probably never know for sure what it was and it was not the most interesting UFO I've ever seen (click here for that one), but I figured I'd share with you all. Who knows, maybe someone from Hillsboro will stumble upon my blog that saw the same thing that afternoon in October spreading more light on the mystery.

Daedalus Serpent

Imagine you're aboard a ship in 1826, sailing out there in that big blue wet thing known as the ocean, when suddenly you see a strange long creature cruising right by you. That is exactly what happened the crew of the HMS Daedalus in August of that year while they were between the Cape of Good Hope (same place as the Flying Dutchman lurks) and St. Helena.

The creature was described as being nearly 60ft in length with it's head about 4 feet above the water, with a main running down it's neck. Captain McQuhae said that the creature was so close that he could recognize the features of it if it was someone he knew. I don't think you can get much closer to a sea serpent then that.

Oddly I've heard of people trying to pass off this sighting as being a canoe that had top sized passing by them, however I doubt that anyone made 60ft long canoes. Also somewhere along the line people have classified it as possibly being a gigantic eel. Seems odd since the largest eel only reaches 9ft in length, but squid seem to jump from the size of about 6-7ft to that of the giant and colossal squids(45-60ft, still debatable), with no real intermediates known, so giant eels aren't that big of a leap.


Sources and Further Reading:
HMS Daedalus - Wikipedia
HMS Daedalus Sea Serpent - The Unexplained
Daedalus Serpent - Unknown Explorers

I got stuck with a meme...

So after careful consideration on whether to answer or not, I decided I'd answer. I'm supposed to give six random facts about myself, and then request six other people do it. However seeing as I only have 6 followers on my list, and 1 of said followers is the one who tagged me I'm not going to request that 6 others follow suit and spread on the message. However if any of my dear followers or other readers choose to spread it, fine by me. Anyways on to the meme!

Fact 1)
I love to read and buy books. In particular sci-fi, horror, fantasy, absurd fiction, and UFO and paranormal related books. In fact I like reading so much that I want to put one of those 'Reading is sexy!" or perhaps "Proud Bookworm" pictures on my blog, but they all depict women reading and I don't want people thinking I'm a woman when in fact I am a man...

Fact 2)
I love British comedy, television, and authors. Actually I think I might be a borderline anglophile, which means I have and obsession with British/UK culture in general, but I'm not quite sure. Although I will say that British television is vastly superior to American television.

Fact 3)
I'm allergic gluten, which is in wheat, oats, barley, and rye. There are so many things that are derived from gluten that I have to be extra picky with food and have learned to be a label reader. Fortunately since gluten allergies are becoming more common, speciality foods that are really good tasting are coming out. That's a good thing too since I know what all the gluten filled foods do taste like because I developed this allergy when I was 13.

Fact 4)
I desperately want to become a professional writer, however I don't know exactly where to start other then doing what I'm currently doing and possibly taking some more college classes on writing. Speaking of which I need to get of my lazy butt and get the financial aid necessary to return to school.

Fact 5)
The places I most want to visit in my lifetime are Iceland, the UK, and Japan. Iceland for the little people; elves, gnomes, fairies, and what not. The UK for the whole British thing. And Japan, just because they invented Godzilla and anime. Oh, and if I ever get the chance to visit the UK I might swing by Wales and say hello to someone who apparently saw Elvis in the woods. That and it'd be kinda cool to see Cardiff where they filmed Torchwood.

Fact 6)
Sorry to disappoint everyone, but I am not a gnome despite my profile picture. I know that it is probably a bummer for most of you, but it's time to face reality. However if you want to meet real gnomes or other fairy folk, I suggest you go to Iceland where they seem to be everywhere. Of course you could also hop down to Argentina and laugh at the teenage boys as they run in fear from a kid wearing a pointed hat.



Oh, and my new theory is that the gnome in that video is in fact a hero preventing a robbery. Notice the ski mask one of the would be hoodlums puts on about 30 seconds into the video...if that doesn't scream potential criminal, I don't know what does.

Attack of the Globs from Beneath the Sea

They can be gigantic. They can be hairy. And they can be completely unidentifiable. They're the corpses of some long dead beasts that once lurked in the depths of the sea, but have come to rest upon our shores. These are the infamous globsters named after their almost shapeless forms.

These mystery creatures remain unidentified due to their heavy and rancid states of decay. Often times globsters are passed off as being the remnants of sea serpents or other eldritch sea beasts seen only by those few fortunate enough to witness them. They at once inspire fear and awe in those who find them, and spark hot debate amongst those in scientific circles.

There has been much debate over the centuries as to the true identities of these creatures. Decomposed whales and basking sharks are what they are most commonly claimed to be. Still other times if they have tentacles, they are most often concluded to be giant squid, or on rare occasions, giant octopuses.

Sometimes key things are over looked by scientists in identifying these mysterious, nameless globs of flesh. Most notably size and signs of hair tend to be ignored, almost as if scientists just don't want to fully identify the monsters that have washed ashore. After all, no one would believe in a whale sized sea creature covered in hair, sharks larger then any known, or even the mythical (possibly) Octopus giganteus, but as long as man will wander our ocean shores, globsters will continue to be found.

Sources and Further Reading:
Globsters - The Cryptid Zoo
Globsters - Wyrdology
Globster - Wikipedia <--- scroll down to the bottom of that page for a list of famous globsters The St. Augustine Monster - Wikipedia <--- my favorite globster

Shag Harbor

In Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia, October 1967, something very strange crashed into the harbor waters becoming one of the world's most famous UFO cases.

At the time Shag Harbor was a small little fishing town that hardly received any attention. It all changed on the night of October 4th, when witnesses saw what they first took to be a plane crash.

First off in the sequence of events was the initial sighting by some teenagers who saw 4 strange flashing lights, that suddenly dived into the water. They quickly called the authorities, since they had mistaken it for a plane crash.

From there, things got even more weird. Constable Ron Pound had seen the lights go down as well that night and was already on his way to the shore to get a better look. He said that the lights appeared to be part of one large 60 ft object.

When Pound and the other officials arrived at the actual scene of the “crash” a strange yellow light was seen moving in the water. It left peculiar yellowish foam as it moved, and either went out, or moved beyond sight range. When Coast Guard Cutter 101 arrived to rescue “survivors”, the only thing left was the strange yellow foam.

The authorities contacted everyone they could to see if a plane had been reported missing. None had been. They also dived in search of any evidence of the crash and found nothing. It has become of the the few officially recognized (by a government) UFO reports, but like all good UFO cases, this one isn't short on the conspiracy theories.

Some people have reported that a joint team of US and Canadian military ships did a search for something around 30 miles away. There are even reports that there was a Russian submarine in the area at the time, which would have been odd considering the Cold War was raging at almost full force. Despite the rumor mill however, the Shag Harbor incident as it's come to be called, remains unsolved.

Sources and Further Reading:
The 1967 Shag Harbor UFO Crash - UFO Casebook
1967 Shag Harbor UFO Crash - About.com
Shag Harbor UFO Incident - Wikipedia

Fake Lovecraft Interview

Found this video on Youtube that claims to be an interview with H.P. Lovecraft from 1933. Most clearly a fake, a well done fake, but clearly fake. It's quality (especially of the interviewer's voice) is to good for the 30s, and they made it rather hard to fully make out the facial details so it looks more convincing.

3 more years till 2012

Officially December 21, 2012 is the next doomsday date for us to look forward to. It's the day when the Mayan calendar just sort of ends, leading many to believe that Earth is going to be destroyed. There have been many reasons given for this, everything from meteors, global warming, and even the magnetic poles switching. I have a different idea however.

“They were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape...but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them. .”

That my friends is from H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu. It says that when the stars and earth are right, the Old Ones, led by Cthulhu will be able to reign over Earth again. Now Lovecraft wrote fiction right? Well what if we approach it from the idea that perhaps Cthulhu or his minions wrote through Lovecraft, much in the same way that God supposedly wrote the Bible through man? Not quite as fictional sounding is it?

What evidence do we have that could mean Cthulhu and the Old Ones are returning to us? Quite a lot actually. First off December 21 is typically the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year. Next the sun is supposed to be entering into a period of unsurpassed sunspot activity. Also the Earth is supposed to be aligned with the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy. And finally the topping on the cake is that if you subscribe to the “Planet X” or “Nibiru” theory, it will be swinging right by the Earth causing all sorts of chaos.

With all that astronomical and astrological phenomenon going on, it really sounds to me like the stars may just be right. So pay attention over the next 3 years because if tons of people start going insane, have visions of doom, or dreams of sunken eldritch ruins, it might not be a meteor coming our way. Cthulhu Fhtagn!

I despise Columbus, but did he see a UFO?

I despise the fact that Columbus gets all the fame for discovering North America. The Vikings found it first, but no one gives them any credit. However Columbus did see what was potentially a UFO on his voyage, which makes his voyage somewhat interesting to me.

Around 10pm on October 11th, 1492, Columbus saw a light off in the distance. He summoned someone else to come watch it with him. It was described as “a light glimmering at a great distance.” that would disappear then reappear at random. Columbus took it as a sign that they were near land, which just happened to appear 4 hours later. However, he only found primitive islanders at the time, so I doubt that it was anything from their islands because I don’t believe campfires would be noticeable from that distance.

Whether or not this “glimmering light” was really a UFO though has been extremely debated amongst the UFO community, and it usually isn’t taken as one. After all, it could have potentially been a very bright star that kept slipping just below the horizon, only to reappear during boosts in the speed of Columbus’s ship. However, there is as with all these things, a chance that it was indeed a UFO, which potentially makes one wonder how long aliens, or perhaps Hollow Earth inhabitants, have been flying around in our skies.

If you really wanted to, you could probably twist it around into a Biblical style miracle, with the “glimmering light” being a guiding star from God leading Columbus to the “New World”. Of course seeing as the Vikings made it to North America 500 years with no assistance from God, I doubt that it was so. Of course if it was, it just goes to show that Columbus was a lousy sailor who probably had too much rum…

Random Cephalopod Goodness: The Nautilus

One of evolution's true greats, the Nautilus is considered a living fossil. It's an ancient species going back to a time before the dinosaurs. Like most other cephalopods, the Nautilus has a head and tentacles, but lacks suction cups. Another major difference is that the Nautilus is the only cephalopod that still has a shell.





Sources and Further Reading:
Nautilus - Wikipedia
Nautilus pompilius - The Cephalopod Page

The Megalodon!

Here is one for my prehistory loving fans.

Carcharodon Megalodon, was the largest shark ever to exist. In fact the Megalodon probably could have swallowed a great white shark, plus some, whole, that's how large it was. While the overall size of this bad boy is still highly debated, it's estimated that it was at least 43ft long, or possibly even 60ft. One person, who mistakenly placed the wrong teeth into some spots on a jaw reconstruction, estimated 80ft, however, as I said he made a mistake. Turns out the shark was 150ft, and he wasn't to happy about the 80ft estimate, so he promptly traveled forward in time to eat the guy who made the mistake...ok...now I'm just totally making stuff up. Like I said, the real estimate lies between about 43ft to 60ft, depending on who you go with.

Now like all big groovy critters that once existed on this planet, the Megalodon went extinct, or at least it supposedly did some 1.5 million years ago. Now that's a long time, but considering that the Coelocanth supposedly died out some 65 million years ago, only to be discovered lounging along the coast of South Africa in 1938 while he was on vacation. Needless to say, a species that was supposed to be dead around 65 million years ago surviving into today is quite remarkable. Now look at the 1.5 million year estimate for the Megalodon and compare that to 65 million. That's about 63.5 million years difference, so I say the odds of Megalodon still existing today are actually quite good, or at least compared to say a dinosaur living today.

Let's see now, where would we find a Megalodon...oh perhaps Australia. Great waves, groovy accents, and the most venomous creatures in the world; yeah I'd be chilling there if I was a prehistoric shark. While there I'd also make sure to be spotted by the odd fisherman or two just to strike some fear into them. Oh heck, how about a bunch of fisherman like that incident in 1918 at Broughton Island. There a bunch of fishermen refused to go to sea for several days all because they saw a gigantic white colored shark. Now some of them were rather prone to exaggeration, so initial estimates of the length were 300ft, however some people not as prone to exaggeration gave the more reasonable length of 115ft or so. Maybe the 80ft estimate guy was correct...or it's a completely different monster shark. Either way, fishermen are used to seeing large sea creatures, so odds are whatever they saw was something big they've not seen before.

Now the story of a bunch of scared stiff fishermen probably isn't the best evidence out there, but well...um...it's some of the best evidence supporting the Megalodon's possible survival. If you wanted to look at it in more scientific terms you could go with the fact that the larger a predator is, the less of them there are. Also we know that large creatures like the Giant Squid, Colossal Squid, and Cthulhu, ok maybe not Cthulhu, exist in the ocean's depths and are so rarely seen that we thought they were just legend for a long time. So I guess what I'm saying is...there's a chance...a slim one, but a good one and that is what counts in the end.


Sources and Further Reading:
Megalodon - Wikipedia
Does Megalodon Still Live? - Elasmo-research
Does Carcharodon Megalodon Still Exist?
Could Megalodon Still Exist?

Note: The shark in the picture is a Great White and not a Megalodon...as far as I know, no real Megalodon photos exist, unless someone is hiding one out there...