NASA Scientist Claims Alien Life Landed Here on a Meteorite

Dr. Richard Hoover is an astrobiologist with NASA who claims he's found evidence of extra-terrestrial life by examining many different meteorites around the world.

Though it may be hard to swallow, Hoover is convinced that his findings reveal fossil evidence of bacterial life within such meteorites, the remains of living organisms from their parent bodies -- comets, moons and other astral bodies. By extension, the findings suggest we are not alone in the universe, he said.

“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover told FoxNews.com. “This field of study has just barely been touched -- because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.” ...He found the fossilized remains of micro-organisms not so different from ordinary ones found underfoot -- here on earth, that is.

The scientific community is organizing a large group to investigate these claims.

Of course, this is nothing new.  In 1984 a meteorite found in Antarctica (it's called ALH 84001 - seen at right) showed similar signs of previous life.   Apparently, the meteorite could not be tested in a way that would prove this conclusively, so the theory that it contains evidence of alien life is going to remain in the gray area.  Maybe Dr. Hoover's new findings will shed some light on things.

The Real Monster of the Nile

The title may seem misleading to some, but what's going on in Burundi could be the plot of a real horror movie:  An enormous Nile Crocodile has apparently developed a taste for human flesh stalks the waters looking for victims - sometimes killing people without eating the bodies.  (He recently topped Listverse.com's list of The Top Ten Worst Maneaters in History - a list which contains 9 other such creatures that are not just spook stories.)

He's been named Gustave, and he's very real.  He literally weighs a ton, is 20 feet long, and can be identified by the bullet wounds visible on his head.  And getting shot a few times doesn't seem to have slowed him down.  Gustave is not your normal large animal, however, because he's actually known to kill humans without eating their bodies - something that my naturalist friends tell me is impossible, since "animals only kill to eat."

Gustave has been around for 60 years and some estimate that he has killed 300 people, but it's difficult to say. Others place his kill count well below 100 (which is still horrifying).  He's the largest croc of his type ever seen, and that makes him hard to miss.  It's been two years since any confirmed kills by Gustave, but plenty of attacks have been blamed on him by locals who are certain they have seen Gustave - there aren't a lot of seven meter long specimens with bullet scars.

Is it wrong for me to call him a monster?  Some would say that he's just an animal and that I'm being misleading, but it's not that simple.  The word monster comes from a Latin word which means "that which is revealed."  Monsters don't only scare us, but they reveal things to us.  (For example, a ghost in a story might reveal to us that there is life after death - and it might scare us.)  Gustave provides a revelation of his own: nature isn't always your friend.

(And in case you're wondering, these animals can live to be 100 years old, so he's not dying of old age any time soon!)

Something Suspicious About the Chilean Miners

I am very glad that the Chilean miners are being rescued, and it's a credit to the country that they were able and willing to spend the money and time it took to find those men (after they had officially been declared dead) and to rescue them.  This is good news.  But there's more - and some parts of the story we will never truly know.

Mine shafts have a long history of strange activity.  In 1945, a a section of the Belva Mine (located in Pennsylvania) caved in and left many miners trapped.  They were frightened, but they soon noticed a door open in the cave and a man holding a lantern assured them that rescue was coming - and disappeared back into the door.  (No one ever comments on the nature of that door.  Did the trapped miners try to open it themselves?  Did the door blend in with the wall?  And no word on why the man wouldn't let them escape through his door - or bring them any food.)  There are many stories of such underground men being encountered by modern diggers - but no evidence, unfortunately.

There are also some very widely accepted stories about hidden tunnels all over the Earth.  This site lists U.S. military bases and their tunnels that lead to other bases in other states; I don't know if any of it is true, of course. But I do know that you can do an internet search for "hidden underground passages" and find something for just about every part of the world.  These tunnels are normally attributed to something far more ancient and mysterious than the government, however.

And, who can forget the Shaver Stories?  Richard Shaver published some stories about going underground and meeting with strange people called the "Deros" who were not so kind as the fellow who helped the Belva Miners in 1945 - instead they ate people.  His stuff was published as fiction, but written as if it were true.  He would maintain that it was true until he died, and this lead to a very enduring following.

So, we're left with a rather spotty legacy of miners seeing strange things and stories of underground caverns.  What does this have to do with the Chilean miners?  Probably nothing, but there are few loose ends in their story.

For starters, these men were in the in the mine for two whole months - that's the longest anyone has ever been trapped in a mine and survived.  We are told that they survived by rationing food and eating small bites every other day, and they even had some food left over when they were rescued.  Is it possible that they had some help?  The doctor who made contact with them was impressed at their level of comfort, and we've seen that they are rather cool-headed about the ordeal.

But what's really suspicious is the gag order these men have agreed to.  Before being rescued, these men were asked to sign an agreement saying that they would never talk about the first seventeen days they spent in the mine.  We are told that this is because of the secretes that they told: since they thought they would die, some of them told stories about having affairs and other things that were secret.  But, if this is being kept a secret, how could the press know about it?  And is it really necessary to make them sign something like this before rescuing them?  It's very odd.  Did they see something, or did they find something they were not supposed to see?  And could it have anything to do with why the Chilean government was so quick to claim that the men were dead and hold a funeral for them?

The truth is, unless one of these mens breaks their agreement, we'll never know what went on in that cavern before they were rescued.

Signals Detected from Newly Found Planet - Two Years Ago

In December of 2008, Dr. Ragbir Bhathal of SETI detected suspicious signals coming from space.  He kept scanning for months but never caught the signal, again.  However, a week ago the scientific community announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet - Gliese 581g - that just happens to be exactly where Dr. Bhathal picked up that signal two years ago.

Coincidence?  Time will tell.

500 Foot Long Crack Forms in Michigan - No Explanation

Eileen Heider was relaxing in her recliner when she began to feel the chair vibrate.  An explosion was heard and when she ran out to check on it she noticed a large crack had formed along her property.

Heider and neighbors heard an explosion-like sound Monday morning. Heider found the nearly 200-yard-long crevice, which measures five-feet deep in parts, Tuesday. (source)

So far, a gas eruption has been ruled out, but nothing else developed on this odd story all week.  There's no fault line nearby, and no history of geological activity like this.

Here's a video, wherein a local man says his large pile of wood was knocked over in the explosion:



Since there's no crater, we can probably rule out ordinary explosives.  No one has located an epicenter, yet, so we've got nothing to go on.  Could there be a geyser or a volcano forming?  That's pretty rare, but so is this incident.  Also, there's a situation called Bradyseism in which the ground shudders like this due to underground magma fluctuations.

There's also the liquification phenomenon (which has been mentioned on some comment boards) where the ground suddenly acts like a liquid and sucks things up.  Supposedly, this sort of thing happened a long time ago on an island inhabited with pirates, and many of the criminals on the island were trapped in the ground after it hardened and became meals for local animals.  It's very creepy, but I don't see anyone describing that sort of thing, and it's a phenomenon that is usually observed in loose sandy soils - not clumpy moist soil with vegetation.  Also, liquification isn't known to cause audible explosions.

But this sort of speculation is all we have, right now.  Maybe we'll get some more answers, or maybe this mysterious crack in the ground will always haunt us.

UFO Shuts Down Chinese Airport - AGAIN!

Once again, Chinese air traffic controllers have reported UFO activity in China:

It was first spotted by air traffic controllers in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, who noticed the mysterious figure on their radar screens.

After attempting to make contact with it - and failing - they sent out warnings to the airport in Baotou.

There's a video being circulated, but it's not very helpful.  The witnesses in Hohhot said that they saw a tube-like object, and the video just shows some random lights.  Often times, when UFO stories circulate an unrelated picture or video circulates with it; you can judge for yourself (the video is below).  I think it's great that these sightings started with air traffic controllers and are actually documented.  This is a very interesting trend.  I'll update you if anything comes of this, I but I think the story will be forgotten soon.  (Even though it's fascinating, and potentially important, things like this are quickly pushed aside for stories about celebrities.)

The Horror of Sleep Paralysis

Most paranormal enthusiasts have read about sleep paralysis, or, at least, they've read about "Old Hag Syndrome" or one of the many names it goes by outside of the medical community.  Colloquially, these stories span cultures and centuries but are all basically the same.  The sleeper awakes to find out they cannot move.  This is accompanied by an odd sense of danger and the frightening image of something staring at them in the darkness.  Some describe an old woman staring down at them, others a shadowy ghost, and others a demon.  All of the descriptions seem similar, though.

Medical science brought us closer to understanding this after discovering REM atonia.  This is the "override" switch in your brain that keeps your body still while you sleep.  After reading about this, I thought an episode of sleep paralysis would be a fun experiment and hoped it would happen to me.  I came to regret that.

I had long forgotten about REM atonia by the time it happened.  In the middle of the night, my eyes opened and I didn't know why.  Surely, I had heard some sound or some noise in the apartment, but I couldn't remember.  Something had startled me, however, because I was frightened.  Very frightened.  Had I heard someone break in through the window?  Or did I hear someone yelling?  No, I couldn't remember anything at all.  I just knew this overwhelming feeling of dread like I had not ever known.  I've lived in bad neighborhoods and been through some rough scrapes, but this feeling of fear was much worse than anything I had been through.  For the first time in my life, I was certain that something horrible was going to happen to me and that I was powerless to stop it from happening.

Then, I saw it.  Someone standing right in front of me.  Had they been there the entire time?  I couldn't see them well in the darkness, but a person was standing just a few feet away and staring at me while I laid on my side.  I am normally very calm under pressure, but I wanted to scream.  I stared in horror at the thing that stared back at me.  I couldn't see its eyes, but I could feel it looking at me in the dark.  What was it doing?  How had it gotten there?  And why did it awaken the darkest fears within me?

And why the devil couldn't I move?  I just laid there in my fear thinking that I was paralyzed out of horror.  I don't know how long it lasted, but I must have finally fallen asleep.  When I awoke I had vivid memories of the thing and I looked around the room for signs of an intruder.  I knew I wouldn't find anything, and I didn't.  I sat up in bed thinking about the horror for a long time.  Finally, from the recesses of my mind, I remembered sleep paralysis and REM atonia.  I breathed a sigh of relief.

It might sound silly, but these happenings are very frightening, and I now understand why someone might need therapy after such an experience.  As for the medical explanations that I turned to for comfort, why does every victim of sleep paralysis see the same ghastly shape before them?  What causes the inexplicable feelings of dread?  Is it impossible that this is the way certain metaphysical creatures terrorize us?  Could it be that demons walk among us and this is how they interact with us?  Or is it just the way chemicals in our brain react when our REM cycle is off its axis?  I don't know, and no one seems to have answered this mystery completely, yet.  But if this happens to someone I know, I'm going to be very understanding - it is a horrifying thing.

Witches and UFO Links

Just on the heels of my post about Mexican witches is this list of ten famous witches burned by the church.  I suspect there's more than simply a suspicion of witchcraft behind these killings (it was rarely so simple), but it's still an interesting list.

And you can also check out Cracked.com's article 5 UFO Sighting That Even Non-Crazy People Find Creepy.  For a humorous website, it's not a bad list.

Successful Cryptid Investigations

Listverse.com has a fun list of The Top 10 Cryptids that Turned out to be Real.

http://listverse.com/2010/08/13/top-10-cryptids-that-turned-out-to-be-real/

(I'm actually just posting this to test my RSS feed settings.)

Bigfoot and Muchalat Harry's White Hair

A fun story about a trapper getting trapped by Bigfoot is making the rounds (I first caught it on the Anomalist).  I really don't try to spoil these things, but this story has all the earmarks of an urban legend.  Which is a shame, because I love these stories.


In 1928, as the story goes, a trapper named Muchalat Harry would take his canoe across the river and set up traps.  While camping, he was caught by Bigfeet who kept him in their camp and showed general curiosity toward him.  After a few days of this he noticed his chance to escape and ran all the way to his canoe, barefoot and almost naked, and started rowing across the river.

I have no idea what kind of wild animal kidnaps people for pets, but that's how the story goes.  But the part that gets me is the end:

At about 3 a.m. the next morning, the exhausted and terrified man finally arrived in the village of Nootka on Vancouver Island. The Rev. Anthony Terhaar, a Catholic missionary priest, was living in the village at the time. Terhaar, who was called Father Anthony, and his fellow villagers were awakened by the sound of wild crying from the waters in the inlet. They lit torches and went out to see what was going on. There, they found the nearly frozen and exhausted Muchalat Harry lying in his canoe. He was barefoot and wearing only his wet and torn underwear. He had paddled his canoe through the night 45 miles from the mouth of the Conuma River.

Father Anthony and the villagers carried Harry’s almost lifeless body out of the canoe and took care of him. It took three weeks for him to get back both his sanity and good health. During that time, Muchalat Harry’s hair turned pure white.

The notion of turning a person's hair white through fright is an old one that shows up in many urban legends (and that oddball sound from The Crash Test Dummies), but it's not a real phenomenon.  As we learned in grade school, hair is made up of dead cells that have been pushed out of our pores.  The body can't act upon these cells or make any changes to them; a person goes gray when the hair starts growing that way - the actual hairs don't change color.

This story has a lot of fun elements - the irony of a trapper getting trapped, the testimony of a beloved priest who saw a terrible sight, and an urban legend about hair turning white.  But it doesn't have the ring of truth to it.  This story is often used to remind people that Bigfoot is dangerous and aggressive, but I don't think we can assume that from such a fanciful tale.

Mexico's Unusual Witch Stories

Mexico brings us more regular stories of witches than any other place I can think of. I'm not talking about modern Paganistic movements, but actual stories of witches running around doing evil deeds.

There are lots of horror stories. I think in Mexico it might be normal to attribute strange things to witches just as easily as people in the U.S. will attribute everything to ghosts. But, unlike ghost sightings, people are actually seeing things - and what they're seeing is difficult to take seriously.

These witches aren't of the modern variety. Instead of Sandra Bullock's character from Practical Magic we are hearing about stereotypical witches from Halloween stores.  The Mexican witches are seen riding brooms and waring crooked hats while cackling with laughter.  There's even a video:



Whatever it is, it travels in a straight line and doesn't real move at all.  Probably just a few different cheap video editing effects, but I still find it interesting because there aren't many places where anyone would believe that a real broom-riding witch could be real.  For some reason, this is still normal in Mexico.  I don't know why.

Inexplicata (and English language blog about Mexican paranormal events) has a nice post about this, and the author reminds us of an old saying to put things into perspective:

It must be a hoax, one thinks automatically, since witches don’t exist, or at least not in that particular form. Or do they? As the old Spanish saying goes: las brujas no existen, pero las hay – witches don’t exist, but they’re there. 

Winston Churchill and the UFO He Covered Up (Or Did He)

The UK government just released many UFO related files that had been classified until today.  Chief among the many documents is a story that has been making the rounds about Winston Churchill and a UFO sighting he decided to cover up.  I wanted to look at the records for myself, and here's what I found.

There are two sets of letters - both can be read in this lengthy pdf file.  (All of these RAF files can be found here.)  The first few letters (pages 205-209) involve an inquiry into this matter made in the 1990s.  Apparently, someone's grandfather remembered this and the grandson was asking questions.  The Royal Air Force quoted the original documents, including claims that an aircraft had matched the speed of an airplane in a way that no craft of that era could.  But the RAF officer ended the letter by stating that he didn't believe in UFOs, even though the physics of it was interesting.  (Note to government officials: saying things like that is how cover-up conspiracy theories get started.)

The second set of letters (pages 273-277) gives us more detail.  According to the man's grandfather, an RAF airplane taking pictures was returning to England when an unidentified craft came near to it and began matching its speed.  The pilots took pictures of it before it cruised away without making a sound.  This was supposedly a point of intense discussion between Churchill and Eisenhower before Churchill decided to put the thing under lock and key for fifty years.

But what we can subtly glean from all of this is that the grandson did not hear this from his grandfather - it appears that after the grandfather passed away the man's grandmother told him about that she had been carrying this secret since the war and that her husband had told no one but her about the UFO.  So, what we really have is some third hand reports that only emerged when the person who supposedly reported them had died.  This story is far less credible than the press will have you believe.  (I'm not trying to be a party pooper, here, but we have to analyze these things thoroughly if we're going to learn the truth.)

There are, however, two loose ends that we can chase.  First of all, the documents do confirm that Winston Churchill did indeed order an investigation of sorts into the UFO phenomenon, but that's all we know of it.  Second, the RAF correspondent told the grandson to personally check out some other government files that were available to the public that were likely to be the only place where records of this sort could exist - if this search yielded any evidence we have never heard of it.

More Extra Solar Planets Discovered

We are often told that our planet is unique and that the odds of intelligent life existing on another planet so remote as to be nearly impossible.  Well, the odds are getting better:

Scientists celebrated Sunday after finding more than 700 suspected new planets -- including up to 140 similar in size to Earth -- in just six weeks of using a powerful new space observatory.

But, it gets better:

“The figures suggest our galaxy, the Milky Way [which has more than 100 billion stars] will contain 100 million habitable planets, and soon we will be identifying the first of them,” said Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and a scientist on the Kepler Mission. "There is a lot more work we need to do with this, but the statistical result is loud and clear, and it is that planets like our own Earth are out there."

Wikipedia keeps a list of extrasolar planets that's pretty staggering in itself, but it's only a list of the planets that have been confirmed - there are many more that just haven't been adequately studied, yet, because there are only so many telescopes.  We may find that we are not so unique after all - and not so alone.

Update on the Chinese Airport UFO

A lot has happened in the Chinese UFO case.  At least, a lot has happened in the media and the blogoshpere - in China the story's pretty much the same.  The story has gone in a few different directions, so I'll go over them briefly.

Naturally, the Venus Argument has been introduced.  Every skeptic likes to blame the planet Venus for UFO sightings.  I've seen Venus and lots of other things in our solar system while looking up at the sky, and even when I was a child I never thought those bright lights could be anything more mysterious than a planet or a star.  Still, someone who wants to debunk UFO stories will handwave every single one of them by saying the word "Venus."

It's hard for me to believe that air traffic controllers could mistake Venus (at right) with an unusual aircraft.   Still, Forgetomori.com thinks this is the answer and, amazingly, points to an story from Russia where the sight of Venus on the horizon does appear to have confused an air traffic control group and caused them to close their airport.  What Forgetomori.com doesn't mention is that the Chinese air traffic controllers did not see the UFO in question - they recorded it on their instruments.  Venus would not be picked up by air traffic control instruments as an object close to the airport.


A number of pictures emerged along with this story but, unfortunately, they appear to be fraudulent.  The air traffic control group said they couldn't see the object without their instruments, but some people took pictures, anyway.  Some of these photos show a UFO doing things (like shining lights on buildings) that were certainly never part of the original descriptions.  The pictures being shown by the news should be ignored.

Ghost Theory has a video of a spokesperson from the Chinese Airport.  He basically says that they don't understand what they saw and he fears they never will.  Nothing new, but it's good to hear that from an official source at the airport rather than a newspaper.

A video of a rocket taking off has been linked to this UFO sighting and someone from MIT has looked it and declared it to be real footage of a Russian rocket (link).  However, nothing in the original description of this sighting has anything to do with a rocket, so I fail to see how this relates to the story.

When a UFO is in the news, pictures and videos from previous stories somehow end up being broadcasted along with the actual story - this leads to mass confusion on the part of the investigator.  It's tough to pick through the articles to find out which ones refer to real reports from the Chinese airport, and which ones are jumping on the bandwagon without checking the details.

In conclusion, the airport is sticking with their story: something unknown to them was in their airspace that evening and they shut down all flights for an hour.  There's no explanation and no one seems to be coming forward to help out.  There don't appear to be any trustworhty photographs or videos of the UFO which is in keeping with the statements of the air traffic controllers who claimed it was too far away to be seen without their instruments .  (Or, perhaps it runs without lights?)

I hate to say it, but this may be all we ever learn about this interesting incident.

He Saw Bigoot in his Backyard - Is he Crazy?

Now infamous in cryptozoology circles is an eldery fellow named Mr. Mike who told his friends he has been seeing Bigfoot (and family) hanging out in his backyard.  According to those close to him, Mr. Mike really believes this.  He has convinced many people with his stories that there is something happening in his back yard.


But there are no pictures and no one else has ever seen them, which is causing many researchers to assume that his determination and confidence is due to a mental instability.  We'll find out soon enough, however, as video equipment has been put in place to figure this out.  (More on that investigation at Cryptomundo.)

Not everyone thinks Mr. Mike is crazy.  As GhostTheories.com tells us, a Bigfoot researcher named David Rodriguez believes Mr. Mike's story but is certain the cameras will pick up nothing.  Why?  Because placing cameras near Bigfoot causes us to lose Bigfoot's trust.

I'm not buying it.  I don't believe animals (even cryptids) can comprehend technology and I don't think their presence causes us to enter into a contract with them by which we are not allowed to film them.  Animals don't act that way.  Rodriguez says this has happened to him before which makes me think that this is really just a clever explanation to explain why he has no evidence for his claims.  Saying that Mr. Mike's Bigfoot will not show up because of a camera is a convenient way to place his bets since it's unlikely it will yield any results.

Of course, introducing new people into an environment will usually scare away animals, so there's some truth in this, but a concealed camera put in place quietly should not cause a problem.  In the past, cameras placed in the woods to look for Bigfoot have turned up pictures of deer and bears.  This would mean that cameras do not deter wildlife and, as such, should not deter Bigfoot either.  Rodriguez's statement makes it sound as if he thinks that Bigfoot is more aware of technology and would understand the media in the way a normal animal would not.  That sounds very Hollywood, but it doesn't make much sense.

Time Traveler Advertises Cheaply

Sounds like a good deal - go back in time and get paid! (From Oddee.com's list of amusing wanted ads.)

For some more interesting time travel news, this post from Forgetomori is interesting.  It's about an old black and white museum photo that appears to have a picture of a rather modern person in it.

UFO Shuts Down Airport in China

On Wednesday a UFO was seen near an airport in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.  Unlike most UFO sightings, this one has plenty of documentation because the airport was actually shut down temporarily.

It was described as an elongated object that flew across the sky.  The military promised to shed some light on the situation on the following Friday afternoon, but by midnight all that was disclose was the possibility of a military connection.

Which could mean anything.

This may be the most credible UFO sighting I've heard of in a long time.  It has been investigated through proper official channels and documented - even photographed!  (See here, I'm not sure how keen they would feel about me stealing that picture, so you'll have to go over there to look at it.)  Numerous people who were in the airport can attest that their plane was delayed and both military spokesmen and airport traffic controllers have confirmed a sighting of something in the air.  The air traffic controllers actually saw it through their instruments and were concerned enough about whatever they saw to shut everything down - a pretty extreme measure.

Is it a hoax?  You'd have to be pretty brave to try a hoax like this at an airport.  There are many witnesses, so something was in the sky which keeps this from being written off as a faked picture.  That picture, by the way, has been circulating the web and if anyone recognized the object in it they would have said so by now.  A secret military plane is the favorite theory at this point, but who knows?  Maybe the Chinese government will tell us more.  Check back here for updates.

The Center for UFO Truth and it's Interesting Agenda

James Carrion has been an interesting voice in Ufology since he began to decry poor investigative techniques and useless anecdotal hearsay in research.  It's a breath of fresh air when someone tries to study this phenomenon without given credence to every blurry photograph while saying that all of it is true without any scrutiny.  In many circles, even the most ridiculous theories are placed alongside the most credible making the entire field look foolish.

Carrion has been working to change this, and his new endeavor, The Center for UFO Truth, reflects this.  However, it also has a rather specific goal.  His angle on Ufology is to look into government documents for evidence of a cold war-era conspiracy and cover up.  This is where he expects to find evidence of UFO activity, and perhaps he will be successful given his specific goal and driven agenda.

This section from his blog, however, is what I like the most:

CUT will work outside of the three ring circus that is Ufology and will not accept the contributions of anonymous individuals or alleged whistleblowers nor will it examine alleged leaked documents...Unfortunately,the field of Ufology has nothing to show for more than 60 years of investigation and research. By not adhering to professional evidentiary standards, Ufology will neither join the halls of academia nor will it discover what truly lies behind the subject of UFOs.

Quite right. It's embarrassing how poorly we have handled UFO investigations, and maybe his leadership will move us in the right direction.  Either way, I wish him luck.

The Curious Case of the Black Stickmen

Of all the paranormal things I research, few are such head-scratchers as the recent phenomenon of the black stickmen.

The stories are only evident in the last six or seven years and they tell of walking stickmen who look like a child's drawing come to life.  Even the most ardent believers in the paranormal are being hesitant to buy into this one.  The stories seem to only come from English speaking places, and each story is almost identical.

The black stickmen are seen while someone is on their way home (never on the way to work) and just as dusk is setting in they are seen.  Anyone who sees them gets understandably frightened at the queer sight of a 6 - 10 foot tall walking stickman that seems two dimensional.  (They are always described as being two-dimensional, but that would make walking impossible.)  They bounce as they walk, almost clumsily, and then they hide when they realize they are being watched.

Every story about them seems to follow that same pattern, and most of the time these stories are recaps of something someone heard - as if one story is being told over and over.  They have been casually linked to UFOs, but not even circumstantial evidence exists to form a real connection.  The Forgetomori blog has thoroughly collected the videos of these creatures, and it is easy to see that none of these videos shows any paranormal activity - just shadows and some out of focus weeds.

It's a fascinating story, but I just don't know if there have been any developments since the first reports and those are not too credible.

Did Stephen Decatur Really Shoot the Jersey Devil?

Not much is said these days about the Jersey Devil.  There were many sighting over 100 years ago and almost nothing since other than a few strange sounds here and there.  One of the most well circulated stories about the Jersey Devil is that the creature was shot with a cannon in mid-flight by none other than American naval hero Stephen Decatur.


Stephen Decatur was active in the War of 1812 and his heroics were well known.  He died in 1820 after being shot in a duel and President James Monroe, along with almost everyone else in the nation's capitol, attended his funeral.


As a decorated war hero, Decatur was probably a good shot - but could someone conceivably hit a moving target in the air with a cannon in the early 1800s?  That seems suspicious.


Rifling is the process that makes a rifle/gun/cannon fire more accurately.  Older muskets did not fire in straight lines, but instead the musket balls flew at random angles which made it necessary to line up large groups of soldiers and have them all fire at once.  Cannons were no better, and they were simply aimed at the center of an army where they would surely hit someone can cause great damage.  No one actually aimed cannons to hit specific targets until about 40 years after Decatur's death when rifling became common in rifles and cannons (making the American Civil War very different on the battlefield from the previous wars America had known).


So, Decatur's feat is incredibly improbable.  Of course, it's possible that he got lucky and hit the creature, but it would be like playing the lottery.


The other reason this story can be doubted is because of the simple timeline.  It appears that the Jersey Devil was first reported in 1909, and all of the earlier sightings, like Decatur's, were added retroactively after stories of the Jersey Devil became popular.  Not only is his aim improbable but pre-1909 dates for the Jersey Devil are suspicious by nature.


I do hate to be negative about these things.  The people of New Jersey were certainly frightened in 1909 for some reason, but I think that the story of Stephen Decatur and the Jersey Devil only distracts us from finding out what happened.