Forteana

Be prepared for an hour of weirdness.

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/129590

[ comments | sourced from HackerNews ]

A cursed painting of a young girl has caused havoc at a morbid London tourist attraction, staff fear.

The London Bridge Experience bought the portrait for £1,600 - and workers' lives have been blighted since.

Manager James Kislingbury's car broke down on his way to collect the piece before he injured his collar bone.

At the venue - which covers the capital's history of death - cameras have switched off and Wifi has stopped working.

All the attraction's TV's went down and when the tech team arrived they couldn't find a reason.

Lights have flickered and a figure in a black skirt was spotted by staff member Shannon Fagan.

Filmmakers have uncovered a trail cam photo showing a 'big cat' stalking Britain which could be a rare 'pumapard' - a cross between a puma and a leopard. The large feline was snapped in the Kent countryside and its neck muscle, ear shape and tail is not that of a domestic, experts say.

It is thought it could be the latest evidence of big cats in the UK - and could be a rare dwarf breed known as a pumapard. They are a cross between a leopard and a puma or cougar - and have previously been born in captivity.

The University of Exeter is seeking to harness growing interest in the subjects with a course that will explore the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science.

The multidisciplinary degree, which starts in September 2024, will draw on history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama and religion to show the role of magic on the west and the east.

Prof Emily Selove, who leads the course, said: “A recent surge in interest in magic and the occult inside and outside academia lies at the heart of the most urgent questions of our society. Decolonisation, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism, and anti-racism are at the core of this programme.”

She said this reversed a tendency in recent decades to “dismiss the study of magic and the occult”, with the idea that it is “no longer of importance to ‘modern people’”.

Citing rituals such as wearing jewellery considered to be lucky or representing a point of contact with a distant person or thing, touching wood, or not shaving to avoid jinxing the team on match day, Selove said “a superficial glance at our own beliefs and the beliefs of the people around shows us [that] magic is a part of our everyday life. Responsible scholars would do well to take this seriously”.

This is confirmed by the growth in the popularity of folklore, witchcraft, tarot and crystals, which has been understood as a reaction to the decline of organised religion. The 2022 census found a rise in the number of people identifying as pagans and wiccans in the UK, while shamanism was the fastest-growing religion.

Selove said the MA in magic and occult science would reexamine “the assumption that the west is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition”, including how it underpins western culture, and how its relationship with the natural world can bring new perspectives to climate breakdown.

The Case of the Robot Grandma:

Last fall my 3 1/2 yr old grandson was lost in the Shasta Forest for 5 hours. Thanks to volunteers and rescue personal he was found. My son said "He was here, then within a second he was gone. They thought he had been abducted by other campers. (trust me the worst nightmare ever) About 3 weeks after this happened, he was at my house, and out of the blue he announced "I dont like the other grandma Kappy" (his name for me grandma Kathy) I said, "what are you talking about buddy? Im the only grandma Kappy", He said "Dont you remember when I was wost in the woods?, Well, the other grandma Kappy grabbed me and took me to a creepy place, shes really a robot." I was thinking he was telling a story, so I asked "what was creepy about it, and why do you think she was a robot?

"It was a cave with spiders, and there was purses and guns. I was too scared, so I didnt touch anything. But, when she climbed a ladder, the light made her look like a robot. There were other robots too, but they didnt move." So I asked "What did she do with you Buddy?" "She made me lay down to look at my tummy, then she tried to get me to poop on a sticky paper, but I couldnt go. She told me that I am from outer space, and they put me in my moms tummy. Then she took me back to the river and said to wait under the bush until someone found me.

cross-posted from: https://derp.foo/post/270330

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

As expected, the self-proclaimed 'cyborg' was widely mocked, prompting him to take part in a YouTube interview with a channel called ApexTV, where he reiterated his claims.

During his appearance on ApexTV - a channel that often features people claiming to be from the future - Orrin was asked questions including ‘is there a Matrix?’, ‘why is the corporation trying to divide us?’ and ‘how can humanity escape the Matrix?’.

Orrin replied: “We are being kept down by a corporation. They are lying to us through marketing schemes and propaganda to hate ourselves, to divide us based on gender, race, sexuality, identity and preference.”

A mysterious black dust has stopped NASA experts from analysing the asteroid samples which crashed to Earth on Sunday (September 24).

After completing a 63,000 mile journey from the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, the small capsule containing samples from the Bennu asteroid landed in the Utah desert in the United States at around 3.53pm UK time on Sunday (September 24). Bennu has been dubbed the Solar System's “most dangerous asteroid”, and experts are hoping the samples could help inform possible deterrents should it head towards us on its fly-past in September 2182.

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However, after scientists cracked open the OSIRIS-REx science canister at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday, they halted work due to the presence of unidentified "black dust and debris". With the lid open, researchers were able to assess the so-called Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) on top of the avionics deck.

A NASA spokesman explained: “Scientists and engineers removed the lid and saw black dust and debris on the surfaces of the avionics deck and TAGSAM. This dust will undergo a quick-look analysis to determine if it is in fact material from the asteroid Bennu.

cross-posted from: https://derp.foo/post/267374

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

The pangolin is an absurd animal, a mammal that’s dressed up as a reptile with a coat of scales, sharp claws and sticky saliva. Wildlife experts often say they are the most trafficked mammals in the world as poachers target pangolins for their meat and their scales, which are used in traditional medicines. There are eight species, all under various levels of threat.

Or, sorry, make that nine species. Researchers have determined that scales confiscated in Hong Kong in 2012 and 2013 and in Yunnan, China, in 2015 and 2019 belong to a previously unrecognized pangolin species that has yet to be formally described — but is hiding in plain sight. The find was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

With the help of artificial intelligence-based models, the scientists classified satellite images and obtained 263 sites where patterns similar to the fairy circles described to date, those of Namibia and Western Australia, including the Sahel, Western Sahara, the Horn of Africa, Madagascar, Southwest Asia or Central Australia, can be observed.

"Our study provides evidence that fairy circles are far more common than previously thought, which has allowed us, for the first time, to globally understand the factors affecting their distribution," highlights Manuel Delgado Baquerizo, leader of the IRNAS-CSIC BioFunLab and co-author of this study.

The researchers found that the combination of certain soil and climate characteristics, such as low nitrogen content and an average rainfall of less than 200 mm/year, were associated with the presence of fairy circles.

A flying saucer seen by a guest house, a 7ft alien-like figure coming out of a hedge and a "cigar-shaped" UFO near a school yard.

These are just some of the 450 reported extraterrestrial encounters from one of the UK's largest mass sightings in a remote Welsh village.

The village of Broad Haven has since been described as the "Bermuda Triangle" of mysterious craft sightings and sightings of strange beings.

Residents who reported these encounters across a single year in the late seventies have now told their story to the new Netflix documentary series 'Encounters', made by Steven Spielberg's production company.

It all happened back in 1977, when the Cold War was at its height and Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Spielberg's first science fiction blockbuster - dominated the box office.

There was a heightened awareness of things from out of this world - and the west Wales village made international headlines when 16 schoolchildren claimed to witness a UFO in the Pembrokeshire sky.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/space/t/489343

In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed how advanced civilizations could create megastructures that enclosed their system, allowing them to harness all of their star's energy and multiplying the habitable space they could occupy.

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Dyson's ideas were proposed at a time when astronomers were unaware of the abundance of exoplanets in our galaxy. The first confirmed exoplanet was not discovered until 1992, and that number has now reached 5,514!

With this in mind, a team of researchers from Bangalore, India, recently released a paper that presents an alternative to the whole megastructure concept. For advanced civilizations looking for more room to expand, taking planets within their system – or capturing free-floating planets (FFP) beyond – and transferring them into the star's circumsolar habitable zone (HZ) is a much simpler and less destructive solution.

York Explore has shared a very spooky piece of footage captured on CCTV at the library on Museum Street.

It shows an unattended library trolley in between two bookshelves.

And then, for no apparent reason, it rolls forward, coming to a stop at the end of a shelving unit.

Then a book shoots off a shelf and onto the floor.

This recording showed something that I, even my role as a former member of the Armed Forces Committee and a committee that monitors new technological-military developments, cannot attribute to any human development – neither a development of the United States nor of one of our adversaries.

When we spoke to the crew member and were shown the photo, I asked why there was no video footage of the encounter and why the [forward-facing recording] FLIR system was not running. The answer was that the crew was on a test mission over the Gulf of Mexico and in such missions it is assumed that the airspace is cleared and clean. So there shouldn’t really be anything there. Nevertheless, they initially saw a formation of four objects flying in a diamond formation, which were also detected with radar, a radar recording that I was able to see myself. One of the pilots flew towards this formation to investigate and saw what I can only describe as a large flying ball beyond all human possibility. As he approached the object, the onboard radar and FLIR system failed, forcing him to manually take the existing photo.

One senior West Midlands detective – a big cat believer – said: “You can get anything into this country.

“For some years, owning a big cat was something of a status symbol for criminal hierarchy – blame Mike Tyson.

“Some of those pets escaped.”

Have the beasts bred in our countryside? Not a chance. We have proof the animals are – or certainly have been – with us. On February 3, 1989, an Asian jungle cat – actually, not much larger than a domestic moggie – was discovered dead on the roadside at Richards Castle, Ludlow.

There have been others. A puma was shot in Inverness in 1980, a lynx captured in Cricklewood a year later. All are believed to have been on the run from captivity.

The British Big Cats Society claims to have evidence of 23 big cat releases into the countryside after the Dangerous Animals Act came into force. The same organisation caused a storm in 2005 when revealing a puma skull discovered by a Devon farmer. It was a puma skull.

Back in 2015, TV naturalist Gordon Buchanan said in an interview: “I said about five years ago that, with everybody carrying mobile phones with cameras, we will soon have conclusive evidence if there were really big cats out there.

“So far, that has yet to materialise. Having spent some time with big cats, I know they are expert at concealing themselves and hiding, so it is possible.

“But in the absence of hard evidence, I think it’s looking less likely.

“That’s not to say that people are making stories up.

“A friend-of-a-friend showed me a picture of what they thought was a big cat, and I thought it looked like the real deal.”

He said: “It didn’t look like a domestic cat, but when I saw where it had been taken, and paced out the distance, I realised it probably was a feral cat.

“But the way the image had been taken, unless you actually went out there and paced the distance you wouldn’t have realised.”

Tony Ferguson visited Carlisle Castle with his team of ghoul hunters and says he was left spooked by the eerie voices he heard in the English Heritage castle, which was by William II in 1092. The 38-year-old said they had thick Scottish twangs and began swearing as they walked around.

He said: “We caught several unexplained things here. And I must admit, I was blown away by the activity we had in such a small amount of time here.” While in the stone corridors of the castle in the centre of Carlisle, Cumbria, he said he heard a male voice say “Go” twice. Then, while in one of the rooms of the fort, Tony claimed he heard a muffled noise in a deep Scottish accent, before he says he heard a female voice say: “F*** you” at them.

This is the unsettling moment a bike appears to ride itself before stopping and falling down in an empty street in York.

The spooky incident was caught on CCTV as locals scrabble to try and explain the ghostly mystery in Europe's most haunted city.

The scene took place near the historic city's world-famous Shambles.

And one ghost expert even suggested that it may be the work of York's 'lost boy' - who has been spotted before in the area and is known for running shocked when passers-by spot him.

Posting the video on social media, the Shambles Market said: 'Yesterday, something very strange was spotted on CCTV… and this clip gives us the chills Theories welcome… Has anyone else noticed peculiar paranormal activity around town?'

The adult's road bike can clearly be seen rolling itself out of a sideroad and keeping steady as it balances itself after wobbling on the cobbles.

It then reaches the pavement and pauses for more than two seconds, before steadily falling over onto its side.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2419772

The dubious paperback

Gérard de Sède was a French journalist and novelist. His son would go on to describe him as a man with an eye for mischief, who when working for the French national press agency, made up a story about an eagle abducting a child.

In 1967 Gérard published a book called Le Trésor Maudit (The Accursed Treasure). The book followed an investigation into a rural priest from the tiny French commune of Rennes-le-Château. This priest had somehow spectacularly refurbished his local church using money from – as it turns out – ancient hidden treasure. Supposedly based on a true story, the book featured many elaborations and inventions, including “coded parchments” allegedly discovered by the priest but later proven to be forgeries. In true Da Vinci Code fashion, it said the parchments hinted that the ancient French king Dagobert II had not actually been killed in the 7th century, and that his descendants were waiting to be restored to the throne of France by a secret society called the “Priory of Sion”. There was no historical evidence for this shadowy organisation before it was invented by a collaborator on the book, the convicted fraudster Pierre Plantard.

A hit '70s TV show

The Accursed Treasure resided in relative obscurity until a former Doctor Who screenwriter named Henry Lincoln picked up a copy while on holiday in 1969. Lincoln was hooked – so hooked that he pitched it to the BBC and in 1972 the story was told on air as part of a factual history series called Chronicle. Alongside creepy organ music, arcane codes and pentangles overlaid on surrounding topography, the series cast Henry as a professorial truth-seeker on the verge of a world-shattering discovery. The retelling of the mystery and the hidden lineage was a huge hit, even prompting viewers to head to the South of France to solve the conundrum for themselves. By the third episode, Lincoln had been joined in his research by two writers named Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh – whose involvement was about to take the conspiracy to a whole new level.

The bestseller before Da Vinci Code

Inspired by the success of their TV series, Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh wrote up their research in a book called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The book was a dense retelling of the village mystery – but it went a step further. It popularised the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and did not in fact die on the cross. It was this secret, they wrote, that was being protected by the shadowy Priory of Sion.

On the verge of the book’s publication in 1982, the three authors appeared on the arts programme Omnibus and were torn to shreds in a televised debate. Young historian Marina Warner savaged the book’s lack of evidence. Warner pointed out that if their source about Mary Magdalene’s trip to France was accurate, they must also believe that an angel descended from heaven at the martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria and killed thousands of spectators (they’d left that bit out of the book).

However, one early review of the book was prophetic. Popular author Anthony Burgess said, “It is typical of my unregenerable soul that I can only see this as a marvellous theme for a novel.” The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail became a bestseller.

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A template for conspiracy

Watching it back now, the TV phenomenon Chronicle, with all its ’70s stylings, looks extremely dated. But there's a remarkable similarity between the series and other conspiracy theories that have gained traction since the show first aired – they are a lot of fun to put together. Whether talking about faked moon landings or microchips in vaccines, making spurious connections and sharing them with others equally despairing of the mainstream media is a process that draws people in. However damaging, those involved feel part of a community. For Dame Marina Warner, the historian who originally debunked The Holy Blood in the 1982 TV debate, the attraction is clear. “This is the classic structure of a conspiracy theory,” she says, “You take random elements. you put them together and you make a coherent shape. We are pattern-seeking minds.”