Searchers Find Remains Of Fireball Meteor In Canada (Watch Video)

Reader Mike Wyatt wanted to know if anyone has found remnants of the fireball meteor that ripped through Canadian skies Nov. 20

I have been a bit curious about how the search is going for the impact sight. It was reported that a team was on the way to search for it to recover any pieces. Has anyone heard anything more?

Sure thing, Mike. Scientists have just announced that they’ve found fragments of the 10-ton meteor. They expect to find more, including pieces that may be as large as desks.

According to the Canadian Press: Read more …

BBC Documentary Reveals: Secret Theme Behind Narnia Chronicles is Based Upon the Stars

The hidden theme behind CS Lewis’ Narnia books has finally been uncovered, according to a BBC documentary.

Each of the seven children’s chronicles is based on one of the seven planets that comprised the heavens in medieval astrology, says a scholar whose theory is examined in the programme.

The explanation comes after more than five decades of literary and theological debate over whether Lewis devised the fantasies with a pattern in mind or created characters and events at random.

It is put forward by Reverend Dr Michael Ward, in his book Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of CS Lewis. Read more …

Atlantis: An Atlantis Theory - Plato’s Atlantis From the Timaeus

Was Atlantis real? We’ll probably never be able to prove such a rich and powerful land that suddenly went belly up in the Atlantic Ocean never existed. The story of Atlantis is usually referred to as a parable and as such is not intended to be taken literally, but there is nothing in the story that proves it’s made up. Even serious geologists can’t entirely debunk it. In 2005, according to About.com’s Geology Guide, there was a conference to discuss possible locations for Atlantis.

The story of Atlantis comes to us from Timaeus, a Socratic dialogue, written in about 360 B.C. by Plato. There are four people at this meeting who had met the previous day to hear Socrates describes the ideal state. Socrates wants Timaeus of Locri, Hermocrates, and Critias to tell him stories about Athens interacting with other states. The first is Critias, who talks about his grandfather’s meeting with Solon, one of the 7 sages, an Athenian poet and famous lawgiver. Solon had been to Egypt where priests had compared Egypt and Athens and talked about the gods and legends of both lands. One such Egyptian story is about Atlantis.

Before quoting it, I want to stress that this is part of a Socratic dialogue, not an historical treatise. The story is preceded by an account of the sun god’s son Phaethon yoking horses to his father’s chariot and then driving them through the sky and scorching the earth. Thus, what we recognize as fiction is mingled with fact.

And now for Plato’s account of Atlantis as translated by Benjamin Jowett: Read more …

Video: Screaming Mummy Mystery

Surrounded by contradictions, the mummy known as Unknown Man E has fascinated Egyptologists for over a century.

Mystery of the Screaming Man : FRI NOVEMBER 21 9P

Mystery Lights Over The Midlands

David Crabtree, Midlands correspondent

A “spectacular” display of dozens of UFOs has been reported in the skies over the West Midlands.
Eyewitnesses told Sky News that up to 70 bright circular objects could be seen near Halesowen.

Stunned residents watched in disbelief, convinced they were viewing an extra-terrestrial spectacle.

Each object was encircled with lights and had lights in the middle, according to witness Steven Randall who lives in Halesowen with is wife and three children.

He said: “This was incredible and so spectacular. The lights seem to climb into the sky to the north of us, just before 8pm last night.

“A neighbour had shouted for us to come and look. There were so many objects. From a distance they looked like bubbles rising in a fizzy drink.

“Then they came towards us and flew right over the top. Some were so close they were almost touching and were only a hundred feet or so above us. Read more …

Two New Mega-Dinosaurs Discovered in Morocco

More giant monsters from Earth’s distant past have been discovered. Deep in Saharan Morocco, researchers uncovered a meter-long bone that’s part of a massive dinosaur who munched on greenery.

National Geographic says:
The team unearthed a three-foot-high (one-meter-high) bone from the sauropod, which means the long-necked herbivore was almost 65 feet (20 meters) in length.

They also found a massive chunk of beak from a pterosaur, an immense birdlike creature from the same era as the sauropod - about 100 million years ago.

[via National Geographic]

Illustration by Dr Mark Witton/Mike Taylor, Photograph courtesy University of Portsmouth

The REAL Monsters of Halloween: Dracula and Vampires

These enduring characters have a fascinating basis in real life
By Stephen Wagner.

THINK OF HALLOWEEN and your mind conjures images of ghosts, vampires, witches and monsters. Our modern versions of them have largely been crafted by popular literature and, more influentially, the movies. But like many fantastic characters of myth and lore, they have a basis in reality.

Sometimes the true stories of these creatures that haunt our imaginations are just as weird and amazing as their fictional incarnations:

DRACULA / VAMPIRES

Today’s vampire persona - the elegant blood-sucking creature of the night - comes primarily from Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker’s story, in turn, was based loosely on the real-life Vlad Dracula (1431-1476), a prince who actually did live in Transylvania in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. The name Dracula is derived from a Romanian word that means “devil” or dragon.” Obviously, Vlad Dracula was not a vampire, but Stoker undoubtedly used the historical figure as the basis of his vampire story because of Vlad’s bloodthirsty style of dealing with those who opposed him. A Brief History About the Dracul states: “Vlad’s brutal manner of terrorizing his enemies and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he had people punished earned him the nickname ‘Tepes’ or ‘the Impaler,’ the common name by which he is known today. Stories of Vlad’s cruelties were circulating through Europe. His end came at the hand of an assassin at some point toward the end of December 1476 or early January 1477.”

The legend of the vampire predates Bram Stoker and even Vlad the Impaler. Vampires Thru the Ages traces them back to 1047 and a document referring to a Russian Prince as “Upir Lichy” or Wicked Vampire. A century later, Walter Map’s De Nagis Curialium includes accounts of vampire-like beings in England. Waves of vampire hysteria swept through Prussia and Hungary in the 1700s, fueled perhaps by disease, ignorance and maybe a psychotic serial killer or two.

The tradition of the vampire has been firmly established into our modern culture by Hollywood, television and the highly popular novels of Anne Rice and others.

Are there real vampires? No. There are small cults of people who call themselves “vampires,” like to dress in “goth” fashion, avoid the daylight and might even drink human blood. But there’s nothing supernatural about these people - maybe just something a bit… odd.