Loch Ness Mystery Noise ‘Unsolved’

Residents on the shores of Loch Ness are having their sleep disturbed by a mystery humming noise similar to that which sparked a spate of calls to a council in Suffolk.

Mikko Takala, who lives in a cottage overlooking the loch near Drumnadrochit where he runs a webcam site tracking the elusive Loch Ness Monster, has been having sleepless nights for weeks.

His mother, who lives with him, and a near neighbour have also been woken in the wee sma’ hours by the same strange humming noise, which one blue blooded Suffolk resident, Lord Philips of Sudbury, said could be mistaken for a spacecraft landing. Read more …

Ripper ‘Claimed Earlier Victims’

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Jack the Ripper may have killed his first victim 25 years earlier than previously thought, a retired murder detective has claimed in a new book.

It is thought that Jack the Ripper killed and mutilated at least five prostitutes in the East End between August and November 1888. But Trevor Marriott says he may have struck in 1863 and 1872.

Mr Marriott will be presenting his findings at the Docklands Museum which is hosting an exhibition on the killer.

Bodies unattended: The body of 28-year-old prostitute Emma Jackson was found in a brothel in St Giles, central London, in April 1863.

She had five wounds to the throat and had not been robbed. The case was never solved.

Mr Marriott also uncovered a second case he believes may have been committed by the Ripper. Nine years after the Jackson murder, on Christmas Day 1872, Harriet Buswell was found with her throat slit at her lodgings in nearby Great Coram Street, after returning home the previous evening with a male guest. Both cases remain unsolved. Read more …

Ness ‘Hum’ Saga is a Global Issue

The loch ness humming noise mystery has gone global. After our story last week on the unexplained phenomenon, the Highland News website was inundated with hits.

And an American scientist has revealed he has been carrying out international research into the strange noise after similar reports from around the world.

Our story triggered an immediate response from Kevin Barber in Mount Vernon, Washington, who endures the same problem highlighted by Loch Ness webcam master Mikko Takala. He now claims there is another Loch Ness mystery to solve.Mr Barber told the Highland News:

“I see these types of articles getting more attention these days, as they should. I am also a hum sufferer here in the USA. Read more …

Lost Mozart score found in France

Rediscovered Mozart score: The score was authenticated last year

A previously unknown piece of music by Mozart has been discovered at a library in western France.

Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Austria, said the single sheet of music was “really important”.

“His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable,” he added. “There’s no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart.”

The sheet was found among the archives by staff at a library in Nantes.

Mr Leisinger said the municipal Mediatheque library contacted his foundation to ask for help authenticating the work.

It’s a melody sketch so what’s missing is the harmony and the instrumentation, but you can make sense out of it
Ulrich Leisinger
The score appears to be for a “Credo in D major”.

There is a second piece which looked like a “first draft, in parts illegible,” said a library official.

It was part of the collection of Pierre-Antoine Laboucheroe, a 19th-century collector who donated his legacy to the city. Read more …

Knights Templar Heirs in Legal Battle With the Pope

The heirs of the Knights Templar have launched a legal battle in Spain to force the Pope to restore the reputation of the disgraced order which was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago. The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legendary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 billion euros (£79 billion).They claim that when the order was dissolved by his predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties as well as countless pastures, mills and other commercial ventures belonging to the knights were appropriated by the church.But their motive is not to reclaim damages only to restore the “good name” of the Knights Templar.”We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our Order,” said a statement issued by the self-proclaimed modern day knights. The Templars was a powerful secretive group of warrior monks founded by French knight Hugues de Payens after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem.They amassed enormous wealth and helped to finance wars waged by European monarchs, but spectacularly fell from grace after the Muslims reconquered the Holy Land in 1244 and rumours surfaced of their heretic practices.The Knights were accused of denying Jesus, worshipping icons of the devil in secret initiation ceremonies, and practising sodomy.

Many Templars confessed to their crimes under torture and some, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were burned at the stake.The legal move by the Spanish group comes follows the unprecedented step by the Vatican towards the rehabilitation of the group when last October it released copies of parchments recording the trials of the Knights between 1307 and 1312

Beth Gibbons - Mysteries

Vidéo clip de “Mysteries”, tiré du premier album solo de Beth Gibbons (voix de Portishead).

Shroud of Turin Stirs New Controversy

A Colorado couple researching the shroud dispute radiocarbon dating of the alleged burial cloth of Jesus, and Oxford has agreed to help them reexamine the findings. The tie that binds John and Rebecca Jackson is about 4 feet by 14 feet, woven of herringbone twill linen. It once led to their romance; years later, it still dominates their thoughts and fills their conversations. It brought Rebecca, an Orthodox Jew, to the Catholic Church; it led John to suspend himself from an 8-foot-tall cross to study how blood might have stained the cloth. Together, the two have committed to memory every crease, scorch mark and unexplained stain in their years-long pursuit of the mystery: Is the Shroud of Turin — which allegedly bears the image of a crucifixion victim — the burial cloth of Jesus? In 1988, science seemed to put that question to rest. Radiocarbon dating by three separate laboratories showed that the shroud originated in the Middle Ages, leaving the “shroud crowd” reeling. Shroud skeptics responded, “We told you so.” The Catholic Church admitted that it could not be authentic.

Many scientists backed away. But John Jackson, one of the shroud’s most prominent researchers, was among those who insisted that the results made no sense. Too much else about the shroud, they said, including characteristics of the cloth and details in the image, suggested that it was much older.