New Photo of the Loch Ness Monster

A new photo of the Loch Ness Monster is being published all over the world. Is it the real thing this time?

Is this the Loch Ness Monster, a new rare photo of a Nessie? It was taken from the banks of Loch Ness, in Scotland; this copyrighted [© Richard Preston] image is being published all over the UK. And now the world.

Richard Preston, a landscape designer, was working on Aldourie Castle gardens on the southern shores of Loch Ness, when the 27-year-old Yorkshireman spotted a shape on the loch’s surface out of the corner of his eye. The object caught his attention at about 3 pm. The images were taken from the grounds of the castle looking towards Lochend. Read more

Crop Circles: Fake or For Real?

How can we distinguish between faked and real crop circles? Simple, this site suggests: look for features that one type possesses that the other doesn't.

... So how do we go about differentiating between the faked and the 'for real' thing? Simple, we look for features that one type possesses that the other doesn't.

For instance, a great many 'faked' crop circles feature plank marks that cut directly across the lie (near enough at a right angle) of the trampled plant stems. Easy enough for anyone to spot. Genuine circles never possess this feature.

The more telling details, however, come from examinations of genuine circles. Read more

Woman Claims Ghosts Out to Get Her

The Stanley Hotel may not be the only haunted hotel in Colorado.

A woman staying at a local motel in Eagle created quite a stir earlier this month after motel employees called police to report she was running down the hallway.

The woman claimed that she could see ghosts in her room, according to the employees who called for help dealing with the woman on Nov. 5 Read more

10 Famous American UFO Reports

Project Blue Book was an Air Force UFO study project, which lasted from 1947-1969. CBS News compiled ten of the most famous reports.

Between 1947 and 1969, 12,618 sightings were reported to Project Blue Book, a project into UFO research that was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. To this day, 701 of the sightings remain "Unidentified."

One of the first and most famous involved businessman and pilot Kenneth Arnold, who was flying near Mt. Rainer, Wash. on June 24, 1947, when he reportedly sighted nine unidentified flying objects. The press later used his various descriptions to come up with the term flying saucer. Read more

Spacetime Cloak May Make Time Travel Possible

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

New research suggests that a "spacetime cloak" may make time travel possible.

A 'spacetime cloak' may be straight out of science fiction, but some day it might permit time travel or change history. A 'cloaked' individual could, for instance, travel from one place to another while appearing to vanish and appear instantaneously in a new location.

The device would speed up and slow down light to give the illusion that events have just not happened, according to the Journal of Optics. For instance, a scientifically-savvy thief with access to technology could open a safe, empty its contents, and escape right under the watchful eye of a surveillance camera, reports the Daily Mail. Read more

Precognition May Exist, Cornell Study Finds

Psychic precognition may exist,  a Cornell study finds.

Prof. Emeritus Daryl Bem, psychology, recently made some discoveries in the field of precognition that have given support to the psychics among us.

Titled “Feeling the Future,” Bem’s paper will be published in next month’s issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The research discussed focuses on the concepts of precognition, or consciously predicting the future, and premonition, having knowledge of events to come. These are both features of a concept that Bem and other psychologists call “psi,” more commonly known as “psychic.” Read more

Should We Be More Skeptical of Paranormal Skeptics?

Should we be more skeptical of paranormal skeptics? Greg Taylor says we should because some of them are not truly "skeptics." They are biased debunkers masquerading as objective investigators.

The modern skeptical ‘movement’ has grown and thrived in recent years to the point where the public generally views self-appointed ‘skeptics’ as arbiters of the truth and defenders of rational thought. But how much of what they say can we really trust as being objective truth? Are self-described skeptics championing critical thinking, or are they simply defending one particular worldview? The late Marcello Truzzi came to think so: despite being the co-founding chairman of the influential skeptical group CSICOP (the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), Truzzi soon became disillusioned with the organization, saying they “tend to block honest inquiry, in my opinion… Most of them are not agnostic toward claims of the paranormal; they are out to knock them.” Truzzi claimed that by using the title of ‘skeptic’, biased debunkers had claimed an authority that they were not entitled to, opining that “critics who take the negative rather than an agnostic position but still call themselves ‘skeptics’ are actually pseudo-skeptics and have, I believed, gained a false advantage by usurping that label.” Should we be more skeptical of the skeptics?

Taylor says that one skeptic of whom we should be particularly skeptical is the late Martin Gardner. He cites Gardner's false and misleading article on trance medium Leonora Piper as an example.

... Gardner states ‘facts’ which are not just debatable, but completely the opposite to what can be found in the primary sources. He says of Mrs. Piper’s trances that they “never occurred spontaneously”, despite Fred Myers stating in his report that “[T]he trance has occasionally appeared when it was not desired.” Also, says Gardner, “they never began when she was alone or asleep”. Again, from the same page of the same primary source: “the access has several times come upon her during sleep.” Further, according to Gardner, “whenever a sitter paid for a séance, she had no difficulty going into a trance.” At this point we might assume that Gardner wasn’t too familiar with Fred Myers’ report on Mrs. Piper, as it continues (yet again on the same page): “These trances cannot always be induced at pleasure. A state of quiet expectancy or ‘self-suggestion’ will usually bring one on; but sometimes the attempt altogether fails.” And in case Gardner missed Myers’ statements, a rebuttal can be also be found on page 1(!) of probably the most important primary source concerning Mrs. Piper’s mediumship, Richard Hodgson’s report in Volume VIII of the Proceedings of the SPR: “Several times Mrs. Piper was unable to go into trance at all.”  Read more