Rishi Khar, editor
Summer 2007
The oracle of Delphi- Fresco by Michelangelo
UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES SPECIAL
THE GRADUATE FAMILY HOUSING TEAM
The Graduate and Family Housing team makes every effort to make your stay in Scioto and Morgens Halls as comfortable as possible. We’ve had a few staff changes in the Scioto office and Morgens and Scioto mail clerks. The team consists of: Manager: Deb Cohen Staff Assistant: Mary-Kay Koehler Student Office Assistants: Jordan Martin, Amlan Datta, Ashutosh Mhaisekar, Arun Sanjeev Mail Clerks: Thiagarajan Arumugam & Arvind Subramani Resident Apartment Managers: Hemant Ramaswami, Vasant Salgaonkar, Shashank Chauhan, Rishi Khar There are various facilities provided by the office that you can take advantage of and get familiar with. The office is the node of all your contacts and building activities during the day. With the changes taking place at the office, we are making every effort to have a smooth transition. The first and second floors of the building are also undergoing changes and that will be managed to the best of our efforts. Collect your postal packages, ask any questions, bring us any suggestions, lodge any possible complaints or just stop by for a chat. Game room facilities are available for use by residents. Lounges are available for social gatherings and to watch TV. The playground between Morgens and Scioto is available for use by children. The Graduate and Family Housing office also puts on various social, programming and educational activities and these can only be successful by the involvement and encouragement of the residents. Please keep a look out for advertisements and mailings. The notice boards are also a source of valuable information about issues, both university related and about the world around us. This newsletter is a quarterly offering for disseminating information and fun! Please join Graduate and Family Housing in making these apartments a harmonious and peaceful abode. Here is a recipe to beat the summer heat: Ginger Pineapple Punch Ingredients 2 cups orange juice 2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger 1 1-liter bottle diet ginger ale, chilled Ice cubes* 1 orange, thinly sliced Directions In a large pitcher, combine orange juice, pineapple juice, and ginger. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. Strain mixture; discard ginger and pulp. Slowly pour ginger ale into juice mixture. Serve over ice in chilled glasses. Garnish with orange slices.
*Kitchen Tip: Dress up the punch with citrus ice cubes. To make these decorative cubes, fill the compartments of an icecube tray with lime, lemon, and/or orange slices (halve or quarter slices to fit). Fill with water. Freeze until firm.
Summer To Do’s!
‘World of Land, Forest and Friends’ Deer Shelter, Keehner Park. Ages 5-14. June 27, July 11, 18 and 25 ‘Cerulean Moon Walk’-Walk in the light of a rare "blue moon." Fernbank Park June 29, 2007 9 p.m. ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ Independence Day Concert Montgomery Park July 3, 7:30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. Fourth of July 5K Run/Walk Colerain Township Government Complex July 4, 8 a.m. Independence Day Parade Montgomery Park July 4 10 a.m. July 11 Communiversity Class: Pocket Billiards 6pm Swift Hall 508 ‘Business as Unusual: Heroes of the Holocaust’ National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Tuesday to Sunday, every week till August 12th, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. • ‘Pete Rose Exhibit’ Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, Daily till September 9 • ‘Global Shoes’ National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Tuesday to Sunday, every week till August 12th 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. • Summer Series for 3-Year-Olds Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden – July through September • Summer Series for 4 to 5-Year-Olds Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden – July through September • Summer Series for 6 to 7-Year-Olds Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden – July through September • Summer Series for 8 to 11-Year-Olds Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden – July through September More at http://www.cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage and http://calendar.uc.edu/ • • • • • • •
Please exercise caution with the following contents for exposure to children
A MYSTERY WRAPPED IN AN ENIGMA
Seneca, a first century philosopher said, “Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate. Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all”. In the past 50 years, mankind has made progress in science and technology as has never been made in history. This has led to large amounts of information and the ability to analyze and understand that information. Fields of research and inquiry have become increasingly narrower in their focus. And yet, it seems evermore, that the deeper we dig for information, the more the questions that are answered, the more the universe is unraveled, the more the mysteries that are newly unearthed. And it is this endless quest for answers that drives humankind to greater and wider advancement in our knowledge. Without this innate curiosity of ours and the ability of the universe around us to be infinitely mysterious, progress of ideas and of knowledge would have stagnated and with it the human existence would have become that much more humdrum. To look up in the sky and not be awed and not wonder in amazement is simply not human! With our access to greater amounts of information, the belief in a miraculous dimension to the world around us has decreased and yet there is an ever increasing belief that not every law of the universe can be known, even that not everything in our lives and in the universe can be understood, defined and controlled. It is this mysterious aspect of our everyday lives that drives our curiosity to know more and more and more, as a collective species. In the next few pages there will be cases which are cited as evidence that this mysterious aspect is but an incident away from influencing our lives forever. While each case has its merits and its detractors, they serve to open up the possibilities of what riddles may be out there, waiting to be solved. As Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” So, let your sixth sense explore….who knows what you will find! Rishi Tarun Khar
A stitch in time
Even our most advanced physics cannot really, completely understand the nature of time and of how events occur in time. Could it be that we are missing more from the picture than we let on?
Prophecies-Nostradamus Possibly the most famous account of prophecy in recent history is of the prophecies of Michel de
Nostradame, or Nostradamus. He published almost a 1000 prophecies as a collection in several almanacs. Because he was afraid of the persecution of the Church, his prophecies are written as rhymes or quatrains in cryptic language. And so, scholars heatedly debate the meanings of them and whether they truly are prophecies or not. This makes their interpretation a matter of faith and conjecture. This piece is supposed to predict the French revolution and the downfall of the monarchy: From the enslaved populace, songs, chants and demands, while Princes and Lords are held captive in prisons. These will in the future be received by headless idiots as divine prayers.
The second part of this paragraph is supposed to refer to the early leaders of the revolution who became unpopular and were themselves beheaded at the guillotine. There was great speculation that Nostradamus had predicted the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center but this was exposed as a hoax and he had never predicted the quoted quatrain. "In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb, The third big war will begin when the big city is burning" The main criticism of these prophecies is that none have been specific enough to really predict anything! It is only in hindsight that they have been interpreted to mean many things to many people. One of the clearer ones refers possibly to World War II. Liberty shall not be recovered, a black, fierce, villainous, evil man shall occupy it, when the ties of his alliance are wrought. Venice shall be vexed by Hister. Beasts wild with hunger will cross the rivers, the greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister. He will drag the leader in a cage of iron, when the child of Germany observes no law.
Time slips and coincidences On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg during her maiden voyage across the
Atlantic. In 1898 Morgan Robertson, a novelist, published his work called “The wreck of the Titan”, where although reputed to be unsinkable, a transatlantic luxury liner called Titan strikes an iceberg and sinks. There were several uncanny similarities between the fictional tragedy and the real one, including the month of the disaster, the passengers and crew, the number of lifeboats, the length and even the speed at impact! Was this a prophecy or a mere coincidence?
In 1932 two German newspapermen were doing a story on the Hamburg-Altona shipyards. Just as
they left the yards, they heard aircraft overhead and anti-aircraft fire. They saw the place being bombed and ran for cover and saw bombs exploding all around them and huge fires raged. Dazed they turned back to the office only to be threatened to leave by the guards there, in strange uniform. A few minutes later they got into their car and drove away when all normalcy returned. They had been taking pictures continuously and the pictures showed no evidence of the carnage they had witnessed. In 1943, these same shipyards were successfully bombed, set ablaze and nearly destroyed in bomb raids by the RAF. Had they “seen” this scene 11 years earlier than it occurred?
In May 1979, David Booth, an office manager in Cincinnati, had the same nightmare over and over.
He saw huge engines failing, an American Airlines passenger plane, roll in the air and then plunge to the ground in an inferno. On May 22, he called the Federal Aviation Authority and described the vivid details to them. They could guess what kind of plane it was from his description yet could not prevent the crash of an American Airlines flight at Chicago, killing 279 people.
On July 28, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy arrived in Monza, outside Milan. At a local restaurant, he noticed that the padrone and he were identical to look at! They were born on the same day, in the same town, named the same, married on the same day, to women named the same, had a son named the same and on the day Umberto became king, the other Umberto had opened his restaurant. They had also been decorated for bravery together on two occasions. The King asked his double to come to a function the next day. When he asked for him the next day, the King was informed that the double had died in a shooting accident a short while back. Shocked, the king asked to attend the funeral. At that very moment an assassin shot at and killed king Umberto I. Anomalies The riverbed of the Paluxy river in Glen Rose, Texas has had an interesting, if somewhat
controversial, role in archaeological research. Dinosaur tracks have been found on the riverbed for several years, but controversially, there were human tracks also found in the same strata of rock, which would be impossible by current paleontological theory. Many of these were found and admitted to be frauds that had been carved by the locals, but some tracks which were in an area submerged by the river, have been found to be genuine. Did man walk with the dinosaurs!!??
Human foot highlighted
Dino foot highlighted
Original untouched footprints.
The last of the Pterodactyls died out about 100 million years ago according to established scientific
theories. Or did it happen in an under construction railway tunnel in France in 1856. Several workers were stunned when something monstrous flew out toward them out of a large limestone boulder that they had split open. The creature fluttered its wings and died at their feet. A local student or paleontology identified it as a Pterodactyl. Could it have been stuck in that boulder for millions of years and survived!
In Southern Mali, in Africa, live the Dogon people - poor farmers, who still live in caves. Yet, they
possess information that they could not have discovered for themselves, let alone the most advanced of the medieval civilizations. Preserved deep in their religious philosophy is detailed knowledge about a star that is invisible to the naked eye and was only successfully photographed in 1970, with the most powerful telescopes at that time. The star in question is a white dwarf star (Sirius B) of a binary star system around Sirius A, one of the brightest stars in our night sky. How did they get this knowledge about this star??
The ancient Hindu mythological epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana contain many references to flying craft, used both for leisure and for warfare. There are also vivid descriptions of the ancient weapons analogous to modern ballistic missiles, smart missiles (heat and sound seeking) and missile defenses. In addition, there are numerous references to what can only be described as nuclear weapons and their aftermath, including radiation poisoning and biological effects.
The corpses were so burnt that they were no longer recognizable. Hair and nails fell out. Pottery broke without cause as did buildings. No tree was left alive for miles. Food stuffs were poisoned. To escape, the warriors threw themselves into streams to wash themselves but even here there was no respite.
Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained, Reader’s Digest
UNEARTHLY FATES
There have been many cases of people having met with fates, mysterious and unnatural and even unbelievable and unearthly. Mysterious deaths and disappearances are the prominent categories.
Deaths and Disappearances
Of several ghastly fates, human combustion is the most puzzling of all, especially when it is of a spontaneous nature and has no known causes. In several cases, there is no known source of a flame, no source of fuel, enough heat is generated to literally turn even bones into ash and yet, the very clothing of the victim could be barely singed. The bed they were lying upon would be barely even ruffled! This is nothing short of inexplicable and unexplained by modern science.
In October 1964, Mrs. Olga Stephens was sitting in her parked car when witnesses saw her burst into
flames spontaneously. Before help could reach her she was badly burned and died. The automobile wasn’t damaged in any way and policemen could find nothing that could have caused the fire.
In December 1966, in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, Dr. John Bentley was found reduced to a pile of
ashes in his bathroom. There was almost nothing of him left and yet there was no signs of any active fire in the house or the bathroom and even the slippers he was wearing were only slightly singed.
On October 24, 1593, a puzzled guard turned up for palace-guard duty in Mexico City. He was
wearing an entirely different uniform and was baffled at being in a strange land. He said that he had been ordered to report for guard duty as the Governor of Manila (in the Philippines!) had been killed the night before. He was put in prison by the Mexican; until news reached Mexico that the Governor had indeed been murdered in Manila-on the very night the soldier turned up in Mexico!
Possibly one of the most famous disappearances is that of Amelia Earhart, an intrepid and ambitious
woman pilot. She set several records for woman pilots and was to culminate her achievements with a circumnavigation of the globe in her specially equipped twin-engine plane, the Electra. Departing from California on May 20, 1937, she and co-pilot Fred Noonan, successfully reached Lae, New Guinea after touching down in Florida, Brazil, West Africa, India, Burma, Singapore and Australia. This was to be the longest stretch with no land in between Lae and tiny Howland Island in the central Pacific and so their next hop--to Howland Island--was by far the most challenging. Located 2,556 miles from Lae in the mid-Pacific, Howland Island is a mile and a half long and a half mile wide. Every unessential item was removed from the plane to make room for additional fuel, which gave Earhart approximately 274 extra miles. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca, their radio contact, was stationed just offshore. Three other U.S. ships, ordered to burn every light on board, were positioned along the flight route as markers. "Howland is such a small spot in the Pacific that every aid to locating it must be available," Earhart said. At 12:30 p.m. on July 2, the pair took off. Despite favorable weather reports, they flew into overcast skies and intermittent rain showers. This made Noonan's premier method of tracking, celestial navigation, impossible. As dawn neared, Earhart called chief radioman on the Itasca and asked for Itasca's location. She failed to report at the next scheduled time, and afterward her radio
transmissions, irregular through most of the flight, were faint or interrupted with static. At 7:42 A.M. the Itasca picked up the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. At 8:45 Earhart reported, "We are running north and south." Nothing further was heard from Earhart. A rescue attempt commenced immediately and became the most extensive air and sea search in naval history thus far. On July 19, after spending $4 million and scouring 250,000 square miles of ocean, the United States government reluctantly called off the operation. In 1938, a lighthouse was constructed on Howland Island in her memory. It was theorized that Earhart was on a reconnaissance mission and was held and executed by the Japanese, but this couldn’t ever be verified.
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region of the Atlantic Ocean in which
a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared in what are said to be circumstances that fall beyond the boundaries of human error or acts of nature. Some of these disappearances have been attributed to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings by popular culture. The area is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and is generally thought of as having apexes at Miami, Bermuda, and San Juan. This area contains some of the deepest suboceanic trenches in the world, encompasses the fast-moving waters of the Gulf Stream, and has frequent strong water spouts and violent storms, making at least some of the reported odd phenomena attributable to human error or mishap.
However, even if every one of these stories were found to be attributable to human error or natural phenomena, the area is still fascinating for other reasons, not the least of which includes speculation that it encompasses the lost continent of Atlantis, and that it is a doorway to other dimensions. There is also speculation that the seabed in this area contains huge amounts of methane gas that is released suddenly due to changes in the sea bed, releasing large, unpredictable plumes of gas that have the capability to swallow ships or planes within minutes - without a trace. Popular theories for these phenomena include the triangle area being the site of the sunken island of Atlantis, it being a time warp, an opening into another dimension, UFOs and elector-magnetic anomalies. The first of these mysterious disappearances seems to have occurred as early as Columbus first voyage of discovery but the most famous of these is the tale of Flight 19, which started on December 5th,1945. Five Avenger torpedo bombers lifted into the air from the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 2:10 in the afternoon. It was a routine practice mission and the flight was composed of all students except for the Commander Charles Taylor. The mission called for Taylor and his group of 13 men to fly due east 56 miles to conduct practice bombing runs. After that the flight plan called for them to fly an additional 67 miles east, then turn north for 73 miles and finally straight back to base, a distance of 120 miles. This course would take them on a triangular path over the sea. Radio conversations between the pilots were monitored by base and other aircraft in the area, and it is known that the bombing operation was completed successfully. Subsequent conversations indicated that shortly after making their turn on to the second leg of the flight plan a problem began. Slowly the crew became lost and increasingly disoriented. As the weather worsened, radio contact became more intermittent, and it is believed now that the five aircraft were actually by that time well out to sea east of the Florida peninsula. The mystery is deepened by the malfunctioning of the compasses on all the planes, the reports of the ocean appearing "not as it should be" and one report of "Don't come after me......It looks like....." Amid stormy seas and high winds, it was clear that the planes were hopelessly lost and would have to ditch at sea or would crash when they would run out of fuel. There was nothing heard from the men again and no trace was ever found of the planes.
What makes this even more mysterious is that as part of the massive search conducted for the missing planes, were sent two planes, one of which was never heard from again midway through its flight!
Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained, Reader’s Digest Source: www.bermuda-triangle.org Source: www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq8-1.htm Source: skepdic.com/bermuda.htm
Monsters and mysterious creatures
The three most famous monstrous creatures would be “Nessie”-the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot and the Yeti or Abominable Snowman. Not enough is known about these creatures in terms of real, verifiable evidence and that only adds to the mystique surrounding them. Various attempts have been made over the years to establish some sort of scientific evidence for the appearance of these monsters.
The Loch Ness Monster is a creature claimed to inhabit Scotland's Loch Ness, the most voluminous freshwater lake in Great Britain. The most common eyewitness description of Nessie, is that of a plesiosaur, a long-necked aquatic reptile that became extinct during the dinosaur extinction. On the other hand, mainstream science does offer plausible reasons and skepticism about why such an animal could not exist in Loch Ness. The plesiosaur was probably a cold-blooded reptile requiring warm tropical waters, while the average temperature of Loch Ness is only about 5.5°C (42°F). Such a large animal would require a food supply beyond that of Loch Ness to maintain subsistence levels. Moreover, there is no substantive evidence in the bone structure of fossilized plesiosaurs that indicate sonar capability to navigate and hunt. Such a system would be necessary in the loch, as visibility is limited to less than 15 feet due to a high peat concentration.
Rumors of a huge animal living in the loch have existed for centuries. Some believers have argued that this lengthy history of monster sightings provides ample circumstantial evidence of the creature's existence. Others question the accuracy of such tales, and argue that they were generally unknown before the early 1960s when a strong wave of interest focused on the first clear examples of Nessie sightings in the 1930s. One of the most iconic images of Nessie is known as the 'Surgeon's Photograph' (1934) but this image was revealed as a hoax in the 1990s.
This photo, taken in 1972, seems to show the Loch Ness Monster moving toward the right with its hump protruding well above the surface and its mouth open.
Anthony Shiels took this photo of Nessie from Urquhart Castle on May 21,1977
This rotting carcass of some strange creature washed up ashore at Mann Hill Beach in Massachusetts in 1970. Although experts think it may have been a basking shark, it was described as being like a camel without legs.
Several scientific expeditions have been mounted for finding the monster, without coming up with any definitive proof. The most famous of these was called the “Big Expedition” in 1970. These searches have used the most advanced scientific techniques including sonar searches, hydrophones, infra red imaging, underwater cameras and submersibles. Nothing conclusive yet!!
This photo was taken during the Robert Rines expedition in 1972. It purports to show the rhomboid fin or flipper of the Loch Ness monster. Critics contest that the photo has been "enhanced" so much from the original photo that it cannot be considered good evidence.
This underwater photo, taken in 1972 during the Rines expedition, seems to show a plesiosaur-like creature.
Source: http://www.nessie.co.uk/
Who goes there?
Specters and ghosts have been of great mystery and fear since time immemorial. Religious belief in the supernatural and the traditional beliefs about malevolent forces led by the Devil have long led humans to believe that they share space in this world with entities unknown and unknowable. The belief in the transition of the soul from living people into ghostly entities because of evil is at the basis of attempts to understand ghosts. There have been numerous instances and records of people having encounters with these entities. Too numerous to list! Most of these take place in the dark, in lonely places, with mostly the ghosts being inactive participants. Many a times, the narratives have the ghosts have an agenda for their interaction with humans. Many a times, the narratives place the ghosts as deliberately destructive and downright evil. In other cases, some locations are haunted by ghosts and the humans run into their territory.
Even with this preponderance of witnesses, this experience seems to be a very personal one, with faith and skepticism going hand in hand. Even with the best organized and technologically advanced efforts to know for sure, there is no conclusive evidence to prove the existence of these entities. The large number of hoaxes also only increases the skepticism. And maybe the skepticism about their existence is a defence mechanism to our own fears! Two cases illustrated:
James Courtney and Michael Meehan, crew members of the S.S. Watertown, were cleaning a cargo
tank of the oil tanker as it sailed toward the Panama Canal from New York City in December of 1924 and the two men were overcome by gas fumes and killed. The sailors were buried at sea off the Mexican coast on December 4. But this was not the last the remaining crew members were to see of their unfortunate shipmates. The next day, before dusk, the first mate reported seeing the faces of the two men in the waves off the port side of the ship. They remained in the water for 10 seconds, then faded. For several days thereafter, the phantom-like faces of the sailors were clearly seen by other members of the crew in the water following the ship. When the faces again appeared in the water, Captain Tracy took six photos and locked the camera and film in the ship's safe. When the film was processed by a commercial developer in New York, five of the exposures showed nothing but sea foam. But the sixth showed the ghostly faces of the doomed seamen. The negative was checked for fakery by the Burns Detective Agency. After the ship's crew had been changed, there were no more reports of sightings.
Crew men of the S. S. Watertown
The Brown lady ghost Taken in 1936 during a photo shoot for Country Life magazine by Indra Shira, this famous ghost picture of an apparition descending the stairs has been viewed round the world. Indra saw the white form taking shape and ordered his assistant to snap a picture of the staircase. His assistant, who did not see the white vapor, bet that nothing would be in the picture - he lost five pounds on the bet.
http://www.angelsghosts.com/famous_real_ghost_pictures.html http://www.ghostvillage.com/links/links_locations.shtml
Look up in the sky!
The sky has always been a source of great amazement and mystery to our ancestors right down to our own times. The star filled night sky seems to suggest that the universe is so much vaster than we may have imagined. Flying out of this sky have been seen numerous flying objects that cannot be of human origin. These have been called and classified as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and before that as “Flying Saucers”, based on their shape. Our interpretation of ancient manuscripts also has been revised to account for the possibility of alien contact with ancient civilizations. Events and occurrences in the past are finding echo in their interpretation by modern scholars. Sightings have occurred in the sky, on land and even at sea. Encounters have been varied from sightings and chases to abductions and relationships with aliens! These phenomena have been tried to be explained as weather anomalies, optical illusions and even mental derangement.
The most famous of these incidents is soon going to celebrate its 60th anniversary and the town of
Roswell, New Mexico is going to see large congregations of the curious and the adventurous. On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest. Later the same day, the Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force stated that, in fact, a weather balloon had been recovered by RAAF personnel, rather than a "flying saucer." In early July W.W. Brazel, a local farmer rode out to check his sheep after a night of intense thunderstorms. Brazel discovered a large amount of unusual debris scattered across one of the ranch's pastures. The contention is that an alien craft had crashed in the New Mexico desert near Roswell and that civilians arriving at the scene witnessed dead and injured alien bodies. When the military arrived they captured the craft and aliens and soon initiated a massive cover-up.
Scene purportedly from alien autopsy at Roswell
Article from the Sacramento Bee about the Roswell incident
Old and new pictures taken by amateurs
Source: http://www.ufoevidence.org/ Source: http://skepdic.com/roswell.html