Elisa Lam Death - February 19, 2013

The body of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, was recovered from a water tank atop the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on February 19, 2013. She had been reported missing at the beginning of the month. Maintenance workers at the hotel discovered the body when investigating guest complaints of problems with the water supply.

Her disappearance had been widely reported; interest had increased five days prior to her body's discovery when the Los Angeles Police Department released video of the last time she was known to have been seen, on the day of her disappearance, by an elevator security camera. In the footage, Lam is seen exiting and re-entering the elevator, talking and gesturing in the hallway outside, and sometimes seeming to hide within the elevator, which itself appears to be malfunctioning. The video went viral on the Internet, with many viewers reporting that they found it unsettling. Explanations ranged from claims of paranormal involvement to the bipolar disorder Lam suffered from; it has been argued that the video itself has been tampered with.

The circumstances of Lam's death, when she was found, also raised questions, especially in light of the Cecil's history in relation to other notable deaths and murders. Her body was naked with most of her clothes and personal effects floating in the water near her. It took the Los Angeles County Coroner's office four months, after repeated delays, to release the autopsy report, which reports no evidence of physical trauma and states that the cause of death was accidental. Guests at the Cecil, now re-branded as Stay on Main, sued the hotel over the incident, and Lam's parents filed a separate suit later that year.

Some of the early Internet interest noted unusual similarities between Lam's death and plot elements from the 2005 horror film Dark Water. There have been efforts to fictionalize the case since then as well. Less than a year after her death, Hungry Ghost Ritual, aHong Kong horror film, included a scene apparently inspired by the elevator video, and mainland Chinese director Liu Haoannounced he was planning a film based on her life and death, hopefully starring Gao Yuanyuan. An episode of Castle was inspired by it, and a horror film that uses the case as a backstory, The Bringing, is currently in development under Sony Pictures.

Lam, the daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong who opened a restaurant in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, was a student at the University of British Columbia;although she was not registered when she left her home in January 2013 for a trip to Southern California, which she called her "West Coast Tour" on her Tumblr blog. She said she planned to stop in San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and San Francisco. While she also hoped to visit San Luis Obispo, she was not sure she could.

The Cecil, where Lam spent her last week

She traveled alone, on Amtrak and intercity buses. She visited the San Diego Zoo and posted photos taken there on social media.^[12] On January 26 she arrived in Los Angeles and checked into the Cecil Hotel, near downtown's Skid Row.

Built as a business hotel in the 1920s, the Cecil fell on hard times during the Great Depression of the 1930s and never recaptured its original market as downtown decayed around it in the late 20th century. Several of Los Angeles's more notable murders have happened at or have connections to the hotel: Elizabeth Short, victim of the Black Dahlia murder, the city's best-known unsolved killing, supposedly made the Cecil her last stop before her death, and in 1964 Goldie Osgood, the "Pigeon Lady of Pershing Square", was raped and murdered in her room at the Cecil, another crime that has never been solved. Serial killers Jack Unterweger and Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker", both resided at the Cecil while active. There have also been suicides, one of which also killed a pedestrian passing in the front of the hotel. After recent renovations it has tried to market itself as a boutique hotel, but the reputation lingers. "The Cecil will reveal to you whatever it is you're a fugitive from," says Steve Erickson.

Lam also had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. She had been prescribed four drugs—Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor—to deal with the condition. According to her family (who supposedly kept it a secret), she had no history of suicidal ideations or attempts,  although one report claims she had, in fact, briefly gone missing at some earlier time as well.

In mid-2010, she began a blog named Ether Fields on Blogspot. Over the next two years she posted pictures of models in fashionable clothing and accounts of her life, particularly her struggle with her disorder. In a January 2012 post titled "You're always haunted by the idea you're wasting your life" after a quotation from novelist Chuck Palahniuk that she used as an epigraph for the blog, Lam lamented that a "relapse" at the start of the current school term had forced her to drop several classes, leaving her feeling "so utterly directionless and lost." She worried that her transcript would look suspicious with so many withdrawals, adversely affecting her ability to continue her studies and attend graduate school.

A little over two years after Lam had started blogging, she announced she would be abandoning the blog for one she had started on Tumblr in March 2011, Nouvelle/Nouveau. Its content was heavier on found photos, mostly of fashion, and quotes, with a few posts in Lam's own words. The same Palahniuk quote was used as an epigraph.

While traveling, Lam kept in touch with her parents back in British Columbia daily. On January 31, 2013, the day she was scheduled to check out of the Cecil and leave for Santa Cruz, they did not hear from her and called the Los Angeles police; the family flew to Los Angeles to help with the search.

Hotel staff who saw her that day said she was alone. Outside the hotel, Katie Orphan, manager of a nearby bookstore, was the only person who recalled seeing Lam that day. "She was outgoing, very lively, very friendly," while getting gifts to take home to her family, Orphan told CNN. "[She was] talking about what book she was getting and whether or not what she was getting would be too heavy for her to carry around as she traveled."

Police searched the hotel to the extent that they legally could. They searched Lam's room and had dogs go through the building, including the rooftop, looking unsuccessfully for her scent. "But we didn't search every room," Sgt. Rudy Lopez said later, "we could only do that if we had probable cause" to believe a crime had been committed.

On February 6, a week after Lam had last been seen, the LAPD decided more help was needed. Flyers with her image were posted in the neighborhood and online. It brought the case to the public's attention through the media.

Elisa Lam CCTV video

Warning! Proceed with caution, it may not be suitable for some to watch this video.

Human Torch -1982

In 1982, young Benedetto Supino was 10 years old.  One morning he was sitting in the waiting room at his dentist’s office when suddenly the comic book that he was reading burst into flames.  More incidents quickly followed; one morning he woke up to a fire in his bed, and on another day a plastic toy he was staring at burst into flames as his uncle held it.

Just about everywhere he went he seemed to cause fires on objects around him.  Furniture, books, and paper would burn near him or as he looked at it.  Some claimed that his hands would glow as the items caught fire.  The boy famously said, “I don’t want things to catch fire, but what can I do?”

Apparently fire wasn’t the only thing that Benedetto could do.  He seemed to have an effect on machines and electronic motors.  His father was a carpenter who had a workshop in the community, and when visiting the shop, all of the machines started to fail.  He spent over 3,000 pounds on repairs before realizing that he just needed to stop bringing Benedetto around.

Not knowing what to do, his parents had Benedetto work with parapsychologist Dr. Demetrio Croce.  Eventually, the fires died down and stopped.  She claimed that she had taught him to “control and hone his abilities”.

Benedetto was eventually able to blend back into society.  Although he is only in his early 40’s today, he seems to have stayed out of the news and away from setting things ablaze.

Documentary Video

Caroline Walter - 1867

Over 50,000 flowers have been placed on the grave of a young girl who died almost 145 years ago in Freiburg, Germany. Who places them there, no one knows. Every morning, under summer’s sun and winter’s snow, a fresh flower has been placed on the grave of Caroline Christine Walter.Caroline Walter and her beloved older sister Selma moved to Freiburg to live with their grandmother after their parents died. She went to a school for young ladies and by the time she reached the age of 16, she already had a number of admirers who were attracted by her young beauty. When her sister married, Caroline happily went to live with her and her new husband.

In the early summer of 1867, just before she turned 17, Caroline contracted tuberculosis and passed away a few short weeks later.Her sister Selma wanted to create a lasting memorial and asked a sculptor to cast a grave in her sister’s likeness. The life size and life like sculpture depicts Caroline just as if she fell asleep reading in her own bed.The grave was placed against one of the outer walls of the Alter Friedhof cemetery which had already been in existence for more than 200 years. It was a peaceful setting, made more peaceful by the beautiful grave of the sleeping girl.It was soon after Caroline passed away, and the flowers on her grave from the funeral were wilting, that her sister began to notice that a fresh flower was always on the grave when she visited. Months and then years passed and still no one had discovered who might be leaving the flowers. The cemetery groundskeepers could provide no clue but perhaps they were sworn to secrecy.

Caroline had never mentioned any young man in particular to Selma however legends abound. The most common one is that the flowers were placed by one of Caroline’s tutors who had fallen in love with her and mourned her passing for the rest of his life. But, even had he lived to be a hundred, he still would have died more than half a century ago. Did he leave instructions for future generations to carry on the tradition?Today, only a little sunlight filters through the boughs of the trees overhead, moss has grown over the place where she sleeps but every morning since that fateful day in 1867, a fresh flower blooms on Caroline’s grave.

Documentary video - the language is not english

Mary Celeste Crew Death Case

Mary Celeste was a 282-gross ton brigantine. She was built by the shipbuilder Joshua Dewis in 1861 as Amazon at the village of Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia. She was the first vessel of many larger vessels to be built at the Spencer's Island ship yard. Amazon was owned by a group of eight investors from Cumberland County and Kings County, Nova Scotia, led by Dewis, and William Henry Bigalow, a local merchant.The Amazon was registered at the nearby Nova Scotia town of Parrsboro, the closest local port of registry.Amazon's first captain, Robert McLellan, the son of one of the owners, contracted pneumonia nine days after taking command, and he died at the very beginning of her maiden voyage. He was the first of three captains to die aboard her. John Nutting Parker, the next captain of Amazon, struck a fishing boat, and had to steer her back to the shipyard for repairs. At the shipyard, a fire broke out in the middle of the ship. Her first trans-Atlantic crossing was also disastrous for her next captain, after she collided with another vessel in the English Channel near Dover. This resulted in the dismissal of the new captain.

After this inauspicious beginning, the brigantine had six profitable and uneventful years under her Nova Scotian owners. She travelled to the West Indies, Central America and South America, and transported a wide range of cargoes. In 1867, the ship ran aground during a storm off Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. After she was salvaged, she was sold for $1,750 to Richard Haines of New York, and was repaired at a cost of $8,825.03.In 1868, Amazon was transferred to the American registry, and the following year was renamed Mary Celeste. The new owners' intention was to take her across the Atlantic and make a profit trading with the Adriatic ports.

Departure

While waiting in New York City for a cargo of raw alcohol to be delivered to Mary Celeste, Captain Benjamin Briggs wrote a letter to his mother in Marion, Massachusetts, who was caring for Briggs's 7-year-old son Arthur. Briggs's wife Sarah and their two-year-old daughter Sophia would accompany him on the voyage. The letter, dated 3 November 1872, revealed his optimism.[citation needed]On 5 November 1872, under command of Captain Briggs, Mary Celeste docked on New York City's East River and took on board a cargo of 1,701 barrels of commercial alcohol intended for fortifying Italian wines on behalf of Meissner Ackermann & Co. It was worth about $35,000; the ship and cargo together were insured for $46,000. Mary Celeste then set sail from Staten Island for Genoa, Italy.[citation needed]

In addition to her captain and a crew of seven, she carried the captain's wife, who had sailed with her husband many times, and Sophia, their 2-year-old daughter. Thus ten people were aboard. Briggs had spent most of his life at sea, and had captained at least five ships and owned many more. The crew for this voyage included a Dane and four Germans, all of whom spoke fluent English, had exemplary records, and were considered experienced, trustworthy and capable seamen. The first mate and cook were Americans.Before Mary Celeste left New York, Captain Briggs spoke to an old friend, David Reed Morehouse, from Nova Scotia, who was captain of the Canadian merchant ship Dei Gratia, also a brigantine. Briggs, Morehouse, and their wives had dinner together on the evening of 4 November. Briggs and Morehouse had served together as sailors when they were young. During the conversation, they discovered they had a similar course across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean.However, Morehouse was still waiting for his cargo to arrive when Mary Celeste left port on 5 November. Morehouse's cargo eventually arrived and on 15 November, Dei Gratia finally set off with 1,735 barrels (275.8 m3) of petroleum in her hold. Dei Gratia left New York harbour seven days after Mary Celeste (some sources say eight days later).

Discovery

An engraving of Mary Celeste as she was found abandoned.Sporadic bad weather had been reported in the Atlantic throughout October, although Dei Gratia encountered none and her journey across the ocean in November was uneventful. Just short of a month after leaving port, on 4 December 1872 (some accounts state 5 December, which is the equivalent date in nautical days), at approximately 1pm, the helmsman of Dei Gratia, John Johnson, sighted a ship about five miles (8 km) off their port bow through his spyglass. The position of Dei Gratia was approximately 38°20′N 17°15′WCoordinates: 38°20′N 17°15′W, some 600 miles (1,000 km) west of Portugal.

Johnson discerned that there was something wrong with the other vessel. She was yawing slightly, and her sails did not look right, being slightly torn. Johnson alerted his second officer, John Wright, who looked and had the same feelings about her. They informed the captain. As they moved closer, they saw the ship was Mary Celeste. Captain Morehouse wondered why Mary Celeste had not already reached Italy, as she had a head start on his own ship. According to the account given by the crew of Dei Gratia, they approached to 400 yards (366m) from Mary Celeste and cautiously observed her for two hours. She was under sail, yet sailing erratically on a starboard tack, and slowly heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. They concluded she was drifting after seeing no one at the helm or even on deck, though the ship was flying no distress signal.Oliver Deveau, chief mate of Dei Gratia, boarded Mary Celeste. He reported that he did not find anyone on board, and said that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". There was only one operational pump, two apparently having been disassembled, with a lot of water between decks and three and a half feet (1.1 m) of water in the hold. However, the ship was not sinking and was still seaworthy.

All of the ship's papers were missing, except for the captain's logbook. The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, although the main hatch was sealed. The ship's clock was not functioning, and the compass was destroyed; the sextant and marine chronometer were missing. The only lifeboat on the Mary Celeste, a yawl located above the main hatch, was also missing. The peak halyard, used to hoist the main sail, had disappeared. A rope, perhaps the peak halyard, was found tied to the ship very strongly and the other end, very frayed, was trailing in the water behind the ship.Popular stories of untouched breakfasts with still-warm cups of tea on the cabin table are untrue and most likely originated with fictionalised accounts of the incident. At the inquiry, Oliver Deveau stated that he saw no preparations for eating and there was nothing to eat or drink in the cabin.

Deveau returned to his ship and reported to the captain. Two men, Charles Augustus Anderson and Charles Lund, then boarded Mary Celeste. The cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol was, Deveau reported, in good order. However, when it was eventually unloaded in Genoa, nine barrels were found to be empty.A six-month supply of uncontaminated food and fresh water was still aboard, and the crew's personal possessions and artifacts were left untouched, making a piracy raid seem extremely unlikely. It appeared the vessel had been abandoned in a hurry. There was no sign of a struggle, or of any sort of violence.

The Taos Hum - 1996

The Hum is a phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. Hums have been widely reported by national media in the UK and the United States.The Hum is sometimes prefixed with the name of a locality where the problem has been particularly publicized: e.g., the "Bristol Hum", the "Taos Hum", or the "Bondi Hum".Data from a Taos Hum study suggests that a minimum of two percent and perhaps as many as 11 percent of the population could detect the Taos Hum and the Daily Telegraph in 1996 likewise reported a figure of two percent of people hearing the Bristol Hum. For those who can hear the Hum it can be a very disturbing phenomenon and it has been linked to at least three suicides in the UK. However, amongst those who cannot hear the hum and some specialists, there has been skepticism about whether it, in fact, exists.

The essential element that defines the Hum is what is perceived as a persistent low-frequency sound, often described as being comparable to that of a distant diesel engine idling, or to some similar low-pitched sound for which obvious sources (e.g., household appliances, traffic noise, etc.) have been ruled out. There are a number of audio reproductions of the Hum available on the web.

Other elements seem to be significantly associated with the Hum, being reported by an important proportion of hearers, but not by all of them. Some people hear the Hum only, or much more, inside buildings as compared with outdoors. Some perceive vibrations that can be felt through the body. Earplugs are reported as not decreasing the Hum.

The Daily Telegraph reported that two percent of people could hear the Bristol Hum. Research into the Taos Hum indicated that between two percent and 11 percent of people could hear the hum, with the actual figure likely being at the lower end of the range. The hum does appear to be geographically focused, i.e. it does appear to be possible for hearers to move away from it; the range of the Taos Hum was reported to be 48 km to 72 km. Women may be more likely to be affected than men. Age does appear to be a factor, with older people being more likely to hear it.

On November 15, 2006, Dr. Tom Moir of the Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand made a recording of the Auckland Hum and has published it on the university's website. The captured Hum's power spectral density peaks at a frequency of 56 hertz. The Taos Hum was between 40 to 80 hertz. Higher-pitched tones have also been reported; the Hueytown (Alabama) Hum has been compared to the sound made by a dentist’s drill or fluorescent light bulb near the end of its life.In 2009, the head of audiology at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, Dr David Baguley, said that he believed people's problems with hum were based on the physical world about one-third of the time and the other two-thirds stemmed from people focusing too keenly on innocuous background sounds.This sound can be heard from various places around the Western continents but the source is unknown.

Documentary video

Faces of Belmez - 1971

The Bélmez Faces or the Faces of Bélmez is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in a private house in Spain which started in 1971 when residents claimed images of faces appeared in the concrete floor of the house. These images have continuously formed and disappeared on the floor of the home.Located at the Pereira family home at Calle Real 5, Bélmez de la Moraleda, Jaén, Andalusia, Spain, the Bélmez faces have been responsible for bringing large numbers of sightseers to Bélmez. The phenomenon is considered by some parapsychologists the best-documented and "without doubt the most important paranormal phenomenon in the [20th] century".

Various faces have appeared and disappeared at irregular intervals since 1971 and have been frequently photographed by the local newspapers and curious visitors. Many Bélmez residents believe that the faces were not made by human hand. Some investigators believe that it is a thoughtographic phenomenon subconsciously produced by the former owner of the house, María Gómez Cámara – now deceased ("Thoughtography" is considered a form of psychokinesis among parapsychologists).Skeptical researchers point out that unlike other psychic claims this case is falsifiable. Since the faces of Bélmez are fixed on whitewash of cement, scientists are able to analyze the molecular changes that took place in such mass of concrete.[citation needed] Skeptics have performed extensive tests on the faces and do believe that fakery has been involved

The appearances in Bélmez began on 23 August 1971, when María Gómez Cámara claimed that a human face formed spontaneously on her concrete kitchen floor. María's husband, Juan Pereira and their son, Miguel, destroyed the image with a pickaxe and new concrete was laid down. However, the Pereira story goes, a new face formed on the floor. The mayor of Bélmez was informed and forbade the destruction of the new face. Instead, the floor concrete was cut out and taken for study.María's home was advertised to the tourists as La Casa de las Caras (The House of the Faces). By Easter of 1972 hundreds of people were flocking to the house to see the faces. For the next 30 years the Pereira family claimed that faces continued to appear, both male and female and of different shapes, sizes and expressions.

Documentary video

Charlie Chaplin TIme Traveller -1928

The picture shown above depicts a women appearing to use a cellphone from the Charlie Chaplin movie.Perhaps she really is a time-traveler, sent back through the decades to make a jaw-dropping cameo appearance.Or maybe she was a maverick genius, secretly testing out advanced technology for the government and caught on camera at the wrong moment.

Whatever the explanation, this footage from a Charlie Chaplin promotional film in 1928 showing a woman apparently using a mobile phone has left viewers stumped.A traveler from the future? This clip from a film about the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 movie The Circus shows what appears to be a woman talking on a mobile phone in the opening scene 

A traveler from the future? This clip from a film about the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 movie The Circus shows what appears to be a woman talking on a mobile phone in the opening scene (on the right)The baffling scene is found in the extras section of The Circus and shows members of the public attending the premiere of the film at Manns Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The short piece of footage shows an older woman dressed in a coat and hat with her hand held up to the left-hand side of her face as she talks. 

There is no one around for her to be speaking to apart from a suited man who strides on ahead at the beginning of the shot.Even her gestures and behaviour as she 'talks' will be eerily familiar to modern-day viewers as she appears to stop, mid-sentence, during her apparent conversation.

The bizarre anachronism was unearthed by film buff George Clark on his Charlie Chaplin box set.

Her gestures as she walks and talks appear just like those of modern-day mobile phone users +4

Look who's talking: Her gestures as she walks and talks appear just like those of modern-day mobile phone users

A close-up of the image shows the woman's hand is close to her face and she appears to be talking +4

Woman out of time: A close-up of the image shows the woman's hand is close to her face and she appears to be talking. He says he has shown it to more than 100 people and still no one can come up with a convincing explanation. Some viewers have suggested she is listening to a portable radio close to her face, although this would not explain why she appears to be talking.

Others say she may be displaying signs of schizophrenia and covering her face to hide the fact that she is talking aloud to herself. 

It has also been suggested that she is simply trying to hide her face from the camera so she is not filmed.There are also sceptics who believe the footage is just a stunt created by Mr Clark - a film maker with Yellow Fever Productions - to publicise his latest film festival.

The first device that could be likened to a mobile phone was Motorola’s original ‘Walkie-Talkie’ which was developed in the 1940s, but that was the size of a man’s arm and still came more than a decade after the Chaplin film.As the scene fades out the mystery figure can be seen smiling as she talks +4

See you later... As the scene fades out, the mystery figure can be seen smiling

In The Circus, Chaplin's character falls in love with the circus-owner's daughter

The main attraction: In The Circus, Chaplin's character falls in love with the circus-owner's daughter

Portable mobile phones that we would recognise today did not appear until the 1980s and even then they were still too big to hide in the palm of your hand.In a video that Mr Clark has posted on YouTube he jokes that the only plausible theory is that the woman is a time traveler.

He says: ‘This short film is about a piece of footage I found behind the scenes in Charlie Chaplins film The Circus.' 'Attending the premiere at Manns Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California - the scene shows a large woman dressed in black with a hat hiding most of her face, with what can only be described as a mobile phone device - talking as she walks alone.

‘I have studied this film for over a year now - showing it to over 100 people and at a film festival, yet no one can give any explanation as to what she is doing.‘My only theory - as well as many others - is simple... a time traveler on a mobile phone. See for yourself and feel free to leave a comment on your own explanation or thoughts about it.' Chaplin’s The Circus was one of the master director’s final silent movies and won him the Academy Award in 1929 for ‘Versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing’.It tells the story of the Tramp, who works as a clown in a circus and who falls in love with a circus-master’s daughter.Chaplin produced the film at the height of the legal fallout over his divorce from Lita Grey and he did not mention it once in his autobiography, even though it is now regarded as one of his masterpieces.

Documentary video

The Voynich Manuscript - 1404

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum in the book pages has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912.The pages of the codex are vellum. Some of the pages are missing, but about 240 remain. The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams.The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The mystery of the meaning and origin of the manuscript has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript the subject of novels and speculation. None of the many hypotheses proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified. Many people have speculated that the writing might be nonsense.

The Voynich manuscript was donated by Hans P. Kraus to Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969, where it is catalogued under call number MS 408. A digitized high-resolution copy is also accessible freely at their website.The text was clearly written from left to right, with a slightly ragged right margin. Longer sections are broken into paragraphs, sometimes with star- or flower-like "bullets" in the left margin. There is no obvious punctuation, and no indications of any errors or corrections made at any place in the document. The ductus flows smoothly, giving the impression that the symbols were not enciphered, as there is no delay between characters as would normally be expected in written encoded text.

The text consists of over 170,000 glyphs, usually separated from each other by narrow gaps. Most of the glyphs are written with one or two simple pen strokes. While there is some dispute as to whether certain glyphs are distinct or not, an alphabet with 20–30 glyphs would account for virtually all of the text; the exceptions are a few dozen rarer characters that occur only once or twice each. Various transcription alphabets have been created, to equate the Voynich glyphs with Latin characters in order to help with cryptanalysis, such as the European Voynich Alphabet. The first major one was created by cryptographer William F. Friedman in the 1940s, where each line of the manuscript was transcribed to an IBM punch card to make it machine-readable.

Wider gaps divide the text into about 35,000 "words" of varying length. These seem to follow phonological or orthographic laws of some sort, e.g., certain characters must appear in each word (like English vowels), some characters never follow others, some may be doubled or tripled but others may not, etc.Statistical analysis of the text reveals patterns similar to those of natural languages. For instance, the word entropy (about 10 bits per word) is similar to that of English or Latin texts. Some words occur only in certain sections, or in only a few pages; others occur throughout the manuscript. There are very few repetitions among the thousand or so "labels" attached to the illustrations.

On the other hand, the Voynich manuscript's "language" is quite unlike European languages in several aspects. There are practically no words with fewer than two letters or more than ten. The distribution of letters within words is also rather peculiar: some characters occur only at the beginning of a word, some only at the end, and some always in the middle section. While Semitic alphabets have many letters that are written differently depending on whether they occur at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a word, letters of the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabets are generally written the same way regardless of their position within a word (with the Greek letter sigma and the obsolete long s being notable exceptions).The text seems to be more repetitive than typical European languages; there are instances where the same common word appears up to three times in a row.[13] Words that differ by only one letter also repeat with unusual frequency, causing single-substitution alphabet decipherings to yield babble-like text. Elizebeth Friedman in 1962 described such attempts as "doomed to utter frustration".

There are only a few words in the manuscript written in a seemingly Latin script. On the last page, there are four lines of writing written in rather distorted Latin letters, except for two words in the main script. The lettering resembles European alphabets of the late 14th and 15th centuries, but the words do not seem to make sense in any language. Also, a series of diagrams in the "astronomical" section has the names of ten of the months (from March to December) written in Latin script, with spelling suggestive of the medieval languages of France, northwest Italy or the Iberian Peninsula. However, it is not known whether these bits of Latin script were part of the original text or were added later.

Documentary video

Sailing Stones of Death Valley - 1900

Sailing Stones of Death Valley

Sailing stones, sliding rocks, and moving rocks all refer to a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. Tracks from these sliding rocks have been observed and studied in various locations, including Little Bonnie Claire Playa in Nevada, and most notably Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California, where the number and length of tracks are notable. At Racetrack Playa, these tracks have been studied since the early 1900s, yet the origins of stone movement are not confirmed and remain the subject of research for which several hypotheses exist.

The stones move only every two or three years and most tracks develop over three or four years. Stones with rough bottoms leave straight striated tracks while those with smooth bottoms tend to wander. Stones sometimes turn over, exposing another edge to the ground and leaving a different track in the stone's wake.

Trails differ in both direction and length. Rocks that start next to each other may travel parallel for a time, before one abruptly changes direction to the left, right, or even back to the direction from which it came. Trail length also varies – two similarly sized and shaped rocks may travel uniformly, then one could move ahead or stop in its track.

The first documented account of the sliding rock phenomenon dates to 1915, when a prospector named Joseph Crook from Fallon, Nevada visited the Racetrack Playa site. In the following years, the Racetrack sparked interest from geologists Jim McAllister and Allen Agnew, who mapped the bedrock of the area in 1948 and published the earliest report about the sliding rocks in a Geologic Society of America Bulletin. Their publication gave a brief description of the playa furrows and scrapers, stating that no exact measurements had been taken and suggesting that furrows were the remnants of scrapers propelled by strong gusts of wind – such as the variable winds that produce dust-devils – over a muddy playa floor.Controversy over the origin of the furrows prompted the search for the occurrence of similar phenomena at other locations. Such a location was found at Little Bonnie Claire Playa in Nye County, Nevada, and the phenomenon was studied there as well.

Naturalists from the National Park Service later wrote more detailed descriptions and Life magazine featured a set of photographs from the Racetrack. In 1952, a National Park Service Ranger named Louis G. Kirk recorded detailed observations of furrow length, width, and general course. He sought simply to investigate and record evidence of the moving rock phenomenon, not to hypothesize or create an extensive scientific report. Speculation about how the stones move started at this time. Various and sometimes idiosyncratic possible explanations have been put forward over the years that have ranged from the supernatural to the very complex. Most hypotheses favored by interested geologists posit that strong winds when the mud is wet are at least in part responsible. Some stones weigh as much as a human, which some researchers, such as geologist George M. Stanley, who published a paper on the topic in 1955, feel is too heavy for the area's wind to move. After extensive track mapping and research on rotation of the tracks in relation to ice floe rotation, Stanley maintained that ice sheets around the stones either help to catch the wind or that ice floes initiate rock movement.

Progress in the 1970s

Bob Sharp and Dwight Carey started a Racetrack stone movement monitoring program in May 1972. Eventually thirty stones with fresh tracks were labeled and stakes were used to mark their locations. Each stone was given a name and changes in the stones' position were recorded over a seven-year period. Sharp and Carey also tested the ice floe hypothesis by corralling selected stones. A corral 5.5 feet (1.7 m) in diameter was made around a 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, 1 pound (0.45 kg) track-making stone with seven rebar segments placed 25 to 30 inches (64 to 76 cm) apart. If a sheet of ice around the stones either increased wind-catching surface area or helped move the stones by dragging them along in ice floes, then the rebar should at least slow down and deflect the movement. Neither appeared to occur; the stone barely missed a rebar as it moved 28 feet (8.5 m) to the northwest out of the corral in the first winter. Two heavier stones were placed in the corral at the same time; one moved five years later in the same direction as the first but its companion did not move during the study period. This indicated that if ice played a part in stone movement, then ice collars around stones must be small.

A panorama of the Milky Way with the tracks of sailing stones below. Notice the stone on the right side.

Ten of the initial twenty-five stones moved in the first winter with Mary Ann (stone A) covering the longest distance at 212 feet (65 m). Two of the next six monitored winters also saw multiple stones move. No stones were confirmed to have moved in the summer and some winters none or only a few stones moved. In the end all but two of the thirty monitored stones moved during the seven-year study. At 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) in diameter, Nancy (stone H) was the smallest monitored stone. It also moved the longest cumulative distance, 860 feet (260 m), and the greatest single winter movement, 659 feet (201 m). The largest stone to move was 80 pounds (36 kg).

Karen (stone J) is a 29 by 19 by 20 inches (74 by 48 by 51 cm) block of dolomite and weighs an estimated 700 pounds (318 kg). Karen did not move during the monitoring period. The stone may have created its 570 feet (170 m) long straight and old track from momentum gained from its initial fall onto the wet playa. However, Karen disappeared sometime before May 1994, possibly during the unusually wet winter of 1992 to 1993. Removal by artificial means is considered unlikely due to the lack of associated damage to the playa that a truck and winch would have caused. A possible sighting of Karen was made in 1994 a half mile (800 m) from the playa. Karen was rediscovered by San Jose geologist Paula Messina in 1996.

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The Girl who cried blood!

Twinkle Dwivedi was only eleven years old when she first exhibited the strange condition that gained her worldwide attention. There, in the midst of her friends, she began to cry blood. Although she claimed it didn't hurt, she was ridiculed by her peers and became an object of both disgust, wonder, and mystery.

Blood not only oozes from Twinkle's tear ducts up to fourteen times a day, but also from her pores as well.

Even now, as she has grown, there has been no medical explanation for her condition. Some religious and supernatural explanations have been offered, but no one seems to be able to agree. It could even be that Twinkle suffers from a disease so rare that she is the only person on record to have been afflicted by it. It could also be that there is some sort of deception for fame or money involved.

Whatever the case, Twinkle continues to be a source of wonder and sympathy for those around her.

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Phantom Cosmonouts

At the dawn of the Space Race, the United States and Soviet Union were in a neck in neck sprint to claim the heavens for their own glorious empires, but as mission after mission wrenched the secrets of the universe from the stars above, rumors began to circulate that some of the explorers that were rocketed into the skies above, never returned.These people have become known as the Lost Cosmonauts.The theory of the lost cosmonauts begins, strangely enough, in Italy with a pair of brothers named Achille and Giovanni Judica-Cordiglia. The brothers were amateur radio operators and had already become well-known for picking up transmissions from Sputnik and even the heartbeats of the Soviet space dog, Laika, on board Sputnik II (Laika herself is a lost cosmonaut).

On November 28, 1960, the brothers were alerted to something strange. An East German observatory announced that they had picked up a strange signal on the Soviet space frequencies. When the Cordiglias tuned into that frequency, they picked up what sounded like a hand-keyed SOS signal. The most disturbing thing about the signal is that it showed almost no relative speed which could only mean one thing: it was on a direct course away from the planet. As the brothers listened, the signal grew weaker until it finally winked out.

The brothers had apparently just discovered evidence that a Soviet space capsule had gone off course and drifted permanently into outer space with a cosmonaut on board.Two months later, the brothers detected another transmission. This time, it seemed to be the labored breaths of an unconscious man and a heartbeat. When they played the recording for their father, a cardiologist, he postulated that the heartbeat was of a man suffering cardiac arrest.

Two days later, the Soviets announced the failed re-entry of a large unmanned spacecraft.

In April of 1961, the brothers picked up the transmissions of Yuri Gargarin, the official first person to orbit the Earth.The story wasn't over. In fact, the most disturbing chapter was still to come. In May of 1961, they picked up a new transmission. It was a a woman's voice speaking in Russian. Although she seemed calm and professional, her tone became more and more strained an panicked as the transmission continued and finally ceases.The translation came out as, "Isn't this dangerous? Talk to me! Our transmission begins now. I feel hot. I can see a flame. Am I going to crash? Yes. I feel hot, I will re-enter..."

Cold War Russia was a torrent of secrets. It is well documented that there were cosmonaut deaths prior to Gargarin's flight and it is also well known that Grigoriy Nelyubov, a cosmonaut who committed suicide in 1966 after being bounced from the program, was effectively erased from the records - airbrushed from photographs, his medical and service records edited. In fact, Nelyubov's involvement in the program wasn't brought to light until 1986.It's thought by proponents of the lost cosmonaut theory that the USSR lost as many as eleven people.Still, the Soviet Union never acknowledged that they had lost any cosmonauts in space. Many have said that the Soviets covered up the deaths to prevent any damage to the reputation of their space program while others have said that the Cordiglia brothers manufactured their recordings.

With the almost irrational secrecy of the Soviet Empire, it is not hard to imagine covering up something that might lead to national embarrassment in the face of competition with their greatest rivals, and if these lost cosmonauts did exist, official information on them has either been long-since lost or are still gathering dust somewhere.If they did exist, however, the most incontrovertible evidence floats somewhere out there in the infinite void, a cold and powerless metal tomb with a forgotten hero waiting patiently for the day he might be found by the explorers of a later age.

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The Shroud of Turin - 1898

The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud (Italian: Sindone di Torino) is a length of linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. There is no consensus yet on exactly how the image was created, and it is believed by some to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, despite radiocarbon dating placing its origins in the Medieval period. The image is much clearer in black-and-white negative than in its natural sepia color. The negative image was first observed in 1898, on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pia, who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral. The shroud is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy.

The origins of the shroud and its image are the subject of intense debate among theologians, historians and researchers. Scientific and popular publications have presented diverse arguments for both authenticity and possible methods of forgery. A variety of scientific theories regarding the shroud have since been proposed, based on disciplines ranging from chemistry to biology and medical forensics to optical image analysis. The Catholic Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud, but in 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. More recently, Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI have both described the Shroud of Turin as “an icon”.

In 1978, a detailed examination carried out by a team of American scientists, called the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), found no reliable evidence of how the image was produced. In 1988 a radiocarbon dating test was performed on small samples of the shroud. The laboratories at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology concurred that the samples they tested dated from the Middle Ages, between 1260 and 1390. The validity and the interpretation of the 1988 tests are still contested by some statisticians, chemists and historians.According to professor Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in 2011, "There are various hypotheses as to why the dates might not be correct, but none of them stack up."

According to former Nature editor Philip Ball, "it's fair to say that, despite the seemingly definitive tests in 1988, the status of the Shroud of Turin is murkier than ever. Not least, the nature of the image and how it was fixed on the cloth remain deeply puzzling". The shroud continues to remain one of the most studied and controversial objects in human history

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