The Eccentric Edward Leedskalnin: Builder of Coral Castle and “Sweet Sixteen” Fanatic

Aug 4th in Bizarre by Louis Proud

Most of you have probably heard of the incredible stone structure called Coral Castle, located near Homestead, Florida. Made up almost entirely of single pieces of coral rock weighing an average of 14 tons, which, put together, weigh more than 1,000 tons, the structure is a remarkable feat of engineering

More of a wacky temple than a castle, it is surrounded by a high stone wall, and features, among other things, numerous items of furniture, a two-storey tower, a barbeque, a fountain, a water well, and celestial stars and planets – everything carved from coral rock.

As weird and interesting as the castle itself is the man who built it unobserved and by primitive means – apparently single-handedly – an eccentric Latvian American named Edward Leedskalnin (1887-1951). How he achieved such a superhuman feat is still debated to this day. According to those in the fringe science camp, Leedskalnin possessed an arcane knowledge of “earth energies” and magnetism, and knew how to render the stones temporarily weightless. Those in the opposite camp – the sceptics – adhere to a far more mundane theory – that the stones were moved using the principles of weight and leverage.

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Not So Secret, After All: Government Forteana

Aug 4th in UFO Phenomenon by Micah Hanks

Last week, a plethora of documents pertaining to the US and Britain’s involvement in the War on Terror in Afghanistan was released by the controversial WikiLeaks organization. This has led to much speculation… even in the absence of any tremendous amount of new or otherwise clandestine information the documents were expected to provide.

In the aftermath, some look at the release of information in the military documents as evidence of crimes against humanity; others question whether releasing the names of Afghan operatives who have helped in the counter-insurgency and otherwise aided US forces was wise. But there are a few angles that haven’t been explored; one which comes to mind is how this disclosure might have predictive elements that could outline what future disclosure of UFO documents might be like in the United States.

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Episode 206 – Mysterious Universe Plus+

Aug 1st in Plus+ Podcasts by Benjamin Grundy

This weekend’s offering kicks off with reports of a strange beast ripping apart cattle in Ecuador, and the sudden disappearance of a man in Finland after being followed by something large and “dog like”.

We then move into an account of missing time inside an ancient monolithic structure, John Podesta on UFOs, and a Kentucky mother who suspects her 5 year old son was abducted by ETs.

Read on for music and show notes.

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Extinct “Super-Rats” Unearthed in East Timor

Jul 31st in Science & Technology by Louis Proud

In the 2003 horror movie Willard, a lonely young man, played by Crispin Glover, develops an unusual relationship with the rats inhabiting his house. He trains them to obey his every command, ending up as the leader of his own “rat army,” which he uses to get revenge on his callous boss.

With their sharp teeth combined, his army of rats are a murderous force. Entertaining though the film is, what would have made it more exciting and gory is if the rats had been bigger – such as the size of the ones recently discovered in East Timor by a team of Australian archaeologists.

The giant species of extinct rat, the bones of which were unearthed in a remote cave, was forty times bigger than its modern relative, with a body weight of around 6kg, making it the biggest rat that ever lived. The finding was detailed earlier this week in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.

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Anomalistics of the Mage: Alan Moore and the Beyond

Jul 31st in Bizarre & Featured by Micah Hanks

Seldom does so fertile a mind emerge from the crowd-consciousness of Terra Firma that its psychic influence resounds across cultures, generations, and in all likelihood, other worlds.Then again, to think anything less of a scribe and scholar the likes of Alan Moore, inventor of Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, would be outright heresy.

A gentle recluse of a man, to mention here that Moore resembles (far more than vaguely) a towering wizard ascending the steps of Sauron’s lookout is almost passe’; although in truth, there is far more magic behind Moore’s wizardry than merely what he commits to paper while envisioning fantastic universes… in fact, Moore claims to have had some limited contact with other realms–actual anomalous foreign states of being–in very real ways.

But before we detail Moore’s actual magical experiences, we must afford a brief lineage of his influence through art. Tremendous laud and praise has echoed the man’s exploits, especially since his magnum opus Watchmen helped initiate the Dark Age of comics (achieved in tandem with Frank Miller’s publication of another comic classic, The Dark Night). In Moore’s story, characters ranging from Dr. Manhattan, a glowing nudist embodying the atomic prowess of all the universe, to a poverty-stricken, schizophrenic conservative with a shape-shifting face mask called Rorschach, made an eternal mark on not only the comics industry, but also the way stories would be told in the genre forever after; departing from the conventional story lines of super-hero rags typical to the 1980s, offering instead what became some of the most mature Cold War commentary imaginable within the colored panels of a comic book.

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Episode 407 – Mysterious Universe

Jul 30th in Podcasts by Benjamin Grundy

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Aaron steps up for his first solo effort and gives a rundown on the highlights of last weekend’s Nexus Conference.

Ancient artifacts, new physics theories, a “Post Disclosure World” and more are discussed along with some audio treats from the conference floor.

We also have a new insectoid encounter and the start of a new two-parter from Jason Offutt.

Show notes and music after the jump.

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From a Distant Star in the “Social” System: Aliens Using Twitter?

Jul 26th in Science & Technology by Micah Hanks

Of all the weird tales of alien contact I’ve come across, I remember reading a particularly strange article in Fate Magazine years ago titled “Phone Call From an Alien.” In the piece, the author recounted some bizarre and disturbing incidents where strange phone calls had been received under rather peculiar circumstances, with the voice on the other end amounting to little more than an angry-sounding incoherent mumbling, coming from an impatient someone–or something–on the other end of the line.

Something about the story, at the time, was very odd-sounding and even frightening in some respects; why on Earth (or in this case, why elsewhere in the universe) would aliens ever want to call somebody on the telephone?

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